Winter Sports Preview

Coming into this season, the girls basketball team has another five seniors to lead the team to their goals. The Falcons had an 18-9 record in their 2023-2024 season, ending their season in the quarterfinals of the Class 5 District 2 tournament.
Coming into this season, Head Coach Chris Wilkenson said that he’s looking forward to working with the returning and younger players.
“I’m always excited for how the new pieces will fit together; we have some strong seniors. We [also] have some great younger kids who will be able to play a bigger role, I’m excited for that,” Wilkenson said.
Even though senior Cara Rossomano misses playing with the Class of 2024, she said that she is excited for what this season will bring.
“I think it’s fun and easy with the group of girls we have. I miss everyone from last year, but we have a good group and they all listen well, and we all get along,” Rossomano said.
Moving forward with the season, Wilkenson said that pushing the ball down the court, and quickening their game is a big goal of the team.
“We’re trying to do some different things from last year. We’re going to play a little faster, a little bit more fast paced,” Wilkenson said.
Through the loss of influential seniors, the team still has standards, and aim to put their best foot forward this season, Wilkenson said.
“Our plan is just to play hard, play together, be coachable. If we do that, we’ll be okay; the rest will take care of itself,” Wilkenson said.

First year varsity boys basketball coach Wesley Voyles hopes to lead the team to a fresh start and new success. Junior Oliver Puljic said having a new basketball coach is going to lead to success.
“It’s a new beginning now, he’s a good coach. Voyles works us harder, we are more prepared for the season,” Puljic said.
To prepare athletes for the season, Voyles uses an advanced program.
“A lot of preparation for this season is trying to bring my own brand of basketball to the program. We started this summer by practicing almost everyday in June and by playing about 25 games at each of the three levels. We were able to sit down with some of the players and discuss development plans that will hopefully translate to this season. With our varsity roster only having 2 seniors we don’t have a lot of returning varsity experience. Some would look at this as a negative, but I like to think of it as a positive. As a new varsity staff we get a clean slate of varsity players where we get to add our way of playing without having to break habits,” Voyles said.
Sophomore Myles Jelks has a positive mentality going into the season. This is Jelk’s first season at Summit, and said that he has a fresh start with being new to RSHS, keeping him motivated.
“We’re going to win every game, Voyles is pushing the team to have a good season,” Jelks said.

As the swim season approaches, excitement fuels the girls. The team’s coaches said they are working hard to get ready for a competitive season.
Swim coach Luke Benson measures success for the season by looking at past records to compare past seasons and keep track of times through the season.
“We look at times from the beginning of the season and want to improve throughout the season. Our main focus this season is improving times,” Benson said.
Sophomore Anna Lauck said that she has a positive mindset preparing for the season.
“My mentality is to just have fun and be positive, no matter my performance,” Lauck said.
Senior Lily Maginn says she leads as an upperclassman by taking an active role within the team.
“I try to empathize with the underclassmen and understand how they are feeling so I can relate to them and help them. I have probably been in the same situation,” Maginn said.
Lauck said that she looks forward to spending the swim season with senior friends and family on the team.
“Coming into the season I’m excited to have fun with my sister, Sarah Lauck, and my friend, Lily Maginn, for one last year,” Lauck said.

The girls’ wrestling team is looking to achieve their goals this season, and get better. In the 2023-2024 season, four Falcons qualified for the state tournament. Three out of four of those girls are back this season for more.
For senior Madeline Haynes, going into her last season is something she has been looking forward to.
“I’m excited it’s my last season. I’m just going to go and try to have fun and work my hardest [ to] make it count,” Haynes said.
Head Coach Kenny Holmes said that even through the difficult times that come with wrestling, they teach you important lessons for later in life.
“Yes, wrestling is difficult but sometimes so is life,” Holmes said.
One of the main aspects of wrestling is creating relationships on and off the mat, Haynes said.
“It’s always fun [to find] the friends you make during the season and just seeing how we all work together,” Haynes said.

After losing four seniors, the boys’ wrestling team still hopes to meet their goals, and build their program. The team lost three state qualifiers from the Class of 2024, but are still pushing themselves, and each other to get better.
Team camaraderie is something that pushes wrestlers to improve, head coach Derryan Derrough said.
“My plan is to build on our culture. We’re relying on our team’s culture to take us far,” Derrough said.
Hard work is something that is integral to a strong performance culture, and Michael Rossomano said that trusting your work improves your performance.
“My mentality going into the season [is] to be confident in what I’ve been drilling and to give my effort every match. I am most excited [to see] how we can perform against some tougher competition this year,” Rossomano said.

The Silver Stars dance team recently started their competitions for the 2024-25 season. The team is coming off a historic season where they finished fifth overall at the National Dance Team Competition (NDTC). After making it to the competition’s Finals for the first time last year, the team will look to build upon that success going into this season.
Senior Allie Cross, who has been on varsity since her freshman year, said she believes that this year’s team is capable of improving and refining their skills week-after-week, setting them up for a successful season.
“I think our expectations are pretty high because we have really good base dances and we also have lots of room to grow with what [our coaches] have given us. So I think our expectations are that as the season goes on, all of our dances will get better. It’s really just expecting that there’s no limit to our growth and that we’ll be able to grow throughout the entire season,” Cross said.
Although finishing highly at nationals would be ideal, Cross said that the ultimate goal of the season is to dance with pride and to further develop Summit’s reputation as a strong program.
“It would be nice to go to [the] Finals at Nationals like last year, but I think more of our goal is to always be proud when we step off of the floor and keep continuing to grow as a program,” Cross said.