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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By Adrianna Clinton Co-Editor-in-Chief After her highly anticipated return to the track last season, Angelica Gonzalez has determined her home for the next four years, committing to East Carolina University to run Division I Track. Angelica Gonzalez never expected to receive any scholarship offers from colleges after she was plagued with numerous injuries in her sophomore and junior years. During her freshman year, Gonzalez lit up the track. She was a county champion and district runner-up in the 100 and 200-meter dashes, as well as a state medalist in those same events, and qualified for nationals. Along the way, she was dubbed “Freshman Phenom” and “Speedy Gonzalez” as she broke three school records, four invitational records, and a county and district record. But after experiencing two severe, unexpected hamstring injuries her sophomore year and slightly injuring the same muscle during the peak of her season at counties her junior year, Gonzalez thought she “lost everything.” Regardless, she still gained the interest of many Division I schools, including UPenn, Bucknell, Virginia Tech, Cornell, Brown University, Michigan State and East Michigan. Among those schools was also East Carolina University, where the track star recently committed. “[East Carolina] is beautiful, in the South, D-I, and has state of the art facilities...as far as the track program, they’re knowledgeable and like a really big family. The town around it has a lot of school pride, too,” Gonzalez said. After spending a weekend at the campus in North Carolina, meeting with the coach, and receiving an “overwhelming” scholarship offer, “Tears welled up in my eyes and I got emotional. I didn’t think I would get anything,” Gonzalez said. East Carolina is part of the American Athletic Conference, and is known for having not only good academics, but also a good track program. Last season, women’s track and field took home first place at the Conference USA Championship, and the Pirates also sent 10 athletes to the NCAA Outdoor National Championships, a school record. “I’m proud to represent Red Lion there and to be one of the few students here to go D-I...we [Red Lion] should be noticed. We’re not just ‘old Red Lion.’ This school got me where I am,” Gonzalez said. Some noteworthy alumni of East Carolina include actress Sandra Bullock and New York Jets running-back Chris Johnson, as well as Red Lion’s very own Mr. Matt Dennish, who competed as a distance runner at East Carolina and is now a physical education teacher at the high school. In his time with Red Lion, the 2004 graduate set the 800-meter school record (1:54.7) at the YAIAA championships and finished second at districts in the 1,600. At the collegiate level, Dennish was regularly a top finisher in both cross country and track contests. “She is a great talent and has a lot of potential...ECU is an excellent fit for her. I’m proud that Red Lion has an athlete joining the Pirate family,” Dennish said of Gonzalez’s commitment. Other notable college commitments so far this school year include Paige Taylor to York College for Division III field hockey and Jenna Hevner to Shippensburg University for Division II volleyball. By Ben Otte For The Leonid Just before Memorial weekend in May, Matt Zimmerman decided to resign from his head coaching position at the Red Lion girls high school soccer program. This was the first step Zimmerman took in order to take an open coaching job at the Dallastown high school boys program. Zimmerman took over the Red Lion program back in the fall of 2011 and hopes to have instilled a sense of "intensity" over the years, according to the interview. You can watch the interview below: Baseball is one of the most affected spring sports that have had to deal with inclement weather so far, causing them to play countless back-to-back games. By Ben Logan Staff Writer It is probably safe to assume that what many people take away from the 2014 spring sports season will be the never-ending rainouts and the ever-changing schedule for sports teams in York County. It seems to be the season of rain this spring, as many sports games and matches have been canceled, postponed, or ditched on account of the odd storms in occurrence this year. Schedules are all booked up for RL sports teams, and some could say that they have no elbow room left over to use for conditioning. “The rain has really limited practice time above all,” Athletic Director Mr. Fritzius said. “Some have gone without practice for weeks.” Among these teams include baseball, lacrosse, and tennis; all of whom have seen game cancellations throughout their seasons. These events have been rescheduled to later dates, weekends included, and have seriously cut into practice time for the teams. “We have had quite a few games cancelled, and so far we have only had eight games in total in a month with barely any actual time to learn our plays, or formations because of practice cancellations,” sophomore lacrosse player Nick Shima said. “Pitchers in baseball after they throw 5 or more innings typically need 4 days rest. This is a huge problem for us because when you have games back to back to back you run into not having enough pitching.” The Red Lion boy’s tennis team has seen the most harm, receiving six postponements for their matches alone, with multiple practices being canceled as well. “The rain has been brutal,” said freshman tennis player Max Moyer. “And now we have nine matches in a row, without any practice.”
Some are worried that the horrible weather might affect their playtime negatively. However, Fritzius assures that this is not the case, Time is not really a problem, but if it comes down to it we will be willing to skip exhibition matches in order to finish out the regular season, and that is what really matters.” Though reassuring, many spring sports seasons do not conclude until the beginning of May, and April showers may still come around and make it tough for teams to play. “I really hope that it doesn’t rain again,” commented tennis player Alec Gayrama. “I would be upset, but I am keeping my hopes up.” By Taylor Bosley Special Correspondent The start of the spring sports season not only brought a new opportunity for the players of the softball team, but also for new head coach Terry Choate, who was named head coach of the team mid-way through the offseason after Troy Eveler resigned from the position. Choate brings experience under his belt from coaching at Dover’s varsity program for the past seven years. He joined Red Lion this season in hopes to get his team thinking a certain way. That way is determination. “I want them to think domination. I want my team to dominate in everything they do whether it be on the field or off the field,” Coach Choate said. Senior Taylor Gould believes Coach Choate has been positively impacting the team in more ways than one. “One of his techniques is that he stresses is to do everything as a team,” Gould said. “Another one is that he wants us to give 100% of our focus and dedication.” Along with that, Coach Choate wants them to be the best players individually and as a team that they can be to reach his goal of their thinking-pure domination. Senior Katie Shultz also feels Coach Choate brings a positive sense of direction to the team. “He has definitely brought a new attitude to the way we approach the game, Shultz said. And every day he not only pushes us to challenge ourselves but each other.” Through his approach of Coach Choate not only wants them to be great players on the field but also great people off. “I want them to be a great role model in school and also society,” Coach Choate said. The athletic department rented a temporary scoreboard from York College for the fall after the original long-standing board was downed by straight-line winds. By Ben Otte Co-Editor-In-Chief “He basically told me we have a problem with the scoreboard [it] wasn’t in its usual upright position,” Mr. Arnold Fritzius recalled after talking to Mr. Kevin Zieber, who was at Horn Field preparing for a soccer game at the time. “I really thought he was pulling my chain.” But then as Mr. Fritzius took a quick trip to Horn Field to assess the situation, he knew he wasn’t being played by Zieber. The structure, which had been standing for approximately 45 years now, was in fact bent over backwards thanks to severe straight-line winds that blew through the area on September 12. “It’s bizarre how such particular updrafts pushed all of that weight over,” Fritzius pointed out. The big question now around campus: What is the next option for a new stationary scoreboard? The old scoreboard will not be used again, according to Fritzius. Instead, the athletic department is teaming up with Mr. Ben Smith of the TV studio to use this opportunity to replace a scoreboard and add video screen capabilities. Not just any scoreboard is planned to be the replacement. In fact, Fritzius says a scoreboard with jumbo-screen-like capabilities is an option that the athletic department and the district would consider. According to documents, such an investment could ask for prices exceeding $60,000. But despite the overwhelming amount, Fritzius says the investment would be well worth it. “This gives us an opportunity for students to get involved and get them preperation for future careers. We could have students broadcast video feeds from the games being played through various angled cameras set up around Horn Field.” Fritzius also adds that not only would this give the district the opportunity to highlight athletic achievement through video, but also achievement from other clubs and organizations through-out the district. A high-end video scoreboard streams nothing but endless opportunities and excitement. But with that, must come patience. “We want to ensure the best decision possible that will benefit the student body, as well as the community, the most,” says Fritzius. An official proposal to start construction on a stationary scoreboard is slated for either the March 6 or March 20 school board meeting. The approved blueprints will promise a new scoreboard for the fall 2014 sports teams. |
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