Sports

In the debut year of the school’s junior-varsity lacrosse team, Indian River has wasted no time showing their true potential. This past Monday, April 16, the Indians defeated the Worcester Prep junior-varsity Ducks team, 10-4, improving their season record to 3-1. First-year head coach Jim Dietsch was thrilled with the team’s performance and said he hopes that the talent and ambition of the athletes will be carried over next season, when Indian River plans to unveil a varsity squad for the first time.

Indian River High School’s girls’ varsity soccer team brought physical play and aggression to Cape Henlopen on Tuesday, April 17, but it was the Lady Vikings who capitalized with a goal in the final minute of regulation, delivering the Indians their third loss of the year.

Last season, Seaford’s varsity boys’ tennis team narrowly edged Indian River for the Southern Henlopen Division title. Both finished their regular season 11-2, with one loss apiece – to each other – and one loss each to defending conference champions Caesar Rodney, out of the Henlopen North. The title came down to games allowed at the end of the season, which gave the Blue Jays the upper hand. And, by the look of this season, the Indians are facing another dramatic year.

After succumbing to a couple of upstate powerhouses, Indian River High School’s varsity baseball team bounced back on Tuesday, April 16, as they handled Seaford, 10-0, forcing a mercy rule in the fifth inning, behind clutch pitching and hitting throughout the lineup. The win brought the Indians up to a 4-4 record on the year and kept the Blue Jays of Seaford winless so far this season.

Steady bats on a consistent offense combined with stellar pitching and a supporting defensive cast for Indian River High School’s varsity baseball team as they defeated the Golden Knights of Sussex Central at the Pyle Center in Roxana, 7-1, earlier this week. The Monday night game under the lights turned the Indians’ record around to 3-2, after last week’s doubleheader against Maryland competition.

The Lady Indians’ varsity softball season was dealt another blow this week, after a 1-2 start, as the Lady Knights of Sussex Central bested Indian River 15-4 at the Pyle Center in Roxana this past Monday, April 9. After a dominant first inning from the Knights, Indian River found themselves in a hole, and Central all but extinguished them with a seven-run inning in the fifth.

Fabian McCray

What the Lady Indians’ varsity softball team lacks in experience this season, they make up in vigor. Although sitting on a 1-2 record, their two losses were both by a one-run margin, an aspect of the game that head coach Chris Megee expects to clear up as more of the young starters come together, progressing through the season.

Senior golfer Taylor Lewis finished with the lowest scores on the Indian River golf team in their first three wins of the year against Smyrna, Laurel and Dover – 42, 44 and 42, respectively – and finished as a medalist in the Smyrna and Laurel matches, scoring the lowest round, overall. Behind her performance, Indian River’s varsity golf team got their season under way with a 3-0 start.

Indian River’s second-doubles team of Sam Izzo and Ridge Murray have started off the season with an undefeated 5-0 record. The Indian River boys’ tennis team earned five straight victories to start the season, including a pivotal win over Southern Henlopen Division rival Seaford.

It’s been an up-and-down start to the Lady Indians’ varsity soccer season, which leveled out to 2-2 after slipping to Caravel Academy 3-1 earlier this week. Indian River began their season on Tuesday, March 27, with a 1-0 shutout over Milford, before falling to Sussex Tech on Thursday, March 29. They bounced back the subsequent Saturday, while hosting a 3-1 win over Red Lion Christian Academy, but the Lady Buccaneers of Caravel bested them to a .500 record that head coach Steve Kilby hopes to overcome quickly.

Conor McMullen may not have much coaching experience, but he’s loved playing tennis since he was a child. And this year, Indian River High School welcomed McMullen, a 2004 IRHS graduate, back to the school as the new girls’ tennis coach.

As Americans, when it comes to sports, it’s so incredibly easy to get wrapped up in our lifestyle and what we think of as the norm. Highlights and news in football, baseball, basketball and hockey have become the daily routine for sports fans in the United States. But after taking a step outside of our world, it’s obvious that the games, sports and lifestyles that we perceive as strange are an everyday occurrence elsewhere.

As Americans, when it comes to sports, it’s so incredibly easy to get wrapped up in our lifestyle and what we think of as the norm. Highlights and news in football, baseball, basketball and hockey have become the daily routine for sports fans in the United States.

The Indian River High School’s boys’ varsity tennis team has been a force in the Henlopen South, and the past few seasons have come down to tiebreakers against rivaling Seaford. But Paris Mitchell Jr., head coach for the Indians, is hoping that returning starters and opponents’ adversities will work in his favor this year to bring the division championship back to Indian River. So far, they haven’t disappointed. The Indians have begun the season on a high note, earning comfortable wins in their first three matches of the year.

The Indian River varsity golf team made great strides last year, defeating Dover for the first time in the program’s history and finishing 11-2 to secure the Southern Henlopen Division championship. They began the new spring season this past Tuesday, March 27, with a 196-238 win over Smyrna, but head coach Paris Mitchell Sr. will still have his work cut out for him if he plans to match last year’s performance.

Indian River High School’s girls’ varsity tennis team got off to a strong start last week, defeating Lake Forest, 5-0, before splitting matches on the road at St. Thomas More and Polytech. Now sitting on a 2-1 record under first-year head coach Conor McMullen, the Lady Indians have their sights on a second consecutive Southern Henlopen title, as they gear up for a string of conference and divisional opponents.

After news concerning the health of Indian River’s longtime math teacher and member of the athletic department Ray Steele surfaced over social media networks last week, an overwhelming ache shot through my entire body. Friends and family shared their concern, informing others that Steele suffered a serious heart attack and was admitted into Peninsula Regional Medical Center.

Indian River High School head wrestling coach Jeff Windish is no stranger to individual and team success, having helped guide squads to conference championships and individuals to state quarter- and semi-finalists over the years. But few of his wrestlers have achieved the high-school and post-high-school career that Limestone College junior Mike Magaha has.

This spring season, Indian River High School will debut their lacrosse team as a junior varsity program, one step closer to becoming a full-fledged varsity sport, a goal that is scheduled to come to fruition next year. Practices and scrimmages have already begun for the Indians’ JV lacrosse team, which is led by decorated coach Jim Dietsch, a University of Maryland alum who helped coach the Terps’ lacrosse team to five NCAA Division I National Championship games and two national titles in 1973 and 1975.

In only their second year as a program, and under supervision of then-first-year head coach, Bob Hahn, the Indian River track-and-field team secured their first wins in the sport last season, and qualified six individuals for state competition. This spring, Hahn is setting the bar even higher, both literally and figuratively.

The Indian River athletic program received a scare earlier this week, after news spread through social media networks that varsity football head coach Ray Steele – who last fall led the team to the school’s second Division II State Football Championship – had suffered a heart attack.

Forget summertime. Forget Christmas. This is the most wonderful time of the year, for sports, anyway. Spring training gets under way as baseball players get back into action. The NBA and NHL playoff hopefuls begin to emerge as the seasons’ midpoint begins to expose the league’s elite. Golf’s best begin to shine, once again, as tournament play leads up to the highly anticipated Masters.

It’s been three years since the Lady Indians’ varsity softball team earned a spot in the state tournament, but with a balance of heavy hitting and strategic small-ball, developed athletes, young and old, and an overall quickness in his players’ steps, head coach Chris Megee is eager to get the team back out on the field.

For nine consecutive years, the Indian River girls’ varsity soccer team has locked up the Southern Henlopen Division title.

Following an improved turnout this past fall season and a busy indoor season through the winter months, River Soccer Club is aiming at keeping the success going into spring, and registration for the upcoming season is now open. The River Soccer Club’s outdoor recreational league, for boys and girls ages 4 through 14, will begin on Saturday, April 14, and sign-ups are already under way.

The Pop Warner fall football season may still be months away, but sign-ups for tomorrow’s stars is up and running. Starting this weekend, young football players, cheerleaders and mascots for Lower Sussex Pop Warner can register for the upcoming fall season by stopping by the Lower Sussex Little League complex in Roxana.

For 22 years, the Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce’s Ocean to Bay Bike Tour has been given cyclists the opportunity to cruise past some of the region’s most exquisite scenery. The event has become so much of a success that it earned the Chamber the Southern Delaware Tourism Recognition Award from the Southern Delaware Tourism Board this past winter.

There are some faces in sports that just go hand-in-hand with their team, and quarterback Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts are one of the most iconic examples of this in the game.

High-school coaches can attest that there are, in fact, three truths to life each year – death, taxes and graduating all-stars.