With the cold approaching, winter has always been a season to curl up under a warm blanket and enjoy holiday classics. However, this is no time to slow down for student athletes at Central because winter is also when the excitement of swim meets, basketball games, wrestling matches, and speech tournaments begin to heat up. With this year’s new changes, standout talents, and early successes, this season promises to be memorable.
For years Central’s swim team has been making waves as one of the highlights of winter sports, and this year is not an exception. The Rams kicked off their season on Dec. 9th at MSUB, where the boys secured first place and the girls came in second overall. “It’s the first time most of the team gets to compete, so it was really a fun time,” shared Senior Daniel Apostol, a Rams’ swimmer. With a roster of nearly 60 swimmers, head coach Robyn and coaches Sami and Devin Duval have organized the team by experience and skill level. This is represented by the color of each lane, with Green Lane for beginners and Red Lane for advanced swimmers. This structure keeps things running smoothly with the large quantity of swimmers, while making sure that each swimmer has an appropriate work force. The team’s practice schedule alternates between early mornings and afterschool sections. This encourages all swimmers, regardless of levels, to improve their strokes, techniques, and strive for excellence.
Apostol, one of Montana’s best swimmers, reflects on his 3-year-journey with the “swim ramily.” “It’ll be bittersweet because we’re all going to be moving on at some point, but it’s just going to be dreaded not being a Ram swimming crew anymore,” he then continued, “I’m definitely going to miss the people on the team, Coach Robyn, Coach Devin, Sammie, Maggie because they’re what makes the team so special.” Joining as a freshman, Apostol has swam with the Rams through the highs and lows, and has been one of the cornerstones of the team’s success. Now, as he tackles his last season, he shared “My goal for myself, as a leader, is to be able to put my best foot forward for the team, and I want to be someone others can come up to. How would I want to be responded to from a senior,” is a perspective that Apostol strives to focus on as he tries to engage everyone on the team. The reasons for which our swimmers look forward to swim this season isn’t all about the chance to improving their skill, it’s also because of all the fun team activities. During the holiday season, the coaches have their swimmers doing small trivia and an assigned swim stroke dependent on the accuracy of the answer of each team, or once in a while, they get to play water polo. The Rams’ swim team isn’t just defined by their history of state titles, but also by “a friendly, positive, healthy environment, which at the same time, is competitive for everyone,” according to Apostol. If the Rams are going to be winning the 2024-2025 state title, it would mark a remarkable 4-peat for Apostol and many other seniors on the team. This year they hope to bring home the 17th state title for the boys and the 16th for the girls. Apostol’s words of wisdom for all his teammates and newcomers? “Don’t work too hard, but work hard and rest hard, that’s what I believe.”
Central’s Girls Basketball has been looking forward to improving their attendance, hence hopes are brought to the team as they welcome a strong addition of freshman this year. Senior Coral Old Bull, a key shooting guard on the team, shared as she watched the performance of the newcomers, “I liked how the freshmen are willing to work hard, and they did good in our drills we’ve been doing.” However, “getting louder on defense” and “focusing on the team’s dynamic” are two main goals that Central ballers are aiming for, especially for the freshmen. Carrying jersey no.52 with her in honor of her father, basketball legendary Elvis Old Bull, Coral has been a cornerstone of Central’s Girls Basketball for four. Reflecting on her journey she said, “There is nothing like this special program. It’s just something so great to be a part of that it’s going to be hard to let go.” Looking forward to the future, Old Bull hopes this season will be meaningful, “I just want it to be special…regardless of who wins or loses,” she said.
This winter sports season promises to achieve lots of successes, not only because of the determination of the upper-classmen, but also the promising talent of younger athletes. Kaius Rivera, a freshman at Central, has been wrestling since he was four. With years of regional and international competition experience, Rivera is now part of the Rams’ wrestling team, alongside his father, assistant coach Angelo Rivera, and his brother, junior Aramis Rivera, a wrestler. Although Kaius is just a freshman, his goal is clearly determined. “We’re looking to at least making top 5 in class A as a team,” said Rivera, which he believes is a realistic goal for the team this year. The team’s daily two-hour practices focus on perfecting shots and techniques, with conditioning sessions like running the hall or sprints to end each practice.
Meanwhile, Central’s Speech and Drama team, under the lead of coaches Danielle Tate, Ashley Nelson, and AnaBrit Story, had an impressive kick off with team awards and multiple individual achievements after their first couple meets. Senior Anna Kim, who has been doing Dramatic Interpretation and competing at state for the last 3 years, has successfully come in first place in her first two meets this season, and together with her peer, sophomore Vivian Hasting, coming second, bringing home their first speech event’s trophy of this season. “The improvement is kind of rewarding, but it’s also bittersweet because it’s our last year doing it,” said Kim as she talked about the team’s early successes. Her goal over the years has been to do better than the previous one; however this year, she decided to do Informative instead of her go-to. The team’s head speech coach, Danielle Tate, expressed her thoughts on another new aspect of the team, “All the new people are joining, and they’ve already committed to our team, and feeling like they’ve been a part of the crew, which I think is really great.” This year, the team is updated with new faces, though it’s still a small team. Looking upon that, Tate doesn’t consider this a disadvantage because “small but mighty” is the motto she used to describe her team’s spirit. And with individual successes at state, with junior Alex Johnson, senior Anna Kim, senior Maddie Gibson, and sophomore Sahara Small all placing, the mighty aspect of the small team certainly shone through, as it has in past.
Central’s winter sport season had a strong start, with athletes ready to make their mark. Whether it’s diving into the pool, shooting points on the court, wrestling on the mat, or performing on stage, Central’s student-athletes are all aiming for one common goal: building strong bonds as a team while relentlessly pursuing achievement. With successes in Speech and Debate at state and success in all winter sports throughout the season, Central’s strong start has proved to turn into a gratifying and victorious season.
