ARHS volleyball team finds unforseen success in 2011 season

Sports
D ecember 12, 2011
P age 15
ARHS volleyball team finds
unforseen success in 2011 season
By Cassie Jeschke
The ARHS Volleyball team
has exceeded all expectations
and shattered the competition
by making it almost all the
way to the top.
After losing ten members
from the 2010 team, this
year’s volleyball team does
not about to disappoint anyone. Coach Kacey Schmitt
and senior captains Jamie
Hoyle, Sarah Krasnik, and
Elena Cocchi have “kept everyone focused and positive,”
said Coach Schmitt.
The thirteen-member team
led Amherst to Western Mass
Finals and has made their
coach proud. “Our goal was
to make play-offs, then try to
do well when we got there, so
making the finals was fantastic with so many new, young
varsity players,” said Coach
Schmitt.
Coach Schmitt has been
coaching for thirteen seasons
and keeps Amherst volleyball
strong. “I run camps and clinics to encourage new players,
and started a middle school
team to get kids started sooner
than high school,” said Coach
Schmitt.
The team has been able to
excel this year through experience and positive reinforcement from their coach.
“I played club and coed volleyball for years, so when
they needed a coach at ARHS
in the late 90s, I took it on
because I knew the game...
it is fast, exciting, and very
much of a team game,” said
Schmitt.
One of the significant
highlights in the season was
the win against an unconquered team. “[We went] all
the way up to Mt. Greylock,
with no fans there to speak
of, other than loyal parents
and friends, [played a team]
who was undefeated and had
a boy, and beat hem 3-1,” said
Coach Schmitt.
But a lost game has not
stopped this determined team.
“A loss to West Springfield,
which we should have won,
was a turning point in the season for us...We learned that
we needed to come out every
match with more spirit and energy. After that loss, we turned
it around, became much more
vocal, and more fired up every match to start off strong,”
said Coach Schmitt.
Coach Schmitt is ready to
start the next season strong
with ten returning players and
a whole lot of fortitude, courage and strength. “This team
has been a joy to coach—they
have all been committed,
positive, and team-oriented,
and improved tremendously
from the beginning of the season to the end…I am looking
forward to next year,” said
Coach Schmitt.
Photo by Lindsey Plummer
Elena Cocchi, ‘12, sets the ball during an Amherst volleyball match, while Jamie Hoyle,
‘12, Athena Donta, ‘13, Sarah Krasnik, ‘12, and Haley Parker, ‘13, look on.
Photo by Friends of Amherst Football
Canes player advances the ball down the field.
Football team starts strong, but
cannot maintain winning streak
By Anna Glazer
It was tough and laborious
season for Amherst Regional
High School’s varsity football
team this year.
Early in the season, the
‘Canes gave people hope as
they kept up a solid winning
streak. “In the beginning we
started off strong,” said Captain Justin Carey, ’13, “but then
we got cocky.”
The team ended the season
with a 4-6 record. “We were
good,” said Captain Zack Jackson, ’12, “Then Justin got his
concussion and we lost two
games after that because we
didn’t have a backup quarterback.” The team, for the first
five weeks or so, was above 500
for the first time since 2005.
“Our line was strong in the
first week, and then there were
injuries.” said Jackson, “We
could have played more as a
team.” However, the first few
weeks of wins began to prove
to people that this year the
team was serious about playing
and winning.
However, after a few strong
games, the Canes began to
sink. “We started slacking off
in practice,” said Carey. “Peo-
ple weren’t trying because we
thought we were gonna win.
After we lost a few, it went
downhill from there.”
Despite the rough losses,
many on the team continued
to practice hard on the field
every day, even after other fall
sports had finished. Although
the team fell short of making
the playoffs, there was still one
more game to be played.
Every Thanksgiving Day
for the past seven years, Amherst has taken on Northampton in a rivalry titled Battle
of the Bridges. This was Amherst’s last chance to show
everyone what kind of a team
they really were, with one goal,
“not to give the trophy back
to Northampton,” said Carey,
“and to end on a high note for
our seniors.”
Amherst ended up winning
the game with a score of 1412, stealing the trophy from
Northampton for the second
season in a row. Although this
season presented itself as a
challenge yet again, the team
was able to stay at it and work
their hardest, winning their final game and ending with success.