Hockey
With the winter term here, Priory hockey is back. This year is special because we have enough players to have the chance to form a JV team. Besides that, the Varsity team is currently 3-1, after opening the season with a 3-1 win over Webster which set the pace for a 10-0 overwhelming victory against Northwest. This has been very promising as it is the first season with a 4-point start since 2018. Monday, in the Raven’s most recent game, the team started slowly getting outshot about 8:1, but picked up speed as the game went on cruising at the end to a 4-1 win over Westminster aided by Freddy Gaertner’s two goals. The captain this year is Jake Waltz, with the alternate captains Wes Harvey and JP Nadreau. (Image Caption: Freddy hyped up after tying the MICDS game up 1-1 with his 5th goal of the season.) The Varsity leading goal scorer is none other than Freddy “Mister Midstates” Gaertner. He has 7 goals and 2 assists for 9 points. Other notable stat lines are JP Nadeau and Jake Waltz with 3 points each. The goalie situation this year has been confusing, to say the least. Through the first four games, each goalie has started one game. Tristan Lastrina against Webster, pool goalie Cam Shatto against Northwest, Nate Sutto against MICDS in a 3-1 loss where he made 32 saves on 34 shots, and another pool goalie Cadean Eilerts (The astute among you may have noticed a Lastrina jersey in the goal; Cadean was wearing Tristan’s jersey) in the 4-1 win against Westminster. Tonight, Nov. 22, the Birds take on the 4-0-1 Ladue Rams at Queeny Ice Arena for the biggest game of the season to this point. Ladue has shown to be a very strong team so far and the Birds are looking to make a statement. A win tonight will fire the boys up for an inevitable blowout season on the road to the Wickenheiser Cup. Meanwhile, the boys have been hard at work focusing on high-energy practices. The chemistry is growing rapidly as many seniors are showing the freshmen the ropes. Luckily, an older team leads to a size advantage against some puny high schoolers which the Birds have capitalized on. Notably, during the MICDS game the Birds were able to fire up the rowdiest fan section in the Wick with some electrifying hits. We are excited to see Junior Max Nadaud back on the ice as his recovery is slowly continuing. He is proving to be a promising offensive threat while he has teams shaking in their boots as he struts past them. Varsity wants to end on a thank you to all of the fans willing to sacrifice their Halloweekend and watch as Webster and Northwest were blown away. Make sure to attend tonight as Freddy likes to be fueled by his lovers.
Notably, the first-ever Priory JV team has been on fire with a 5-0-2 record for first in the North division. The team has a bunch of huge games, including 2 wins over Webster and a close win over a Seckman team in the opposite division whose goalie seemed unbreakable. The most recent game was a 2-1 win last Sunday against a tough-to-put-away Ladue team, Priory was led by 2 goals by Tripp Redmond in the 1st period and kept the lead from there. The leading scorers for JV are Charlie Waltz with 6 points, Robert Gaertner (hockey skill seems to just run in the family), and Tripp Redmond with 5 points. The JV goalies Tristan Lastrina and Cam Shatto have also been dominant in between the pipes with goals against averages of 1.25 and 1.67 respectively. The next JV game is at 3:45 PM Sunday against Francis Howell at the Kennedy Rec Center and if a good group of underclassmen would show up that would be greatly appreciated. Go Birds!
Wrestling
Last season Priory wrestling was led by 8 seniors, many of whom wrestled a full 6 years at Priory and 3 of whom went to state their senior year. This year Priory wrestling has 3 seniors, none of which have wrestled through all of high school. Instead the bulk of this year’s team will be made up of freshmen who are new to wrestling.
Wrestling starts this year on Nov. 30 with a JV meet, allowing all the newer wrestlers to gain some important experience early in the season. Later in the season there will be multiple meets and tournaments at Priory, so there is no excuse to not make it out to at least one meet. Practices this year have been very successful, with the team quickly falling into a routine and the new wrestlers catching on quickly and having some junior school attendance at Saturday practices.
On Nov. 19 the team had its annual Creve Coeur Park stair run. Weather so far in the wrestling room has been moderate, with only a few hot days, but heat waves can be expected over Thanksgiving break. There is still a lot of time left in the season, and it would be great to get a few more guys down in the wrestling room. You could get in the best shape of your life and usually have fun doing it.
Basketball
After a very successful past season, the Bouncy Birds are returning and looking for another great season. The Ravens are looking for another district win and more, after the devastating final loss to Montgomery County. The basketball team is returning two valuable starters: Robby Temprano and Henry Hibey. Henry Hibey, the three-point specialist, is coming off a 300-point season and looking for more. Hibey finished with an impressive second-place finish for three-pointers made in a competitive metro league, and an even more impressive 38.6% from three. The Birds are returning three quality senior players: John Varley, Aidan Edwards, and Owen Eisenbeis. They are all looking to make a difference in the lineup to compensate for the graduation loss of Myles Garcia and Christian Gonzalez. The injury of our starting center Jack Parent during Football is a loss to the team, but he’s looking to come off the IR around early January. The basketball team has also gained some new players. Freshman Frankie Harris and Luke Bussman are looking to make a difference for the team this year as well. The Birds have their first game of the season against Sumner on December 2nd. The Birds have a tough Metro League schedule facing the likes of Westminster, John Burroughs, MICDS, Lutheran North, and Lutheran South. In conclusion, the Priory Basketball team is hoping to give the student body another exciting season.
