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Show A6 The Emery County Review, Tuesday, November 11, 2008 SPORTS Spartan Fans! While the football team struggled at times, their efforts and successes are worth cheering C. Josie Luke Anyone who watches football knows that games can turn on a single play. No matter how hard a team works to win, sometimes the chips don’t fall their way. Sometimes luck isn’t on their side, sometimes they get down early and can’t climb back out, and sometimes their opponent is just better. The Emery football team obviously tried hard this season, but they were dissatisfied with the outcome. With a season record of 4-6 and a loss in the first round of the state playoffs, the result may have been disappointing for some players and fans, but, though Coach Jimmy Jones thought their record could have been better, he was pleased with the effort of his team. “Overall, this year, I thought the kids tried as hard as they could,” he said. There were those games that seemed to slip away. “As I look back on the season, I look at that Uintah game and the North Sanpete game, and I think we had so many opportunities to win those games,” Jones said. “I guess if we could have won those games, we would have finished the season with a winning record, which I think would have been really good, but it didn’t happen.” There were also games players will not soon forget. Jones continued, “There’ve also been some bright spots. The win against Desert Hills in overtime was a really exciting game, beating Carbon was an exciting game for us, and the seniors beating Salem Hills in the last home game was great for them.” The Spartans began the season with losses to Grand and Canyon View, 27-14 and 23-13. They then rebounded with the exciting overtime win against Desert Hills, 20-14, and a blowout win in their first home game of the season against American Leadership Academy, 34-0. After losing their second overtime game 20-21 to Uintah, they faced their long-time rival Carbon. The Spartans crushed the Dinos, 41-7. Emery next faced games against two power house teams, Juan Diego and Delta, losing both, 41-6 and 40-7, but halted Delta’s streak of shutouts against in-state opponents. Emery lost their third strait to North Sanpete, by a close, heartbreaking score of 2120. In their last home game against Salem Hills, the Spartans played perhaps their best game, crushing the Skyhawks, 46-20. Then, in their first round of the playoffs, they lost to Park City, 41-7. The record may have not been what the team had hoped, but the games proved to be exciting for those fans that followed the team through their ups and downs this year. The Emery Spartans celebrate their last home game of the season. Though whether Jones will coach next year is still up in the air because of his move to Canyon View Junior High, he expressed he would love to coach again. He is excited by the caliber of players who are coming back. “We have some great players coming back. I am hesitant to name players because I will forget someone, but there are some great juniors, and I think we have a really good sophomore class. It’s just so hard to tell. With kids, they just change so much year to year. I think we’ve got some potential to have some pretty good teams the next few years.” The captains for the 2008 team were Chance Ariotti, Drew Bohn, Gatlan Huntington and Colby Snow. The seniors were: Photo by C. Josie Luke John Conder, Gatlan Huntington, Cameron Hansen, Colby Snow, Jaydon Mead, Chance Ariotti, Dalton Judd, Taylor Behling, Drew Bohn, Josey Johnson, Kameron Stilson, Greg Howes, Jaron Bennion, Sheridan Oviat and Vern Kofford. Volleyball team improves on last year’s record James L. Davis At the beginning of the volleyball season Coach Kris Bell had a simple goal for her girls – win some region games. In the previous year the team had been shutout in region matches and overcoming that psychological hurdle and pulling out some wins was the first order of business. At the beginning of the season it seemed that the Lady Spartans had even bigger plans than that as they played well in non-region play, putting together both good offense and good defense to win some games and build confidence. But when region play started, the girls seemed to stumble Abbie Kay blocks the ball. and struggled to hold their own. “At the first of the season they were so on and then I don’t know what happened. It was mental. They have all the talent in the world, but they didn’t believe in themselves,” Bell said at the end of a season they didn’t end the way they had hoped, but ended better than the previous year. With a final record of 8-12 overall and a region record of 2-6, the Lady Spartans did qualify for state, and while they were quickly knocked out of the state tournament, they had the chance to play and compete. Despite a disappointing season, Bell said the team never stopped trying. “All of our seniors stepped up when they needed to,” Bell said. On a high note, the Lady Spartan’s Keera Allred was recognized as Academic All-State, maintaining her 4.0 grade point average. The 2008 Lady Spartan Volleyball Team was: Seniors: Keera Allred, Sierra Bridgewater, Jodi Robertson, Frankie Komar, and ShiAnne Allred. Juniors: Nikki Rogers, Kristiann Grange, Tiffany Tuttle, Jenni Stinson, Michele Oliver, Abbie Kay, Danavin Reed and Shawnee Allred. Sophomores: Tayler Jewkes, Jessica Murray, Adrie Huntington, Markette Tanner, Tealin Miller, Taylor Mann, Makiah Sherman, Brooke Jensen and Courtney Tuttle. Freshman: Mandy Davis, Whitney Roper. Jodi Robertson makes a kill. ShiAnne Allred goes for the kill. Photos by Glen Jensen |