The Discoverer JV, Reserve, and Freshman fall sports seasons have officially come to a close. Despite the changes that had to be made this year; all Discoverer teams diligently followed their given protocols in order to have a complete and fulfilling season. The coaches of the Discoverer teams had many comments to make about how their seasons went.

The Discoverer’s JV tennis squad has sadly scored its last point this season. The JV squad this year consisted of Nick Zoucha, Carter Goc, Issac Carstens, Alex Zoucha, Blake Wemhoff, and Jasper Wozney. This squad performed well together all season. The head coach of this team, Scott Bethune, was overall very pleased with how the season went. “The JV squad had no juniors on it, so the kids new to the program really had to step up and compete against other kids that had been playing for a few years,” said Coach Bethune. Next season, Coach Bethune hopes to improve the squad’s serving and groundstrokes and make them more consistent. He believes these improvements will put the team in a better position to win more matches.

The JV cross country team has also finished its last mile of the season. The group of young runners this year consisted of eighteen male runners and twelve female runners. The team this year continued to be coached by Dave Licari, with assistant help by Coach Stacy Smith. Coach Licari said he was very happy and pleased with the progress all of his JV runners made throughout the season. Almost every JV runner accomplished either an all time best or a season best run time at the last meet of the season. He believes a lot of JV runners have great potential and he is hoping that the runners will put in the extra work over the summer months. Licari could not decide on one single stand out JV runner,  but expressed how proud he was of all his JV runners this year.

Next, the JV Discoverers golf team teed their way to the end of the season. The golf team this year again led by longtime coach Anne Robertson. Coach Robertson was very satisfied with her golfers performance this year. “Many of the players were novices, so learning how to play golf and then compete can be difficult,” said Coach Roberton. She hopes to improve her team next year by encouraging her players to take advantage of a summer program that will help them improve in their biggest areas of need. Ms. Robertson was most surprised this year by the number of freshman girls that were willing to try a new sport.

The JV and the Reserve softball teams have also scored their last runs this season. These two teams this year were coached by Ashley Lueders and Kelsey Skinner. Although the JV and Reserve teams had a hard year as far as their record shows, the players showed a lot of improvement over the season. The coaches believe that the teams need to work on finishing games and not blowing leads when the team is ahead. The coaches believe this will result in more wins next season.

 The JV squad, under the coaching direction of Joe Held, finished their season with a 15-5 record after a slow start to the year at 4-3. Coach Held was extremely happy with how the season went. “The girls were very coachable and really pushed themselves all fall,” Coach Held said. The JV squad won the Columbus invitational and finished second in the Norfolk invitational this year. Held said his goal for next year’s team would be to maintain and grow the level of success and the culture this year’s squad created. Coach Held said he was most surprised by the juniors that played on the team and how great a job they did leading the JV all fall. The Reserve and Freshman squads have also had great seasons. The teams, coached by Joan Rickert and Debra Augustine respectively, were happy with how the year went.  Both coaches agree that next year they want to focus on improving each player’s individual skill set. Both coaches were also surprised by the talent they found on both of their teams this year.

Finally, the JV and the Freshman seasons have wrapped up nicely. Unfortunately, the Discoverer JV team ended with a losing record. The coach of the team this year was Alex Liston. Coach Liston was not completely satisfied with how the season went. “It was a rough go this year, and we struggled to get some momentum going.” He believes this offseason will be big for the JV players to mature and develop. The coach believes in order to improve next year, his players need to continue to hit the weight room, and attend offseason workouts. Mr. Liston said he was very grateful to the players who would have played some varsity in a normal season, but stuck it out on JV full time this year. Thankfully, the freshman Discoverers found more success this season. Under the coaching of Ryan Baker, the Discoverers ended with an even 4-4 record.  Coach Baker said he was happy with how the season progressed. “In the end, it’s about more than wins and losses. I believe we learned more than a few lessons that will carry over into our everyday lives.” The coach believes that he can work on more leadership development for next year. The player the most surprised him this year was Wyatt Spragg. He was a dominant defensive player on the team and he played all out until the whistle every play.

Congratulations to all the Discoverer teams on a successful fall sports season, and we can’t wait to see you out there again next year.