Familiar faces in new places abound for spring teams
Austin Peterson’s success for the track team at Bureau Valley was one of many stories of some familiar faces in new places this spring.
The BVHS junior switched over from baseball to track and made his way all the way to Charleston in the high jump and ran in the Storm’s 4x200 and 4x400 relays. He took first in the high jump in the Erie Sectional and recorded a personal best jump of 6-2 at state.
He said he didn’t know how well he’d do sitting out two
years, but he did quiet well for himself.
Peterson still holds the high jump record at Bureau Valley South and qualified for state both years for coach Nick Hartz, now in his first year as varsity head coach.
“He is a hard worker and an all-around good kid,” Hartz said.
Peterson was not alone at BVHS in criss-crossing paths between the ball diamond and track.
Sophomore Anna Phillips ran down some state track medals as a freshman, but this year went back to the softball diamond. An ASA softball player in the summer, Phillips wants to play softball in college and knew she had to devote more time to it.
The sophomore centerfielder slumped early in the season and had a hamstring injury late, but when fully charged, she was able to use her speed at the top of the order to get the Storm offense going and covered a lot of ground in the field.
“When she gets on base, we score 90 percent of the time. We got to get her on,” BV coach Brian Humphrey said.
St. Bede senior Sam Sons made the opposite move, switching from softball to track, though she will play softball in college. She desired to increase her foot speed to prepare her more for college softball.
While Hartz gained an athlete at the start of the track season, he lost one during it. BVHS junior Alex Franklin decided to hang up his track spikes to concentrate on basketball. He played at the Met in Princeton and will start up AAU ball with Annawan coach Ryan Brown.
Franklin was the returning honor roll leader and state qualifier in the long jump and ran the 100 and 200 and 4x200 relay.
“He wanted to focus on basketball because he said that is his No. 1 priority,” Hartz said. “I think the kids could see that his heart really wasn’t in it, and they adjusted really well.”
Princeton junior Scott Roseberg has been a three-sport varsity player his first two years of high school in soccer, basketball and baseball. He didn’t go out for baseball this spring in order to concentrate on soccer, playing for the same club team teammate Matt McClure and former Tiger Ryne Bird did before him out of Mossville.
Roseberg, a three-time unanimous NCIC all-conference pick, would like to play soccer in college and believes this will help him get there.
“He should be a great asset to the team,” PHS soccer coach Jason Bird said.
• Weight men trio: Though the success may not have matched years past, PHS made a resurgence with its weights this spring by sending three athletes to state, Ethan Kloster and Evan Hale in the shot and sophomore Jake Holland in the discus.
The last time, and the only other time, PHS had three throwers at state for the boys was in 1981. That was certainly a banner year for PHS weights with Eric Foresman and Pat Pence placing 1-2 in the Class A shot put and Mike Telfer second in the discus.
The same season, brothers Todd and Tom Schertz brought home state medals for neighbor Tiskilwa, now a part of the Princeton district. Todd was third in shot, Tom seventh in discus.
• Teacher of the Year: May was good to Princeton’s Chris Waca. First he was named as head football coach at Kewanee High School. Then he was named as a co-Teacher of the year at KHS.
One student said Waca, a first-year math teacher, “managed to capture my attention and I hate math ... that’s saying something. He’s one of the best teachers I’ve ever had.”
The student further said, “We managed to steal Mr. Waca away from Princeton and they can’t have him back.”
Congrats to Chris and best of wishes to his old man, Charlie, who will be riding into retirement at Princeton Logan Thursday morning after 41 years in teaching.
• Go Oly: Well, my ol’ alma mater has done it again. The Stanford Olympia baseball and softball teams (class of ‘79) will both be in the state finals at the same weekend for the third time in seven years.
The baseball team has won state in ‘02 and ‘08, the softballers in ‘02 and ‘03 with two seconds.
We had some big guns in our day like Hal McIntire, Kip Cheek and Kenny Williams, when we won the first Corn Belt Conference baseball title, but nothing like this era of Spartans. Good luck Oly!
• Summer camp guide: The varsity and sophomore boys basketball camp at Hall is running this week with the freshmen and junior high to follow.
The Princeton girls basketball camp open Monday with incoming grades 3-5 meeting from 8:30-10 a.m. followed by grades 6-8, 10-11:30 a.m., grades 9-10 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; and grades 11-12 from 1:30-3:30 p.m.
The PHS high school boys camp also opens Monday with remaining sessions for grades 3-5 and 6-8 to meet the following week.
Other camp dates are: Tiger football camp (June 22-26) and PHS volleyball camp (June 22-26).
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