Boone girls soccer hopes to score, boys tennis wins invite
The Boone girls soccer team has kicked off its season with a few games of competition already, though it hasn’t been all smooth sailing to start.
Head coach Oliver Johnston said the team has gotten off to an OK start, but some bad weather has prevented it from practicing outside and it had to postpone its first game of the season as well.
“We’re a few games into the season and it’s been good to see the girls,” Johnston said. “And it allows me to see where we are and what players fit in where and see the freshmen in more competitive situations than just training.”
The Toreadors have started 1-2 so far this season, and with Johnston already getting a chance to see where they are at, he said they are going to try and play similar to how they did last season.
Boone had one senior last season who battled for the ball at midfield and scored and another who was its main goal scorer at striker and though Johnston said they’ll be hard to replace, freshmen have already stepped up to get the team back to where it was last year.
However, Johnston said the team is still going to have to do some work to improve upon its scoring and replace those scorers from a season ago.
“With us losing Hannah Chesnut last year, who was a senior and was our main goal scorer for the past four years, it’s hard to replace a player like that,” Johnston said.
He added that if the team can find multiple girls who can start to score, it will help the season be a success.
Though a successful season is always the hope, Johnston is also hoping to see continued improvement against some of the top teams in the conference.
After struggling historically against teams such as Gilbert and North Polk, losing games 10-0, Johnston said Boone’s goal last year was to do better. Following an improvement last season, not losing by quite as much, Johnston is hoping to defend even better this year and possibly even score as well, while he will still be aiming for wins against some similar teams to Boone’s caliber.
The Toreadors are also a fairly young team, and another one of the goals for Johnston is to continue to build from the first game of the season to the last.
“I also want to make sure that in three years’ time, the current freshmen will be, in three years they’ll be seniors, so I just want to make sure that they get some experience and they can keep improving every year as well,” Johnston said.
Boone also has a handful of seniors on the team, and they will be key in helping the team find sustained success and the underclassmen improve as well.
Johnston said the seniors were able to get varsity minutes last season, most also starting, and though they have that year of experience, becoming a leader for the team is still a big step up.
“They’re definitely more the leaders on the team and I need them to take that responsibility, which they are doing really well,” Johnston said.
Boys tennis wins invite
The Boone boys tennis team continued its strong start to the season when it hosted the Boone Invite on April 6.
The Toreadors placed first among a field of six total teams, scoring 249 total team points and seven points ahead second-place North Polk.
Boone started strong in its singles matches, with senior Wesley Baber and juniors Owen Schneider and Wes Van Pelt all having varying degrees of success.
Baber went 3-2 in his singles matches, Schneider finished 4-2 in his while Van Pelt closed out the singles portion 6-0 for the Toreadors.
The Toreadors also did well in doubles, with Joe Jordan and Devin Silbaugh pairing up, Tyler Lindahl joining up with Lucas Thompson and Wyatt Anderson and Braxtan Sproule teaming up as well.
The duo of Jordan and Silbaugh went 4-2 while Lindahl and Thompson finished 6-0 in their doubles matches. Anderson and Sproule ended the day strong as well, going 6-0 in their own doubles matches.