EAHS Lax coach resigns, new track coach to be hired

I was just looking through the agenda for tonight's E-town school board meeting and came across a few things regarding EAHS Athletics staff that I figured I'd pass along.

The first was the resignation of Matt Reesor, the EAHS head varsity lacrosse coach. According to the agenda, the resignation was effective on July 30. Reesor was only the head coach for one year. EAHS Athletic Director Shane Piper was gone for the day, but I did leave him a message today. If he gives me more info. on Reesor's resignation, I'll pass it along.

I also noticed that Kathryn Tragis, a varsity cheerleading assistant coach for the fall season will have her contract terminated pending school board approval. Again, I'll try and pass along any further information I can get regarding her termination.

A few standard athletic staff hires for 08-09 are also on tonight's agenda. They are:
• Jeremy Adams, as varsity soccer assistant coach I.
• Eric Clair, as varsity football assistant coach I.
• Jeffrey Harnish, as varsity track head coach and winter coed track head coach.

Harnish will replace Bill Vogt, who will not return to head up E-town's track program. I'll try and get with Jeff and get an interview and post something both here and in the print edition about his hiring. Congratulations to Jeff.

Catching up

Hello out there, did you guys miss me this week? I missed you. C'mon, you missed me a little bit, right? Suuure you did.

My apologies for the lack of posts this week, we've been working to get out a special insert that will be coming in the paper on the 10th, and also working on our free mailing. That's right, EVERYONE in our coverage area will be getting a free copy of the Chronicle mailed to your house on the 10th. Didn't know it was your lucky day, did you? So I'm trying to make this week's issue look as nice as possible to lure those of you who aren't subscribers (tsk, tsk) into getting a subscription.

But enough of the excuses. After all, excuses aren't welcome here at The Bear's Den. So let's take a journey around the land of EAHS spring sports and update you on how the Bears are doing, in case you were wondering. Also, I'll have a couple of posts later today about some other things. I'm sure you'll be waiting with baited breath.

Baseball:
E-town tasted defeat for the first time yesterday, losing to Ephrata 9-1 to fall to 4-1 overall. The Bears outhit the Mounts 7-5, but couldn't seem to get those RBI hits that are so crucial. The Bears were supposed to play defending Section 2 champ Conestoga Valley today at home, but that game has been postponed until Tuesday at 4:15 p.m. I'll have coverage of that one in this week's paper. It'll be a good tune up for Wednesday's showdown with Solanco. I'll have something on that here on the blog.

The Bears have four games in five days next week (depending on weather), and it could be a huge stretch for them. They start at Garden Spot Monday, host CV Tuesday and Solanco Wednesday and round out by hosting Cedar Crest Friday. This is where deep pitching staffs become the strength of a team. Trust me, it's a luxury for coach Telenko to have guys like Preston Faith, Erick Baker and Steve Buller to start in ball games for his team. Anyway, big week for the boys next week.

Softball:
Hello, E-town offense. Welcome back.

After scoring 6, 4 and 4 runs in their first three games (and going 1-2), the Bears' bats have exploded for 11 and 10 runs in their past two games, both blowout wins over section opponents. E-town is now back over .500 at 3-2 overall and 2-0 in Section Two. On Wednesday night, the Bears blanked Cocalico 10-0 behind two home runs from all-star shortshop Becca Bigler and one homer each from Anna Libby (who's having a monster year at the plate by the way) and senior Kara Hernley.

Since E-town lost that tough 13-inning game against Donegal back on March 26, the Bears have outscored their opponents 21-1. That's how you bounce back from a tough loss.

They were supposed to play CV today, but that game has been pushed back to Tuesday, which means the girls will also play four games in five days – Monday vs. Garden Spot, Tuesday @ CV, Wednesday @ Solanco and Friday @ Cedar Crest. Like the baseball team, E-town's got good pitchers, which will be important for them in tough weeks like this one. Jillian Ditzler and Tricia Stone are an excellent 1-2 punch and their play will be huge this week for the Bears.

Girls Soccer:
Another week, two more wins for the Bears. Ho hum. They're still unbeaten at 5-0-1 and have looked stellar so far. Defense is their strong point, but the offense has been there for them the past two games.

On Tuesday, they were staring at a 2-0 hole at halftime against Garden Spot and rallied to score four goals in the second half for a 4-2 win. And last night against Lebanon, they absolutely dominated. They outshot the Cedars 33-0 and won 3-0. First off, to shoot 33 times in a soccer game is amazing and to hold a team without a shot OR a corner kick on top of that is pretty much the definition of dominating.

Three good tests await E-town next week – @ Ephrata Monday, @ L-S Wednesday, and home vs. Manheim Central Friday under the lights. If the Bears are still unbeaten after that stretch, their confidence will be sky-high, and deservedly so.

Boys Track:
The boys started their week with a relatively close 80-2/3 to 69-1/3 win over Ephrata on Monday to move to 3-0. Dustin Horning has been excellent in the 800 and 1,600 events and won both again on Monday. Josh McMasters also won two events. The Bears also got good efforts (again) from Jordan Hallman, Larrian Payne, John Romain and Greg Crawford. They've got a lot of good athletes that are very good at a lot of different events, and that's been evident so far this year.

E-town did lose its first meet of the year on Thursday, however, falling to Hershey 80-70. Winning for E-town were Romain, Horning (twice), Hallman, Chad Barninger, Shane Rosenberry, Payne (twice) and Crawford.

Girls Track:
The girls tasted their first defeat this year on Monday, losing to Ephrata 90-60. Despite the loss, there's a lot to be excited about for the Bears. Freshmen Audrey Bamford, Bailey Davis and Ann Romanauskas have been stellar and their upperclassmen have also been steady. Against Ephrata, the Bears got wins from Romanauskas, Bamford, Kirsten Hayes and Amy Stoddard.

E-town then tied Hershey 75-75 yesterday thanks to a strong showing by its throwers and jumpers, who outscored the Trojans 48-15. Earning wins were Bamford (three times), Davis (twice), Kayla Koser, Aubrey Reider, Kelly Sebzda and Caitlyn Eshleman.

Boys Volleyball
After a strong 2-0 start, E-town is now 2-2, losing both matches this week.

They fell to Garden Spot 3-0 on Tuesday and lost to Lancaster Mennonite 3-1 last night. Zach McElheny, David Kreiser, Connor Toews and Michael Cicero have been strong so far for the Bears, who are already halfway to matching last season's win total.

Lacrosse
The boys got back underway this week after a 10-day layoff between games. They lost to CV 11-8 on Tuesday night in a close game. CV outscored E-town 5-1 in the third period to pull ahead and beat the Bears. E-town got two goals from Randy Groff and one each from Matt Frye, James Bard, Corey Faus, Ganan Keck, Phil Roeder and Josh Ginder.

Last night E-town ran into a very talented Warwick squad and lost 12-4, getting goals from Keck, Roeder, Groff and David Latimore.

They aren't playoff contenders yet, but you can definitely see improvement in the program.

Boys Tennis:
The Bears remained undefeated under first year head coach Chip Diem with a 7-0 beating of Warwick in their only match of the week.

In singles, Alex Trimble, Colton Brown, Michael Sweigart, Drew Winey and Peter Davis all won. In doubles, Brown and Sweigart and Trimble and Winey won their matches. The Bears are now 4-0. They were supposed to play today as well, but that match was been moved to Tuesday at 4 at home against Penn Manor.

Lacrosse preview

(E-town's lacrosse captains are, from left, Keith Kurtz, Phil Roeder and Ben Gotwalt).

Head Coach: Matt Reesor, first year.

2007 Record: 1-13 overall.

Key Returners: Ben Gotwalt, co-captain, senior, long stick midfield; Phil Roeder, co-captain, senior, midfield; Keith Kurtz, co-captain, senior, goalie; Matt Frye, senior, attack; Chris Klinger, senior, defense; Jeff Norton, senior, midfield; Randy Groff, junior, midfield.
After winning just one game in the past two seasons, E-town’s returning group has enough experience to now step up and continue the program’s improvement.
E-town will be strong in the midfield, with Gotwalt, Roeder, Norton and Groff leading the way there. That should allow the Bears to control the pace of a lot of games and put more goals on the board this year.
Groff and Kurtz anchor the defense and will look to improve on last year, when the Bears allowed 10 or more goals on eight occasions.
Frye will be E-town’s most potent offensive threat, and moves up from midfield to play attack for the Bears.
Reesor said he is relying on these returning players to help instill a strong work ethic in their teammates both at practices and games.

Key Newcomers: Giordano Pugliese, freshman, goalie; Josh Ginder, freshman, attack; Steven Dombrosky, freshman, attack; Joseph Clark, freshman, defense; Michael Somple, freshman, attack; Kyle Heisey, freshman, midfield.
This group of freshman is coming off of an extremely successful junior high season last year – losing only one game. That kind of winning attitude will be needed for them to adjust to the size and speed of varsity players.
Expect quite a few freshman to see some time on the field at the varsity level, as Reesor begins to build a foundation for the E-town program, which is still in its infancy – relatively speaking. But this group is learning the game and knows what it is like to be successful and that could be the start of something special at E-town.

Key Losses: Aaron McCoy, defense; David Gates, defense; Mark Stehman, midfield; Travis Winters, attack; Shawn Turzai, attack.
McCoy and Gates were two of the Bears’ better defenders last year and their presence in the back will be missed. Offensively, Winters and Turzai were both good goal scorers. Because of their departure, some players who played midfield last year will be moving up to attack this season.

What they do well: Defend.
Although the Bears lost two key defenders from last year, they are most experienced on defense.
“We have a strong focus and understanding on the defensive end,” Reesor said. Our best athletes are on defense and the defensive group has a solid lacrosse IQ and strive to be better each day.”
It’s also a bunch that is extremely smart and that isn’t afraid to get physical – two key traits that you need in a good defense. With the Bears seemingly lacking a bit on offense, the defense will need to play that much better if E-town is going to win some more games this season.

What they need to work on: Scoring.
E-town’s two best scorers are gone and the Bears are still searching for someone to step up and replace them. The main problem is that E-town doesn’t have a lot of experience when it comes to running the offense and that has resulted in the entire timing of the offense being off (running play, cutting to the ball, etc.).
Reesor said the offensive players also need to work on their stick skills and their overall knowledge, which should improve with game experience. But above all, someone on the team has to step up and take control of the offense. E-town needs a player they can rely on game-in and game-out to score goals and put pressure on opposing defenses. That player hasn’t shown up quite yet, but that doesn’t mean he won’t appear once games get started.

Outlook: The No. 1 way to build a competitive program year in and year out is to have consistency in the coaching staff. That’s something that the Bears haven’t had lately and, as a result, they are 1-25 in the last two seasons. But it appears that Reesor and his staff are committed to the Elizabethtown program and to building it from the youth level on up, an excellent sign for them.
Expect Reesor, who was a coach at Elizabethtown College last season, to instill a winning philosophy in the program immediately. The past is the past for E-town and instead of glancing in the rear view mirror, they’ve got their eyes on the highway in front of them. While not only implementing a gameplan that the Bears will need to be successful, Reesor and his staff are also stressing the importance of playing the game the right way.
“(We want) to focus on team play, to play with class and pride while playing hard and paying attention to details,” he said. “We expect to take steps forward in getting E-town lacrosse back at a competitive level.”
It isn’t going to happen overnight, but the program is headed in the right direction. This season, expect E-town to win more games than it did a year ago, possibly hitting the five-win mark, but, most importantly, getting better and better as the year progresses.
This could be the start of the journey toward the playoffs for the Bears.

Strong start for the Bears

(Katie Leverentz started her season with two goals, including the game-winner in OT yesterday.)

The high school spring sports season officially got underway yesterday. Although with the wind, it sure didn't feel like spring. Sheesh. And while my March Madness brackets may have taken a beating (thanks Temple), the Bears did pretty well yesterday, going a combined 3-1. Here's a look at how they all did.

Baseball:
The Bears' bats woke up in the bottom of the sixth inning yesterday and lit Hershey up for 10 runs in the inning as the boys won their opener, 10-3. Erick Baker and Steve Buller pitched for E-town, with Buller pitching the 6th and 7th and picking up the win.

Softball:
Anna Libby homered and Trish Stone and Jillian Ditzler limited Hershey's runs as E-town started its season with a 6-2 win yesterday over the Trojans. E-town fell behind 1-0 after 1, but scord all six of its runs in the next three innings to jump out to a 6-1 lead. Both teams had nine hits. E-town committed three errors, Hershey had two.

Girls Soccer:
Katie Leverentz scored her second goal of the game in overtime to lift E-htown to a 3-2 win over Carlisle.
Courtney Peffley put the Bears up 1-0 with a goal four minutes into the game and Leverentz made the lead 2-0 nine minutes later with her first goal. But Carlisle battled back to tie the game with two second half goals and send it to overtime, where Leverentz won the game for E-town.

Lacrosse:
The Bears lost to Palmyra 5-3, but you can already see some improvement. E-town scored all three of its goals in the third. They were led by Phil Roeder, who had a goal and two assists. Randy Groff also scored for E-town, as did David Latimore. E-town's three goals came early in the second half as the Bears battled back to tie the game at 3-3. However, Palmyra pulled away with two third period goals. Keith Kurtz made 10 saves in goal for the Bears, who don't play again until April 1.

That's all for now. Enjoy the holiday and, of course, the Madness.

Cheers