Men’s Track and Field:
After finishing as one of the top
teams in Sectionals last year, head
coach Kurt Hasenstein knows that
this year’s team has the potential to
be successful again. According to
Hasenstein, this year’s team will have
depth in sprints, which allows most
competitors to concentrate on their
best events. Additionally, with the
ability to spread events out among
competitors, Hasenstein hopes that
less of the team will fall to injuries, as
no one is being overworked. Some of
their main competitors this year will
be Evanston, Maine South and New
Trier, according to Hasenstein.
According to head coach Kurt
Hasenstein, the team’s strength this season lies
in its depth of sprinters, which he
hopes will help lead
the team to a successful postseason.
Key Players: Marques Thompson, Malcolm
Engel, Austin Dickholtz, Ose Ilenikhena
Young Guns: David O’Gara
Under the Radar: Peter Westerfield, Dan
Weathers
Men’s Lacrosse:
With new head coach Matthew Jones leading the South
men’s lacrosse team this
year, the group is expected to gel well, according
to Jones. The boys have
had a number of pre-season open gyms to prepare
for this season, and there is
much excitement and energy
in anticipation. The team hopes
to improve on efficiency of play
in the short-term, which will help
the team achieve their overall goal
of competing for and winning the State
championship
Key Players: Ryan Hauldren, Will Reynolds,
Cam Irwin, Jack Washburn, Spencer Ford
Young Guns: EJ Reynolds
Men’s Water Polo:
This season, the South men’s water polo team
will be without Tom Meyer, their former star goalie, for the first time in four years. Additionally, senior Mike Sadowski recently suffered a shoulder
injury, which will cause him to miss the entire season. While head coach Dave Lieberman was not
worried about replacing Meyer heading into the
season, the obstacle could now pose a problem
for the men. After coming in second in Conference and third in Sectionals last year, Lieberman
expects the team to get right back where they left
off. According to senior Danny Correa, he expects
this to be one of the quickest teams he has been on,
with many members of the team having been on
the swim team. Their goals this year include winning Conference and qualifying for the State tour.
Key Players: Danny Correa, Bob Meyer,
Brand Bozcek
Young Guns: Jake Nelson, Seamus
Heneghan
Baseball:
After many of the juniors and seniors on
the South baseball team played together
this summer, the boys are looking to have
a successful season with good chemistry,
according to senior Nick Loggarakis. With
many veterans returning, Loggarakis
hopes that they will lead the team to the
immediate goal of winning Conference.
Senior Kyle Pauly hopes to use the team’s
chemistry as an advantage to make it deep
into the playoffs and go down state. Both
Pauly and Loggarakis are committed to
playing baseball in college; Loggarakis is
officially committed to North Central College, and Pauly is currently undecided
with a few schools under consideration.
With seniors Nick
Loggarakis and Kyle Pauly, both
college baseball bound,
leading the team, the goal is to win
their Conference.
Key Players: Kyle Pauly, Sam Koloms, Nick
Loggarakis, Max Cohen, Sam Selby, Matt
Hoshaw
Young Guns: Connor McCarthy, Tommy
O’Hara, Cody Carol, Connor McCarthy, Austin Okuno
Under the Radar: Robert Milota, Drake Hlaving
Men’s Volleyball:
The men’s volleyball team sees the 2013 season
as a time of contention to win Conference again, as
well as win their Sectional. This season, the team
returns without Peter Rafalo, top alum player,
who at 6’9” was last season’s go-to player for last
minute points and kills on the court, according to
head coach Tim Monahan. During the two months
of open gyms, the boys have been working to improve on consistency after seeing how inconsistency led to last year’s loss against rival GBN. According to senior Brandon Lucari, the team has the talent
and ability to win Conference again and many of
the players will have to step up in order to make
up for last year’s losses. They return this year with
All-Conference setter Matt Kaiser and starter Will
Kozloski, who are expected to lead this year’s team.
Key Players: Will Kozloski, Brandon Lucari,
Matt Kaiser
Young Guns:Anthony Lebryk
Under the Radar: Kevin Mathein
Tennis:
The men’s tennis team is looking
toward a season of rebuilding and
filling the shoes left empty by last
year’s state qualifiers. According to
head coach Larry Faulkner, the focus this season is to establish a lineup to maximize every player’s talent
and reduce their weaknesses along
with having state qualifiers again.
In the 2012 season, the men’s tennis
team placed fifth at State and aspires
to win Conference this season. Senior
captain Will Lyon feels that with hard
work, the younger, talented players
could fill the shoes of the seven starters who graduated last year.
The men
lost seven graduates going into this season,
including Michael Selitto and Michael Levin, the
All-State doubles duo.
Key Players: Will Lyon, Ross Gan
Young Guns: Michael Baddeloo
Under the Radar: Steven Kim, Wyatt Jason
Women’s Water Polo:
According to assistant coach Robin Doyle, the beginning of the season
has been plagued by an insuffcicient
number of players. However, the ladies still have high hopes for a successful season. With Sarah Grieve,
senior State-qualifying swimmer, at
the helm this season, Doyle ultimately hopes that the team will be able to
compete for the tough Central Suburban League (CSL) title. Nonetheless, according to Doyle, perennial
powerhouses New Trier, as well as
several of the other CSL teams, will
make things difficult for South, so
for now they just hope to train hard.
In a difficult
CSL South conference, the
Lady Titans,
who have been
struggling to
fill their roster, are working toward
their ultimate
goal of competing for the
CSL Conference title.
Key Players: Sarah Grieve, Anne Edwards,
Maggie Dietrich
Young Guns: Rema Abu-Hashim, Margaret
Schneider
Women’s Lacrosse:
The women’s lacrosse team ended their season
last year by placing fifth in State after losing to Hinsdale Central by one goal. According to head coach
Annie Lesch, the girls have been working hard in
the offseason to challenge for the IHSA State title
and build upon last year’s experiences. The squad
graduated eight seniors, seven of whom were starters, and according to senior Allie Sonneborn, there
is a large amount of competitiveness and commitment from the players this year to have the best season possible. Despite the loss of alumni, with nine
returning seniors, Lesch hopes to have a strong core
of leadership on the team and hopes that the ladies
come together as a close-knit team. The team’s first
home game against Lyons is on March 12 in the John
Davis Stadium.
Key Players: Caroline Collins, Allie Sonneborn, Stephanie Mitchell, Morgan Nolan
Young Guns:Nonie Andersen, Autumn Koh,
Jane Brennan
Under the Radar: Calie Nowak, Kelly Ward
Women’s Track and Field:
A year after qualifying one runner down state last year, the Women’s track and field team has the potential to send even more this year,
according to senior Melissa Bastanipour. This season sees the return of
many seniors—a few of whom just
missed qualifying for state last year.
Additionally, Bastanipour feels that
this year’s team comes in with a
strong underclassman force that
looks to learn a lot from the seniors.
Some of their goals this year include
the seniors training the underclassman and taking advantage of their
speed, according to Bastanipour.
This year sees the
team without star alum
Danielle DeVito, their
only runner to qualify
for State last year. She now runs
at Bradley University in Peoria.
Key Players: Melissa Bastanipour, Mollie
McMahon, Nikki Wells, Sam Milota
Young Guns: Anastasia Athas, Danielle
Yapor, Jaime Studenroth
Badminton:
Although South’s badminton team lost
eight seniors from last season, the
girls are up for the challenge this
year, according to senior Ellen
Takagi. With the
open spots, senior Brittany Balzano
looks forward to the upcoming
season with some new players
to add to the roster. They have
their goals set to beat New
Trier, send girls back to state,
and finish in the top three in
conference, according to head
coach Tiffanie Kimura and Takagi. The girls hope to do these
things by improving their net
game.
Key Players: Ellen Takagi, Mackenzie
O’Brien, Brittany Balzano, Maureen Anderson, Emma Cashman
Young Guns: Jojo Garvey, Colleen Lynch
Under the Radar: Meg Nash
Women’s Soccer:
With the South women’s soccer
team competing in the state tournament two out of the last three years,
the girls look to go down state again
this season, according to head coach
Seong Ha. Senior April Cronin, who
has committed to play soccer at Valparaiso University, has expectations
to lead the team and potentially finish in the top three of all time biggest
scorers at South. The team this year
has over 12 returning players and
hopes to use this as an advantage to
build chemistry and create plays, according to Ha. While having many
veterans on the team, Ha also hopes
that some added new players will
help the Lady Titans reach success.
Key games for South this season:
March 12 vs. Loyola
April 12 At New Trier
April 25 vs. Maine South
Playoffs begin May 1
Key Players: April Cronin, Greta Stadler,
Emma Sailer, Carolyn Nash
Young Guns: Kaily Bruch
Softball:
According to head coach Kay Sopocy, this year’s
softball team will be better than ever with All-Conference pitcher Katie Rossman and
All-Conference infielder Megan
Steil. Dominated by juniors, the
close-knit team teems with competitiveness and energy this season in order to beat rivals New Trier, Maine South and Niles West. Last season, the girls lost to New Trier 0-7
and they hope to not only beat New
Trier but also have a season batting
average of over .500. Sopocy believes
that the large amount of maturity and
energy will boost the ladies’ ability to
be even better than last year and not
lose their streak of energy at the end of the season.
Key Players: Katie Rossman, Alyssa Strapko, Mackenzie Morgan, Maddie Hauser
Young Guns: Yasmine Giliana, Daniela Marchiori
Under the Radar: Jordan Davis, Megan Steil
