Fall Sports Report
All records are in order of Wins-Losses-Ties
Boys Cross Country
Coach: Mrs. Basehart
Record: 3-0
Captains: Ray Sambrotto, Bruce Dickinson, Adam Smith, Jacob Weissenberg
This year’s Boys Cross Country team is a strong one, winning every meet they have attended so far. The team has many strong runners that can run a 5k in less than 20 minutes, such as Ray Sambrotto, Blake Smith, Ean Pokorski, Jake Weissenberg, Adam Mazur and Joe Wawrzyniak. Within the next few years, Coach Basehart “expects to see similar times from Ryan Fleck, Dan Gutsu, Dominic Lewis, Quinlan Schultz, and Joe Veal.” Coach Basehart mentioned that the team had just returned from a trip to Disney World, where the team performed very well, with Ray Sambrotto ending the 5000 meter in a total time of 17:03.13 placing 5th in his group.
Girls Cross Country
Coach: Mrs. Kasper
Record: 2-1
Captains: Sarah Mehani, Claire Kearney
This year’s Girls Cross Country team is a young, talented one and has performed very well against others. According to Coach Kasper, “they are up for any challenge that comes their way.” The team has a great deal of camaraderie (trust/friendship) and a strong work ethic. The team just returned from the Disney Wide World of Sports Cross Country Invitational, where the team did well, with leader Danuta Kurtyko placing 39th with a time of 23:47.45.
JV Field Hockey
Coach: Mrs. Hoak
Record: 0-10
Captains: Emma Zilsberger, Abby Udy, Kelsey Janas
Though the JV Field Hockey team might not be the best Sweet Home’s ever had, the team is still greatly improving, and playing very well together. Coach Hoak had said about the team, “If you were to come to one of our games and listen to how we communicate on the field, you would hear a group of young women who support each other. We lift each other up, instead of tearing each other down by yelling in an angry tone.” This positive energy has lead to plenty of team bonding between the girls. Coach Hoak also mentioned that the team only has 12 players on the roster, and currently one of those players is out with an injury. This means the team has just enough players to field for the game, but the girls can get very little rest during the 30 minute halves.
Varsity Field Hockey
Coach: Mrs. Kauder-Kromer
Record: 6-9
Captains: Riley Kromer, Julia Galante
Coach Kauder-Kromer was contacted, but declined to respond.
JV Football
Coach: Mr. Campolo
Record: 2-4
Captains: Jailen Gaines, Donovan Benning, Jeremiah White
This year’s JV Football team is strong, and has many returning players and transfers that have become leaders that have helped the team grow throughout the season. Coach Campolo said about the team, “this team plays with heart and determination, and has a bond like no other that we have coached.” This is great for games, when the team can lift each other up and help one another when losing. The team always seems to be looking towards the future, hoping to improve upon what happened in the past.
Varsity Football
Coach: Mr. Zimmer
Record: 0-7
Captains: Keith Murphy, Rob Giancarlo, Vlad Kovalchuk
Coach Zimmer was contacted, but declined to respond.
Boys Golf
Coach: Mr. Tojek
Record: 2-6
Captains: Ryan Edholm, Shawn Gerber
This year’s Boys Golf team, is a very young one, which has its strengths and it’s weaknesses. Overall the team is getting more time to develop and allow them to build up their skill, but the strength can lead to weakness, mainly because the team has less experienced players. According to Coach Tojek, “we finished at 2-6 which is good for us, because we are probably in the toughest division in golf. Overall the season is very good.” The team could have gone 4-4, had they played with the same level of energy and confidence all season, but Coach Tojek is still happy with the way the team played this season. Mr. Tojek had mentioned that captain Ryan Edholm made it to state qualifiers and placed 27th out of 81, giving him a shot at state qualifiers in the spring.
JV Boys Soccer
Coach: Mr. Figler
Record: 9-3-1
Captains: Jacob Wilson, Zach Gembala, Matthew McGowan
This year’s JV Boys Soccer team was “the best JV team we’ve ever had!” according to Junior Sean Hedrick, ending their season with a 3-1 win against Nichols. The team had many players this year who hadn’t played soccer outside of school, resulting in some losses, but quickly overcame this by recovering and placing first in their league. Coach Figler said about the team, “The JV team was highly underestimated by opposing schools with historically strong soccer programs. Through hard work, dedication, and discipline we were able to achieve a successful season that, in my opinion, was well deserved but more than anything earned.”
Varsity Boys Soccer
Coach: Mr. McCaffery
Record: 5-10
Captains: Sun Kook, Lucas Marshall, Aidan Brath
This year’s Boys Varsity team did fairly well, making their way into sectionals, just barely falling to North Tonawanda 1-0. Coach McCaffery said about the team, “We have been inconsistent this year. When we have started the game focused and energetic we have done very well, when we come out flat we have been scored on in the first 10 minutes of the game which causes us to have to come back. This is difficult to do with all of the quality teams in our league.” Most games were played in league, but those that weren’t were scheduled against the best teams in Section V & VI.
Girls Varsity Soccer
Coach: Mr. Schmitt, Mr. Tredo
Record: 1-15
Captains: Maria Castellana, Jenna Petrus, Sam Wozniak, Yulisa Tosada-Munoz, Megan Gerber
This year’s Girls Varsity Soccer team is made up of 21 girls, quite the extended roster for your typical soccer team. The girls record, 1-15 is “deceiving, we were more competitive than that but the record fails to reflect it,” claims Coach Schmitt. The team has many inexperienced players, though they are no less confident than the rest of the team. Overall, the team played very well against “teams that usually seed in top of the class and often times will advance through to the playoffs.”
Girls Swimming
Coach: Mr. McCarthy
Record: Unknown
Captains: Lauren Spence, Ana Ocasio
Coach McCarthy was contacted, but declined to respond.
Girls Tennis
Coach: Mrs. Feyes
Record: 3-8
Captains: Jadyn Wagner, Caroline Thiele
This year’s Girls Tennis team is improving quite better compared to last year’s team. They have increased in team size, going from 9 girls to 14 girls, as well as improving record wise from 0-10 last year to 3-8 this year beating West Seneca East twice and Depew once. One thing Coach Feyes said the team had to improve upon throughout the season was skill. There were many new players, many of whom had never played tennis before, so learning the basics were one of the most important things this season. This season the girls competed in a school championship involving 18 different school, and a total of 28 matches vs other players. The girls placed 3rd in this event, winning all but 9 of the matches. Coach Feyes is always looking for new players, so any girls looking to play should join tennis club in the spring.
Pictures of Girls Tennis and Boys Volleyball were not available at the time of this article being published.
JV Boys Volleyball
Coach: Mr. Becker
Record: 7-2
Captains: Ben Brown, Isaac Quintieri
This year’s JV Boys Volleyball team is quite the strong one, with many strong players other than the captains, such as Owen Clemens-Regan who leads the team in kills, Dan Horvatis the team’s starting setter who is one of the better servers on the team, and Chet Palmer who is a talented all around player who is second on the team in kills. According to Coach Becker, “we struggled in the beginning of the year with our passing, which made it difficult at times to get to use our strength of hitting, but we’ve definitely gotten better, improving upon our ability to pass as well as attacking(spiking) and serving.”
Varsity Boys Volleyball
Coach: Mr. Cicero
Record: 10-1
Captains: Kaleb Luton, Dylan Aarum, Solomon Shabazz
This year’s Boys Varsity Volleyball team is a very strong one, with a very hardworking, positive attitude. Coach Cicero said the team “have set goals for this season. Short term goals: Win the Division, Win Sectionals. Long Term Goals: Win Regionals, Win A State Championship!” Overall the team has performed well against others, currently going undefeated in the league, and only one loss against a non-league team.
JV Girls Volleyball
Coach: Mrs. Henry-Battaglia, Mrs. Miranda
Record: 3-11
Captains: Larissa Battaglia, Emily Grucello, Erika Edholm
Coach Henry-Battaglia was contacted, but declined to respond.
Varsity Girls Volleyball
Coach: Mrs. Prentice
Record: 6-6
Captains: Dayna Edholm, Madison Gerber
Coach Prentice was contacted, but declined to respond.
Matthew McGowan, the author of this article, is a captain on the JV Soccer team.
Matt is in his senior year at Sweet Home High School and this year will be his fourth year with The Panther Eye. Matt is the current Editor-in-Chief and maintains all Panther Eye social channels. He enjoys soccer, music and participating in Stage Crew. If interested in joining The Panther Eye team contact Matt using the options below.