This Week In Rocket Varsity Sports

Baseball

March 23rd
@ Wellington
4:00 pm

Girls Soccer

March 24th
vs Salina Central
6:30 pm

Girls Swimming

March 23rd
@ Marion Invitational
3:00 pm

Golf

April 6th
@ Wellington (Golf Club)
1:00 pm

Softball

March 23rd
@ Wellington
4:30 pm

Track

March 23rd
Early Bird
@ Rose Hill
3:30 pm

Wrestlers 4A State Runner-Up

by Cooper Bates

The boys’ wrestling team participated in the Class 4A State Tournament in Salina on February 24-25. The team took 9 wrestlers to state and came home with two state champions and the second-place team trophy. The first state champion is Freshman Julio Aguirre at 120 lbs. and the second state champion is Senior Bronx Wood at 215 lbs. During the season, the team earned a total of three first-place tournament wins, two second place tournament finishes, and one fifth place finish. They also won the AVCTL Division IV Championship by going undefeated in duals; this is the first time this has happened in the history of the wrestling program. Head Coach Chris Saferite stated, “This year was a good year for us. We set high goals and high expectations; we fell a little short of the goal of being state champions but came in as the state runner-up. There were some ups and downs throughout the season, but we finished well and on a positive note. We scored the 5th most points in 4A history and will return a lot of those points next year. We ended the season with two state champions in Julio Aguirre and Bronx Wood, two second-place finishes with Johnny Leck and Damon Ingram, two third-place finishes with Adam Bilby and Milan Colvin, and one fifth-place finish with Rhett Briggs. Our kids and coaches are proud of what we did, and they worked their tails off for that finish. Now, we have to come back and be more hungry next year.” Sophomore Johnny Leck also stated, “We ended the season okay. We fell short of our season-long goal, but we will be back”. Also, Senior State Champion Bronx Wood said, “We had a great team. We didn’t finish how we wanted to finish as the state runner-up this year, but the team will be back next year! I can’t wait to come in and help the guys achieve that goal next year.”

Rockets Season Comes To A Close

by Cameron Mock

Between a first-year head coach and only one returning starter, the Rockets played very well for a season that was very unclear on how they would rebound with that many factors. On the season, the Rockets were 11-10 going over .500 for the 5th year in a row, but this would be the first year Josh Shirley wouldn’t be the Rocket head coach in seven years. Instead, we would see Greg Welch step up and take the head coaching job. When asked about his opinion on his first season as the Rocket boys head coach Welch stated, “Overall I am pleased with our season. We were fortunate going over .500 on the season with only one starting player returning. As a team we never really got whooped, we had one game against Hesston to start the season, and the first game against Wellington but in the end, we got Wellington back the second time around. We knew what we were getting into at the start of the season with only one returning starter and we had a lot of roles to fill which I felt we did a good job with this year.” Welch had nothing but good things to say about his group of seniors this year, “Our one returning starter in Simoneau was our guy. He was our best player and someone I could be comfortable drawing a play around; he was a good leader and we will miss having that guy in Kellan. Garrett Funke’s shooting ability and rebounding ability will definitely be missed; he made some clutch shots over the season and was a good teammate to have. Colton Morgan’s great attitude will be missed. He was good for our scout teams, and was always on top of his grades; he is a 4.0 student and a good kid. Mathias had a bit of a rough year due to his foot injury, and never quite recovered from that injury. Between sickness and injury, he never really got started on the court. Otherwise, he is a good kid and someone that I knew would work hard both on and off the court.” Next, I asked the only returning player from last year, Kellan Simoneau, for his thoughts on the season and he said, “We had a good season and a lot of great things to look back on. Postseason did not end up the way we hoped, but we can't let that spoil the year.” Overall, on the season, Simoneau led the team with 414 points; the next closest was Jace Evans with 214 points, and the third highest scorer was Cooper Nace with 107. Senior Garrett Funke said, “The season was pretty good. We had a great group of guys that all cared about the game and were motivated to play hard every day.” Funke also shard the following quote: "You can't be afraid to fail; it's the only way you succeed in life." The Rocket underclassmen plan on working hard throughout the summer to come back next season and improve on this season’s winning record.

Girls Learn Life Lessons

by Eden Gregg

The Lady Rockets basketball season has come to an end. The Lady Rockets Record for the 2022-2023 season was 2-18. The Lady Rockets may not have won a lot of games, but they all put in a hard effort to win each game. The two games they won were both against El Dorado. Jessa Lee stated, “I definitely did not perform where I wanted to this season. I was kind of in a shooting slump for a while which is always tough, but I tried to make up for it in other areas and contribute wherever I could. I think I improved this year on my persistence in shooting even when my shots weren't falling, which is something that I've struggled with before. I hope the girls playing next year keep building up the team chemistry because I think that can help them out a lot in the future. Some things I learned over my high school years are to keep working hard because it will pay off eventually, and to enjoy your time here and not take it for granted, because it seriously goes by so fast.” Many people playing sports don't realize you should enjoy your time in high school, because in the end, you don't really know what you're going to be doing in your life; even just tomorrow, you don't know what will happen. So, enjoy your time in high school and learn from the seniors leaving. Coach Page stated, “This season we struggled to get going offensively. We never found consistent scoring throughout the season. I think we did improve over the season with our ability to take care of the ball and our overall ability to be competitive every game. Our seniors this year did a great job of coming to practice every day with a positive attitude and working hard every day. Hopefully next year our younger kids can continue to improve and hopefully we can see more success on the court. I hope the girls realize that in order to keep getting better, we have to put some work into the game of basketball in the off season. Hopefully we can work hard this summer and see that improvement next season.” The Lady Rockets will graduate three seniors this year. The underclassmen are determined to work hard so that success can be found on the court next season.

Soaring Through The Season

by Landon West

The Rocket boys’ swimming season has come to a close and it was a good season for the team; the boys made a lot of improvement ranging from new swimmers to ones that have been competitively swimming for years. The boys were coached by Robert Roach, who was in his first year of coaching swimming for the Rockets. With the many new swimmers going a long way from when they first begun, you can only imagine the satisfaction for the group as they won against lots of great contenders in their meets even when lacking experience. With the majority of the team being sophomores and freshmen, Roach stated that “the possibilities for the upcoming few years are limitless.” Of all the obstacles the boys faced and overcame this year, the most important for them is being competitive, but with only a total of nine swimmers on the team there was less competition between the boys to encourage each other to improve; yet, the team was able to show competitive growth which is why the future of the boys’ swimming program is looking up under the direction of Coach Roach.