Top 5 breakout teams

Girls varsity golf

In few past years, girls golf hasn’t been able to make it past regionals. However, this year the girls varsity golf team was able to make it all the way to States and they had a much better season than expected. The team was able to work well together and have a ton of individual work time with the coach which helped them to do as well as they did.

“This year, our golf season was great,” junior Meg Meekhoff said. “We won most of our matches, we worked well as a team, we worked extremely well at practice, and we did a lot of one-on-one time with our coach. It was really great to be able to work hard and go to states because we were unable to last year.”

Varsity hockey

The hockey team went on a seven-game winning streak towards the end of the year. They came back after starting the season out on a low note. Last year the hockey team had an overall record of 23-3-2. This year, the team finished with a final record of 12-13-1. This was an incredible feat after numerous early losses and a roster loaded with young talent.

“The hockey team this year was obviously very different from last years, but I wouldn’t say we weren’t as successful,” sophomore Tim Kramer said. “The growth that was seen this year is incomparable to past years and because of that, I think we were just as successful as last year but in a different way. Years like this one is all about taking younger players and improving their skills and discipline. This leaves next year and the years to come in a good position to be successful in terms of their record and playoff run.”

Varsity field hockey

The field hockey team is a combination of all three schools in the district: Central, Eastern, and Northern. Last year, they were somewhat nonexistent; you hardly heard anyone talking about them until this year. The field hockey team only had two losses out of the whole season and they went onto win the state championship. Now everyone is aware of our field hockey team because they’ve made a name for themselves and have drawn attention to feats.

“One of the biggest differences [from this season to last] was the newer players,” said sophomore Isabella Piccone. “It [winning states this year] took a lot more of team effort and trusting each other. We were able to know that we would be there for each other no matter what.”

Competitive cheer

FHC hasn’t had a competitive cheer team since the “90s, so a team was formed that included all three Forest Hills schools: Central, Eastern, and Northern. FHC created their own competitive cheer team this season. Since the team was new, it took awhile to get into the swing of things; they placed low. They eventually starting competing and even beat some of West Michigan’s most experienced teams, so it became a huge accomplishment for them and our school.

“The team clicked really well and we had a blast,” said senior cheerleader Remy Tittel. “We did the best that we could for our first year and our coach always told us that we were going to leave a legacy and that we were the first year team; she doesn’t want to look back at us and think “Oh, that first year team,a�� so we did everything we could to try to impress her and make her happy. We did it for ourselves too; I want to be remembered as one of the girls from the first year team.”

Boys swim and dive

This year, the boys swim and dive team won their conference and have a team headed to states. They’ve done much better this season by going undefeated. The harder and more challenging practices are what helped to push this Ranger team to earn better times. A big highlight was beating a rival team, the East Grand Rapids Pioneers, by a tight margin.

“A down would be the harder practices, but the downs lead to the ups, said sophomore swimmer Fadi Muallem. “Those hard practices let us gain strength and confidence to go and do well in the meets. We [the team] did really well; we went undefeated. We also won the conference meet which is one of the best things you can do as a team.”