HHS fall sports program gets underway for 1999

By Jon Echternacht

"On paper, we should be pretty good," said Raider head soccer coach Steve Sollom about the '99 season. "We hope to defend our conference championship."

The Raiders posted a 17-4 record last year and captured the Big Rivers Conference crown. Sollom has 11 players returning for the 1999 season including senior captains Jeremy Cook and Jim Kerner.

"We have a good group of players," the coach added. "Most of them have been playing together since they were sophomores."

The Raiders were to scrimmage several other teams at Hastings last Saturday. They open the season at Wausau West Saturday in an 11:30 a.m. non-conference contest.

The Raider girls opened the season with a 6-1 victory over Altoona last Thursday, but were to face their toughest opponent today hosting Eau Claire Memorial, last year's state runner-up.

Head coach Dave Dahl, who has eight years in the HHS tennis system but is serving his first year at the helm of the girls' varsity squad, is happy with the turnout for his program this year.

"We have 42 players out for the team. There are probably five girls who will hold down varsity positions and the other five positions are open to as many as 15 players," he said. "We should be competitive this season. We have a lot of good athletes," the coach added.

Senior Andrea Seliski, who pays in the No. 2 singles spot, is the Raiders' captain. She opened the season with a 6-4, 6-3 victory at Altoona.

The Raider girls' golf team opened the season at the River Falls Invitational Aug. 17. Junior captain Kirstin Popowski fired an 85 to lead the Raiders and placed fourth overall in the contest. She said the team finished in a tie for seventh place.

The Raider volleyball team is under the direction of first-year coach Susan Becker, who is also new to the school district as a high school science teacher.

Becker expected to be an assistant coach when head coach Kris Peterson took a job in Altoona late in the summer. Becker found herself in a new school and suddenly the new head volleyball coach.

The University of Minnesota graduate coached at Marathon last year. Hudson is her first varsity head coaching position and she was just putting together the team during a practice late last week.

"We have some good athletes on the team. We will get to know a little more about the season after the first game," Becker said.

The Raiders were to host St. Croix Central in a non-conference match Thursday at 7:15 p.m.

Coach Don Krupa has some 30 athletes on the team for the 1999 season including 13 girls. "We have more than double the number of girls involved this year," he said.

Senior Captain Ryan Donovan, who finished sixth in the Sectional meet and 57th at State last year, expects improvement in the team this season. "We finished fourth in the Big Rivers Conference meet last year, and I think we can go for the championship this year," he said.

Juniors Libby Fischer and Laura Severude are the top returning members of the girls' squad.

"It all depends on how much running they have done during the off-season," said Krupa. "That will determine how good we can be." He said there are only seven members of the team ready for the boys' varsity team.

The Raiders open their season at the Eau Claire North Invitational scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Saturday at The Wells.

Veronica Colvin is serving her first year as head coach of the Raider girls. The former UW-Eau Claire sprinter was an assistant to John Kurkowski last season. This year Kurkowski works in the assistant slot.

Colvin is enthusiastic about her team's chances this season following a good showing in its initial meet at the seven-team Menomonie Invitational last Saturday. "We finished third in the meet, which included our conference opponents plus two other teams," she said.

"I feel really, really good about our chances this season. We have 20 to 25 returning swimmers including senior captains Leah Moeller, Chris Toll, Bridget Worrell and Katie Moore. Most of our swimmers worked hard all summer and we have a good group of incoming freshman," Colvin added.