For my column, athletes of the month, for the month of September, I covered three sports, boys’ soccer, volleyball, and softball. I choose one athlete from each sport who stood out amongst the rest.
For the first athlete we turn to the boys’ varsity soccer team, there we find dual sport athlete, senior Jason Howard. Howard is a forward for the soccer team, and place kicker for the football team. I decided to highlight Howard mainly because of his outstanding play in the Pacific Varsity tournament. In the opening round game against Winsdor High School, Rolla won easily 6-1. Howard netted two goals and had an assist to senior Randy Wharton and senior Kory Carter. In the second game against Warrenton High School, Rolla won this as well with a score of 4-1. Howard scored a quick goal to put Rolla up 1-0. When Warrenton scored a goal to make it 1-1, Wharton scored again to break the tie and make it 2-1. Howard then made sure that was as close it would get as he found Carter for the final two goals of the game. Rolla went on to win the championship game against Hillsboro 2-1. Howard and Wharton were named to the All Tournament Team. Howard was then individually awarded as he received the Golden Boot award for the whole tournament. His play led Rolla to their first regular season tournament championship since the 2007 season.
For the next athlete, we look to the girls’ softball team. There we find junior Maegan Shults. Shults dominated opposing pitchers throughout the month of September. Shults hit for a .667 average while bombing 3 homeruns and driving in 12 RBI’s in just 5 games through mid September. I specifically looked to Shults due to her play in Ozark Tournament. In 4 games, the Lady Bulldogs went 2-2 and finished in 4th place, they fell to Ozark 6-2 in the third place game. Shults carried the Lady Bulldogs offensively, going 6-8, with 3 homeruns and 9 RBI’s, the team scored 18 runs total in the tournament, which shows how much off an impact Shults was as she drove in half of the team’s runs by herself. She also was the starting pitcher in the second game against Lebanon High School where she pitched the entire game and picked up the win.
For the third athlete we find Sydni Kaden, of the Lady Bulldogs Volleyball team. As the team has struggled a little bit during September, Kaden’s performance has been outstanding. In just 5 matches through mid-September, Kaden has 21 kills, 30 digs, and 24 serve receptions. That’s over 4 kills a match, 6 digs, and almost 5 serve receptions per game. Kaden paced the lady bulldogs in their win over the rival St. James tigers as she had 6 kills and 6 digs as they would sweep the lady tigers.
