2014 Spring Sports Update: Week One

Boys’ Tennis

Practice for the boy’s tennis team has started this week. Varsity practices 3:00 p.m to 4:30 p.m. and JV practices 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tryouts were held last week for freshman and sophomores. The coaches emailed out a list of who’s on JV and who’s on Varsity a couple days ago and they’ll have practice Monday through Thursday this week.

Boys’ Lacrosse (SM Boys’ Lacrosse)

Varsity played their first game of the season this weekend and lost to a team from Oklahoma City. John Aliber led the team with seven goals. Practices will now be outside instead of at the sports complex they used during the cold weather.  Varsity rosters are still not set for the season.

Girls’ Lacrosse (SM Girls’ Lacrosse)

The girls’ lacrosse team was able to recruit enough players for a varsity team and a JV team. However, there will probably be a couple floaters between the two teams. The first two practices last week were canceled due to the weather so tryouts officially were on Monday, March 10 and continued Tuesday, March 11. Rosters were announced on Wednesday morning.

The returning players participated in a referee’s scrimmage on Sunday, March 9 at Blue Valley Northwest High School. They scrimmaged with St. Teresa’s Academy and then played Olathe. The team easily beat Olathe by several goals. On that same Sunday, the team also had an Open House at The Monogram Shop. A portion of the sales went back to the team and many players got things monogrammed with the SM Girls’ Lacrosse Logo.

The team is going to be relying heavily from underclassmen and non-East players. Some players to watch are Callie Elred, an attacker freshman who goes to Kansas City Christian, Ashton Hess, a middie freshman who goes to SM Northwest, Maureen Murphy, an attack junior who goes to Bishop Miege, and Charlie McFarlane, a sophomore defender who goes to Park Hill South. Some standout East players include junior attacker Margaret Krause, senior defender Cicely Krebill, and senior attack Nicole Pisterzi.

Varsity is planning on traveling to a tournament in Omaha, Neb. on Saturday, March 29 while the JV is planning on traveling to Columbia, Mo. The varsity is coached by Kevin Krause. The JV team is coached by Gia McFarlane. Assistant coaches include Coach Gary Danciger and Coach Charity.

Girls’ Swimming

Girls’ swim is just getting started with the season. They recently released their varsity roster and are in the heart of their practices. Coach Rob Cole will normally give the girls’ workouts to do if they are going to be gone over spring break. Their first meet is Saturday, March 29th and it is Districts.

Girls’ soccer

The girls’ soccer team just finished tryouts last week and the teams have been picked. The tryouts were held in the gym for some of the days due to weather. On Monday, when school was canceled was canceled due to the weather, they still had tryouts.

Softball

The softball team finished tryouts and they are practicing for games starting in April. Right now they’re working on basic skills such as plays and strategies of the game.

Most of the new players are on junior varsity. The newer girls are learning how to hit and catch the way Coach Keener likes them to, and find what position suits them best.

“JV has a lot of new players on it, but they all are excited to learn and they have a great chance [to be good] if they work hard,” manager Olivia Redelsheimer said.

Practices are every day after school at Indian Hills Middle School, but were held indoors at East last week due to inclement weather.

Four softball players will be playing in college — seniors Erin McGinley, Savannah Bellem, Maty Gray and Rowan Turner.

“Most of them have been playing together for a while and work well together, and as long as that happens it should be a good season,” Redelsheimer said.

Baseball

Tryouts have ended and practices have started. No teams have been announced yet. The first varsity game is March 15 against South. Tryouts have been inside because of the weather were they were held in the stage gym and main gym.

Track and Field

The track and field team has gained a number of new coaches in the offseason, such as a new sprints coach, javelin coach, shot-put coach, and a new head coach. Because of nearly all new coaches, a lot of the systems that were in place are now replaced by new ones.

 For instance, now the entirety of the team warms up together through active stretching, and speed and agility exercises. The whole team also does drills regarding running and jogging form. These things are new to the upperclassmen who have been used to different traditions and warm-ups throughout their years on the team.