Athletics

Soaring Page 5 Athletics Looking Back With Thankfulness

by Lance Quessenberry, Athletic Director Like most everyone, I find myself looking back at the past year with thankfulness for God’s guidance and direction through all the up and downs. 2020 was like no other year and was Lance Quessenberry especially hard on athletic programs across the nation. Some programs shut down completely and athletes lost the opportunity to participate at all different levels. For SCA, our fall programs faced uncertainty each week and the possibility of opponents cancelling existed at every moment. It was a mental strain on everyone involved. One quote summed up what our coaches and athletes experienced this fall, “We are facing two opponents every time we schedule a competition: the actual opponent and COVID.” The virus did take some opportunities from our teams, but in the end, we were able to reschedule or replace many of those cancelled competitions. Along those lines, I’d like to share the actual statistics from the fall semester for our originally scheduled high school and junior high competitions… • Total number of scheduled competitions: 252 • Total number of competitions played: 217 • Percentage of competitions completed: 86% Of the 252 scheduled competitions, 131 were varsity competitions. Of that 131 varsity competitions, 115 were completed. Of the sixteen varsity competitions that were cancelled, we were able to find different opponents to fill eight of those cancelled dates. Also, since the start of fall, 25 junior high and high school teams have represented SCA in competition. Of those 25 teams, three have had to be quarantined. Of the 35 competitions cancelled, 16 came from those three teams during their quarantine period. The remaining 19 cancelled competitions were due to our scheduled opponent being quarantined. With all the information flying around, this will hopefully help everyone know how things went for SCA Athletics this fall semester. We feel very blessed to have been able to give our athletes the opportunity to participate in athletics and have some amazing stories of how God worked in so many seemingly impossible situations. Along with God’s direction and miracle working power, some amazing coaches, players, parents, maintenance workers, game workers, administrators, and board members made all of this happen. Our Athletic Department is forever grateful for all of you and your help. Thank you for all you have done in the fall of 2020 — it was a period of time we will not soon forget.

Varsity Girls’ Golf has Record Season at State Tournament

by Gary Breshears, Varsity Head Girls’ Golf Coach Varsity Girls’ Golf represented well throughout the season as at least one athlete earned a medal in every tournament in which they participated. In three tournaments, multiple athletes medaled for the team. Postseason began with a sixth place finish at the district tournament where 15 schools competed. All players showed nice progress during the season and improved significantly from last year. Junior Lilli Stallings had an outstanding year for SCA. She was a medalist in every tournament throughout the season. At the district tournament, she finished in fourth place which qualified her for the Class 1 State Tournament for the second year in a row. The tournament was held at Paradise Point Golf Course in Smithville on October 19 & 20. She completed round one in 1st place and held a one-shot lead going into the next round on the second day. After a difficult second round, she finished in 3rd place, which is the best finish by any golfer in school history. The team is young with no seniors graduating this year. Next season holds a lot of promise for the girls, and they look forward to more success on the course.

Junior Lilli Stallings competed in the Class 1 State Golf tournament where she placed third. This is the highest finish for any SCA golfer.

Athletics

Cross-Country Team Makes History at Class 2 State Tournament

by Rick McGregor, Varsity Head Cross-Country Coach Cross-Country finished the season strong with the boys’ and girls’ teams making it to the Class 2 State tournament for the first time in SCA history. They also made history earlier in the month when both teams won their district meet. Varsity Boys finished ninth in Class 2 competition. They had a strong team with great leadership coming from the two captains, Seniors Jacob Dean and Cade Zucca. Their leadership and encouragement greatly influenced the rest of the team to push for strong finishes. The boys’ top finisher was Caleb Benton who placed seventh at State. He had set fast times all year but was set back slightly after a bout with COVID. When he returned, he posted his best performance at the Class 2 State tournament in Columbia. Varsity Girls also had a really great team and finished the year strong.

Varsity Girls’ Cross-Country placed fifth in Class 2 State with sophomore Adriana McGregor receiving All-State honors. Pictured L-R: Karinton Newton, Mia Murkin, Lauren McCoy, Adriana McGregor, Katie Coats, Elise Welch, Georgia Baxter, and Mara Reasoner.

Several girls were injured for most of the season and the team never really competed at full strength throughout the regular season. However, in districts and state, everyone was healthy. They finished first at districts and 5th at the Class 2 State tournament in Columbia. The girls’ top finisher was Adriana McGregor who placed eleventh. The program is looking forward to next year as the girls’ team didn’t graduate any seniors. The full team will return next year and should compete stronger than ever. I am thankful we were able to compete this year! It was a crazy time with mask restrictions and quarantining. During the craziness, our team often focused on Ephesians 5:16 to “make the most of every opportunity...” It was amazing to watch these young men and ladies press on through their season even though the world around them was very unstable.

Varsity Boys’ Cross-Country placed ninth in Class 2 State with freshman Caleb Benton receiving All-State honors. Pictured L-R: Ryder Thompson, Jake Dean, Cade Zucca, Isaiah McGregor, Caleb Benton, and Luke Stienstra.

Athletics Senior Signs with Louisiana State University on National Signing Day

SCA is pleased to announce that Senior Aleah Finnegan recently participated in National Signing Day by signing her letter of intent to compete in gymnastics for the Louisiana State University Tigers. Aleah—a member of the United States’ women’s national gymnastics team and part of the team that won gold at the 2019 Pan American Games—trains at GAGE Center under internationally recognized Al Fong and 2007 World Team Assistant Coach Armine Barutyan-Fong. She is known as one of the USA’s top up-and-comers. “Going to LSU means absolutely everything to me,” shared Aleah. “I verbally committed in the summer after eighth grade because I knew from the start that this was where I wanted to be. This school is everything I could have hoped for from education to athletics and so much more, I am so excited to finally be able to be a part of it. It feels like a dream come true to have all of my hard work pay off. Although I have some work to finish in my elite gymnastics career, I cannot wait to see what my college career will bring me. I have not officially decided on a degree yet but I’m looking into marketing/business!”

Senior Aleah Finnegan, pictured here with her mother Linabelle Finnegan and GAGE Center gymnastics coaches Armine Farutyan-Fong and Al Fong, participated in the National Signing Day with Louisiana State University.

SCA Wrestlers Gain Valuable Experience

and is among the team leaders in several categories. Memphis Hinton (SO, 126lbs) placed third at the Truman Invitational and leads the team in spladles. Gabe Harris leads the Varsity wrestlers celebrate after the Truman Invitational. Pictured team in many L-R: Coach Greg Thomas, Memphis Hinton, Isaiah Nieto, Coach categories and has Stephan Gordon, Jeramiah Smith, and Coach Andrew Smith. the highest win by Greg Thomas, Head Wrestling Coach record on the team at 8-1. He recently Varsity Wrestling is small, as of dominated the field to earn a gold now, but growing quickly into a very medal at the Diamond Invitational. competitive team. Several athletes Dakota Cobb has been on a tear with have already earned hard-fought a 6-1 win record, and he is second on medals at tournaments. Jeramiah the team in several categories. He also Smith (SO, 160lbs) leads the way with dominated the field to earn gold at the a second place finish at the Truman Diamond Invitational. Invitational and leads the team in SCA Wrestling has also continued takedowns. Grant Self (SO, 138lbs) at the elementary level this year with took third at the Lone Jack Duals the Agape Wrestling Club. Their group is off to a great start! We look forward to more athletes joining us next year. They will be glad they did as we look for more people like David or Gideon! For more information, email Coach Greg Thomas at coachttd@yahoo.com.

Secondary students Dakota Cobb and Gabe Harris assist with the Agape Wrestling Club. Also pictured are Coach Stephan Gordon (left), Kenzo Chang (center), and Coach Greg Thomas (right).

Athletics Boys’ Basketball Focuses One Day at a Time

by Brady Hammond, Varsity Head Boys’ Basketball Coach Varsity Boys’ Basketball is off to a solid 2020-21 start. The team has had to navigate several unique challenges, including a new head coach, a few COVID-related setbacks, and most of our team missing almost a month of practice with the exciting (yet lengthy) football season. Despite these challenges, our guys have done a great job focusing, learning, and playing for each other. Thus far, our efforts have resulted in a 9-2 record, a state

Varsity Head Coach Brady Hammond awards senior Jared Gerdes with a basketball marking the 1,000th point in his high school career. ranking that is currently fifth in the latest MBCA Class 3 poll, and winning the Eagle Invitational championship. We are pleased with what we have accomplished Varsity Boys’ Basketball celebrates a first place finish in the 11th Annual so far but are still pursuing bigger goals. We We need to focus on winning each Eagle Invitational Tournament! have two tournaments at Pleasant Hill game, quarter, practice, and even drill and Richmond in which we hope to that’s in front of us and not look past compete for titles during the month any one team, task, or challenge. of January. Moving into February, we More importantly, we want to hope to compete for the Crossroads achieve our purpose every day, which Conference title and then make is to “create a family atmosphere some postseason noise in the district where we build each other up to be tournament and beyond. champions for Christ.” I’m confident With all the possible excitement to that if we consistently achieve that come, we can be tempted to be too purpose, we’ll be able to achieve all focused on the future. In the end, our God has for us in the days, weeks, and main goal is to simply “win the day.” months ahead.

Varsity Girls’ Basketball Starts Strong Season

by Chad Friess, Varsity Girls’ Basketball Head Coach district runner-up team. However, this year’s team has a lot As we roll into 2021, we have so much to be grateful of potential and excitement as we look to the future. They for as a school and as a basketball program. Our season have worked hard to build on their preseason efforts and started back in April 2020 as players and coaches gathered have had a great start to the season. on weekly ZOOM calls for virtual workouts! We were then Our current mission is simple, but effective: get better fortunate enough to move into full practices in June and today. We are working hard to focus on the process and July and had a great core of ladies who came out to work not the result. While we are working to earn a victory in hard and get better. With the start of the official season in every game, our purpose is to make sure we are intentional November, we returned only two players from last season's with the process every day. I believe we have a young group that has done an excellent job to buy into that mentality. The Varsity team has 11 young ladies who push hard every day to represent themselves, their families, their school, and most importantly, their King in a way that brings honor and glory. I love the fight this team possesses. We know the hard work we have been putting in is only useful and helpful if we make it habitual every time we step on the court. I am excited for the direction this program is headed and believe in our team! The best is yet to come!

Varsity Girls’ Basketball started strong season, despite a young roster. Go Eagles!