Park girls swimming and diving

This year is somewhat of a rebuilding year for a younger Park swimming and dive team which lost some 10 seniors and top swimmers off last year’s team.

“Really it is kind of down to our tenth and ninth graders that are going to have to step it up and kind of get there,” said head coach Amanda Johnson, now in her 14th season at Park.

Key swimmers are sophomore Amber Norgaard in the distance events such as the 200 and 500 freestyles and classmate Afton LeMay in the individual medley and butterfly. Ninth grader Alayna Faletti is expected to be one of the team’s key sprinters. Junior Arachi O’Brien is talented in most swims and will be counted on to score in the backstroke.

Team captains are Kylie Dahm and Abby Gooch.

Divers will include returner Sarah Weston and senior transfer Caitlyn Greenwalt. Greenwalt placed fifth at state in the 2019 meet while diving for Woodbury.

“She is one of the top divers in the state so it will be interesting to see how she does,” Johnson said of Greenwalt.

Johnson’s expectations for the season have changed a bit since practices began, “I had good expectations and we want to win some meets and we want to make sure we learn how to be a little more competitive,” Johnson said. “But after the first days of practice, they’re really competitive and we are hoping to strive to win two, three meets this year at least, if not more.”

Park was eighth of eight teams in the section meet last fall, so there’s obviously room for improvement this fall.

Park opens the season Thursday, Aug. 26, in a fiveteam conference relays meet at Oltman Middle School against East Ridge, Irondale, Mounds View and White Bear Lake, starting at 5:30 p.m. The diving competition will be held at the White Bear Lake YMCA at 5 p.m.

Park boys soccer

Park will field a younger defensive-oriented tem this season, said Andrew Bourgoine, now in his ninth season at Park and second as head coach.

The Wolfpack lost 15 seniors off last year’s team, returning just six varsity players. But five of the six returning were starters last fall.

It was a bit of a strange season for the Wolfpack last fall. Overall Park was just 4-10 last season and finished ninth in the Suburban East Conference with a 2-9 record.

But the Wolfpack won three straight games after starting 1-9 and advanced to the Section 4AA championship before dropping a 1-0 decision to Stillwater. Park defeated East Ridge and White Bear Lake to gain the section finals.

Park was a good defensive team last season but struggled to put the ball in the net on offense. That might be the pattern again this season.

“Offense is definitely going to take a lot to get going, but defense is going to be our strength,” Bourgoine said. Another weakness is just the overall team size. Bourgoine said to mitigate that disadvantage the Wolfpack will seek to keep the ball on the ground this season and not in the air.

The coach is optimistic the Wolfpack can add more wins to the schedule this season.

“We’re younger, we were in the section final last year but expectations are a little bit higher,” said Bourgoine. We’ve got a new section too. .. I think we definitely match up better with the new section in play style. I think we can match physically and athleticism with some other team too. ”

“We’ve got a lot of new young players, but the young players are really good,” Bourgoine added. “That, with the mix of the veteran leadership that we have, I think we’re expecting a good season.”

Back for the Wolfpack are senior defenders Jack Burns, Jack Blumberg, captain Luc Bollback, Michael Schult, senior midfielder and captain Charlie Guzman and junior forward Connor McLaughlin.

Park returns three out of four defenders on the back line in Blumberg, Bollback and Burns.

Park hosts Bloomington Jefferson on Thursday, Aug. 26, starting at 5 p.m. to open the season. Following the Jefferson game the Wolfpack will play six straight road games, not returning home until they host Roseville on Sept. 15.

Park girls soccer

Park co-head coaches Sarah Neitz and Stacy Paleen are optimistic this season – a special one as it marks the 40th anniversary of Park girls’ soccer.

Longtime coach Greg Juba began coached the first Park girls’ soccer team 40 years ago in 1982, a position he held for an amazing 33 years.

Every year the Park girls choose one word to represent the season. Without knowing of the anniversary, the Wolfpack choose “Celebrate.”

To really celebrate the season, however, the Wolfpack will need to improve in areas, notably offense.

“We always try to field a competitive varsity squad and then also fill out three lower level squads and so our first expectation is that we try to create a united program so the girls that are seniors know the girls all the way down to freshmen, said Paleen.

“In terms of our varsity expectations we play in a very tough conference and an even tougher section I would say,” Paleen continued. “So we hope to put out a competitive team; to be in every game, to win more games this year, score more goals this year and make sure we’re competitive in every game. We had a couple games last year that the score was really imbalanced so we want to of course focus on that, but we really need to focus putting the ball in the net.”

Park will need to be more offensive this season. The Wolfpack averaged under a goal per game and were shut out eight times.

Park was 3-8-1 last season and sixth in the Suburban East Conference with a 3-7-1 record.

Coaches believe the Park defense should be solid.

“I think our strength is our defense. We’ve always been a very defensive team at Park,” said Neitz. “We’ve put out some very strong defenders — hoping that our defenders will also play a role in the offense this year. We have some fast outside defenders that we hope will take shots and be part of the offense to really create numbers on top. We have some younger girls coming in that are fierce and tough and scrappers so we’re hoping to see them really work together with our mid and to produce more goals.”

Top players for the Wolfpack this season should include Marissa Kiemen, Kenzie Harer, Kaitlyn Davis, Jessy Delcid and Megan Maloney. Park has 75 players out for the teams this fall.

Park’s seniors see one of the team biggest strengths as chemistry.

“This year there’s a lot of talent coming out and I see a lot of the new girls have very good potential for the varsity,” said senior center midfield and attacker Harer. “There’s a lot of really good potential out here and there’s a lot of good chemistry for everyone, especially the seniors and juniors. And I’m seeing a lot of good footwork and style of play is very positive.”

“Strengths are definitely positivity,” said Park’s senior defender Kiemen. “Everyone is always very nice to each other and we always help each other out.”

Park opens the season at home with a game against Kasson-Mantorville on Thursday, Aug. 26, starting at 7 p.m. Park then hosts Hastings Saturday, Aug. 28, at 1 p.m.

Park girls volleyball

Is this the season for Revenge of the Wolfpack?

Head Park volleyball coach Amy Johnson thinks a dramatic turnaround is certainly possible.

Park took its lumps last season, finishing just 2-11 last fall both overall and in Suburban East Conference play. But that record comes with a huge asterisk as star outside hitter Emma Slusser was injured early and missed most of the season.

With just four seniors on the team, it turned out to be a challenging 2020 season for Park after they lost Slusser. The sophomore-heavy Wolfpack lineup opened with a 3-0 win over Cretin-Derham Hall and were 2-2 after four games. But Park dropped the next nine matches to close out the season.

But Slusser will be back on the court this season to power balls down and the team as a whole will be older, wiser and more experienced.

“We have quite a few returning players from last year that were on the varsity,” said Johnson. “Almost the entire varsity really is returning, so that’s a huge plus. And they’ve all been playing together for a long time.

“We have some outstanding players, at all grade levels, from seniors to juniors, sophomore and freshmen,” added Johnson . “We have an outstanding freshmen class coming in across the board.”

Park has four returning seniors who will be the core of the team: outside hitter/middle Slusser, middle/right hitter Audrey Sease, defensive specialists/liberos Ava Katlack and Gracy Natterstad.

Johnson is high of each of those returners, but thinks the sky is the limit for Slusser.

“Outstanding, she’s going to be playing Division I volleyball in the future,” Johnson said.

Joining those four with significant playing time will be junior returning starter middle Kendall Lewis, junior hitter Cami Kemmetmueller, junior defensive specialist/ libero Megan Husaby, junior setter Addy Gilde. Two freshmen, Carly Slusser and Sonja Lind, are likely to join the varsity this season.

Johnson is high of each of those returners, but thinks the sky is the limit for Slusser.

“Outstanding, she’s going to be playing Division I volleyball in the future,” Johnson said.

One of Park’s biggest strengths this season should be team chemistry, said Johnson.

“I think first and foremost is they genuinely like each other and respect each other,” Johnson said. “They’ve very supportive of whoever is on the court.”

Other team strengths are complete team play. Park should be well balanced in most volleyball skills, passing, hitting, blocking, setting, digging, serving.

“We’re across the board strong,” said the coach. “We have passers that are fantastic. A fantastic setter. We have hitters that can put the ball on the floor. We kind of have the whole package this year, which is pretty exciting.”

Park hosts Apple Valley Tuesday, Aug. 31, starting at 7 p.m.

Park girls tennis

This could be the girls tennis season the Wolfpack have been waiting for.

Veteran head coach Tony Townsend, who coaches both the girls an d the boys teams, couldn’t be more optimistic this season. The Wolfpack have seasoned tennis experience, talent and depth this season.

“Four years ago we had 14 girls on the team, we were rebuilding completely,” said Townsend. “And then you fast forward now, we’re, two years in a row we’ve been right around 35 girls. All those freshmen and sophomores that were kind of new to the sport are now seniors. We just have a lot of depth.

Park will likely have seven seniors in its starting lineup.

“I’m very, very optimistic,” Townsend noted. “I want to be in the top half of the conference. The way I look at it is last year we were in every single match except the top teams. But we lost four conference matches by a score of 3 to 4. I’m hoping that our experience and our depth allows us to get that fourth point now.”

Top players returning for the Wolfpack include Kate Townsend, Avrie Morris, Dana Petrie, Abby Fjelsta and Hannah Holmgren. All are experienced seniors except for Morris, a junior.

Kate Townsend, the coach’s daughter, has been playing at No. 1 singles since the eighth grade and has been all conference four straight years. She was 6-3 in conference singles play last season, losing only to state-ranked players in the always tough Suburban East Conference.

Morris returns at No. 2 singles. Fjelsta will be switching back between No. 1 doubles and some singles play.

“When she’s (Fjelsta) paired up with Hannah Holmgren I think they’ll be one of the best teams in the conference,” Townsend said. “It will be their third year playing together. They’re going to be tough.”

Petrie is slated at No. 3 singles and she was a point away from all conference last season.

No. 2 and 3 doubles and No. 4 singles are still to be decided.

Park opens the season on Tuesday, Aug. 28, at home against St. Paul Johnson, starting at 4 p.m.

Co-head coach Stacy Paleen goes over expectations as she talks to the Park High School girls soccer players at a recent practice. Photo by John Molene

Co-captain Avrie Morris will be a key player for a veteran Park girls tennis team this season. Photo by John Molene