With summer, comes fun nights out with friends, time off, and overall, a stress-free environment. Not for MV athletes in fall sports. Fall sport competitors such as football, volleyball, men’s and women’s cross country women’s tennis, men’s soccer, and men’s and women’s golf have been practicing for their upcoming season all summer long, in the blistering heat.
Let’s begin this sports season preview with football. The Rams have been practicing and attending camp all summer, most notably traveling to SIUC for the Nick Hill 3-day full 11 on 11 team camp, which is a camp the Rams attended in 2005 where they followed up with a 9-0 regular season record. The Rams kick their season off by traveling to Waterloo to face off against the Bulldogs on August 25.
“This football season should be very exciting. We had a great summer season and preseason, and many of the boys have really stepped up and improved. We look forward to making the school and community very proud by giving our best efforts,” asserted Head Coach Dan Mings.
Moving on to volleyball, the Rams held tryouts on August 7-9 from 6:00-7:30, running their first practice on August 10. MV will open their season against the Carbondale Terriers on August 29.
“I think that the volleyball program is really on the up and up right now. It has been a while since the program has had a consistent coaching team and it seems to be really paying off. They understand our goals and expectations and everybody (athletes and coaches) seems to be on the same page. Our JV team from last year (now the varsity team) have had the same coaches for the entirety of their high school career now and had a great record for the 22′ season. I’m really excited to continue watching them grow and develop and see what they can do this year,” said coach Madi Crews.
The men’s Runnin’ Rams cross country team has been practicing hard over the summer, usually in the scalding heat of a summer where one of the months was recorded as the hottest ever. The Runnin’ Rams competed in the Kaskaskia 5k and are looking to be on track for an even more successful season than the last where they had one all-state athlete in Wyatt Pilson and another top-three placer Jacob Morrison.
“This year, practices have been more centered around building our speed over a certain distance as compared to last year where we had to focus on building a base of mileage in order to be able to complete these longer harder workouts later in the season. We are already further ahead in fitness level by a few weeks compared to last year. The team’s mindset in every practice has been focused on reaching our goals later in the season,” stated Trey Mygatt, ‘24.
The women’s cross country team seems to be going through a rebuilding phase under new Head Coach Robert Grider, and a bountiful amount of incoming freshmen with tons of potential.
“Practices have been good and we have improved so much since the first day,” Brynlee Thomason, ‘24, said, “I have loved getting to know the team.”
After a disappointing 2022-23 season, MV Rams soccer is looking to bounce back in the ‘23-24 year, recording one of their highest number of players in years and a lot of promising talent to come with it.
“Yes (we can be a better team,) We have better numbers and a more positive atmosphere as a team than we did last year. We are very solid in our formation and plan as well compared to last year,” shared Nolan Armstrong, ‘24.
The Rams men’s golf team placed first in their pre-conference match for the season with a score of 340 in the 2023 South 7 preview, scoring higher than Marion, Carbondale, and Marion. Xander Ashby, ‘27 came out of this matchup on top, obtaining q a score as low as 37 to secure the win for the Rams. The Rams have seen many players come in from just enjoying the sport of golf and wanting to compete in a school setting, with that comes the professional rules of the sport.
“I had to start taking things more seriously and learn the etiquettes of golf,” asserted Blake Brown, ‘25.
Women’s golf competed in a match at Centralia on August 14, and are
looking to recapture the magic of last season where they brought home the first South 7 trophy in MV women’s golf history.
“The season has gone great so far. I feel like we’ve all worked very hard over the
summer and it’s really paying off,” stated Emmalee Kroeschen ‘25.
Women’s tennis has competed in matches such as one in Vandalia and one at home. The Lady Rams look to send just as many women to State as last year, where Alice Fletrin and Katie Fisher reached that level.
“The season so far has been great. We have a new foreign exchange student who is going to be a big help in varsity. We have a pretty deep roster this year and I think we’ll have some good competition this year,” commented Addi Tinsley ‘25.
