The Press-Dispatch
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The Press-Dispatch Fall Sports Preview Wednesday, August 19, 2015 D-11 GIRLS HIGH SPIKE BUILDING Continued from page D-5 Continued from page D-9 Continued from page D-10 Continued from page D-9 Wyatt Seed Company, Inc. P.O. BOX 218, HWY. 57 SOUTH, PETERSBURG, IN 47567 Phone: (812) 354-8542 or 1-800-581-5826 • Dealers in Sports Trail Dog Food • Purina Feeds • Full line of Lawn Grasses and Field Seeds • Variety of Bagged Fertilizers • Bird Feed and Feeders Have a great Season! WHOLESALE DEALERS IN RETAILERS FOR clicks really well with every- body. She's aware of what's going on in the game." Junior Sarah Rothrock, Knight said, will see some valuable playing time com- ing off the bench. "She's someone I can pretty much put anywhere on the field," Knight said. "She's more than willing to play forward and more than willing to play midfield, de- fense, wherever I want to put her. I love having girls that I don't have to worry when I need to sit someone. It's great to have back-up play- ers that are as good as your starters." Another returning junior is Kyla Newkirk. "She's taller than me, so she's kind of got that fac- tor when she walks on the field," Knight said. "She's just someone I can put out there. She plays midfield sometimes, kind of gives us a little bit of help." Sophomore Breana Cow- an, who played at wing and on defense last season, will see a lot of action on the defensive end this season, Knight said. "She has improved so much on footwork through- out the offseason, I'd love to get her up front," Knight said. "So we're going to try a midfield position this year and see how that works for her. At the practices so far, she has been a big scorer. She's strong, so she kind of mows through people. She has pretty good footwork with that defensive ability. If someone takes the ball from her, she can usually get it back." Sophomore Autumn Pan- cake could see action at goalkeeper this season, Knight said. "She's not bad at it," Knight said. "It clicks pret- ty good with her. But we kind of keep going back and forth. I think she will prob- ably be more of a midfield player for us. She's probably going to play defense every now and then. She's very, very aware of what's going on at all times." Freshmen Sydney Keith, Rebekah Luff and Makenna Goins will likely see playing time on the defensive end, while freshman Emily Hill will likely see action on the offensive end. Knight is being assisted this year by Allie Scheck- ner, who is a senior on the Oakland City University women's soccer team. "She's just great for the girls because she can fill them in and kind of, like, get them informed on differ- ent stuff than what I can tell them," Knight said. "She's giving us a lot of stuff that we've been missing, so I think she's great." Knight, whose Lady Chargers opened at North Knox on Tuesday, August 18, said that she was look- ing forward to getting the season started. "I think we have a great opportunity this year," Knight said. "I'm not real- ly worried. I have every bit of faith that our year's go- ing to be just as good as last year. The sectional ... we'll see how it goes. But, this is just as much as a talented roster as I had last year, but they're older and I've added new talent." "I hate that we lost such a talented goalie, but Syd- ney's just as talented, and Kelsey's well on her way to being just as talented," Knight continued. "Once we get our whole field figured out – figuring out where ev- erybody's going, what line- up we're going to do – I think we're going to be just as fine as we were last year." Knight said that she al- ways looked forward to spending time with her play- ers, both on and off the field. "We have a good time," Knight said. "I give them a hard time. I'm like, 'I can't wait for the season to end,' and they're like, 'Whatever, you'll miss us,' and I do ev- ery time." "We're just a family," Knight added. "At the end of the day, we're a team, a family, and we act like it. If someone's upset, we all know it. If someone needs to get together and eat ice cream, we do it. So, I mean, it works out well." him a little bit longer." Hickey, Robling and White, along with Gordon, are recent additions, de- ciding to join the team af- ter school started earlier this month. "I haven't seen Jayden Gordon run any yet," Love- less said. "(Hickey, Robling and White) are new to the sport but are as athletic as can be. Ty and Tommy are built just like Mack trucks." With so many first-year runners, Loveless said he was unsure what to expect from the Chargers, who open their season in the Forest Park Invitational on Thursday, Aug. 20. "The thing about cross country, you get little inju- ries here and there," Love- less said. "If I have five strong kids, if one of them has a bad race, it brings down the whole team." "I really don't know what to expect from our boys," Loveless added. Loveless said that he ex- pects Tell City to be the team to beat in the Pocket Athletic Conference meet, which Pike Central will host on Saturday, Oct. 3. "I think they have a chance to be a top 10, 15 team in the state," Love- less said. "They return, I think, six of their sev- en runners from last year. Heritage Hills always has a nice, strong squad. Gibson Southern will have a nice, strong squad." "I really don't know where to put us," Loveless continued. "I think we'll have a nice, close pack. I just don't know how far up in the pack our pack will be. I think there'll be a pretty small gap between our one and five, but I just don't know where we're go- ing to be. Our three, four, five runners are really go- ing to have to push them- selves and hope that we stay healthy. If the injury bug bites us, we're going to be in trouble, because we don't have a whole lot of bodies to throw out there." Loveless said that, dur- ing preseason condition- ing, he tried to build rela- tionships with the team by leading by example. "I try to get out and run with them," Loveless said. "I don't run as fast as they do. But I try to get out and do what they do. If we're do- ing an interval workout, I'm going to try to do an inter- val workout with them." "If you get the kids to buy into what you're doing, you can do great things," Love- less added. "They can do great things." Loveless said that the Chargers seem to under- stand what they are up against as they prepare for the season. "I think they know that it's going to take some true dedication," Loveless said. "They're relaxed. They don't seem stressed. You don't want them to be stressed the first week of school and the first week of, really, the season." "I think they know what they're capable of," Love- less added. "Getting there is going to be the chore. I really believe that every boy on there knows what he's capable of. It's just pushing a little bit past what they can do." girls beside them." While Hillyard is the team's leading returner, Loveless expects her to be challenged by her team- mates, especially Foster and Sullivan. "Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if my one- two-three kind of flip-flop throughout the year," Love- less said. "In running, it's great to have a great lead runner, but you want to have everybody else close that gap up. If we can get a minute gap to my num- ber five, we could be real- ly good." Hillyard, Loveless not- ed, was dealing with "a lit- tle bit" of bursitis in her hip during the preseason, while both Foster (bursi- tis) and Sullivan (tendi- nitis) were having to deal with knee issues of their own. "So we're kind of deal- ing with injuries," Loveless said. "I'd rather they be in- jured at the beginning of the season rather than late in the season." Loveless said that he was looking forward to the continuing development of Montgomery, who post- ed her personal-best time of 24 minutes, 14 seconds at the sectional meet, and Carpenter, who posted a personal-best time of 24:00 last season. "Jordan kept coming on as the year went on last year," Loveless said. "I want to get Selena Carpen- ter in shape. She worked all summer at Holiday World, so she wasn't able to join us, but everybody's told me that, as the season went on last year, she got stronger and stronger." Loveless believes that the Lady Chargers who participated in the summer runs will benefit as the sea- son progresses. "I tell the kids that we're trying to build a founda- tion," Loveless said. "Yes, cross country lasts from August until the middle of October, but, really, run- ning is a year round sport, and they've got to build that foundation in the summer- time. That's where, I be- lieve, the true runners are made." "We ran two or three days a week," Loveless add- ed. "We didn't do a ton of mileage. It was pretty laid back. Basically, I'm kind of getting to know the kids, and they're kind of getting to know me." However, Loveless noted, it hasn't been all work and no play, as 14 cross coun- try runners – nine girls and five boys – joined Loveless for a trip to Lincoln State Park on Monday, July 27, as a sort of reward. "We went and played vol- leyball and swam and ran a couple times, and, after- wards, we went to the drive- in in Reo," Loveless said. "And we got home about 3 o'clock in the morning." And, on the evening of Friday, Aug. 7, Loveless had members of both his boys' and girls' teams join him for a pizza party and a viewing of the movie, "Pre- fontaine," in his classroom. "We've got to make it fun," Loveless said. "I want to make it so my kids go out and talk about, 'hey, we watched a movie, we went to Lincoln.' Yeah, we run, but we do other stuff, too. I want to make it a family." Loveless said that he ex- pects the Lady Chargers – who open their season at the Forest Park Invitation- al on Thursday, Aug. 20 – to become competitive with the other Class 3A schools in the area. "Simply, my goal is to build a program that can compete with those schools," Loveless said. "I have no doubt in my mind that my girls' team can advance out of sectional. I think that we can finish third or fourth. It kind of depends on how injuries go and stuff like that, and other teams, how they go." "Vincennes Lincoln is going to be the cream of the crop of our sectional, and then Gibson Southern, Barr-Reeve, South Knox, and us," Loveless added. "I think those are the five schools that are going to be competitive." Loveless said that it was possible that the La- dy Chargers could even advance – as a team – to semi-state. "I think the cards would have to fall just right," Loveless said. "From ev- erything I've read, Memo- rial and North are kind of the cream of the crop in Evansville – Memorial, es- pecially, with Presley War- ren. She won sectional, re- gional and semi-state last year, and ran a 5:05 miles. She's tough." "If, pie in the sky, the cards fall just right, we have an outside shot at making it to semi-state," Loveless added. "You nev- er know. But our goal is to get a little bit better ev- ery day and concentrate on staying healthy, and letting the kids have fun." Loveless said that he was "very excited." "I've told them several times, through text mes- saging and in person, 'Guys, I'm so excited to be a part of Pike Central cross country. Just come out and have fun and en- joy doing what we're do- ing.'" Loveless said. "Yes, this is my first year coach- ing as a head coach for high school, but I've coached middle school and I've been around high school kids for years. I love being around kids. I'm a teacher and I'm a coach. I've never been happy unless I'm teaching and/or coaching." trol and, for as little as she is, she has a very good vertical. She's strong." Others who could see var- sity playing time this sea- son include sophomore de- fensive specialists Natalie Burkhart and Peyton Sorgi- us and two freshmen, middle hitter Taylor Lamey and out- side hitter Kylie Shoultz, ac- cording to Walton. However, Walton said that she was very comfortable starting the season with 10 players on the varsity team. "One of the biggest strengths I've seen at prac- tice is their communication," Walton said. "They talk, they click very well together. I'm looking forward to seeing that in a game setting." "They talk a lot more than I've seen a lot of groups, and it may be because there's on- ly 10 of them," Walton added. "They all have a role, they all know their role, and their roles are very vital, where- as, before, I've had so many girls that not everyone knew their role." Walton's biggest concern is her team's ability to re- ceive serves. "We did a lot of serve- receive the last couple of weeks," Walton said. "I feel like that is an important skill because that's the first point of the game a lot of times, not to mention you want that serve back, and if you can't get a good hit off of a serve- receive, you're going to get frustrated very quickly, and then your offense is going to be lacking and you're not go- ing to get those rally points. So I feel like serve-receive is always an area we can im- prove on." Walton described her var- sity squad as a "very strong" serving team, with all 10 players having worked on developing jump serves this past summer. "The sophomores and the juniors are all jump serv- ing, and Nicah is, too, and they're getting very consis- tent with it," Walton said. "I don't know if they're ready to start using it in a game yet, but they're really get- ting consistent, and they're good, strong serves. They're not just little lollipops going over." While admitting that she and the team had not yet set any goals for the upcom- ing season, Walton said she was definitely seeking an improvement on the team's won-loss record the past two seasons – 7-26 in 2013 and 6 - 26 in 2014. "I want more wins this year,' Walton said. "I want a very strong serving line- up, and I think I'm going to have that if they get con- fident, especially, in their jump serves. My other goal is serve-receive. I want peo- ple to look at us and be like, 'Wow, what a great serve-re- ceive team. We just couldn't get any serves over on them.' That's my goal." "I want to see hustle on defense," Walton added. "I love it when other coach- es comment and say, 'Wow, your girls just really moved and played defense well to- day.' I like that, because de- fense wins. If you don't have defense, you can't have an of- fense. So I like seeing that out of my defense." Walton, whose team opened at Vincennes Lin- coln on Tuesday, Aug. 18, be- fore returning home to host Washington on Wednesday, Aug. 19, said that the Lady Chargers were looking for- ward to getting the season started. "They are ready to get go- ing," Walton said. "Starting school during our first week of practice threw them all for a loop. I just don't feel like we have had the time on the court that we're used to. We've had four-and-a-half hours of practice those days, for 10 days, before school started. We went from sum- mer to having two hour, two- and-a-half hours on the court since school started. That's been a major disadvantage to school starting early." "But I feel very confident with all of these girls, all 10 of them," Walton added. "They all know their role. They're very capable in their role, and I think that's going to be very important. When we came back from morato- rium week, I told them what I wanted them to do and I told them what I wanted them to work on, and they have ex- ceeded my expectations this summer as far as what I wanted them to work on."