Let the games begin! Chelan and Douglas counties are now officially in phase two of Washington’s Healthy Start Plan, meaning that Cascade High School students can participate sporting practices and events. Sports are not the same as they were pre-COVID: they must follow the recommendations of Chelan Douglas Health District. For every practice, athletes are having their temperatures taken, wearing masks, being six feet apart, and using sanitizer that is available. Cascades High School has developed new rules that are modified to suit the individual needs of each sport. Despite the changes, there are plenty of students eager to put on their jerseys and represent Cascade High School.
Cross Country
Cross Country is a sport that focuses on student’s strengths and weaknesses individually. Though they are still competing by themselves; their teammates and coaches are cheering on the side lines while being safe. Coaches are being extra careful by staying out of the regular classrooms where they used to meet up for practices last year. The team is staying in small groups while running on roads or trails that are secluded from large numbers of people. The routes are being organized by the coaches themselves. They meet every day at 3:30 p.m. and practice until between 4-5 p.m. They retrieve their personal belongings from Icicle River Middle School. There are six upcoming meets, and the first four meets are on Saturdays. Then the last two meets are on 3/25 in 1A championship (WWPP), which will be the race that determines which team will be in the regional championship. Finally, the last meet will then be in the regional championship on 4/1. The first meet will compete with the Royal cross-country team. The season will last from 2/22 to 4/1. Mr. Massey, who is one of the cross-country coaches, stated for the students that feel undecisive about joining, “My advice is to join! The more runners on the team the more fun and motivating it is for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re not fast – the point is it’s fun to work hard with others to get faster. Improvement is easy to measure and extremely rewarding.” In a short amount of time, runners will have to make their progress and achievements count. When junior Chase Runions was asked what goals, he wanted to achieve, he replied, “This season I would like to at least get back to my PR from last season. With this short season it will be hard to make a lot of progress, but I want to make up what I lost over the winter.”
Link for Cross Country Schedule Information: https://cascadecrosscountry.weebly.com/
If you would like to know more about cross country you can email, dmassey@cascadesd.org
Cheerleading
Even when everything is going sideways the cheer leaders won’t hesitant to keep spirits high for those who are down. Their cheer events are correlated to the football games. Their practices are on Monday-Friday from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in a multi-purpose room, unless there is a game. Every day when they practice or in preparation for cheer events, they check their temperature and socially distance. Their cheer captains are senior Morgan Colvin and senior Sierra Stoddard. These two students help newcomers to the cheer team, help the coaches with equipment's, and organize anything that needs clarifications. Their game schedule is 3/5 to 4/2 with both varsity and jv squads at Chelan, Quincy, Cashmere, Warden, and Omak. They have ten events/games to cheer at for both varsity and jv football games. Coach Harrison has a history as a cheer leader at Cascade High School. When she was asked why she became a coach she said, “I cheered at Cascade when I was in high school and when I graduated college Nona Crites, the previous cheer coach, had come to me and told me she was planning on retiring in the next few years. She was a strong driving force in my life in so many ways and I wanted to be able to do that for young adults as well. My goal is to help develop well rounded students and the way I am able to do that is through coaching cheerleading.” She wants to inspire other students to be open to new changes and like to guide her team to cheer for others and bring up their spirits. Meanwhile, as senior Morgan Colvin was asked what goals she would like to accomplish, she replied with, “I would love it if we were able to get the whole school involved in sports, even if everyone is not able to attend the games. Since this is a very unique year, I think that it is important to bring as much school spirit as possible! My goal for the cheer team would be to spread school spirit and kindness in such uncertain times.”
If you would like to know more about the cheer practices or events, email aharrison@cascadesd.org
Volleyball
Every weekday, students playing volleyball practice from 3-6 p.m. in the Cascade High School gym. Prior to practice, coaching staff checks the temperature of each athlete and writes it down with the time and date. Considering that volleyball is an inside sport, participants are wearing their masks and socially distancing a bit more than the other sports. They have twelve matches total for the whole season. Two matches are going to be on Wednesday in Okanogan on 3/3 at 5:30 p.m. While the other meet is on 3/10 facing off in Brewster at 5:30 p.m. The rest of the meets will be on Saturdays starting from 2/27 to 3/27 for the whole season, which in total is twelve meets. Junior Ruthie Biebesheimer stated, “We actually set goals as a team, we set goals on intensity, passion, and intentional communication.” Working together is the key goal to having fun and bonding together as a team. Since most of the time in volleyball players rely on their teammates to get the next ball without having to worry about the other team while preventing the other team from getting the point instead. Coach Rosario has been excitedly planning out how practices are going and loves her teams. She was asked about any advice she can lend to other students who are interested in doing volleyball; she said, “My advice for newcomers is to be open to new ideas, be willing to work hard, and be willing to show up for your team and yourself. These are things my current volleyball players embody every day. Coaches will give you the tools necessary to be a good player, but the work and success will come from your eagerness to learn, grow and change. We welcome anybody curious about volleyball and wanting to be a part of a family here at Cascade athletics.” Others have been doing volleyball thier whole life and can’t wait to do it every year, for example junior Ava Northrup stated, “I picked volleyball because I have been playing all through high school, and because it is one of the best feelings when you do something to support your team, like if I make a really good dig, or as a team we get a point, the passion, intensity and happiness you feel after that is one of the best feelings.”
If you would like to know more about the volleyball practices or matches, email trosario33@yahoo.com
Soccer
Finally, the girls’ soccer team for Cascade High School gathers every school day from 6-8 p.m. at the Icicle River Middle School gym to do their warmups, which contain of four laps around the gym and dynamic exercises. Common exercise cores they use are lazy skips, high knees, lunges, and straight leg kick. They first break out into announcements on what they are practicing on. Then continue to practice on passing, fundamentals, then do some games with 2v1 and 5v5 people. Their seasonal game starts from 3/3 to 4/1 with ten games for both varsity and jv girls’ soccer. There are many fantastic strong ladies who are willing to put in an effort and work their way up to their designated goals. Senior Stella Johnson was asked what goals she would like to accomplish, and she replied with, “By the end of the season I'm hoping that our team has been able to connect out on the field and get to know each other better. Number one priority is to have a good time with a good group of people!” Lots of students' bond with others through sports, clubs, or classes because they are because they spend a lot of time together. Senior Rory Swoboda who also plays soccer when asked why she picked that specific sport. She answered with, “I decided to play soccer this year because soccer is so good at making me feel connected to other people and myself. I love feeling a part of something.” The head coach of the girls’ soccer for Cascade High School is Mr. Reyna; he loves teaching soccer to the younger generation of girls and boys and passing down his knowledge of technique and strategy of soccer. A question was brought to Mr. Reyna about why he decided to be a coach for soccer, and he replied with, “I’ve been playing soccer since I remember, and it is one of my passions. coaching is a way to give back everything that I learned when I was a player.”
All sports schedules are published online and finalized so if you would like to know more about it, email jreyna@cascadesd.org
Cascade High School is making all the preparations to keep students safe and have the best experience with their sporting events. There will be attending games and meets, however that doesn’t mean you can’t cheer for them from home, school, or wherever. They are working hard even in the face of Covid. They won’t let that stop them for being hard workers and making plenty of friends along the way.
Y'all should know that I'm mad hyped that sports are back . Cascade bout to go of this year
This was very well written, and was great how you left all the coaches emails and links to websites if people wanna learn more! I also loved hearing from the different athletes and why the chose the sport they are playing.