By Sarah Goodykoontz

“The future is incredibly bright here.”

You could really apply that quote to any aspect of Tempe Prep; we have an incredibly bright future. But it was originally used by our very own Coach Lane Waddell at the Winter Sports awards to describe the future of our boys basketball team.

The Middle School and High School Winter Sports Awards took place Friday, Feb. 22. You know the drill: For every season of sports all the teams get together to celebrate the season, recognize some standout athletes, and close the season’s chapter. That is the blueprint for every sports award ceremony. This one, however, was one you didn’t want to miss.

This year’s Winter Sports Awards had some of the best speeches by both coaches and players. Pretty much every speech noted how much potential our teams have in some way, like Coach Nancy Calahan (that’s Mrs. Calahan to you junior high English students!), who said the varsity girls basketball team “proved its potential… This team has more to prove and will be a force to be reckoned with. The future looks really bright. Look out.”

The coaches also spoke to the remarkable character of our players. Varsity boys soccer coach, Coach Tsorin, commented that he “had a lot of fun coaching this team. … All really good guys, all easy to work with.” Coach Megan Richardson, the Varsity Girls Soccer coach, remembered how the team “got along. They built a genuine camaraderie. They were always there for each other, on and off the field.”

One of the most moving parts of the night was seeing the seniors with their teams for the last time. Their hard work, for however many years, was well-deserving of the awards they received. For Varsity Boys Basketball, Miguel Guzman was picked as Most Improved, and Caleb Brittain for the Coaches Award. For Varsity Girls Basketball, Aylin Cervantes Villegas was awarded the Defensive MVP. For Varsity Wrestling, A’ser Mostafa earned the Coaches Award. For Varsity Boys Soccer, Alexander Wait was the MVP. For Varsity Girls Soccer, Morgan Cryder was a Co-MVP, and Lauren Holmes was most improved.

This ceremony showed how much we have to look forward to for our winter sports in the coming years. Let’s get pumped for next year!