By: Izayah Harrison and Spencer Burden
The MVL chargers football team had a great ending to the 2018 season winning one playoff game and putting up a fight in the second playoff game, but ended up losing. After a successful season, the team only graduated four seniors and has lots of juniors returning for their season. Fast forward to the 2019 season some of the key contributors returning are Jace Marotz, Mason Cox, Carlos Ramirez, Spencer Burden, Ben Kelm, and Colton Collum. The chargers' first game was August 30th at Cottonwood against Lake View. After a tough battle throughout the game, our Chargers fell just short, losing 20-16. The second game of the season was at Springfield against the Tigers. This game was a tough one, as the Tigers are coming off a season where they made the State Tournament, our Chargers lost 36-0. The first home game of the season for the Chargers is September 13th against town rival Cathedral.
First-year starting quarterback Luke Thompson had this to say after the teams 0-2 start, “I expect us to win most of the rest of our games. I’m looking forward to the playoffs to see how well we do and to see who we get matched with. We haven’t really clicked this season as a team, we have good chemistry, but just need to put everything together and we will win some games.”
Entering his senior season Ben Kelm said, “Well for me, my favorite part of the season is always the comradery. Win or lose we’re a team and a brotherhood and I love that environment so much. I think we’ve got a young team with lots of heart and grit. We’ve got the will to learn and get better and grow. That’s always so cool to see in a team.”
The MVL/New Ulm girls soccer team is looking forward to what should be a good season after losing very few seniors from last year. The girls have gotten off to a wonderful start to the season. They beat Worthington 8-0, beat Marshall 5-0, and tied with St. Peter 1-1.
Junior Lydia Hartwig is pumped for the season, “I’m really excited for this season because I think we have great potential as a team. A lot of us have been playing together for years now and it’s good for us to push each other so we can improve. Last year the team was very similar to how it is this year because there were very few seniors. Hopefully the difference this year will be the work we put in and the games we can win”
The MVL/New Ulm boys team poised for a good season as they have many key players returning with the hopes of an even better season than last year. The boys have been busy with lots of games early in the season. They beat Fairmont 3-1 and beat Marshall 2-1. They have also lost to St. Peter 0-2, Worthington 1-2, and Faribault 1-2.
Junior Joey Goeglein is beyond excited to see what the season holds as he has high expectations for the team, “I know that we can have an amazing season. I really think we can make it to the State Tournament. We have a lot of seniors with experience that should be able to lead us where we want to end up.”
The MVL chargers volleyball team came off an amazing season last year going 21-5 and having carried that on into this season, getting to a quick start winning their first 3 games against SESM, BLHS, and Maple River. We returned plenty of players this year on the varsity team: Mara Weisensel, Haley Herfendal, Maddie Pearson, and Emma Nelson. With solid leadership, it looks like we will have another successful season with hope to go far in the playoffs.
I also talked to Maddie Pearson who is very impressed with her teammate Mara Weisensel saying “Mara has already had a list of accomplishments being Player of the Week 3 times, KNUJ Player of the Week, MaxPreps Player of the Week, and Co-Journal Player of the Week".
Here are some of the upcoming games:
Home VS SESM 9/12/19 Beach Night
Away @ LCWM 9/16/19
