March is here, winter is hanging on, but the real story is that spring sports are back.

As we wrap up the 3rd quarter, many of the school’s students use their spring sport to count down until summer. For example, the state track meet takes place during finals, so athletes who qualify for state get to miss the last two days of the school year! If that’s not incentive, I don’t know what is.

Here, find the key info for the spring sports, the athletes, the schedules, and all you need to know about the largest participation season in the school.

Baseball
After a successful 14-9 season in 2019, the Cougars bring back some talented players. Nathan Papenfuss last year batted .370 as a junior. Papenfuss also takes to the mound for the nine. Last year, he went 2-0 with a 2.88 ERA. The rest of the Cougars will look to improve in the new season, too.

Golf
The key returner is Kate Griffin, senior. Griffin doesn’t attend Coronado and also is playing soccer this spring for her actual school, but has led the golf team to the best seasons at Coronado for two years in a row with two top-five finishes at state.

Soccer
With Mr. Yeh taking the helm for the first time, the girls will try to improve on their sub .500 season from a year ago where they went 6-9 with six of those nine being shut outs. The top two scorers from last season graduated, but with Lauren Strizich coming back, a healthy Sarah Ford and Amelia Herman, and the addition of one of the fastest girls in the state, Alison Ambuul–pulling double duty with the track team–the girls could make more of an impact this year.

Swim
After Coronado’s only boys’ swim coach ever, Bob Bell, retired after last year, the Cougars also lost their top two swimmers–Andrew Aire and Jackson Sawyer–who had the best times on the team in seven of the eight races, there is some rebuilding to be done. Adam Austin will be leading the team this year and looks to have another great season.

Tennis
In their first few practices of the season, the girls have already seen some shake-ups. Scarlet Leifer came to the season ready to play. The ninth-grader defeated last years #1 singles player Madeline Davis 6-1 and all of the returning singles players from last year–Davis, Anna Griffin, and Georgina Sharbino–are still here, so there will be changes felt all through the lineup. Perhaps the most rhyming duo in the state, Gracie and Maycie–Nowlan and Rogers– might even end up together as the #2 or #3 doubles team!

Boys track
With plenty of returning state qualifiers like seniors Charlie Schroeder and Eric White and junior William Patrick White, the mid-distance squad looks strong, especially with the addition of state XC runners Miles Medina, Z Engstrom, Spencer Stepp, Adam Schaubroeck, and Ben Hayes-Lemmon, the guys are looking for a return to JeffCo for the state meet. Some talent in the sprints, jumps and throws will also help the Cougars out during the season!

Girls track
The ladies are returning a whole bevy of studs. School record holders Alison Ambuul–400 and 4×100, Ariana Bower-pole vault, and Janae Israel, Jasmyne Terrones and Tinah Muhammad-4×100– are all coming back for more along with state qualifiers and placers, Lexi Gutches, Zoe Gross, Nayo Afonja, Grace Abernethy, and Alex Costa. A lot of young talent and finally healthy talent–Taylor Norman–will only add to the Cougars’ depth. Freshman Allie Leisher looks to letter in her third sport and make her way into her third postseason in her young high school career.

We have had a pretty solid sports year so far at Coronado with 6 of the 8 fall teams making the postseason and 3 of the 5 winter sports.

Here are some important dates to come on out and support your teams as they try to finish the year as well as we started:

Baseball: 5/2 against Doherty at home and 5/16 against Palmer.

Golf: 4/13 is the Cougar Classic at Kissing Camels

Soccer: Palmer at Garry Berry on 4/21

Swim: a St. Patrick’s Day Dual with FFC at home

Tennis: Taking on Cheyenne Mt. at home on 4/9

Track: obviously every meet is amazing to watch, but come to the Cougar Classic and see some of the best competition in the state on May 1st! Come support your fellow Cougars!