Spring Sports Preview

After a successful winter sports season comes to an end, spring sports is about to begin. Hopefully the spring season can be equally as successful as the winter. 

The baseball team, coming off of a near district championship last year, is looking to compete again for not only the district championship, but the state championship as well. The track team is competing again for a  DVC championship, after a super tough loss losing by only one point in last year’s DVC final, after an undefeated season. Although they had a tough season last year, the softball team is ready to come back and compete for a playoff run this year. The boys tennis team roster is strong and ready to compete and the girls are confident that they will have a better season this year. 

I interviewed senior captain Josh Jenkins (Assumption University bound) a couple questions about how he envisions the 2023 season to be. The first question I asked him was “Coming off of a solid season and making a deep playoff run, how do you think the teams are going to perform this year.”

“I’ve got some high hopes for the team,” Josh said. “I know that us seniors are going to be dialed since it’s our last year playing together, I’ve got all the confidence in the world in all of the guys, and all of the confidence in the world that we can win any game we go into.”

Knowing that there was a lot of pressure on Josh last year with the college hunt, I asked him if he thinks that the commitment will take some pressure off of him and have a positive effect on his season. He said “I think it is going to have a positive effect on me. Last year I was focused on having good stats so that I could get recruited, but now that that whole process is taken care of I feel like I’m just going to go out there and play.”

Josh is very confident in his ability to have a breakout year. “I know that we’re all going to go out there looking for a win and can hopefully put a new banner in the gym.” Josh is going to play a huge role for the Sammies this year, and can hopefully have a breakout season.

After an almost perfect season, while being finalists in the DVC championship, the track team is going to have to work really hard in order to have another season like that. I interviewed senior captain Jacob Cederlund and asked him how he thinks the team is going to perform this year. “We’re missing a lot of crucial people like Griffin, Noah, and Will.” He claimed, “If we work really hard we have a chance, but it’s not looking good.”

Jake is confident that they can make it if they work hard, but isn’t sure how they are going to perform without some of last year’s studs. I wanted to know what he could do as a captain to help out some of the younger guys, “Through practice and leadership, and hopefully they can watch and become better.” Jake is going to have to take a big leadership role this year, and set a good example for the younger guys to follow. 

The softball team is incredibly young this year. Although they had a tough 2022 season, this year they are ready to make a comeback for a playoff run this year. I spoke to Mr. Milaszewski, head coach, and he does not have an opinion on the season until he sees the talent at tryouts. I asked him how he thought the team would perform this year and he said “Ii’s hard to say as a first year coach with this group, I don’t know which girls have skills at which position, so we will have to see.”

Although he can’t be sure, he’s very optimistic about the season, “I would love to say we are going to have a successful season, but everybody is going to put in extra work so that we can get to where we need to be.” Mr. Milla is confident that if the girls put in the work needed they will have a successful season.

I spoke with Mr. Stamos, head coach of the boy tennis team, and he is very excited about the upcoming season. “We had a good year last year and we didn’t lose any seniors so we should be able to make a good run at it.” The team is going to be as strong as ever since they did not lost a single player to graduation last year.