Before school is let out for the summer, there is one more season for sports.  For each of the spring sports, we highlighted one key competitor.

Senior, Justin Cook, is a newcomer to the track team. Cook was a star athlete for the football team and basketball team in recent years but this is his first time running track. His goals for the season are nothing other than “to win.” Cook has already competed in a few events and this season he looks forward to hanging out with his friends. Regardless of his success, Cook doesn’t plan on taking his track career any farther than the end of his senior year, his success in football has lead him to play football for Northwood University, next year.

Senior, Alexie Flaminio has had tremendous success as a Lady Charger Soccer player and has been a natural leader for the team since early on. Flaminio has her goals set high for her last season as a Charger.

“One of our goals for this season is to work together as a team and create team chemistry early so that we can accomplish our goals as a team,” Flaminio said. “Another one of our goals is to work hard in every game and practice no matter who our opponent is.” Flaminio received a scholarship to play Women’s Soccer at Michigan Technological University next year.

“I am even more excited to play as a Husky for the next 4 years and make some new memories,” Flaminio said.

Sophomore, Jacob Lapham, nicknamed J-Lapdawg, is a standout left handed pitcher for Dow’s Varsity Baseball team. Starting his varsity career in his freshman year he had success. He is a team player, making his main goal for the season to “have a winning record.” Lapham is excited for this season and to “get back onto the field because the weather has been quite bad lately.” Lapham hopes he can advance to the college level with his pitching, but has no specific colleges in mind yet.

Sophomore, Tatum Matthews, is a returning Girl’s Varsity Tennis player. Both her and her sister are member of the Varsity team. Her goals for this season are to “go undrafted in 3 doubles.” Dow girls won their first competition and hope that it was the first of many. This season she looks forward to getting to know the girls who are new to the program and win states. She plans to take her Tennis skills to college, but no further.

Sophomore, Jacob Pokriefka, is a Boy’s Varsity Lacrosse goalie. He has been playing Lacrosse since elementary school and plans on taking his talents to University of Mercer. He is a team player as a goalie and his main goal, like many other athletes from DHS, is to win a state championship. This season he looks forward to the wild team parties with his friends. The Midland/Midland Dow Lacrosse team has competed in two games so far this season, and won both.

Sophomore, Luke Lowery, is a standout athlete on the Track and field team. Last year he placed high in state rankings for High Jump. This year, Lowery has progressed more in Long jump, causing him to change long jump to his main event. His goals are “to jump one foot longer in long jump and a couple inches higher in high jump,” he believes that by the end of the season that his goals are obtainable. He plans to take his jumping success in Track and Field to college if he can, no known colleges in his sight yet, while he focuses on his current success and improvement in high school meets.

Junior, Kylee Alexander, is a key player on the girls varsity softball team. She plays 2nd base, 3rd base, short stop and pitcher. Alexander has high expectations for this season. Her goal is to try to get as many plays as possible and to get her first home run. The teams first game is next week against Arthur Hill. Alexander is most excited about Meridian for this upcoming season and plans on going to Delta and then transfering to SVSU.

Senior Jack Yarosh is a member of the guys Varsity Golf Team whose first competition is Friday at the Lapeer Country Club invitational. Yarosh is most excited about the teams chance to rebuild and push back because they lost so many key players from last year. With the motivation of still being a successful team even with losing many key players, Yarosh says his goal is to “start back to back and make it to states again”. Yarosh plans on going to a pretty big school like Ohio State and as far as continuing his golf career he says “I doubt I can walk on but I’m definitely going to tryout”.

To learn more about these spring sports and see each schedule, visit the Dow High School Athletics Website.

By: John Rettig