Volleyball tips off fall sports
Hungry Horse News
For the Columbia Falls High School volleyball team, finding consistency is priority number one.
Head coach Josie Brown said that the team, which returns five seniors, has bonded over the summer while playing in tournaments together and that the improved teamwork will be one of the team's strengths this year.
"We spent a lot of time this summer playing together in different tournaments," she said. "I have five returning seniors and I think the girls have really jelled well together. I'm looking forward to the flow and the confidence they have in each other on the court this year."
As the girls head into the season, Brown said that they will put a difficult year behind them, a season that saw the team finish fourth at divisionals.
"We ended up fourth at divisionals," she said. "We kind of had a rough year, we had a lot of injuries and a lot of personal things that happened. We had a great game to get fourth and then just kinda fizzled after that."
Brown said that consistency is the key for the team to succeed this year, and that is why she is placing extra emphasis on serving and serve returns. Relying on the strong play of the seniors will also be important to the team.
"Our setter Kate Marcille, she's fantastic," she said. "She does a lot of great things for us."
Seniors Donna Burns, Sarah Sauter, Shanelle Swift and Amber Lineberry form the core group that will be counted on immensely.
"They're very strong and great leaders out on the court," she said.
The girls begin their season at the Whitefish Tipoff Tournament this Saturday (Aug. 27) at 8 a.m.
Cross country teams a study in contrast
By JOHN VAN VLEET
Hungry Horse News
The Columbia Falls High School cross country teams are complete opposites in almost every way.
The boys team is experienced and battle tested, while the girls team consists largely of unproven talent.
The girls have a large roster, numbers that will help in larger meets. The boys only have nine runners and are still looking to add more before the season starts.
Head coach Steve Gasche said that each team will have a different goal in mind at the onset of the season.
"For our boys, we've got returning talent," he said. "We're looking to hopefully fight for a conference title and possibly a spot at state. For the girls, we have a lot of inexperienced runners, so there's going to be a lot of new talent. Last year we didn't have a great season, we look to improve on those marks substantially."
Gasche said that for the boys, relying on the experienced runners such as seniors Dalvin Averill and Steffen Anderson. Averill and junior Brian Merseal are the team captains, runners that Gasche pointed to as expecting big seasons.
"We have several young men that could do a lot at the state level," he said. "The boys' weakness would obviously be our numbers. We're only looking at nine runners, we'd like to have twice as many."
The girls will be led by senior team captains Nellie Lutz and Jessica Dedman. Other runners are less proven, but Gasche still said the potential to succeed could be there in those new faces.
"Our strength is we've got good numbers," he said. "We've got a lot of unknown potential. Our weakness is that most of those girls are very inexperienced and several of those girls have never run cross country before. It will be a season of finding out what our potential is."
Gasche said the team's attitude and work ethic are admirable at this point and that based solely on effort, he expects a good season from both teams.
Tomorrow (Aug.26), the teams will run in a time trial at 10 a.m. in Kalispell at the Family sport complex across the street from Flathead Valley Community College.