With the new year comes a new semester, many students and staff have expectations and plans for the new start.

Senior Ian Hartman said he was looking forward to see how well the baseball team gels together in the upcoming season.

“We are quite a young team and lots of new kids will have to step up this year as we lost five starters, four of which are playing college baseball so we have quite a lot of production to replace, but we also have some very talented players who I believe are going to be up for the task,” Hartman said. 

With the new season comes a new coach, Coach Redford, which Hartman says is very young but also very knowledgeable.

“Redford played all four years of baseball here at New Albany so he knows the culture we’ve built,” Hartman said. “He also brings a ton of energy as a coach and also coached college baseball so he’s preparing us for the next level,”

The team has been preparing for the season by working out four days a week and we are about to start going out to the field and practicing as well in which Hartman expresses as well as some of his personal goals for the new, upcoming season.

“Some of my personal goals for this year are to hit over 300 [batting average], be named a team captain, and most importantly bring home some hardware such as the sectional trophy and more importantly the state trophy,” Hartman said. 

Junior counselor Olivia Jacks is pumped for prom as well as the Cinderella Shop. She also says that there are a couple things this semester that a lot of kids need to know about.

“Prosser Applications are due March 6 to me,” Jacks said. “Juniors can apply to go senior year. Also, spring intersession, the first week of spring break, the school is open to those in credit recovery,” Jacks said.

Jacks also expressed that getting all of your grades and GPA up is important. Students should also start investigating plans for after graduation like college, trade school, work, military, etc.,

“I am excited for your senior year,” Jacks said. “The Class of 2024 will do amazing things.” Jacks said.

History teacher Mr. Sean Kennedy is excited to continue his interest in concerts this year. His first concert was NSYNC with his mom when he was five. Kennedy even missed school for a music festival called Forecastle, which he has attended every year since 2014.

Kennedy and some friends are planning on going to a four day festival over summer called Bonnaroo.

“My friends and I put a google sheet together with all the concerts wit $20 tickets so we can figure out which ones we want to go to,” Kennedy said.

His favorite concert was Mumford and Sons in Indianapolis where he camped out preparing to be let in.

”I’m not musically inclined at all so I appreciate when other people do it because I can’t do it myself,” Kennedy said.

Sophomore baseball player Landon Gum is excited for the upcoming baseball season and’ “getting to know and play for the new baseball coach,” Gum said. 

“We had some key players that were seniors last year so I’m excited and interested to see how things will go this year,” Gum said.

Gum even explains that the new coach is young, a great guy and has goals for this upcoming season as he helps us put in the work to go above and beyond those goals.

“He expects each and every one of us to give it our all each day we practice whether that is stretching, on the field, or in the weight room,” Gum said.

This year they’ve been in the weight room mostly, preparing for the season through conditioning and weightlifting each day until their able to get on the field again and begin practicing.

“My personal goals for the season are to be better in the category of consistency and to help my team in any way possible to have success,” Gum said.

Junior and academic scholar Allison Moore is turning her focus this semester.

“I’m trying to focus a lot more on AP classes so when I do apply for scholarships, everything looks good,” Moore said.

Moore even goes on to explain that she believes last semester was a lot harder than this semester.

“I feel like I put more pressure on myself last semester, I was always told that junior year was hard so I just went in expecting a lot,” Moore said.

This semester she explained that she has less to focus on this semester.

“Mentally I was stressed, making it harder on myself, I couldn’t deal with the stress of the class but academically I could have pushed through it,” Moore said.