Middle School athletes hope to make the A team. No one thinks about making varsity sports in middle school until their eighth grade year.

Six sports take place during the fall season, only 10 of the freshmen athletes made varsity.

Football

Football might be Augusta’s most popular fall sport, and two freshmen (Hunter Anderson (9) and Riley Buck (9) obtained a varsity spot.

Anderson hyperextended his knee during the Black vs Orange football scrimmage. Anderson was upset but knew he was going to be able to play in the game against Andover Central.

“I didn’t play as good as I wanted to; my knee kind of held me back a little bit,” Anderson said.

Buck believes he may not look all big and strong, but he is a tough opponent. He says he tries his hardest in everything he does. This could be part of the reason he starts for varsity.

“From my perspective, I feel like I did the best that I could do for my team,” Buck said.

The football team may have lost their first game to Andover Central, but both of the freshmen earned their spot.

Volleyball

Volleyball, which Coach Hallmark calls — “sister team” — has three freshmen who joined varsity, Tommie Schaeffer(9), Catryna Winzer (9) and Avery Riedel (9).

Schaeffer knew the varsity team was looking for a new middle hitter. Knowing this Schaeffer, worked hard over the summer to become the best hitter she could be, and prepare for the high school game.

“The biggest difference between middle school and high school volleyball is that the tempo of the game is much faster,” Schaeffer said.

Winzer may have been nervous for her first league volleyball game against the El dorado Wildcats, but it did not show, considering the Orioles beat the Wildcats in two sets.

“I didn’t expect to make varsity this year mostly because I was on B team throughout all of middle school,” Winzer said.

Riedel is the smallest player on the volleyball team, but she serves a big purpose in the passing portion of the game.

“I’ve only been playing volleyball for three years, but I love the game,” Riedel said.

These freshmen help the volleyball team not only in the way of talent, but in the way of building team chemistry.

Cross Country

Cross country has added multiple new strategies in practice to help the team improve. One is the two new freshmen on the varsity team, Sawyer Schmidt (9) and Jacob Dieter (9).

Schmidt has the potential to break school cross country records. In his first varsity cross country meet, Schmidt ran a 5k and ended up getting third place with only two seniors from Kapaun Mount Carmel beating him.

“I’m happy with my time, but I think there’s a lot of room to improve there,”Schmidt said.

Dieter enjoys cross country this year more than last year because more opportunities come with high school sports. He works at practice to keep up with Sawyer (9) and Brice Helton (11) he believes they make him better.

“Personally, I did really good. I got 9th, I actually beat my two rivals’ times in the 5k, which I had not beaten yet, but I finally actually beat them at this first meet,” Dieter said.

These two freshmen on cross country are certainly showing people they deserve to be on varsity.

Boys Soccer

Soccer might be the most improved sport this year, with two freshmen Payton Ball (9) and Dominick Rios (9) helping them win. Last season, the team won three games; at this point, they have won five.

This year is Ball’s first year in Augusta. He attended El Dorado Middle School the year before. Ball has been playing soccer for six years and plays forward for the soccer team.

“I was very nervous for my first varsity game, I didn’t know what to expect,” Ball said.

Rios has been playing soccer for forever, basically since he could walk. He loves the game and plays many positions.

“I didn’t expect to make varsity this year,” Rios said.

The boys soccer team is rising in its popularity, perhaps because they have won more games this season then the last.

Girls Golf

Golf perhaps is one of the most challenging fall sports and a freshman Kyra Carrell(9) made varsity.

Carrell is very excited for the season with the girls golf team. Carrell has only been golfing for two years and fell in love with the game.

“With the group of girls we took to that meet, I think we’ll do pretty good in all of them,” Carrell said.

Carrell may not have placed in her first golf meet, but she helped the team place first!

Girls Tennis

Tennis is the only sport without any freshmen on varsity this year.

The girls tennis team may not have any freshmen on varsity, but a lot of freshmen are out for the sport. Tennis consists of three teams, varsity, JV and novice. All freshmen out for tennis are on either JV or novice.