November: a month that gives us Thanksgiving break, Election Day and the start of winter sports. With fall sports wrapping up, winter sports athletes are preparing for their upcoming seasons in basketball, swimming and wrestling.

Two of the four winter sports will have a new head coach starting. The new girl’s basketball coach is Allie Boedeker and the new wrestling head coach is Zeke Allison.

“It’s going to be a really big shift from having Sloop as a head coach,” sophomore and varsity player Kara Swihart said. “We were so used to Sloop and his way of running things. With Boedeker, it’s going to be a completely different atmosphere, so I’m a little nervous because I think it’s going to be much more intense.”

Boedeker was an assistant coach of the team during the 2015-2016 season but plans to make changes to the program.

“We are going to have to practice every Saturday morning at 8 a.m., which is so early! But, I understand why we are having them. In the long run they will make us a better team,” Swihart said.

Along with Saturday practices, Boedeker plans to change practice times.

“We are going to have to practice two days a week from 4-6 p.m.. She made these changes because she wants us to be able to practice on a full court, and she worked out a schedule with Coach Wright,” senior and varsity player Abby Kottmeyer said. “Having to go home from school and come straight back two times a week is going to get annoying.”

Like Boedeker, Allison was also a previously an assistant coach before taking over the wrestling team.

“I think our program will be much more well-run under Coach Allison,” senior and varsity wrestler Ben Herrmann said. “There’s going to be a lot more discipline and more kids are joining so it will probably be one of the best years this program has had in over a decade.”

With new, young coaches taking over, both teams agree that they will have to put in more work.

“Being a leader on the team, I have to be positive about working hard. It is going to be worth it because it is going to make the team better as a whole,” Herrmann said.

The girl’s swim and dive team will face a different challenge this season; The graduating seniors last year were a very strong class of swimmers and divers. Three seniors placed at state. Gabby Viera won first place in 100 fly, Kristen Peterson won second in two events and Megan Hitchcock placed fourth in her diving event.

“I don’t think we are going to do as well as we did last year. We had so many seniors that contributed to our success. Swimming is a team sport as well as a personal sport, so I can focus on doing my best and reaching my goal of getting in the top 16 at state,” junior Sarah Bonnett said.

The boy’s basketball team lost seven players who were seniors last year.

“We had a lot of good seniors last year, and that’s why we did so well,” senior and varsity player Scott Meier said. “But, I think we are going to be good this year. Hopefully we can win districts again and be just as good as we were last season. We have a great group of guys who all work hard and are determined to win.”