Julian Galleta and Harland Kissel
Staff Writers
As the spring season begins, it again brings the promise of great weather, allergies, and the much anticipated chance to get back out on the field for Jamesville-DeWitt High School athletes. This season has not, however, delivered on those promises. Many meets, practices and games have been canceled this season due to the ever-present and influential Upstate New York weather.
The weather has been the main reason why many games and meets have been cancelled this spring sports season. Senior Boys Track and Field captain Joey Armenta said, “The season is off to a good start, although we’ve had a few cancellations due to the weather.” Junior Varsity Baseball player Jakob Ellithorpe agreed with Armenta, “The weather has been horrific- we’ve had five or six games scheduled and we’ve only played two,” he then added, “We’re looking to have a game almost every day during spring break,” he said, staying optimistic. The weather has not only affected boys sports, but girls sports as well this season. “Since it’s been so rainy, we’ve only had practice once a week,” said Freshman Olivia Norden, who plays on the girls varsity golf team. “It feels like half of our matches have been cancelled,” she added.
On the other hand, senior Boys Varsity Lacrosse captain Griffin Cook, believes that the weather has helped them so far in their efforts this season. “We love to play in the rain,” said Cook, “other teams hate it, but we like to embrace the weather, so I don’t really think its been affecting us at all.”
There has been no shortage of cancellations this season, and Athletic Director John Goodson has had a part in all of them. “As of April 16th, we had 109 scheduled contests,” he said, “of those 109 scheduled contests, 94 of them have been rescheduled to some capacity.” Although bad weather on game day has become ritual at this point, Mr. Goodson wants athletes to stay “optimistic” in regards to weather. “We go into every game expecting that we’re going to play. Our coaches go in with that mentality, and we try to get our athletes to go in with the same mentality.” said Mr. Goodson.
Spring sports teams look to jump head on into the difficult schedules of this season. With a difficult schedule comes the opportunity to play many teams,“A lot of our games are considered good games,” said Cook. Some of these teams have come to be known as “rivals” over the years. “We’ve had a beef with Camden over the past couple of years,” said Ellithorpe, “but I’d say out biggest rival is going to be ESM (East-Syracuse Minoa).” Armenta agreed with Ellithorpe on ESM being one of the track team’s “rivals.”
Not all spring sports teams have the same rivals though. Armenta also added that Central Square is also one of their rivals this year. “I’d consider Homer as one of our rivals this season,” said Cook.
Currently, the J-DHS Boys Varsity Lacrosse Team hold an overall record of 10-3 and are 8-1 in league play. The J-DHS Varsity Baseball Team holds an overall record of 8-3 and are 6-3 in league play.
The J-DHS Boys Track team have also started off strong and are 3-0 while the J-DHS Girls Track and Field team is off to a 2-0 start.
The J-DHS Girls Varsity Lacrosse team has started a very dominate season so far with an undefeated record in league play and an overall record 12-2. Central New York teams have yet to find an answer for junior Ana Dieroff, who leads the team in both goals with 39 and points with 46. “Our goals are to defend our sectional title and bring home a state championship,” said junior Lindsey MacLachlan, who is also having a dominant year. MacLachlan is currently leading the team in assists with 12 and is third in points with 36.
The J-DHS Varsity Softball team has had a strong start to their 2018 season. Their record is 11-3 overall and are currently undefeated in league play at 9-0. The softball team has high hopes for this season with half of their team comprised of seniors in their last season as Red Rams. “The sky is the limit for our team this year and our goal is to win yet another sectional championship, and hopefully a state championship,” said senior Taylor Roadarmel.
The J-DHS Girls Varsity Golf team has battled through the difficult weather to an overall record of 2-4 and a league record of 0-1 so far this season.
All of the J-DHS spring sports teams look to continue their success as the regular season begins to wind down and start to prepare for deep runs in postseason play.