1 • Wednesday, March 27, 2019 - Shopper’s Guide
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Shopper’s Guide
VOL. 81 • NO. 12
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2019
Pearl City baseball preseason overlook By Trent Scheidegger REPORTER
Head coach Darrell Pauley and the Pearl City Wolves have been battling with the weather to get prepared for this season. In hopes to not destroy their field with recent conditions the Wolves have been doing what they can to get their practice reps in, by holding practice in the school gymnasium and even going onto the football field for last week to at least get in the grass. Despite the weather and the cancellations, Pauley’s team is still set up to have a great year if they play their cards right. The Wolves are sticking with their goal of winning a conference championship and winning a Regional, the same goal they have every year. This year could be the year they make it happen. Despite going 10-13 last season the Wolves have a group of seven seniors, six of which are returning seniors who have two or more years of starting experience. The group of seven seniors are Drake Musser, Braden Smargiassi, Brock Smargiassi, Zach Lieb, Kade Knoup, Collyn Kuberski, and Caleb Tichler.
These seniors will provide the Wolves with some great leadership, as well as some experienced arms on the mound as five of them have pitched for Pearl City. The returning players gives Pauley confidence in not only his pitchers, but the defense as a whole, as his guys are even more familiar with their positions, are more mature, and are a highly athletic group of guys. Pauley acknowledges this team’s opportunity saying “We have a lot of potential with our seniors.” Pauley’s only concern for a weakness is a lack of depth as they carry just eighteen athletes from freshman to seniors. It will be crucial for these boys to find ways to remain healthy throughout the season with their low numbers. If the Wolves can get on the field they will begin their season with two conference games as following a matchup with Fulton this past weekend they travel to Galena and Lena-Winslow this week. The two first conference games will be key in beginning their run to completing their goal of becoming conference champs.
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If it looks like a duck…
COURTESY PHOTO Shopper’s Guide
Pearl City Seventh grader Shy Ditzler enjoyed sharing her ducks with her class as part of their unit on Birds and Mammals.
Lena-Winslow Softball preseason overlook By Trent Scheidegger
The LeWin Lady Panthers have begun their 2019 softball season as they faced off with Freeport in an out of conference matchup last weekend. The Panthers fell by a score of 11-5 in their season opener, but the game served as a good opportunity for the young team to simply get some time on the field and get comfortable with live action as the weather has been an issue for local teams this season. Despite losing the season opener and going 10-15 last season, head coach Paul Everding and his Lady Panthers have a lot to look forward
to this season. Their roster is very young, featuring just a pair of seniors in Maleah Linden and Megan Packard the rest of the varsity roster is filled out by a strong core of six juniors, three sophomores, and a freshman in Kamryn Cain. In his fourth year as head coach, Everding has developed a strong relationship with his well experienced squad and looks to develop that same relationship with his younger players. One of Everding’s team strengths is in fact the chemistry these girls have developed by playing so long together. He believes the team has an impressive intelligence and understanding of the
game, which will help them grab some wins throughout the season. Some of the key players that Everding says will contribute to the team’s success this season are junior Zoe Johnson and Kierra Lynn Schulz, and senior Ella Brunner. Johnson returns as the teams number one pitcher and has developed an important relationship with Schulz who is the team’s catcher. Those two will play major roles in
the Panthers success, as will Brunner who holds down the hot corner at third base. The team also returns multiple starters throughout the rest of the field and will rely on their defense to keep them in a lot of games. One of the team weaknesses, according to Everding, is their lack of speed. This makes the team’s chemistry and defense even more important as they will have to play
smart and take advantage of every single opportunity they have in order to compete and win games this season. The Panthers have their eyes on their goal of making it as far as they can and winning a sectional championship this year, but it will be really exciting to see their young core develop and grow throughout the season which could set them up for a major run next year.
Summer Program Guide INSIDE Registration at Lena Legion
Registration Dates: Saturday, April 6 from 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Wednesday, April 24 from 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Saturday, April 27 from 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
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