Molly Gettinger
Marketing & Brand Manager
August 17, 2016 // Local

Fall sports preview

Molly Gettinger
Marketing & Brand Manager

Marian High School athletics gear up to repeat success

Under the leadership of new Athletic Director Steve Ravatto, Marian High School athletics are gearing up for an outstanding season. Ravatto shared that “With three teams — boys’ soccer, girls’ soccer and girls’ cross-country — excelling in last year’s post-season, we’re looking to see continued success this coming fall. Lots of talented athletes have graduated, but with a strong coaching staff in place, we expect to see strong teams. With a little hard work, we hope to have just as many — if not more — successes as last year.”

Boys’ and girls’ cross-country

Returning for his third year of coaching, David Walsh is ready to lead Marian High School boys’ and girls’ cross-country to another successful season. The girls are coming from an outstanding season last year, qualifying for semi-state for the first time. Led by returning athletes Emma Kearns, Hannah Stein, Hannah Majewski and Claire Fewell, this year is looking to be even better than last.

The boys are also hoping for a successful season. Last season, many players were competing for the first time; however, with a year of experience under their belt, Coach Walsh believes that the team shows promise.

Football

The A3 regional champions are ready to go even further in the post-season this year. Led by the guidance of Coach Reggie Glon, they already have a talented team. Some of their strongest returning players are running back Alexander Horvath, lineman Michael Dennison and quarterback Bryce Tomassi.

Coach Glon feels confident in other starters, including center Conner Glon, tight end RJ Decker, kicker Jack Tiller, defensive lineman Joe Cline, defensive lineman Atanasa Sete, defensive back Michael Hemingway and defensive back Deontre Nyengo. Coach Glon shared, “We strive to be 1-0 each day at practice, and that will give us a chance to win on Friday nights. Our goal is to win a conference championship and defend our sectional title.”

Boys’ tennis:

In his first year as head coach for the boys’ tennis team, Coach Dan Tryniecki has high hopes that the team will excel.

“We only had one senior on last year’s team. We are looking to improve and raise our expectations this year,” he said. While Max White is out this year due to injury, new recruits are looking promising; Dustin Greer is anticipated to compete at varsity level early in his high-school career.

Coach Tryniecki is confident that the team’s dedication will lead to a successful year that is not only measured by the scoreboard. “While our squad is small, the team has consistently shown great chemistry and a genuine love of the sport.  We are excited to not just compete at a high level, but also to build camaraderie.”

Girls’ soccer:

The 2015-16 regional champions are back to defend their title. This past year the team made it all the way to semi-state. Coach Djamel Charmat is hopeful for another successful year, with strong incoming freshmen who are already playing on the varsity team, including promising right midfielder Reyna Cruz. The center midfielders are Caroline Baughman and Jessica Veldman.

The defense is also looking strong, led by Libby Priller, Sofia Donati, and Ellie Costello. The two forwards are Megan Bullock and Brooke Strickland. “I think the talent we have and the way the players are looking forward to this season after tasting semi state last, they are going all the way to Indianapolis,” Coach Charmat shared.

Girls’ volleyball:

Following a winning 2015-16 season, Marian High School girls’ volleyball is looking to have a solid season. The team is filled with strong players, including senior Marielle Corbettm, who is back for her second season of play following a torn ACL. Sophomore Bella Ravotto, Senior Abby Wood and Senior Emily Sharp are also geared up for another positive year. Coach Dan Anderson is confident that, with productive training and continued display of commitment by the team, Marian High School volleyball will have an increasingly successful year.

Girls’ golf

Ending with a 7-14 record for the 2015 season, Marian High School girls’ golf team hopes the 2016-17 season will continue to be one of personal growth. Led by Coach George Grenert and the experience of seniors Molly Pendergast and Catherine Olivia, the team is optimistic for a season filled with hard work and success.

Junior Bridgette Joyce, sophomore Carly Turak and sophomore Emily Laviolette are eager to continue their golfing career, and incoming freshmen Rosa Trippel is already demonstrating promise for the team. Coach Grenert said their goal is to “improve our scores by minimum of five strokes per player, win more than we lose and qualify for the state finales. Most important is to learn to enjoy the game of golf. With a lot of hard work and positive attitudes this group of golfers will do lot of good things this fall.”

Boys’ soccer

Following a 3-0 defeat over Cardinal Ritter to win the Class 1A Boys Soccer State Championship, the Marian High School boys’ soccer team is ready to defend their title. Last year’s 20-2 record was impressive, but former successes only serve as an invitation to improve.

With the graduation of some outstanding seniors, including forward Augie Hartnagel, defender Christian Verstraete and midfielders Richie Ontiveros and Kevin Villa-Torres, this year will be an opportunity for returning players to strive for another winning record, fighting to defend their state title.

Cheerleading

The Marian High School Cheer Team has already kicked off the year with the NCA camp at Indiana State University, where, for the second year in a row, they received first place in the Large Varsity Performance Top Team category and the All-Camp Spirit Award.

The team has incoming freshmen talent, including Alyssa Himschoot, Olivia Salazar and Nataleigh Reed, and is anchored by seniors Taylor Ryan-Sizemore, Theresa Arterbery, Rachel Snyder, Leah Moreno and Shyanne Girres.

Coach Nicolini shared; “We are extremely excited to cheer on the football and basketball teams this year. I anticipate these cheerleaders to even impress themselves with their advancements in stunting, strength, teamwork and involvement in both the games and the community.”

Developing depth is goal of Saint Joseph High School

By Lisa Kochanowski

SOUTH BEND — The summer is ending with a hot spell, and the Saint Joe Indians are taking the heat in stride while gearing up for the upcoming fall season.

Cross-country

“The girls team has 14 runners, seven of which are first year; so experience is in short supply after graduating 12 seniors a year ago,” said Coach Mike McCarthy.

Senior Caroline O’Callaghan and sophomore Grace Beehler were semi-state qualifiers last year, and Katrina Sakimoto is the lone retuning four-year varsity team member. After these top three, the team is very inexperienced. McCarthy uses the five-times-a-week summer runs to teach much of the team good running lifestyle habits.

“The primary team goal early in the year is to develop excellent practice habits. Examples include the importance of logging all workouts, the necessity of post-practice stretching, eating and hydrating well for maximum recovery and the Saint Joe emphasis on pre- and post-practice routines. Once these habits are in place, the key for the team will be getting 5,000 meter race experience,” noted McCarthy. “Saint Joe added the Northwood Invitational to its August schedule for this reason and hopes to defend its South Bend City Championship Sept. 1 before heading into invitational season. With such a young team, the late season goals are currently secondary to early season goals.”

McCarthy said the boys’ team of 20 includes seven seniors.

“Coming off a strong track season where all three relays went to the state finals and the team scored 51 points at the regional a solid summer of aerobic runs for the top three runners leaves the team with lots of potential in the fall,” said McCarthy. “Sophomore Bill Powers, in his first year running cross-country, was a standout in the 3200-meter run in the spring and looks to be the top runner after summer road racing season. Senior Andy Powers and junior Saul Garcia will help form a great frontline trio.”

The key for the boys’ team is for the number four and five runners to close the gap between themselves and the top three.

“While there are about half a dozen possible candidates, it will take the early season races to sort out the team’s rank order. Running well as a team every day is the primary season goal along with hitting weekly minute and mileage goals. Advancing to semi-state is the ultimate end of season goal, as it looks from the summer,” noted McCarthy.

Football

“Personal growth, skill development, and building a football family with faith guiding us through all the difficulties that come our way,” are the season predictions from new football Coach Bryon Whitten.

Whitten said the teams’ strengths are youthful enthusiasm, coachability and the desire to improve. Its areas for improvement are consistency and to build experience.

Whitten said his goal for the season is to develop better people, be a team, have fun and win.

Girls’ golf

New girls’ golf coach John Fischer said the strength of his team is their short game — chipping and putting.

“What we need to work on is getting tournament-ready before the season starts by playing in local and state competitions throughout the summer,” noted Fischer. “We also need to make sure the girls have the proper equipment fit for their games. We need the junior varsity players to play more golf in the summer and have a higher goal in mind of competing at the state level in the game of golf.”

Fischer is getting a late start, with being a recent hire to the Saint Joe coaching staff; but he’s optimistic the team will have a great season.

“Our goal this year with me getting the coaching position so late is to qualify for the state championship and win several large invitational tournaments during our regular season. Having probably the largest turn out of 21 girls on the team this year, I feel the future looks bright, with the right game plan for off-season and in-season training and competing. We are off to a great start by winning the Plymouth Invitational by nine shots in an 11-team field,” said Fischer.

Boys’ tennis

“Our goals never change: conference-sectional-regional champs and a trip down state,” said Coach Steve Bender about his prediction for this year’s tennis season.

The strength of this years’ team is the singles players. The areas needing work for the Indians are the doubles teams.

Bender’s hope is to become a balanced team and to see vast improvement during the season from the doubles teams.

Saints look to repeat winning seasons

By Michelle Castleman

School is back in session, and after much hard work over the summer months, rosters have been firmed up for the fall season. Bishop Dwenger boasts a considerable amount of talent in northeast Indiana as it vies for Summit Athletic Conference titles and post-season crowns. Here is a preview of the 2016 Saints teams.

Tennis

The Saints return three letter winners for 2016 in senior Kyle Weingartner and juniors Drake LaPan and Luke Maskal. Other notable players back for the year include seniors McKade Schuldt, Michael Voors and Luke Siela, along with sophomore Jeremiah Jauch.

Last year, Bishop Dwenger ended with a 17-7 record and an SAC and sectional championship.

Coach Tim Koehl needs just 14 wins this season to chalk up 300 career coaching victories. He explained, “This year’s success will depend on the very inexperienced players and how fast they develop and can compete at the varsity level.” The Saints face DeKalb in their first match on Aug. 18.

Football

Bishop Dwenger football couldn’t be more excited to continue the team’s winning tradition with Coach Chris Svarczkopf (132-42) back in the saddle for his 14th season. Captains Amaun Clark, Blake Podschlne and Frankie Yanko will lead the attack for the Saints, along with Peter Winkeljohn, Mike Hake and Mitch Effinger, who were also starters during the 14-1 Class 4A state championship campaign a year ago. With Podschlne’s experience as signal caller and strength at the running back positions, the shotgun triple option offense is well equipped. The Saints will have defensive depth as well in their linemen, linebackers, safeties and cornerbacks.

Boys’ soccer

Captains for this year’s boys’ soccer team will be Colin Stroud and first-team SAC selection Austin Ly. They will be joined by 10 players who bring leadership and a wealth of varsity experience, including Jaxon Simerman, Sergei Collins, Jacob Hursh and Lucas Harkenrider, along with several newcomers to watch for. This combination of depth and experience will provide a nice mixture of talent for the reigning SAC champions (7-0) to build on.

“This is a new year with new challenges; therefore there are no guarantees, everything has to be earned through hard work,” Coach Carl-Philip Dorissant summarized. “We will approach every game as our last and leave everything on the field.”

Girls’ soccer

Bishop Dwenger’s girls’ soccer program lists six seniors on their roster for the season. They are Emily Tippmann, Anna A’Hearn, Paxton Simerman, Natalie Mowery, Karsyn Kleinrichert and Claudia Morgan.  The Saints will open play against Carroll on Aug. 22 at their home field, the Plex.

Volleyball

With six seniors and nine returning players overall, the Bishop Dwenger volleyball team is chock full of talent and looking to compete for the SAC title, after a second-place finish in 2015. In his fourth season with the Saints, Coach Tim Houser also hopes to get out of a tough sectional for a chance at a state title, after a loss in the sectional finals a year ago. Seniors who are back are Abby Bojrab (305 kills), Maddy Omo (126 blocks), Katie Fredbloom (646 assists), Alaina Schenkel, Marrissa Godfrey and Josie Kolkman.  Ellen Ross, Madi Ross and Ava Robinson round out those with varsity experience returning for Bishop Dwenger.

Cross-country         

After losing their top three runners from last year, the Bishop Dwenger boys’ cross-country team looks to be led by junior Carson Pocock and sophomore Emmett Delaney. “As we have emphasized the last two years, our key will be running as a pack because we don’t have a front runner,”  Coach Thomas Crum explained.

The Saints are a young team, having only three seniors: Michael Manning, Ben Howe and Kevin LaMaster.

The girls will also be a very young group, losing four of their top runners from 2015. However, Crum predicts the freshmen class is not going to back down from the challenge, as they have shown so far this summer.

Senior Abby Brelage will be leading the way for the Lady Saints. Laura Carroll is the Bishop Dwenger’s only other senior this season.

“Overall I’m excited to see what and how both teams shape out with having a freshmen class as competitive as we have on both sides,” Crum said.

Girls’ golf

The Bishop Dwenger linksters are well underway in their season, under the direction of new Head Coach Meg Ryan.

Optimism is the word for Bishop Luers’ fall sports programs

By Ron Busch

A number of sports programs are already practicing and preparing for fall contests.

Kevin Godfroy steps in this year as Bishop Luers’ new athletic director. He is certainly not new to Bishop Luers, and is anxious to get started to the task at hand. For the following seven fall sports, the word is “optimism.”

Football

Any follower of football in the area would find it difficult to present a fall preview without mention of Luers’ 11 state titles.

Coach Lindsay expects maintaining good health to be vital to the team’s success. Head Coach Kyle Lindsay, former a Luers quarterback, has 17 senior athletes on the team this season. Team captains are Luke Fisher, Carter Gillie and Tre Underwood. A lack of depth on the lines will be remedied with many players playing on both offense and defense this year. Senior Gareth Brouwer also returns this season, after missing all of the 2015 season due to a broken ankle.

Bishop Luers’ last SAC title was in 2014, so one goal will be to bring the title back to the south side of Fort Wayne. Coach Lindsay is optimistic that this team will be competitive every week this season.

Girl’s golf

Tenth-year coach Tom O’Brien is optimistic regarding the girls’ golf team this year. Key players include returning athletes: senior Captain Katie Leja, juniors Emily Shimer and Jackie Savio, and sophomores Lexy Turpchinoff, Caroline Gladding and Gretchen Spenn. Newcomers this year include sophomores Caroline Rahrig and Faith Jones, along with freshmen Madeleine Pape, Lydia Reimbold and Sarah Podzielinski.

This year is likely to be a rebuilding year, after losing four very strong seniors, including two All-SAC golfers. But there is hope on the horizon. In Coach O’Brien’s own words, “Amazingly, through the first three 18-hole tournaments, this year’s 2016 team has shot a total of 60 shots better than last year’s bunch.”

Caroline Rahrig has placed third in the two tourneys she’s played in so far. Madeleine Pape has medaled in two of the invitationals already, including shooting an 88 at Noble Hawk at East Noble. Coach O’Brien remarked,  “Yes, we are rebuilding, but it’s going to be a really fun young team with some wonderful young ladies.”

Cross-country

Second-year head coach Nichole Wellman has been inspired by one student-athlete in particular: Margaret Cicchiello, who has been returning from an injury. “It’s been inspiring how she hasn’t let it get her down. She’s been a positive influence on the younger athletes, despite her slow recovery.”

Helping in the coaching duties this year are eighth-year Assistant Coach Jacob Doctor and first-year Assistant Coach Jordan Miller. The squad is young, with only two seniors: Joe Deiser and Mary Wigent. Deiser and Wigent also serve as team captains this year.

Cross-country hopes to build on last year’s successes. Last year seven athletes competed at the regional level and three moved on to semi-state. The regional runners included Maria Lill, Marisa Wigent, Simon Derloshon and Stephen Busch. Moving on to semi-state were Joe Deiser, Madison Busch and Emily McManus. This year cross-country fields a relatively young team, but Coach Wellman is optimistic and “excited to see what they can bring to the table and watch them grow over the next few years.”

Boys’ soccer

Even though numbers are down this year, Coach John Myers indicated “the future looks bright.” Incoming boys’ soccer players are more experienced and have very good game knowledge. The team includes six seniors; four are returning players. Team captains are Vinnie Connett and John Hipskind.

Without huge senior numbers, the team will be very young. The last couple years have been .500 seasons, but boys’ soccer looks to improve as the younger players get more varsity experience. One of the goals this year is to improve that .500 record. Consequently, players will need to exhibit patience with the won/loss columns. That will be one of the keys.

Coach Myers wants the team to stay focused until the end. This will prove to be a challenge as they have a very difficult schedule, playing all the tough area 2A teams. With that in mind, right now, for Coach Myers, the “future looks bright”.

Girls’ soccer

Second-year girls’ soccer coach Joszef Feher was born and raised in Romania, of Hungarian heritage. He has coached for over 22 years in the U.S. and spent many years at the former Citadel soccer club, as well as coaching travel teams for the Fort Wayne Sports Club. He is assisted this year by JV Coach Bill Shaw and Natalie Siegel.

Certainly his experience provides a good fit for this year’s girls’ soccer team. This year the team is young, having lost eight seniors at the end of last season. Now there are four freshman and four sophomores on varsity, out of 18 total team members.

One of the goals for the team this season is for the girls to become stronger in possession aspects of the game. The coach analyzed it this way, “Specifically, being very young and fairly inexperienced, we will likely spend more time on the defensive end, and we hope to accomplish strong development in counter attack strategy.” Another goal is to develop individual technical skills.

Volleyball

The theme for this year’s edition of Bishop Luers volleyball is family. The girls will have a new staff with a new vision and outlook, and the emphasis will be on trust and commitment. Coaching duties this fall are shared between Troy Girod and Jahrae “Jae” Hampton.

The team is coming off a rough 13-21 season last year that had several injuries to key players throughout the season. The team is optimistic about making positive memories this year. There are two seniors returning, Rachel Baehl and Adrian Phillips. Juniors include Emily Strack, Gabrielle North, Mary Lee and Kathryn Knapke.

Bishop Luers volleyball promises to be an athletic and scrappy team with the addition of sophomore Abby Leja and freshman Jelena Girod competing on varsity full-time. There are also a few junior varsity players who will play a key role in the team’s success.

Coach Hampton sees the bottom line as the family theme. “Love is what drives families when times get difficult, and we will rely on this love to see us through. Ultimately, these principles lay the foundation for who we are and our commitment to them will determine our level of success,” she said.

Boys’ tennis

Huntington native Joel Pyle has a several goals for himself and the 2016 boys’ tennis team. They include winning the SAC, advancing in the post-season and continuing to develop the program at all levels. Coach Pyle wants to create a positive, fun and learning experience for everyone in the program, both on and off the court.

Team captains are returning players Maximilian Pyle and Johnny Woehnker. Other returning varsity players are Cole Scheible and Charlie Burton. In the East Noble Invitational Johnny Woehnker won at No. 2 singles, while Ethan Brown won at No. 3 singles.

Coach Pyle hopes to improve from last year’s 10-5 overall regular season, which included finishing 6-1, in second place, in the SAC. With improvement across the board from veteran players, the Luers tennis team is looking forward to taking the courts for the start of the 2016 season. The coach declared: “This year should be a fun and successful one. We are excited about the potential with our returning talented players, and with lots of new faces we’re impressed with what we’ve seen from our newcomers.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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