From summer practices to the first day of school, the Townsend Harris fall season sports teams are already preparing for the months ahead. The Classic spoke to one representative from each team, who each provided a window into what their respective teams are working towards this season.

Boys Bowling 

Senior Brendan Ling said that the Boys Bowling Team is working on being focused during practice and matches. He said, “Last season the team took away that we have to be more resilient and focus more on every play.” Brendan specified that they would remain annoyed about previous frames, which took their focus away from the upcoming ones. To prevent this, he said, “We plan to boost one another up.” 

Soccer 

The Boys Soccer team has specific goals driving its work. Junior August Krauskopf said, “We have been very close to making the playoffs for the past two years, being only a couple points off.” Alongside making the playoffs, August said another one of the team’s biggest goals is to “try to be first in our division.” He said the team needs to work on team bonding, specifically “on the field. Our chemistry is pretty good but we still definitely need it to get a bit better.”

The Girls Soccer Team is also ready to build off of their previous season. Senior Emma Kremer said that the team plans to focus on shooting, as penalty kicks were the season’s breaking point that led to their loss. Additionally, she hopes for the team to strengthen their bonds with one another, which will in turn improve their performance on the field. Emma said she expects improvements this season: “The team chemistry has already been good on and off the field.” Even with new players joining, she said, “We are all learning our weaknesses from our strengths.” 

Girls Swimming 

Despite their challenging practice location in Brooklyn, the Girls Swim Team has high goals for this season, according to Senior Co-Captain Kelly Vu. “The most challenging part would be having a long commute to go to practices after school,” Kelly said. Although this can be tough, she said the team forgets about it once they’re in the water. Additionally, it is hard for everyone to find opportunities to swim in the off season. “I haven’t been actively swimming for a while, so the start of the season is always the most difficult part,” she said. Now that the team is starting practices, she said they are “going to focus practice with trying to improve times and techniques.” By making these improvements, they aim to build on their ten-win season from last year.

Boys Cross Country 

The Boys Cross Country team finished seventh at the XC Queens Borough Championship last year and has been putting in the work to progress this season. Senior Captain Shaw Williams is “glad to see so many runners logging in miles over summer break and coming to early practices.” Shaw said that this hard work in the preseason will pay off, expecting the team to “shine greater than ever this year.”

This is part one of the fall sports preview. The Classic plans to publish a second part that covers the goals and aspirations of the Girls Volleyball, Boys Badminton, Girls Bowling, Girls Cross Country, and Girls Tennis teams.