Varsity fall sports preview

First year coach Amy Spies takes the reigns of the girls’ volleyball program, with an experienced coaching staff and experienced players to back her up. Among the returning Varsity squad are Seniors Emilie Bakken, Niki Boos, Cassidy Lyons, and Kelsey O’Brien.

“My goals for this year is to just improve on the little things like blocking, passing and hitting to make up a better team,” Spies said.

The team opened up the season with a 4-0 record.

“I plan to make practice more competitive, doing more competitive drills, and working as hard as we can everyday,” Spies said.

After the retirement of Tim Madson, Junior Varsity Coach, Mike Ziegler will now be in charge.

The guys have set very high goals for themselves this season.

“Our goal is to either win conference or be within the top two. We’d be happy with third also,” Junior Evan Hill said.

They plan to further improve on things that they believe to be their team’s strengths.

“We move the ball around well. We also play better as a team,” Hill said.

Even with the loss of FAHS grad and now Marquette runner, Spencer Agnew, the FAHS Cross Country team still has high hopes for the returning and new runners to the squad. The girls team remains at full strength with the return of Courtney Lanza and Taylor Bauer.

The boys will face a struggle, due to graduated seniors who scored a number of points at meets including Spencer Agnew, Jacob Enslin and Marc Erickson. Leading the boys this season is Senior Sam Fitzgerald, who conveniently enough set a school record for track last spring with Agnew, Enslin and Erickson.

“All the girls and guys get along really well. The work ethic is good, and they do what we ask them to do. Those two things will lead to a successful season,” Coach Chick Westby said.

This year Coach Westby is advocating a new policy for his runners.

“This year, more than half the team is new to Cross Country. We’ve had a lot of success in the past seasons. The message to the new runners is to dream, and not sit back on failures or past successes,” Westby said.

Under direction of 4th year head coach Miles Allie, the Girls Swim team sets their eyes on a successful season with talent up and down the grade levels. The girls recently got an easy win over Beaver Dam, took third at Parker Relays, received fifth at the Badger South Conference Relays and defeated the Watertown Goslings by a fifty plus margin.

Though these wins were earned, victories in the conference will be much tougher to achieve.

Rival Milton Redhawks will be one of the top competitors this season after gaining a lot of freshman talent, including three girls who originally swam for the Fort Atkinson swim team. Monona Grove, Oregon and Madison Edgewood will also be in the running for the conference title.

With two-time state qualifier Leah Dahl in command, the Girls Tennis team looks to achieve a second consecutive Badger South Conference Title.
Though they suffered the loss of many seniors from last year, they remain at full strength with the entire returning singles line-up.
“Having our entire singles team back from last year is definitely a plus. Our singles players were either conference champions or conference runners up,” Coach Mike DeRubeis said.
Though the doubles are fairly new to the varsity squad, they will be a determining factor for victories at meets.

“When it comes to doubles, we just have a lot of competitive teams so we’re building teams. Mr. Dahl has been working with the doubles, and that additional coaching help is working well. When it comes to doubles, our singles are going to get us there, but are doubles are going to take us places,” DeRubeis said.

Football
The start of the season has proven and will continue to be a challenge for the Blackhawks.
“The schedule gets easier; the first three out of four are really tough, but it will get easier after that,” Head Coach Steve Mahoney said.
He believes work ethic will be an important factor for the success of the guys’ season.
“Strengths are work ethic, our guys do work really hard. We’ve had good practices and good two-a-days. We are also fast and run the ball very well,” Mahoney said.
The Varsity Football team recently fell to the #2 division ranked Waunakee Warriors 0-41 in Badger challenge play. Waunakee has one player already signed with UW Badgers, with a possible second.
“Obviously you can only improve when you play a team like that. Waunakee is so good, that we weren’t able to find out how good we were yet,” Coach Steve Mahoney said.
The game was ended late into the 3rd quarter due to lightning.

Girls Golf

Under Senior Leadership Michelle Jacobson, girls golf has been battling through the majority of their season before school has even started. The team remains optimistic for the remainder of their season, although there have been a few bumps in the road.

“Our drives and long game have been good, but we have struggled this year with three putts and four putts, but we’re working hard to improve and cut down our strokes and getting less putts,” Junior Amanda Ciske said.
A problem that has come up recently is cheating on holes in practices and meets. It is up to the girls to be honest about how many strokes they actually took, because usually they’re on their own to keep their score.

On September 3rd, the Girls Golf team traveled to Madison Edgewood for a dual contest. While Edgewood is known for a successful golf program, they also kept an eye out for fair play from the Blackhawks.

A Blackhawk Varsity squad member was caught by Edgewood golfers by writing down fewer strokes than she actually took.

However, new additions to the team have helped the Hawks.

“The overall performance this year has been very impressive. We have a lot of new freshman on our team, and they have definitely held up their end,” Ciske said.

With cheating now in the picture, the team is setting their expectations higher for their fellow teammates.

“Honesty is a huge thing that I expect,” Ciske said.

VN:F [1.5.6_840]