The Fall Sports season has now concluded for the cavemen. There were many ups, downs, and milestones reached for the cavemen athletes and coaches, this season.
Tennis
The tennis program was under a new direction this year with Coach Sarah DeShone. “I think the Boy’s Tennis season was increasingly better. We were playing our best tennis at the end of the season and starting competing with other schools,” said DeShone, “What I really enjoyed about the season was seeing the progression from the summer until the end of the season. This group of guys had fun while getting better at tennis together.”
Other coaches took notice of the team’s hard work, too. “Other coaches were constantly praising our guys for their great improvement,” said DeShone.
Girls Soccer
The girls soccer team lead by Coach Tim Barwick, battled tough throughout the whole season.
“I think the season went very well. We really struggled with injuries this year and that had an effect on our overall record,” said Barwick, “ We had two ACL tears, three concussions, and several sprained ankles that prevented players from being on the field.”
The team improved drastically throughout the year. Barwick led the team to a 4-6 conference record, setting a new record for Mishawaka High School. “The players are a great group; hard working, diligent, easy to coach, willing to put in the effort,” said Barwick, “the way our sectional game ended was disappointment, but it is a good representation of our improvement over the season. We lost to LaPorte 0-1 in the second overtime in the sectional semi-finals. That shows our improvement because we lost to them 1-6 early in the season.”
Boys Soccer
New head coach Josh Aaron hoped to take the team in the right direction. He led the team to their first sectional victory in ten years. “I think the season was a success overall in the fact that we were able to learn a lot and start building something from the ground up,” said Aaron, “the players and the new coaching staff were able to start building a strong foundation to find continuous success in the coming years.”
Coach Aaron was happy to see how the players grew and expects them to continue during the offseason. “The players grew a great deal on and off the field and will be very hungry to be getting into the gym and starting the grind for next year. There is more excitement building around the community with soccer and I am excited to see where our program can go,” said Aaron.
Cross Country
This year’s cross country season was a success with the girls team finishing in semi-state and the boys finishing in regionals.
Coach Chris Kowalewski was pleased with the season. “We judge our success on how we finish the season, the girls were third in the conference, second at sectionals, and an impressive third in a very tough regional. The team got better throughout the season,” said Kowalewski, “The boys started strong placing second in the pre-season conference meet but fourth in conference. They bounced back to place second at sectionals, but had a rough day at regionals and placed eighth to end their season. Our expectations are high for both team, and advancing to semi-state with the chance to qualify for state in our yearly goal.”
The coaches find ways to make cross-country fun.“We try to produce a fun competitive atmosphere that people want to be a part of. We’re trying to make running cool. Our camping trip to Warren Dunes to start each season builds a tight team bond and culture of high expectations,” said Kowalewski.
Football
The football season was a growing experience with starting six sophomores starting on defense. However, they still found success. Coach Bart Curtis picked up his 200th win this year with a win 38-14 win over Marian.“This year has been different than other from the standpoint of experience level, and varsity expectation. Typically, we have a group of 6-8 players that have experience both on the field and in the film room from the prior year, so usually it is not a big transition to bring the remaining guys up to par,” Coach Keith Kinder said.
Every year there are new things teams have to adjust to. “I have learned that every group is different, year in and year out. Every team has their different motivations and different things make them click,” said Assistant Kyle Shaw. The team fell to New Prairie in sectionals, but still had a successful year.