As summer ends and fall begins, another round of Becker sports will start. With the first day of school just around the corner, soon the practice fields, tennis courts, gymnasiums, swimming pool and fieldhouse will be packed with eager athletes looking to score touchdowns, cross the finish line, score an ace, nail a header or set a spike in their respective sports. The Bulldog football team has been conditioning for weeks and will soon hit the gridiron for two-a-day practices. The team is gearing up to defend their state title from last November.

 

First game is Aug. 22 at home against Hutchinson.

 

Trish Reimer-Kealy returns as head coach of the boys and girls cross country teams. Soon, the kids will be seen running the sidewalks and trails all around Becker in preparation for another exciting season.

 

The Bulldogs will travel to Princeton to open the season for a run on Fairway Shores Golf Course at 4 p.m.

 

The tennis courts should see some action come Monday as Nat Bucher and his coaches start mentoring and teaching the girls tennis team in hopes of qualifying for state and winning a title.

The girls kick off their season Aug. 29 at St. Cloud Tech against the host team, Foley and Monticello.

 

Alex Jurek is once again heading the boys soccer team while Gretchen Changamire will tutor the girls. Both coaches are excited to get another season underway while the weather is nearly perfect.

 

The boys start with a home game against Cathedral Sept. 3 at 7 p.m. while the girls start the weekend of Aug. 27-29 in Zimmerman.

 

Tina Tamm will once again be in charge of the Becker swim/dive team that will begin practicing in their new, state-of-the-art swimming and diving pool for the second straight year.

Tamm’s team hits the water for competition Sept. 8 at Foley.

 

Taking over for Taylor Essen as the girls volleyball coach is Kristina Sloan, who is from Sauk Rapids and graduated from Northern State University in 2006. The Bulldogs finished the season with a 14-13 record and were bounced from the Section 8AAA playoffs last November by Big Lake.

 

Sloan’s squad will begin the regular season with a match against Rogers Sept. 1 at 7:15 p.m.

 

The Citizen will feature their annual Fall Sports Preview in the Aug. 29 issue. It will include in-depth articles on each sports team and feature team photos and rosters, interviews from coaches and much more!