Lady Norsemen Volleyball Preview

On September 1, the Newark Lady Norsemen volleyball team will begin another season under the leadership of Coach Tonya Grayson. This year’s squad will try to continue the dominance of previous year’s teams.

There are 9 returning team members from last year’s team including senior captains Maddie and Marissa. Junior Emma will join them as the third captain to lead this year’s squad over the sectional hump they are looking to get over. Newark has been defeated by Harvest Christian the past 2 years in the Sectional and are striving to get past them this time around. Harvest Christian will visit Newark on September 17, which is a date that many are looking forward to. “We are looking forward to playing Harvest. They are a tough team that will give us a test, and it is also the Homecoming game,” said senior Megan.

Team chemistry is always important with sports teams, and it seems like this year’s Lady Norsemen already have that unique bond. “Team chemistry is definitely a strength of the team,” Coach Grayson said,  “The girls get along great, and always play hard together as a team.” Sophomore middle hitter Nikki piggybacked on Coach’s comment, “We all get along great, which is a huge advantage for us.”

The Kill Club will be back again for this year’s volleyball season with a fresh face in charge. Senior Kendall will take over as President of the club this season. Evan will be his right-hand man as the Vice President.

Nikki explained how important the Kill Club is to the team, “We love having the Kill Club at games. The energy and excitement they bring really gets us going.” This year’s leaders encourage everyone to come to the games and help cheer on our ladies to another successful season. President Endres said, "With only 6 home games this year, we’re looking to be fully engaged every time our Lady Norsemen take the floor."

By Will, Dylan, and Evan

Teeing off to a New Season

The Norsemen golf team’s potential this year is off the charts. The nine-player squad consisting of Seth, Tyler, Neal, Cameron, Caleb, James, Cory, Brett, and Wyatt had their first meet Monday, August 24, with a victory over Somonauk High School at the Orchard Valley Country Club at 4:00 PM.

Most of the older golfers agree that the freshmen will provide key support to the team with continued practice. A team goal for the year is to advance through regionals.

When asked what golf has taught them throughout the years, Seth says, “Some days you will do great and other days you will feel like you’ve never played before. You just have to get through the bad days, so the good days are possible.” Cameron says, “You need to be focused the whole time, each and every day you need to be focused and determined.”

This fourteen meet season is looking promising for the Norsemen Golf team as they set sail for regionals.

By Austin and Remington

Newark Norsemen/Lady Norsemen Season Pass Information:

Season Passes may be purchased at the home volleyball game on September 10, 2015. All passes are good for admission to all home events, excluding tournaments. Adults: $60 for the year, Senior Citizens: $30 for the year, Family Pass:(includes 4 members of immediate family) $60 per sport or $180 for the year, Student Athletic Pass: $40 per year. Download the flyer here.

Tournament Champions!

Congratulations to the Newark-Seneca Varsity Soccer Team for placing 1st at the 3rd Annual Paw Paw High School Soccer Invitational on Saturday! The Norsemen took 1st place in three games with a 4-1 victory for each. Way to go, Norsemen!

Norsemen Baseball

The playoff run is here for the Newark baseball squad. In their first round game, they had to take on the LaMoille Lions on Monday, May 18. It was a Norsemen winner, as the 3 seed beat the 6 seed, 17 to 1. Cam Myre got the win, pitching the first three innings and giving up 1 run. Conner Christian pitched the next two innings without allowing any runs. “It was a good game, a nice way to get the regionals going,” said Coach J.R. Veliz. With this win, they had to play the 2 seed, Putnam County, at Putnam County on Friday, May 22. The Norsemen unfortunately were knocked out of the Regional Tournament in that game, losing 11-2. The Norsemen finished the regular season with a 13-13 and 9-7 conference record. It wasn’t the easiest year for Newark, but they battled throughout the year. The team had two starting seniors and a foreign exchange student. Matt Eike and Zach Ward are both 4-year starters and brought great talent to this game. Matt Eike, the 3 hitter, Of/C was all conference and all academic. “He was one of the best players I’ve coached here,” said Coach Veliz. “He had so many tools to his game, a wonderful player.” He will being attending Augustana University. Zach Ward, the solid defender and hitter, saw his averages around 330 every year. Next year he will be going to Joliet Junior College. Fikri Rachman, the foreign exchange student from Indonesia, had a wonderful time here in America. Fikri said that when he leaves Newark, he is going to miss his time on the baseball team the most. By Ian Cerney and Steve McGrath

Softball Senior Night

Softball Senior Night was held on May 7. Two seniors were honored: Caroline and Lexi. As of press time, the team was continuing to play in the regional tournament.

Photos courtesy of Caroline and Lexi.

Norsemen Baseball

"It’s a Norsemen winner"; those words were said quite a bit throughout the month of April about the Newark baseball team as they went 8-4. They started off the month with their first conference series against the Royals of Hinckley Big-Rock. The Norsemen got off to a hot start at HBR piling up runs from the start of the game. Austin Pagel tossed a quality 6 innings allowing 7 runs. "He pitched a quality game. We know what we're going to get from him, which is strikes. There was one inning were they got their runs when he left the ball up but for the first 5 innings he was marvelous." Said coach J.R. Veliz.

In that game, Tyler Mulligan was able to secure the save, his first of the season in a 13-8 winner. The second matchup was a pitchers' duel between Kendall Endres and HBR's junk throwing side armer. Down 3-2 going into the bottom of the 7th Austin Pagel hit a walk off hitting in Cam Myre and Matt Eike for a 4-3 win.

LaMoille was rained out on Thursday April 9 but on Friday April 10 the Norsemen were back in action beating the Lions in six innings 18-1. Saturday April 11 the Norsemen went to Channahon to face Families of Faith Christian Academy. Winning both of those games in six innings allowing only a total of 8 runs and scoring a combined 30 runs. It was a successful month for the Norsemen as they got a good start in conference going 6-3.

By: Ian Cerney and Steve McGrath

Get Your Game Face On: Newark Softball

Newark Softball is in full swing! The lady Norsemen have kicked off the season with some wins under their belts.

They have played some conference games against Somonauk, Serena, and Earlville. They have also played some games against some big non-conference teams, like Plano and Wheaton Academy.

May will be a big month for the team. They will kick it off with playing Dwight at Dwight on May 1. On May 2 they have a double-header against Kirkland-Hiawatha at home.

They will finish up their conference games, playing Indian Creek on May 6 at home and May 12 at Indian Creek.

The Lady Norsemen play some non-conference opponents, like Aurora Christian at home on May 7 and Gardner-South Wilmington away on May 14. Junior Megan DiClementi says, “As long as we keep our head in the game we will be strong leading into the post season.”

On May 16 they will play in the Putnam County Tournament at Putnam County. The tournament starts at 8:00.

By Maddie Friestad