Winter sports have officially started here at Atholton High School. Boys and girls basketball, indoor track, and wrestling have their teams made and ready to come barreling at opponents on the schedule.
Boys Basketball:
Mr. Albert coaches the boys varsity basketball team. This is his seventh year coaching the basketball team here at Atholton. Coach Albert has had an admirable amount of success at Atholton, having only two seasons with records under .500. Albert has posted an overall record of 66-40 (.635 winning percentage) over the past six seasons.
Despite losing Atholton seniors Christian Jackson, Ian Morton, and Yin DeLeon, the expectations remain high for the Raiders.
“I have high expectations for the team this year. We have a bunch of talented players that can take us some places, the goal is to take us to the state championship at the University of Maryland,” said coach Albert.
The team has added six new faces to the roster this upcoming season, two of which are transfers and the other four are call-ups from junior varsity. Despite six of thirteen people on the roster being new to the team, captain Amir Shaheed said, “I think we have all the right pieces to make it far, we just have to come together as a team and buy in.”
The Raiders kicked their season off in a game against the Centennial Eagles with a win at the nest. The Raiders hosted the River Hill Hawks on Friday, December 8th, and came up short 62-67 in an intense rivalry game versus the Hawks.
Shaheed is currently leading the team in average points per game with 16.0 followed by Camden Thibeault with 11.0. On Wednesday, December 13th, the Raiders played against the Wilde Lake Wildcats which resulted in a loss.
Girls Basketball:
The Lady Raiders are coached under head Coach Anderson, and assistant coaches Brooks and Campbell. Over the past two seasons, the girl’s basketball team has shown amazing success by putting up an amazing 29-13 record (.690 winning percentage). This is the team’s first year with Coach Anderson leading the pack for Atholton’s Lady Raiders.
The Lady Raiders have come out of the gate blazing, by putting up a 3-2 record. The girl’s basketball team is getting battle-tested early, with difficult games against the Centennial Eagles, River Hill Hawks, Meade Mustangs, and Wilde Lake Wildcats.
“I think we have a lot of potential with a lot of new people on varsity. There’s some kinks to work out with a new coach and new skills but I think we’ll be straight,” said senior guard Kendi Caldwell on her overall thoughts on the Atholton Lady Raiders.
The first game against the Centennial Eagles was a double overtime thriller that resulted in Kendi Caldwell’s buzzer-beater to secure a 42-41 win. Following that, the Lady Raiders dropped a tough game against the River Hill Hawks but was followed up with a 38-33 win against the Meade Mustangs.
Using the momentum from the previous game, the Raiders stomped out the Wildcats with an amazing 59-4 blowout win. The next game for the Lady Raider was against reigning MPSSAA 3A champions the Howard Lions which ended with a 26-43 defeat.
Indoor Track:
Atholton track is ready to sprint to the promise land for the winter sports season. They are coached by boys head Coach Gray, and girls coach Mr. Oputa. With the Prince George’s Winter Sports Complex closed until January 4th, the Atholton track team prepared for their first event in Ellicott City on December 15th.
“I feel like our team is full of hard-working athletes, great coaches who have experience, and team managers who are also hard workers as well,” said senior, and future division one track star, Cameron Lee. With this in mind, the sky’s the limit for the Atholton track team.
Former runners like Darian Tarver, Luke Nelson, and Sophia Urdinola have shown wonderful mentorship in the previous years and now it is time to apply it to the new seniors this year.
Wrestling:
Atholton’s wrestling team is slamming their opponents so far this year with a varsity record of 3-2. The wrestlers are confident in the team’s ability to excel this winter sports season and plan to continue to add wins to their record.
Atholton wrestling has increased in size from last year, going from around 30-35 wrestlers to about 50. There are also more female wrestlers this year with an increase from 5 to 7.
“I’m really excited to have more girls on the team this season,” said junior, back-to-back regionals winner Juliana Oxen burg. Wrestling has been more common for men to participate in so to see some more females in the sport this year is great.
This is looking like a great start of the winter sports season for Atholton and there are high expectations for all the teams.