By Allie Burd
Staff Writer In December, the Red Lion Competitive Cheer Squad made their dream come true by receiving a bid to nationals at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. They competed with schools from all over the US for the grand, national title at Walt Disney World Theme Park. “The entire theme of our season has been about taking it to the next level, we were competitive at states, regionals, and now we’re ready for nationals,” cheer coach Ashleigh Reinert said. The Squad left for Florida early morning on Feb 5, then headed to the All Star Sports Resort in Disney the next day for practices in preparation for performing on Saturday in front of thousands. Senior Bradley Irizarry says, “At first we were really nervous and had no idea what to expect. It was really overwhelming but we knew we had to stay focused.” Junior Mariah Linden said, “We all tried to stay positive, we were all really excited but so nervous.” Out of fifty teams in their coed division, Red Lion placed 11th in the nation. Coach Reinert said, “They kept their cool and just performed and did a great job. What’s so great about competition is that it’s just two minutes and thirty seconds of giving everything you’ve got. No timeouts, no substitutions, no redos.” Irizarry says, “I’m so proud of what we earned. 11th in the nation is amazing, and the score we got was our personal best.” Senior Emily Hylind said, “11th is awesome but it’s so much more than that. We had to beat teams to get to nationals too, and we worked so hard.” Overall, the squad was very happy with the way their routine was performed. Senior Johnnie Tamny said, “It was the best we’ve ever performed and everyone definitely tried their hardest.” Linden also said, “Everyone was so excited to be at nationals. It was our last competition so everyone put everything they had into the routine.” A lot of preparation and dedication was needed to not only receive the bid to nationals, but to improve their routine in order to receive this score against the coed teams competing in Florida. “We didn’t know this when we started, but UCA has very strict guidelines on guy to girl ratio. If you have eight guys then you can’t have over thirty people--we had thirty-four people. We unfortunately had to drop down four people in order to compete, which was awful to do,” Reinert said. The squad also made changes to different parts of their routine. “We changed the opening tumbling so we’d have more group tumbling and standing tumbling, we also changed the ending pyramid to be more clean and ‘showy’. However, we kept all the coed stunts so we could still get a lot of points.” Coach Reinert finished off by saying, “I am so proud of this team. Honestly, making it to this level was a huge accomplishment. We were hoping for a great performance and that’s exactly what we got. Their whole goal was to take Red Lion Cheerleading to the next level- and that’s exactly what they did.”
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By Bella McCarey Co-Editor-in-Chief With a 13-10 finish to their 2014-2015 regular and postseason, the boys’ basketball team looks ahead at next season as they say goodbye to their seniors. If anything, the one thing that has been lacking all season long for the Red Lion boys basketball team has been consistency. The team propelled their way into the New Year on a 5-game winning streak, but a dramatic 5-point loss to crosstown rival Dallastown was the first of a 4-game losing streak. Since then, the team has found ways to keep themselves at the top of the PIAA Districts III power rankings, until losing against Spring Grove in the first round of districts 66-55. “Toward the end of the season we all started to come together and just have fun out on the court, while playing hard and to the best of our ability,” junior Bennett Frey said. Putting wins and losses aside, earning a district playoff berth still tasted sweet for the Lions. As far as their formula on the court, the team displayed a balanced force on both sides of the ball. It hasn’t been just one or two players that helped this team along, but a variety. Double digit tallies have been averaged not just from forwards Wyatt Tyson, Jason Rebuck and shooting guard Stone McCreary, but also from point guards Austin Huson and Bennett Frey. It’s been this multi-weapon presence that’s only fueled the Lions’ postseason chances even higher. Not only has the team improved as a whole since last year, despite graduating 1,000-point scorer Mike Fox, but junior Wyatt Tyson, who averaged a 74 percent shooting accuracy from the foul line, cites that individual growth has come a long way on the team as well. “We are doing really good right now and I feel I improved a lot since last year.” Another mild improvement who hasn’t been hard to notice is large-framed power forward Jason Rebuck. Using his 6’3” height to his advantage, Rebuck has brought an intimidation factor and an ability to run the court to get to the rim. With the season now officially over, the team now has time and some chances to reflect on memorable moments from the season. “The highlight of this year was probably taking York High (William Penn) into double overtime in their gym,” Huson said. The boys ended up losing the game 69-75. One of the game’s most cherished moments, however, was senior McCreary turning a field goal attempt into a slam dunk that wowed the crowd. Both Tyson and Frey agree that watching a fellow teammate and friend make himself known as a varsity player was definitely a highlight of the season. “[It] was when Brian Treible scored his first varsity points and the bench went crazy,” Tyson said. Treible made a two-point shot in a game against Greencastle-Antrim, earning him his first scoreboard recognition. Treible posted to Twitter later that night, “Thanks to everyone who cheered me on tonight #998moretogo.” McCreary became a stronger leader as the season progressed, finishing out plays his teammates hand off to him and scoring the most points per game at an average of 16. “This year has been a blessing to me. I love the coaches and especially the players,” McCreary said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better team. I’m really gonna miss the guys when I’m gone.” Graduating McCreary, Huson and Skyler Godfrey will be noticeable to the otherwise fairly young team, however the seniors developed a great postseason exit strategy to leave their mark. “Win or go home,” McCreary said. By Taylor Bosley Sports Editor The girls’ basketball team looks back at a season of county playoff eligibility and also a spot in District playoffs. Despite a loss to York Catholic in the first round of the county playoffs, the girls came out of the first round of District Three playoffs with an overtime win against Lebanon, 45-42. As the Lions ended the season and headed into the postseason, Coach Dimoff hoped the girls had a “This is why we play” attitude. Sophomore Kynslee Shepherd is proud of how the girls fought through the adversity they faced these season. “We had a few injuries that set us back but in the end we came out stronger with a lost more experience and confidence,” Shepherd said. Shepherd views these over comings of setbacks faced as a confidence booster for the next season. Another hope of hers is for the team to continue to work together. Courtney Dimoff had an attitude of “We want to continue encouraging each other on and off the floor,” Dimoff said. She liked the encouragement throughout the team this season to have the girls continue to work together throughout the regular season and postseason. The girls finished with a 13-6 record and a win in the first round of District Three playoffs but ultimately fell to number two seed Cumberland Valley. By Adrianna Clinton Co-Editor-in-Chief After a long season of grueling morning and evening practices, the Red Lion swim team fared well against their Division I opponents this season, and sent many to the YAIAA Championships, as well as the District III competition. The girls finished with a league record of 4-1 and overall finished 7-2, earning them second in Division I only to Dallastown, whose boys and girls have won the league title every year since 2009. Their brightest moment, however, came against a team on senior night who defeated them last season in a heartbreaker. “It was kind of sad but it made us want to beat them more...we had trained all year, hoping to win our Central York meet as the underdogs and we did,” senior Anne Mitzel said. Other highlights for the girls team include when senior Courtney Schaefer broke a Spring Grove pool record en route to a victory against the Rockets in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:08.64, with the original record being 2:09.93. While the boys were not so victorious against Central York, their season was just shy of the same success the girls experienced, finishing 3-2 in their division and 6-3 overall. “We lost a lot of talent with Eli (Aggen), Chance (King), Callum (Brandt), and Alex (Clark). The team really stepped up every meet. We lost to [York] Suburban by one point, and lost to Dallastown and Central, who are the best of the best,” senior Deion Prince said. For several seniors, their swimming career will not end at Red Lion, but instead they will be moving on to the collegiate level. Courtney Schaefer and Anne Mitzel will both be swimming in college at Division I Georgia Southern and Division III Messiah College, respectively, and Nick Petrella will attend Elizabethtown College and swim. Seniors moving onto districts in individual competition include Nick Petrella, Colin Sload-Diehl, Courtney Schaefer, and Amira Washington-Myers. Notably, junior Dyan North is seeded No. 1 in District III in the 500-yard freestyle, with a time of 4:44.58. |
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