As the winter sports’ seasons are wrapping up, it is time to look into the future and see what the spring sports seasons will hold.
The baseball team had its season end in districts last year, John Meyer, baseball coach, said. Meyer said he expects improvement from last season because this year’s team has better teamwork and leadership.
“We have a nice mix of experienced upperclassmen and younger talent this year,” Meyer said.
The road to the playoffs will be completely different this year because there are totally new districts, which can change every two years. The new district will consist of MHS, Parkway South, Lafayette, Eureka, Washington, Union, Pacific and Parkway West, Meyer said.
Chris Kenny, girls soccer coach, said the team made it to the semifinals of Districts last year before losing to Eureka.
Kenny said he doesn’t know what to expect with this year’s team because he doesn’t know exactly who will try out.
“There were some good players that left, but also a lot of talent coming back this year,” Kenny said.
Scott Szevery, boys volleyball coach, said his team made it all the way to the quarterfinals of State last year, and said this year, anything is possible.
This year’s team has six returning starters from last year’s team and they will provide strong senior leadership, Szevery said.
“[The seniors] bring maturity to compliment the juniors’ athletic power,” Szevery said.
Matt Nienhaus, boys track and field coach, said he anticipates the team winning its conference this year.
Nienhaus said the varsity team was third in conference and districts last year, and the junior varsity team was first in conference.
This year’s team features a lot of depth at the varsity level, but most of the runners are underclassmen.
“We are very young, but there is excellent discipline at all levels,” Nienhaus said.
On the girl’s side of track and field, Mike Ebert, girls track coach, said they sent three individuals in four events to sectionals last year, and they sent two individuals, Vaughn Powell and Karyn Vilbig, to State last year.
Ebert said it is hard to tell how this year’s team will do because he does not know who will actually join the team. He also said that from who he expects to show up, there should be a good team.
“We have strong junior and senior classes that competed in districts, but hope to make it to the next level this year,” Ebert said.
The golf team has all but one of the golfers from last year’s team returning this year, and Eric Schweain, coach, said he expects a better year than what they had last year.
Schweain said the success of this year’s team will depend partially on the teams in their district and where the sectionals, new to the golf season, will be held.
“Our guys have been working hard in the offseason to prepare for the spring,” Schweain said. “This year they are a year older, and a year wiser.”
First year water polo coach Zach Levko said that although he has not been with the team very long, he thinks this year will be a strong year.
“Everybody on the team has experience,” Levko said. “The sky is the limit if people are willing to listen and learn.”
Levko said he expects seniors Jake Miller, Sam Spencer, Robert Henige and Ross Frankenfield to step up and take on leadership roles by transferring knowledge to the younger players on the team.
For Scott Cleer, boys tennis coach, the new season brings uncertainty because half of the varsity team were seniors last year, Cleer said. He also said he will be moving players around for a lot of the season, and will not have a set line-up until April.
“I have no idea who the good young players are,” Cleer said. “But from who we have coming back, we should be one of the better teams in the district.”
