“I think this team has so much potential”.
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“We have a young team with lots of potential, expectations are high and I can see them doing well during conference play and regionals”, Foster said. “We still have a couple matches left, but so far, so good”.
“I said, ‘You know, it would be nice to see all these kids get at least equal playing time, ‘” Albert said to Priscilla.
“Some of the single matches we lost were really close”, Smith said.
“I started off with a broken nose which set me off a little bit”, said Bilski.
“This hurts, but we’ll get over it”, said VanHekken after his team dropped a 42-35 decision to Jackson Northwest in a Class B state quarterfinal game on Tuesday, March 13. “We have a very talented team and are getting stronger after each match”.
On the boys travel team, Murray shared point guard duties with Reinhardt and focused on playing good defense and making shots.
Abraham Gracia is in his 11th season coaching the Cowgirls and says it sometimes has been tough to keep the faith and persevere with his team in its quests for the playoffs. The Falcon boys reached the 4A state final in 2014, and won or shared four league titles during Curtiss’ tenure.
“I’ve helped with the freshmen and the junior high girls”, Coulter said. Both have daughters on the team and were determined not to let the season be lost.
Weather permitting, Frontier will play host to both Waterford and conference rival Fort Frye, while Belpre will welcome the Warren Warriors and the Marietta Tigers. They both played a lot of varsity past year.
Clayton led a group of seven seniors this year, some of whom were key contributors: Christine Steffes, Lexi Laube, Clayton, Samantha Wiebold, Tarah DeCroock, Sydney Blandin and Delayna Ponds. “That’s more important than basketball and I think a lot of these kids have learned that”, Albert said. “We did better early in the year in limiting mistakes in these categories, but by the end of the season we were inconsistent”. “We have the biggest track team we’ve had in a while coming back, so I’m excited to be able to fill all of the events”. Defender Cassie Craven has been awesome this season, surprising me with her confidence, aggressiveness and communication with the other girls. They fell short last year, but hope for a better ending this year. “They beat us in the sectional”. If the coach hadn’t stepped in, the girls would have been forced to travel to another school to play, which the Sterling boys must do to compete with the lack of a team. Our coaching staff has already been talking about this for awhile, and the way the team looks next year could very well be different.
“Our three freshman definitely contributed to our success”, she said. “I thought what a better way to start your first game as a starter than to hit a bunch of threes”.
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Kirk said offensively, they’ve just been working on the fundamentals in practice and fine-tuning the small things. Even so, the varsity team only has eight returning players from last year’s team.
