As winter ends spring approaches and so do the Tunstall spring sports. Tunstall’s spring sports are baseball, softball, soccer, and track.

Soccer

Girls

The girls soccer team will be coached by Shannon Dudley in the upcoming season. The team has five seniors on the team: Emma Dowdy, Kayley Fry, Mariana Gonzalez Licea, Arlyn Rodriguez Quintero, and Haydn Wentz. The rest of this year’s roster consists of returners Samantha Salcedo, Victoria Shelton,  Allison White, , Denise Ortiz-Torres, Briana Quintero, Viridiana Ramírez Leal, Valeria Mendoza Ramirez, Makira Thomas.Newcomers to the team are Claudia Smith, Kaliyah Fulp, Reagan Vickers, Cherish Adkins, Sadeel Batineh, Avalyn Emerson, Jackelin Garcia-Cardoza, Sophia Gomez, Leila Ibrahim, Nicholette Matzganis, Angelica Quintero, Adrey Stevens. 

Tunstall tied with Chatham 2-2 in the opening game of the season. Thomas scored two goals and Fry had eleven saves. 

Boys

This season, the boys soccer team will be coached by Jeremiah Sanom. This team’s ’23 roster will include Brayden Barber, Maddux Bowman, Luke Cassada, Eriberto Cruz, Jacob Davidson, Edwin Diaz, Davis Ferris, Luis Garcia, Jackson Hair, Jadon Hawker, Shelton McKinney, John Mills, Talon Moss, Zachary Payne, Azael Quintero, Jose Quintero, and Juan Rodriguez. 

“Our team came up with a team goal: Above ALL, we want to WIN, have the best record in the district AND win the district. After that, we will make a run in the region as far as we can go. The team has a ton of talent, they are excellent at defending and we can score quickly and often, Soccer aside, though, they are good kids, they’re smart, motivated, and they want to play soccer and do whatever it takes to get better and win,” said Sanom. “We will heavily rely on our goal keeper, David Ferris, for this season,” said Coach Sanom.

In the opening game of the year, the Tunstall varsity boys soccer team defeated Chatham 8-0. Garcia and Davidson both scored two goals each. Single goals were scored by Bowman, Barber, Hawker, and Rodriguez. 

The Trojan defense played strong, shutting down the Cavs offense. 

Softball

The Tunstall softball team finished the 2022 season with a record of 12-10 coached by Jenna Poteat. Last season the team only lost one senior, Trinity Curtis. This year they will have six of the girls graduating: Greenly Elliot, Gaby Elliot, Gracie Rigney, Katie Tuck, Heidi Ellis, and MacKenzie Harris. The rest of the team includes Khamauri Mays, Colby Eastwood, Halle Cassada, Madison Austin, Brooklyn Morris, and the two newest members, Annmarie Davis and Abby Lent. 

“I’m excited for the growth of our team as a whole. I’m excited to see the bond and comradery that each girl is showing toward each other,” Coach Poteat says. 

Tunstall’s varsity softball team lost a heartbreaker at Chatham 7-6 to open the season. The game went into extra innings after the score was tied 4-4 in the bottom of the 7th. 

The international tie-breaker was put into effect which places the final out from the previous inning on second base to start the additional innings. Tunstall went ahead 6-4 in the top of the ninth when Katie Tuck, Mackenzie Harris, and Gaby Elliott all singled. Elliott and Harris both had RBIs. 

Chatham then answered in the bottom of the ninth stringing together two doubles and a walk to score the tying and go-ahead runs. 

Tunstall had 13 hits in the loss including three hits each from Elliott and Gracie Rigney. Khamauri Mays had a double and a triple for the Trojans. Tuck also had 5 strikeouts in the circle. 

Baseball

The Tunstall baseball team finished up last season second in the Piedmont District with a record of 16-7 coached by Barry Shelton. Even though they had seven seniors graduate last year they have six returning players: Raymond Ladd, Peyton Henderson, Carter Richardson, Aiden Watlington, Mason Lovern, and Patrick Snow. New players Shaffer Boles, Camden Cochran, Conner Hedrick, Carter Higdon, Taylor Payne, Tyler Spencer, Will Testerman, and Dakota Younger will also be joining this season. This will be Ladd and Henderson’s last season as they are the only seniors this year. 

Shelton says that Division I players Ladd and Richardson will be counted  on heavily. “Our players have worked hard to get stronger, but the success of our season will be determined by how our players this year replace the seven seniors lost to graduation,” Shelton says.

Track

Boys

The Tunstall boys track team will be coached by Cameron Hairstion. The 2023 team consists of Bricen Pool, Caiden Shelton, Derrick Jackson, Edwin Diaz, Elijah Keatts, Ethan Burley, Evan Morton, Jackson Jones, Jamarcus Brown, Juan “JC” Gonzalez, Landon Hardy, Lathan Witcher, Malik Barbour, Matthew Harris, Nick Irby, Sean Fitzgerald, Silvester Perkins, Tavion Davis, Terance Inge, Xavier Christian, and Elijah Byrd. 

THS boys who are throwing this year consist of: Evan Lewis, Elijah Keatts, Justin, Robertson, and Elijah Ingram

Jamarcus Brown will also be defending his position in the high jump. He tied with another player for second last season at the VHSL State meet. 

Hairstion thinks that their 2023 season will be successful. They have a lot of students participating this year and he is glad to have returning runners to provide leadership to the underclassmen. He says that by May he wants the runners to be better than they were in February. “If you have a strong work ethic and a positive attitude you can achieve a lot. Consistency is key,” Hairstion says.

Girls

The Tunstall girls track team this year will be coached by Tripp Emerson. He says he doesn’t know how their 2023 season will go but he is excited about finding the strengths of the newcomers. He says that this year will be a rebuilding year and they hope to see a lot change from meet to meet.

They will have four returning runners from past seasons this year: Sophia Barker, Brooklyn Brooks, Makira Thomas, and Madison Walton. The new runners include Mary Bledsoe, Kyndal Burke, Katelyn Brooks, Caroline Clay, Lydia Davis, Avalyn Emerson, Destiny Flores, McCall Hollie, Madeleine Jones, Emaria Jones, Sarah Merricks, Alexcia Rigney, Skyler Simms, Julie Tuck, Carolina Wheeler, and Shayla Williamson. 

A returning thrower from past seasons is Sophomore, Titania Carter. New throwers include Alexcia Rigney, Skyler Simms, Natalie Mack, and Shayla Williamson.

Emerson says that one thing he hopes the team accomplishes this season is to have improvement at each race throughout the year. The first track meet will be on March 18 at Mecklenburg County High School and THS will hold its only meet on March 30.