My goal is always to be one of the top three teams. We’d love to be competing for the top spot, but top three is the minimal goal.”

Head Coach Marissa Welch

We’ve waited all summer long to see our Raiders back in action and they have been chomping at the bit to get on their respective fields or courts to resume chasing that ever-elusive state championship. We spoke to all six of the seven fall sports head coaches this last week, plus one team captain to get a sneak peek at how things are shaping up for them. Football, Volleyball, Girls and Boys Soccer, Girls Swimming, Girls Tennis, and Cross Country.
Before this gets rolling, the ‘why’ of missing one head coach must be celebrated. Cross Country Head Coach Joseph Rabaey and his wife Sydni were in the hospital for the birth of their new baby Rosie! Welcome to the world and congratulations to you both! As excuses for missing an interview go, that is a pretty cool one!
Let’s take a look at the first four of our Varsity level sports and where they are at as they enter the 24-25 school season. All four of these teams, Boys Soccer, Girls Soccer, Girls Tennis and Girls Swim and Dive start their season on August 22. Next week We will take a look at Football, Volleyball and Cross Country. Volleyball starts their season at home on August 28 and Football and Cross Country start on August 29.
Girls Swim and Dive
Last year, the girls swim and dive team graduated three amazing young ladies who will be difficult to replace and the incoming swimmers brought the small but mighty Raiders number back over 20 for the season. Comparing the team size to Mahtomedi and Two Rivers, the Raiders are about half the size, but they hold their own.
Last school year, Head Coach Katie McAlpin made a change at the middle school level, she moved the fifth through eighth grade boys and girls teams to a combined spring season, similar to a swim club. The primary reason for that was to have more time to focus on learning to swim the different strokes aspect instead of focusing on competitions. Then, when the younger kids move up to the dedicated boys or girls season, they can learn how to race while they improve their knowledge of the strokes.
“Our biggest competition is going to be Two Rivers and Mahtomedi again. We lost to both of them last year. Luckily, we will see them both later in our season this year instead of right out of the gate, which was a bit of a struggle,” said McAlpin.
Preseason training has been a little different this year. They do weight training twice a week and they did hot yoga at the CrossFit gym with trainer Brooklyn.
“A lot of them are like, it hurts to go up the stairs. I'm like, I understand, because coach Brianna and I did it with them. So, it was hard, it was really hard, but they did it. Every one of them did it like nobody sat out. Everybody just kept going. And it was it was awesome,” she said. “They were still feeling the burn two days later.”
The first official competition for the girls is always the Conference Relays which are held at The Grove Aquatic Center in Inver Grove. That event starts at 6:00 p.m. but if you want good seating, you should expect to be there before 5:30 p.m.
Boys Soccer
Head Coach Jamie Swanson will have a little different coaching staff around him this year with former girls head coach Scott Meier joining the staff in place of Shane Lanning who stepped away for the season, but don’t worry, Lanning will still be part of the soccer scene for the Raiders as he is expected to be the site manager for many of their games at Todd Field.
“Well, me and Scott have played together for a really long time, and we were always connected. Girls coach, guys coach… You know, when you put in a good 10 years as the girls coach, sometimes you just need that year or so off just to reset, take a break. He's coming here with a ton of energy, a lot of new ideas on how he did things over on the girl’s side, things that we're going to try to adopt over here. I think it's going to be great. We have the same mind, yet we have a different way of doing things. We have the same idea of how we want to play. He goes about it a little bit differently. I think, with that little yin and yang combination, I think it won't get stale for the guys, because he's got a pretty big personality, and I think the guys are going to respond really well to him. Unfortunately, we lost a really good coach in Shane that's been with us basically since the beginning,” said Swanson.
Swanson expects a plethora of solid competition from the Metro East Conference this year. Hill-Murray, St. Thomas, North St. Paul just to name a few and the section is not going to be any easier, but he believes the Raiders are setup well to compete with 13 seniors returning to the lineup and two healthy and strong keepers on the roster.
The team captains will be decided this week, and we will let you know those results in part two of this fall season preview.
The boys start their season against a normally tough Eastview Lightning squad, at Todd Field on August 22 at 5:00 p.m.
Girls Soccer
Calculating the seniors that graduated last year and the new players coming up from the younger ranks proved to be a difficult and comical first question early on a Friday morning with current players assisting Head Coach Paul Armstrong in the calculation. They ultimately settled on nine players doing their best to not miss anyone from last season. They are adding a few girls that have never played a varsity minute to some players who split time between varsity and JV last year.
Practices for the 24-25 season so far are what Armstrong classified as “Outstanding”.
“We had a week-long camp in the summer, and then just a kick around in the summer, and that really transferred to tryouts. We're moving the ball really, really well, scoring goals, making great tackles. It has been really fun. A very good start,” he added.
Armstrong is in his third season as the Raiders head coach, and he is extremely happy with how the girls know his approach to coaching.
“It's very exciting that the kids know the expectations and the standards, and they're taking the reins and running with it. They're staying late to put in extra work without me having to ask them, which is super exciting. They're lining up on the line for conditioning without any input from me. They're just like, hey, let's do this, let's do this, it's needed, so, the kids are really taking the reins this year, and that's exciting. Our four captains are three-year starters, so they have a lot of experience, they know what high school soccer is about, the physicality of it, the speed of it, and that's a special thing at 3A to have multiple players with three years of experience,” he said.
The four captains for this season are Erica Endres, Olyvia Erickson, Ellie Magnus and Keagan McVicker.
Looking at the conference, Armstrong believes that Mahtomedi will have another strong year after winning multiple back-to-back conference championships, but he was quick to point out that the Raiders have been battling the Zephyrs pretty hard the last two seasons. Hill-Murray and Two Rivers are also tough competitors for the Raiders each season. As with the boys, the Metro East Conference is filled with very solid and competitive teams.
Armstrong seemed most proud of the leaders on the team, not just the captains, but the younger leaders that are the future captains. They are always having fun and laughing, which was evident if you could hear the recording of the interview. This is a great group of special young ladies and it is possible they could go very far this season.
The girls start their season against Eastview at Todd Field on August 22, scheduled at 7:00 p.m. but with the boys playing at 5:00, that time may be adjusted if needed.
Girls Tennis
Girls Tennis numbers for the 24-25 season are up with an influx of younger players after graduating four seniors last year including the perennial state contender Clair Keller, they added nine freshmen, one sophomore and two juniors.
Reese and Brooklyn Keller will lead the Raiders on the singles side for the regular season and sneak in work as doubles as time allows. They have competed at the state meet the last two seasons in the doubles division.
The influx of youth this year and the trial by fire for some of the freshman last year has Head Coach Marissa Welch excited to see where the youth take the team.
Who are the biggest obstacles for the Raiders this season?
“I feel like these last few years have been an uphill battle,” said Welch. “My goal is always to be one of the top three teams. We’d love to be competing for the top spot, but top three is the minimal goal. Mahtomedi is always relentless, South St. Paul, they will be tough, they are always aggressive. Two Rivers has been working hard and Hill-Murray was tied as conference champs last year, so yeah, it will be an uphill battle.”
The team captains are Brooklyn and Reese Keller, Wills Nelson and Julia Rotty.
The first match for the girls will be against Park and Rosemount at home at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, August 23.