Coach Meier would like to thank the softball team for a fun season. He is very proud of all your hard work and long practices that paid off with a winning record and two championships to be added to the softball banner. The post season awards and get together will be this Friday, June 3rd. at 4:00 p.m. Remember to turn in your old and new uniforms to Mrs. Navarro.
Congratulations to the Newark Lady Norsemen on an outstanding 2011 season! Newark’s softball team’s season came to a close on Saturday, May 28, in the Serena Class 1A Sectional Championship match. Dwight defeated Newark with a score of 10-4.
The 2011 Lady Norsemen (16-11) had many season accomplishments including Little Ten Conference Champions (13-1), Regional Champions, and advancing through the sectional semifinal to play in the sectional championship game.
Additional highlights included Miranda Schmidt's first career
no-hitter, striking out 13 against Liberty Christian Academy in the sectional semifinal game, Kirstie Anderson's grand slam homerun vs LaMoille as Newark tied a state record for eighth place with six home runs in one game, Teresa DiClementi's squeeze bunt in bottom of the seventh to score Lauren Tollefson and beat Serena 1-0, beating Serena's "fourth in state team" three times this year, Taylor Rehberg going 6 for 7 in the regional, Melissa Schmidt belting two home runs over the fence this year, and hitting water balloons for batting practice on one of our rare warm days in May.
Seniors Kirstie Anderson, Miranda Schmidt, and Teresa DiClementi will all be missed by the team next year! We wish them luck in the future!
Congratulations to the Newark Lady Norsemen softball team for your 10-0 Sectional Semifinal victory against Liberty Christian Academy! The Lady Norsemen have now advanced to the Sectional Championship game to be held on Saturday, May 28th, 11:00 a.m. at Serena.
Regional Champions!
Congratulations to the Lady Norsemen softball team for your 9-3 Regional Championship victory against Serena on Saturday! The Lady Norsemen have now advanced to Sectionals to be held at Serena on Wednesday, May 25th vs. Liberty Christian Academy from Arlington Heights. Good luck Lady Norsemen!
Summer Baseball: Players interested in summer baseball need to have their $30 fee turned into Coach Hacker by Friday, May 20th if they want to participate. Checks should be made out to J.R.Veliz, with a memo of "Summer Baseball" on the check. See Coach Hacker if you have any questions.
Friday, May 20th, is the first annual end of the year bash for all athletic teams. Dinner will be served from 6:00-7:00 p.m. An award ceremony will immediately follow from 7:00-8:00 p.m. Each team will be responsible for bringing a dish to pass. Teams will be informed of the dish to bring at a later date. The Booster Club/School will provide hamburgers and hot dogs.
Poster by Chris Murawski & Cori Elizalde
This is your last chance to order a boys' basketball state championship t-shirt. Thursday afternoon (May 12) is the cut off date. They are $10.00 and you can give your order to Mrs. Wernsman in the office.
Also, there are boys basketball state championship bumper stickers for sale in the office for $5.00. Stop by and see Mrs. Wernsman today.
The baseball season is underway! The Newark Norsemen Baseball team has a new coach. This year, Gabriel Veliz, Jr. coaches the Norsemen. The new coach and the Norsemen are expecting a promising season.
Two seniors, Brandon Mattison and Ryan Mulligan are leading the way this year. Brandon Mattison said, “It’s going to be a fun season, no doubt. We won’t do too bad this year.” We also talked to senior Ryan Mulligan. He says, “It will be interesting this season; we have a young team. We’ll probably win around 12 games this season, I think. I like the new coach; he’s cool. He has experience, and he knows what he’s doing. The season has been rough so far; we need to work a little more. The season has been interesting but hard.”
Coach Veliz Jr. played two years at Waubonsee Community College (1999 – 2001) and two years of baseball at Aurora University (2002 – 2004). He was the starting shortstop and 2nd baseman. He also played semi – professional baseball for Oswego Cats until 2007. He has also coached a travel baseball team for the last seven years.
Good luck Newark Norsemen!
By Chris Murawski & Cori Elizalde
The Lady Norsemen Softball team had a rough start this season. They started off with five losses. Two losses were against Sycamore, one each against Rosary, Coal City, and Marquette. All of the girls’ losses were against 2A and 3A schools. The girls then got their first two wins against LaMoille and split with Somonauk. They then had four more wins, two against Earlville and two against Serena. The team tied for the 8th all time in IHSA history for the number of homeruns in a game when they played LaMoille and hit six homeruns. The Lady Norsemen are starting to get into their more important conference games. “When we have all the players there, we have a powerful hitting lineup, and our pitchers are getting better every game,” Coach Meier said.
By Melissa Schmidt and Melissa McNanna
As most of Newark already knows, the boy’s varsity basketball team won the Class 1A State Championship this past March. In addition, they set many new standards and broke a couple records along the way.
The Norsemen basketball team broke the single season wins record tallying thirty-three wins on the season with just one loss. The previous record was twenty-nine wins, so this year’s team passed up that win total in dominating fashion. Also, the state championship was the first in school history for any sport. The team feels truly honored to have been able to compete in the state tournament and return home with a state championship trophy. “We are truly blessed to have had this experience. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I thank God for it,” said junior player David Hillard.
Some of the players also set some new individual records during the season. Senior Kyle Anderson set the all time scoring record for the school, tallying 2,280 points over his four-year varsity career. He also set a record for most steals in the state championship game, grabbing nine steals during the contest. Senior John Avery finished in fifth place on the all-time school scoring list, tallying 1,449 total points over his career. He also set a record for most blocked shots in the state championship game, totaling four shots blocked en route to helping the team to a 57-35 victory.
This past season was one the boys will never forget. They made history and were very fortunate to have been a part of the entire experience. Good luck to the future varsity basketball teams!
By John Avery and David Hillard