Although the James Monroe Golf season has quickly ended, this season won’t be forgotten. On October 6^th, 2009, our yellow jackets competed in the District Tournament against top competitors, including King George High School, who placed first, and Caroline, who came in second. Unfortunately for our golf team, this means the end of the season. Although this was a rebuilding year, having lost such memorable players like Daniel Burch and working under the new direction of Mr. Wolven, the Yellow Jackets excelled greatly in their effort at practice and games and in their strive to be a close supportive team.

                “Our team is just good at being a team! I’d just like to win once!” Junior Sam Thomas exclaimed.  The golf team did not beat any opponents this year, but certain matches, including Chancellor, River Bend and Caroline, were extremely close. Although the team didn’t succeed, it was provided with fresh talent. According to the team, freshman Blake Olsen is the most improved player. Now that Olsen has had on year of experience for playing for the Yellow Jackets under his belt, he will surely shine next season. This will greatly help the team next year when they come back for another season. Even though the team didn’t do as well as they wished they had, there were certainly some stars that stood out this year.  Senior captain Kyle Young and junior Sam Thomas both excelled with their personal best at thirty-eight with senior Ryan Martinez close behind at forty-four.   We can only expect that next year, they will push even harder to be the best of the best!

This season, the James Monroe Volleyball head coach Valerie Maniscalco believes, “Last season was better than this year.”  Remaining optimistic, she adds, “The season’s not over yet.”  Agreeing with her head coach, Senior Jennifer Zayas continued on by proclaiming the team is, “Not having a good season.  We could do a lot better than we are.”  Though the team has gotten off to a slow start, having a record of two wins to go along with six losses at the time of this writing, Maniscalco sees bright spots for the future of the volleyball team.  “We have a new Junior Varsity team that we have not had in four or five years.”  That JV team has come in handy this season.  “Injuries have been greatly affecting the team” the coach says, “We had to merge the JV and Varsity teams so we could have enough people on the team.”  Although it’s much too late to join the team this season, Coach says one of her long term goals for the James Monroe Volleyball team is to, “Have more girls on the teams.  I’d love to have more girls.  I’m scrambling with all these injuries to find players.  I would love to have more members, especially basketball players; they have good hand eye coordination.”  The coach also points out that she would like to have, “A strong and sturdy Junior Varsity.”  Her final wish is to, “Have more fans.  The fans give up lots of hype and anxiety.  The fans give us a reason to show what we are made of.  Right now, not a lot of people are interested, and I would like that to change.”