Wesleyan is gracious enough to give its students Christmas Break every year. On this Christmas Break, many students go on amazing trips. This year, students went to England, Scotland, Colorado, St. John, and the Cayman Islands.
Many changes have occurred for Wesleyan within the past year like the new school store and the new student lounge, and now there is an even bigger change in Wesleyan’s near future—the new bus system. This new bus system will affect around 130 of Wesleyan’s students next year. There has been an outstanding level of interest and response to this new bus system. When Wesleyan sent out a survey to current and prospective parents, 92 current students and 36 prospective students were interested in riding the bus.
The term “Winter Blues” is often paired with Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD. SAD is a very common disorder which usually comes around Fall and affects the person until the winter months are over, but there are also many other reasons that one could be unhappy during the winter months.
The Wesleyan Girls Basketball team is renowned for being a powerhouse, and this season should be no different. There is only one returning senior, Cairo Booker, who plays the point and two-guard position. She has committed to play at Wofford College, and she is a leader on the team. Natalie Armstrong returns as Wesleyan’s center who, Coach Jan Azar said, “had a really great second half of the season last year, played really well in the state championship, and had a great summer.” Mikayla Coombs is returning from an ACL injury that took her out of the game all of last year. Amaya Register returns at point guard, and Jameson Kavell returns at shooting guard. Azar says that Kavell shot the ball well this past summer and is Wesleyan’s “three point threat.” There are other returning faces, and some girls coming up from junior varsity who have worked fiercely to get a chance to play for the varsity team this year.
The Wolves were honored to be invited to play in the Nike Tournament held in Phoenix on December 17th. The top high school teams in the nation are invited to this tournament, and Wesleyan will be playing in the highest division. The Lady Wolves have played in this tournament two other times and Azar said, “It is the best competition that we’ve ever seen.” This tournament will help the girls’ basketball team get experience while playing against the strongest teams in the nation.
Azar says that the two biggest competitors in their region will be Greater Atlanta Christian School and Holy Innocents’. Wesleyan faced Holy Innocents in the State Championship, and GACS will be better this year than last. Wesleyan plays Holy Innocents at home on Tuesday, Feb. 2nd and plays GAC at home on Tuesday, Jan. 26th. Azar said, “This is going to be a fun group of girls to watch… This is one of the best teams I think we’ve ever had here.”
The boys’ basketball team has players with a wide range of experience. According to Coach Ryan Hodges, the key players this season are Jason Morrison, Banks Ramsey, Christian McLean, Cedric Lynch, Grant Frerking, Jack Greer, Jalen Hodges, Jordan Argilagos, Harrison Cook and Sean McDonough.
Argilagos played as a sophomore, but took off for his junior year in order to focus on football. When asked about when he decided to come back and play basketball for his senior season, Argilagos said, “I found myself bored just working out all the time during the winter; I actually really enjoy basketball, so I wanted to play again.” Now that Argilagos can go to college for football, he can spend time on the court and be a stellar multi-sport athlete.
There are many big games to look out for this season. When asked about them, Coach Hodges said, “All region games are big for us. The GAC, Pace, and Holy Innocents games should be fun to watch.” Those teams will be some of the biggest competition that Wesleyan faces this season along with Lovett and Hapeville. The boys’ basketball team is also playing in a Christmas Tournament in Asheville, NC.
This team has an interesting dynamic with many experienced seniors like Greer, J. Hodges, Morrison, and Lynch and a few fresh faces like seniors Tucker Cannon and Argilagos. The Wolves had a great summer where the seniors showed their leadership. The seniors’ leadership, Coach Hodges said, “helps tremendously with the team’s chemistry.”
The Wolves are expected to have a great season with much support from Wesleyan students, families and faculty. When asked about how the Wolves plan on being successful this season, Coach Hodges said, “We look forward to playing an exciting brand of basketball this season by applying more pressure defense and traps while running out on the fast break to create easy scoring opportunities for us.”