By: Jenna Kreh and Emma Terry
Staff Writers
In the first two weeks of the 2019-2020 school year, Hammond has won games in almost every sport. There has been a tremendous improvement to our fall sports program thanks to our amazing players and coaches. Football started off their season with a win against Oakland Mills, leading to their current record of 1-2. Boys soccer started off the season with two wins, giving them a record of 2-1. Volleyball’s winning record now stands at 3-1, and golf now has one win for both the girls and boys teams leading up to the match to defend the iron skillet.
Photo Credit: Girls Varsity Soccer
On September 6, Hammond football kicked off the season with a 34-21 win against rival school Oakland Mills. “I feel like we have more of an all-in mentality [this year]” said Elliott Bauer, a Senior on the varsity team. “We have a lot more motivation with our new coach and there’s a lot more dedication in the off-season.” The new coach, William Bell, agrees with the team’s improved mentality. Bell mentions his excitement of the win, saying, “I’m just happy for our players, happy for our coaches, happy for the school and it’s something that I think this whole school needed to kick start the year off that way.” Elliott spoke highly of their new coach, saying that Bell brought a consistency to the team as well as helping them learn to work well with one another. “[With our new coach] our new style of play-call is different and everything feels a lot more consistent than last year,” Elliott said. “We do the same thing for practice every week. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, it’s a consistent schedule, and I feel like that helped everyone get in the flow and have chemistry with one another.” These improvements are definitely making an appearance on the field, and Hammond is excited to see what’s in store for this season.
Hammond’s volleyball program has welcomed two new coaches this year, freshman coach Debora Spiers and JV coach Jeff Maynard, and both have made strong first impressions upon the program. Sophomore Rylal Koroma, an athlete on JV, said of Coach Jeff, “Even though passing isn’t our strong suit, he still works us really hard because he believes that we can win, and I believe that too.” Both JV and varsity carried this same confidence with them to win their first game, here at Hammond against Glen Burnie on September 10. Marissa Cosa, a player on the freshman team, said Coach Spiers has been working hard with their team to make sure they perfect the basics with lots of repetition and instruction. She also mentioned that the team has been working extremely well together this year, and Coach Spiers has focused on making them feel like a family. The varsity team remains with coach Anne Corey, who led them to earn second place in the Western Tech Invitational tournament on Saturday, September 21. The Lady Bears played extremely well, completing the day nearly undefeated except for one loss. They fought hard in the finals, taking one game out of three away from their opponent Marriotts Ridge, but in the end came in second. It was a great fight and an impressive day for our Lady Bears.
Varsity Field Hockey also won their first and second games, remaining undefeated so far in their season. Varsity player and Sophomore Marlee Hunter stated that the wins are largely attributed to new coach Courtney Abell. According to Marlee, “Our new coach played in college, so she has a lot more experience with it, and she teaches us different things she learned in college herself.” She has introduced several new drills to the team, contributing to their improvement this year and leading to impressive wins by both JV and varsity against Oakland Mills this past Friday, September 20. Both teams played well together and seem to have great potential for the rest of the season.
Hammond girls soccer had a great comeback this year, winning their first game in an away match against Francis Scott Key High School. Sophomore Leah Sheinhorn stated that the team had a much stronger start this year than in previous years, mentioning that they “worked better as a team this year, and individually.” She mentioned that most players had improved a lot on their own in the off-season in order to come together to start off a great season.
Our golf team, coached by Hammond teacher Scott Osborne, has had victories for both their boys and girls teams. The girls team beat Reservoir by just one point in an extremely close game last week on Tuesday, September 17. Senior Ashleigh Louie scored the most points, with a total of 11. According to Senior athlete Chinaza Ezeh, it came down to the final and the girls played hard in a close match. Later that week, the boys team beat Hebron on Thursday, September 19 in a 54 to 43 win. Both wins were at Fairway Hills. Tomorrow, September 24, both teams will face their main match of the season, where the girls team is looking to defend their iron skillet, while the boys hope to reclaim it.
Hammond sports teams have made an impressive comeback this year when compared to previous years, and spectators are excited to see what’s in store for all of our teams this season. Go bears!
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