The fall sports season begins today for Knoxville. While the sports will be conducted as normal with teams competing…it will be different just about everywhere else. The cross country squads for the Panthers will host an Early Bird Invitational at the high school campus with E-B-F…Pleasantville…Fairfield…and Pekin. Mitigation efforts will be in action with all spectators required to wear a mask and distancing requirements as well. Knoxville Boys Head Coach Michael Splavec tells KRLS Sports the focus is one meet at a time with their eyes on the conference meet later in the season…

Splavec:
“We’re worried about working our way to our conference meet, which will be at Davis County, a course we’ve never run on before, and just trying to get better everyday.”

While cross country will begin the season at home, the Panthers volleyball squad will travel to Oskaloosa for a triangular with the Indians and Carlisle. The Panthers are coming off a 25-8 season last year. The Panthers will boast of six seniors with valuable experience trying to build off of last season. First serve is scheduled for five. For Pleasantville, following a 2019 season with outcomes that were below expectations, mainly due to youth and inexperience, Coach Aaron Fichter has high praise and feels his runners bring a lot more maturity coming into 2020.

Fichter 1:
“We have a couple of senior boys Trevor Paulsen and Justin Nichol who have worked for a long time. Terrin Branner are senior girls. I feel that leadership is strong. Devin Luing is our strongest runner on the boys side, and a new kids, Jacob Fulmer who is looking strong as well.”

Of course, competition is key. The West Central Conference is sure to be as competitive as ever for the Trojans. Fichter definitely sees it, but knows his team should be in the running for one of the best groups of 2020.

Fichter 2:
“The conference is really strong, I think it’s a good measuring stick, and some years your conference meet is stronger than your qualifier. I think if you finish top half in the West Central that’s a good thing and we’ll see if we can compete for the top half of that conference.”

Tonight’s meet at Knoxville is set to begin at five.