Athlete of the Week - Britney

I'm writing this up a little late, and I will also get to the write ups for widget volleyball and baseball soon, but our athlete of the week for the last week of the volleyball regular season is Britney. Britney is a 4th grader who has played two years of widget volleyball now, and has steadily improved through those years. She works very hard, and never complains at all. Her great attitude has not gone unnoticed by her coaches. Coach Matt was sick for the final Friday of the regular season, so Coach Adkins chose Britney for this week. Coach Adkins has watched some of our JV volleyball games this year, and she compared Britney to Alyssa Acosta for her ability to dig balls and really attack them on defense. This is high praise and well deserved. Congratulations to Britney.

Athletes of the Week - Brooklin and Thomas

Brooklin has won Athlete of the Week several times over the last two years, but this week, she definitely deserved it again. We split up our widget teams equally this year, but they still came into last Friday’s matchup against each other both undefeated. This certainly bodes well for the future of Raider volleyball. On Friday, team 1 was too much for team 2, and Brooklin was a big reason why. She bombs overhand serves from the back line, digs very well, moves very well, and even hits some overhand balls after sets (an extreme rarity for a 4^th grader). In addition to her great performances this year at the widget level, Brooklin has been called up to help the JV team, and she played very well in our close loss to Fatima last week. JV plays their first tournament game this Friday, and Brook (along with Madi) will play for the JV team before hustling over to St Therese to play the widget game as well.

Our baseball team had a tough start to the week last week. We played undefeated All Souls without Tony, and with Anthony unable to pitch yet. Rolando and Omar tried to keep us in it on the mound, but our defense was the worst its been all year. All Souls scored 15 runs and only 1 was earned. We came back the next day, and Rolando and Omar again had to do all the pitching against St Mary’s. We led 11-3, before seeing our defense again collapse. We ended up losing 12-11. We finally put it together last Friday night though, beating a solid St John Baptist team under the lights in the cold in Longmont, 12-6. In all 3 games, Thomas hit well. Thomas started the year hitting cleanup for us, but he struggled early, and was moved down in the order. He has steadily improved through the season though, and last week he went 3-6, with 2 walks, 4 runs, 4 driven in, 3 stolen bases, and a blasted double to clear the bases and really break things open at SJB. Thomas has played first, short, and third for us this year, and his defensive versatility has been a much needed asset. 

Athletes of the Week - Sonya and Rolando

St Rose JV volleyball came into the week after spring break with a record of 4-2. We had two home games the first week back against Good Shepherd and St Thomas More. We beat Good Shepherd 2-1, and we beat STM 2-1, coming back after losing the first set. The JV team has good balance with 4 or 5 girls who can lead at any given time, and this week’s leader was Sonya. Sonya comes to every practice, works hard, and always has a smile on her face. She consistently gets her serve over, bumps well, and occasionally gets  a good hit in coach Gonzalez’s three hit system. She also has started hitting an overhand serve, and she has had good early success with it. Sonya served 5 points in the first set against Good Shepherd including the winner, she served 7 in a row in the second set, and she served 6 more in the finale. Sonya played well against STM as well, and along with Alyssa and Eva, will add some needed depth to next year’s varsity team.

Our baseball team entered the week after spring break with a record of 3-2. We were scheduled to play the first Monday back, but unfortunately, St Catherine’s didn’t show up, so we got a forfeit win. We then had to play undefeated St Anne’s and St Vincent de Paul, who was in third place at the time we played them. Tony and Anthony were both out both games, and it was up to everyone else to pick up the slack. We lost 5-4 to St Anne’s, and we lost 10-9 to SVDP. We were in both games all the way, and should have beaten SVDP, but we battled well in both games, and we are well positioned for the tournament. I try not to give Athlete of the Week to the same person twice in the same season, but in this case, there’s no way to give it to anyone but Rolando. Rolando threw a complete game against St Anne’s, throwing 96 pitches. He held them to 5 runs, their second lowest run total of the season. Rolando walked 2 and struck out 13 in 6 innings. At the plate, walked, tripled, and reached on an error. He scored our first run of the game in the fifth starting our comeback. Against SVDP, Rolando again reached base every time up. He walked in the first, and singled his next three times up. Rolando scored 2 runs, and stole 5 bases. He currently leads the team in plate appearances, hits, triples, homers, hit by pitch, runs, stolen bases, batting average, on base percentage, and slugging.