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by Eva Huntington, Adelheide Johansen and Phaedra lamb
Boys BasketBall
Boys basketball recently won their first game of the season against Grand 55-32 at the Vivent Arena in SLC last Thursday.
The win was the first with new head coach Bill Pollock, who was previously JV coach and assistant head coach, so the players are familiar with the style of coaching. Pollock will bring a fresh perspective to coaching for the upcoming season.
“From our JV team last year we have a lot of returning players that are going to be varsity this year,” said senior Morgan Bowles. “We all just click really well with [Coach Pollock]”
With seven seniors return- ing this year as varsity players, the team has a strong bond which they hope will benefit them on court.
With a highly competitive region, they know they have a lot of work to do.
“We need to just keep continuity,” Pollock said, “where our team is working together at all times.”
Girls Wrestling
Girls wrestling at NS has a promising season ahead of them with their new additions to the team and an improved way of practicing.
“We’re practicing the basics because so many girls just started, in fact there are hundreds of girls just starting across the state,” said junior Aiyana Spencer.
Girls wrestling has been officially sanctioned across the state as of this year. With that they have 11 new additions to the team, and three who have carried over from last year.
“Our three from last year carried over a fair amount of experience,” said coach Doug Spencer. “Eleven of them from this year have never wrestled before so they are all beginners, but they’re all in their own way incredibly talented and have some significant potential.”
By researching Purler Wrestling Academy through the off season he was able to find a new program that he is confident in and thinks is very learnable and teachable.
“I think that the biggest improvement is the academy and the structure and technique list it gives us to teach,” said coach Spencer.
It comes with an expansive video library so with every skill that they teach, the girls have the ability to watch a video and digest it on their own. It shortens that learning curve.
“My goals with coaching this year is to develop their wrestling skills over the year so we can see a definitive and clear improvement from the start of the season to the end of the season,” said coach Spencer.
He has very high aspirations for this season and is excited to see what happens.
Boys Wrestling
The NS boys wrestling team is hoping for a great season, and they know they have a lot of work to do after losing key wrestlers from last year. They will also have a new coach.
“We lost about three seniors from last year, but I think it will be a good year,” said senior Kasey Curtis. “We are shooting for the championship again.”
They had only one kid in the finals last year and are working hard to beat that this season.
“The more I can get the kids to believe and trust in me, the further I can get them to believe and trust in them- selves,” said King.
As a new coach, he is working hard to earn their trust, so they can further improve throughout the year. He has coached at the middle school in the past, but he’s looking forward to coaching a higher leveled group.
The first two weeks they try to stick to basics, as well as condition and build endurance. But not just physical endurance, mental endurance as well.
“I think that most of this is mental, if you believe that you can beat the kid across from you then usually you can,” said Curtis.
Wrestling often takes a high mental capacity and commitment, as it is mostly an individual sport. If you are not 100 percent committed it is hard to do well.
“It takes a lot of commitment especially when you get out there on the mat, if you make a mistake you don’t have a teammate out there helping you,” said coach Kris King.
He thinks a few of them have great potential to make it on the podium this year at state. They’re first match will be on Dec. 2 at home against Juab, one of the top schools in the state.
“So far it’s looking like we have a lot of heart, you can have all the moves in the world but if you don’t have heart it’s hard to win in this sport,” said King.
He believes in this year’s group and is hoping for future successes.
Girls Basketball
With tryouts officially over, the NS girls basketball team is ready to start the season with a home game against Maeser Prep on November 19th. Results were not available at press time.
“I feel like we are going to do better than we have, at least as long as I’ve been here,” said senior Eryn Briggs.
The reasoning behind them doing better is that the majority of the girls have varsi- ty experience and are ready to face the court.
“The juniors, most of them have played varsity since their freshman year,” said Briggs.
It’s difficult playing varsity basketball as a freshman, and in past years the team has faced challenges due to the lack of older players.
However, this year they have 2 seniors, 4 juniors, 7 sophomores, and 8 freshmen.
Some of the freshmen have played basketball before, and it’s exciting to see interest coming back.
“Middle school and rec definitely isn’t the same as high school, so I’m excited to see how they do,” said Briggs.
Unlike past years where the coaching staff has changed, this year it remains the same, with Taylor Christensen as the head coach, Justin Morley as the JV coach, and Austin Hadley as the freshman/sophomore coach.
Swim
This year the NS swim team is looking at the start of a great year, with one of the biggest teams in recent history.
The team plans to par- ticipate in 12 total meets, and three of them will be hosted at home—at the Mt. Pleasant City Aquatic Center. They’ve already had one home meet this last week on Nov. 9, where they competed with the Gunni- son, Juab, and Manti teams.
The team placed second, just behind Manti. This is the first year that Manti has a swim team. Their team was founded and coached by Rachel Keller, who was previously a coach for the NS team.
Since Keller left, Katrina Palmer became a new volunteer assistant coach, and helps with managing the deck.
David LaTomme is the head coach for the boys, and JoAnne Riley is the head coach for the girls team.
“[As coaches] the common goal for all of us is to see all of you [the team] improve, not only as swimmers, but as individuals,” LaTomme said.
The team captains Gideon Palmer and Ella Cook also help with managing the deck. There are 36 registered swimmers, so the extra help is appreciated.
“We have a really good group of kids, they work hard and step up,” LaTomme said.
This past weekend they competed at a swim meet in Richfield, results were not available at press time.
