Fall Sports Previews: Cloverdale returns to defend girls’ XC title; Greencastle girls’ golf weathering early season as team form; several squads looking to make do with few numbers
Cloverdale will attempt to defend the girls’ Putnam County title for a fourth-straight season while doing so under a third coach in three year.
Branston Scott takes over for Ken Schnepp at the helm of the cross country program, the first head coaching position for the former Cloverdale graduate.
“Mr. (James) Wade called me earlier this summer and asked if I was interested, though at first, I wasn’t,” Scott said. “The more I looked into it, the more I figured it would be a good way to get my foot in the door and figure out how the whole coaching thing works.”
Scott said even from his own high school days that the Clover cross country program had strong runners on the team and while shorthanded on the boys’ side to start the year, the new coach said he believed there would be two strong teams once competition got under way.
“Cloverdale has always been able to produce quality runners that will work hard and I’m excited to coach both teams,” Scott said. “We have a good turnout on the girls’ side, though not as well on the boys’ side with a couple of guys who said they wouldn’t be running this year.
“That said, once school starts, I have a feeling we’ll end up with two full teams.”
Ella Szczerbik returns as a senior for the Clovers, the three-time defending county champion and a two-time semistate qualifier, along with fellow seniors Daphanie Geiger and Abigail Nees along with junior Hannah Baker and sophomore Molly Havenor.
Senior Carson Hall leads the Clover boys along with fellow seniors Matthew Miller and Jacob Miller and sophomore Tanner Trammel.
“Ella has been a top runner for some time for the girls,” Scott said. “They won the county last year and almost qualified for the regional as a team.
“We’re returning most of those runners again so we’ve got a good shot at winning the county again and moving on in the postseason with the girls having a year of experience under their belts. We want them to keep moving in the right direction and make the extra step to do it.
“Right now, we only have four guys out,” Scott noted. “Coach Andy Tyler, who is the track coach, was a huge help this summer as he ran the summer program as this is my first teaching job and I was working another job this summer.”
Scott said both teams looked good in early practices and the goal was for both to continue to build off of what they had done in the past while also setting up a platform for both squads in the years to follow.
“With the girls being defending county champs, we’re hopefully looking to repeat as that and get the boys right there next to them,” Scott said. “We want the girls to take that next step and make it out of sectional as a team, which would be really good for them.
“It would also be nice to start building back up on the running side of things. After this year, as we’re a senior-heavy team, we want to get people excited about running and not have a lapse in the years to come.”
Greencastle
The struggle to get runners out for the Tiger Cubs extended to the boys’ side to start the 2022 season as neither side has a complete team to start the year.
It’s a problem that head coach Brian Hammett is hoping to fix with school now having started, especially with only one runner out for the girls’ team in junior Meredith Ball.
“Unfortunately, we only have one runner at the moment,” Hammett said. “Now that I am a teacher at the high school, I’m trying to get a few more girls to run but, for right now, we’re a team of one.
“This Meredith’s third year of running and if she continues the progressing like she did from freshman to sophomore year, she should be close to if not easily a regional qualifier.”
Charlie Menzel returns as a junior to lead the boys’ team, having won two county titles and made two semistate appearances in his first two years of running at Greencastle.
Menzel is joined by fellow juniors Daniel Dinn and Isaac Hertenstein while freshman Landon Miller will be looking to make an impact early according to Hammett.
“We’ve got three juniors and a freshman right now while trying to get a few more to come out and fill the team,” Hammett said. “Charlie is probably the leader of the team based on what he’s done the past two years and just got back from doing some high altitude training out in Colorado, so that should be a boost for him.
“We have a freshman in Landon who was missed half the season because of COVID but he’s a great runner as well. Daniel and Isaac are good runners as well. We just wish we had a fifth and sixth runner right now.”
While getting additional runners out was a goal for Hammett as the early season continues, keeping the current runners moving in the right direction even without team scores was the goal early on.
“We use empirical data from last year to this year to see how they’re improving,” Hammett said. “Daniel had a couple of meets where he dropped two or three minutes from the previous year; the same goes with Isaac and even Charlie had a couple of meets he won as a freshman that he won by even more as a sophomore.
“Meredith had several meets where she dropped four, five minutes from her first year. We show the kids that data to remind them that, while they may not feel like they’re getting faster, they’re cutting minutes off of their times.
“I get excited when I see that huge excitement,” Hammett added. “I’d like to see us have a whole team and show them the growth they’re making in terms of competition but if we don’t have that, we still want to show the kids that they’re improving all the time.”
Girls’ Golf
Greencastle
The Tiger Cubs have not had much time to get ready for the 2022 season, jumping in with both feet with two matches in the first three days of competition.
While only three golfers were able to play in the first two matches, losses to Monrovia and South Putnam, Greencastle has a full roster available once practice requirements are met for incoming coach Brad Kingma, who steps back into the box after first doing so a decade ago.
“We have four eligible with one unable to make it out to the first couple of matches and a couple more who will be joining,” Kingma said. “We haven’t had enough to qualify for a team yet but that will change.”
Ryleigh Tuttle and Jessica Garrison return as seniors for Greencastle with junior Olivia Monnett and sophomores Grace Long, Emma Callahan and Sydney Shrewsbury rounding out the squad.
“Ryleigh is our experienced senior,” Kingma said. “She was injured and hasn’t played a lot but she should improve quickly.
“I was pleased with how Emma played on Monday. On the day she came out but nailed almost all of her shots Monday, which is a real positive.”
“We only have one newcomer in Sydney and she has shown a lot of promise in the way she has made contact with the ball,” Kingma added. “If she is able to develop consistency, a short game and putting, she could be a good player for us.
“The others have some experience, having played at least a year. Our short game and putting was an issue Monday, so working on that is going to be a big thing.”
In the opener against Monrovia, Tuttle shot 57 while Callahan carded a 59 and Long a 68 while against South Putnam, Tuttle shot a 54, Callahan turned in a round of 66 and Long came in on 68.
While still waiting to get the full squad together, Kingma said there were plenty of positives for the girls already and was eager to see how the team improved over the course of the year.
“How we’re going to compare to other teams is hard at the start and while we can’t control how other teams play, we want them to play well,” Kingma said. “We just need to go out, keep working and see those improvements.
“We’ll start judging more internally but also have fun. We want to get better, see our scores improve and we can judge our success on that while letting the results of a match be what they are.”
Boys’ Tennis
South Putnam
For the first time since the program began, the Eagles will be playing short of a full team as the boys’ tennis season gets under way.
“Right now, it’s difficult to tell,” South Putnam head coach Johnnie Briones said about the team’s outlook. “We know we’ll be strong in our returners but this is a first for me.
“I’ve seen it in other places were there weren’t enough kids for a full team but I’ve never been in this situation. It’s one of those years where it happens but we’re hoping to get some more guys out once school starts.”
The Eagles have two seniors in Tanner Smithers and Logan Starks while Luke Hutcheson saw time at the JV level and William Schurtter joins the team as a freshman.
“Tanner was our No. 2 singles player last year while Logan was a doubles player for us,” Briones said. “Logan will more than likely move to singles this year. Both of them are looking really good.
“Luke was a JV guy last year and is looking more confident in his game. Our lone freshman, William, is a first-time player but is making huge strides and improving every day.
“He’s got a really great attitude about things,” Briones added. “Tennis, like golf, can be frustrating but he’s looking pretty confident and focused on what he’s doing.”
With four players, South Putnam will be able to compete in matches as a team, though will be forced to forfeit two positions each match unless the squad grows in the coming weeks.
That said, Briones said the players were making strides and expected them to put in good showings once play began in the coming weeks.
“The guys we have are looking pretty good,” Briones said. “Our two seniors that are returning for varsity are looking good and two underclassmen that are coming on really well.
“We’re excited for the guys as they’re making a lot of headway in a short amount of time. The hardest part for our guys over the summer was some of them are so active in others sports as well as working, but we’re pretty pleased with what we’ve seen.”