Winter sports have made a comeback at Parkdale High School! Embracing the season, the school offers five exciting sports: wrestling, boys’ basketball, girls’ basketball, swimming, and indoor track. Check out three athletes below, ready to bring it this season.
Micah Chisley, junior- Wrestling
Q: What can you tell us about your high school wrestling career up until now?
A: Starting last year as a sophomore going into wrestling for the first time, I didn’t really take it seriously until I realized how fun and exciting the sport itself is. Coming into this year the mindset is completely different, we have targets on our backs and we plan on shocking all of pg [Prince George’s] county again.
Q: Do you feel that the skills that you learn in wrestling apply to different sports such as football?
A: Oh yeah 100%, wrestling not only keeps you in shape but when you’re playing defense the mechanics of tackling and pursuing takedowns are almost exactly the same, wrestling and football correlate to each other really well.
Q: What are the expectations from the squad going into this year?
A: To shock PG County once again.
Q: What is your favorite part of wrestling?
A: Definitely being able to create a strong bond with my teammates.
Q: What is the worst part of wrestling?
A: The discipline needed to be good in this sport, you have to eat healthier, stay away from juices and sodas, can’t eat too much but you really can’t eat too little, its so many factors into the season that the average people can’t handle.
Lundyn Dozier, junior – Girls’ Baketball
Q: What can you tell us about your high school basketball career up until now?
A: I started off on JV my freshman year, I’d been playing since I was young but I just need[ed] to catch the pace of the highschool game. I got moved up to varsity the end of the jv season. I got to experience my first regional championship win. After that I began working over the summer to get better and become for confident. My sophmore year I was mostly a set shooter i didn’t really dribble but I was slowly developing. Worked over the summer in the gym and started working on shooting off the dribble. Now here we are, I’m working to implement those moves I worked on into my game but we shall see.
Q: How does it feel to be back in Basketball season and how was off-season?
A: It feels good to be back in the basketball season. I’ve been waiting for the season because it’s fun and we get to implement things we did in the offseason into the season. It gets very competitive and I love that. The offseason was different because we lost some players so we had to rebuild chemistry. We worked to be a stronger and better team overall.
Q: How have you guys dealt with that? And what are your expectations for the season, both personally and for the team?
A: We’ve dealt with it ok, like we talk about missing them of course but now we just have to fill in. We wish them the best and want them to be the best. My expectations for the season is to be better than I was last year. My confidence has built tremendously and I’m happy about that so I just want to implement that into my game. I just wanna play basketball and help my team win. My expectations for the team is just for us to play and be the best we can be. I don’t want nobody to be hard of themselves including myself, just play.
Q: What is your favorite part of basketball?
A: My favorite part of basketball is being on the court and shooting the ball and seeing it go in. It feels good to put the ball up and see it go in. Also defense, I love playing defense and making it hard for the other team to figure out how to score the ball and get pass me.
Q: What is your least favorite part of basketball?
A: My least favorite thing is running honestly but I know I gotta do it.
Kenneth McLeish, senior – Indoor Track
Q: How does it feel to be back in track season?
A: It feels good to be back running. Each year I’m improving and as a senior, I have a lot more to prove now.
Q: What are some of your accomplishments that you have achieved in track so far?
A: Improving my times by over 10 seconds in the 400, and 20 seconds in the 800.
Q: What would you say is the difference between track in other traditional sports?
A: Honestly, the mindset. In track you obviously have people pushing you like you do in other sports, but at the end of the day you need to have the mindset to keep pushing like even when you’re tired and to continue improving.
Q: What is your goal for this season?
A: Getting sub 50 in the 400 and sub 2:00 in the 800.
