The Spartan football team breaks out of huddle following early evening practice.
2021 fall sports fall short at Pleasant Valley
Following an extremely impressive 2020-2021 school year from PV’s athletic programs, high expectations accompany several historic accomplishments met over the course of last year.
To exemplify the Spartans’ noteworthy achievements, every team, only excluding the girls’ basketball squad, made it to the qualifying rounds of their state tournaments. Additionally, the boys’ soccer and baseball teams reigned 3A and 4A state champions. With that being said, how can PV use these impressive performances as leverage to maintain dominance over competitors this fall?
The Pleasant Valley football team is off to a rocky start as they have struggled to find success in the new 5A district setting. Barrett Lindmark, senior quarterback and captain, illustrated how the team plans on turning their season around. “We obviously didn’t start the season how we wanted to, there have been some injuries as well, so coming together as a team and working together will be important. We need to put the previous games past us and come to practice everyday working hard and take the season one game at a time,” he said. In years past, the Spartan football program has reserved the top spot in the Mississippi Athletic Conference (MAC). The team is now left battling to maintain a .500+ regular season record.
Along with the football program’s rough start to the season, junior golfer Connor Borbeck explained the inconsistent rounds carded from the varsity golf squad and how the team plans on chasing the state runner-up group from the previous year. “Collectively, we need to put extra work in outside of golf practice and maintain focus at all of our meets. When our team is confident and we believe in ourselves, we can compete at nearly any level of golf in the area,” he claimed.
Building successful athletic programs at PV begins with a strong team environment. For example, in last year’s historic run in the 3A state soccer tournament, the boys’ soccer team had top-tier chemistry, helping motivate the squad through adversity.
Jack Roemer, former Pleasant Valley graduate, golf star, and state champion, highlighted the keys to success in high school sports. “I personally think that some of the most important attributes to a successful team are chemistry, unselfishness, and willingness to put in work. Additionally, teammates need to push each other and demonstrate positive reinforcement to reach a team’s full collaborative potential. One of my favorite words to describe a successful team culture is commitment,” he explained.
With these traits, any team should have the ability to perform in highly competitive environments.
As the fall sports’ season continues at PV, time will tell how athletes will respond to failure, meet goals and ultimately find success within one another to fuel a winning culture at Pleasant Valley.
Sydney Dolphin • Oct 3, 2021 at 8:27 pm
I think that it will be interesting to see how the sports teams do this year. I also wonder how they will deal with failure and if it will cause them to work harder. Ultimately, if the Spartans want to have another successful sports season, they need to be 100% focused and put in total effort.
Mak Guilliams • Oct 1, 2021 at 11:04 pm
It is important that we turn the season around and win our final games so that we can celebrate a good season. Even if it has been a rocky start, being able to turn it around is what’s really important. Especially since we had such a great season last year for all of the PVHS sports teams.
Jake Dolphin • Sep 25, 2021 at 8:05 pm
I think after a year of such dominance people tend to get comfortable. They think if we did it last year we can do it again this year. However, that is not the case and it is important that everyone puts in the work. Schools are coming for PV athletics this year, and we need to be able to stop them.