East Greewich Fall Sports Round-Up, Part 1

As summer comes to a close, the high school fall sports season is just beginning, with teams already a week or two into their seasons. The school year might be delayed because of Tropical Storm Irene, but sports has been largely unaffected.

The official start to the fall season was Aug. 22, but many teams have had player-run “captain’s practices” for weeks.

Football

After losing 17 seniors this past year, the football team used the captain’s practices to establish a new look for this year’s team. And Coach John George has tried to recruit incoming freshman to the team, with a series of pre-football training sessions that began in July.

“We’re young but we have some good young talent,” Coach George said about his team. Only five juniors are returning from last year’s team.

Despite the squad's youth, Coach George said some of last year’s younger players spent in the weight room during the off season and it showed.

Senior co-captain Carl Lebovitz also recognized the work put in by last year’s underclassmen: “We have a lot of juniors who are ready to step up to their roles.” 

The football team’s first game is their Injury Fund game Sept. 2 against North Kingstown at North Kingstown. Their first home game will be a week later, Sept. 9, against Exeter-West Greenwich.

Girls Tennis

The girl’s tennis team looks to pick up where they left off this season, after their heart-breaking loss last season in the division finals.

Senior co-captains Jamie Halpern and Emily Rapoza recognize that half of their team graduated last season, however there are lot of up-and-coming underclassmen who look to have an immediate impact on the team this year.

The tennis team will begin their season at home against an always-strong South Kingstown team on Sept. 6.

Girls Soccer

New girls soccer coach Scott Douglas is very enthusiastic about his new team.

“They’re fired up,” he said “you can’t ask for a more dedicated group of kids.”

Senior tri-captains, Callie Russo, Megan Grenadier and Karen Lockhart have spent all summer preparing the team to get back to the state championship, after losing in the state finals last year.

However, Coach Douglas realizes that his captains won’t be the only contributors. “This is a very, very deep soccer team,” he said.

The soccer team will kick off their season Sept. 8 at home on Carcieri Field against South Kingstown.