High school sports are back in full swing.

Cross Country and Volleyball are among the popular sports for students at Lincoln.

We caught up with the athletes of those teams to see what they are doing to prepare for the upcoming rivalries, to offer some perspective on the season ahead and their plans for the future.

This is part one of a two part series featuring Lincoln High School seniors in fall sports.

Cross Country

Joe Cioffi

How many years have you been in Cross Country? I have been doing Cross Country since 2nd grade, so this will be my 11th year doing this.

What do you feel is your biggest strength in Cross Country? I have been on the team for quite a while, so I feel that I have gained a good amount of knowledge about the sport and am able to help out my teammates in different ways.

What is your favorite part of it? I enjoy going to practice and races to challenge myself and also spending time with my teammates.

How have you and your group been getting ready for the new season? We have been training since the spring when our Track season was cancelled.

How has Coronavirus changed the way your group trains or practices? We were forced to start our practices much later than we usually do.

How do you think this season will be different because of Coronavirus? I think we won’t have as many races this year, and there will probably be less teams at some of those races.

Who do you feel is your biggest rivalry this upcoming season? Laurel and Shenango.

What is one skill you have learned from Cross Country that you will utilize in your future and how? I have learned that you can do whatever you want as long as you put in enough effort.

What are your future plans after graduation? Will you continue to play sports after high school? I plan to attend a 4-year university and get a bachelor’s degree in either Accounting or Business and may continue to do Cross Country depending on where I go.

Madison Hervatine

How many years have you been in Cross Country? This will be my 3rd year.

What do you feel is your biggest strength in Cross Country? My biggest strength is my determination and mindset during races.

What is your favorite part of it? The friendships I build.

How have you and your group been getting ready for the new season? We have been running on our own before summer conditioning or practices started and also have been doing intense workouts to help our times drop.

How has Coronavirus changed the way your group trains or practices? We get our temperatures checked when we arrive, our coaches wear masks for the entire practice, and if we are not six feet apart while stretching, we wear masks.

How do you think this season will be different because of Coronavirus? We cannot go to most invitationals and we have only a few meets.

Who do you feel is your biggest rivalry this upcoming season? Shenango girls’ team

What is one skill you have learned from Cross Country that you will utilize in your future and how? To never give up no matter how hard things get. I can use this during my senior year of high school when I have a lot of work, at college, and my future job.

What are your future plans after graduation? Will you continue to play sports after high school? I plan to go to a four-year college and have not decided if I will continue sports in college yet. If I don’t, I will still run on my own as a hobby.

EC Volleyball

Breanna Reisinger

How many years have you been in Volleyball? This will be my 6th year of playing volleyball for Ellwood City High School.

What do you feel is your biggest strength in Volleyball? I believe my biggest strength in volleyball is the ability to learn new things fast and use them to my advantage.

What is your favorite part of it? The energy during games is unbeatable!

How have you and your group been getting ready for the new season? We have been working extremely hard together and pushing each other past our expectations in positive ways.

How has Coronavirus changed the way your group trains or practices? The coronavirus has put a toll on the amount of days we can get in the gym to practice.

How do you think this season will be different because of Coronavirus? The energy from the crowd will change the entire game for all of us!

Who do you feel is your biggest rivalry this upcoming season? Our biggest rivalry will most likely be Laurel, they have a plethora of competitive young kids on their team.

What is one skill you have learned from Volleyball that you will utilize in your future and how? One thing I will most definitely take from my experience of volleyball and my coach is mental toughness. I’ve had those two words crushed into my head since 8th grade!

What are your future plans after graduation? Will you continue to play sports after high school? My plan right now is to continue my career of volleyball at a D2 or D3 school. And stay in the fitness world as long as I can.

Maria Ionelli

How many years have you been in Volleyball? 6 years

What do you feel is your biggest strength in Volleyball? I think my biggest strength in volleyball is to always being able to bring hype and energy to the team.

What is your favorite part of it? My favorite part about volleyball is the family that we built with the team and the fast pace competition.

How have you and your group been getting ready for the new season? We have been practicing every week since the governor has allowed us to. We focus a lot on game situations and plays.

How has Coronavirus changed the way your group trains or practices? We are a lot more focused on our game abilities now. Since we had less time to condition and practice, the overall practices are much more crucial.

How do you think this season will be different because of Coronavirus? The energy from the crowd and our whole team will be very much different which will be hard to get used to that atmosphere.

Who do you feel is your biggest rivalry this upcoming season? Laurel. They are a very well coached team and always give us a run for our money.

What is one skill you have learned from Volleyball that you will utilize in your future and how? One thing that I have learned is to have mental toughness. Our coach preaches about mental touches in games and touch situations and I have carried that and will always carry that throughout my life.

What are your future plans after graduation? Will you continue to play sports after high school? My future plans are to attend a four-year university.

Danielle McCowin

How many years have you been in Volleyball? This will be my 6th year playing volleyball

What do you feel is your biggest strength in Volleyball? I feel that my biggest strength is my attitude toward the game. Staying positive no matter what happens might be the most important thing in volleyball, so I’ve always worked on never letting a bad play or an error get to me.

What is your favorite part of it? My favorite part of the game is celebrating with my teammates after a kill or a block. Those are the most exciting moments to me.

How have you and your group been getting ready for the new season? My teammates and I have been conditioning and practicing for as long as we’ve been able to, trying to work out our new lineup and get some experience playing with each other.

How has Coronavirus changed the way your group trains or practices? The virus hasn’t really changed the way we’ve practiced much. We’ve been preparing for the season as if it was no different than the last one. We’re trying to focus on just playing our game the way we know how and working with all the changes as they come.

How do you think this season will be different because of Coronavirus? Having no spectators, or even our junior varsity team, at our games watching is definitely going to take some getting used to. Other than that, I’m hoping that this season will be no different than all the other ones, and that we’ll still have some fun.

Who do you feel is your biggest rivalry this upcoming season? Our biggest “rivalry” games are typically against Neshannock. Our games against them these past couple seasons have been pretty evenly matched and we always look forward to some tough competition.

What is one skill you have learned from Volleyball that you will utilize in your future and how? The most valuable lesson volleyball (and my coach, Jenna Ricciuti) has taught me is that not everything is going to go as planned, but it’s very important not to dwell on the past. Mistakes happen, but the best way to handle them is to learn from them and move forward, and that is something that I’ll never forget as I go farther in life.

What are your future plans after graduation? Will you continue to play sports after high school? After graduation, I plan to go to school to study architecture. I will not continue to play volleyball, but I’ve had some of the best times of my life playing on this team, and I will always cherish the memories.