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SPORTS NEWS
Cross Country Team Has Historical Season
Winter Sports Update:
Basketball
The basketball team’s record stands
at 8-15 as of this writing with a severe
lack of height once again causing major
problems for them.
“When our tallest starter is 6’1” and
our opponents have guards who are
6’3”, it does not bode well for us,” lamented 13th year head coach Bill Michaels. “Despite that our guys continue
to battle and we are hoping for a solid
close to the season.”
Wrestling
Second-year head wrestling coach
Sam Oropeza 0W6 is pleased with the
number of guys on the team (14) and
hopes that translates into wins on the
mat.
Oropeza said, “We have about four
dual meets lined up in the second semester and are hoping for some solid
tournament results. Hopefully, we will
break the school’s three-year drought of
qualifying someone for nationals.”
Soccer Team Takes 2nd Straight ESSL Title
Bolstered by the play of 2015 co-ESSL
MVP Zechariah Koechig, the soccer
team downed Central Penn College
in their final game of the year to take
home their second straight Eastern Soccer States League title, the fifth outright
title in school history with Williamson
also winning titles in 2001, ’06, ’12, ’14.
The team started the year off a slow,
but, bolstered by a strong senior class,
once again finished strong while going 6-6 overall on the year. The team’s
schedule was one of the toughest in recent history.
“We played an incredibly tough
schedule, but the guys responded well
to the challenge,” commented head
coach John Curran 0W5. “As we continue to bring the program up to a national
level, our guys are working hard to be
up to the challenges they face. We had a
solid year and are looking for even better results in 2016.”
For his efforts with the team, Curran
was named the 2015 ESSL Coach of the
Year for the second time in three years.
“John continues to do an incredible
job with our soccer program. We don’t
have the advantages that other schools
have, but our guys are out there battling each and every game and it is a
true credit to the job John and his staff
have done,” commented athletic director Dale Plummer.
“There is no one who could do what
John does with our guys. There simply
is no one I’d rather have in charge of our
program than John.”
Football Team Has Outstanding Year
With First Winning Season Since 1996
When his team won their opening
game of the season on a last-second
“Hail Mary” pass, head football coach
Dan Drake should have known his 2015
season would be a magical one. Yet the
results were far better than even he
could have anticipated.
Bolstered by that win and one of
the finest defenses in school history,
Williamson finished with a 6-2 record
that included several key achievements
along the way.
The team won the Homecoming
game for the first time since 2008, had
their first winning season since 1996,
and had the highest winning percentage (.750) of any Williamson football
team since 1883! Not bad for a team
that wasn’t sure what to expect heading
into 2015.
“I thought we would be improved
on offense, but even they surprised me
some,” said Drake. I knew our defense
would be good, but they too surpassed
my expectations. It was a very good year
all-around.”
The offense was indeed improved as
they doubled their point total from the
previous year and had almost twice as
many yards to boot.
“It was a ‘Catch-22’ from the year
before where we had to play so many
freshmen, but those same freshmen had
a year of playing experience under their
belts coming into this season so from
that standpoint it paid off.
“Defensively, this year’s squad might
have been one of the finest in school
history, at least from a statistical standpoint. Four times Williamson defense
held opponents to under 200 yards of
total offense and twice they held opponents to under 100 yards of total offense
for the game!
“We knew we had a veteran defense
coming back and they stepped things
up for us for the most part throughout
the year. They were outstanding.”
Despite the success, Drake and his
staff are far from satisfied.
“We didn’t win the conference and
until we do that, we won’t be satisfied.
In addition, one winning season is
great, but we want to be a program that
consistently has them.
“We are already working on next
season. We have some big losses on
defense, but there is no doubt if the
returners buy into what we are doing
and work hard in the off-season we can
build on this year’s success moving forward.”
Coming into the 2015 season, tenth
year cross country head coach Steve
Hixson 7W3 didn’t know what to expect. He had just six runners in the
2014 season and two of those graduated. While he was hopeful for an increased roster and better results, even
he could not have envisioned the success his 2015 squad achieved.
The roster increased to 14, his squad
won two invitational meets, an Eastern
Pennsylvania Athletic Conference title,
finished third at the 2015 NJCAA Region XIX championships, qualified for
NJCAA nationals, and finished a school
record seventh overall at those championships.
Not bad for not knowing what to expect coming into the season.
“I didn’t know what to expect this
season, so I was pleased when I saw 14
runners at our first practice. When I
saw the talent of some of the freshmen,
I was even more excited,” exclaimed
Hixson. “I knew we had something to
work with as some of the guys were very
good runners.”
While Hixson might have had one
or two quality runners in a given year,
having five guys that were good runners
was a luxury he had nev \