Hershey hosts Fall Sports Media Day

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) - Friday, Hershey Public Schools held their Fall Sports Media Day event. Head Cross Country Coach Kyle Bottom said the competition for the Girl’s and Boys’ Cross Country Teams will provide a bit of a challenge.

“We’ve got kids running three or four minutes faster than they were as a Freshman, if we can just keep improving and growing a little bit at a time and keep that group moving up together, I think we’ll have some opportunities this year to compete at a higher level than we have in the last couple of years. Our ultimate goal every year is to come at district time to have our best races of the season, that might look time-wise that might look place-wise but for everybody to end the season with their best races of the year,” Bottom said.

Junior Emma Elliott said she’s excited for the season after being injured during her sophomore campaign. “I was kind of hurt last year so this is a bounce-back year for me and I’m excited to see what I’m capable of. This year there is only one other girl on the team, but our friendship will just build throughout the season and make us stronger,” she said.

The Lady Panther’s Softball team began their season Thursday evening. Head coach Brittney Stenger said the team hopes to continue strong momentum into the third year of the program’s existence. “Last year they almost tripled their record from season one so I think we can just keep building and keep working. We had our first game against Cozad last night and I think they came out really strong so it’s good to see that they are still with it and the first game jitters are gone now,” Stenger said.

Senior Golfer Kristyn Wooley said she and her teammates have put in the time this offseason to improve. “We’ve really been working on our short game, I think that was a huge problem last year. A lot of us drive really well, it’s our chipping and our putting and I feel like we’ve done a lot of different activities to make that better, hopefully, we make it to state again this year and do better at districts,” Wooley said.

Expectations are high for the Panther’s Volleyball program which is led by a group of upperclassmen that have chemistry on and off the court. ”We’ve been playing together since like Junior High, so we’ve been playing together for a long time and we’re friends off the court too. We know each other well and we can pick each other up when we are down. And we can sense when we’re struggling with something and just being able to communicate with that on and off the court,” said Seniors Mia Cauffman and Haily Miller.