By Adam Marcia

Falcons sports are once again underway as we kick off the Fall 2022 season at IMS. There’s a buzz in the air for our centennial celebration, and anticipation for the new Field House and Centennial Field. It’s truly an exciting time to be an IMS athlete. 

Varsity Girls Soccer began the season in great form. The team traveled to Millbrook on Wednesday. The score was 6-0 after 20 minutes with goals scored by Emma, Jocelyn, Frances, Anna, and Genesis and assists from Emma, Julia, and Alayna. From that point forward, the players showed great sportspersonship and continued the play more focussed on game management than on scoring goals. The team has their home opener on Friday against Miss Hall’s at 4:00 pm. It is their first matchup versus a high school varsity team, so come support our Falcons!

JV Girls Soccer went into their Kent Center game on Monday determined to lock down their first win of the season. The four swing players: Rose, Frances, Niki, and Alayna, set the tone on offense for the rest of their teammates. Caroline and Gibby made some outstanding runs as well. Gwen and Sadie held down the fort on the defensive end by keeping the ball out of the Falcon’s side of the field. Ryan, Izzy, Claire, and August had the ball in control and moving around the midfield. The team secured a win with a final score of 4-0. Be on the lookout for more electrifying games from the JV Girls Soccer team this Fall!

Boys Varsity Soccer had an action-packed set of games this past weekend. Starting off with a match against Salisbury on Friday, the Falcons put in the effort to keep this local high school team at bay. Although the game tied at 0-0, it was a real thriller watching this team play. They played a tournament the following day up at Williston. They beat Willison 1-0 with a goal from Abdul, tied Cardigan 1-1 with a goal from Arturo, and fell short by a goal to Fessenden.  

JV Boys Soccer is such a popular program this year that they had to split it up into two teams: the Maroon and Gray teams (of course!) The Maroon team traveled to Trinity Pawling last week and fought hard while the Gray team kicked off their season with a 2-2 tie during their home opener against Oakwood. We can’t wait to see how these teams will progress this Fall. 

5th and 6th Grade Soccer started off their Fall season with a home game versus Rumsey Hall. The game was one for the books. The final score was 5-7 with an impressive hat trick from Miles, and a goal each from Raife and Cormac. This team of youngsters will clearly play tough throughout the Fall season. 

Cross Country had their first race this Wednesday at Renbrook. With more than 100 runners competing, IMS came out on top, beating out Renbrook, Foote, and Hopkins. Miki had an outstanding performance, finishing first overall with a time of 10:41 on the 1.77 mile course. Alpha, Jamie, Alexandra, and Ingrid had phenomenal finishes. Coach Hodosy summed up their first race by stating, “The team showed both top end and depth today, and we’re looking forward to Rumsey on Friday.” 

Mountain Biking’s first race was at Kent, followed up by a race at South Kent. At each race, the team goes up against Hotchkiss, Kent, South Kent, Berkshire, Trinity Pawling, Rumsey, and Salisbury. The team had a total of 5 racers competing this past Wednesday, all in C class. The race was about 4 miles long with a mix of challenging uphill climbs, a downhill flow section featuring berms and jumps, technical sections, and a single and double track. It was Jaxon and Dax’s first time racing on that course, who both performed at a high level. Cyrus and Thatcher were near the top 5 of finishers. The Mountain biking team will continue to impress throughout the rest of the season.

Varsity Volleyball has already played four matches this season. The first was a hard fought battle at Berkshire and the second was a close match against Hotchkiss. Although they fell short in these first two matches, the team bounced back in the next two matches at home versus Kingswood-Oxford and Kent, winning both. On Wednesday, the team played Hotchkiss again and was looking to answer for their first match against them, and answer they did, defeating Hotchkiss with the sets scores of 25-17, 19-25, 25-18, 25-23. It’ll be exciting to see how this team progresses during the remainder of the season. 

JV Volleyball began their season with a hard fought match versus Rumsey Hall, with set scores: 16-25, 19-25, and 10-25. JV Volleyball will get their rematch versus Rumsey Hall at home. 

Go Falcones!