Spring sports are right around the corner, and student-athletes and coaches are always stressed this time of the year. While coaches get to hand-select their team, that means they also have to turn away many kids. Spring sports have a few new upgrades that people are looking forward to as well!

Varsity baseball coach Brian Schaeffer talked about how stressed he gets this time of the year with having to make some big decisions.

“Every year, we have roughly 115 kids try out in total, and we keep around 60 each year. That means I have to cut around 50 kids a year, which is always stressful. One thing that is improving my stress for this year is the addition of a JV schedule separate from varsity. This allows me to keep more players in the program, which helps with developing players,” Schaeffer said.

With that many people being cut, it leads to many rough conversations. This year will be a little better due to the addition of the JV team. Being able to put kids on JV instead of cutting them allows for more development, which will make the future of OE baseball better. 

Another spring sport addition comes in softball. They have recently updated their batting cages, but they have also made additions to their field. They have added all turf outlines to their field. This should lead to fewer rain cancellations, allowing more games to be played. Everyone is excited for that.

Other tryouts that are occurring include boys’ volleyball and girls’ soccer.  A non-tryout sport that everyone can participate in is girls’ and boys’ track.

With all these sports around the corner, there are many different options. If you are looking for a sport to play this spring, pick one of these! With many upgrades to fields and additions of teams there’s a lot to look forward to in East Athletics this spring.

Written by seniors Max Jungels and Caden Breger. Edited by staff writers for Oswego East’s online news magazine The Howl.