News Detail
Middle School Fall Sports Roundup
Varsity Volleyball
-Coach Amy Edmunds
JV Volleyball
The main focus of the JV program is to learn basic skills. In a fun but competitive environment at practices the students worked to build their passing and serving techniques. While those two skills received the bulk of the coaching and by far the most time, the team also learned basic rotations on the court, how to spike, and how to move and work as a team. The setters also worked a little on some more specific net and setting skills. During games, instead of just attempting to send the ball back over the net, the JV team attempted to control opposing serves, make passes to teammates, and, as the season progressed, hit spikes over the net. Although that emphasis of three controlled hits makes victories more challenging, especially early in the season when skills are either rusty or raw, by mid to late season the quality of the games improved significantly. A highlight of the year was the final home game, where several kids played well, and the team had their best total effort. It was a great year of improvement with the girls!
The team: Grade 7 students Elisabeth Connett, Zoe Decker, Imani Gant, Sarah Harper, Holly Shadko, Eliana Sunderland, and Grade 6 students Alexandra Bessler, Jade Cheatham, Natalie Fah, Michelle Foster, Abby Givens, Kayla Mathurin, Sitara McMillin, Emily Perrin and Cora Shandrow.
The Varsity Middle School girls' volleyball team had an enormous amount of growth this season. At the start of the season, the Gators worked hard at serving, controlling the ball and making aggressive attacks. The season opened with the first two matches being a loss, but the girls took away feedback from those losses and were able to spend time and dedication in practice to own the skills that were necessary to win. They ended up winning six matches in a row. The season was filled with laughter, team bonding, hard skill practice, fun, dedication, accountability, and even some tears, shed at our last home match. The continuation of improvement in the team's communication, skills, and aggressiveness on the court amazed their coaches and even the coaches of the opposing team.
The Team: Grade 8 students Hannah Pukis, Casey Kim, Amy Hou, Rachel Holland, Molly Bryant, Libby Kendig, Kelsey Reunanen, Zyaire Cheatham, Caitlin Farrell, Ashley Nelson; Grade 7 student Jaskiran Pental; and Grade 6 student Lilly Gray
-Coach Amy Edmunds
JV Volleyball
The main focus of the JV program is to learn basic skills. In a fun but competitive environment at practices the students worked to build their passing and serving techniques. While those two skills received the bulk of the coaching and by far the most time, the team also learned basic rotations on the court, how to spike, and how to move and work as a team. The setters also worked a little on some more specific net and setting skills. During games, instead of just attempting to send the ball back over the net, the JV team attempted to control opposing serves, make passes to teammates, and, as the season progressed, hit spikes over the net. Although that emphasis of three controlled hits makes victories more challenging, especially early in the season when skills are either rusty or raw, by mid to late season the quality of the games improved significantly. A highlight of the year was the final home game, where several kids played well, and the team had their best total effort. It was a great year of improvement with the girls!
The team: Grade 7 students Elisabeth Connett, Zoe Decker, Imani Gant, Sarah Harper, Holly Shadko, Eliana Sunderland, and Grade 6 students Alexandra Bessler, Jade Cheatham, Natalie Fah, Michelle Foster, Abby Givens, Kayla Mathurin, Sitara McMillin, Emily Perrin and Cora Shandrow.
-Coach Kyle Price
Cross Country
The Middle School Cross Country team had an outstanding season. Despite several injuries for a few runners, the team remained strong and we quickly began increasing our mileage in workouts and building strong legs. We had a total of five meets including the League Championship meet, which the girls brought home first place, beating Charles Wright Academy by only two points. This was a huge victory, not only because the team trained hard and was ready for a victory, but it has been years since we won a championship. Overall, the attitudes were amazing and the work ethic top notch. I am very proud of all the runners' efforts this season, and they should also be very proud of their performances; a job well done!
The Team: Anna Andrade, Erica Chen, Cecelia Cobbs, Claire Eveskige, Allison Fitz, Carolyn Hare, Anna Haddad, Julia Hanly, Sofia Huboly, Katye Mayora, Amber Moody, Sophie Rockne, Anna Salaam, Eleanor Tanbara, Sophie Jeter, Arya Kukreja, Cody Shaw, Blake Nygren
-Coach David Gardner
Boys’ Soccer
As a coach one remembers the teams and the players who meet the challenges presented from the competition and found strength and motivation to apply themselves regardless of the outcome. Then, there comes that even more exceptional team that surpasses all your dreams and expectations: athletic, intelligent, skillful, motivated, and cohesive, ready to take all coaching challenges. Have you ever driven a high performance car such as the BMW M5 series, Maserati, Audi or Porsche? The car can perform everything you ask it to do, cut corners at 75 mi/hr, accelerate 0 to 60 in 4 sec, decelerate with surprising smoothness and ride like it is on an air cushion. That is what I have as a team this year, a team that could be assembled only through higher powers. We won all our games this season. In our Middle Chinook league we have not lost a game in the past three years.
The Team: David Cho, Henry Carroll, Geoffrey DalBalcon, Roderick DiCiro, Eric Holland, Robby Kendig, Ben Lee, Daniel Peterson, Joshua Piatok, Troy Bailey, Garrett Clark, Josh Oie, James Parrott, Alex Peterson, Matt Sullivan, Micah Thompson, Max Bessler, Jonathan Chen, Christopher Cho, Kieran Coumou and Jonathan Pelster
-Coach Emil Verbovski
