By Paul Jones
Staff Writer The boys volleyball team has a tough schedule planned for this season, but the young team is up for the challenge. Only two players are returning from a very experienced team from last year. Juniors John Longnecker and Bennett Frey are the only returning starters from the 2014 season. Head Coach Ashleigh Reinert talked about about how they fared their league and said, “We have a real good shot at being top three in the league.” Both Central York and Northeastern won state championships, so the Lions are in an extremely tough division. Coach Reinert said that in their league the team could go from third to seventh. The lions are in an extremely tough division with two state champion teams. “All my starters except for Bennett (Frey) and John (Longnecker). And John is going to be playing a different position than he did last year,” said coach Reinert. The team does have some very talented players here and should win a lot of games. This is a team filled with juniors, so while it may look a little inexperienced, it is built for the future. Juniors Dillon Hildebrand, Bennett Frey, and John Longnecker will be some major threats on the court this year. The team also has a very promising freshman, Cole Brillhart, that will be a staple in Red Lion Volleyball for years to come.
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By Kelsee Hunt Staff Writer It’s the beginning of spring, and that means track season is here. Despite injuries and the loss of last year’s seniors, the Red Lion track team has been working harder than before. “We are really looking forward to the postseason, getting into counties, districts, and states,” says Head Coach Todd Barshinger. Though the team lost notable seniors Amanda Myers, Cassidy Barshinger, Kylie Strong, Anna Haynie, David Kirkland, Alex Keller, Andrew Erickson, and Zack Dutton, many of last years district qualifiers will be returning. For the boys, Quincy Palmer, Eric Henshaw, Nate Orji, Kellen Wisniewski, Ethan Gatchell, and Judge Kunce will all be working toward a successful season. As for the girls, their district qualifiers last year were Angelica Gonzalez, Julia Kendrick, Tristan Schluderberg, and Jessica Lewis. The boys were 6-1 and the girls had an undefeated season with a record of 7-0. “I’m really looking forward to this season, especially since our previous seasons have been so successful,” senior captain Jessica Lewis said. So far, the only teams that seem to be a threat for Red Lion are Southwestern and Dallastown, but that isn’t a problem with Coach Barshinger, as he plans to not only defeat them but to end the season on another great note. This upcoming season will start in March and end in the beginning of May, and students are encouraged to come and support the Lions track team on their way to another successful year. By Helen Zeidman Staff Writer Even though the snow has barely melted from the courts, the boys’ tennis season is now in full swing. The team has 16 players this season, which is two players down from last year. According to Mrs. Vasellas, the head coach of the boys’ tennis team, they lost two starters from last year, Angel and Max Moyer. Regardless of the loss, Vasellas is hopeful for this season. “Sports have cycles over the years. One year is loaded with players, and the next you end up losing key players. That is just how it works,” Vasellas said. They may have lost a couple of players, but the team is still strong. The team is led by Sam Innerst, the first ranked player on the team. Innerst has been starting since his freshman year and has held the number one position since his sophomore year. Player ranking is determined by playing a series of challenge matches. Each player will challenge other players in matches and the winner will move up the ranking ladder. The players are ranked by the number of games they won against their teammates. This ranking determines who players will face off against on other teams. The number one players will play the number one player from the other team. The number two seed this year is Alec Shue, a freshman who made his debut on the team this year. Junior Alex Ohme plays as the third seed. Nicholas Stare, also a junior, is playing as the fourth seed on team, and senior Dylan Reichard is playing in the fifth spot. All of the top five seeds are expected to alternate for doubles varsity with Dylan Reichard and Chase McKnight. So far, Sam Innerst and Alec Shue, and Alec Gayrama and Nicholas Stare have been paired for doubles matches. Mrs. Vasellas has the same goal this year as every other year she coached. “Every year my goal is to win the championship. It is always a good goal to have even though it is not always realistic.” Vasellas said. “I don’t know what kind of coach I’d be without a goal.” The team came close to that goal last year, when they tied for third place in their division with Dallastown and New Oxford. Ultimately, Vasellas just wants the best for her team. “I look forward to the chance of bettering our record from last year.” Vasellas said. In order to make that goal happen, the team trains intensely, as playing tennis requires more than just hitting a ball with a racquet. The boys’ tennis team is on their way to do even better this year, but the successful group was not made overnight. Their practices during the season cater to the different skill levels of the players and help everyone improve. According to Vasellas, the practices start with a standard warm-up that includes stretching and running. Afterward, the team practices singles and doubles drills to perfect their technique. Then, the fun begins. “In each practice, we also try to include some singles and doubles play which helps prepare the players for match play,” Vasellas said. According to Mr. Small, an assistant coach of the team, the boys practice their skills all year. “We do a lot of off-season practicing,” Mr. Small, an assistant coach, said. “Players do clinics, lessons, and various other things to keep up.” When the weather makes it impossible to practice outside, the players continue to train indoors. “From December to the first day of practice, we go indoors at Wisehaven to play and practice,” Vasellas said. “This would be only one time per week for the students who want to participate however, several of the players take lessons or clinics or play in leagues in addition.” The summer is also a critical time for tennis training. “During the summer we have open courts where the players can work on skills and play,” Vasellas said. “We also had the players do strength training, conditioning and agility drills over the summer.” The players do not take the opportunity to train for granted. “This winter, I went to Wisehaven to practice with the team,” Levi Jones, a sophomore on the team, said. “I learned and became a lot better.” Tennis may be a lot of work, but the players think the work is worth being a together as a team. “I like the people that I got to meet on the team,” Jones said. “I have gotten to meet a lot of people who are of different backgrounds.” 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. By Adrianna Clinton Co-Editor in Chief Despite coming into the season with mostly underclassmen starting for the field hockey team, the girls still pulled together a 9-4-1 league record and qualified for District III play. Senior captains Paige Taylor, Kendall Lookingbill, Taylor Bosley, and Sierra Bohlen provided good leadership and helped lead the young, inexperienced team towards success against very strong field hockey teams around the league. Though they missed out on counties, the girls still had a “solid, strong finish,” head coach Carol Gillmen said, as they finished in the top three in Division I. The team showed a lot of perseverance when they played many close games or fell behind and had to come back and win. They had big wins against South Western and North Eastern, and “played phenomenal on senior night against Spring Grove,” Gillmen said. Despite losing 2-0 in their District III playoff appearance against Governor Mifflin, the team had good passing combinations at times and had a lot of offensive penalty corners, the best opportunity to score in field hockey because there are twice as many players on offense than on defense, occurring when the defense commits a foul inside the shooting circle, that were just not capitalized upon, according to senior captain Taylor Bosley. Next season, the team will have a “whole group of sophomores and freshmen with a season as varsity under their belt,” Gillmen said. Jayla Godfrey will be returning to varsity as a senior after having 14 goals and four assists this past season. Sophomore Jena Everett is another highly anticipated return for the Lady Lions, who recorded four shutouts in her first varsity season as a goalkeeper. “It was my first year on varsity and I didn’t know what to expect...I’m really proud of how far we did go, I was glad to go to districts,” Everett said. |
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