As the school year is coming to a close, so are the sports seasons. Hardly any Bruin sports teams have been able to get a full season in, but all the teams still competed and were happy that they were able to play.
Sophomore basketball player Jamey Slater gave his thoughts on this unusual sports season and how the sports teams fought till the end of the season.
“JV basketball has played a few games this season and we have a few more coming up,” Slater said. “They have gone pretty well so far, it’s really great to be able to compete again.”
Slater also explained some things that he has worked on this season.
“In this shortened season, one of my main goals is to learn how to better play together with my team,” he said. “JV is almost all freshmen, so it is fun to learn about new players.”
Freshman Crew Wilson, who is also on JV basketball, conveyed his thoughts on this season and looks forward to the upcoming year.
“We had 6 games this season,” he said. “I think it’s that many at least. I am very happy with how our team played this season. We may have had a few times that weren’t great but we figured it out. Next season I just want it to be a normal year and have a lot more games.”
Senior Water Polo player Stowe Kreisher explained the difficulties of this season and how he and his team are persevering through it.
“We had some problems in the mid-season with quarantines, especially with other schools having to cancel games,” Kreisher said. “For the games we did play though, it went very well with a lot of people showing improvement in a really short time period.”
Kreisher expressed pride in his team during the water polo season.
“This year, a lot of people were new to the sport or haven’t played in a while,” he said. “That means a lot of time my goal was to teach and answer any questions they had about our system of play.”
Senior Baseball player Zachary Williams conveyed the efforts of the team at the end of the season and how they are playing.
“I think the team is coming together and playing to the best of our abilities,” he said. “There’s been a ton of obstacles along the way, and I’m sure more will come but we are ready for it. The main takeaway is don’t take anything for granted because it can be gone just like that.”
Sophomore volleyball player Robert Maple explained how the volleyball team handled the odd season.
“I think that our team did well this season,” said Maple. “We played three games and were able to win two of them, our only loss being to a team that won state finals in a division higher than us about two years ago. Even though most of our players from last year did not play this year, some more people joined and I think we did well.”
Athletic Director Scott Savoie expressed how the end of the sports season is going and the difficulties they had.
”In football, for example, we typically kick off our training season in January, followed by spring practice in May, and summer practice,” Savoie said. “This year, we had our guys from mid January to February only. No training as a team from February through late June. From late June to February we did have contact but abbreviated due to covid mandates. Finally, we only played 5 games.
Coach Savoie acknowledged the difficulties of this year for all of the school sports.
“Other sports endured similar situations, all schools had to deal with these problems,” he said. “What I am most proud of is how our athletes in all sports persevered through this very difficult time. Kids stuck with it knowing there was no guarantee of a season. This year was not about winning championships- it was about giving athletes a chance to compete, and our athletes accepted that challenge. From a coaches standpoint, it was great to see kids happy to practice. I loved seeing smiles on their faces. We all realized that nothing is a “for sure thing” and things like practice were actually a gift. So proud of our Bruin athletes and coaches for hanging in there.”
The Bruin athletics program has had a rough year but they have persevered and stayed on course.
— Maya Bussinger contributed to this report.
