Tennis goes far, returns champs

The tennis team really showed the meaning of One Family, One Team after making it to the state finals.
“It was really an amazing feeling. We were the underdogs so it felt good to come back and prove to everyone we were able to win it for all the Regional title we felt belonged to us,” junior tennis player Melinda Johnson said.
Though proving people wrong felt good to Johnson, it wasn’t all about that.
“Whenever you’re on the court it’s all you,” she said. “You really have to believe in yourself when you’re out there.”
Johnson said it took a lot of hard work and dedication for the tennis team to make it this far, and they are proud of themselves and everything they do for their team.
Out on the court the focus is winning, but for the team, the bigger picture was about being a family and overcoming the challenges that were in front of them. That challenge for them was making it to state, despite not winning.
“It’s not about winning,” Johnson said. “It’s about being there, in the moment, and having pride in your teams.”

Baseball wins State, ready for new year, training new players

The adrenalin-filled celebration after the miraculous victory may have been the most rewarding part of the state championship journey.
“There was lot of pandemonium and excitement,” Coach Scot Green said. “We were celebrating with our fans and jumping on each others’ backs.”
After the game, the celebration the baseball players experienced was worth it.
With emotion building at the end of the game of 6 outs or 3 outs, the Raiders stayed focused and didn’t take their minds off of the ultimate goal.
“We probably didn’t sleep much anyway just cause we were so excited,” Green said.
After the championship game, the players were both mentally and physically exhausted.
“Someone asked me if I had got off the high of winning the state championship and I said I don’t know if I ever did,” Green said.
Now that last year’s season is over, the Raiders have high expectations to fulfill for the upcoming season.
“You know we lost a lot of our players, but we had a lot that got to experience a part of it [a state championship],” Green said. Last years seniors had a prominent contribution in the victorious attainment of the championship. Especially Cameron Allen who got after the Corpus Christi Calallen player he was facing and made a heck of a catch.
From the transition of the seniors leaving, this year’s starters have much to contribute to the upcoming season.
“We had a good group,” Green said. “We have a great tradition here so each year something more is learned by some of our players, and that knowledge is passed down to newer players.”
That knowledge is passed down each year to guide the new players in the right direction to achieve goals that last year’s players could not achieve. This custom is a vital characteristic of the Raider team that ensures new players achieve goals that the previous year’s players could not achieve. That’s not so easy when the team before wins state, but Green says that championship will help this year’s team.
“The expectations are just to play hard,” Green said. “They know what it takes to get there, and they know what work they have to put into it.”
The expectations enable players to look at what they must achieve throughout the season to work on their flaws to ensure the team’s maximum progression.
“These guys have taken on the challenge of just sharing the tradition of just going out there and giving a hundred percent,” Green said.

Coaching on Own Time

Last year Coach Radtke and Coach Davison trained state champion James Chambers on their own time in discus and shot-put, helping him achieve two gold medals at state.
“I currently coach soccer in the spring, so when we started this it was after soccer practice one day and he was getting ready for a meet. I just walked over to the throwing ring to see how he was doing ,” Radtke said. “I watched him throw to see how he was doing and gave him a few pointers; his junior and senior year we waited until soccer practice was over and I could watch him throw once a week or so and then would go out there daily after soccer season to work with him to get ready for regionals and state.”
Chambers was also trained by Coach Davison, who did most of the weight training.
“I feel it was very considerate,” Chambers said. “Most people would have been selfish with their time. I have learned that time is very valuable, especially after coming to the air force academy. I can’t imagine doing what [they] did if I was put in [their] situation.”
Chambers was supervised by Radtke and Davison about an hour a day unless it was the day before a meet.
“[They] even coached me during holiday’s,” Chambers said. “I think this made winning state even more precious. Radtke and Davison agreed that, if a coach had the time and knowledge to help out an athlete, they would do the same thing. To them, that is what coaching is about.
“[Radtke] had more experience than any of the other [coaches], considering that I did not beat her throw until my junior year,” Chambers said. “She went to nationals in discus and could coach using her experience that others [didn't have].”
In college, Radtke won conference, but missed going to nationals her senior year by 1/4 of an inch, although she did not win, she is quite proud of “throwing well enough to be so close.” Both Radtke and Davison thought it was easy to train chambers.
“He is just one of those guys that are just going to outwork everybody,” Davison said. “He is a team leader, and an outstanding individual, working one on one with him was easy.”
Radtke said that the one on one training was effective because they could do many more reps in a short amount of time as opposed to team training.
The coaches agreed that they enjoyed working with a person with “great work ethic,” and such a coach-able personality.