sj issue 56, nov. 22, 2012
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Sac-Joaquin Issue 56, November 22, 2012TRANSCRIPT
november 22, 2012 sportstarsonline.comvol. 3. issue 56
Freesac Joaquin
back-to-back: El Camino, St. Francis each repeat as volleyball champs
to
p20 sportstars’ top football teams
rankings
it’s ballin’ time:check out ourmust-see games.Pg. 26
aaron cochran & Buhach colonyare hoping to make history
BIG TIME
garcia watches and waits Pg. 6
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Jesuit justifies ranking with another title
follow aaron: Buhach Colony football has a pretty simple plan — let Aaron Cochran lead the way. Pg. 14
story, Pg. 20
Granite Bay’s Paige Lee delivered another top 10 effort at state. Pg. 18
First Pitch ..........................................6
Locker Room ...................................8
AAA SportStars of the Week .....11
Behind the Clipboard ...................12
10 to Go..........................................26
Red Zone ........................................30
Training Time ..................................34
Health Watch ................................35
Impulse ............................................36
on the cover: From left, Stefon Gold,
Aaron Cochran, Leon Miles. Photo by
James K. Leash.
Phone 925.566.8500 FAX 925.566.8507editoriAl [email protected] Chace Bryson. Ext. 104 • [email protected] Writers Erik Stordahl, Jim McCue contributors Bill Kolb, Mitch Stephens, Matt Smith, Clay Kallam, Bryant West, Dave Kiefer, Liz Elliott, Tim Rudd, Jonathan OkanesPhotography Butch Noble, Bob Larson, Jonathan Hawthorne, James K. Leash, Norbert von der Groeben, Phillip Walton, Doug Gulerintern Ryan Arter
creAtive dePArtment [email protected] manager Mike DeCicco. Ext. 103 • [email protected]
PubliSher/PreSidentMike Calamusa. Ext. 106 • [email protected]
AdvertiSing & cAlendAr/clASSiFied [email protected], (925) 566-8500Account executives Erik Stordahl • Erik@SportStars Online.com, Phillip Walton • [email protected], Tommy Enriquez • [email protected] Sac Joaqin edition: Dave Rosales • [email protected]
reAder reSourceS/AdminiStrAtionAd Traffic, Subscription, Calendar & Classified Listings [email protected] • Deb Hollinger. Ext. 101 •
diStribution/delivery [email protected] manager Butch Noble. Ext. 107 • [email protected]
inFormAtion technology John Bonilla
cFo Sharon Calamusa • [email protected] Manager/Credit Services Deb Hollinger. Ext. 101 • [email protected]
boArd oF AdviSorSDennis Erokan, CEO, Placemaking GroupRoland Roos, CPA, Roland Roos & CoSusan Bonilla, State AssemblyDrew Lawler, Managing Director, AJ Lawler PartnersBrad Briegleb, Attorney At Law
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This Vol. #3, November 2012 Whole No. 56 is published by Caliente! Communications, LLC, 5356 Clayton Rd, Ste. 222, Concord, CA 94521. SportStars™© 2010 by Caliente! Communications, LLC. All rights reserved. Subscription rates: 24 issues, U.S. 3rd class $42 (allow 3 weeks for delivery). 1st class $55. To receive sample issues, please send $3 to cover postage. Back issues are $4 each. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission of Publisher is strictly prohibited. The staff and management, including Board of Directors, of SportStars™© does not advocate or encourage the use of any product or service advertised herein for illegal purposes. Editorial contributions, photos and letters to the editor are welcome and should be addressed to the Editor. All material should be typed, double-spaced on disk or email and will be handled with reasonable care. For materials return, please enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope. SportStars™© and STARS!™© Clinics are registered trademarks of Caliente! Communications, LLC.
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perfect 10
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Carrie Verdon’s come from behind victory that won her a second-consecutive Division III state title was the feel-good story of the California Interscholastic Federation State Cross Country Championships a year ago.
The Campolindo-Moraga senior began feeling pain in her right foot one-third of the way into the race and pushed through it to finish Fresno’s Woodward Park course in a winning time of 17 minutes, 19 seconds.
Karlie Garcia’s time of 17:20 was a footnote. “It happened pretty fast,” Garcia recalled of the final
moments of the race. “I wasn’t really mad I didn’t win, though. I was happy with my time, and was more like ‘Darn it! She got me right at the end.’ If anything, I think the experience helped me run better the follow-ing week.”
The then Oakmont-Roseville junior dusted herself off and won the Foot Locker Western Regionals — Verdon’s foot injury kept her from competing — and then the week after that, finished fifth at the Foot Locker Nationals in San Diego.
She came home from Southern California viewed as one of Northern Calfornia’s brightest cross country stars and was deemed an immediate state champion-ship favorite for 2012.
But when the starting gun went off for the CIF Di-vision III state championship race at Woodward Park on Nov. 24, Garcia was a spectator.
She was only a few weeks removed from re-training her body to walk normally after a stress fracture in her left foot had her in a walking boot for four weeks.
“You really do have to re-teach your body how to walk, and then run,” she said. “After walking in a boot for so long, your hips feel lopsided and your foot still hurts.”
The injury was discovered just a few days before the Stanford Invitational on Sept. 29. And Garcia knew right away that her shot at the state title was gone.
“During track season in my sophomore year — one day after the (Sac-Joaquin Section) Meet of Champi-ons — I had the same thing happen in my right foot. So I’m all evened out now.” Garcia said jokingly.
Garcia expects to be at full strength when the track season arrives in March, and perhaps she can still attain some CIF redemption in a distance event at the State Track Meet in June.
But her true love is cross country.So was the week leading up to the state champion-
ships as excruciating as we might expect?“YES!,” she exclaimed emphatically. “Really bad.”And while nobody would’ve blamed Garcia if she
planned on catching a matinee showing of “Skyfall” or “Flight” — or BOTH, back-to-back — during the afternoon of Nov. 24, Garcia was adamant that she’d be glued to the live webcast of the state championships.
She will have a teammate running as Oakmont’s Marisa Carino qualified as an individual. She also said she’d be following a few strong competitors and friends from other schools, including Vista del Lago-Folsom’s Clare Carroll and Madeleine Ankhelyi.
“I’ll be all into it,” she said.And that’s pretty cool. ✪
November 22, 2012
Chace Bryson Editor
First Pitch
Chace@ SportStarsOnline.com
(925) 566-8503
Walk ThEn RunAfter losing her 2011 state championship race by one second,
Karlie Garcia had to put redemption on hold
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coun
t’EM
rapidFIRE
.52.52Skittles or Starburst
Recorded rainfall in inches for Hayward on Nov. 17, the day of the North Coast Section Cross County Championships. Many who were at the event remarked it was the worst conditions they had ever seen for the 3-mile Hayward High course. And seeing as how the 0.52 inches set a new record for Hayward rainfall on the date of Nov. 17, it’s probably true. Moreover, 60 percent of that rain total fell over a 70-min-ute span during the heart of the competi-tion. For more rain-soaked images of the event, turn to page 24.
James Prothero, James Logan FB
Aidan Goltra, Campolindo XC
favorite thanksgiving dinner item
Item at top of your
Christmas list
Hanging out indoors
Martin Lawrence
Sweet Potatoes
Run Zach Galifianakis
Butternut squash
soup
New Jordan shoes
GoPro to tape
adventures with teammates
LoofasI like them
favorite rainy day activity
Date at which Christmas carols
can be playedfunniest actor/
actress
What product do you hope survives,
unlike twinkies
Day after Thanksgiving
Dec. 17-Dec. 26 oNLy
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sayWHAT“She was our go-to girl.
Everyone looked to her when it got tough out there and she
was just amazing.”Oakmont-Roseville volleyball coach Shelby Weinberger
on the play of Katie Carle, right, who posted a team-high 25 kills and helped lift the Vikings to a come-from-behind, five-set victory in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III final.
Oakmont trailed 2-0 after the first two sets.
top 5 reasons to be Un-thankfUlWell, folks, it’s Thanksgiving. Traditionally, that means
smarmy, sappy, aren’t we thankful for blah-blah-blah columns
and lists and such. Well. Those things suck. We here at
SportStars know you’re a more discerning, sophisticated audi-
ence. Which is why we won’t insult your intelligence with that
nonsense. Nope. Instead, we now offer you our top 5 reasons
to be Un-Thankful.1. The World Series — Sure sure, Giants win; there was
much rejoicing, la-dee-da. Know what we are unthankful for
there? To paraphrase the great sage and swordsman Inigo
Montoya, ‘Over too quickly. We are not satisfied.’ Less base-
ball is ALWAYS a bad thing, folks. It shoulda gone seven. Now
what are we supposed to watch? Little League World Series
reruns?2. Greatness — Do you realize how hard it is to be a sports
fan in the Bay Area right now? Everywhere you look there’s
a playoff contender or a division winner or a championship
favorite. Oh. Also, there’s the Warriors. Anyway. Our DVR
can’t handle all the options. And we wouldn’t have time
to watch everything, anyway.3. Ubiquity — Turkey and stuffing and potatoes and
family and company and football on TV and blockbuster
movie releases… it’s all too much. The day hasn’t even
started and we’re already exhausted. It’s just so hard to
pace yourself.4. Greatness, Part II — That, in and of itself is an-
noying. There’s so much greatness, we had to break
it over two items. Unforgivable. Do you know — are
you FULLY aware — of how great the Bay Area is in
high school sports? You think they have national- and
state-ranked teams and/or individuals in all sports in
all seasons coming out of their ears in Pocatello,
Idaho or Bismarck, North Dakota? They do NOT,
my friends. They do not. It gets a little old. I
mean. How do you get excited about a state
title run when you know there’s another one
coming right around the corner. Ho hum.
5. Haste — Dirty little magazine secret:
We had to write this stuff waaaay before you
had to read it. Which means that it was at
least FIVE DAYS before Thanksgiving and
we had already seen flipping Christmas deco-
rations and commercials and such. Criminitly,
people. Did you not see what we just said about
pacing yourselves? Let’s finish one holiday before
moving onto the next, shall we? Next thing you know,
we’ll be jumping the gun on Groundhog Day, too.
From the Grinches and Scrooges at SportStars,
have a very un-happy Un-Thanksgiving.
James K. Leash
Throughout the week we like to poll our Facebook fans on random things that come to our mind here at SportStars HQ. Come ‘Like’ us at www.facebook.com/sportstars to join the conversation. You just might find your comments in a future issue.
FROM NOV. 6: Happy ElEctiON Day! WHO DiD EVERyONE VOtE FOR as tHE bEst bay aREa spORts tEaM?■ A week after the world series? Is this a real question ? — Anthony N. ■ NFL — 49ers, MLB ‚ SF Giants, College football — Stanford Cardinal, High School football ‚ De La Salle Spartans, of course! — Dave M.
Jonathan HawthorneBrooke Starn of Monte Vista.
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honorablemention
harris ross
The Pittsburg running back had himself a game on Nov.
9 at Monte Vista. He put up 269 rushing yards and four TDs as the Pirates won 55-29.
lilly walker
The Diablo FC ’00 Blue Ram-page goalkeeper allowed only two
goals in three games at the Heri-tage Harvest Cup on Oct. 27-28.
jena pianin
amador valley . cross country . senior
Defending your title is difficult enough. But doing it in the pour-ing rain and running in the mud definitely throws a wrench in strategy. Jena Pianin did just that when she captured her second straight NCS Div. I cross country title with a 3-mile time of 17 minutes, 56 seconds on Nov. 17 at Hayward High School.
SportStars magazine: How was it running in those condi-tions?
Jena Pianin: It was kinda crazy. We had some idea that it might rain and that it might be muddy. I didn’t expect it to down-pour during the race, though. You just have to tell yourself everyone is running in the same conditions. … You just have to put the condi-tions aside and you keep running.
SSm: How do you prep for that?
JP: We have to run on all dif-ferent types of surfaces. … The more you run, the more used to surfaces you get.
SSm: When did you know you were going to win?
JP: I wasn’t 100 percent sure because nothing is ever guaran-teed until I crossed the finish line. I knew what I had to do to qualify my team for state. … It was just win at all costs.
SSm: Where does this performance rank amongst your personal bests?
JP: I’m happy I was able to defend my title. … It was such a huge goal (to qualify our team for
Jonathan Hawthorne
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savrinah oliveros
In her first year in gymnastics, she moved on to the Level 4
State competition with a 36.45 all around score at the Harvest Moon Invitational on Oct. 27.state) and season-long fight and I was glad to contribute to that.
JENA’S QUICK HITSFavorite athlete: Mo FarahFavorite class: We the People program, Civics teamFavorite Starbucks item: Pumpkin Spiced Latte w/ extra whipped
cream
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The refs have always hated our school, and we just lost a football game because of some really horrible calls. Why aren’t there better refs?
— F.K., Oakland
Actually, there are two questions, and the first is “Why do the refs hate my school?”
The answer to that one is simple: “They don’t.”Look, officials work a lot of games in a lot of places and they
simply don’t have the energy to remember that they really dislike this school so they’re going to call a lot of penalties, but they love this other school so they won’t. And think about it: When a ref sees what might be a penalty, does he stop and think which team did it before he throws the flag?
The answer is obviously no, and here’s proof. Presumably if offi-cials go out of their way to make bad calls against one team, another team, or teams, is getting a bunch of good calls. So what team is that? What fans and what team anywhere believes the refs love them and give them good calls all the time?
Again, the answer is obvious: No one. Everyone feels like the refs are against them, everyone feels like they get robbed every game, and everyone wishes there were “better” refs — that is, refs who wouldn’t call any penalties on their team, and a bunch on the other team.
So first, refs don’t hate anyone, and don’t think about what schools are playing when they make calls. They’re just out there trying to do the best they can.
Which leads to question two, which is “Why aren’t there better refs?”
The answer to that one is simple too: “If a ref is exceptional, he’s doing college or pro; most likely, he’s doing high school games for the same reason coaches are coaching in high school — he wasn’t quite good enough to make the jump to the next level.”
Now let me be very clear: There are excellent officials and excellent coaches at the high school level, and plenty of both. But the cream of the crop, the 1 percent if you will, get promoted to the next level — and the result is you have high school-level coaches, high school-level officials and, more to the point, high school-level players.
Again, there are good players in high school, and some very good ones, just as there are good (and very good) coaches and refs, but all in all, the level of playing, coaching and officiating in high school is not at the level of the same game in college. And that’s why the refs are going to be shaky sometimes, just as coaches and players make mistakes as well.
There are other reasons for the perception that officiating isn’t good at the high school level, but I only have so much room in these columns, so I’ll let it go now. But remember, the refs probably don’t even know what your team mascot is, and don’t care whether you win or lose. And, just like the players and coaches, they’re doing the best they can every time out. Maybe they aren’t spectacularly good, but how many people involved in high school sports really are? ✪
Clay Kallam is an assistant athletic director and girls varsity bas-ketball coach at Bentley High in Lafayette. To submit a question for Behind the Clipboard, email Coach Kallam at [email protected]
November 22, 2012
Clay kallam
Behind the Clipboard
Refs aren’t plotting against your schoolTRuST uS
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James K. Leash photosBuhach Colony’s Aaron Cochran, center, is flanked by teammates Stefon Gold, left, and Leon Miles.
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It’s not easy to get attention in the far southern reaches of the Sac-Joaquin Section.
With Sacramento-area programs like Grant and Folsom winning CIF State Bowl games in the upper divisions, Central Valley programs struggle to earn recognition despite having bowl game winners like Escalon in the lower divisions.
Buhach Colony is a relatively young school (the Atwater campus opened in 2000) that has fought to gain traction even in its own county, battling for regional headlines with traditional powers such as Merced and Golden Valley.
Buhach Colony doesn’t even have it’s own field. The Thunder use Atwater High School’s Falcon Field for home games, but has recently earned ownership of the Atwater turf by defeating the Falcons each of the last four years.
That four-year span coincides with the emergence of Buhach Colony as a local and section power. The Thunder earned its first playoff berth (as the No. 16 seed) in 2009 before grabbing the top seed in Division II in both 2010 and 2011. The run of playoff success started in head coach Kevin Swartwood’s fourth year at the helm and has continued with a third consecutive semifinal appearance after defeating Antelope 35-28 on Nov. 16.
“It’s a process,” Swartwood said of the program’s rise to prominence. “It takes a couple of years to get things in order and set the culture. Pretty soon, the kids take the reins and you can let them grow the program.”
The talent Swartwood has to work with has increased as the program has grown, and there may be a direct correlation with the arrival of sizeable talent from Texas in 2009.
That year, Rodrick Cochran moved his family to Atwater to become pas-tor of the Friendship Baptist Church in Merced, bringing along his wife and two sons. Matt, a sophomore in 2009, and Aaron, a freshman upon arrival in Atwater, played a large role in shaping the success of the Thunder program.
Before Matt accepted a scholarship to California, the brothers were part of Buhach Colony’s two top-seeded teams that fell in the Div. II semifinals to eventual section champions. And with his older brother gone, the offensive line was left in the capable hands of Aaron to lead for one final shot at reaching new postseason heights.
At 6-foot-8 and 350 pounds, Aaron Cochran is an imposing presence who demands respect and attention from opposing defenses and teammates. As
With 6-foot-8 offensive lineman aaron Cochran, Buhach Colony seeks first SJS finals appearance
By Jim mccue | Senior Contributor
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the lone returning starter from the offensive line that powers the Thunder’s dangerous fly offense, Cochran has rallied all of his teammates in the quest for breaking new ground in the playoffs.
A soft-spoken giant on and off the field, Cochran leads by example and picks his spots to voice his opin-ion with teammates. His quiet leadership has directed the team toward collective success rather than personal milestones.
“Aaron is exactly that guy,” Swartwood said of what makes a team player. “He’s not about the glory, but is all about the team.”
Thus far, Cochran and his Thunder teammates have compiled a 10-2 record that includes a third consecutive Central California Conference title. Buhach Colony will face Folsom in the semifinals of the Div. II playoffs with the hopes of reaching its first-ever SJS final.
The Thunder is hopeful it will achieve greater success as the underdog than it did as the favorite the past two seasons. In both 2010 and 2011, Buhach Colony entered the playoffs undefeated and did not get its first taste of defeat until it resulted in the end of its season. This year’s team, the No. 5 seed in the playoffs, is hoping early season losses can translate to playoff victories. Buhach Colony lost to Clovis North in Week 2 and suffered a 36-35 overtime defeat against Bay Area-power Serra-San Mateo 36-35 two weeks later.
“I definitely think (the more difficult schedule) has helped during league play and now in the playoffs,” Swartwood said. “The physicality of Clovis North taught us a good lesson, and I don’t think that we have been outhit since that game.”
Cochran echoed similar sentiments.“When we went into the playoffs undefeated, we had
not faced as much adversity,” the senior lineman said. “We have a different outlook going into the playoffs and feel more battle-tested.”
Before the league season started, the Thunder was still in a transitional phase as the potent offense had yet to jell and reach previous levels of production. In 2010 and 2011, behind the steady blocking of Aaron and Matt Co-chran, Buhach Colony averaged more than 300 rushing yards per game and approached 10 yards per carry in each of those seasons.
In the first four weeks of 2012, senior running backs Stefon Gold and Leon Miles were finding the way a bit
tougher. The offense averaged less than 7 yards per car-ry. Since the losses, the running game has taken off with Gold and Miles making multiple trips to the end zone and the offense averaging nearly double digits per touch.
“It was a pretty tough transition because I was used to having much bigger guys lined up next to me in the past,” Cochran said of the new-look offensive line. “We have a bunch of average-sized guys, so I was skeptical at first about how well we would be able to run the ball.”
Cochran is happy to share credit with linemates Da-vid Waites, Christian Ochoa, Victor Garcia, and George Lopez, as well as tight end Rafael Sosa. After Cochran, just one player in the group weighs more than 230 pounds. But most observers, which include recruiters from around the nation, point to Cochran as the large straw that stirs the Thunder’s offensive drink.
“He is the whole package,” Swartwood said of the blue chip recruit. “From his behavior and effort to his physi-cal size, he has it all. His size is obviously his greatest asset, but his work ethic is pretty spectacular.”
That work ethic has translated into Cochran growing from a big body with little football experience (he had played just two years of organized football before enter-ing high school) to a big-time NCAA Div. I prospect and potential NFL blocker. Still, some opponents have doubts about a young man as large as Cochran being able to move well enough to block them.
“People underestimate my quickness and think that a big guy can’t get off the line like I do.”
With a nearly 90-inch wingspan, Cochran can reach out and flatten opposing linemen or opt to pull around the end of the line to seek out unfortunate linebackers and defensive backs as he looks to clear a path for his runners.
The next path the huge lineman hopes to clear will be through the same Folsom team that abruptly ended the Thunder’s season two years ago.
“I’d be lying to say it wouldn’t be sweeter to beat them, but the satisfaction of reaching the section final would be greater than any revenge,” Cochran said of his team’s focus. “We really just want to get past the semifinals and reach the section finals for the first time.”
And a berth in the CIF Division II Regional final at Sacramento State would surely deserve attention and re-spect for a program and community thirsting for it. ✪
“aaron is exactly that guy. he’s not about the glory, but is all
about the team.”Head coach Kevin Swartwood
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Hard and fast greens at Red Hill Country Club in Rancho Cucamonga made for a challenging day for the 54-golfer field at the 2012 CIF Girls’ State Golf
Championship.And in an event that has historically been dominated by
Southern California participants, the NorCal contingent bat-tled respectably — placing a team inside the top three and pair of individuals inside the top 10.
Granite Bay’s Paige Lee was Northern California’s top in-dividual, as the senior claimed a top-10 finish for the second straight year with a 5-over 79. It was a solo ninth-place fin-ish for Lee, who finished in a 12-golfer tie for eighth place in 2011. She also qualified for the tournament as a sophomore in 2010.
“Qualifying for State three years in a row means so much for me,” Lee said. “(Playing at State) shows me where my game stands against some of the best California golfers.”
She attributed the difficulty of the greens to the higher scores from the entire field, and pointed to her putting as the one component of her game that could have pushed her far-ther up the leaderboard.
“I think if more of my puts dropped, things might have been different,” she said via text message. “Just from putting alone, I could have improved my score by at least four strokes.”
Her 79 was five strokes off the winning pace set by Torrey Pines’ Minjia Luo, who won the individual title along with the Falcons’ team title. Diamond Bar finished second as a team, 19 strokes back of Torrey Pines. And, in a bit of a surprise, third place belonged to Mission San Jose-Fremont as it edged out Palm Desert by a stroke.
It was the second straight state appearance for the Warriors, though less may have been expected of them this year after they finished third at the NorCal Tournament behind Foot-hill-Pleasanton and St. Francis-Sacramento. However, at Red Hill they were 13 strokes better than Foothill and 19 better than St. Francis.
Foothill’s sister engine of seniors Alex and Katie Sborov still showed well, as they each landed inside the Top 17 finishers. Alex fired an 80 and Katie was one stroke behind her at 81.
And while St. Francis finished in sixth place, the future is bright for the Troubadours. With just one senior in the team’s starting six, St. Francis will return the majority of its players
noT BackInG downThe State Girls Golf
Championship tends to be a SoCal affair, but that didn’t stop a few NorCal standouts
from crashing the partyBy Jim mccue | Senior Contributor
Butch NobleGranite Bay senior Paige Lee lines up a putt during the
SJS Masters Tournament. She finished up her high school career with a second straight Top 10 finish at the CIF
State Championships on Nov. 12.
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leaDerboarDFollowing are the team standings and the top
individuals from the CIF Girls State Champion-ship Tournament held on Nov. 12 at Red Hill Country Club in Rancho Cucamoga. Par was 74.
teAm reSultSTorrey Pines-San Diego ................................401 Diamond Bar ..................................................420Mission San Jose-Fremont ...........................439Palm Desert ...................................................440Foothill-Pleasanton ........................................452St. Francis-Sacramento ................................458
toP individuAlSMinjia Luo (TP) ................................................74Esther Lee (Los Alamitos) ...............................75Sarah Cho (TP) ...............................................76 Jessica Vasilic (Canyon-Anaheim) .................77Elizabeth Bernabe (Canyon) ..........................77Alice Jeong (North Torrance) ..........................78Haley Moore (San Pasqual) ...........................78 Lilia Vu (Fountain Valley) .................................78Paige Lee (Granite Bay) .................................79Alex Sborov (Foot) .........................................80 Sandy Choi (TP) ..............................................80Katie Sborov (Foot) .........................................81Grace Park (Cupertino) ...................................81Isabella Bosetti (Justin-Siena) ........................81Jiyoon Jang (PD) .............................................81Bethany Wu (DB) ............................................81Kristie Yang (DB) .............................................81
to make another run at State in 2013.
Junior Emily Laskin, who is likely to lead that charge, was the team’s low scorer in Rancho Cu-camonga despite battling pneu-monia. She shot an 88, but felt that she could have done better despite the illness.
“I was disappointed that I shot 88, knowing that I could have done better even being sick,” she said via text while continuing to recover. “I learned a lot and hope to make it next year to make a good last impression.”
Sara Scarlett, the Sac Joaquin Section Masters champion, fin-ished tied for 18th after firing an 82 on the difficult course. With practice rounds on the course not allowed, first-time players such as Scarlett lack the course knowledge to be familiar with where to best miss shots.
“Overall, the scores were high, but I have no doubt that I could have performed better,” said Scarlett, who will head to the University of Texas to continue playing after graduation in the Spring. “It was a great experi-ence, though.” ✪
Mark HirschThe Mission San Jose girls golf team is all smiles as it holds up its scorecard to cele-
brate a third-place finish at the state tournament. It was the second straight CIF appear-ance for the Warriors, who finished fourth in 2011.
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As the winningest boys’ soccer coach in state history, Jesuit-Carmichael’s Paul Rose is no stranger to his Marauders claiming Sac-Joaquin Sec-tion titles. But the fact that this year’s team, ranked No. 3 nationally in
the National Soccer Coaches Association of America rankings, won the pro-gram’s tenth section championship with such ease was a mild surprise to Rose, who is in his 34th year of coaching.
“It was a little bit of a surprise, but we scored very quickly and played very well in big games this year,” he said. “I felt that if we got an early goal that it would lead to more goals.”
That was certainly the case as Jesuit jumped out to a quick lead en route to a 5-0 victory in which Rose was able to clear his bench and get his full roster playing time in the section final.
The Marauders (27-1-1) expected a strong challenge from the Grizzlies, who handed Jesuit its lone tie early in the season, but overwhelmed Granite Bay in the final as they did to so many teams throughout the season.10
big Nationally-ranked Jesuit wraps up 10th SJS title in dominating fashion; Bella Vista scraps out another title
By Jim mccue | Senior Contributor
21SportStars™Support Your Local Business • Say You Found Them In SportStars™ November 22, 2012
Senior midfielder Niko Hansen and a deep compliment of talented teammates made sure that Granite Bay (20-4-1) had no chance in the title match. Hansen scored in the second min-ute of play by flicking in a corner kick sent into the middle by Anthony Ayala, and added two more goals to record hat tricks in both the section semifinals and finals.
“Niko has a nice combination of speed, strength, quickness, and skill that make him very difficult to defend,” Rose said of the team’s leading scorer. “He is special, for sure, but it helps if you have more than one talented player attacking.”
Rose said senior strikers Kaba Alkebulan and Miguel De Sousa, and junior Evan Barrett comprised “the best front line I have seen in my 34 years of coaching.” And the trio made Han-sen a more dangerous threat.
Barrett added a goal in the eighth minute to break the game open, and the offense rolled the rest of the afternoon. The quick strikes ensured that the Marauders would not have to endure the heartbreak of a section final loss in penalty kicks, as they did a year ago against longtime rival Davis.
With the scoring handled, Jesuit’s stingy defense anchored by sophomore goalkeeper Luc Barbe recorded its 23rd shutout of the season to tie a state record.
The Division I championship was Jesuit’s third in the last four years. Granite Bay, making its first appearance in the top division, finished as runner-up for the second consecutive year. The Grizzlies fell to Bella Vista in the Division II final in 2011.
Doug Guler photosleFt: Jesuit defender Evan Glass (13) is fired up after goalkeeper Luc Barbe (in red) makes a save during the Marauders’ win. Above: Kaba Alkebulan, a
senior striker for Jesuit, heads the ball past Granite Bay’s Daniel Sedin.
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DIvIsIon IIbella vista-fair oaks 2, turlock 1 (bella vista won 5-4 on penalty kicks)
The Broncos found themselves in unfamiliar territory before finding their way to a familiar spot at the top of the Div. II field. Bella Vista (20-0-2) trailed at halftime for the first time all season, and needed an extra round of penalty kicks to finally vanquish pesky Turlock to win its second consecutive Div. II title and fourth in seven years.
“I didn’t worry too much about the fact that they scored,” Bella Vista coach Zack Contreras said of his team’s halftime deficit. “I knew that we would score, but just didn’t know when or how many.”
After the intermission, it took just four minutes to deadlock the score at 1-1, but the Broncos could not pen-etrate the Bulldogs’ crowded defensive set for the remain-der of the game and overtime. Only Matt Waldron found the back of the Turlock net when Stefan Sarkovich sent a corner kick to the near post that Trevor Jackson headed on to Waldron for the equalizer.
With the score tied, Bella Vista dominated the posses-sion, but would have to rely on its freshman goalkeeper to preserve the team’s unblemished record and first-ever back-to-back section titles.
Drake Callendar, one of just three underclassmen in the Broncos’ starting lineup, saved two penalty kicks, including the final attempt by Turlock to extend the tie-breaker further. After senior Tyler Miguel buried the ball in the back of the net to give Bella Vista the advantage, Callendar blocked a hard shot to set off the Broncos’ cel-ebration.
“It would have been disappointing to lose with the team we had,” Contreras said. “With the caliber of play-ers we had, anything short of a championship would have been tough to take.”
DIvIsIon IIIriver valley-Yuba City 2, Central valley-Ceres 0
Alfredo Hernandez scored both goals for the Falcons (10-2-3), who handed Central Valley its third title match loss in four years. River Valley relied on its defense and taking advantage of the few opportunities on offense that it had to capture the Div. III championship. Often load-ing their own penalty box with six or seven defenders, the Falcons frustrated and stymied Central Valley’s po-tent offense, which featured a pair of talented attackers in Diego Duran (22 goals) and Omar Orozco (19 goals). River Valley goalkeeper Triston Montoya made just three saves for the shutout as the Hawks (24-3-2) could not fin-ish despite dominating possession for most of the match.
DIvIsIon Ivvista del lago-folsom 1, Galt 0
The Eagles capped their season with a third consecu-tive Div. IV title with a narrow defeat of their Sierra Val-ley Conference rival. Vista del Lago (14-2-2) had split a pair of regular season games with Galt (17-4-1), but won the important rubber match. Matt Raymond set up Will Dubay for the game’s lone score and the Eagles posted their seventh shutout of the season. Vista del Lago did not allow a goal in three playoff games, outscoring op-ponents 4-0 in the postseason. ✪
Bella Vista’s Mathew Waldron, left, scored the Broncos’ only goal in regulation as the Div. II final was decided on penalty
kicks after the teams finished in a 1-1 tie.
24 SportStars™ Upload photos and team stats! www.SportStarsOnline.comNovember 22, 2012
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leFt: El Camino senior Cassidy Denny embraced her leadership role to lead the Eagles back to a championship after the 2011 team graduated six seniors. Above: Oakmont coach Shelby Weinberger, center, admitted to her team being a little intimidated by the championship setting before regrouping to win the program’s first title.
25SportStars™Support Your Local Business • Say You Found Them In SportStars™ November 22, 2012
The 2012 Sac-Joaquin Section Girls Volleyball Cham-pionships had a very familiar look. Finalists from the top four divisions were returning to UC Davis to de-
fend their titles or make another run at a championship after falling last year.
In Division II, the El Camino Eagles were seeking a second consecutive title, but coach Martin Soyama’s team had a very different look from the 2011 squad.
After six seniors graduated, including the majority of the Eagles’ starting rota-tion, few observers believed El Camino would make a return trip to the finals.
“All year long, we really wanted to prove people wrong and show them we were just as good as last year’s team,” se-nior Cassidy Denny said.
As one of the few returning players with extensive playing time, Denny as-sumed a leadership role. The outside hit-ter was ready to replace graduating star Natalie Riddering at outside hitter, and she wanted her supporting cast to hit the ground running as well.
Soyama’s team escaped a grueling pre-season schedule with just three losses — all to Div. I powers — and a feeling that all would be well in defense of the Eagles’ Capital Athletic League and section titles. El Camino (33-5) shared the league title with rival Rio Americano and contin-ued to jell as a unit.
“I started talking to the girls during the summer to establish chemistry,” Denny said. “My sophomores trusted me enough to follow me and I trusted them to pick me up and lead the team when we needed them to do so.”
The end result of the Eagles’ trust and hard work was a 25-19, 22-25, 25-23, 25-18 victory over Gregori-Modesto. El Camino also earned a home match to open the CIF Northern Regional Championships against Chico.
Sophomores Mikaela Nocetti (outside hitter), Devin Her-
enda (setter), and Elizabeth Dahlberg (middle blocker) rose to the occasion all season long and the playoffs were no exception.
“I am so proud of my sophomores and the whole team,” Denny said. “We have grown so much throughout the year, and their development took pressure off of me. Now, we just want to go out and keep proving people wrong.”
DIvIsIon ISt. Francis d. Granite Bay 3-0: The most familiar face at
the SJS Volleyball Championships may be St. Francis coach Alynn Wright. Her St. Francis team claimed its 12th section title overall and second in a row with a 25-23, 25-14, 25-10 sweep of No. 2 seed Granite Bay. In contrast to El Camino, the Troubadours (35-2) graduated just one player from their 2011 championship team and fielded perhaps the program’s most talented and deepest roster ever. Seniors Gabrielle Palm-eri, Loni Kreun, Hannah Liserra, and Allie Wegener led St. Francis during a season in which even set losses were a rarity.
St. Francis earned the No. 1 seed for the NorCal playoffs and an opening match at home against Skyline-Oakland. With a goal of a state title established at the start of the season, Wright’s talented Troubadours have a very good shot at add-ing a second CIF State Championship to the coach’s impres-sive resume. St. Francis won the state crown in 2005.
DIvIsIon IIIOakmont d. Vista del Lago 3-2: When Section Commis-
sioner Pete Saco met with the finalists in the tunnel to go over the logistics for the evening, he asked the coaches and players if they knew what to expect and where to go for pregame in-troductions at the venue. Oakmont coach Shelby Weinberger and her top-seeded Vikings were the only ones who quietly raised their hands to get further instructions.
“I think all of the girls were nervous being in that venue and the setting,” Weinberger said. “I was nervous, too.”
The second-year coach even forgot to bring her own vol-leyballs for pregame warmups and had to borrow some from Bear River-Grass Valley for serving and hitting drills before the team’s match with two-time defending champ Vista del Lago.
Oakmont (34-2) remained nervous and fell behind the Eagles two games to none before turning around the match
to justify their No. 1 seed and continue their dream season.“We knew we had to come back and lay it all on the line
after going down 2-0,” the coach said. “I told the girls to for-get about the crowded venue, and just play volleyball like they know how to do.”
While the Vikings may not have known how to march out before the championship match, they did know how to cele-brate after pulling off a 16-25, 20-25, 27-25, 25-18, 15-4 come-back victory to claim the school’s first girls volleyball title.
Middle blockers Maura Uebner and Kyra Rogers slowed down the Vista del Lago attack and senior outside hitter Katie Carle put the offense on her shoulders and carried the team to victory with a team-high 25 kills. “She was our go-to girl,” Weinberger said. “Everyone looked to her when it got tough out there and she was just amazing.”
Vista del Lago (24-12) could not three-peat as section champs, but reaching the final match was an accomplishment for the Eagles. Playing most of the season without senior out-side hitter Caroline Sipiora, who suffered a major knee injury in the offseason, the team persevered to claim another Sierra Valley Conference title and the No. 2 seed. Sipiora returned in October, but contributed only as a defensive specialist, which shuffled the team’s lineup. Senior Kelsey Sampson assumed the lead role on offense, and nearly helped the program claim a third straight title in Division III.
Oakmont was overlooked at the start of the season, but has won 14 straight matches heading into the NorCal tournament.
“If we didn’t win the section title, it would still be a great season, but I don’t know if we would have felt like it would have been complete,” Weinberger said. “I think we really wanted that to show we deserve to be among the best teams.”
DIvIsIon IvBear River d. Ripon Christian, 3-1: The Bruins (30-12) re-
turned to the finals and completed the job they couldn’t quite finish in 2011. Bear River downed perennial small-school power Ripon Christian 25-22, 20-25, 25-19, 25-23. Senior Sara Schell lead the Bruins in her final playoff run. Schell had 18 kills, four aces, 21 digs, and three blocks to overpower the Knights (28-7). Bear River earned a home opener in the Nor-Cal playoffs against Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa (25-8). ✪
El Camino, St. Francis each earn back-to-back titles; Oakmont claims firstBy Jim mccue | Senior Contributor
26 SportStars™ Upload photos and team stats! www.SportStarsOnline.comNovember 22, 2012
Close to eight months since the Newark Memorial High boys basketball team saw it’s California Interscholastic Federation Northern Regional Division II run end with a loss to eventual state champ Archbishop Mitty-San Jose, Joey Frenchwood remembers the post-game locker room scene like it was yes-terday.
“It was sad at first,” said Frenchwood, who is a captain this year. “We were like a family. We were losing six seniors and it was like we can’t play basketball anymore.”
Ah, but a new season always dawns.Frenchwood and the new-look Cougars look
to start the new basketball season on the right foot when they host the 6th Annual Nor Cal Tip Off Classic on Nov. 24. The showcase
event, which in recent years has seemed to mark the official “start” to the boys basketball
season in the Bay Area, features seven games on its slate this season. Newark Memorial takes on Castro Valley in the sixth game of the day at approximately 7 p.m.
Among the seniors the Cougars will be replacing this season is Casey Norris, a four-year varsity player and the unquestion-able leader of the 2011-12 team.
“Casey’s always real calm,” said Frenchwood, who in the offseason played for the Oakland Rebels Red AAU team. “He never gets real irritated on the court. … At certain times, he knew when to take over. When he was a junior, I was a fresh-man. He’d do stuff like that so that was a learning experience for me.”
Now it’s Frenchwood’s turn to take on that leadership role. A defensive stopper and one of the key ingredients to Newark Me-morial’s postseason run last year, he’s relishing the opportunity.
“Last year, Casey led the team. I feel like I’m gonna take over the leadership role, so I’m gonna have to be the one who steps up,” Frenchwood said.
Joining the fiery junior as captain is big man Damien Banford, whose football season just ended on Nov. 17. There’s also Sul-tan Siddiq, Josef Zamora and Matthew Thomas. Coach Craig Ashmore should have the luxury of a deep bench once again.
Winning the first game of the season sets a positive tone. Last year, Newark Memorial defeated Deer Valley in the Nor Cal Tip Off Classic, which worked as a barometer for gauging where they stand in the competitive Bay Area landscape.
“We were hearing that Marcus Lee was a top recruit and we won pretty easily,” Frenchwood said. “That gave us the confi-dence that we could beat anybody.”
The 74-58 win over Deer Valley sparked a season-long run that featured a 12-game winning streak, the school’s first NCS title since 2000, and getting one game from the state champion-ship before giving Mitty, back-to-back Div. II state champs, all it could handle.
What’s in store for this season? Frenchwood said winning state is the goal and it all starts against Castro Valley, a school that was also one game from the state title in the 2010-2011 season before being upset by De La Salle.
“A couple of their players were AAU teammates of mine,” Frenchwood said of Castro Valley. “I know they’re gonna be good.”
– Erik Stordahl, SportStars
Bay Area Must Go
6th annUal nor Cal tIp off sCheDUle
ALL GAMES ON SAT., NOv. 24, AT NEWARK memoriAl hS
11 a.m. Dublin vs. Freedom-Oakley12:30 p.m. Heritage-Brentwood vs. McNair-Stockton2:15 p.m. St. Patrick-St. Vincents-Vallejo vs. Pleasant Grove-Elk Grove3:45 p.m. El Cerrito vs. Miramonte-Orinda5:30 p.m. McClymonds-Oakland vs. Antelope7 p.m. Newark Memorial vs. Castro Valley8:30 p.m. Deer Valley-Antioch vs. Sacramento
1
nor Cal tIp off ClassIC, nov. 24, neWark memorIal hIGh
Jonathan HawthorneNewark Memorial junior guard Joey Frenchwood
takes on a leadership role for the Cougars this year.
27SportStars™Support Your Local Business • Say You Found Them In SportStars™
boYs basketballArchbishop Mitty-San Jose at Sheldon-Sacramento, Dec. 8, 7 p.m.
— How can we not list a matchup between the two-time defending CIF Division II state champions (Mitty) and last year’s Div. I state runners-up? We can’t. Embrace it. Mitty features senior center and national recruit Aaron Gordon, who recently narrowed his college list
to Arizona, Washington and Kentucky. Sheldon returns a pair of starters, Dakarai Allen and D’Erryl Williams III, who have already committed to San Diego State.
November 22, 2012
GIrls volleYballCIF State Championships, Concordia University, Irvine, Dec. 1, all
day — For the past two seasons, the California girls volleyball world has belonged to the North. NorCal has won eight of the past 10 state titles, with the Central Coast, North Coast and Sac-Joaquin Sections all getting in on the fun. Can it continue? Maybe not at an 80 percent
clip — the South didn’t dominate for a decade for no reason — but there are plenty of NorCal programs who hope to have a say, including Campolindo-Moraga, which claimed the 2010 state title and is the top seed in Division III. If you can’t get to Irvine, games are likely to be both telecast and webcast. We’ll post that information to our Facebook and Twitter sites, so be sure you’re liking and following us (@SportStarsMag).
maGaZIne hUntSportStars 2012-13 Basketball Preview Issue release, throughout
the Bay Area, Dec. 6, all day. — If you couldn’t tell from our No. 1 entry on this list, the hoops season is here. What better way to kick off a month of tournament-crazed weekends then to pick up our fully-loaded preview, set to include both boys and girls features, preseason
rankings, players to watch, predictions and more.
boYs basketballChris vontoure Spartan Classic, De La Salle HS, Concord, Dec.
6-8 — The first of several boys tournaments is also one of the most competitive. Between host De La Salle and Deer Valley-Antioch, there are already two teams ranked among the Top 10 in CalHiSports.com’s preseason state rankings. Add in four more teams (Acalanes-Lafayette,
Fairfield, Serra-San Mateo, St. Patrick/St. Vincent-Vallejo) who had at least 18 wins a year ago and you’ve got the ingredients for three days of strong competition.
footballCIF Northern Regional Playoff Games, various sites, Dec. 7-8 —
For the first time, the CIF State Bowl Game participants are going to be determined through regional playoff games. We have no idea how this will turn out, or if this is the same format we’ll have five years from now, but we say bring an open mind and enjoy what should be some
pretty enticing NorCal matchups. Dates, times and broadcasts are still to be determined, so watch our Facebook and Twitter feeds to find out specifics.
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5sac joaquin Must Go
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7boYs soCCer
Cathedral Catholic-San Diego at De La Salle, Dec. 15, 7 p.m. — Much like De La Salle’s ‘Chris
Vontoure Spartants Clas-sic’ tournament is the first
notable boys hoops tourney of December, the De La Salle Soccer Showcase is the first major boys soccer event of the winter season in the Bay Area. The two-day showcase has been known to include as many of six matches on each day. The final match of the last day this year caught our attention as the host Spartans — four-time defending NCS champions — take on a Cathedral Catholic team that posted 18 wins and reached the San Diego Sec-tion Div. III final a year ago.
8football
CIF State Bowl Champion-ship Games, Home De-pot Center, Carson, Dec. 14-15 — After the North
returned from Carson with four state titles in 2010, the
South re-asserted its dominance a year ago. Only De La Salle won (a 35-0 shutout of Westlake-Westlake Village in the Open Division). Might things even out this year? And how much will the regional playoff games the week before play a factor? We look forward to finding out. Per usual, the Small School and Division I games will be Friday night, and Division III, II and Open are Saturday. If you can’t go, these games will be broadcast up North, so don’t fret.
9WrestlInG
lou bronzan Invitational, Liberty High, Brentwood,
dec. 21-22 — Any self-
respecting wrestling fan in the Bay Area knows that the Lou Bronzan is the first local tournament to pay attention to. The host Lions are peren-nial contenders, and they typically bring in a number of top Bay Area programs to grapple with. This year’s list includes De La Salle and James Logan.
10GIrls basketball
West Coast Jamboree, East Bay Area, vari-ous sites, Dec. 27-29 — The mammoth girls basketball event celebrates its 13th year, and will once again have
well more than 100 teams on hand for its
multiple-bracket affair. For girls hoops fans, there’s no better way to spend the second half of your Holiday break than flitting around to various gyms to see some of the top girls basketball talent in the Bay Area and beyond. For a full list of participants and the an-nouncement of the brackets, keep an eye on the tournament’s site, www.westcoastjamboree.com
2012 WCJ MVP Jordin Canada of
Windward-LAPhillip Walton
28 SportStars™ Upload photos and team stats! www.SportStarsOnline.comNovember 22, 2012
More than 350 bowl-ers converged on Mardi Gras Lanes in Sacramento on Nov. 10 to participate in the Special Olympics’ 2012 Sacramento Bowling Championship.
Athletes from Sacra-mento, Yolo, El Dorado, and Placer Counties filled the alley along with 120 volunteers for a day filled with strikes and smiles. At the same time, nearly 170 athletes bowled in Rocklin, and another Special Olym-pics bowling competition took place in Stockton later in the week.
In all, more than 600 Special Olympics athletes spread their spirit and joy for competing throughout Sacramento and the Cen-tral Valley. SportStars pho-tographer James K. Leash came away with these images after attending the Sacramento competition.
For a schedule of Special Olympics events to participate in as an athlete or volunteer, please visit the Special Olympics of Northern California website at www.sonc.org. The orga-nization’s headline event is the Summer Games, which take place each year on the UC Davis campus.
—SportStars
29SportStars™Support Your Local Business • Say You Found Them In SportStars™ November 22, 2012
FAR LEFT (Clockwise from top): Anissa Zaragosa of Team Davis proudly points to her score. A sea of volunteers in neon green spread out to help the bowlers. Everybody bowls; everybody medals. A group of Laurel Ruff Tigers that includes Candice Blackman, Jasmine Dickson-Sherman, Riley Sturdevant, Erin Jappert, Nick Mahoney and Sierra Wise. center: Laurel Ruff Tiger, Elizabeth Shaw cracks a wide grin as she gets ready to bowl. Above: Laurel Ruff Tigers’ Candice Blackman, top, and Team Davis’ Tyler Sierras both strut their stuff after a strong frame.Photos by James K. Leash
30 SportStars™ Upload photos and team stats! www.SportStarsOnline.comNovember 22, 2012
casimir Joseph banaszek II isn’t your typical grammar school physical education instructor.
Most grade school PE teachers aren’t 67-years old and ex-professional football players.
But at the Meadow School in Petaluma, the grandfather of five and former San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman, not only instructs the kids in a unique type of PE, the “knowledgeable teddy bear,” as principle Melissa Becker calls him, is the school’s only PE teacher.
In fact, Banaszek, who for three years has been teaching 22 half-hour periods a week at Meadow to supplement physical education instruction given by the kids’ regu-lar teachers, is the only PE teacher in the two-school Waugh District – and he accepts
Petaluma’s Gentle Giant
Former 49ers All-Pro
lineman Cas Banaszek continues to
make impact
By hArold Abend | Contributor
Cas Banaszek, right, and Steve Spurrier were both first-round selections of the 49ers in 1967. Contributed photo
32 SportStars™ Upload photos and team stats! www.SportStarsOnline.comNovember 22, 2012
no pay to boot.“He’s an amazing man,” Becker said. “One of the kindest
men I know. I like the fact he’s old school, not just teaching but he encourages the kids and gives them hugs.
“At his age and situation he could be doing whatever he wants. Instead he’s choosing to invest his time in children at no pay. He’s the real deal. The whole staff loves having him here and the kids really look forward to his class. I can’t imagine not having him.”
Banaszek is not new to teaching physical education. Despite being a first-round choice of the 49ers and the 11th player taken overall in the 1967 draft, Cas had an off-season job like most players back then.
“The first three years in the NFL, I taught school back home in the off season,” said Banaszek, who after graduat-ing from Gordon Tech Catholic in Chicago went on to star at Northwestern.
Not only does the staff love Banaszek, the kids love “Coach B,” too.
“I give them options,” Banaszek said. “An ideal class is 20-
25 kids so if I can have four activities going with six in each activity. The kids get exercise. They can play basketball, vol-leyball, tetherball, wall ball, kick baseball, dodge ball, football, tag games, or running.”
Cole Becker, another third-grader and the principal’s son, claims those sports are just scratching the surface.
“He lets us play capture the flag too,” the third-grader said. “And cops and robbers.”
◆ ◆ ◆“Its unfortunate so many schools have cut PE, but I love
it here and the kids love me, Banaszek said. “It’s a win-win situation.”
Banaszek has another connection to Meadow School that’s tearing at his heart right now.
His 12-year old grandson c.J. (Casimir Joseph Banaszek IV), a student at Meadow, is waging a courageous battle against chronic myeloid leukemia, a bone marrow disease that rarely affects children. C.J. is currently undergoing a sec-ond round of chemotherapy in wait of a second bone marrow transplant after the first one didn’t take.
Harold AbendCaz Banaszek, here with students Bryce Olson, Cole Becker and Sophia Kandler, has become a beloved
volunteer physical education teacher at Meadow School in Petaluma.
sportstars norCal top 20 EDITOR’S NOTE: These rankings were compiled
once all regular season games were finished through-out the six Northern California sections. The next update will come following the CIF Northern Regional bowl games on Dec. 7-8.
All records through Nov. 10Rank (Last Wk.) School Record1. (1) De La Salle-Concord 10-02. (2) Bellarmine-San Jose 9-13. (3) Franklin-Elk Grove 11-04. (4) Folsom 11-05. (6) Elk Grove 10-16. (5) Serra-San Mateo 8-27. (7) Placer-Auburn 11-08. (8) Marin Caholic-Kentfield 10-19. (9) St. Mary’s-Stockton 9-210. (10) Burbank-Sacramento 11-011. (11) Oak Ridge-El Dorado Hills 10-112. (13) California-San Ramon 8-213. (14) Buhach Colony-Atwater 9-214. (NR) Granite Bay 8-315. (15) Oakdale 3-116. (16) Oak Grove-San Jose 10-017. (17) James Logan-Union City 10-118. (18) Freedom-Oakley 9-219. (19) El Cerrito 11-020. (20) Clayton Valley-Concord 9-1
top 20 faCts-fIGUres-falloUt■ droPPed out: Archbishop Mitty-San Jose■ biggeSt mover: It was clearly Granite Bay, which after a 1-3 start to the season quickly morphed back into the juggernaut many expected it to be. The Grizzlies forced their way back into the poll at No. 14 with seven straight wins that included a perfect run through the Sierra Foothill League. ■ teAmS remAining From PreSeASon toP 20: 10■ KNOCKING AT THE DOOR: Sutter (11-0), Analy-Sebastapol (11-0), Rancho Cotate-Rohnert Park (11-0), Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa (10-1), Inderkum-Sacramento (9-2), Archbishop Mitty-San Jose (7-3), Del Oro-Loomis (6-5)
33SportStars™Support Your Local Business • Say You Found Them In SportStars™ November 22, 2012
“It’s a day to day situation for C.J.,” Banaszek said. “All I can say is kudos to Petaluma and how they’ve supported him.”
When Banaszek leaves Meadow School he doesn’t head home or to the golf course. He heads over to Petaluma’s Casa Grande High School for football practice.
There he assists coach trent herzog and offensive line coach Frank giammona — all while mentoring some of the players.
“Trent is a great coach and a great young man, and Frank does a great job. I’m another set of eyes,” said Banaszek describing his role with the Casa Grande team that had its season end with a 14-6 North Coast Section quarterfinal loss to visiting Concord on Nov. 16. “The kids like it, knowing there’s a pro looking at them. I give them advice like bend your knee, get your hips through, and keep your head up. If I say something it lends some credence.”
It didn’t take long for the Gaucho players to pay attention when Banaszek spoke up.
“I call him OG, the original guard,” said 6-foot-1, 282-pound Washington-bound Elijah Qualls. “I saw pictures of him in high school and a little film. OG man, he’s the original.”
The former 49ers right tackle who played his entire 11-year pro career in San Fran-cisco, only started at Casa Grande three months ago, but he’s hooked.
“I haven’t had that feeling in 40-years since I left the Niners. It’s the Friday night lights, he said. “I look forward to it so much. If it hadn’t worked I’d have been out of there in a week.
“And the team has been unbelievable for C.J. He cherishes the helmet they gave him they all signed.”
◆ ◆ ◆With everything he’s doing in retirement,
when does Banaszek have time for family?His wife Diane, whom he met at North-
western, and married the same year he was drafted by the 49ers, is busy in her own right.
She’s the head of marketing for Apple American Group, where she and Cas are partners in 436 Applebee’s restaurants in 13 states.
The couple opened an Applebee’s 20-years ago in Santa Rosa, moved to Peta-luma 11-years ago, and eventually operated six stores in the North Bay before joining Apple American Group seven years ago.
Their son cas iii also works for Apple American. He’s C.J.’s father and also has a daughter named gabby, a freshman at Casa Grande, playing varsity volleyball.
After leaving the 49ers and before Apple-bee’s, Banaszek worked for 20 years in Silicon Valley selling electronics components while he and Diane lived on the Peninsula raising Cas III and daughter, Jennifer, who lives and works at UC San Francisco.
His stint at Casa Grande isn’t his first as a coach, either. Banaszek coached two years at Cal under roger theder, and two years with the 49ers under Bill Walsh.
“I was in the press box on the headphones with Walsh when Dwight Clark made ‘The Catch,’” he said. “Roll right option was the play call.”
That was one of the few times he was able to get the best of the Cowboys.
As a player in the 1970-71 season — in the last game at Kezar Stadium — the 49ers were ahead in the NFC Championship game with just over a minute to play when Dallas scored and recovered an onside kick and score again in a bitter 17-10 49ers defeat.
In the following season, the 49ers went to Dallas for the NFC title game and lost 14-3. And the year after that, the Cowboys elimi-nated them 30-28 in the Divisional playoffs.
“I hate the Cowboys,” Banaszek said.Offensive linemen don’t get a lot of recogni-
tion, but as a player Banaszek was First Team All-Conference in both 1970 and 1971 and played in the Pro Bowl game both seasons.
“Cas is one of the greatest people I have ever come across,” Herzog said. “He’s very humble and friendly. He’s a great addition to our family at Casa Grande. A great coach, but a better person – a true gentle giant.”
One who has become an unsung hero to a lot of kids in Petaluma, small and big. ✪
“I call him OG, the original guard. I saw pictures of him in
high school and a little film. OG man, he’s the original.”
Elijah Qualls, Casa Grande-Petaluma football player
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Today I want to cover the subject of core training for performance with the intention of giving more of an un-
derstanding of what it is, why it’s important, and how it not only improves performance, but can go a long way in reducing injuries.
When I go off site for team training I usu-ally see the traditional type of core training that I believe most people think of: sit-ups, crunches, leg lifts and Russian twists. A lot of the training is focused on spinal flexion,
extension and rotation.The main job of your athlete’s
core is lumbar stability (lower back), which allows it to redis-tribute and redirect force through movement and posture. It’s essen-tial to get stability in the lumbar spine, not movement. If athletes train the core through spinal flex-ion, extension and rotation they are not efficient at redistributing and redirecting force.
RediSTRiBUTiON OF FORCe: Let’s use an example from Formula One. These cars are made to collapse and break apart on impact (redistribute the force to the car on impact so the driver assumes less force). If the car was not made this way, all the force would go directly to the driver, killing him on impact. We need to think of the spine in the same way. If we have a weak core (external obliques, hamstrings and glutes) leading to an anterior-tilted pelvis (forward tilt), the spine is in excessive hyper-extension. This leaves a very concentrated area of force to be redistributed where maybe two lumbar segments get excessively stressed resulting
in pain, injury (knees, ankles, lower back, shoulders, etc.) and decreased performance.
When the core is stable and strong and athletes have a more neutral position of the pelvis and spine, then the forces are redistributed throughout many of the lumbar segments of the spine resulting in a healthy and high-performing athlete.
RediReCTiON OF FORCe: Most elite athletes are built like tree trunks from their thighs up.
Let’s use Albert Pujols for an example: This guy is built like a Mack truck from his lower thighs, hamstrings, glutes and trunk. He has great stability, and when he goes to swing his bat, he produces a great amount of force into the ground from these powerful force producers. These forces then travel back up through his lower extremities and hips, and are redirected through his core, upper body, all the way through his bat, producing the force necessary to smash the ball out of the park.
Thus, the core is not a force producer, it’s a force transmitter. Athletes don’t need the
core to flex, rotate and extend their spine, they need it to produce stability (redistrib-ute) in the spine so it can optimally transmit force (redirect) from our power producers.
Yes, athletes need rotation and extension to produce forces, but it shouldn’t come from the spine. It should come from the lower and upper extremities. If an athlete wants to produce maximal strength, speed and power they must stabilize their body effectively.
Coaches and trainers need to under-stand not only the functional anatomy and how it works, but also how to properly assess athletes. This way coaches can make informed decisions on how to best program and coach their players. This requires more than just abdominal training and needs to be a systematic and progressive approach to developing the athlete’s core for maximiz-ing on-field performance and the long-term health of your athletes. ✪
Tim Rudd is an International Youth Condition-ing Association specialist in youth condi-tioning (level 3), speed and agility (level 2), and nutrition specialist (level 1). For more information on anything you read in Training Time, email him at [email protected].
November 22, 2012
Tim Rudd for IYCA Training Time
Reaching a CORE understanding: It’s all about stability
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Medial tibial stress syndrome, commonly referred to as shin splints, is the most common leg injury in distance runners.
This problem is primarily characterized as pain and tenderness when running, along the pos-teromedial tibial crest, where deep flexor muscles attach to the tibia. The pain will vary from mild to severe, and can be experienced before, during and after running. In more significant cases swelling can appear, and normal gait can be adversely af-fected, resulting in the dreaded forced abstinence from running.
So, what are the causes of shin splints, how should this condition be treated and can they be prevented?
The causes may be one, or more likely a combination, of several variables: from anatomical to bio-mechanical to training methods to footwear to training surfaces.
Anatomical factors may include high or low arches, hip angles or hypo/hyper mobility in foot and ankle joints. These factors may require solutions that include stability or mobil-ity training of muscles around the hip or ankle. But it is not conclusive that anatomy can be compensated for through exercise or stretching alone.
The bio-mechanical factor most often linked is excessive pronation at the ankle during running, a repetitive strain by nature. Pronation is a medial collapse of the arch and ankle during the loading stance phase of running when the most
force is placed on the foot and ankle. Muscles about the ankle have to work very hard to coun-teract this collapse and the result strains the tibia, where these muscles originate.
In response, the bone develops an imbalance between resorbtion of minerals and the formation of new bone. When a bone demineralizes faster than it heals, shin splints result and can progress to the “dreaded black line,” seen on an x-ray as a stress fracture.
Studies show the most significant factors in the development of shin splints are a sudden increase in work load and/or speed, and working on un-even surfaces. These problems can be mitigated by gradually increasing these variables and avoiding
sudden changes.Methods that have not been shown to be effective include
tapping, strapping and bracing, non-steroidal anti-inflamma-tory medications and — oddly enough – stretching. Off the shelf orthotics have shown promise in correcting the over-pronation problem of some runners.
If the problem becomes chronic or severe, consultation with a physician will be necessary to rule out a stress frac-ture. In these cases, sadly, the only solution is rest for four to eight weeks, possible vitamin/mineral nutritional supple-mentation, or cross training with pool work or cycling. Once pain-free, a gradual return to impact activities is imperative.
Rest is what frustrates a dedicated runner the most, but
rest is the best medicine. ✪
Bruce Valentine is a physical therapist assistant for the Sports Medicine For Young Athletes, a division of Children’s Hospital Oakland. Email him at [email protected].
November 22, 2012
Bruce Valentinehealth Watch
Causes of shin splints, and why the best medicine is rest
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anGrY bIrDs star WarsCould their timing be any more perfect? With the recent sale of LucasFilm to Disney for, like, a bajillion dollars, Star Wars Episode VII is all anyone can talk about. Rumors galore of who’s go-ing to direct and getting the old cast members back are flooding the Internet. Well, to help keep your mind razor sharp on it, you can download the latest Angry Birds entry for only 99 cents. Download it or don’t download it. There is no try (sorry, again).
WInDoWs 8After taking a backseat to Apple for so long, Microsoft is starting to make some headway. And it starts here. Windows 8 is touchscreen enabled and employs splitscreen, which means you can watch the Twilight se-ries on one side and The Avengers on the other. Though that doesn’t even begin to scratch the… surface! (sorry for that).
November 22, 2012
mIkeY shortsRun through each level as quickly, efficiently as you can.
Zookeeper DXThis is on the Gotta Have It level for everybody. Cap-ture as many as animals as you can, level up every time you get 100 of the same animal. Good stuff.
skYlanDers lost IslanDsCustomize your own island village, unlock skylanders and get in adventures.
IpaD mInIDisclaimer: This is a naive snap review of one of the more revolutionary products for our generation to behold. It’s the same awe-some iPad, only now it’s easier to hide in class or at home when you’re supposed to be doing homework. That’s probably the only advantage we can think of. And when the one advantage is making sure you don’t get caught, then what’s the point? Still, we want one of these.
WInDoWs sUrfaCeWe’re not gonna pretend we know everything about this thing and how it works. OK, we know very little. But what we can tell you is: 1) It’s a formidable opponent to the iPad, 2) It looks freakin’ awesome, 3) We want one, and 4) Now!
thIs Week In aDDICtInG Iphone GamesWarp that brain into mush
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