ATHLETICS

TENNIS

Softball

The girl’s softball team played their first season at the high school level this year. This group of girls worked hard not only at practice, but also on their own—after practice and on the weekends. They were determined to get Providence their first ever win in softball history and they did it. In the fourth game of the season the girls came out strong on offense scoring 18 runs against Johnson County. Our pitcher, Aerin Hicks, had one of her best games. In following games they faced a few challenging pitchers, but came through with two more wins on the season. The second one against Tri-Cities Christian 16-8, and the third against Hampton High School 19-10, a team who had beat them just two weeks before. The girls really showed up that night against Hampton stringing together a total of 14 hits to get a win on senior night for our only senior—Emily Barnett. The girls not only made history for the Providence softball program this year, but also developed their character as Christ followers and as an example to the middle school team who look up to them and their hard work.

The Providence Academy Tennis Team finished their season on May 8th. With this being the first year in TSSAA, PA Tennis played 10 matches, with 7 of them being in our district. The boys finished 3-4 as a team with the following representing PA in District Doubles Tournament: Evan Dawson/Evan Campbell and Christian Johnson/Lucas White. While the girls finished 4-3 and earned a spot in regionals, with the following representing PA in District Doubles Tournament: Maddie Kyker/Katie Loran and Halle Grace Williams/Ryan Luff. When asked what the season was like, the team all stated that they had fun, enjoyed the friendships they created through tennis, and were glad to represent Providence, their families, and most importantly Christ to the other teams.

SOCCER Losing 11 seniors and entering the 2023 spring season as a member of TSSAA Division 2, district 1 East Region for the first time, was going to be a challenge for a young Knight’s soccer team. Two goals for this year’s team were: to have a good name (Proverbs 21:1), to Glorify the name of Jesus, and to work to improve every practice and game as we moved through the season. We saw both spiritual and physical growth throughout the year. The Knights finished the regular season 7-8 with 4 of the losses by just one goal. The Knights competed well with top teams in the conference. The team defeated the #3 team in the conference (Berean) 4-3 and just lost to the number 1 team (The Kings Academy) 3-2. In regional play, the Knights found themselves in a 0-0 draw with Silverdale Academy after regulation play, 2 ten-minute overtime periods, and a regulation PK shootout. The game came down to sudden death PK’s where we lost after our first sudden death pk shot carreened off the post and the Silverdale shooter found the back of the net after goalkeeper, Andrew Cunningham, deflected the shot. Head coach, Mike Cash stated that he was proud of how this young team competed throughout the entire year. "We surprised several teams, we improved on the pitch, and in the game of life. What a great work God is doing in the lives of these young men.”

TRACK Competing in more meets than ever before, the track team had athletes trailblazing new events for PA, such as Myla Johnson in the triple jump and Drew and Chase Ballard in the pole vault. This year, the PA track teams either set or broke fourteen school records, not to mention the host of personal records the athletes set. Individual school records were set by Myla Johnson, Jaydyn Johnston, Riley Kate Grant, Chase Ballard, Drew Ballard, and Estevan Buton. Five relay team records were achieved in the Girls 4x100m, 4x200m, 4x800m, the Boys 4x400, and 4x800. Additionally, Jaydyn Johnston, Olivia Speropulos, Ethan Tuell, Evan Dawson, Chase Ballard, Drew Ballard, the Girls 4x200m team, and the Boys 4x800m team all hit the qualifying marks to participate in the Six Rivers Relays at Science Hill, with Jaydyn Johnston and the Girls 4x200m team being finalists. The PA track team is few in numbers compared to many of the schools we compete against, and we often don’t have athletes in every event. This makes it difficult to score enough points to place highly; however, the middle school girls team became the first PA track team to win a meet, winning their final track meet with a score of 85. The high school track team is still going, competing at Regionals on May 9th and 11th, which will determine if they qualify for state. - Coach Eric Anderson