Nevada boys soccer remains positive, girls golf remains strong
The Nevada boys soccer team has gotten off to a bit of an inconsistent start, and despite falling in a few of its recent games, the team is looking up.
Head coach Todd Sampson said he has been happy with the Cubs’ start, as they had to replace a lot of players after nine of 11 players graduated last year.
“I wouldn’t necessarily call it a rebuilding year, but it was kind of a reset, and we were going to have a lot of new faces on the field,” Sampson said.
He added that he told the team at the start of the season it needs to get better every practice and every game to see improvement, and for starting players who have just a handful of varsity minutes, he’s been happy with what he’s seen so far.
However, the Cubs have still gone through some growing pains, as they have now dropped three in a row and are looking to bounce back.
Sampson said the team just wants to have good play overall, and though Nevada’s first game of the week will be against a tough ADM squad, he hopes to have a chance to pick up a couple wins by the end of the week.
Nevada will also learn from its losses, as two of those three came in the Iowa-Nebraska Border Battle, which Sampson said was a good experience for the Cubs to play against some of the best teams in Nebraska.
“The guys got a lot of quality minutes and we’ll use that as a learning experience to grow and move forward,” Sampson said.
With now a few weeks gone by of competition and the team continuing to get experience playing together, it is now setting the goals for the season.
Though the Cubs replaced a lot of last year’s team, Sampson is still hoping to make the state tournament, but seeing improvement is still crucial.
“When it comes to postseason time, everyone’s gonna get a chance, so we just need to be playing our best soccer at the end of the year,” Sampson said.
He added that though the wins and losses in the regular season are important, they only have bearing on the seeding in the postseason, so if the Cubs are playing well, he likes their chances.
Relying on some of the returners to the team should also help Nevada, as they did have a few that played varsity last season.
Sampson said he’s asked those guys that played varsity last year to step up and lead this season.
“Multiple of them have been captains or leaders on other sports teams in the school but this was kind of their first year from a soccer standpoint that we were going to ask them to really be involved from a leadership standpoint,” Sampson said. “And I think they’ve all accepted that responsibility and done well with it.”
Girls golf remains strong
The Nevada girls golf team had another strong week of competition following a pair of meets this past week.
The Cubs kicked off their week competing in the Saydel Invite on April 9, where they placed first against three other teams with a score of 192.
Senior Olivia Axmear and junior Mya Spykerman tied for first at the meet, with each scoring a 45 to lead the Cubs. Senior Reagan Schmidt followed up in third, shooting a 48.
Also scoring for Nevada was sophomore Lauren Schmidt, who landed seventh with a score of 54.
The Cubs followed that with another solid performance at the Gilbert Meet on April 12, placing second. Nevada finished with a score of 184 behind first-place Gilbert, which scored a 157.
Nevada will aim to continue its strong start when it competes at the Turk Bowman Meet at 10 a.m. April 22 at the Veenker Memorial Golf Course.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Nevada boys soccer remains positive, girls golf remains strong
