Madison Handwerger (mahandwerger@ursinus.edu)
As we are nearing the end of the fall season, all eyes are turning towards winter sports. Anticipation and excitement is rising as it has been years too long since our winter athletes have participated in normal athletic competition. Student-athletes are itching to begin games and/or matches and finally get the 21-22 season underway.
The wrestling team is one of many poised for a great showing this year getting back into competition. Junior Scotty Weinkowitz stated, “It feels great to finally be back to a true season. The team’s ready to show exactly how hard we’ve worked since our last chance to wrestle. We’re confident that once matches start, our program is going to make some noise this year.”
While everyone is eager to get back in the swing of games, nerves and the missed year of training is certain to be a factor to overcome. Senior captain of the men’s basketball team, Peyton Vostenak, stated, “It feels like I’m competing all over again for the first time. Training eighteen months without having a season in between has been difficult. It’s great knowing we’re going to have a full schedule this winter.” Maddy Sorokanych, a senior on the women’s basketball team, also talked about the impact of the pandemic, saying, “I think Covid’s effect on our season last year was devastating and made everyone feel grateful to be back this year in the true grind of a full season.”
Additionally, another difficulty that has come about due to the covid year that these athletes missed is the lack of player experience. At this point only juniors and seniors have gotten the opportunity to participate in a regular season. Maddy Sorokanych went on to say that “There are two classes of girls who have never played a collegiate game.” Vostenak touched on this as well by stating, “We have some veteran talent, such as Ryan Hughes, but we also have some new faces that are going to contribute a lot this year as well.”
With the challenges faced by everyone in the past two years, the goal of this winter athletic season still remains the same. Win.
Each team is hungrier than ever to compete and get in a good position to vie for the Centennial Conference Championship. More so now that they know that having and being able to compete in their athletic season is a privilege which they’ve had taken away from them before. Teams are set to open their season this weekend, November 6th, and next weekend, November 13th.