ERIC STAUFFER DARK HORSE ART WOR
Kendyl Speight
GIRLS SOCCER
With four returning players, the Father McGivney girls soccer team will look to improve on its 5-12 record from last year.
The five wins set a team record for the Griffins, who are playing in their third varsity season this spring.
“We definitely got better than the year before, so we're looking to get better in each and every year we grow as a program,” head coach Tim Vance said.
Father McGivney begins its season at 7:30 p.m. tonight against Civic Memorial in a Metro Cup tournament game at Belleville West. The Griffins also play a pair of games at Freeburg — Marion at 5:30 p.m. Thursday and Freeburg at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
“They're super excited to compete,” Vance said. “I think it's going to be a tough schedule. We play four games in four days. We'll see how we do and how we match up against the opponents.”
Senior Amaree Moss, junior Kendyl Speight and sophomores Jayde Speight and Macy Hoppes are the Griffins' returning players. They'll lead a team with 12 new players.
Last year, Hoppes tied now-graduated Megan Schilly for the most goals with 6. Jayde Speight was the third leading scorer with four goals.
The Griffins beat Auburn, Staunton, Springfield Southeast, East Alton-Wood River and Metro East Lutheran for their only wins in '17.
TRACK AND FIELD
Father McGivney is having track for the first time this spring.
Jim Helton, a longtime track coach at Seneca High School, is heading the Griffins' program, which has 20 athletes, but only 3 female tracksters.
“It's the first time they've been a part of track and everybody is working pretty hard,” Helton said. “We have quite a few cross country runners who have a pretty successful fall. They're gearing in for track season and we're pretty excited about our goals for the spring. We're trying to get everybody ready to compete and try to set personal bests. We have a lot of underclassmen and that allowed us to grow a little bit with the program.”
Father McGivney made its track debut on March 2, when it competed in the Jacksonville Indoor Invitational at Illinois College. The Griffins' 3,200-meter relay team of Zach Brasel, Diego Pacheco, Tyler Guthrie and Tanner Fox placed fifth with a 9:26.57.
“We had four underclassmen who went out and competed pretty hard,” Helton said. “We're anxious to see where we're going to end up at the end of April. We're going to try to peak for the end of April-May timeframe and try to run our best times in May and see what happens.”