In this time where athletes do not know for certain when they will get back to normal, summer sports are still hoping to get their moment to shine. The Xavier Baseball Team is the defending Class 3A state champion after defeating Central Dewitt by a score of 8-1 last year at Principal Park in Des Moines. However, there have been some roadblocks in their training. “I haven’t been able to go to the gym so I have had to be resourceful and find stuff around the hou...

Dedication can be an important aspect to a successful career, especially those that put the needs of others first. Xavier High School’s athletic trainer Misti Thompson has always had a love for sports. She grew up playing basketball, volleyball and softball, but it was not until she suffered from an injury of her own that she found out she wanted to be an athletic trainer. “After surgery, I was working with my PTA and he was asking the typical ‘what do you want to go to ...

There are no excuses. Working hard and improving is not limited to just the field, court or track. Coach Korey Johnson is one of the girls’ track coaches at Xavier High School, who focuses on the hurdlers and is determined to help his runners improve, even during the offseason. He began making homemade hurdles in the summer of 2017, while he was holding open gyms at different tracks for girls to work on their form. “I was not sure if any track we traveled to during...

According to Olympic.org, a good coach is defined as positive, enthusiastic, supportive, trusting, focused, goal-oriented, knowledgeable, observant, respectful, patient and a clear communicator. Brylee Bastian is a 2016 Xavier graduate who will get the chance to embody these characteristics as the new coach of the JV girls’ soccer team at Xavier.  “It was brought to my attention that the position was open and there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted it,” Bry...