Last year’s fall season was probably WIS’ most winning season to date. Boys Varsity Soccer had only lost 1 game during regular season matches, becoming the PVAC regular season champions. They were also ranked as the 7th best team in the area by the Washington Post and went on to place as the 3rd seed in the state championships, losing to the eventual champions, Gonzaga in the semifinals.

Boys JV Soccer completed the season undefeated and Girls Varsity Soccer brought home the banner as PVAC champions. Girls Varsity Volleyball won the PVAC banner and are the current defending champions for 2 years running. Cross Country had a strong season with the Girls winning a banner, and Girls Varsity Tennis won both their regular season and tournament banners.

This fall season, teams began their preseasons a week before the start of the school year. Each team hosted tryouts and practices to fine tune their game before the start of the season. As usual the loss of talented seniors left holes in the various teams and yet each one has appeared to be stronger than ever with the inclusion of new talents.

“The team is really coming together,” said Boys JV Soccer Coach Bardia Sassanpour. “They put some solid days of work in, running hard doing their sprints. It’s an exciting crop, a lot of freshmen coming up, and we are looking to build on our undefeated season from last year.” Other than the normal four days of preseason, all WIS soccer teams had to endure 3 extra days of practice. But the extra days of work payed off.

“In addition to our returning group playing well, we had a lot of new guys come in and make an impact in both games, which was great to see.”

Boys Varsity Soccer played a mini tournament on Thursday against PVAC rivals, Sandy Springs, and Georgetown Day. The boys won both games, 2-0 and 3-0 respectively. “I think it was really good start for the team. Beating a conference rival like Sandy Spring on their own field is always good, and it’s important to send a message from the start of the season,” said varsity captain Matteo Schlitz about the game. “Overall I’m really happy with both wins and both clean-sheets. There were some things to work on but many positives.”

“We haven’t lost in over a year. We plan on doing it again.”

The sentiment of building on previous successes was also evident in what Nicholas Loewen, the Girls Varsity Volleyball coach, had to say about his team. “As reigning champions we want to defend all of our banners, and we’re gonna work hard to do that,” he said. The team has successfully kept their title as champions for 2 years in a row and Coach Loewen knows what the team is capable of. “Every year I expect our team will be strong. We’ve consistently been one of the strongest teams in the league.”

He also lamented the loss of “a lot of seniors and strong leadership,” and that the team “might have to rely on some people that we weren’t expecting to rely on. Other people will have to step up whoweren’t expecting to step up in that way.” In a sport where size and speed matter, Coach Loewen also said, “This year we will not be as physically strong in terms of height and experience, so that’s what we need to bolster. We need to get a lot of experience just through playing.”

“I can’t just make anybody grow taller, maybe there’ll be new students or we’ll just have to rely on technique to beat people rather than try to overpower them.”

WIS has always had an issue with having to spread its limited amount of athletes between it’s sports due to the small amount of students to pool from.Football and Field Hockey are still far away dreams. But other sports like Cross Country and Tennis, which also began their preseason training last week, have grown to be strong contenders, though they don’t get as much spotlight as the other teams. One of the senior members of the cross country team, Merrell Guzman said, “I think numbers are a big thing, if we could get more people out here running. I think that would be a great morale booster.” After last year’s performance from the girls of cross country they’ll want to try and repeat that success. “The girls team won last year, so hopefully we’ll have a strong start again,” said another senior member, Sonia Pearson.

The Girls Varsity Tennis team is also another team which will want a strong start. With several players coming back from last years team and the addition of a couple new ones the team looks to be strong contenders again this season. The team is the only one of the fall sports that doesn’t have a training location on campus and must travel to different courts in the area to practice. But that doesn’t stop the girls from showing up. In fact, with the more than 100 Red Devils showing for the 7 days of preseason it doesn’t look like anything will be stopping the fall sports this season.

Upcoming Games:

Boys JV Soccer plays their first game home game against St. Albans on Wednesday

Girls Varsity Soccer plays their first game on Monday away against Hebrew Academy.

Boys Varsity Soccer plays their first game on Tuesday away against Episcopal.

Girls JV Volleyball plays their first game on Wednesday away against Edmund Burke.

Girls Varsity Volleyball plays their first game on Tuesday home against Edmund Burke.

Girls Varsity Tennis plays their first match on Wednesday against Georgetown Day at AU.

Varsity Cross Country’s first meet is on September 9.

By Daniel Lee