By John RittenhouseWith experienced talent on both rosters, Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth-Edgerton track coach Tom Goehle is looking forward to a successful spring season.The Patriots will field teams led by some standout athletes, and Goehle feels a good share of them have the ability to make their followers proud.With letter winners from 2004 returning to the team in all five classes that make up the varsity squad, the H-BC-E-E girls are loaded with potential.H-BC-E-E lost three seniors (Erin Boeve, Tina Majchrzak and Miriam Heitz) to graduation last spring, but the trio didn’t make a major impact for the team during the postseason meets.Goehle said 31 girls in grades 7-12 are participating in the program. Fourteen of the girls lettered for a team that placed 10th in the Red Rock Conference and fourth in Sub-Section 10, and eight of them advanced to the section meet in 2004.Cassi Tilstra, one of two senior team members, is the leader of the band. Tilstra has advanced to state during her career and will run in relay and individual events from 200 meters on up in 2005."Cassi has been the catalyst of the girls’ program for the last four years," Goehle said. "She’s a great athlete who keeps herself in shape all year long. What excites me is that there are a number of younger girls who have taken on her work ethic and vision of what it takes to be successful."Along with Tilstra, senior Kelly Mulder, junior Rosie Lewis, sophomores Amanda Tilstra, Mya Mann and Amanda Connors, and freshmen Ashley and Jocelyn Bucher return to the team as section qualifiers in 2004.Mulder and Lewis run sprints and are throwers, and the Buchers run middle distances.Amanda Tilsra runs distances from 400 meters on up. Mann runs middle distances and sprints, as does Connors, who also is a quality long jumper.Six more girls return to the team with varsity letters from last year.Junior Kari Roozenboom, sophomores Laura Timmer, Tyra Hinrichs and Lacey Latten, freshman Brittany Helgeson and eighth-grader Rayna Sandoval bring more experience to the squad.Goehle said Roozenboom helps the team as a hurdler, sprinter and triple jumper.Latten is a sprinter, Timmer a thrower and Hinrichs runs middle distances.Helgeson runs sprints and high jumps. Sandoval runs distance races.Goehle likes the leadership abilities displayed by the returning letter winners."I like the fact that we have some girls who really like to compete. We have girls who are not afraid to work hard," he said.The coach listed sophomore Ashley Hoyme and freshman Cassie Duncan as girls who will help the varsity team in 2005.Hoyme runs sprints and middle distances. Duncan runs sprints and is a jumper.Goehle thinks the girls will be especially strong in the middle distances this season, and they should field some strong relays.The coach said a number of younger athletes he didn’t mention during the interview for this article give the program a sound future."We have a host of seventh- and eighth-graders I’m not sure about, but I’m excited about because they have a lot of potential," he said.The H-BC-E-E boys lack overall experience in 2005, but the Patriots do have a solid nucleus around which to build a solid team.Goehle said 37 boys in grades 7-12 will compete in the program. Four of the boys competed at the section and state levels last season, and seven return with letters from 2004.The Patriots did lose five seniors from a 2004 team that placed fourth in the RRC and Sub-Section 10 and eighth at the Section 3A meet.Todd Alberty was a key member of last year’s team, running legs for the 1,600- and 3,200-meter relays that won section championships. The 3,200-meter squad placed ninth at the state meet.Lee Jackson, a member of the 1,600-meter relay last spring, and Curt Schilling are seniors who advanced to the section meet last year. Lee Farrell and Soren Trebesch are the other senior members of the 2004 team.A solid group of six seniors will be the focal point of the 2005 team. Three of the seniors advanced to state, and another one just missed qualifying for state competition."We have some great, quality runners coming back," Goehle said. "We may not be real deep, but I like the kids we have back."Senior Tyler Bush returns to the team as one of the top runners in the state. Along with helping form the 1,600- and 3,200-meter relays, Bush is a top-notch individual competitor in the 800-meter run. He has won three straight Section 3A titles in the 800 and placed eighth, fifth and fourth at the last three state meets.Seniors Kale Wiertzema and Derek Haak competed at the state meet as juniors. Wiertzema ran with the 1,600- and 3,200-meter relays. Haak was a member of the 3,200-meter team.Cody Scholten, a senior who runs sprints, long jumps and triple jumps, is another key member of the 2005 team. Scholten nearly qualified for state in the high jump last season, placing third at the section level.Seniors Jan Sommerling and Darrin Weikamp are new to the program this season. Sommerling, an exchange student from Germany, is a quality sprinter. Weikamp has potential in the longer sprints and as a jumper.Juniors John Sandbulte and Roger DeBoer, and freshman Cody Schilling round out the returning letter winners from the 2004 squad.Sandbulte will run middle distances, triple jump and compete in the 300-meter hurdles. DeBoer is a hurdler-sprinter. Schilling is a jumper.Goehle expects sophomores Adam Voss and Jon Klaassen to help the team as throwers. Klaassen will run sprints as well.Freshman sprinter Kenny Gardner and eighth-graders Dustin Verhey, Tyler Paulson and Brent Kramer are other athletes expected to contribute at the varsity level.Verhey and Paulsen run distances and middle distances. Kramer will run distances."We’re very blessed to have kids that are not only gifted, they are going to work hard when it comes to practice," Goehle said. "I know they will get better because they are willing to do the things that it takes to get better in practice."The coach looks for the Patriots to be strong in the middle distances and relays once again. H-BC-E-E should be competitive in the jumping events, too.With a number of other seventh- and eighth-graders not mentioned in this story, the future of the program appears to be bright."We will be using some younger kids who are good athletes and will give us some depth this year," Goehle concluded.
