As the semester winds down, winter sports begin training as basketball players, wrestlers, runners, and swimmers begin the long journey associated with an athletic season in one of the most competitive counties in Georgia.

Basketball Tryouts

Uneasy times await for a plethora of hoop hopefuls. Tryouts are here,  and as many as 100 will attempt, while only a select amount will make the team. The court will be filled with veterans with assured spots, as well as hopefuls just trying to get noticed and prove value to the coaches.

Among the returning players, junior Ricky Shearman is expected to direct the offense from the point guard position, but that does not change his perspective on tryouts.

“Knowing I have a spot on the team is nice but it doesn’t come close to the goals and expectations I have for the season. I’m looking for consistency and teamwork from all the other guys, we can be deadly if we play as a team,” Shearman said.

These athletes have worked all off-season for this moment, and they want to remain relaxed and concentrated on doing their job.

“My mentality going into tryouts is to stay focused, key on fundamentals, know what I’m going for, and just show out, I want to leave everything I have out there,” junior Noah De Joya said.

Junior Darian Wakefield has a similar approach: “I want to earn my spot by doing the little things. I have to be consistent. We’re ready to make some noise this year in Cobb County.”

Track

When the weather gets cold, sprinters are just warming up.. While the track team awaits the injury status of FMOC (fastest man on campus) senior Devin Granville, they remain hopeful and excited for the upcoming season.

“I’ve been putting in work all off-season, I went to Texas over the Summer and worked with professionals,” junior All-American Manoah Johnson said. “We’re going to have a great 4×100 team; we don’t have many weaknesses.”

The Warriors’ track team is annually competitive and rank highly in the state each year. With success comes expectations, which are plentiful in the track community.

“We’re going to be very good, we have a shot at state this season,” junior 4×100 and 4×400 runner Gerald Mitchell said.

Although meets do not start until February, track athletes have already begun pre-season workouts in preparation. This allows them to get in shape and acquire the speed necessary to compete in a Cobb County track meet.

Even though NC graduated multiple division one track athletes last year, this program has a reload mentality, and expects nothing less than top-notch performances from their runners.

Swim

The North Cobb swimming team looks to do even better than last year when they made state and averaged a top three finish at meetings.

“This year will be a definite challenge due to other competitive teams in the region, but I think if our team puts in the work and effort we have the potential to be really great this year,” junior swimmer Ella Hasty said.

The swimming team practices at the Mountain View Aquatic Center in East Cobb, concentrating on reps across the pool each week. Despite losing some of their best swimmers last year such as Eric Ramos, the swim team will be motivated to keep working hard and focus on getting first at meets.

Wrestling

The wrestling team is determined to wrap up every one of their opponents and grab the first medal at state.

“I think we are gonna go to state. We have a lot of motivated people and they all push themselves. We motivate each other to do better and do more. I know we’re going to be outstanding,” sophomore Jason Ponce said.