PART 1: Ellwood Winter Sports Q&A

High school sports are back in full swing as winter sports have picked up since the holiday break.

Basketball and Hockey are among the popular sports for students at Lincoln.

We caught up with the athletes of those teams to see what they are doing to prepare for the upcoming rivalries, to offer some perspective on the season ahead and their plans for the future.

This is part one of a two part series featuring area seniors in winter sports with Riverside winter sports Q&A coming Wednesday.

Sammy DiCaprio

How many years have you been in Basketball? About 10 years.

What do you feel is your biggest strength in Basketball? Being a physical player.

What is your favorite part of it? I love how fast pace it is and how much energy is on the team.

How have you and your group been getting ready for the new season? We have been practicing every chance we have gotten.

How has Coronavirus changed the way your group trains or practices? COVID-19 resulted in us missing two weeks of our practices.

How do you think this season will be different because of Coronavirus?  I think it will be different because each day could be our last and it could be taken away from us so easily.

Who do you feel is your biggest rivalry this upcoming season? I would say either Neshannock or Riverside.

What is one skill you have learned from Basketball that you will utilize in your future and how? I have learned accountability because you have to be responsible for your own mistakes and I can use that in school and in work.

Ryan Gibbons

How many years have you been in Basketball? 10 years

What do you feel is your biggest strength in Basketball? Being unselfish and putting my teammates in a position to succeed

What is your favorite part of it? Being able to win and have fun with my friends

How have you and your group been getting ready for the new season? We have been conditioning and getting better at all aspects of the game.

How has Coronavirus changed the way your group trains or practices? The only change is wearing masks when we are not in a drill.

How do you think this season will be different because of Coronavirus? The atmosphere will be different with less fans if there are any.

Who do you feel is your biggest rivalry this upcoming season? Riverside and/or Neshannock

What is one skill you have learned from Basketball that you will utilize in your future and how? I have learned the importance of teamwork and I will able to use this everywhere in my future.

What are your future plans after graduation? Will you continue to play sports after high school? I plan on attending a four-year university to study engineering, and I plan to continue my baseball career.

Chloe Sturgeon

How many years have you been in Basketball? I have been playing basketball since the fifth grade.

What do you feel is your biggest strength in Basketball? In basketball I feel my biggest strength is being a leader. I try and be the positive player that keeps everyone’s energy where it should be.

What is your favorite part of it? My favorite part of basketball is becoming closer as well as improving with my teammates every season.

How have you and your group been getting ready for the new season? Our team has been preparing for the season by having fun as well as practicing hard. We have some tough match ups in our section this year so we have to be the best we can be.

How has Coronavirus changed the way your group trains or practices? Coronavirus has changed the way we practice because it has really made us as a team realize that at any point in time our season could be taken away from us. So, we have to practice hard and play to our fullest potential because we never know what could happen in this crazy time.

How do you think this season will be different because of Coronavirus? This season will be different due to COVID-19 because there is always the thought in the back of our team’s mind that there will be no spectators or even no season at all. Spectator are a huge part of the game atmosphere, so without them it could be a major difference.

Who do you feel is your biggest rivalry this upcoming season? Riverside

What is one skill you have learned from Basketball that you will utilize in your future and how? A skill I will utilize in the future from basketball is working as a team. No matter what job I have in the future I know I will have coworkers and a boss I will have to work alongside. Playing basketball has taught me how to work with people, and how to make us better.

What are your future plans after graduation? Will you continue to play sports after high school? My future plans are to attend nursing school and continue to be heavily involved in agriculture. I do not think I will be playing any sports in college but I would like to coach someday.

Geoffrey Bokor

How many years have you been in Hockey? I’ve been playing hockey for 10 years

What do you feel is your biggest strength in Hockey? My biggest strengths are my passing and my skating

What is your favorite part of it? My favorite part of hockey is definitely hanging out with my teammates on and off the ice

How have you and your group been getting ready for the new season? We have been preparing by practicing twice a week and taking the season one game at a time

How has Coronavirus changed the way your group trains or practices? We have had practices and games canceled last minute due to COVID so we just continue to prepare the same even though we know there is no guarantee we will play

How do you think this season will be different because of Coronavirus? The season is different because of all the sudden changes and we definitely have less people at our games

Who do you feel is your biggest rivalry this upcoming season? For my travel team our biggest rival the Pittsburgh Icemen and for my high school team our biggest rival is Neshannock

What is one skill you have learned from Hockey that you will utilize in your future and how? Leadership. I feel that it is something I use now and will definitely be a helpful quality in the future.

What are your future plans after graduation? Will you continue to play sports after high school? I plan to attend CCBC for air traffic control. I plan to continue to play hockey competitively for as long as I can.