Winter sports are gearing up as the weather gets colder and fall sports come to a close. Girls’ and boys’ basketball, girls’ swimming, wrestling, hockey, and dance are beginning to prepare for the competitive seasons ahead.
The dynamic coaching duo of Beth Blackwell and Ann Westhoff will be leading the Varsity girls’ basketball team this season with Mallory Scholten coaching JV.
The varsity will be lacking two seniors from last year, but the team is prepared to make up for their absences.
“The seniors that left were starters, but I think we’ll be able to step up,” said Maggee Kane, returning varsity player.
Boys’ basketball is utilizing a different method regarding tryouts this year. An open tryout system will be used to determine placement for the JV and Varsity teams.
“It challenges older players and encourages younger players. This system makes everybody hungry to be on the team,” said Tim Holley, JV coach.
There will be a more opportunities for not only for sophomore, junior, and senior players, but also for a few freshman.
“This year, because we have so many kids that are very close in ability, we will have over 24 kids competing against each other for five days to see who will get those spots,” said Eric Bain, Varsity coach.
Varsity boys’ basketball will have open spots due to the graduating seniors, which allows more chances for first time players on varsity.
“There is going to be a great opportunity for people to step up into a larger role than they had last year and for new varsity players to get lots of opportunities due to graduating five seniors,” said Bain.
Varsity hockey, coached by Chad Moroni and David Casella, will also have open spots as a result of graduating seniors.
“The team lost four excellent seniors, but even more importantly four excellent leaders. Our goal this year is to be Christ-like in all that we do and finish first or second in our conference,” said Moroni.
Goals are a vital aspect to any team. The dance team, coached by Christi Bye and Brittnay Wesley, has set the bar high for this season.
“As a team, we have already set a goal to continue to dance at a high level and do well at competitions throughout the state of Missouri,” said Bye.
The team performs at the boys’ varsity basketball games as well as some girls’ varsity basketball games during team. There are also three competitions where the team will be competing.
Currently, there is only a varsity dance team which is different from past years.
“We will have several spaces available on our varsity dance team next year as we will be losing six seniors at the end of the season. And if we have a good number of girls tryout next year, we will be able to add a JV team back to Westminster,” said Bye.
The girls’ swim team will have to step it up in order to recover from losing key swimmers from last year. There are approximately eleven to twelve new swimmers joining the team, which will bring some new talent to the team.
“I think we’ll have a good season. There are some sophomores who swim club so they are pretty good,” said Katherine Fleissner, returning senior swimmer.
Kent Kehr, Varsity girls’ swimming coach, is confident about this year’s team.
“With the other returning key elements of the state relay team, we are going to be as good as or better than last year,” said Kehr.
The wrestling team, coached by Tim Muehlesien, is also expected to be strong this year. Two of the returning seniors are previous state qualifiers.
“We have five seniors who each had near thirty wins last year. We are set up to be very successful,” said Muehleisen.
The team competes in six tournaments and eight duals with a competitive home schedule.
“This is the first time in a long time I’ve felt like in a dual meet our team will be competitive,” said Muehleisen.