The Torch
Volume 1, Issue 1 Olympia Sports April 15, 2007
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Volleyball Girls Preparing in The Weight Room

     Every Tuesday and Thursday you may find many volleyball players running the halls or lifting weights in the weight room. Most of these girls are young, with even a few 8th graders in the bunch. These girls are players that aren’t currently involved in a spring activity, and just want to become an all around better volleyball player. “When we are there we lift a lot. We also do boxes, sprints and stuff to work on our stamina”, said Freshmen volleyball star Darci Jones. These girls are led by Christina Westerfield or “Bear” which is what the like to call her. She was the freshmen coach this year.
     The year they had a pretty good season all around, they have some really talented players. Such as the Junior Heiser twins, Betsy and Kelsy. These girls rule the volleyball court and travel all over in the off season getting better and playing good competition. “It’s easy playing a sport like volleyball all the time, just simply because of my love for the game”, said Kelsey.
      Olympia should definitely be watched in the years to come with the talent that is rising up from underclasses. The going to be juniors next year, which is the present sophomores, went to state and received a 3rd place trophy in 8th grade. Also the present 7th graders won state this past year bringing home to the OMS a nice looking 1st trophy.
     Junior Darci Williams said, “The future is looking very bright for Olympia Volleyball, especially with all the hard work that is being done in the off season”. These Girls are working hard twice a week to better and improve their game. By next season the Olympia Girls she be good and ready for the competition and will be a very competitive and tough team to beat.
Spartans Owning
Their Competition
 By Ben Trout
9:25 AM, May 11, 2007




      Getting back on track can describe this past week for the Olympia boys baseball team. After a rough start to the season going 2-4, the boys then ran off 6 straight wins. This runs their record to 8-4.
      Senior Jack Hainline said, “It’s not like it was an easy week either. We knocked off Washington and conference rivals Prairie Central and Eureka.” The win against Prairie Central, Central Catholic, Eureka and Rantoul gives the baseball team a strong start in the conference as well with a record of 5-1. This was a tough week for the boys though, but they came through and got some much needed wins against conference and non-conference teams.
      With all the rainouts that have come this spring, a couple games have been rescheduled and this means a lot of games in a short time. Coach Smith said, “They better be ready to play. The only days we have off for the rest of the season are Sundays, the day of prom and the day before the conference tournament.” They have Bloomington, Mahomet-Seymour, Canton and the conference tournament still to come.
      With a tough week and more to come the boys have to put in a lot of practice time outside of school to stay fundamentally sound and precise. Go out and support your baseball team and cheer them on to a strong finish.

Athletes of the Month

 By Tasha Bruner
posted 9:17 AM CST, Mar 16, 2007


      The female star athlete of the month is Junior Samantha “Sweeps” Williams, who is currently participating in girl’s soccer. Sam’s position is the team’s sweeper. Last year the team had the best record girls soccer has ever had. Sam has participated in volleyball, soccer, and track and field throughout her high school experience.
      Her favorite memory of any sport is making Starburst necklaces on the bus for soccer. The proudest moment she has had is when “Lacy Phelps joined me in the danger zone.” Sam’s most embarrassing moment is when she kicked the ball in the other team’s goal. When asked how she thinks girls soccer will do this year, Sam said, “If we come together as a team I think we can do great things.” Coach Mike Hawk said “Sam is the heart of the defense.” We wish Sam luck with the current season.


      This month’s male athlete of the month is Senior Austin Myers. Austin is on the boy’s varsity track team. His other sports have included football, track and field, and basketball freshman year. Austin participates in the 4x100 and 4x200 meter relay, 300 hurdles, and the occasional 4x400 meter relay.
      Austin’s favorite thing about track is having Mr. Stine as his coach, making fun of assistance coach Shaun “Teedo” Brand, and beating people. His proudest moment was when he received the All Conference Defensive Back and Sportsmanship of the Year awards. His most embarrassing moment was “freshman year I was running varsity 300 hurdles and I was beating this kid from Pontiac when I fell over the last hurdle.” When asked for a quote Austin said, “Run fast and don’t look back.”
      According to Coach Stine, Austin is expected to play a key role in their sprint relays and hurdles this year. “He has started off the season looking very good in both. If we can keep him healthy, we expect him to be scoring team points for us in both hurdles events in all of our meets,” said Coach.



     Show your school spirit with the Olympia High School Cheerleading Squad! Last year’s season is out, and the new season is about ready to kick into gear. Cheerleading tryouts run from Monday April 9th thru April 11th.
     There will be an extra cheerleading tryout day for those that are unable to make the scheduled tryout days. This will be held Saturday April 7th from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Scheduled days will run from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM for the first session, and from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM for the second session. The final day of tryouts will be on Wednesday April 11th tryouts will go from 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM.
     Senior Captain Beth Halsey said, “The new season should be really good because the girls are going to work really hard to reach competition. It looks like it will be good because they are extremely hard workers and good girls.” Tryouts will consist of showing off your jumping and tumbling abilities along with all the school spirit you have to show! There will be a tryout cheer required, along with the school song and learning a dance for the tryout day. Come show off your school spirit for the 07-08 Olympia High School cheerleading squad!


     Al Toliver is the coach of the softball team. He lives around Bloomington and all of his daughters have graduated from Olympia. Al Toliver isn’t known that well here at Olympia. He has been around since 1993 coaching the middle school and has been coaching the varsity since 1997. He also helped out Mr. Rogers in the early 1990s. He has always like the game of softball and he enjoyed teaching his daughter, so he decided to become a softball coach.
     So far, the softball team is 10-0, which is a good start. He says that the girls working hard and they are doing a good job. When he is not coaching, he is out playing golf or out on a boat waterskiing. He is also apart of a group called FCA, which happens on Thursdays morning in Mrs. Smith room.
     He is very proud of the softball with how they are doing. Darci Williams, a member of the team, said “He is a good coach. He never gets angry and he is really inspiring.”


     Trap shooting is a sport unlike any other. It started out as practice for hunting small game like birds, but soon turned into a major sport.
     Trap shooting is still used today to practice or just have fun. The way the sport works is there is a shooter and a puller; the shooter has the shotgun, which tells the puller the command PULL when ready. The puller then pulls a lever on the machine which will then release clay pigeons, and that is the target the shooter shoots at. With personal experience its not easy, but a lot of fun.
     Majority participants don’t even call it a sport; it’s just for fun as well. But if chosen as a sport, you could open up a whole new world of opportunities. There are Olympic teams, teams that compete for money or you could compete individually for money also. There are even scholarships involved in trap shooting.
     Olympic Women’s Trap Shooter Shari LeGate has taught me everything I know, and has gotten not only me involved into the sport, but my whole family as well. Just this past weekend I went out to shoot and hit 38 out of 40 clay pigeons (targets), which is not too bad considering I have not done it since last year. If you think it is a sport you can enjoy, try it. It may be worth your while; I know it was to my family and me.

      Spring sports are off to a great start this year at Olympia High School, but all of this could not be done without the help of our wonderful coaches, and assistant coaches that are sometimes overlooked. Many assistant coaches are returning or have been added from previous years in baseball and track to help assist players in doing the best that they possibly can. Tyler “Bill” Haning is an assistant coach for the baseball team and Shaun “Teedo” Brand is the boy’s track team assistant.
     Shaun Brand, better known as “Teedo”, hails from Stanford, Illinois and graduated in 2001 as an outstanding track and cross country athlete. Holding Olympia’s second fastest time in cross country and a spot on the record board in the 4x800 meter relay, Teedo is truly a force to be reckoned with. After graduating Olympia, Brand attended Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin where he participated in four years of cross country and track and field, letting his presence be felt throughout the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin…and the world.
     I asked some of our fine track athletes what they thought of Teedo and they seemed to have mostly positive things to say. “I would like to invite him over and eat supper with him sometime”, said Eric Biehl. Austin Myers however spoke a little more on the judgmental side saying, “Teedo is awesome, but he would be more awesome if he would dye his hair and lose some weight.”
     No one can contest that Teedo is a great track coach and a great role model and that we can take away many life lessons from his teachings.
     Tyler “Bill” Haning, an assistant boys baseball coach is the pick for Assistant Coach of the Month. Tyler is a 2002 graduate of Olympia. He is a big shot boss at Huffman Farm Supply in Minier. In his free time, he likes to spend time with his loving fiancée Renee, who he plans on marrying this year. During his senior year, he was part of the Olympia Baseball team that took home a state championship trophy. He was the starting second basemen. After his stellar high school career, he moved on to play at ICC where he was a 2-year starter at second base. He now resides in Minier.
     Tyler is in his third year of being coach Smith’s assistant coach. Tyler provides a lot of moral support and he always knows how to keep


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