Horsemen and Trotter teams gear up to strut
Heather Hasty
Valley Press
Winter sports are underway and looking towards their first game of the season.
Walt Hermiston, the girls' basketball coach in Plains, said this year they are looking for improvement from last year as well as several returning players.
"We lost three seniors and most of our height," Hermiston said.
This year he is looking to Emma Ehret, a senior, and three returning juniors, Heather Earhart, Alexis Kunzer and Lacey Hermiston. This year there are 21 girls out for the team, which is considerably up from last year's 14 players.
Currently, Hermiston said, the team is focusing on the fundamentals and defense, which he said was one of the team's issues last year.
"We have good quickness and shooting ability coming back," Hermiston said, "so offensively I think we'll be good."
He added that the district is going to be very strong this season due to the fact that everyone but Troy is bringing back most of their players.
"We're looking for steady improvement," Hermiston said, "and looking to protect our home court. If we have steady improvements throughout the season maybe we'll knock somebody out in the tournament."
The Horsemen are looking forward to a great season as well after finishing last year at 13-9.
According to coach John Revere there are 28 kids out for the team this year and several of which he is looking forward to as returning starters. Trent Thompson, a junior, was an all conference player last year and his brother Mitch was an all-state player meaning he was one of two top players in the district. Both are returning for this season. Revere is looking for big roles to be played by Conor Valentine, senior, Brian Green, junior, and Dillon Fryxell, junior, this year as well.
"We are stressing defense," Revere said about practices so far, "just focusing on getting them in shape. We've done a lot of hard running this year."
The basketball team doesn't play their first tournament until the Coffee Cup Tournament on the 12 and 13 of this month, but is looking forward to a successful season.
"I suppose first and foremost you want to protect your home court," Revere said, "The goal every year is state. Everyone wants the hardware. Everyone wants the trophy but there's got to be a lot of hard work between now and then."
The wrestling team will kick off the season with a tournament in Hot Springs Friday night as well.
Kenny Marjerrison, head coach, said that they are looking forward to four returning players to make headway this season. Chris Stobie is a senior this year and will be wrestling at 189 and was second at divisionals last year. Kyle Steinebach, senior, competes at 152 this year after taking divisional champion last year. Kenneth Beach will weigh in at 112 as a sophomore after taking runner up in divisionals and sixth at state in 2007. Rio Crismore wrestles at 105 this year as a junior after taking runner up at divisionals last year. On top of the four outstanding competitors the team as a whole is looking at 10 members.
"This time of year we're just working on fundamentals and getting everybody in wrestling shape," Marjerrison said, "We have a lot of new kids out so there's a lot of going over the basics."
As for goals for the season Marjerrison said that he generally doesn't make expectations too high.
"It's just too general," Marjerrison said, "It's so dependent on individual kids, so each of them have their own personal goals and we work towards that. I think that setting a lot of high goals is a real good way to get let down."