Falcons' Winter Sports Winds Down, Spring Teams Watiting in the Wings

As the winter sports season comes to end for Monmouth Regional teams, there are many accomplishments to be celebrated for our school.

A couple of high-profile recruits signed their National Letters of Intent recently, which represents our high school in a positive way and helps build our school's reputation and tradition. These seniors, as well as the other senior student-athletes on all of the teams, set an example for the underclassmen that will see their former teammates play at the college level and strive to achieve the same outcome. It is important for this to become a cycle for Monmouth and I feel we are moving forward in that direction by building the programs that we have each year, helping our school build an athletic tradition that all high schools students should experience.

This year, the second year under Head Coach Jason Morrell and assistant Coach Paul Crivello, the wrestling team’s record dominated all sports at Monmouth Regional. This week, they finished up their season with a win against Holmdel, a loss to Point Beach, and a loss on Sunday.

 Even though they finished with a loss, this family-oriented team has accomplished many things this season. They exceeded expectations in an aggressive fashion after having been predicted to be last, or second to last, in the B North Division. Their answer to such low expectations: They finished third behind two of the top teams in the Shore Conference; recorded the most wins in school history with 15 wins; competed with a great line-up of wrestlers; and helped lay down expectations for the program for years to come.

This power line-up included seniors Ryan Greenwood and Nick Jordan with more then 20 victories on the season, as well as juniors Joe Panchak and Dom Cardella who accomplished the same record. Seniors Scott Satcher, Marcus Johnson, and Clinton Cotton all had more then 10 wins, as well as Junior Julio Hernandez and Sophomore Sean Sanderson.

This year, many more guys tried out for the team—including a lot of football players—just so they can be a part of this program. This team has a lot of impressive underclassmen, too, that I'm sure will continue the winning tradition started under Coaches Morrell and Crivello.

The boys varsity basketball team was knocked out of the Shore Conference Tournament this week as they needed to beat all three of their opponents to get in. With losses to Long Branch and Colts Neck—two division opponents—they were knocked out of the tournament seeding.

All is not lost though, because the Falcons still have a chance to compete in the State Championship bracket. The basketball team looks to win against St. John Vianney tomorrow night at home after their win over Toms River North Sunday 62 to 61. With a new head coach and a team lacking experience playing with each other like other high school teams, this team has been exceeding expectations all year and look to finish up the season strong.

Both swim teams finished up the season towards the bottom of their divisions. They both look to improve themselves for next season, as they will have a lot of varsity swimmers return to the team next winter. One of them includes Junior Victoria Grimsgaard who recorded the fastest time in the Shore Conference in the 50m freestyle swim with a time of 23.54 seconds, about a whole second in front of her competition. The underclassmen of this season look to lead their team to more wins in the future.

With the sun and the grass finally appearing, the winter sports are coming to a close, and the start of spring sports approaches, beginning Friday, March 5th. The track team, under new Head Coach Gottdenker, has been preparing for spring meets and relays all winter out in the freezing temperatures and snow. We had our track meeting this past week, and I am excited to finally compete against other high schools once again. The other spring sports are preparing as well in the weight room, holding team meetings, and other activities. At Monmouth, we all hope to have a great spring with the success of all of our sports teams.