COLUMN LIKE I SEE ‘EM: A season of transition and growth

Posted 8/11/15

No team has faced more adversity in the past year than Panther football, which gets its much-needed fresh start at 6 a.m. on Monday.

Last season’s first-round playoff exit was a disappointing finish for a team that may have forgotten how to …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

COLUMN LIKE I SEE ‘EM: A season of transition and growth

Posted

Practices for Powell High School’s fall sports begin next week as each program enters the season in a period of change.

Each team is facing its own set of challenges, and has between just three and 12 days to get ready for official competition.

No team has faced more adversity in the past year than Panther football, which gets its much-needed fresh start at 6 a.m. on Monday.

Last season’s first-round playoff exit was a disappointing finish for a team that may have forgotten how to lose following two consecutive undefeated championship seasons.

But Powell will be a season removed from the loss of the great Jim Stringer, whose 12-year tenure as coach and tragic passing cast a shadow over the 2014 campaign.

Second-year head coach Chanler Buck enters this season free of the interim tag that he carried through his rookie season, and, for the first time since the 2011 season, the football team isn’t carrying the expectations that come with being a defending state champion.

The team’s core of upperclassmen were no more than sophomores when Stringer completed his three-peat against Douglas in 2013, and, like Buck, they are free to build their own legacies upon a clean slate.

The PHS volleyball team is also one year removed from a Class 3A state title, and, like football, will try to win its next under a new coach.

Morgan Kistler fills the spot left by Cindi Smith, whose protracted, involuntary departure left more questions than answers, and drew the wrong kind of attention to the perennially contending Panthers.

Kistler will begin her PHS coaching career with just one of the team’s three 2014 All-State selections. Libero Jenni Ebersberger was lost to

graduation and offensive powerhouse Kalina Smith took her talents to Class 4A. All-State setter Breanna Donarski returns as the team’s leader, but questions about the team’s attack and defense will have to be answered on the court — where, thankfully, the focus should remain.

Cross Country is among the steadiest of the Panther programs.

Each year the team seems to take on the personality of its sport — as well as its coach, Cliff Boos.

Neither loud nor flashy, Boos and his teams embody the fundamentals of long-distance running. They’re patient, hard-working, and they just keep going.

The girls’ squad took fourth at state, and were paced by senior Gretchen Moretti’s 17th-place finish.

The boys finished 11th, and were led by senior Ben Wetzel’s 24th-place finish.

With each side’s top performers lost to graduation, the Panthers — who were without an All-State selection in 2014 — will have to find a handful of breakout runners to contend again in 2015.

The PHS girls’ swim team has established itself as a force to be reckoned with in Class 3A. The Panthers were the runners-up at state in back-to-back seasons, and incoming senior Amanda Tracy won individual state titles each year.

Tracy and the Panthers return in 2015, but without the benefit of a deep senior class, and they face a tough road to repeat as the best swim team outside of Jackson.

Head coach Luke Robertson has produced contributing underclassmen throughout his tenure, and that will have to be true again if the Panthers are to make a third-straight top-three finish at state.

Panther golf will also have to weather the loss of top players.

Graduated seniors Pax Mitchell, Carli Brown and Mikala Fulton were Powell’s three All-State selections in 2014, and each placed in the top six at state.

Incoming senior Robert Rodriguez flashed his potential when he shot a career-best 94 during the first round of the state tournament in Cody. Similarly, junior Stevi Smith played her best golf at season’s end, and coach Troy Hildebrand identified her as a player who could make big strides her senior season.

But even with the potential improvement from the Panthers’ top returners, the team will need consistent play throughout the roster.

Opportunities abound on the PHS tennis squad.

The girls finished seventh at state last season and the boys took 11th, so expectations will be tepid as the season begins and head coach Ray Bieber evaluates his roster.

The top two singles players on both the boys’ and girls’ sides are gone to graduation, as are the top two girls doubles teams and the No. 1 boys doubles team.

The mass exodus atop of the tennis roster leaves room for returners eyeing a bigger role. Who steps up to take those spots is yet to be determined. But for those who want to reach the top, the path is clear.

For the first time in recent history, Powell’s fall sports are without any sure things, and expectations are hovering around reasonable.

That’s not a bad thing. Those are the conditions from which pleasant surprises and interesting storylines emerge.

Comments