Fall Awards Banquet Held at PHS
by Montana Ruppert
PHS held their awards banquet honoring fall activities on Tuesday, November 14, at the high school. Participants in girls’ golf, cheer, cross country, softball, volleyball, and football. The coaches of each activity presented their participants with awards and took the opportunity to thank parents and fans, athletic director Darren Sindelar, cheerleaders, the pep band, student managers, and others who supported their teams throughout the season. In turn, participants honored their coaches with thank-you gifts.
Girls’ golf coach Melinda Stelling started the night and honored her state-qualifying team after a highly successful season that included several tournament championships and an 8th-place finish at state. All six team members--Amber Albrecht, Haley Dohmen, Paige Johnson, Samantha Svendsen, Sydney Erickson, and Rebecca Albrecht--received letters.
The fall cheerleaders got recognized by coaches Sherry Raabe and Robyn Werner. Every member of the fall cheer squad lettered. These girls included Brianna Furstenau, Kristina Gutman, Hannah McCrady, Abigail White, Stephanie Rinkel, Abbey Sedlacek, Maiya Baumann, Jade Dickey, Halle Ross, and Shelby White. They cheered at volleyball games and football games.
The cross country participants received awards from their coach, Gary Shada. Letter winners included Ian Fisher, Isaac Lambrecht, Cole Vogt, Colt Arnold, Miles Garcia, Bridget Raff, and Mason Sindelar. Dalton Haase received a participation award. Mason Sindelar was also recognized for making the All-State team. Ian Fisher received the 3D Award, which is a team/program award. Mr. Shada said that the highlight of the night was being able to recognize all the participants in cross country and all the accomplishments they had throughout the season. Coach Shada said, “It’s important that we have awards night because all the runners who had great accomplishments throughout the season can get recognized properly, and everyone can see what they did great throughout their season.”
Coach Cady Reinke then recognized the softball team. They had two Lincoln Journal Star All-State Softball Honorable Mentions with Courtney Yawn and Brianna Aguilera. For the 2017 Mid-States All-Conference team, the first team included Annie Johnson, and the second team included Brianna Aguilera. Honorable mentions were Courtney Yawn and Kaylee Dvorak. The entire Lady Jays softball team was honored with letters, and this included Johnson, Yawn, Aguilera, Kaylee Dvorak, Rose Graham, Kiley Bierman, Addison Johnson, Kaycie Druyor, Maggie Dale, Ashton Oestreich, and Elizabeth Hammer.
The volleyball team had many athletes that received awards from coach Brittany Weber. There were 12 letter winners, including Carly Sutherland, Rhayna Walder, Maci Kroupa, Sidney Zimmerer, Maggie Brahmer, Meredith Fasse, Kayla Simmons, Katrina Meier, Brenna Collison, Grace Spieker, Zoe Brendan, and Kenzie Moeller. There were also 17 participants whose hard work was recognized, including Marie Stone, Abbey Fuerhoff, Tazlynn Sporleder, Hailey Abler, Cayce Carlson, Maiya Baumann, Montana Ruppert, Mikala Stone, Kailey Marks, Hannah Whitmore, Rhylie Roth, McKenna Shonka, Sarah Miller, Faith Lubischer, Alexis Schnoor, Abigail Meier, and Autumn Hanna. Special recognition was also given to Maggie Brahmer, who got single season kill record for PHS and is a finalist for the Elite 8 Award; and Sidney Zimmerer, who broke the single season dig record. Volleyball assistant coach Zach Weber said, “It’s good that people get to hear how much hard work that athletes have put in this year and all of the athletes accomplishment in the sports we have here at PHS.”
The football team wrapped up the night with coach Mark Brahmer. They had many lettermen, including the whole varsity team. Coach Brahmer said, “It gives all the athletes the opportunity to be recognized for the important things that happened during the season, and it's good to thank parents for their support throughout the season and for encouraging the athletes no matter what.”
