A wise man once said: third time’s a charm. Perhaps, that is why there are so many sports during the third and final season of the scholastic year. The spring season has come to shed light on the up and coming teams that students and fans are looking forward to. This season allows athletes to show their athletic prowess in new sports such as: badminton, baseball, boys’ volleyball, girls’ flag football, softball, tennis, track and field and water polo.

Badminton

Starting off the season strong is the badminton team. During the 2019 spring season, the team was as competitive as they have ever been. The team had a wide variety of strong athletes who brought an element of family and fun to the sport. The team’s expectations during the 2020 spring season are to once again unify and become an even stronger team so that they might be able to defeat their rival, Palmetto High School, for the first time in 18 years.

“Last year, we had a great variety of people and we really strengthened our team through spirit and bonding. Hopefully, we will have an even stronger team this year,” senior Dilan Denham.

Since the spring season has only just started, most teams’ conditioning depends on the level of skill that the newer athletes have. For the Cavaliers, the badminton team has been serving it up at karate lessons to help sharpen their agility, and obviously, bond together as a team.

Baseball

During the 2019 baseball campaign, the Cavalier Baseball team had an extremely eventful season, especially after qualifying for the district championship final, making their way to the regional championship series, and ended with a win percentage over .500, which was an extremely significant accomplishment.

“I feel like this group of people that we have playing on the team right now have the heart and the desire to want to win and put in the work every day to accomplish our goal,” junior Andres Arzola said.

The upperclassmen and the novice players on the varsity baseball team are able to bond over their common goal, which is to raise the bar and reach new heights.

Boys Volleyball

The Cavalier Volleyball team’s performance was one of their best ever during the 2019 spring season because of how professional the players were. The team was very veteran, which saturated the team’s chemistry and allowed them to play at their best. Having played with each other for two years prior, most of the senior members felt that they were playing and practicing with all of their friends and just generally having a good time together.

The expectations for this team are only getting higher this season, as the Cavaliers train a new set of players to replace those that are graduating this year so that the team will continue to be strong for the coming years.

Girls Flag Football

While the Cavaliers had an intense football season during the fall, the girls’ team is looking to show out and give it all that they have.

The girls’ flag football team is built to take on any team that demands to stand in their way. The Lady Cavaliers have been working hard to achieve a district title by practicing daily from just after school ends to nearly six o’clock in the evenings.

The Lady Cavaliers made a statement during an emphatic 21-0 win against the Braddock Bulldogs, but were unable to get the job done in a tight contest against Varela High School, where they lost 7-2.

The team is keen on improving in every area, especially the defensive side of things, and getting back to their winning ways.

Softball

Due to the number of seniors who graduated last year, Coach De la Vega plans on using this season to focus on the newest additions to her team. To ensure they build up the team’s raw talent, the team has been practicing every day from 2:45 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the softball field since Jan 21.

The team’s main goal is to simply keep up with the competition. Due to the majority of the team leaving and being added to a new district, Coach De la Vega wants to keep up with the competition and hopefully continue the streak and win her eighth district championship.

Tennis

The tennis team has gotten a deliberate makeover since the last time they took their talents to the court. The tennis team recently lost their two star players, who helped carry the team in the past two seasons. They also lost their coach and have an interim coach in place.

However, they have gotten new players that have been training hard and have risen to a new standard and improved the overall performance of their team.

Their expectations this year are to try and make it as far as they can in the competition and hopefully qualify for Regional Championships and State Championships.

Track and Field

As of this season, the track and field team has a new coach who is working on perfecting the team as a whole, so that more than one of its members will qualify for the state championship competitions. Having gotten off to a later start this season, the athletes have already been given their events which have sped up their training process.

Water Polo

The Cavalier water polo team started off the season with an incredible start, but even after all of their hard work at practice, they were unable to qualify for the Greater Miami Athletic Conference (GMAC) finals. In the effort to make a comeback from last season, the team has decided to raise the bar by training hard enough to qualify for GMAC finals, as well as the possibility of making it to regional championships as well.

“I started playing water polo as a junior, which I regret because it is an incredibly fun sport and I wished that I had joined sooner. We all work together and form really strong bonds,” senior Dylan Valdivia said.

The team started their conditioning towards the end of the winter season, so that they would be fully prepared for their upcoming competitions. Most of the time, they would focus mostly on dry-land exercises, where the athletes did leg workouts and running in order to build endurance.

A very strong selection of athletes are going to prove themselves in this Spring season. Many of these incredible teams, despite having incredible seasons last year, are striving to attain the highest honors in their respective sports. This is the case for the baseball team, which is striving for the district championship title once again. The water polo team is also working hard to qualify for the GMAC finals. All in all, the spring season will bring added excitement to an already exciting year for Cavaliers sports with Cavalier athletes working together to gain the highest achievements in their sports.