Track encompasses jumping, throwing and running. It is a unique sport because students of all levels of athleticism can participate. “The team tries really hard to make it a positive experience for everyone, not just the stars,” head coach Ernie Lee, who started out as an assistant volunteer in 1995, said.

Rising and returning athletes in almost all the events help create a strong and varied team. Junior Sunny Margerum, sophomore Emma Dohner and senior Charles Chisom are some of the returning varsity runners who will compete in events such as the long jump, 3200-meter and 200-meter respectively. There are also younger freshmen athletes including freshmen Julia Maggioncalda, who will compete in the high jump, and Kyung Serk Cho, who will compete in sprints.

The team had its first practice meet against Aragon, and Lee believes it was a good start. “The team had many outstanding early season marks and a lot of great debut performances by new athletes,” Lee said. Many athletes had personal records in events like girls distance and boys sprints, including freshman Kieran Gallagher. “Kieran ran the eighth fastest 800-meter time of 2:20, which was amazing because it was the first meet,” senior Tara Saxena said. Gunn had fewer athletes in other areas, especially girls high jump, where there was only one athlete competing.

With around 200 students on the team, Lee believes that Gunn has a good season in front of them. “We should be competitive in our league,” he said. “So far things are looking promising.” The next meet is on March 19 against Los Altos High School.

With fewer players this year and a younger team, the softball team faces hard challenges. Last year the team had 14 players, but this year, there are only 11. According to softball rules, nine players must be on the field at all times; with the smaller team, only two players get a break, meaning each player will receive short breaks. Adding to that downside, the team lost six seniors that played critical roles: both pitchers were lost. According to sophomore Nicole Grimwood, the positions are always changing so they do not know who will be playing what for the team.

In addition to being a smaller team, this year’s varsity team has a younger set of players. Out of the 11 players, five of them are freshman and two are sophomores. With a majority of underclassmen players, some think the team has yet to play with full potential. “It’s a different level of playing that takes getting used to and the freshmen show a lot of potential,” senior Shoshana Mitchell said.

Science teacher Maria Powell will be the head coach of the team. Having coached softball for six years, Powell said she has experience teaching younger players. “I don’t think a young team is necessarily a disadvantage,” Powell said. The goal she hopes to achieve with her team is to create uniformity between junior varsity (JV) and varsity. Powell believes that uniformity between JV and varsity will help JV players going to varsity understand what is to be expected. “I am currently working with [PE teacher Steve] Ames to develop uniform standards and expectations for both programs.” Powell said.

Powell and the team have been focusing on defense and perfecting basic skills instead of individualized work. With the team short of players, Powell has been evaluating the skill level of each player and finding out which position the player can apply her skills to the best.

With the season coming up and the first couple of games already over, Powell hopes to make the best of the small and young team.

The varsity badminton team hopes to smash to victory and continue the legacy of its previous years. Last year’s team placed first in the De Anza League and lost only once against its biggest rival, Monta Vista High School. They hope to continue this record by winning league again and moving on to the Central Coast Section Championships. Last year, the mixed doubles and boys’ and girls’ doubles placed within the top three.

“In the years before, Monta Vista [High School] has always beaten us both times we played them,” sophomore Phoebe Lin said. “But last year’s team was really strong, so we were able to win one of the games. I really hope we can beat them this year too.”

In addition to the loss of six seniors, several strong players from last year are not playing for the school team, including junior Brent Dano and sophomores Charlie Yang and Catherine Wu. They are training with their private coaches to prepare for state and national tournaments.

According to coach Marc Tsukakoshi, even though badminton is an individual sport, it is still important that the team can encourage and motivate each other. The next few weeks will be focused on rebuilding the team and getting everyone on the same page in terms of expectations and goals.

Tsukakoshi believes that joining the team is a great opportunity for the players to not only develop and strengthen their own style, but also to be exposed to other styles of playing.

The team’s first game will be at home on March 31 against Monta Vista High School.

With the end of March steadily approaching, the boys’ varsity golf team has played against Cupertino, Fremont and Los Altos High School, bringing its overall record to 2-1. According to coach Chris Redfield, the team only lost one senior, so most of the team is coming back and starting from where they left off. “We had a young team last year—two freshmen, three sophomores and one senior who were starters,” Redfield said. “This year it is still a young team but they are much improved.” According to sophomore golfer Andrew Leung, the team is looking forward to the game against Paly. “We lost last season, but I want to come back and show them how much better we’ve gotten,” Leung said. As for other goals the team wants to come out with this season, it is the golf championships later in April. “This year we want to compete for the [Santa Clara Valley Athletic League] SCVAL league championship,” Redfield said.

With construction for the new swimming pool underway, the swim team has been heavily impacted. Practicing at Jane Lathrop Stanford (JLS) and Terman Middle Schools has affected the team, but it is still hopeful for the upcoming season. “We have to practice at JLS and Terman since the pool is under construction, so it is a bit harder to achieve the same team unity,” junior Teva Levens said,.

The swimming team’s strengths in events like the 200 free and medley relays all help ensure a strong season, according to Levens. “Junior varsity boys and girl are going to be right in the mix with other schools, and varsity girls will dominate,” sophomore Kevin Zhang said.

Although there are no seniors on the swim team this year, the team still has high hopes for its season. “I think we will do reasonably well,” Levens said. “I hope that we can still become as strong of a team this year as we were last year.”

Levens, who most likely will compete in the 100-yard breaststroke, 200 medley relay, 400 freestyle relay and 100 free, is excited for the new season. Levens is also looking forward to the goals she has set. “I’d like to get All-American in a few more events this year and set some school records,” Levens said. “I also want to place higher individually in [Central Coast Section (CCS)].”

The diving team is promising a memorable successful season ahead. Due to pool construction, the team has been practicing at Paly. “Last year we practiced at Gunn and it felt more connected to other sports, I liked it last year and I like this year too,” junior Talia Mahoney said. “Practice is really fun but we work hard and I’m hoping that both my team and I improve from last year throughout the season.” Due to all the hard work the team has showed, coach Aaron Pollock foresees a great season. “The divers had a ton of fun last year and pushed themselves to overcome both fear and pain to improve their skills and variety of dives,” he said. “We are fully expecting to do the same this year and are off to a wonderful start.” Last year, the team had two boys and three girls in the finals of the league and those divers as well as the team, are ready to begin another dedicated season of rewarding training.

The varsity lacrosse team is excited to up their game this season. The team started off with non-league matches against Santa Catalina, Palo Alto and Notre Dame. They lost to Santa Catalina and Palo Alto, but came up on top against Notre Dame.

Some areas that the team hopes to improve in include teamwork and the basic skills of the game such as throwing and catching. Team members also hope to be more intense and aggressive on the field.

During practice, the girls run seven versus seven drills, which is the lacrosse equivalent of half court basketball.

According to senior Kelsey Cranmer-Brown, there is a substantial amount of work to do to improve. “Our coach always said that responsibility is a really important thing,” she said. “And since we have a lot of new people, we need to rebuild the team and we need to work together to strengthen ourselves.”

As team captain, Cranmer-Brown encourages team members to push themselves to try their hardest. She also fills in for coach Pete Carolan when he is absent. “Sometimes I have to be very bossy and not very nice, but I just really want to teach the girls and to give my experience to them, to help them improve and develop as strong athletes,” she said. “The team already has a lot of potential to do really well, but we still need to learn the strategy of the game to work well together.”

The baseball team’s goals are to get back into the De Anza League as well as to make it into the CCS playoffs. Last season the team was in the De Anza League but was bumped down to the lower El Camino League.

According to senior Jonathan Jung, last year’s team was not expected to win many games. “Some players in the De Anza league have received scholarships to play baseball in Division I schools,” Jung said. Last year, the seniors on the team carried the team, but this year, all players must contribute. With many lessons learned from last year, the players have high hopes for a better season.

In order to reach the De Anza League, the team must come in first or second in the El Camino League. However, being the lower division, El Camino has lower level teams than De Anza. “There aren’t as much overly powering players in the El Camino league,” Jung said. Despite being 6-20 last season, the team has learned from the games and intend to use those moves in the games for this season.

In addition to improving its game through new plans and moves, the new field has greatly helped the team. According to Jung, the field last year had major inconveniences. “Last year a routine pop fly would turn out to be a home run,” Jung said, “However, with the farther fences this year it will stop that from happening.”

According to junior Claire Reyes, the gymnastics team is ready to start fresh and bring home new wins. “Gunn was league champs last year, and we finished second at CCS Championships,” coach Ericka Fusilero said. The team agrees that they performed well. “We were pretty good last season, and I’m hoping that we can get ours skills back and and improve on them,” Reyes said. Their rigorous workouts demonstrated their determination. “During a typical practice, we do some light conditioning and stretching to warm up, then we do some hard core conditioning, and finally we move on to the events and practice our routines,” junior gymnast Aja Hartman said. As far as meets are concerned, there haven’t been any so far but their first is against Cupertino and Homestead at their home turf Twisters Gym. “Gunn away games are my favorite, the car rides are bonding experiences, but home games are good too,” Reyes said. Fusilero has a positive outlook on the team this season. “They are very dedicated and a hard working team. I’m sure their hard work will pay off this year,” she said.

“[The gymnastics team] exists and we compete at Twisters,” Reyes said. “We’d appreciate more sports and recognition from the Gunn community. If people want to join, they should because you don’t need any experience, it is really fun, you meet new people and it is not a enormous time consuming sport.”

With a few players arriving late from other sports, the boys’ tennis team has had a slow but steady start to their season. Despite the absence of these players, head coach Jim Gorman has a clear idea of the overall talent and skill of the team. “We have depth, some really good freshman and ranked players,” Gorman said. “This year’s team is pretty strong, and we just need to play well, have some solid doubles, win some singles and try to duplicate what we did last year.”

Last year, the team placed eighth in CCS, tied for second in the league, and won the Fresno tournament. They hope to place in the the top 16 in CCS again this year.

However, the team was not able to defend its title in the Fresno tournament this year and placed 8th out of 108 teams. “Out of all 35 matches, we had 20 third set tiebreakers and only won two,” Gorman said. “Most of the tiebreakers were extremely close though, like 12-10.”

According to Gorman, the team did well overall and stayed focused on their matches.

“In general, the team has been doing a great job of helping each other out and supporting each other,” Gorman said. “I’m excited to see what we can accomplish this season.”