It has once again been a very busy season for high school sports in the South Shore area.
Riverview and East Bay continued to build on years of experience, welcoming back all of their seasoned athletes many of whom were returning to play for the third time.
On the other hand, Spoto and Lennard High did not have this privilege and finishing only their second season since opening to the public there was a lot of work to be done.
That is not to say, however, that there was not much to cheer for. Both the Spartans and the Longhorns demonstrated heart, desire and willingness to play hard and give everyone a taste of what to expect in the coming years.
Being new on the soccer scene the young Spartans girls soccer team did not expect much more than to do their best as they faced the much more experienced Sharks. While the much stronger and clearly more put together Sharks seemed to just have fun on the field scoring goal after goal, resulting in the game being cut short, the Spartans were focused and played their hearts out doing their very best. Seeing the young Spartans play was worth the time.
In wrestling, the Lennard High Longhorns were ready to demonstrate their talent this past season as well. True, there is a lot more to come and improvements are needed but over all the prospects are great for the program. While one of Lennard’s best wrestlers in the 130 lbs division, Carlos Martinez suffered an injury and ended his chance to prove himself this season, teammate Ian Mills had some success like his match in the142 lbs. weight division against Panthers’ Eric Gunches who was pinned by Mills after three minutes and 13 seconds.
As for the Sharks, it was not the season for championship games. While working hard, Riverview athletes continue to be plagued with falling short in the end. Even the highly anticipated flag football program must wait for the next season to try again as the girls were halted by the East Bay Indians who became the 2007-08 season flag football district champions.
As the Spartans and the Longhorns gain strength and the Sharks and the Indians focus on reaching their obvious potential, there is no doubt the South Shore community is in for a great 2008-09 season.
For more information, please visit www.fhsaa.org.
