Winter is here and in full swing, bringing heavy coats, hot drinks, shorter days, and the most exciting thing of all: CRLS Winter sports! To really kick off this year’s winter sports season, I took it upon myself to interview some of the sports captains this season and hear firsthand what they were planning. I present to you the winter edition of what I’m calling Captains’ Chat.

The following interviews have been edited for concision and clarity.

Register Forum (RF): What are your goals for this season?  What are you trying to accomplish?

Edwin Smilack ’23 (ES), Swim Team Co-Captain:

“This season, one of the background goals obviously is to win more meets, at least like two or three meets. But also have a good team mentality. We’re just trying to get people and their techniques to improve. So obviously everybody’s going to improve their fitness, but also swim a lot better “

Jahnae Williams ’24 (JW), Girls Basketball captain:

“I say work together more and just put forth our best efforts, not worry individually how we do it but how we’re going as a team.”

Ella Lehrich ’24 (EL), member of the Wrestling Team:

“I mean, we’re not a new program, but we’ve been  pretty small in the past couple of years. Last year we were starting bigger, so we started to grow the team and just get more wins and generally just get more people involved in the sport.”

Kylee Bernard ’23 (KB), Track Co-captain:

“I know one I’m trying to focus on is having a strong 4×4, which is just like all about like holding each other accountable and practice.”

Caleb Jaffe ’23 (CJ), Boys Hockey Captain:

“The ultimate goal is to make the state tournament and win a league title.”

RF: What are some challenges you anticipate for this season?

ES:

“Well, one of the challenges in the past has been attendance. People sometimes just stop going or kind of get demotivated. So keeping people interested and going through it the whole two months I think is probably the most challenging thing.” 

JW:

“I mean, we have a small group this year. We only have like 12 players, I’m pretty sure. So, if somebody gets injured or sick or something like that, it plays a big part.” 

EL:

“[The team is] getting a lot better and I think just making sure to have a full team and trying to get a lot of kids. Because [Wrestling is] one of the few sports people start freshman year, so getting people to act and make this work and get them used to wrestling themselves.”

KB:

“I would say [keeping] everyone on the team committed. I think in the beginning it’s easy, but as the season goes on it can get hard.”

CJ:

“We’re a very young team. I think we have 10 or 11 freshmen, which is great for the future of the program, but getting everyone on the team adjusted to the speed and physicality of high school will certainly be a challenge.”

RF: Anything special you’re looking forward to this season?

ES:

“Well, in the past we’ve done pasta dinners, we’re doing a secret Santa. We don’t do too many special things, but we try to build lots of team chemistry. We’re going to try to dress up for some meets.”

JW:

“I think we have a lot of integrity, and strength, and are very aggressive.”

EL:

“I think just seeing new people. It’s always been [nice] to see new faces and new people getting involved. I hope for a good season.”

KB:

“We have a really good distance team and a really good distance girl, Aoife. And we also have some good girls’ sprinters. I think that’s something that’s really exciting, on both sides.”

CJ:

“I’m really looking forward to the First Responders cup, our annual Christmas tournament. It’s always a really great atmosphere.”

This article appeared in the December 2022 print edition.