Seth Romsa

An absolute whirlwind year has come to a close as the spring sports seasons wrapped up last weekend, bringing a close to the 2021-22 school sports year.

I took over this job midway through the fall sports seasons and spent a large part of those first two months playing catch up and trying to figure out names of all the athletes at each level of competition.

There have been many great performances throughout the year, both individually and team oriented.

I did a recap of the fall season after it happened, but never got the opportunity to talk about the winter season because spring season took off in a hurry once state basketball ended.

Between the winter and spring, we saw a lot of strong performances from Panther athletes that helped prove the future remains bright in Powell.

We saw Nate Johnston make a run and complete his three-peat in the 100 breaststroke, finishing his historic three-peat in the event. Johnston ended a prolific career as a Panther swimmer with multiple top 10 times for the program all time.

On the team side we had the boys’ basketball team making a run at the 3A West Regional Tournament while playing at home. Winning a regional title and advancing to the state semifinals with a young team heading into a promising 2022-23 season was impressive.

Along with them, a mostly inexperienced Panther girls basketball team showed improvement throughout the season, and nearly advanced to the state tournament. That team returns all but one player next season, and I anticipate the team making a strong jump with another year of experience under the players’ belts.

The wrestling team had a few strong individual performances at both regionals and state, but youth was still on their side as the Panther wrestling team will bring back a large majority of the team heading into next year.

The college teams had strong performances at points, as the teams dealt with adversity throughout the season leading up to a quarterfinal berth for the Trapper girls basketball team, a play-in exit for the guys team and a pair of Trapper wrestlers advancing to the national championships.

There will be more coverage regarding the Trapper recruiting classes for each of these sports in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for that.

I got to work double duty throughout the spring, covering typical areas like high school and middle school sports for the Tribune while also spending my free weekends heading on the road to officiate soccer.

I have to say I was particularly impressed by the middle school programs throughout the season, as the boys track teams both won conference titles and the girls’ teams had strong performances finishing runners-up.

We saw two middle school records fall, including a 30-year-old 100 meter dash record, which points to good signs as those athletes head to high school in one of the next two years.

The soccer programs impressed me as well. The girls showed a strong development and determination expected to help the girls program continue to improve in high school starting next year.

The boys program continued to show growth throughout the season as they continued to learn at the club level before heading into the high school program next year.

Congratulations to the girls’ track and field program, which won a second consecutive title in a row this past weekend, behind strong performances all around.

Jenna Hillman walked away with two individual golds in her final meet as a Panther. She earned four individual All-State honors as she also placed second in the 400 meters and was part of the 4x400 relay that won the title in the last event.

The Panthers had a lot of other individual point getters that helped contribute to the success of the championship, and return a majority of the team next year in hopes of competing once again for a team title.

On the boys side, the field events and distance team put on strong performances all around, as the Panthers pushed toward a third place finish.

Down in Cheyenne the boys’ soccer team came up short of its goal to win a state title, placing third. However, I have to say this was one of the funnest teams to watch throughout the course of my life involved in soccer due to its unselfishness and determination.

The girls’ soccer team showed improvement over last year, returning a strong core throughout the attack and midfield while bringing up strong talent to the program next season.

Overall this year has been exciting — my first year finally getting to write about sports — and I could not have picked a better place to start.

The coaches who have helped me and helped communicate with me throughout the seasons have made this job a lot easier and fun.

The community here rallies around its teams and helps make each game a unique experience.

Even though a majority are kind, I always ask to please be kinder to officials. There are so few returning throughout the years due to verbal abuse regardless of sport, and hesitant youth declining to officiate for the same reason.

Heading into the summer I expect a lot of baseball to come, but I am looking forward to fun features throughout the summer.

Throughout the summer I will try and write some columns regarding different topics, so any fun topics, tips for stories or any fun pictures this summer would be greatly appreciated.

Congratulations to those graduating from high school this past weekend and college the previous weekend. I wish you the best for the future, whether that be in sports or academics.

I look forward to covering more improving teams in the fall as the programs return a strong majority of their cores. I look forward to competing for more hardware throughout the 2022-23 school year.