With winter sports coming to an end with CIF-bound basketball, wrestling and soccer teams, spring sports begin their season, after having many practices and scrimmages.

Downey’s softball team start their season. With the first few scrimmages, the girls come out strong and won against West Covina High and Sante Fe on Feb. 18.

Last season, the girls succeeded in winning against Gahr High for the first time since 2013, as well as winning league title making it to CIF but facing defeat in the second round. Their successful season led to Downey jumping up two divisions into division two.

Also having many successful seasons on their tail, Downey’s swim teams gets closer to starting their season.

Swimmer of three years, Maria Visoso, 11, who has been swimming since she was in middle school, explains how far she expects the team to make it this year and how she as an individual has improved.

“We all think that we should try our best so that we can go to CIF and represent our school the best that we can,” Visoso stated. “I have been improving over time by becoming more faster and having more endurance.”

Downey’s girls’ lacrosse team also prepares for their season with many scrimmages and pre-season matches in areas as far as Las Vegas. Last year the girls lacrosse team had an overall score of 12-4, winning league title. They made it as far at the first round of CIF, facing defeat against Palos Verdes.

Girls’ lacrosse season began on Thursday, Feb. 21 against Salinas, winning to the score of 9-7. Their next game will be against El Dorado on Saturday, March 9.

The boys lacrosse team marked Wednesday, Feb. 27 as the start of their season against Roosevelt High School. This game resulted in Downey’s first win of the season, defeating Roosevelt 10 to 6.

Without any pre-season scrimmages, Jonathan Gonzalez,11, feels confident his team will make it farther than last year’s team because of their new coach and more motivated team,

“[The coach] having been playing in college and being an alumni here, he knows how things work, and he can give us a better understanding of the game, our old coach, it’s been awhile since he played,” Gonzalez stated. “The way we executed everything [last year] was not proper

On Feb. 23 the boys had a game against Downey alumni, which resulted with the loss to this years team by a point but a win to our past Vikings.

Likewise, Downey’s 2018 baseball season ended with an early loss at CIF, with the league score of 8-2. With these scores, Daniel Padilla, 11, believes his team will make it farther than last year.

Considering the team’s areas for improvement in recent pre-season scrimmages, Padilla explains what he expects this season would turn out to.

“Honestly, the record seems bad, but I’m fine with that because who we’re competing. These are not easy teams to beat; they’re division one division two schools and we’re division three,” Padilla said. “It’s just the beginning. We have a lot of baseball left to play–over 20 games. It’s definitely just the beginning. We’re not gonna end like this; we’re gonna end a lot stronger.”

Baseball’s next game will be a scrimmage at Grace Brethren on Mar. 4, which marks one step close to the start of season.