Girls Cross Country
The Girls Cross Country hit the course this August as they began their 2025 season.
“The season has been going really well,” said Claire Gartner, senior and cross country athlete. “Right now we are ranked second in the state, which is really exciting.”
This early season success is largely due to the effort many of the athletes put in during the summer to improve.
“The team has put in a lot of running and strength work in the offseason,” said Regina Schindel, head coach. “We had some huge improvements from ladies who worked very hard this summer as well and I love seeing that smile at the end of the race or a hard practice when they know they have improved.”
A big aspect of offseason training was staying consistent in the summer off-season. Gartner, a co-captain this year filled her leadership role by supporting her teammates to grow over the course of the summer.
“This summer I organized summer running, [which] we do every year,” Gartner said. “I was there every day and encouraged freshmen to come and join us.”
Although the team was impacted by several losses with seniors from the previous season having graduated, the girls have made up for it with hard work. This hard work could be seen not only in practices or meets, but also in creating a healthy team dynamic.
“We lost two Varsity runners and some outstanding leadership by all four seniors, [but] the team has really worked hard to step up and own it this year,” Schindel said. “They walk with heads a little taller, they see a hard workout and attack it a little faster this year and are laughing even more each day as they treat each other with a ton of respect and care on our team.”
Traveling is another aspect to the team, that provides opportunities for growth as a runner and simply having fun with teammates.
“I’m really excited this year [because], instead of going to Griak, which we always do, we’re doing an overnight meet in Terre Haute, Indiana,” Gartner said. “We’re spending two nights there with the boys, which will be fun.”
Looking ahead to later in the season, several challenges stand in the way of the team. One challenge that sticks out in particular is Sectionals, which will determine if the team qualifies for state.
“Our Sectional Race will be the most important challenge we take on,” Schindel said. “We missed state two years ago by just a few points, so our biggest challenge will be our runners packing up together and beating a very strong pack of runners from Lakeside Lutheran and Kettle Moraine Lutheran who are also ranking in the top 10 of the state right now.”
Despite such tough challenges, the team dynamic and energy keeps every runner motivated and supported.
“The atmosphere and the community that we all bring to the team is great,” Gartner said. “Seeing everyone smile and laugh throughout the runs cheer us up.”
Boys Cross Country
The Boys Cross country began their season with early wins against good teams.
“We had our meet that we co-hosted with Milwaukee King along the Milwaukee Lakefront and the guys crushed it,” said Dominic Newman, head coach. “I was super excited about the race performance, we beat the returning D2 state champion by quite a bit.”
This year’s team is doing great already, and in Newman’s opinion, it is possibly one of Shorewood’s best.
“We have an opportunity to be possibly the best Shorewood team,” Newman said. “It’s hard to compare because everyone is different, [but] what I’m looking at this could be one of the best collective Shorewood Cross Country programs ever.
Nolan Johnson, junior, has seen a lot of personal success so far, which spells out a promising future for him this season.
“I’ve gotten second [place] for my first race and I got first [place] for my first race,” Johnson said. “I think the season’s going to look really up from here.”
Sights are set high for this year, with Newman having several ambitious goals for the team. While some goals are further out of reach than others, all are possible because of the skill this year’s team has.
“I’d like to win sectionals, and I think that’s pretty much on the table, and collectively, we’d like to win the state meet,” Newman said. “I’d [also] like to have hopefully three athletes on the podium at the state meet, that’s a big goal.
Many runners also have their own goals or the team, as well as themselves.
“I think obviously winning state is really achievable, so I set a goal for myself to try to make it to cross-country nationals,” Johnson said. “My second goal is trying to win state individually for D2. I think that’s going to be really tough because the state course is a really tough course.”
With the move back down to D2, an easier division compared to last year, one of the biggest challenges is purely mental and attitude based.
“We’re pretty good, we all know that,” Newman said. “I just want them to stay focused and be humble, and [take it] one race at a time, one step at a time.
The team make-up is special this year, as it is one of the largest in recent years. This lends itself to altering the feel of not only this year’s team but teams in the future as freshmen move up and seniors leave.
“I have 13 freshmen, [and], I think 12 or 13 seniors, ” Newman said. “I’m losing a big number and a big number is coming up, so that is going to bring in different culture and some different dynamics with the program over the years.
Even with such a large and diverse team, everyone works well with each other, creating a supportive team environment.
“They still jab at each other a little bit, but we are a pretty cohesive team,” Newman said. “They look after each other, and nurture and mentor.”
Boys Soccer
The Boys Soccer team is kicking off this season strong.
Kyle Konkol is the Head Coach of boys soccer and has been coaching for more than 10 years now.
Despite being early in the season, the large percentage of seniors on the team has Konkol feeling positively about the performance this year.
“We have sixteen returning players, [on varsity] which is really pretty extraordinary,” Konkol said. “It’s a veteran group, so everybody knows the expectations, even the younger guys coming on in are really competitive for playing time too. It’s a really fun solid group of high character guys.”
The team is also led by its two captains Brody Bell and Vincent Bolliger. Both are seniors and work together organizing the team.
“Obviously in the summer we did captain’s practices and led that,” Bell said. “[But] I think there’s a lot of people on the team besides us that are leaders.”
Like all teams, boys soccer has faced its share of challenges. However, they view them more as challenges against themselves rather than other schools.
“I don’t think the biggest challenge is going to be an opponent,” Bollinger said. “I think it’s just gonna be us versus us. How much are we gonna … click?”
The SHS student section also contributes significantly to the morale of the team, as it makes them feel encouraged and boosts excitement.
“I love how the students section gets out for our games. I mean that’s incredible,” Konkol said. “The guys love it, and the support that they bring, the energy that they bring. Every year it seems like we get more and more students out here, and it’s incredible to see that for our program.”
Despite the large number of seniors, the current captains remain hopeful for the future of SHS boys soccer.
“I think if the freshman, sophomore, and junior classes right now…they all keep playing together … keep going well [and] hopefully win state again,” Bollinger said.
Girls Volleyball
Girls volleyball has been feeling confident as well. Having trained all summer, they’re starting the season well prepared.
Mikala Sebastian is the head coach of the volleyball program. Despite the average age of the team being lower than usual, she feels good about the team’s wins so far this season.
“We have a young team but we’re performing well. We beat Brown Deer, we beat West Allis, [and] we beat Cudahy here, so, so far so good,” Sebastian said.
Considering their strong performance so far, the team has set several goals for the season, mainly concerning the conference and state tournaments.
“[Our goal is] being competitive in the conference, trying to take our side of the conference this year for conference tournaments and making it through the first couple rounds of state,” Sebastian said.
The biggest challenge for the season according to Sebastian said is the general lack of experience that comes with younger players. She hopes the team can remain resilient against more developed programs.
“We aren’t as developed as some of our better teams like when we’re playing Nicolet or Whitnall or Greenfield,” Sebastian said. “They just have a more developed program so those are going to be harder games for us to finish. We saw that against Brown Deer when we were a younger team playing some older kids, serve receive was a little bit of a struggle.”
Despite this, Gauri Verma, senior, and Zooey Eisenhuth, sophomore, are both players on the team, and both share a feeling of confidence going into the season.
“It’s actually been great, we’ve had no losses,” Eisenhuth said.
“We’ve been pretty locked in this year,” Verma said about the season. “We are ready to smash the school record.”
In addition to the team’s competitive record, the team dynamic is another aspect of the volleyball program that’s improving.
“The way we run our team, we run a very close, close knit program,” Sebastian said. We go for the family type of bond.”