By Katherine Kelly, Reporter
The winter sports season has begun. The girls and boys basketball, winter cheer, and wrestling team are all off to a strong start, most with a building block year. All of the teams are filled with strong athletes, and good coaches.
Girls Basketball:
Girls basketball is experiencing a “building block season,” as the team is made up of one senior, Eva Anderson, six sophomores, and nine freshmen. The girls have lost their first few games, and are working well together.
“This year we have an incredibly young team,” said senior captain Eva Anderson, “We have a lot of potential, but really don’t have the same chemistry as last year.”
Anderson is the only senior player on the team, and is captain alongside sophomore junior Olivia Larson.
“I expect to do well this year because I think with such a new and young team, comes a new mindset,” said Larson. “Compared to the last year’s where the girls were used to losing, this group isn’t used to that, so I think we can at least go into it expecting the best.”
“As long as we get a good base point this year, I only see this same team exceeding expectations in the next few years,” said Anderson.
Freshman player Ella Wheeler is looking good, as she has made the varsity team this year. She is the only freshman that has made varsity so far. The starting lineup is Olivia Larson, Chloe Kuyper, Eva Anderson, Ava Butler, and Berline Kilpatrick.
Winter Cheer:
Winter cheer is beginning, and, with only one senior girl on the squad, Anne Kehl, the younger girls have someone to look up to as a captain.
“Although I am very sad that a lot of our seniors decided not to do winter cheer this year, I think Anne is fabulous, and I think this is going to be an exceptional season,” said Jacobs.
For winter, the squad cheers for wrestling, and boys and girls basketball. The turn-out for winter cheer is usually smaller than in the fall.
“Winter cheer is structured very differently from the fall,” said winter junior cheerleader Mckinley Jacobs. “For fall, we have a totally different coach and a much larger team along with different cheerleaders.”
As opposed to fall cheer, winter cheer is spent indoors. Football games are more popular to be cheered at because they are better attended.
Boys Basketball:
Boys basketball had six seniors graduate last year. Along with the girls team, they will experience a building block season.
“It’ll be different because we lost six seniors and there are huge shoes to fill,” said junior Noah Edmonds. “[However], new people have got to step up, and that’s always a challenge.”
“I’m honestly am excited for this season and what we can do. We’ve been working hard all off-season, and it’ll be interesting to see how we stack up,” said Edmonds.
The team trained before the season was in full swing and has been working hard, so the team seems to work together well.
Although the boys do not have captains yet, there is leadership showing in the senior boys, including Dziko, Jennings, and Casper Forest.
“The team plays a lot more cohesively and the environment is really positive; I think mostly due to the fact that we have a lot of new people on the team,” said Edmonds. The team is full of new athletes, and new people to fill the shoes of the seniors that left.
Wrestling:
Wrestling has one girl participating this year, and the rest of the team is made up of boys. With 11 senior boys graduating, the team has to train hard in order to have a successful season.
Some of the boys are currently trying to lose weight by spitting, not eating, wearing extra clothes to lose water weight by sweating, and going into saunas to lose water weight.
There are only two seniors on the team this year, Peytra Gard and Cori Williams. Luke Larson is the elected captain.
With such a small number of seniors, both Gard and Williams feel the pressure to do well and to win.
“I have a really good wrestling partner, and just being the only other senior, I feel like I have a lot more weight on my shoulders to win,” said Williams. “This year is a lot different than the others since the team is such a young team, but that’s not a bad thing because they’re all trying as hard as they can to learn and become better.”
The team has had a large adjustment from last year, after losing a lot of seniors, and have numerous new people.
This year, the wrestling team says they are meshing well, and is working well together, although with it being early in the year, there is still a bit of a gap between the different groups of people.
“After the tournament I think we are going to all be one huge family,” said Williams. The teams thinks that they will become more of a family as the season goes on.