As the weather begins to warm up and indoor sports come to an end, a sense of life is restored at R.J. Reynolds High School as spring sports are on the horizon.

The RJR athletic program consists of many sports, eight of which compete in the spring season. These include: baseball, men’s golf, men’s tennis, men’s lacrosse, women’s soccer, women’s lacrosse, softball, and outdoor track and field. Many of these teams share the same goals: to win games and grow as a team. These goals often start being worked on during preseason workouts, typically over the winter months.

“The pre-season has been great,” head baseball coach Patrick Frail said. “We’ve broken it up into three seven-week increments. These guys have been working hard. They can look at themselves in the mirror and they can say that they are significantly better than they were last year.”

While some teams such as baseball have had an early jump on the preseason, others such as men’s tennis haven’t quite gotten started as they restructure their team.

“This is my first year coaching so preseason has been relatively nonexistent for us,” head men’s tennis coach Jakob Diskin said. “I’m very excited, but it’s a learning curve for me trying to figure out what I want my offseason to look like. Even figuring out how I want the offseason to look different from regular practices, and how to communicate best with the team. So it’ll be a good year for learning for me.”

Men’s tennis is one of many sports experiencing coaching changes as both the softball and men’s golf teams have new head coaches as well.

“This is my first year as the men’s golf coach and I am excited to work with this group,” Head men’s golf coach Mitch Reeves said. “We are young and inexperienced but I feel our guys are very skilled and are willing to put in the work necessary to improve and compete in each match.”

New coaches typically bring new changes, which can cause weariness for players who have been on the team for many years. However, this can allow for positive changes to teams and provide new insight and advice to individual players.

“This is my first year coaching and I’m excited about the challenges and opportunities of the upcoming season,” head softball coach Angela Bowman said. “I’ve been spending time prepping and meeting with veteran members of the team. I think it is important to get their perspective.”

Young teams are very common this year at RJR after a relatively large group of seniors graduated in 2023, but that doesn’t limit teams’ ability to be successful. Having players who are ready to work hard despite their age has a crucial impact on the team’s success.

“It’s a blessing to watch some of these guys I’ve known since they were six to seven years old develop into the humans and players they are now,” men’s lacrosse coach Jack Petross said. “The amount of growth from freshman to senior year is substantial. We have a group of real workhorses willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done and hungry to improve on and off the field.”

A group of hardworking kids is all a coach can truly ask for and while winning is usually the goal, most coaches are looking for their teams to grow this season.

“I hope the girls grow as both players and people,” women’s soccer coach Thomas Moore said. “I’m hoping to maintain a really good culture with the team and have a little fun. The main goal is to kind of teach them growth, on and off the field, and we want to beat some rivals and have some wins too.”

Improvement as a team is very important, but individual improvement in sports such as track and field and tennis comes a little differently as it usually develops during one-on-one time with coaches.

“When I’m teaching something and the athletes get it and it works for them it’s in competition, they find me after their race with big smiles saying ‘I did what you said and it worked,’” track and field coach Terron Eldridge said. “Take pride in being more than a coach, and I see myself as a mentor. I want to be the person they can ask for advice.”

This positive reinforcement from coaches is what encourages athletes to keep playing, and the same goes for coaches.

“The community surrounding Reynolds brings me back every year,” women’s lacrosse coach Sam Short said. “I feel so supported by the staff, parents, and players, and with that support comes a lot of trust. I feel every high and every low with my team and I can say with my full heart that I love watching all of them grow into independent young adults.”

The RJR family is very tight-knit, and while fans wish for athletic teams’ success, it’s not the wins and losses that matter, but the opportunities that sports provide for kids and the lessons they teach along the way.

“I think that so many things can be learned through athletics that you just necessarily can’t get in the classroom,” Moore said. “Life lessons, learning that sometimes you can give it your all and you can put your best foot forward, and it’s still not enough, and I think that’s a perfect metaphor for lots of things. That we would focus on the journey and not the destination.”