By Carson Hall
Unrecognized is one way to describe a hard working and dedicated JV player. He has always been under the shadow of the varsity players but now he has shown his full potential.
Colten Cruea decided to fully commit to tennis in 2021 when current varsity starter Tyce Dishman influenced and pushed Cruea to come practice and hit balls with him at the Muncie Family YMCA.
“Tyce kept making me go to the open courts with him and made me go hit with him a lot,” Cruea said, “but it really grew my love for the sport.”
Now that high school season is over Cruea has been training outside of school with Coach Tim Cleland at a YMCA clinic two nights a week. Cruea has also signed up for a Junior Team Tennis league in Indianapolis that plays once per month on Saturday nights.
“Tennis is such a mental game,” Cruea said. “You get very good very quickly, but then you hit a plateau and it just takes little steps to get better after that plateau.”
Cruea misses the high school season. He misses the positive atmosphere at practice that the players and coaches would bring every day.
Cruea was pushed to his full potential by the coaches. He finished his JV season with a winning record of 19-8 and was 1-0 in his only varsity match. This heavily influenced the JV team positively because Cruea was the No. 1 singles player for JV.
“The coaches have very special connections with all of the players,” Cruea said.
The coaches would always motivate Cruea and take him step by step through matches to help him win.
Although the JV tennis team lost one match they aren’t the only team to do so. The JV football team finished their season with a winning record of 7-1.
This couldn’t have been done without starting quarterback Deacon Blevins.
Blevins grew up watching football since he was very young. He would always go and watch his older brother play at Monroe Central.
That’s when he fell in love with the sport.
“I love this sport, it’s just something that I enjoy,” Blevins said. “My brother really inspired me to start playing football, and it is something that I want to do for him.”
Blevins started playing football 12 years ago in little league. Once he got to high school things started to change.
Blevins made the freshman team his ninth-grade year and he was upset. He thought he should’ve been on JV.
“I should’ve been on JV last year, but there was a senior in front of me,” Blevins said. “I really felt like I was better than him, but I got to show off my skills this year.”
Once his freshman year ended is when he really put in the work over the summer. He worked on different throwing mechanics that he needed to improve on from freshman year.
Blevins worked with Bronson Edwards, the starting varsity quarterback to better himself.
Blevins enjoyed the great atmosphere he was surrounded by this year. The players were positive but they were also competitive knowing they were always fighting for that starting JV spot.
What Blevins really enjoyed this past season were the coaches.
“Oh, they’re amazing, I mean they talk us through everything,” Blevins said. “They teach us everything we know, and they also coach like they’re coaching at varsity level too so it’s better for the team to get more experience”.
The coaches also liked having fun with it and joked around all the time. And Blevins thinks that’s what made them such a good team is because they had fun with it.
The coaches also heavily motivated Blevins to be at his full potential in the game a lot. Anytime he would mess up and make a mistake they were always there and being positive toward him.
“They really just picked me up when I would be down on myself,” Blevins said. “Especially if I throw an interception they’re always saying, ‘Next play’ or, ‘It’s okay, we’ll get it back, our defense got us.’”
Blevins’ playing style is heavily influenced by retired professional player Peyton Manning.
“I watch Peyton Manning a lot because he never threw the perfect ball and he was still one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time,” Blevins said, “so he really motivates me to be a better quarterback.”
Although Blevins was a key factor in the JV football team there was also someone else just as important.
Aven Thomas is the starting running back for the JV football team. Thomas has been playing since kindergarten.
Thomas was heavily inspired by his father to start playing football. But in middle school Thomas gained a lot of weight and decided to quit because of it.
Once he quit football, the love for the sport wasn’t there anymore and he just focused on baseball.
But when high school came around he decided to start playing football again..
“I started playing running back in high school and fell in love with the sport again,” Thomas said.
Thomas was starting his freshman year for the ninth-grade team. But then he started to put more work in over the summer. But he spent a lot of time in the weight room over the summer.
“I’ve been in the weight room working on footwork and learning the plays,” Thomas said. “I’ve also been learning how to read the defense, eating right, sleeping well, and getting good grades.”
Thomas loved the small amount of fans that would show up and still cheer them on. They were always hype even though there was a small amount because it was JV.
The players were also very hype, always being positive and helpful to one another. Even if someone made a mistake there was always something positive they had to say.
Aven said he loved his coaches. He said he loved how welcoming they were and how inspirational they were to the players, always pushing them to their full potential and just wanting to win.
Thomas’s playstyle is heavily influenced by the professional football player Isaiah Pacheco. He is the starting running back for the Kansas City Chiefs.
“He’s a really hard runner and motivates me a lot to play like I do on the field,” Thomas said.
On the other hand, sophomore Madalyn Polito, the starting setter for the JV volleyball team, has been a key factor this season.
Polito started playing volleyball in just the fourth grade because of her sister who played at Muncie Central High School.
Polito’s sister inspired her everytime she watched her play. Once Polito started playing she entered club volleyball at Munciana and played for the middle school team.
Once high school started she went to weight trainings over the summer and tried out for the high school volleyball team.
Sadly Polito made the JV team and wasn’t a key factor her freshman year.
When sophomore year came around she was excited to play again. Yet she wasn’t very happy when she made the JV team again. She didn’t let that bring her down.
Polito is never satisfied with her work.
“I always ask my coaches what I can improve on and what I need to work on more after practice,” Polito said.
She loved how nice and supportive the JV coaches were to all of the players. Polito also loved how close the team was to each other because of club volleyball at Munciana.
Polito’s sophomore season has just come to an end but next year she has a new goal, varsity.
With that these JV players have the experience of these unrecognized years to bring to the varsity roster.
