Football, cross country, soccer and volleyball concluded their seasons this semester. 

The football team wrapped up its season, finishing ninth in the Southland Conference with a 4-7 record.

Football Head Coach Frank Scelfo discussed his team’s performance this season.

“We did a lot of things great this season, one of them being how close we kept football games,” said Scelfo. “Another thing we did good was bouncing back from tough games this year. We started the season with a tough stretch of games against ULM, LSU and Central Arkansas going 0-3.”

Scelfo shared where his team succeeded.

“We finished first in the Southland Conference this year in special teams, and we hope to carry that into next season,” said Scelfo. “Another thing we did real good at was transitioning our offense from a run-heavy team to a pass-heavy offense. I was really proud of our guys as we stepped up and did what we were supposed to on offense.”

Track and Field Head Coach Corey Mistretta believes the cross country team improved this season such as with hiring Assistant Track and Field Coach Rocky Capello for long distance.

“He’s come in and done a really good job, and the fruits of his labor are really starting to pay off,” said Mistretta. “We had a lot of kids buy into our system, and it showed this season. We feel like it’s our best season in 10 years, and we are excited to see what the future holds.”

Mistretta mentioned which student-athletes made an impact this season.

“We had a great season from guys like Grant O’Callaghan and Zachary Barthel,” said Mistretta. “Grant finished top 10 in running at the conference championships. Barthel really stepped up, who is a freshman, and he is starting to show a lot of promise. We are excited to see what’s going to happen with him this track season. At the outdoor cross country championships, Bryant White really stepped up for us. He was a guy who was running for us at the bottom of the order all year for us and became the second runner of the team for us.”

Additional members made their mark this season.

“Adam Cortez and Anthony Cordero both stepped up this season,” said Mistretta. “On the girls’ side, Sophie Diagle really stepped up. She brought herself into our system this summer and did an amazing job.”

Mistretta discussed the future of the program. 

“The women finished 9th out of 13, and the men finished 7th out of 12 in the championships,” explained Mistretta. “We hope to improve next season as we are going to recruit a lot more. We have a lot of in-state kids. We’re excited about that. We also have a lot of kids we’re trying to recruit out of the state and country. We want to focus and practice our distance running next year. We want a mix of distance and sprint running next year. We have a really young team, and the future is bright.”

Soccer Head Coach Christopher McBride shared his thoughts on this season’s outcome.

“We had a really good season I feel like,” stated McBride. “We made the Southland Conference tournament and finished off the season very well. I feel like we also did a really good job of keeping matches close this year, and we kept fighting all the way. We won a lot of hard-fought matches and improved from last season.”

McBride pointed out the impact of players this season.

“We had a lot of girls step up this year,” said McBride. “Sofia Olsson really performed well this year along with Megan Gordon, and freshman Claire Houston also did amazing. They were all named to the All Southland Conference team, and they all stepped it up this year.”

McBride explained improvements he would like to see next season. 

“I want us to do a better job at winning the close games,” said McBride. “We did a really good job keeping them close, but we just need to start finding the back of the net. I feel like if we do that next season, it will be another successful year.”

The women’s volleyball team finishing the year with a 2-27 Southland Conference record down from their 3-27 record last season.

Though these sports finished their seasons, track and field, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball and golf will play in the spring semester.