Wildcat winter sports cranking on all cylinders as seasons draw nigh

With fall coming to a close, winter sports are right around the corner. After the bliss of success experienced by cross country as well as swim, tennis, and soccer, winter athletes are hoping to do the same. One such winter sport is boys basketball.

“Losing our leading scorer and all-conference player (Jaquez Overstreet) was a huge loss for us, so for us, our goal is to get a strong start this year and get much better each day,” basketball coach Mike Johnson said. 

The Wildcats are looking to continue to play strong regardless of the loss in leadership, but getting there will be tough as they face Xavier and Wauwatosa West early in the year.

“Long term, we strive to land in the top half of the league. We play in a hard conference, and we want to battle our way through the season to set ourselves up for a great run in March,” Johnson said. 

Entering a long season, it is important for the squad to see the challenge as a marathon, not a sprint.

“We want to take it game by game, especially with those two non-confrence games combined with four tough conference games,” he said. “We have to take it piece by piece, and won't have time to lick our wounds. We need to put our heads down, learn, and move on.”

Assisting in building the appropriate approach will be returning leaders.. 

“[Senior] Ethan Shefchik’s contagious work ethic has really been key to his natural leadership. Through this offseason and first few days of practice it was very evident that he was going to take the bull by the horns,” Johnson said.

Shefchik isn’t the only one coaches as counting on as Dylan Taylor is a promising sophomore on the rise. 

“As a sophomore, he has a brother who is a senior, and is good friends with a lot of these guys, which has allowed him to assimilate into the brotherhood,” Johnson said. “His game meshes well being an underclassmen as a distributor with some of the upperclassmen; he comes off more welcome as he isn't selfish with the ball.” 

Shefchik is coming into his senior year ready to take on his new role. 

“One thing I've been working on is my shot. Last year, I really showed what I can do, which motivated me all off-season to get better and work my release as quickly as possible,” he said. “On top of that, I've spent a lot of time in the weight room trying to become as dominant as possible.”

Taylor is also ready to take on his goal and enjoy the year. 

“These guys are so fun to be around. In practice, no matter how big the struggle, these guys are always cracking jokes, and keeping everything light. On the other hand, we can really get to work when we need to be and be productive,'' he said. 

Just as the boys team is looking forward to a strong season, the girls squad hopes to make similar progress with similar goals after their first game. 

“We’re looking to be at the top half of the conference which we haven’t done in a while. The girls think they can make it there, trying really hard in practice to get there,” Coach Kenisha Phillips said. “We had a little bump last night, but they’re ready to go. We went 19% from the layup range so it was first day, first game jitters.” 

Despite dropping the season opener, the Wildcats look forward to improving through the season.

“So, for this season we’re working on scoring. Because the last game we just lost we had 10 points in the first half,” Phillips said. “In the FVA, you need to get 40’s, 50’s, sometimes 60’s to win a game. Last year we were right around 45, so we definitely need to score more. We have good enough defense to be in games, just our offense wasn’t there yet.”

She hopes that they can build back up to the level they were at when they finished the season last year. In the process of doing so, they have learned to have a good time. 

“For this season, this group of girls makes it really fun everyday in practice,” she said. “There’s a lot of energy, like at the right times, like, just getting to know each other and things like this. This team is willing to dive on the floor whenever you want them to, to run around; it’s just a fun group to be around.”

The pleasure they have at practice carries over into why players hope students should come to support the girls.

“For the girls. I think they play better when there’s a big crowd,” Phillips said. “Last night we were in Pulaski, and their student section was super loud, super into it, and just, even having the opposing student section got them a little bit going. We got friendly girls, I’m sure they’re friends! They’d love to see you out there!” 

Both basketball teams are in full swing, but basketball isn’t the only winter sport up and running. The co-op gymnastics team is ready and happy to compete after the madness of Covid.. 

“I think it’s just getting back to somewhat of a normal year for sports and just doing the best we can, just having some fun, that’s basically it,” Coach Leah Levine said. “However we end up in our standings, it's how we end up. They just want to get back to a normal season, and don’t necessarily care how they place.”

They are also looking forward to having more than just dual meets.

“I’m looking forward to having invitationals back.” she said. “So, that means during invitationals we have multiple schools, we didn’t get to have those last year.” 

Levine has her sights set realistically and practical.

“As of right now we’re just working towards getting ready for the first meet on December 11,” she said. “Last year we got fourth in the conference, so, anything better than that, maybe get third place or second place.” 

With this, they hope to have more supporters other than the girl's parents. The dance team has similar prospects for this year, knowing they have a lot to look forward to.

“Our goal is to grow as a team and look like a team,” said Coach Alyssa. “I’m looking forward to getting back into the competition season with last year being a dud. It's gonna be exciting for them to actually be able to compete.”

After suffering through a COVID season with far fewer competitions, they now look forward to take  on new opportunities. 

“So with the previous season being COVID year and me and the other coach are new as well so it's a challenge for us to jump into this. This year is also over half new which is awesome, but there's definitely a learning curve for us as coaches” Alyssa said.

The girls are also excited for this season looking forward to what they will accomplish. 

“Growing more uniform as a team, being more put together and just being stronger and showing more emotion while we're dancing,” sophomore Kendall Larsonsaid of the team goals.

Freshman Allison Kohfeldt also sees ways for individual dancers to focus.

“We all have similar individual goals so I think it’s again everyone growing as a dancer and growing as a team,”she said.

While dance gets ready to take center stage, boys swimming is ready to make a splash. 

“We have a lot of new swimmers this season, many new to the sport so one of our team goals is to get everyone at their best and doing the best in their time,” Coach Wayne said. “For the boys season we are focused on breaking our individual times more than how many meets we win.”t. 

Wayne appreciates the evolution of her athletes.

“We have a really big team this year with a lot of new people, so I’m looking forward to these boys that are athletes, a lot of football players, track kids, baseball players, in a different environment and watching them grow as swimmers.”

Looking forward to the capabilities of the many new swimmers, she is also hopeful more people will rally around swim this winter season.
“No one ever comes to swim meets and it's really sad. It's a really cool environment. I think it's something different so people should definitely experience that also we just have a really awesome group of boys and people should come out and support them,” she said. “I think swimming doesn't get a lot of recognition in general so it's cool to see people at meets.” 

As swim dives in, wrestling readies to hit the mat. 

“Team goals is to make it to team state, that's basically the one we're focusing on. With the team we have coming back from last year they told us they wanted to go to team state and it's something we believe in from last year and the year prior,” said Coach Matthew Cuadra.“So for them to finally say it's a big thing and also for them to say there all in is the biggest team goal all in for everything holding each other accountable grades fundraising everything.”

Knowing the whole team has their eyes set on the prize has Cuadra hoping they can take the necessary steps to reach the end goal. 

“A lot of people say dominating, it's gonna be like you're just beating the crap out of someone. That’s not what I’m talking about;  it's winning every position and doing everything in our power to do what's best for us” he said.

Championships must begin with the heart of a champion.

 “You could be losing by 10 points, but as long as you’re going out there and giving it your all and dominate in that position every time that's really what I want them to focus on becoming better at not giving up,” Cuadra said.

Senior Elijah Geffers anticipates finishing his career in style.. 

“I’m looking forward to the crowds at the wrestling meets,”he said. “We didn't get much of that last year and just under the lights wrestling I’m looking forward to that.”

Senior Ja’siah Williams shares similar views as he is ready to see what they can produce. 

“I’m looking forward to building team chemistry and having all the guys stick together, because right now we have a really solid team and I’m loving what I’m seeing,” he said. 

Williams enjoys the fact they are all getting along and growing a team culture that they can all be proud of. 

“I’m looking forward to seeing what our team is capable of as well as the younger guys get on the mat and see some mat time and get that varsity experience.” senior Roman Martell said. “I’m looking forward to seeing how we do at tournaments.” 

Having gone to state last year and just missing it, Martell also has some bigger expectations for himself.

“I want to be a state champ. I want to beat my brother's single season pin record and I want to beat Cuadra’s career wins. I want to knock Cuadra off the board and I want to get one more pin than my brother,” he said with an eye on legacy.

The last winter sport beginning to come underway is hockey as they get ready to hit the ice.

“We have four players out right now but when your teams are small this creates major issues,” Coach John Thompson said. “Generally, we are pretty positive about the season and tems of our schedule. We just had our first 16 scrimmage in Fond du lac, and we were happy with our performance and are optimistic and positive.”

Although they already have a few guys roughed up, they are upbeat about the season and looking to keep a positive image. 

“I think one of the things we work very hard at is building team character and a positive image of the team that has to transpire from within the team itself,” Thompson said. “I think we picked some very good captains this year and I think they will help us execute that.” 

Thompson hopes that their positive image will help to draw more people out to see them on the ice while growing the sport with athletes as well.

“We're working very hard to build community support so really this hockey team is made up of Winneconne, Oshkosh North, Oshkosh West and Lourdes, but hockey in Oshkosh is not very popular,” he said. “We challenged the players to use social media to get students to come to games. We are trying to get some of the bands to come out. We're trying to elevate it to create some excitement. If you showed up at a hockey game you’d be hooked” 

By Lily Fournier

Oshkosh West Index Volume 118 Issue 3

November 29 2021