Final touches placed on winter sports season

Spring action ready to kick into full-gear  

 
~ by Trevor Phipps ~
 
It’s now official: Winter high school sports are over and spring sports are about to kick off.
 
As of now, we are currently inside a school sports purgatory in which the winter sports teams have concluded their respective seasons, and the spring teams are just starting their practice. Next week, the spring sports startup will kick into full gear.
 
For Woodland Park, their winter sports teams had a rough going, after an impressive start.  
 
The boys’ basketball team started out like gangbusters, but then fell into a slump towards the end of the season and missed a playoff spot. Once again, league games emerged as their main Achilles Heel. 
 
The girls’ basketball team struggled most of the year and suffered a bad losing streak at the end of the season. The first ever WP High School hockey team had a good first season of learning what the new league will be like, but they were only able to get one win all season. Nevertheless, they garnered much fan support.  
 
The wrestling team was the most successful out of all the winter sports teams at WP. Four of the wrestlers went to state and one took fourthplace state-wide.
 
As for Cripple Creek they just offered boys and girls basketball and produced two winter winning teams. Both the girls and the boys were able to finish their teams above .500, with both hoopster squards and earning winning records.
 
For Woodland Park schools, February 26 was the start date for practices for baseball, girls and boys track and girls soccer. As for Cripple Creek-Victor Schools, they start baseball and girls and boys track this week.
 
The Woodland Park girls’ soccer team is led by Coach Andrew Pappadakis and they start their six-game 2018 season on March 8. That’s when the Lady Panthers host the Pueblo East Eagles for the first game of the season.
 
The Woodland Park high school baseball team is captained by current Woodland Park Mayor Neil Levy. They play the first of 11 games this season onMarch 17 during an away game against the Cheyenne Mountain Indians.
 
Coach Ron Payton heads the WP track and field team and brings the kids to their first meet in Colorado Springs at the Pikes Peak Invitational on Saturday, March 10. Pete Hartman and his Cripple Creek-Victor track and field team only have one meet scheduled so far which is the 2A state championship on May 19.
 
As for Pioneer baseball, the leader of the team is Dave Thornberry and they play their first game on the road in Cotopaxi on Friday, March 9.