Spring sports action at Pacific High School begins next week.
Competing this spring at Pacific will be boys and girls track and field, girls soccer, golf and baseball.
Girls Soccer
Pacific has one new head coach this spring as Sarah Schultz takes over the girls soccer program.
“We’re off to a great start despite the snow, cold and rain,” Schultz said. “I’m excited to begin my first year coaching and have a great group of girls to work with.”
Schultz likes the way the varsity team is coming around.
“We have three returning seniors, Morgan Webb, Emiley Frazier and Caili Phillips,” Schultz said. “There also are several returning varsity juniors with some strong sophomores and freshmen rounding out our team.”
The Lady Indians open the season with games Tuesday, March 19, at St. Clair and Thursday, March 21, at home against Washington for a 5 p.m. varsity start.
Baseball
Jeff Reed’s Indians are young, but there’s always high expectations for the Pacific baseball program.
“Practice has been going fairly well. We actually got out on our field last Friday. We got to go over a full infield, outfield practice. We went over cuts and actually hit off live batting practice,” Reed said. “We return three starters from last year’s team, so there will be several new names and faces in our lineup. We have three seniors, five juniors, several sophomores and a few freshmen who will be competing for time at the varsity level.”
Pacific opens the season next week in the Four Rivers Classic.
The Indians have been assigned to Pool C with New Haven and Wright City.
Pacific opens Monday at home against Wright City and visits New Haven Tuesday, March 19. Game times are 4:30 p.m.
The finals are scheduled for Saturday, March 23.
“We have some kids who need to go out and compete hard every day because there is someone on their heels pushing them for their spot,” Reed said. “We are looking forward to being able to get outside a little more hopefully soon.”
Golf
John VanLeer’s golf squad return two state qualifiers from last year, senior Brendan Jett-Kell and sophomore Cullen VanLeer and senior Brendan Jett-Kell.
VanLeer will miss most, if not all, of the season due to a knee injury suffered late in the basketball campaign. There’s a hope he returns for the district tournament.
Other returners from last year include senior Charlie Brinker and junior Logan Armstrong.
“Practice has been tough. We’ve only been able to get out two times in the first two weeks,” VanLeer said. “The days we were out, the players seemed to hit the ball much better than this time last year. I’m not sure who our top five will be yet. Logan and Charlie seem to be striking the ball solid.”
Top players from last season’s junior varsity team are juniors Austin Repp and Danny Nickelson.
Newcomers are seniors Tyler McDonald and Michael Stinson, sophomore Jarrett Harrison and freshmen Brandon Rowbottom and Mycala Kapustka.
Hope meets for Pacific will be played at Birch Creek Golf Club in Union.
Pacific opens the golf season Tuesday, March 26, against Union at Birch Creek at 4 p.m.
Track and Field
Justin Perriguey (girls) and Jim Rutherford (boys) return as head coaches of the Pacific track and field teams.
“We currently have 47 girls out for the track team,” Perriguey said. “We are definitely going to be improved from last year with greater depth. We’ve had pretty good practices, considering the weather.”
The boys team looks to rebuild with youth.
“We are a very young group this year. We have over 20 freshmen. We have a pretty good mile runner coming back in Joon Kim. Joon also will run a strong 800 along with Dan Dieckmann,” Rutherford said. “We have a junior hurdler back in Ben Cates who should be very competitive. We also have a couple of junior sprinters back who will help us, Jeff Hinkle and Justin Moyle. We won’t have near the depth we have had over the last couple of years, but we will be competitive in some races.”
Pacific opens the track and field season by hosting the Pacific Quad Tuesday, March 19, at 4:15 p.m.
