The following spring sports here at Tahoma High School are Boys and Girls Track, coached by Jeff Brandy and Steve Kent, boys baseball, coached by Jayke Chavez, boys soccer coached by Rick Maloy, Girls fast pitch coached by Darren Rawie, and girls Tennis coached by Scott Lowery.
The Boys Soccer Coach said that some of the bigger team goals for this season, “There are two types of goals. The first is getting through the season without any injuries and everyone having a good time while they work hard and develop life skills. “The second goal would have to be to make the playoffs,” said Rick Maloy. “Our teams normally have a wide variety of 20-22 players on each of our three teams” also said by Rick. So for team wise the 3 teams all together are around 60-66 students all in different groups based off of the roster. That’s a large team for travel and for games, even if the 3 different groups play at different times. The Girls Tennis Team has a little bit of the same goals, but they are a little bit different. “Our main goals for the team are to compete for a league championship and to advance and as many girls as far as possible in the postseason. In the entire tennis team we normally shoot for around 30-32 players on our one team” said Scott Lowery. For team building, Maloy said “Team building starts with new players during the tryout process. They are pushed hard to complete conditioning drills that show both endurance and determination. We also do team dinners as a way to create better teamwork between our teams.”
Girls tennis has more of a chilling way than they do team building. “A lot of our team building takes place during practices, especially when we get rained out and need to practice in the gym. Games, competitions, and social time all help as well. Our Varsity team plans team events outside of practice as well,” said Lowery. For the drills and exercises, Maloy’s opinion of these was more along the lines of “the best drills are the ones that can keep most players involved and moving. Drills that improve skill and simultaneously improve endurance and strength will help build a strong team.”
Since there are many different sports, they may have different drills and exercises for each team. The drills for girls tennis involving competition are the most effective for the team. “They all love to compete in whatever they are doing” stated Lowery. Rick would also like to let the students at Tahoma know that the Tahoma Soccer Programs have some of the best student athletes around. The boys’ team this season will play an exciting style of soccer and is represented by three very talented senior captains: Zeth Lucero, Shaw Nishizawa, and Giles Neel. Scott would like the students at Tahoma to know as well, “We are a highly successful competitive team that is fun to watch! Come out, enjoy the sunshine and watch the bears compete on the court this spring!”
But now one of the other questions that people have been asking: Why are our golf teams not considered a Spring Sport? Since in many other areas, golf is in fact a spring sport. But why is it not in Tahoma? That’s the big question. Debolt, one of the coaches for the girls golf, said “the reason for girls golf not really being counted as a spring sport is of solely the weather and the ability to go out onto the range and find the balls that our girls hit.”
