With fall sports wrapping up, it's time to start thinking about winter sports. Despite the uncertainty that accompanies this season, all of the coaches are beyond excited. 

Boys Basketball:

With a new coach, comes a new season. The overall program objective is to help young people. Coach Jordan Hitchcock states he wants students to, “discover their gift, develop their gift, and give their gift away.” Another way the coaches help young people is that they want their athletes to develop an “Anchor Up” mentality. An Anchor Up mentality is two things: One: attack challenges. Two: learn constantly. Coach Hitchcock has plenty of past experience. He was an assistant coach at Lincoln Northeast, Head coach at Parkview Christian, and was a graduate assistant for the University of Nebraska Men’s Basketball Program. The coronavirus will affect the season in many ways. The first order of importance is keeping the athletes safe. Coach Hitchcock has been working with coaches from 3rd-8th grade to ensure that they are advancing the program, while still following the protocol that will ensure the safety of the athletes.

Girls Basketball: 

Despite a 7-16 record last year, the girls basketball team is excited for a new season. This year the girls will be preparing to take on an entirely class A schedule. In the past, they have played a variety of class A and B teams. During the summer, the team usually has camps, but this year, they had to hold off until July because of the growing risk of the Coronavirus. Head Coach Dave Licari stated that he is “not really nervous about anything, just looking forward to see how our team comes together” despite a questionable season. Last season the girls basketball team played well for three-quarters of every game against everyone, even their toughest opponents. Coach Licari stated that “I'm hoping we can finish those games this year.” Last year, they had three seniors on the team, leaving pretty big spots to fill. Coach Licari is expecting that many of the girls will step up to fill those spots.  

Swim Team:

After a great finish last season, the swim team is excited to see what comes next for them. Last year they qualified Macy Blaser, Kaira Dallman, Shae Drymon, Ben Jacobs, Morgan Johansen, Caleb Kirkpatrick, Jayvyn Kreppel, Panachai Kongja, Josue Mendez,  Emily Miksch, Jaden Miller, and Maddisen Schulz for the State Meet. The team was able to qualify six relays and get the girls 200 free relay to finals. Head Coach Alyssa Dillon stated that, “My goal this year is to have both boys and girls make it to finals, an individual make it to finals, and/or someone on the podium.” While last year, the Discovers were also double runners up at GNAC, this year they will be competing in a different conference. In the new conference, HAC, there are more schools participating, so there will be more competition. Similar to HAC, Coach Dillon says that invites are great because they also offer a lot of competition, but she can see most invites being canceled due to the constant risk of the coronavirus. She can also see the season-ending very abruptly. Overall, the swim team has great prospects of being great this season!

Wrestling: 

Overall, wrestling had a great season last year. Wrestling continued the streak of four straight District Champions and placed 5th at the State Tournament. Last year, there were three seniors who were medalists at state for the third time. Two State runner-ups, current senior Blayze Standly and current sophomore Adrian Bice, are looking for their state titles this year. Keiswetter is also looking forward to seeing Liam Blaser’s contribution to this year’s line up. Coach Keiswetter said that there will be some holes to fill, but there are some wrestlers from last year who were very successful at the JV level who are looking forward to having the opportunity to compete this year. Coach Keiswetter is most excited to see a couple of wrestlers who will be coming back from major injuries.  Aside from those returning to the team, Keiswetter is excited to see this years’ freshman class, which has a huge group of wrestlers who have been putting in a lot of work to prepare for their high school careers.

Unfortunately, the Coronavirus has stopped wrestling’s offseason training and the boys had missed out on four months of training. Coach Keiswetter is hopeful that they can overcome that by putting in extra practice time since the success on the mat is due to the dedication of our wrestlers. Coach Keiswetter stated that wrestlers are already used to being cautious of personal hygiene and cleaning of facilities, so that should not change anything. The only negative effect it will have on the team is decreasing the size of our crowds at home duals. CHS has one of the best student sections and more fans at duals than any team against whom they compete. Keiswetter is hopeful that all fans will be able to attend the duals this year.