Cross Country Captain Senior Simi Damani

Handling pressure:

“I try to keep a positive mindset, and I have sayings that I keep repeating in my head.”

Favorite memory from the season:

“I really like our morning practices, especially after a hard workout, when we all get to eat breakfast together.”

Why she enjoys the sport:

“I like this sport because of the people on it. It’s just a good environment, and [no one] is afraid to work hard.”

Advice for beginners:

“My advice would be to be consistent.”

Cross Country Captain Senior Asher Walton

     Community building:

“We try to practice with the middle schoolers, because a lot of them get brought up to our varsity team.”

Favorite moment from the season:

“My favorite memory would probably be our regionals for cross country because our team was very tight-knit that whole year.”

Why he enjoys the sport:

 “The feeling when I’m running — of just being able to run and to not have anything else going on.”     

Flag Football Captain Senior Ella Cash

     Biggest accomplishment:

“My favorite memory, probably, was when we scored for the first time during our last season. That was pretty fun.”

Advice for beginners:

“Make sure you’re not too hard on yourself.” 

     Team connection tips:

“Just encouraging people. I know we lead warm-ups and stuff like that, so just trying to step into the role as a leader whenever you can.”

Favorite moment from the season:

“My favorite memory was probably beating Academy of the Holy Names because they beat us twice before, and we were really determined to beat them.”

Boys’ Varsity Golf Captain Senior Luke Lavoie

  Handling pressure:

“I don’t think of pressure as something that should make you nervous. You’re nervous because you’re excited. You know, it’s a privilege to have pressure on you.”

Why he enjoys the sport:

“I think it just really clears my head, when you’re over a shot or you’re trying to read a putt, you’re not really thinking about school or what’s going on with your friends.”

Favorite moment from the season:

“We went to the regional championship for golf…We roomed with our team, and it was a lot of fun.”

 Teamwork:

“I think golf being an individual sport, it’s easy to get lost in the individuality of it all, but I think we all try to stick together.”    

Cheerleading Captain Senior Shanya Watson

     Teamwork:

“We do group activities right now. We’re going to be doing volunteering soon, together as a team, just like team-building exercises. Also, when we’re at games, and we all do something really good, and we’re really proud of ourselves.”     

Why she enjoys the sport:

“I like having a sense of community, like having that team is really nice, and just dedicating my time to perfecting something, like doing certain moves and learning dances for halftime shows.”

Challenges:
“Sometimes getting through to the bunch. There’s a lot of people to give directions to. So, just helping people specifically could be challenging because it just takes more time.”

Cheerleading Captain Senior Kaori Jackson

     Handling pressure:

“To deal with pressure, I kind of lean on my coach and Shanya as well. Sometimes just having a deep breath with them helps to calm my nerves.”

Challenges:

“Just getting through to [my teammates], having them open up to us and not look at us like being bossy. We want them to look at us as leaders.”

Advice for beginners:

“Just come. Be yourself. That’s what we love the most. Come with an open mind, ready to learn new things and just have fun.”

Volleyball Captain Senior Ava Stanton

     Personal challenges:

“I kind of had a lot of problems with my knee, and I had knee surgery.”

Team accomplishments:

“I think just in general, we worked really hard to focus on the things we’re good at and be able to compete against really, really, good teams.” 

     Team bonding:

“Over the years, we’ve all become really close, and we’re all really good friends, and I think that’s also what makes us such a good team.”

Swim and Dive Captain Senior Maddox Matyas

    Personal challenges:

“I sacrifice a lot of time that could be spent with my friends or doing homework.”     Team accomplishments:

“The guys went undefeated last year. And me and a few other kids hold a city record.”

 Teamwork:

“We cheer, we try to encourage people to cheer for each other and we do cheers at the end. And we just do a lot of fun activities.”

Swim and Dive Captain Senior Alexia Bucci

     Respecting opponents:

“At the end of every meet, we get the team to shake hands with the other team that we’re against.”

Why she enjoys the sport:

“It takes a lot of stress away when I’m swimming. I just think about other things.”     Challenges:

“I think controlling the middle schoolers because they’re always really rowdy.”

Varsity Football Captain Senior Garrison Davis

Team’s biggest accomplishment:

“My biggest accomplishment is probably the 2023 state championship. That was probably the hardest game I’ve ever played, just because I played alone, and I was going against someone [much] bigger than me.”

Challenges:

“With a smaller team this year, we’ve just sort of been trying to be more of a unit.”

Teamwork:

“We hang out on weekends and, you know, like I said, we’re like all one unit, so we’re just friends in general.”

Handling stress:

“Prioritizing work and especially asking teachers for help I think has been some of the biggest differences [in] lowering my stress…”