Chieftain October 2015 | Page 12

Winter Sports Preview Cold-weather teams look to repeat success By Jack Fitzpatrick Chieftain Staff Basketball The basketball team had one of its best seasons in a while last year, going 15-7 and 5-3 in the Catholic League, including a memorable home victory over U of D. This year, things aren’t looking as good, as the Warriors are returning none of their starting five and lose 11 Seniors overall. They will be young and could struggle to stay on top of the Catholic League, as U of D, De La Salle and St. Mary’s are returning very good teams. Bowling Rice bowling had one of its most successful seasons ever last year, carried by Kyle Redmond, who graduated. He finished 14th in the State and will be hard to replace, but hopefully the precedent he set will carry on this year. The team will be led by Senior Zach Oancea, who bowled a high game of 287 in 2014-15. Hockey The defending State Champions will be without many key Seniors, but things still look optimistic, as they are returning many contributors from last season, including Captains Jaret Koger and Nick Bowman. Time will tell just how good this team is, but the best guess is it will make a deep run in the playoffs and B ROTHE R R I C E H I G H S C HO O L C H I E F TA I N Despite the loss of key Seniors, the Hockey team starts the season with visions of a repeat maybe even repeat last season's title. Skiing The ski team was fantastic last season, finishing as a runner-up in the State, but it is losing a lot of Senior talent. This year, the skiers will lean on Seniors Evan Grathwohl and Brendan Sullivan to compete in the State again. Swimming Swimming has won State Championships the last tw