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PERSPECTIVESATHLETICS

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CHICAGO | VOLUME 5, ISSUE 3, JULY 2015 | @pcs_athletics

a seasonal review of the Perspectives Charter Schools Sports Program

It’s dif-ficult to

be a good athlete. It’s even harder to be good consistently, but juniors Carah Cole and Alaysia Hardy have done exactly that.

For the second consecutive year, the two Perspec-tives/IIT Math & Science Acad-emy/Joslin stand-

outs participated in the Class 2A girls state track meet at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.

Cole qualified by winning the shot put and discus in the North Lawn-dale sectional meet; Hardy did it by placing second in the shot put. They had reached state in the same events a year earlier.

At the state meet this season, Cole

recorded a strong 38-foot-3-inch throw in the shot put preliminar-ies to miss a spot in the 12-person finals by just three-quarters of an inch. Cole and Hardy also competed in the discus prelimi-naries.

The Perspectives MSA/Joslin girls team placed sixth in the sectional meet with 34 points. The boys team placed 13th in the Robeson sectional.

Besides Cole and Alaysia, head coach Jesse Hardy’s top con-tributors included seniors Brayce Hardy and Nehe-miah Israel and

freshman Kolby Pruitt of the boys team and junior Dai Milan Cole-man of the girls team.

“As a team we constantly got better,” Hardy said. “Track and field athletes deserve to be recognized for the dedication and ef-fort they put in to succeed.

The Perspec-tives Leadership Academy/High School of Technol-ogy boys track team produced an excellent third-place finish in the Chicago Public

Schools Orange Division meet.

Top performers for head coach Terry Jones in-cluded senior Lee Langham, who finished second in the city champi-onship in the shot put and discus, and classmates Ronnie Davis and Aaron Wiley.

“I’m very proud of our seniors’ ef-forts, with many achieving person-al records in their events,” Jones said.

Cont. on P3

P2Perspectives Athletics

CHICAGO

The Per-spectives

Leadership Academy/High School of Technol-ogy soft-ball team achieved perfection, finishing its season with a 13-0 overall record and the CPS Yel-low Confer-ence title.

Freshman

pitcher Yetunde Arogundade had an outstanding debut season, and seniors Danyia Bell, Alyssa Sanders, Shekinah Rich-mond, Jocelyn Williams, and Jasmine Pear-son “played with exceptional commitment,” according to head coach Su-sie Mazur.

Senior Jana Harris, junior Taniya Ceaser and freshman

Essence Ram-sey were also top contributors.

The Perspec-tives MSA/Joslin softball team finished with a 5-5 record overall and in the Yellow Con-ference.

Head Coach William Yadron’s top performers included sen-iors Victoria Williams, Glo-ria Scott and Dawn Rayford and sophomore Destiny Garner. Garner had five home runs to help lead a po-tent offense.

“We rallied hard in many

GET INVOLVEDat PERSPECTIVESCONTACT VINAY MULLICK

e: VMULLICK@PCSEDU.ORGp: 312-604-2116www.pcsedu.orgtwitter: @PCS_ATHLETICS

of our games,” Yadron said. “We never fell out of a game because we had such strong bats throughout our

lineup that could allow us to have big innings to keep us in the

game.

“We had a great season, and I am very proud of our athletes.”

P3@pcs_athletics

P4 The Per-spectives Leadership Academy/High School of Technology baseball team played smart on and off the field.

Five Warriors were Chicago Public League Ernie Banks Con-ference all-league performers and

six received all-academic honors, so it’s no surprise their team fin-ished an impres-sive 15-11 overall and 8-6 in confer-ence games.

PLA/Tech also reached the state tournament regional cham-pionship game against Morgan Park.

Head coach Lacey Rogers’ top

contributors in-cluded junior all-conference per-formers JuJuan Patrick, Hakeem Adebimpe, James Patterson, and Deaireon Davis. With seven start-ers back next sea-son, Rogers hopes to win conference and regional titles.

The Perspec-tives/IIT Math & Science Acad-emy/Joslin base-

ball team finished 8-11, including 6-7 in the Sammy Sosa Conference.

Top performers included seniors Jack Pratt and Jamichael Nevers and juniors Glenn Wagner, Cortlen Murphy and Que-shawn Burnett.

“We’re rebuild-ing with a fairly young team,” head coach Cletus Nichols said about

next season. “Our goals are to win the conference and go deep in the state playoffs next year.”

By Barry Temkin

Mr. Temkin retired in 2008 from the Chicago Tribune and volunteers in the Perspectives Charter Schools athletic depart-ment. He spent his last 20 years at the Tribune writing a high school sports column that cov-ered hundreds of schools, including Perspectives.

in the CPS finals, and freshman Tabatha Daniels, who placed sixth in the high jump in the CPS finals with a personal best of four feet six inches. Wash-ington also placed in the 200 dash.

Head coach Savannah

Wright’s other top performers included seniors Rokyah Robinson and Niara Pow-ell, sophomore Dejah Walton and freshman Mercee Branch.

Varisty Track Con-tinued from P2

Season highlights for the PLA/Tech girls team came from senior Déjà Washington, who set a per-sonal record of one minute in the 400-meter dash while placing

P5

The Per-spectives

Joslin girls soccer team was 0-4 this spring but had a successful season none-theless.

“We enjoyed

building a team to-gether,” said head coach Maria Ko-ssick, whose captains were juniors Alex-andra Rendon and Stephanie Maltos. “We

scored several goals this year and had fun.”

The coach plans to con-tinue the team-

P5

championship,” head coach Ron McBride said. “We started the season off a bit rocky but came on strong the second half.

“They played hard and never gave up. “

PMA’s top per-formers includ-ed 7th-grader

Laterreon, Miles, 8th-grader Marion Finches and 6th-grader Aaron Pierce.

Perspectives MSA made PMA earn its network title, losing by just one run in the champi-onship game after loading the bases with two outs in the bot-tom of the final inning.

“The players worked hard, took the game seriously and

were commit-ted to winning,” head coach Mi-chael Reid said about his 2-2 team.

Top contribu-tors included 8th-graders Xavier Riley, Yakeme Shep-pard and Mar-cus Fobbs.

The highlight of Perspectives Joslin’s season was same-day victories against PMA and MSA, which head coach Emma-

nuel Tillman said gave his players “mo-mentum and confidence going into the playoffs.”

Marlon Young, an 8th-grader, and 7th-grader Raniyah Roberts helped lead the way for Joslin, which finished with a 2-3 re-cord.

Success bred success for the Perspectives Middle Academy

Cont. on P6

building process next season.

“Our goal is player retention, player develop-ment and en-

suring our girls are learning the fundamentals of the game,” she said.

The Per-spectives

Middle Acad-emy coed softball team got hot when it counted to finish its sea-son with a 3-3 record and the championship of the Perspec-tives network league.

“The highlight was our players coming together and support-ing each other to ultimately win the league

of Athletics & Programs Vinay Mullick said.

On Oct. 3, PCS will play host to the second annual War-rior Invitational volleyball tour-nament at the Auburn Gresh-am campus. The field will be eight Chicago charter schools, includ-ing Perspectives’ three varsity programs—PLA/

Tech, MSA and Joslin.

Perspectives’ girls basketball teams, PLA/Tech and MSA/Joslin, will compete for the second con-secutive season in the Northside College Prep holi-day tournament in December.

The PLA/Tech boys basketball team will make its fourth ap-

pearance in the prestigious Rich South McDip-per tournament in December. The MSA/Joslin boys will play in the Hinsdale Central holiday tournament, which though in its debut season will be one of the top tournaments in the state.

By Barry Temkin

28 against Hans-berry College Prep. The contest will be notable for two reasons: It will take place at the Univer-sity of Chicago’s Stagg Field, and it will be a “black-out” game, with spectators being encouraged to wear black attire.

“It’s a nice way to start the sea-son,” Perspec-tives Director

P6BYNicholas Ullamper

Perspec-tives Char-

ter Schools student-ath-letes, coaches and fans will have some ex-citing events to look for-ward to next fall and win-ter.

The Perspec-tives football team will open its 2016 season at 7:15 p.m. Aug.

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boys and girls track teams this season. The result was a

strong perfor-mance in the city champi-onships, with several athletes reaching the finals.

Leading the way were 6th-grader Ra-kiya Lawrence, who won the 100-meter dash, and 8th-grader Sherman Wil-liams, who

placed second in the boys 100.

“The season highlight was watching our team compete at a high level for the entire sea-son,” said head coach Chasity Wilson, whose other top run-ners were 8th-graders Raheem Byfield, Aaron Philips and

Kareem Pollard and 7th-grader Kayla Mayden. “Once they ex-perienced some successes on the field, that drove them to work that much hard-er in practice.

“I had a group of hard-work-ing, competitive athletes, and I’m very proud of them.”

Antonio Spear-man, an 8th-grader, and 6th-graders Ashli Childs and Shakirah Muhammad helped lead the way for head coach Heather Ksiazek’s Per-spectives MSA middle school boys and girls track teams.