Winter break was a lot shorter for many athletes on campus as they continued training, practicing, and playing during the two weeks without school. 

Soccer 

Seasons greetings met season beginnings for boys’ and girls’ soccer as they kicked off their 2020 season in the annual Dr. Pink Soccer Invitational Tournament at the Toyota Soccer Complex and the Ford Center at The Star. 

Featuring teams from throughout the state, the girls’ team went 2-0-1 while the boys’ team finished 1-1-1 with its only loss coming to 6A Plano West.

“This year our season started earlier than it has in the past,” boys’ head soccer coach Fred Kaiser said. “We only had one scrimmage over the break, and the varsity and the alumni game. I liked this a lot better just because we were able to spread out our scrimmages. In the past we have had to do all of our scrimmages starting over the break and we tried to get as many in but you couldn’t really maximize it because you didn’t have too much time to practice what you need to work on in between scrimmages. I like this year because its spread everything out, and it’ll give us the opportunity to rest and recover before we have to keep playing.”

Basketball

On the court, the boys’ basketball team fell to the Centennial Titans 51-39.

“We prepared for the game against Centennial by getting up a lot of shots because we were going to get a lot of shots during the game,” junior Trey Walters said. “I’m happy that my teammates are willing to make sacrifices during the game and take charges and hustle plays because they help us as a team to pick up the intensity during the game.”

While the boys’ team is still seeking its first District 9-5A win, the girls’ team is now 7-0 beating Centennial in a back and forth battle, 44-43. 

Sophomore guard Jazzy Owens led the team with a total of 16 points.

“We watched a lot film and took every rep in practice seriously,” Owens said. “Even if we weren’t going that specific rep we took mental ones. Everybody was locked in. I was proud to see my teammates really bring the “fight” to them, we attacked the basket hard and really moved the ball.”

Wrestling

Competing in three different tournaments over winter break, the wrestling team scored multiple individual and team victories.

“I felt like we rose to the occasion, we wrestled well,” wrestling head coach Cody Bridwell said. “We had a few pleasant surprises, but overall these tournaments have gotten tougher over the years, so there were times in the past where we would go in and roll over people, but now there’s some pretty serious athletes.” 

With the boys placing 4th in the Coppell Santa Slam, and 7th at Grapevine Duals, senior captain Tristan Seals is proud of the team, and excited for competition to come. 

“At Grapevine, we did really well, there’s a lot of 6A schools and schools from out of state, and out of 27 teams we took 8th place overall so I’m proud of us as a team,” Seals said. “I felt really good about Santa Slam, the team placement was awesome, the girls did especially well, so I was very proud of them. For the guys, it was a lot of their first time there, but they worked hard. One of our top wrestlers, Michael Breslav took first, so we were excited about that.”

On the girls side, six athletes placed in the top 5 at the Independence Knights Invitational, and the team came in second at the Coppell Ms.Claus Slam. 

“We did really well, we placed well, and we got a trophy,” sophomore Maliyah Ross said. “Everyone was awesome, Emily Corona got first, Daley Burkett got third, so a bunch of our girl did good and placed top five. I wrestled my butt of and I got 5th place so I felt good.”