Baseball:
Mr. Peddicord has been coaching Atholton’s varsity baseball team for over seven years after coming from Mount Saint Joseph High School. Peddicord has had remarkable success, with a state championship appearance during the 2021 spring sports season just after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite losing nine seniors last year, the expectations remain high for the Raiders. “Even though this team is young, I still expect them to go out there and compete every game,” said Coach Peddicord.
The team has added three freshmen, Josh Whiting, Thomas Mackenzie, and William Conroy, who are completely new to varsity baseball. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Raiders have three seniors to help mentor the underclassmen, two of whom played varsity baseball for three seasons.
“I think that the talent is there, we can sneak a few wins against teams that will sleep on us,” Peddicord added to his statement.
Softball:
Raiders varsity softball is coming off a down year putting up a 3-12 (.200 winning percentage) record. This year they look to turn the tables, despite losing 1st team all county pitcher Kyra Holtje who now plays at Moravian University. The team is led by Coach Thompson, who is in his eighth year coaching here at Atholton.
“As a team, win or loss, I want us to grow more confident in the skills we developed. I want us to continue to build a healthy and supportive culture for our team. It is important that we grow together and become stronger on and off the field,” said sophomore captain Reagan Law.
The team looks to move forward from the previous three seasons that resulted in records with lower than a .500 winning percentage. Lady Raiders are approaching the season with an underdog mentality and hope to upset opponents that play down to them.
Boys and Girls Outdoor Track:
Atholton track is ready to sprint to the promise land for the spring sports season. They are coached by boys head Coach Gray, and girls coach Mr. Oputa. After a great winter season the team prepares to have a wonderful spring sports season.
“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 Johnson C. Smith commit 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. Two-sport athlete Kendi Caldwell added, “As a team I hope we just build a strong bond. Team spirit is very important and even though track is individual races, we all win together.”
The team looks to wrap up the 2023-2024 season with multiple medals and awards for meets.
Girls Lacrosse:
With coach Jenna Fidler not being able to coach the 2024 spring Sports season due to personal reasons, Lady Raiders lacrosse turns to Frank McGrath to lead them during the season. The Lady Raiders are trying to look past a tough 2-11 (.154 winning percentage) and seek more success this season.
Even with an impactful senior class leaving last season, the Raiders 2024 graduating class is prepared to pick up where the previous seniors left off. Senior captain Hannah McGrath believes that the younger side of the team has a big upside now and for later years.
“We have two freshmen on the team this year. I believe that having them on varsity as a freshman will only make them better and continue to grow their strengths in lacrosse,” McGrath said.
Tennis:
Coming off a combined 22-12 record (.647 winning percentage) during the 2022-2023 season, boys and girls tennis teams look to top that this year. Aryan Singh and Sam Li are captains on the boys side of the court Imani Smith for the girls. The team looks to keep up with their great amount of success of recent years and apply it to this season.
“I can’t wait to see how far we can go in the playoffs,” said captain Aryan Singh. Both teams look to finish strong and hopefully bring home a state championship.