As fall sports go into sectionals and beyond, winter sports start open gyms and tryouts. Gymnastics, swimming, wrestling, boys and girls basketball are excited to start the season and repeat some of the success of last season.
Swimming won conference and sectionals along with going undefeated in every meet except state. Junior Kyle Janis is looking forward to “repeating last year’s phenomenal season”.
Girls basketball season ended with a tough loss to Columbus North in the sectional championship. The goal this year is to make it to state. To do this the team makes individual small goals that help the team advance together. This year the team is trying to improve the shooting percentage. Blackwell’s advice to incoming freshman is to “keep working hard even when nobody’s watching because it will pay off”. This year Blackwell is hoping to get out of sectionals and to keep moving forward.
The gymnastics team won sectionals last year and this year are hoping to get even farther with the help of new members to the team. This year their first meet is against Bloomington North on January 9th.
The wrestling team had 11 people make it to regionals and Noah Hunt made it to state. He tore his meniscus prior to the meet and couldn’t compete. This year sophomore Ciera Brokal is excited to get varsity matches. Brokal is the first girl to wrestle on the south varsity team. Her advice is “make sure to get in shape because there is a lot of running, and listen to the coaches.”
The basketball team ended 21-5 last year and this was the second year in a row with 20 or more wins. This year junior Chris Bomba is “looking forward to becoming a better basketball player and a better teammate.” Since the team only lost a few seniors this past year they have a more experienced team. This year Bomba’s role has changed from a motivator to a leader. This will have an effect as Anthony Leal and Noah Jager are getting a chance to play on varsity. “For them it is about being patient and not letting them get nervous if they find themselves in a pressure situation” Bomba says. The team is looking forward to continuing the trend of 20 or more wins.
Each sport has different goals as a team but they all agree to “take it day by day and accomplish the small goals that lead to the larger ones” Blackwell says “If this happens it will be an exciting post season.”
