From Soccer to XC

FINISHING THE SEASON

by Abby Martinez amartinez240@g.fhsdschools.org FHN’s varsity football team ends their season with a 1-9 record, an improvement from last year

FHN’s football team looks back at their season and how they hope to improve it next year. FHN’s varsity football team finished their 1-9 season with a hard-fought loss during playoffs against Battle High School on Nov. 8.

“I would describe this season as a struggle, but I would say there’s beauty within the struggle,” running back AZ Anderson said. “With every loss we had, I gained a valuable lesson to become a better player.”

The team went through many hardships throughout the season, but they always worked together to overcome those. One of the main challenges the team faced were the close-game losses.

“I think the biggest challenge all season was definitely finishing in the later quarters,” lineman Logan Currie said. “That’s where we always came short.”

Along with the challenges the team faced, there

Senior Joey Albers Prize passes a competitor at a 5k race during a cross country meet. He has one of the fastest personal records on the team. Albers also played volleyball and soccer in the past. (Photo by Allie Moore) were also very special moments the team cherished. The team beat Ft. Zumwalt South for the first time since 2017 on Sept. 13.

“Beating FZS was the biggest moment this season,” Currie said. “It showed us that we can compete.”

As the boys look back on the season, they begin to notice patterns throughout each game: the mentality of each player.

“The biggest improvement was definitely our attitude change,” Anderson said. “Even when we were down losing, it didn’t matter, people still had their heads held up. Last year we’d be down by a certain amount of touchdowns and everybody would be like ‘oh my gosh’ and I think that has to do with leadership.”

Though the season didn’t end the way the players or coaches hoped it would, they still took away the importance of being a team and to play like they know how to. The team has found a way to find the importance in each game of the season, whether it ends in a win or a loss.

“I wouldn’t do-over any games because I honestly believe that everything happens for a reason,” Anderson said. “Even the ones we lost by one or two points, because it built me into the person I am.” Junior Braedon Salter plays outside linebacker against Washington High school at a home game. He has played for the past three years of high school. Salter subbed his freshman year and played varsity his sophomore and junior year. “I feel like the seniors really stepped up and led the team,” said Salter. (Photo by Riley Witherbee)

DRIBBLING TO RUNNING

by Justin Brewer justinbrewer15@gmail.com Senior Joey Albers Prize runs cross country, making a change from soccer

After playing soccer for three years, one athlete has found a new calling. Senior Joey Albers Prize made the big decision to choose to run cross country his final year at FHN.

“I did track my junior year and I just kind of fell in love with running,” Albers Prize said. Although Joey is new to cross country, he is not a new face to FHN sports programs. Aside from soccer, he ran track last year. This, in part, due to his love of running. He loved not only the sport itself but also the team. A lot of the track team also run cross country and encouraged him to run cross country.

“A lot of my friends and family knew that it would be good for me because in soccer, I was always known for having a lot of endurance,” Albers Prize said.

Changing up a sport as a senior can be hard. When the time came for fall tryouts, Albers Prize was almost completely set on running cross country. He had played soccer his whole life, but he also knew that he was going to have fun on the cross country team.

“By the time tryouts came, I already knew I wanted to run cross country,” Albers Prize said “I had been thinking about it the whole summer.” Albers Prize sometimes wishes that he had run cross country earlier, but if given the chance, he wouldn’t change anything. He loved the years he played soccer. However, he has also loved running cross country and hopes to do it in the future. Head cross country coach Kimberly Martin believes that he definitely has the ability to succeed and hopes he does.

“After seeing him on the track I knew that he was going to be good in cross,” Martin said. “He has a really good work ethic and anybody who has that is going to be able to improve really well throughout the season.” WATCH Follow this link to watch a recap pf Cross Country at Districts bit.ly/33tYjAj

Juniors Emille Miller and Sophia Gabel attempt to block the ball from Liberty High School on Oct. 9. This is Miller and Gabel’s first year playing on varsity. During their sophmore year, the two juniors played on the JV team together. (Photo by Ella Manthey).

SETTING THE SCORE The varsity volleyball team played their final away game on Oct. 24 against St. Charles High School and look back at this year’s season

When the 2019 FHN girls varsity volleyball season came to an end, there were mixed emotions from both new and returning players. For many of the girls, it was their final season playing volleyball especially since five players on the team were seniors.

“Since being a senior, I think the thing I am going to miss most is getting to spend everyday with my closest friends that I would not have made if I didn’t play volleyball,” Kylie Schaffer said, who has been playing on the varsity team since her sophomore year. “Even though I am going to be playing in college it won’t be the same playing without my girls from high school.”

Many new players joined the team this season, including sophomore Ella Bargen who moved up from the freshman team to varsity in one year. She attributes this success to playing club volleyball during the winter. Many girls play club volleyball during the off season to keep up with their skills and prepare for the fall season.

“It was a very big jump from the freshman team to varsity and a bit scary because the girls were much taller and hit a lot harder, but I was ready because I always used to talk about being varsity when I was younger,” Bargen said. “I trained really hard by playing club volleyball and by doing clinic and camps. I worked on things I struggled with and I mastered them. Just in this season alone I improved by knowing how to read the ball not only by seeing where she was hitting by how the hitter was hitting.” Junior Cate Hahn was another new player who

moved up from JV to varsity. Throughout the season she developed her skills and eventually won All Tournament team at both the St. Charles High School Tournament and the Lutheran St. Charles Tournament. Hahn has been playing volleyball since her freshman year and has played for all three teams; freshman, JV and varsity.

“My favorite game was when we played Lutheran High in the championship game of their tournament, because it was the best we have ever played and although we didn’t win we played for each other to reach a common goal,” Hahn said. “I hope that next year we are still able to play for each other, not individually, and although we are losing our seniors, we can keep the team unity that we developed this year since it is so strong.” by Mollie Roberts msroberts6536@gmail.com

Varsity Girls Volleyball Stats Wins:14 Losses:15 Ties:1

REFLECTING ON THE SEASON

The Knights softball team started competing in their first game of districts on Oct. 16. They were ranked as the number five seed and played Fort Zumwalt North, who had the number four seed, and the Knights defeated them 13-3.

“We played pretty well so we were pretty excited to play the next day at Francis Howell Central who had the number one seed,” head coach Mike Freedline said. “They had already beat us three times this year so we knew it was going to be a tough game.”

Francis Howell North played Francis Howell Central on Thursday and started off the game well, but then had a couple errors, gained unearned runs and eventually lost 0-10. For next year the Knights have high hopes and expectations.

“We’ll be changing conferences, so going into the new conference our goal next year is to win the conference as we come into it next year,” Freedline said. “Our seniors led the team real well, and everybody stepped up and improved from the year before, so they all did a pretty good job.”

Last season, the Knights had six starting sophomores and were a young team. The Knights will be losing seniors such as Adria Schmidt, who led the Knights with 36 hits and two RBIs. Next year, the Knights will have several returning members, such as junior Becka Brissette and freshman Lucy Fajatin who led the team in home runs.

“This season we ended up having a lot more upperclassmen since we were such a young team last year and we ended up getting farther into districts this year,” junior Becka Brissette said. “We want to win conference next year, we changed conferences and we want to ended up winning and go farther in districts, and I want to hit better and get my stats up.” (Story by Parker Kilen)