As this history of Renton High School continues, the year of 2021-2022 Renton High School Sports has made history within these past years, even decades. There’s so much potential that these students have that we have considered it “history.” Renton High School Sports activities have been such a huge part of our school coming from football, to basketball, volleyball, and so many more. Many records have such a drastic change, some stayed the same, some not so the same. With today’s news, I got the opportunity to interview not only the coaches but the senior athletes as well who are in the fall and winter season which includes football, volleyball, Girl’s and Boy’s swim and dive, Girl’s soccer, Boy’s tennis, cross country, gymnastics, wrestling, Boy’s and Girl’s basketball. As we have been through this covid-19 pandemic together I got the chance to ask each coach about how this year’s season was more successful than the past seasons? If not, why wasn’t it successful and what could’ve been done differently. For each senior athlete, I got to ask them how this year’s season sport is different from their past year.

FOOTBALL

Football started off very rough at the start of the season, but as the season continued the stronger they were ending the season off at 5-4 for the year of 2021-2022. There are many improvements that these football players have made throughout this first season. As I got to interview the football head coach Monte Holt, he stated that they have made the playoffs this season for the first time in 10+ years. Wow, that’s a decade. He continued on with how they created a culture and that not only the team but with the staff and the community. They have also created a strong brotherhood bond that will last longer than just these high school days. Coach Monte Holt said that this season for sure was successful due to the fact that last year they didn’t have a season due to Covid and the numbers 

of participants were in safely low, but now the year of 21-22 they got up to 50 students that all got their playing time whether it was playing in the JV team or the varsity team. 

John Martinez was one of the few seniors on the team. I got to interview him about him and his last year playing High School football. John has been playing football for 2 years which were his sophomore year and senior year. He wasn’t able to play during his junior year due to Covid. But during his past years of playing football, he stated that it was “different” due to the coaches being more strict and all they cared about was football and winning. But this season of 21-22 was way more different for him. When he heard about having a new coach coming, he was nervous about how the coach would coach the team. But as the season progressively continues on, he noticed that this coach was more of a productive coach than his past ones. John said that his coach cared about them, having team challenges to team dinner and letting them do stuff outside of football. His coach also let the football team blast music during practice which his past coach would never let them last season. All of this had led this football team to accomplish something that they haven’t done in over 12 years. 

To end this section off, this year’s football team had made such big improvements and accomplished many things, and making it to the playoffs after decades was one of them. Although they’ve been defeated on their first playoffs game, they still ended very strong and we are proud of these Redhawks. 

SOCCER

This year’s soccer team began this year very strongly, ending it off with a record of 6-6 being eligible to make it into playoffs. Ms. Swanson was the head coach of this year’s soccer team. She had worked with the girl’s program for 6 years and was the varsity coach for 3 years. She is also a science teacher at Renton High school and has been working there for 12 years. Coach Swanson had said that this season, the girls worked really hard to set goals and improve their play each time they had a reported opponent. During this season, the girl’s soccer team also had an honest and productive team meeting where it could help improve communication both on and off the fields which made their coach really proud. The efforts that the girl’s soccer team had helped them reach their goals which resulted in them making it into the district tournament for the first time within 7 years. 

One of the seniors that were on the soccer team is Analisa Ruiz. Analisa also did not participate in any activity sports in her junior year due to COVID, but then comparing her season in her freshman and sophomore here, her last year of the season seemed more “connected and energetic” as she said. Within their practice, they would communicate on things that they could do better and they also had more teammates that played soccer outside of school. With that, they were able to get a handful of advice for what drills they could practice on the field. Analisa played soccer since middle school so she thought that it was nice to learn new techniques and drills. 

To end this soccer section off, the soccer team also made such improvements over the years being able to make it to playoffs and improving as a team. 

VOLLEYBALL

Volleyball made so much improvement this season. With a new head named Coach Lorna, she has been playing volleyball ever since she was ten and made it throughout college. She wanted to keep continuing her volleyball journey and became the volleyball head coach. With this season she would say that it was more successful than last season because the volleyball team has built a foundation. There were many different girls with lots of different personalities and the one thing that Lorna would count on was that all of the girls would be there for each other both on and off the court. Although the record didn’t reflect the amount of work that the team put in, the volleyball team was able to make it to the playoffs for the first time in years. Coach Lorna had stated that “this year, we as a team, decided what it meant to play Renton HS Volleyball and what values we bring as a whole and due to the foundation everyone helped build this year.”

I would say that this year was more successful than last because we built a foundation.”

Overall, these girls had an amazing season being able to feel like family, making it to the playoffs as the other within years. As the next season’s go on, let’s hope more for these girls in the future as they are still continuing to make history

Renton High School senior volleyball player Riley Opiniano has been playing volleyball for 8 years now. She stated that this year was definitely a lot different than the past season due to so many of the covid restrictions we had last year. This year they finally got to have people back in the bleacher. It felt great to have volleyball feel like a part of the school again. With this being Riley’s senior year, she appreciated that her family and her friends were allowed to be back in the gym and see her play for one last time.

GIRLS AND BOYS SWIM AND DIVE

The Boy’s and Girl’s swim and dive team had a rollercoaster this season. With swimming during

the pandemic, was difficult although they made it through till the very end. The swim coach, Diane Pavelin had responded to the question with a “yes” and “no.” She had stated that the team didn’t win many meets nor made top 6 in leagues, districts, or even state. With Renton not having a pull, she said it was very easy to miss practice because they would usually practice at the Hazen pool which was 4 miles away, but with these student-athletes participating every day to

practice, they know they’ll improve.  While navigating through Covid swimming is considered a “low risk” sport, it’s not a “no risk” sport.  They had to share the pool not only with Hazen but with Liberty at times as well.  That meant the swimmers were potentially exposed to Covid by those outside of our Renton program. She did say that the season was “successful” because she had inexperienced

swimmers who just now became competitive swimmers and they are willing to improve in many ways.

Senior Lana Vuong and Senior Jeff Almonidovar both have stated that Covid was the main thing that was really difficult due to the protocols and they weren’t able to show their full potential which was different. Also due to the Covid scare, it was hard keeping up. 

With this high-risk sport, these athletes did amazing this season and although they didn’t really win much, they were still very strong and gave it their best. 

CROSS COUNTRY

This year’s Cross Country team had made the history of being able to make it to an all-league and also state qualifying. Coach Winmill had responded that it was tough due to Covid once again which had an impact on the student participation. The number was down from typically around 35-40 runners to 14 runners. He said that it was a good thing that he had 6 freshmen out and hope that they increase the number from each grade level for next season to build his team back to where they were before the pandemic. The cross country team 

did have a state-qualifying athlete on the Girls’ team which was Myranda Moran who s also the League Champion!  The Boys’ team had 4 runners finish with ALL-LEAGUE honors.  They were Benson Doan, Angus Nordlund, Dylan Wheeler, and Isaias Guillen-Garcia.

Cross Country, Senior Angus Nordlund said that the main difference was how distant everyone has felt at first. From coming out of the pandemic and not being at school for a whole school year, not everybody was close with each other the previous years. As a result, he had to make more of an effort to engage with everyone. Angus said, “ I think that worked to my benefit and everyone else’s since I was able to really build a strong connection between everyone and help them find a spark in themselves they didn’t even know was there.” 

Overall, Cross-country is a great community-building sport and is open for student-athletes of all levels from “never ran before” to “I’m ready to make it to the state meet.”  The sense of team unity from top to bottom is what makes this such a great activity for everyone and all are welcome!

BOYS TENNIS 

Boy’s tennis as well did great in these leagues. Senior Kirby Nguyen, the ASB president of Renton High School had said that there wasn’t that much of a difference this season. Although he had fun, the main difference was that it was just the barrier of Covid that made it harder to try. But overall, he said it was quite the same as his past seasons. 

GYMNASTICS 

Gymnastics is a really fun sport where you build a great community and learn new skills and improve every single day. Coach Yale, who is the orchestra director at Renton High school, has been coaching gymnastics for 12 years. He had said that they had to practice with some Covid protocols but then stated that it was successful because of the plan that is in place. As he continued on he also said that it was successful because of the positive attitude that took place in this sport. Since they have been apart for such a long time due to Covid and being in online school, the team is very happy to be back together and happy to start training with each other. He can tell that people really missed it and it’s been successful through the positive mindset and attitude.

Senior, Ruby Weller said that this season was more stressful for her because there’s more to get done in the season than within the past. But, the actual sport itself is really fun this year because she’s done it for so many

years now and she’s has grown into getting comfortable with it now. This year’s team has been more fun than in the past, everybody is very supportive of one another and she said she really liked the spirit very much. She stated that “it’s also weird for me now because I am a senior now because in the past I would look up at people, but now as a senior and as captain, people would look up to me.”

These ladies are now getting ready for the league that is coming up for them. Many girls in the beginning now know any skills from slowly getting to a cartwheel, round-offs, splits, and many more. 

BOYS BASKETBALL

Basketball once again had a great season this year. The basketball coach, Mr. Powell said that this year’s season was good, ending their record off with a 15-3 overall and an 11-0 in the KingCo League. They have won their first playoff game and are now getting ready to play for the KingCo League championship. Coach Powell thinks this season is equally successful as some of our past successful seasons. He is hoping to qualify for the state tournament and to win the state championship. There are always things that can be improved for future seasons. One thing he is looking forward to is continuing to improve next year is their discipline and execution in games.

Senior Basketball player Caleb Saephan has been playing basketball for 8 years. He stated that “This season was different from the past years because of the restrictions from Covid, it brought us together more than what we expected. We built bonds deeper than anyone can imagine.”

WRESTLING

Wrestling is one of the toughest sports here in Renton High School. Although, not every sport can accomplish what they want. Coach Dan has also said that the most challenging thing was doing this throughout the covid pandemic. They have started off the season really well with many participants but the number has slowly decreased slowly and dwindled due to injuries and covid outbreaks. And because of that, they had around half the team. The wrestling team started with 27 and currently has 11, so wrestling is a really tough sport and it takes a lot of dedication. He had stated that “some kids are not ready for that level of dedication. Some obviously quit because of health concerns which are completely understandable.” He is glad that they have a young team so that next year when they hopefully return, without Covid they’ll be ready for a much more successful season. 

Senior Wrestler, Dylan Ngo had said that this year is really dedicated compared to last year. He said that it sounds a little bit mean but only 5 consistent people have been showing up to practice. This team has a closer bond since it is a smaller group and they have more chances. 

As we can see, wrestling is a hard sport that does take a lot of hard work and a great mindset in order to achieve what they want to achieve. Let’s hope that this wrestling team next season can have a great next season and improve their skills better than ever. 

In conclusion, the Renton High School Sports has gone through many stages mainly through Covid, Covid outbreaks, health concerns, injury, some making it leagues, some improving their record score. Now coming to an end, let’s congratulate these amazing, dedicated, hardworking student-athletes who have made great history within this year of 2021-2022.