By Bora Nanaj
Staff Writer
As the regular season for fall sports comes to an end, the Jamesville-DeWitt High School Gymnastics, Boys Golf and Boys Soccer teams look to advance into sectionals and even states. The golf team’s season was cut short with a loss in the first round, the soccer team is looking to advance in the second round of sectionals, and the gymnastics team won the Section III title just last Friday.
The Gymnastics team here at J-D, combined with students from Fayetteville-Manlius High School, has had an undefeated season so far, and they were excited about competing in sectionals. Captain Taylor Riley was very confident that her team would win sectionals. She said “we’ve been undefeated at sectionals for the last 12 years and we’re looking to make it 13.” Sophomore Anyi Liebler-Bendix also thinks her team will win because “we have strong gymnasts.” The team won states last year and hopes to win again this year. States will be held in March of 2014 at the State University of New York at Brockport.
On the other hand, J-D Golf had a “mediocre” season, according to senior Max Havens. Senior and co-captain Ben Katsarsky agreed, “We didn’t play well. We didnt show our abilities.” The J-D Golf team went into sectionals with a 5-8 record but lost in the first round. “We got destroyed,” said junior Avery Reale. Sophomore Pat Kramer agreed that the team lost badly but said the overall experience of sectionals was “pretty cool.” This year, the golf team was coached by J-D Middle School physical education teacher, Paul Valentino because their old coach, Mario Mason, is now a PGA Professional and owns Sadaquada Golf Course in Whitesboro. “I took the job because I wanted the opportunity to coach a varsity sport after all these years at the modified level,” said Mr. Valentino. “I am a huge golf enthusiast and coaching golf is so much different than any other sports that I coach,” he added. Katsarsky said Mr. Valentino changed the team because “he made it so we had to practice every single day.” Most of the J-D Golf players enjoyed the season regardless of their record. Havens, Katsarsky, Reale and Kramer all said that the season was fun. Senior Luke Peters agreed and said the season was “really awesome because we were playing the game we loved with the people we loved.”
The J-DHS Varsity Boys Soccer team just won the league championship for the fifth year in a row. They have a record of 10-4-3 right now. Many team members think that their record does not match how they have been playing. Sophomore Dean Kousmanidis said “our results aren’t matching the quality of our team.” Junior Josh Frank agreed, “we’re better than our record shows.” Coach Joseph Roach disagreed with the players and said that the record is a “very good indication of our level of play.” He believed that the team is doing “especially good” considering that 10 of the 21 players are freshmen and sophomores. The toughest teams that J-DHS lost to were Christian Brothers Academy and Fowler. Senior and co-captain Luca Pelligra said that Fowler was the toughest team they played against “because they made it to state semifinals last year and they only lost one player.” Junior Tyler Lichtenstein agreed with Pelligra and said “their speed of play is fast.” Coach Roach also believes that Fowler is one of their toughest competitions. He said playing them “is a very strong challenge but our players have the ability to do very well.” Now that the regular season has ended, this team is looking forward to sectionals. Kousmanidis believes that if the team plays to their potential they could possibly win sectionals. “We’re going to make it to the championship,” said junior Xander Ferlenda. “It will be a close race,” Ferlenda added. Some members of the team are not so hopeful. Sophomore Jordan VanStry thinks that the team will win one game of sectionals and then lose. In the first round of sectionals, the team had a 5-2 victory over New Hartford who they had previously tied with. Goals were scored by seniors Tom Canfield and Adam Resetarits and junior Tyler Lichtenstein. Their next sectional game is Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013 at Chittenango High School against Fowler.