Team preview: Oswego East
By Chris Walker
As a fourth-year varsity player, Allison Adams has played a supporting role in that unforgettable senior-year experience that many of her former teammates have enjoyed the past few seasons.
Classmates Kaitlynne Bizoukas and Tanya Koomjohn are looking to contribute to something new for the first time in their young lives as both are new to the Oswego East squad this spring.
For the three of them, along with three other seniors on the team’s roster, it’s become a terribly frustrating waiting game as the season remains in limbo due to the COVID-19 crisis, which has delayed the resumption of practice until at least May 1.
The Wolves had 16 games scheduled for March and April.
“Knowing that I’ll play in college kind of helps me through this, because I know I will probably have a chance to play again,” Adams said. “But it stinks to be missing out on possible things like Senior Night and regional games. Being my fourth year on varsity I’ve been waiting for these moments for four years now, and it really stinks. I’m hoping it’ll happen, but it’s kind of weird because I don’t know if we’ll ever get to see each other again. It’s all kind of awkward.”
Bizoukas, who is home-schooled, remains optimistic that she’ll don a Wolves uniform for the first time at some point. As a midfielder with a strong club background, Bizoukas is looking at playing somewhere in college, but is itching to have a special season at Oswego East before looking too far ahead.
“I guess the main thing for me being home-schooled is to finally get a piece of that high school experience,” she said. “I’ve had some bad timing. Other years I was coming off injuries from club and with high school and home-school there’s a lot of paperwork involved to try to play. Unfortunately it hasn’t gone as planned.”
Koomjohn has played JV until this year, so she was especially excited to make the varsity club. She remains hopeful that she’ll be able to have a senior season that’s more than just having her name on the team roster and a 0-0-0 record.
“I was pretty excited to finish up my senior year and to be a part of the team,” she said. “I ran cross country in the fall to work on my endurance and physical fitness, and I’ve continued to keep up with that kind of stuff. I want to contribute to the team by working hard and pushing people in practice and having a fun time.”
The Wolves averaged 2.5 goals a game last year, but that statistic is misleading. More than half their goals came in three victories where they put a crooked number on the scoreboard.
No doubt about it, the Wolves are going to need to have players step up and find the back of the net in order to be successful.
“Our record definitely wasn’t pretty last year, but one thing that our record doesn’t show is how close we were in a lot of the games,” Adams said. “Almost all of the games we lost were like one goal and they usually came down to a simple mistake or a lack of focus at the moment. We’re focused on playing for the whole game, not just parts of the game.”
Koomjohn acknowledged that the Wolves were looking good already in the short time they were allowed to gather and practice.
“It seemed like we had a lot of strength on our team from the few practices in the first week,” she said. “You could tell the different players and different strengths, and we were working and communicating together. You can tell we’re pretty talented, and we didn’t have all those practices yet to learn about each other.”
For now, with Oswego East and the rest of the schools in the state shut down as a reaction to the coronavirus, teams are staying in touch via technology platforms like Zoom’s video teleconferencing, while trying to stay in shape, often practicing on their own, or in Adams’ case, with her sister.
“Luckily my sister also plays. She’s been my training buddy, and we’ll go out and practice together and then we’ll go home, get bored, and go out and practice a lot,” she said. “Obviously, it stinks we can’t practice as a team, but yesterday (April 2) we had a Google meeting call to keep in touch and once in a while the coaches will send out a video with foot skills and stuff to practice.”
Despite its seniors, Oswego East remains a young squad, albeit a talented one. Adams (Purdue-Ft. Wayne), Maddie Frazer (NIU) and Haley Lewis (Grand Valley State) are all set to continue their careers beyond high school. Junior Alex McPhee (Ball State) also has committed. McPhee had 11 assists last year as a defender. Lewis is the team’s leading returning scorer with six goals a season ago. Freshmen forwards Erika Smiley and Emma Rosenthal and sophomore Loryn Paribello are also expected to be involved in the offense.
“We have a lot of ball handlers and distributors and a solid defensive line,” Wolves coach Juan Leal said. “Weakness is getting the ball in the back of the net.”
Although she’s never played a single game for the Wolves, Bizoukas was attracted to joining the team because she realized there’s talent in place and an opportunity to be successful.
“We have a lot of talented girls this year, including players who can score goals and create a lot of chances,” she said. “I think the main thing they lacked was finding enough goals but I think we could do that.”
Adams said there are two big challenges. The first one is beyond their control with the season on hold.
“Our other challenge is getting back to where we were at when we left off,” she said. “Obviously we want to be further along then we were, especially with a lot of younger people on the team and not having a chance to scrimmage or anything. But no one has had time to really spend with the team. We’re a responsible group of people who trust each other, and I’m sure everybody is working on their own because they know what they do is important to us.”
Without a doubt, it’s a stressful times for the Wolves, especially the seniors.
“Everything is still up in the air,” Koomjohn said. “We’re not sure if the season will continue or if the other senior events will. We don’t know if there will be prom or when we’ll have graduation, and I’m still deciding between three or four colleges for next year. It’s a little stressful.”
2020 Oswego East Wolves
Manager: Juan Leal (4th year)
2019 Record: 6-14-0 (3-6-0)
Graduation losses: Sydney Conway, Madeline Kastel, Brooke Lipscomb, Katie Olivas, Reagan Sanders
Top returning players: seniors, Allison Adams (D), Madison Frazer (MF), Haley Lewis (F), junior, Alex McPhee (D)
New faces to watch: senior, Kaitlynne Bizoukas; sophomore, Loryn Paribello; freshmen, Erika Smiley, Emma Rosenthal
Click here to see Wolves team page!
By Chris Walker
As a fourth-year varsity player, Allison Adams has played a supporting role in that unforgettable senior-year experience that many of her former teammates have enjoyed the past few seasons.
Classmates Kaitlynne Bizoukas and Tanya Koomjohn are looking to contribute to something new for the first time in their young lives as both are new to the Oswego East squad this spring.
For the three of them, along with three other seniors on the team’s roster, it’s become a terribly frustrating waiting game as the season remains in limbo due to the COVID-19 crisis, which has delayed the resumption of practice until at least May 1.
The Wolves had 16 games scheduled for March and April.
“Knowing that I’ll play in college kind of helps me through this, because I know I will probably have a chance to play again,” Adams said. “But it stinks to be missing out on possible things like Senior Night and regional games. Being my fourth year on varsity I’ve been waiting for these moments for four years now, and it really stinks. I’m hoping it’ll happen, but it’s kind of weird because I don’t know if we’ll ever get to see each other again. It’s all kind of awkward.”
Bizoukas, who is home-schooled, remains optimistic that she’ll don a Wolves uniform for the first time at some point. As a midfielder with a strong club background, Bizoukas is looking at playing somewhere in college, but is itching to have a special season at Oswego East before looking too far ahead.
“I guess the main thing for me being home-schooled is to finally get a piece of that high school experience,” she said. “I’ve had some bad timing. Other years I was coming off injuries from club and with high school and home-school there’s a lot of paperwork involved to try to play. Unfortunately it hasn’t gone as planned.”
Koomjohn has played JV until this year, so she was especially excited to make the varsity club. She remains hopeful that she’ll be able to have a senior season that’s more than just having her name on the team roster and a 0-0-0 record.
“I was pretty excited to finish up my senior year and to be a part of the team,” she said. “I ran cross country in the fall to work on my endurance and physical fitness, and I’ve continued to keep up with that kind of stuff. I want to contribute to the team by working hard and pushing people in practice and having a fun time.”
The Wolves averaged 2.5 goals a game last year, but that statistic is misleading. More than half their goals came in three victories where they put a crooked number on the scoreboard.
No doubt about it, the Wolves are going to need to have players step up and find the back of the net in order to be successful.
“Our record definitely wasn’t pretty last year, but one thing that our record doesn’t show is how close we were in a lot of the games,” Adams said. “Almost all of the games we lost were like one goal and they usually came down to a simple mistake or a lack of focus at the moment. We’re focused on playing for the whole game, not just parts of the game.”
Koomjohn acknowledged that the Wolves were looking good already in the short time they were allowed to gather and practice.
“It seemed like we had a lot of strength on our team from the few practices in the first week,” she said. “You could tell the different players and different strengths, and we were working and communicating together. You can tell we’re pretty talented, and we didn’t have all those practices yet to learn about each other.”
For now, with Oswego East and the rest of the schools in the state shut down as a reaction to the coronavirus, teams are staying in touch via technology platforms like Zoom’s video teleconferencing, while trying to stay in shape, often practicing on their own, or in Adams’ case, with her sister.
“Luckily my sister also plays. She’s been my training buddy, and we’ll go out and practice together and then we’ll go home, get bored, and go out and practice a lot,” she said. “Obviously, it stinks we can’t practice as a team, but yesterday (April 2) we had a Google meeting call to keep in touch and once in a while the coaches will send out a video with foot skills and stuff to practice.”
Despite its seniors, Oswego East remains a young squad, albeit a talented one. Adams (Purdue-Ft. Wayne), Maddie Frazer (NIU) and Haley Lewis (Grand Valley State) are all set to continue their careers beyond high school. Junior Alex McPhee (Ball State) also has committed. McPhee had 11 assists last year as a defender. Lewis is the team’s leading returning scorer with six goals a season ago. Freshmen forwards Erika Smiley and Emma Rosenthal and sophomore Loryn Paribello are also expected to be involved in the offense.
“We have a lot of ball handlers and distributors and a solid defensive line,” Wolves coach Juan Leal said. “Weakness is getting the ball in the back of the net.”
Although she’s never played a single game for the Wolves, Bizoukas was attracted to joining the team because she realized there’s talent in place and an opportunity to be successful.
“We have a lot of talented girls this year, including players who can score goals and create a lot of chances,” she said. “I think the main thing they lacked was finding enough goals but I think we could do that.”
Adams said there are two big challenges. The first one is beyond their control with the season on hold.
“Our other challenge is getting back to where we were at when we left off,” she said. “Obviously we want to be further along then we were, especially with a lot of younger people on the team and not having a chance to scrimmage or anything. But no one has had time to really spend with the team. We’re a responsible group of people who trust each other, and I’m sure everybody is working on their own because they know what they do is important to us.”
Without a doubt, it’s a stressful times for the Wolves, especially the seniors.
“Everything is still up in the air,” Koomjohn said. “We’re not sure if the season will continue or if the other senior events will. We don’t know if there will be prom or when we’ll have graduation, and I’m still deciding between three or four colleges for next year. It’s a little stressful.”
2020 Oswego East Wolves
Manager: Juan Leal (4th year)
2019 Record: 6-14-0 (3-6-0)
Graduation losses: Sydney Conway, Madeline Kastel, Brooke Lipscomb, Katie Olivas, Reagan Sanders
Top returning players: seniors, Allison Adams (D), Madison Frazer (MF), Haley Lewis (F), junior, Alex McPhee (D)
New faces to watch: senior, Kaitlynne Bizoukas; sophomore, Loryn Paribello; freshmen, Erika Smiley, Emma Rosenthal
Click here to see Wolves team page!