Winter Sports Preview
NPHS athletes get ready to showcase their talent for the newest winter sports season.
Swimmers and Divers warming up for the very first practice of the season. “I think that with all of the people coming in this year, we need to make these people good,” said junior swimmer Meleah Friedrich.
November 22, 2019
NPHS winter athletes are showing coaches their 3-pointers, take-downs, and freestyles as practices kicked off this week. Here’s what you can expect this season.
The Dawgs basketball team is looking to prove to themselves that they can have anything but a losing record this year. Last season, the Dawgs basketball team went 4-16. Head boys’ basketball coach Matt Kaminski said they will do well this year. “We have to be able to work hard, and we have to be able to have the drive during practice,” he said. Senior Steven Garcia says,“I really want to become the leader and step up because someone needs to take charge.”
Head Coach Tyson Hammond telling his team to do their opening drill at conditioning. They are doing the defensive shuffle up and down the court. “I’ve been playing with the same girls for three years now, and i’m excited to see how we’re gonna come out,” said Junior Gracie Haneborg.
The Lady Dawgs are aiming to keep a winning season even after losing two senior leaders. They went 12-10 under head coach Tyson Hammond. “One of our goals this season is to improve ourselves and our players,” said Hammond.
Junior Gracie Haneborg hopes to do well on the court and for her team. “I want to be the leader, but anyone would be awesome.”
This year, 62 students showed up to the sign up meeting for swim and dive. Only 20 of those 62 sign-ups have done swim or dive in the past. Junior Jonathan Brouilette is a returning diver and has hopes to break more records than he already has. “I broke the 11-dive record last year; I want to break the six-dive record,” said Brouilette. “My senior year I think I’m gonna go for the girls record,” said Brouilette jokingly.
Senior swimmer Morgan Girard is doing the butterfly during the teams’ official practice of the season. She is showing people how to do the butterfly for people who have never done it before, or who don’t remember. “I just want this to be a positive environment for everyone,” said junior swimmer Meleah Friedrich.
Head coach Brian Jahnke has his hopes for the team going in. “I just want more athletes to medal this year at state,” said Jahnke.
Junior swimmer Meleah Friedrich says, “I want to break the breaststroke record, and I have a little bit of time to shave off, but I think that I could.” Friedrich also says they need some work if they want to send people to State. “We have to be able to support people on their flip turns at the wall, and just cheering people on,” said Friedrich.
Now that another wrestling season has come and gone, there are new wrestlers and new opportunities for people to prove themselves to their team, coaches and other wrestlers around the state.
The wrestling team conditioning on the mats in the wrestling room. They are stretching out so they can be at their best for the 2019-2020 season. “I’m looking forward to seeing what we do, because I think we are doing pretty good right now,” said junior Gavyn Brauer.
Junior Gavyn Brauer thinks that they have lots of potential for a shot at the State meet. “I think that we have a really good team going into this season, and I think we could make it to state this year,” said Brauer.
Overall, the team placed fifth in class B at the State wrestling tournament in 2018-2019 season. “My expectation this year is that these guys come to work hard, and get better,” said head coach Dale Hall. “With the people coming back, breakout wrestlers or not, I think we can do good this year,” said Hall.
