It’s nearly that time of year, South High! Before you know it, the flowers will be blooming, the grass will be green, birds will be buzzing and you’ll be counting down the remaining days of school, if you’re not already. Along with all the signs of spring comes spring sports, and this upcoming season is certainly looking like an exciting one for all teams involved.

Track and Field

According to junior and track and field captain Isaiah Reff, the team has one goal this season. “Everyone’s goal is to win city,” he said, “we have our eyes on the prize.”

The team is adapting to some major changes this season, with new coaches in several events including sprinting, high jump and pole vault, as well as dealing with the loss of many talented participants last year.

“Last season was pretty good, we had solid relays and jumping. We might take a step back [this season] because of the seniors that left but hopefully we’ll get better,” said captain and senior Samantha Warren.

Another change from last season is that captains practices started much earlier this year, in mid-January at the Midtown YWCA. According to Warren, these early practices were held with the goal of starting the season off right. “Hopefully it’ll get people starting out good instead of having a slow start,” she commented.

Adapted Softball

Junior Karl Haight of the adapted softball team says that this year, the team is hoping to “work on our plays, work hard and play smart.”

The team is also hoping to recruit more players this season. “If we can get more players we can have more substitutes and more people can play,” Haight commented.

Practices and games for the team doesn’t start for several weeks, but when the season does start, Haight says that the team is ready to succeed and win games, with an ultimate goal of “just going to the state tournament.”

Baseball

After several changes in the coaching department, South’s baseball team is looking forward to another successful season.

As senior and captain Simon Werber-Krauses said, last season was overall a good one for the team. “We won conference but got knocked out right away in sections,” he said, “our goals are always to win city, compete in sections and do as well as we can there.”

Originally, the team was going to be coached by Jack Roddy this season, but after facing some health issues, Scott Zosel took over the position of head coach. “We’re all excited for the season since we got a new, new coach,” said junior Ben Oman. 

Softball

According to junior and softball captain Maddie Taleen, the softball team is back and ready for action this season.

Having already started preseason workouts, and placing an emphasis on their importance in being prepared for the season, Taleen hopes that the team will be ready come game time. “We’ve already started workouts. We’re trying to do preseason stuff to get ready [for the season],” she said, “we’ll be more focused and ready to go right away in the season.”

The team hopes to achieve success this season by winning the city title and having lots of girls try out for the team come March 12, when tryouts begin. As Taleen stated, she also hopes to have “more of a commitment from everyone to work harder” and contribute to the overall success of the team. 

Badminton

Coming off an extremely successful season last year, complete with a city title and all, senior Natalie Lang said that the team’s goal for the upcoming season is to repeat that success this year. “To win city, we need to get organized early on in the season and establish order, and have good practices,” said junior Gretta Strand, “things are kind of unorganized [right now], hopefully we’ll get things figured out.”

However, there are dramatic changes coming for the team. To start, the team’s coach in past years, Brenda Frisvold, is not returning this year and is in the process of finding a replacement coach.

“I think with the new coach it might be a little weird but I trust that [Frisvold] will get us a new coach, and she will push us to our limits,” commented Lang, “she’ll put us in good hands.” 

Men’s Tennis

The South men’s tennis team is looking forward to a new season, and with it, several exciting opportunities for the team. Namely, a conditioning trip to Florida. 

“We’re going down to Florida to train and play against some college teams and work on stuff over spring break,” said senior and captain Gahn Kelly. 

In addition, Kelly says that he is excited for the experiences to come. “I’m looking forward to a new team to work with and the challenges ahead,” Kelly continued.

“I hope that we can just improve our game and get as far as we can [this season],” said sophomore Isa Kibira.

Men’s Rugby

Senior and rugby player Carson Lipe said that last year’s season was less than the team had hoped for. “It was decent, we didn’t get where we wanted to. We didn’t win state,” he said.

Lipe and senior Kyle Kubiak hope that more new players will be attracted to the team because more people know about the team than in past years. “Word is getting around more this year,” Lipe stated, “more people from South know about it.”

Kubiak and Lipe agreed that the main goal for the team this year is to win state, and they hope to do so by working hard and beating suburban rivals such as Edina and Minnetonka.

Golf

South’s golf team hopes to have a successful and fun-filled season this year, according to junior Alexis Miller. “We want to improve our scores, have good team work and just have fun,” she stated.

Last season, the team placed second in the city tournament, and sent several players to regionals, including Miller. Junior Holden Nimmer said that this season, the team is seeking to beat the team that defeated them in the city tournament. “I want to avenge our loss against Southwest in the city tournament last year,” he said. Oskar Tauring-Traxler, also a junior, added that the team hopes to achieve this goal by “practicing extra hard and working on every aspect of the game.”

Ultimate Frisbee

South’s ultimate frisbee team is hoping to add to their already remarkable record this season. “I’d say the ultimate goal is to beat Hopkins and win state, because they were the one team that was definitely better than us,” said senior Nathan Yeazel of the boys’ team, “we’re better enough [this year] that if we train hard enough, we could have a good opportunity to win.”

Yeazel stressed the importance of training early this season to put the team in a strong position later. “We have to make sure that we work hard enough now to not pay the price later in the season for not being in shape or doing what we need to,” he elaborated.

Coming off of a “fantastic” season last year according to junior Sylvia Reilly, the girls’ frisbee team is also hoping for another extremely successful year. “Our goal is definitely winning state. We won last year, and we’d like to protect our title,” she stated enthusiastically.

Lacrosse

“[I’m looking forward to] just getting out, hopefully enjoying the nice weather and just laxing again,” junior Kiernan Skelley of the Minneapolis lacrosse team stated. The boys and girls teams, which are made up of students from all Minneapolis Public Schools high schools, are both looking forward to exciting and fun-filled seasons.

Skelley says that the team hopes to win games and be successful in the regular season as well as the postseason. “[Our goal is] to make it farther in the playoffs, and try to get to the fourth round and win a few games,” he stated.

Senior Lauren Murphy, captain of the girls’ Minneapolis lacrosse team, encourages more South students to join the team, because she is currently the only South athlete on the team. “I’m hoping the team is more together this year so it’s a mix of all schools, not just Southwest, Washburn and me,” Murphy commented.

Archery

Sophomore Genna Novodvorsky of South’s archery team said that the team’s overall goal is “probably just to do really well at state. We’re hoping to get people in the top twenty.”

Juniors Danny Palmer and Jack Achhamer said that they hope to improve their skills this season. “We were mostly learning the foundations last year, so we want to improve on those this season,” Achhamer commented.

Novodvorsky added that the team has grown immensely this season. “We’ve gotten a lot of new people interested. It’ll be lots of fun,” she stated.