Ruskin athletes kick off their fall seasons

By Max Goodwin

Football

The Eagles took a clear step forward on the gridiron in Tim Callaghan’s second season as head coach. Ruskin drew the attention of high school football fans in Kansas City by winning its first three games in 2024. They ended the year at 4-6 and hope to continue that progress toward a winning season in 2025.

They will again rely on a strong running game, with senior Logan Taylor stepping up at running back to lead the way for a younger team this year. Taylor has stood out in practice. He said the team hopes to win more games than last year, but they can only focus on what they can control. The strength of this team is in their ability to persevere through hard times.

Ruskin will open with the same three teams, Truman, William Chrisman, and Central, that led to a 3-0 start to last season. Whether or not Ruskin wins more games this season, the growth of the program is easy to see in a full roster of players for practices this summer.

Girls Tennis

There are eight new players on the girls’ tennis team this year. The practice courts at Ruskin are full with players returning for another year and some who are picking up the racket and learning to play for the first time.

Senior Mariana Macia and junior Kailey Ayala took it upon themselves to grow the sport at Ruskin and their recruiting is paying off. They played last year and had so much fun that they talked as many friends as they could into joining the team this year.

“This is kind of everybody we know,” Macias said, looking around at the team.

Ayala and Macias were both excited to help their new teammates feel welcome at practice to start the season. They said the tennis team is fun because the team makes sure everybody is involved, helps each other, and motivates each other. Sarah Sherman returns for another season as head coach.

Cross Country

Carla Sole has coached more state champions than she can count in her 24 years of coaching at Ruskin. Most of them are in track and field, but Sole also runs the cross country program at Ruskin.

Most of the runners are focused on distance running track events and run cross country in the fall. This year, the team is senior-heavy and takes cross country seriously and loves to run. Most years, the team tends to grow over the course of the year as freshmen take time to learn about the different sports and make it out to practice.

Senior Teon Woods is building up the miles this time of year and focused on lowering his personal record time to below 20 minutes. As a senior, he says he’s focused on helping the young runners with the pace that they need in the first meet of the season.

Senior Sarah Frazier said cross country is all about having fun. Senior Nilen Williams said it’s underrated as a sport for the physical requirements it demands.

The season began with a competitive two-mile run against runners from Center, Raytown, and Grandview along the Longview Lake Trail on Aug. 26, before the official start on Sept. 6 at Staley High School.

Soccer

With a roster of mostly returning players and Naguib Nassir for another year as head coach, Ruskin soccer is hoping to improve this year and has a goal of winning five games.

Ruskin labored through a 2-19 season in 2024, but had one of its best games against rival Grandview in a 4-3 victory.

Ruskin has that first home match against Grandview on Sept. 18 circled again this year. They will open the season on the road at Belton on Sept. 9.

Volleyball

Ruskin Volleyball was 9-22, with a 1-13 record against the Greater Kansas City Suburban Conference last year. Amy Fleak coaches the team. There are 13 seniors on the roster.

The first match of the season was Sept. 2 at Platte County (L, 0 – 3), and the first home game is Sept. 4 when Ruskin hosts William Chrisman.

Softball

The season started Aug. 29 at the Winnetonka tournament for the team coached by Madison Tolbert.