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Nate Hanson, girls soccer – "I can't believe we're already halfway through the season. Eleven games into the season and the girls find themselves at 4-6-1. One of the best things about coaching this team is how well they have come together and play as a team. The selflessness from this group in incredible and it shows when you look at the stat sheet. We have 22 goals so far this season from 10 different players. Another exciting part about this team is how dynamic some of our youth has been. Of our 22 goals, 17 have come from either a freshman or a sophomore, with freshman Kaija Markovic leading the way with seven goals. While we have a lot of younger talent involved in the scoring, our junior and senior leadership and strength is the core of a lot of our buildups as well as shutting down other teams defensively. We feel as though our record does not reflect how well we have played this season. This is the time of the year when the girls really start to kick it up another notch and I'm excited to see us elevate our game to the next level as we approach the playoff season."
Jessica Worden, girls tennis – "We are currently entering our final regular week of play for the season. We have Hibbing, Denfeld and Superior this week. Our focus is to gear up for playoffs while also giving all of our varsity players a chance to complete this week. Our senior captain Campbell Amundson has been having an outstanding season. She is 8-4 at number one singles. It has been truly amazing to watch her grow and succeed. She had a huge victory over Rock Ridge a few weeks ago. We have strong younger players who have been developing well and we are looking forward to seeing where the remainder of our season goes. We will not find out who we play until Sunday evening, which is always a tight turnaround. I think we will have strong success in the first round of playoffs and then depending on how the brackets line up, we will have a great battle in the second round. This has been truly an amazing year full of great matches and memories. If you have not had a chance to come cheer on the Hawks tennis team, you still have a chance this week. We have our last home match on Thursday versus Superior."
Mike Zagelmeyer, football – "Friday was a wild night in Grand Rapids. We played in a great environment for high school football as it was their homecoming and the place was packed, the weather was beautiful and it was just a very cool experience. As far as the game went, we had a decent first quarter but really floundered around in the second quarter which led to a 15-15 halftime score. We were definitely in a dogfight at half. I thought Coach Homstad made a couple of really nice defensive adjustments at half and we played more physical and disciplined in the second half. I thought the difference in the game for us this week was Alex Schott. He hooked up with Kale Smith on a beautiful 23-yard touchdown reception right before half, which gave us some much-needed momentum heading into halftime. But it was Alex's performance in the second half that was the difference maker. We asked our team at halftime for someone to step up and make big plays for us in the second half and Alex took it personally. He ran for two touchdowns, passed for a touchdown, and then we asked him to play corner for us and he intercepted a ball and ran it back 54 yards for a touchdown that really sealed the game for us. Alex is just a fun player to watch, and he's a player everyone can pull for; just an all-around great kid and student. I'm really running out of adjectives for him. The other player that is really starting to stand out for us is Jimmy Bartsch. He is a little under-sized for an inside linebacker, but he makes up for it with his preparation and his toughness. Jimmy sticks his nose into pretty much every tackle (9 tackles on Friday night) and he also came up with a big play for us as he returned an interception for a touchdown in the first half from 53 yards out. We have our homecoming this week versus Rock Ridge so there will be some distractions for us. We have to make sure we stay grounded and focused on the task at hand. It's a season within the season again this week. Rock Ridge is extremely physical, and I've been impressed with their defense and how they get to the ball. They have a few injuries – as we all do – but they are playing hard for Coach Borich. They will test us on Friday night and will try to spoil our homecoming."
David Thompson, boys soccer – "I think a primary factor in our success is the character and work ethic of the team as well as their trust in each other. This, of course, helps build team chemistry and winning always contributes to a more positive experience for everyone. But this team's priorities are about doing their job, supporting each other, and having a lot of fun together. Outside of practice and the soccer environment, these young men are good students and contribute positively to our school environment. We are very strong back to front, and the general tendency is to recognize our scorers and assist leaders, but instead, I am going to give much-earned praise to our sophomore goalkeeper, Ethan Aysta. He did not play in a single varsity game last year and has to grow quickly into a resilient athlete as well as a verbal leader in the back of our defense. For a young player, he has impressed me very much. We have a winning record currently and are in second place in our conference standings, one game behind C-E-C. That said, our most difficult games of the season lie ahead of us at the end. We play Grand Rapids tonight after winning there last Thursday 3-2. It was a very competitive match. We also play at Superior Thursday after tying them earlier at home. Then we play at home against C-E-C, a team that beat us 4-1 earlier this year. After that, we play Duluth East, a top AAA team in the state. We then end the regular season versus Denfeld, who we also tied earlier this year. Our team's success will be strongly challenged and tested in these next six games and will determine where we sit going into the playoffs. It will be very competitive and we are up to the task."
