Athletic teams continue practices, cans delivered to Pinedale community

On the last day of first semester, students watched the Christmas themed film “Elf” to celebrate the upcoming break from school. The three week break allows staff and students time to celebrate Christmas and New Years, Dec. 17 to Jan. 4.

During break, various teams continued to practice and sharpen skills. Winter athletic teams participated in tournaments including boys and girls soccer and basketball teams.

Student leadership delivered food collected during the campus canned food drive to the Pinedale community. The campus baseball team hosted its first ever baseball winter camp to raise funds and prepare for their upcoming season.

Baseball winter camp

Head baseball coach Noah Heinz and coach Matthew Weimer hosted the first ever FCS winter baseball camp, Dec. 18-20. Players from fifth through tenth grade were invited to participate in the camp. According to Heinz, Coaches and campus varsity players coached approximately 40 participants.

Senior baseball player Ronnie Peterson coached the first basemen, demonstrating proper techniques.

“Winter camp was good for the younger players to get to know the high school baseball system better,” Peterson said. “We taught them how the sport changes once you go from junior high to high school. My favorite moment from the camp was when the players played each other in inner-squad.”

Noah Heinz shares his impression of the first winter baseball camp.

Freshman Brynnor Poplin participated in the baseball camp, and learned more about catching from FC alumnus Roman Endicott, ‘18. Endicott caught for the varsity team before graduating.

“Winter baseball was great,” Poplin said. “It was great to learn from baseball players with more experience than us. It was good to go over the basics again and learn more about batting and learning about how to become a better catcher from Roman. This season, I am looking forward to learning more in baseball and learning from the older people on the team specifically.”

Boys soccer

The boys soccer team practiced the first week of break to prepare for their game against Central Valley Christian, Dec. 20. 

Four year player Reese Brown, ‘19, feels the boys soccer team possesses an effective defense and a strong midfield in the East Sierra league.

“Heading into league I expect the team to be undefeated even without me our defense is still the best out there. Our midfield is always putting in the work. The soccer season has gone pretty good for the soccer team. We are 5-4-2 which compared to last year 0-10 in league is really impressive.”

However during the break, Brown experienced a season ending injury.

“On my second day back to practice from a four week break due to injury and vacation with my family,” Brown said, “I stayed after practice to put some extra work in. On a drill that I was doing with the coach, there was a divot in the field and I hit it and broke my fibula.”

The team resumed practice, Jan. 5, to prepare for their next game against the WCPA, Jan. 8.

Girls soccer

The Lady Eagles soccer team continued to practice through break, taking the week of Christmas off. The team participated in the Lemoore Tournament, Jan. 4-5.

The girls beat the Lemoore Tigers 3-2, and fell to the Mt. Pioneers and El Diamante Miners in their final two games of the tournament.

Goalie Kayden Marquez, ‘20, enjoyed taking pictures with teammates for their soccer banner.

“Preseason has gone good considering we have had a few girls out because of injuries,” Marquez said. “We’ve been playing difficult teams to prepare us for the official season. Most team members vacations didn’t conflict with practices or they worked around our soccer schedule.”

Currently the girls soccer team stands 4-5 overall as they look to take on WCPA Wolves, Jan. 8 at home.

Boys Basketball

As with soccer, boys and girls basketball kick off league games the first week of the second semester. Varsity boys basketball scheduled tough competition over Christmas Break, playing division I-III teams in the Hoover Invitational and Clovis Elks Tournament. Senior Landon Goldsborough says the challenge and the break from school helped prepare the team for league games.

“The games we played in the tournament were against a lot of higher competition,” Goldsborough said. “We were able to improve our game by playing teams in a higher division than us. I’m looking forward to starting our basketball league and playing teams on the same competition level as us.”

The boys varsity team won two out the five games they played during vacation, beating Redwood Christian and California School for the Deaf. They will start league at Alpaugh, Jan. 8.

Girls Basketball

Girls basketball also prepared for league play by competing in the Kerman Tournament during the first week of break. Hannah Van Noy, ‘21, believes difficult opponents and missing players pushed the team to new levels of competition.

“During Christmas break our team got to learn how to have endurance,” Van Noy said. “We lost a few games by a large amount and we had to learn to continue to play. We also got to have new starting lineups because some key players were missing.”

After Christmas, girls basketball played two non-league games, defeating Dos Palos 36-28 and losing to Central Valley Christian 53-45. They will start league at Alpaugh, Jan. 8.

Canned food delivery

Students contributed non perishable foodstuffs to the campus wide canned food drive from Nov. 13-Dec. 7. Students donated a total of 1,000 food items to the Pinedale community. Student leadership delivered the items to Pinedale Community Fellowship Assembly of God church, Dec. 22.

Students look to second semester

Freshmen make first high school memories and seniors remember their last. Second semester offers opportunities to achieve a higher GPA, compete in a spring sport or attend NOTS.

The three week vacation period allotted times for students and staff to celebrate the holidays recuperate from first semester. During the three week break, Brynnor Poplin, ‘22, celebrates Christmas with family and prepares for second semester.  

“For break we will be staying in town and celebrating Christmas at home and gathering with family in the mountains for Christmas. I feel like my first semester went good. I learned that high school was a little easier than I thought it would be but it was still hard and in the second semester I plan to get good grades again and learn more.

Graduating in May, Ashley Zamarripa, ‘19, anticipates spending her final semester at FC with friends.

“I am very excited this is my last semester,” Zamarripa said. “This semester I want to spend as much time with my friends as possible and finish out the year strong. My favorite memory from high school was joining the tennis team and getting to bond and have fun with my teammates.”

For more articles, read Campus teacher shares personal story of faith, hope and Richie Cortez discusses Bekah Micu’s return from injury.

Check The Feather next week for a full recap of first semester.

Sam Cross can be reached via email and via Twitter.

Bryce Foshee also contributed to this article. He can be reached via email and via Twitter.