By: Hannah Newcamp 

     With a new school year in session, fall sports are also kickstarting. For the boys, the football, soccer, and cross-country teams have all started and are working on having a successful year. The Squire interviewed players from each of the fall sports to get their input on the current season. With the uncertainty brought on last year by Covid, the boys are ready to get back out there and work towards victory. 

     The Squire first sat down with sophomore football player, Kris Bunk, to get his input on the Knight’s season. Last year a lot of upperclassmen graduated, leaving the Knights with a young team. Bunk is confident that even with a younger team, they will be able to go just as far as they did last year, explaining, “We lost a lot of good players last year, but this off season we had a quite a few younger players show up and put in the work to make the team stronger.” With the younger players stepping up to fill in for the players lost last year, the team can have many different people play positions when needed. Bunk said that being able to play different people in a variety of roles is a big strength for the team. Another strength Bunk mentioned is how close the team is on and off the field. When asked about the team’s weaknesses Bunk shared, “The biggest thing for us to work on is our passing game and perfecting each of our plays.” He also mentioned that if they can work on their passing, they believe that they can win the D10 championship again this year. Overall, the team is ready for this season, and they are excited to build up their team with the new players. 

     Along with the football team, the Eisenhower soccer team is also working on building up their young team. The Squire interviewed sophomore, Abe Wolf, to learn about the soccer team’s goals for this season. Wolf said that their main goal for this season is to “make playoffs and develop for next year’s team.” He mentioned that the biggest thing the team needs to work on is keeping their head in the game for the full eighty minutes, explaining that “we lose games with the two to five minutes that we lose focus and do not play our hardest.” The team has already had to have a few players quarantine this season, which has been a setback. However, Wolf said that the team’s biggest strength is their communication and their unification as a team. Being able to communicate has helped them work together as a team and work past the bumps in the road, like quarantining.  

       As for cross-country, their season is looking a bit different compared to past seasons, according to senior, Alex Hummel. Alex is the only senior on the boys cross-country team this year and the rest of the members are freshmen. Along with being a very young team, there are only a total of four members on the varsity team this year. Hummel said that his goal for the team this year is “to help the freshmen cut their times as much as possible.” With such a small team, they are not able to score this year, so Hummel is trying to prepare the underclassmen for next year when they will have enough runners to score. Despite most of the team being freshmen, Hummel described the team as “hard workers who have the talent to improve for future seasons.” The biggest thing for the team to work on this year is their pacing, according to Hummel, “Pacing is a weakness for freshmen every year; being able to work on it, though, should allow for the team to succeed in the future.”  

     With a lot of underclassmen on the teams this year, it seems like they are all ready to build their skills for upcoming seasons. The Squire wishes good luck to the football, soccer, and cross-country teams. Hopefully, each team can reach their goals for this season and can prepare for next year. With the teams’ hard work and determination, The Squire is sure that they will accomplish great things this year, no matter what the final outcomes are.