Author Spotlight
Brynn Winkler
Introduction
After Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly’s executive order to close all K-12 schools for the remainder of the school year, KSHSAA’s cancelation of all spring athletic events soon followed. We talked to seniors representing each spring sport about what their season could’ve been, and their thoughts on losing their last season of playing as a Lancer.
Senior, team captain Anna Gunderman
Q: What were the team’s expectations heading into the season?
“I think we had an overall really positive attitude and we were expecting to have a lot of fun, but also work really hard. And the expectations were to hopefully win State, and I think we probably would have done that because we had a lot of really good talent and a lot of really hard workers on our team. I think because of that, and the depth of our team, too, we probably would have won. [The season’s cancellation] was really sad at first and it was honestly hard to process it, but after thinking about it for a while, I’m hoping that when everything calms down we’ll still be able to do some team bonding stuff and finish some traditions that we’ve always had outside of the pool.”
Senior John Weedman
Q: Was the group of seniors a tight-knit group? How would this relationship impact your season?
“We were pretty close. I mean, as every senior class would be, but I feel like we definitely all had the same mindset and determination this year. And I think that would have taken us further than maybe some years when the senior class is really talented, but not as close and not as determined to win as a team. But I think this year’s group of guys was really good, and we all knew what we had to do. I’m lucky enough that it’s not my last season playing baseball, but for the rest of the seniors, you know, you kind of feel for them because their last games were taken away from them, and they never even got to play this year. It would have been a lot of fun just competing as a class one last time.”
Senior Jenna Thiemann
Q: What were you looking forward to most this season as a senior?
“I was really looking forward to just being a team leader for girls because I’m the only senior, and I was looking forward to getting to know the freshmen and the new players. And also getting to know the coaches too, because they’re both new — except the JV coach — and then just getting to play for one last year before I go to college.”
Senior Lizzie Macadam
Q: How does it feel to not have your senior track season?
“At first, it wasn’t like I was rolling on the floor, sobbing and super upset about it, but I was just thinking about the small things that I wouldn’t have anymore. Like we have group meetings on Monday where they hand out the medals from the week before and we all clap for whoever got medals. Or like bus rides to away meets, stuff like that. Meets that would go to like 2 a.m. and then we would all bring the speaker and blast music on way back. Thinking about all of that just made me so sad.”
Q: What were you looking forward to this season?
“What I was most looking forward to was, obviously since I’m a senior this year, you finally get to be in that leadership role. When I was an underclassman, track was such a family. I felt so welcomed and so accepted when I went there, and I wanted to create that for the underclassmen this year.”
Senior, team captain Jake Louiselle
Q: What’s your favorite memory from East tennis that you’ll miss this year?
“As a senior, I’m very bummed that I didn’t have the chance to play my last season. I would say high school tennis was one of my favorite memories of high school and I built many friendships. I would say just being on a team was probably my greatest memory and working together. For tennis, when you play tournaments on your own house season you’re playing with just yourself as an individual and competing against other players. When you play high school tennis on a team, you’re working together, training together, playing together to try to win a tournament or match, and each match counts to win a duel or a tournament. So it’s not like you’re just competing yourself on something in a tournament you’re competing to win as a team and for East.”
Senior, co-captain Will Harding
Q: What were you looking forward to this season?
“A bunch of [us have] all grown up playing golf together and we’ve all talked about playing at State and maybe having the opportunity to win State, and so I was really looking forward to doing that. I’ve played with Wesley Costello, Walter Honnold, Thomas Gogel, all those guys probably for 10 plus years now, just through junior golf and stuff like that around Kansas City. And it’s just a bonus that we all went to the same high school and we were all looking forward to doing stuff like this. You spend a lot of time with your team every day after school at practice and then on the road at tournaments and you just miss out on moments like that and it just sucks.”
Senior and co-captain Josephine McCray
Q: What would this soccer season have likely looked like?
“Honestly, I think everyone on the team thought that we had the best chance this year of either making it to State or possibly winning State. We had a lot of returning players; we basically had like three spots open. So we were all super, super close. So I know we would have had a lot of good team chemistry and I can’t really say for certain that we would have won a lot of games or whatever, but I know that we would have had just a really fun season as a team just being around each other.”
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