LAURA GALLIGAN
STAFF WRITER

With tryouts officially ending March 20, spring sports teams have been set and athletes are ready to begin playing.

Teams will travel this season to The Hague, Paris, Zurich, and Brussels, among others, according to Director of Athletics Sandy Lloyd. Lloyd said there are approximately 200 High School students who are involved in a spring athletic activity, meaning that roughly half of the High School student body is participating in sports this season. Lamenting last year’s rainy spring season, Lloyd said, “We hope to have warmer weather.”

The tennis team, coached by High School Principal Paul Richards, is hoping to enjoy the camaraderie of a team, and win ISST gold. Sydney Fass (’13), a member of the girls varsity team, said the team has some fresh talent and new freshmen this year.

“It seems like the team will be pretty deep this year,” she said. “There are a lot of players – great talent all around.” Fass said that Yarra Elmasry (’16) and Margot Shang (’16), who are both new to the team, are players with great potential.

To excel on the tennis team, Fass said, “You need commitment, dedication, patience for the weather, and enthusiasm. You should want to get out there and try your best. You need to have mental strength if you’re losing to come back and focus.”

Fass hopes to win ISSTs, as this is her last year on the ASL team. She will being going to Franklin and Marshall College in the fall to continue playing the sport.

Varsity Baseball Coach and Social Studies teacher Terry Gladis is also hoping for a winning season. He says his goals for this year are to “win ISSTs, grow together as a team, play as hard as we can, and get better at the game every day.”

At tryouts, Gladis said, “We didn’t have enough guys to actually field a team, so we didn’t actually have tryouts, which was nice.” Despite this, Gladis said that he has great team, including captain Patrick Collins (’14), Chris Saltzgaber (’15), Cameron McClure (’15), and a “really good young group of freshmen.”

After coaching the sport for the past 17 years, Gladis said that there is so much that is important to the sport, including “having great hand-eye coordination, a hard-working attitude, and willingness to make adjustments.”

Megan Stracener (’15), who played lacrosse for three years in Virginia, started the club this year with help from other teammates, including Chrissie Timbers (’14), Annie Timbers (’16), and Caroline Kopfler (’15). The club is coached by Math Teacher Julie Bevad.

Stracener said that dedication is key in order for this to be a successful club. They currently have a team of 11 girls; however, 12 are on the field at once during a game. More have joined but Stracener is not sure whether or not they have fully committed. “I hope that we can get a few games or scrimmages in and win at least one,” she said.

laura_galligan@asl.org