The fall sports are a little over halfway through their seasons. These sports include boys and girls basketball, cheerleading, and Scholar Bowl.
The coaches of these teams were asked about how they felt their teams were doing so far in their seasons.
Mr. Doug Peirick, varsity girls basketball coach, said, “Right now we are 5 and 5. I feel like we have gotten better in some areas, but the rest of our schedule is really tough, and if we are going to compete, we need to improve in many other areas to be a consistent team for the rest of the season.”
Mrs. Mischki Soete, cheerleading coach, answered, “The cheer squad has been working really hard this season. With 13 cheerleaders, we have had the opportunity to try new stunts and rearrange some of the current floor cheers. There have been lots of laughs and support for each other. I think some of our most memorable moments happen while working on builds. We try new stunts and succeed; it's very exciting. Most recently Diana did the pendulum stunt and Grace added a twist to her cradle. There was lots of cheering when both girls and their pod succeeded in these stunts. That's the most rewarding part as a coach-- watching the squad encourage each other, work together, and be happy for their teammates’ successes.”
Mr. Aaron Peirick, varsity boys basketball coach, replied, “Our team has really progressed, on both ends of the floor. Our guys get after it in practice and it shows. We are so much better on offense especially. We are shooting it way better, we are playing more [unselfishly] and together, and getting each other great shots. We are just harder to guard too, because we play smarter and really put pressure on the defense with our activity on that end. Lately we have been good at making the right play at the right time and being patient and okay with making the easy, simple play over and over. Defensively I feel like we have gotten more alert and tougher. We are turning teams over more and getting more 50/50 balls, which is important for us.”
Mr. Jared Pruessner, Scholar Bowl coach, said, “I always try to think long term with Scholar Bowl. It can take a good part of the season to get everyone up to speed on all the information they need to know, and it's still relatively early for us. We've been studying a lot and making some progress on that, so I'm optimistic we'll be where we need to be by the conference tournament in March and districts in April.”
The athletes of these sports were also asked about how they felt that they were doing in their season so far.
Miranda Durbin, cheerleader, replied, “I feel that we've had our vices, but we've done extremely well at working with each other to ensure that everyone is included and helping everyone improve their technique.”
Makenzie Munsinger, girls basketball player, said, “Being a rebuild this year and less varsity experienced team, I feel as if we have all worked hard and beat some good teams.”
Daniel Huff, Scholar Bowl member, answered, “We have done well, but I feel we could do a whole lot better.”
Diana Ribera, cheerleader, commented a memorable moment, “Recently, we were doing a basket toss, and I thought to myself 'Let me try a toe touch in the air.' So, I ended up doing a toe touch in the air, which is something that I've never done before.”
Good luck with the rest of the fall seasons, and congratulations on all the progress that they have already made.