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1994
Sentinel’s Santa Cruz County Male Athletes Of The Year is shared by teammates Reggie Stephens who won the honor last year, but this year is sharing the honor with his good friend Jermaine Robinson. One could not be selected ahead of the other, they’re both that good The only other Cardinal to win the honor was Johnny Johnson in 1986. Johnson still holds the SCCAL rushing leader title.
When Reggie Stephens and Jermain Robinson first met, it wasn’t exactly a case of best buddies at first sight. Oh no. “We weren’t friends at all,” remembers Stephens.
As a freshman, Stephens was new, the speedy kid from Louisiana. Robinson was the next big local star, the hot shot from Mission Hill Junior High. And, frankly, Stephens was a threat to Robinson’s province as that class’s best athlete.
“He just didn’t act right yet,” said Robinson. “I didn’t even like his voice.”
Robinson wasn’t too fond of hearing from others about this new kid, either. “Some of my friends would be saying, “Hey, look at that guy, he’s faster than you Jermaine. He hits harder.”
Soon, though, they were the best of friends and dominating the athletic fields together. As Robinson tells the tale, his girlfriend’s best friend had eyes for Stephens. So they soon began to hang out together, and just like that, they were inseparable.
They still are. Local sports fans can hardly mention one’s name without the other. Now they are the Sentinel’s Santa Cruz County Male Athletes of the Year. One could not be selected ahead of the other, they’re both that good. Consider there accomplishments.
Football: Stephens and Robinson led the Cardinals to their first league title since 1967. Robinson, the quarterback/kick returner, and Stephens, the running back, dominated the league with their combination of speed and elusiveness. They were both star defensive players, as well, roaming the defensive backfield. The Cards reached 12-0 before finally losing in the section title game to St. Francis.
Basketball: Another season, another league title for Robinson and Stephens. Santa Cruz went 10-2 in Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League play, and then won the post season league tournament. Stephens was third in the league in scoring (17.5 points game) and Robinson was fifth (15.4).
Track and field. Yet another league title, this time for the Santa Cruz boys track team, which dominated the SCCAL championships. While Robinson didn’t enjoy much success in the post season meets, Stephens reached the section finals in the 100, long jump and with Robinson in the 400 relay.
What a ride. And it wasn’t just this year. Since their freshman years, both athletes have participated in sports year around. They was no rest for these two.
“People think we have the summer to rest,” said Robinson. “But we don’t. We’re working out, getting ready for football.”
But not this summer. Robinson said he is not going to play next year at Cabrillo, instead choosing to concentrate on academics, to get the classes he needs to transfer to a four-year school and to retain his eligibility.
Stephens is still undecided. He, too, will attend Cabrillo, but may play football. He can’t quite decide. Both are certain to transfer after a year or two and play Division I football somewhere. While both are accomplished athletes, and earned all the accolades they’ve received, there is more to these two than meets the eye.
Stephens if a budding songwriter. He likes to compose rap songs. He says that is his release, his relaxation. And he’s not into violent lyrics. “It’s more laid-back, mellow,” he said. He’s also into old music–the Isley Brothers and Beatles, for example. He says he likes to prowl record stores in search of the classics. “It’s weird,” he said, “you can take an old song, re-arrange it, and bring it up to date.”
He’s working on getting a tape together and hopes to continue composing songs.
Robinson says he’s going to major in the culinary sciences in college. “I love cooking,” he said. “My favorite thing is pancakes. I cooked for Reg once, made steak and macaroni and cheese. And he ate it.”
Comparison of the 1994 SC football team with the rest of the better SC football teams from the past by the Sentinel.
All-Time Leaders in SCHS Football. ‘94 Cards Earn Special Place In SCHS History. Deep in a back closet of the SCHS Alumni office sits ancient, yellowed school newspapers and annuals dating back to the early 1900’s. (Most of early material on this web site came from this material.) They are a reminder that this is an old and storied school, one rich in tradition and life. The school opened in 1870 on the site of Mission Hill Junior High now. But finding facts about the school’s football history way back is no easy task. For sure, SC has fielded football teams since at least 1905, when the rivalry with Watsonville began. While the history of SC football is incomplete and not exactly loaded with championships, some tidbits of information have been unearthed.
*The 1927 team won the “A Section” of the CCAL. (The A section was composed of Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Salinas, Hollister and Monterey.) The “Fighting Cardinals” were led by team captain Louis Rittenhouse, an end, to the schools only title to date.
*In 1929, new coach Melvyl “Megs” Dressel, led the team to a 6-2 record. But it was not without struggles. Apparently the boys had a difficult time adjusting to Dressel’s new approach, called the “Hollingbery System.” It is named for Babe Holingsberry, who coached at Washington State from 1926-42 and were Dressel played. The system emphasizes defense and the kicking game.
*The following season, the Cards went 4-1-2, but the final game of the season was rained out. “The fellows were raring to go, but the Wildcats had already turned in their uniforms,” was how it read in the yearbook.
*In 1961, SC drew the largest crowd ever to watch a CCAL game, 3,500, when the Cards played Watsonville. While SC tied Watsonville for second place, the Cards did manage to beat the Cats 9-6. SC and Watsonville had a tradition in those days of playing the game on Armistice Day, November 11.
*In 1937, there “were no outstanding players on the team.” Apparently the team wasn’t either. No final record was listed.
*The 1946 SC team was apparently pretty good and had plenty of “fighting spirit.” The team was described as the “Scrappy Little Crimson Wave.”
*In 1955, SC won another CCAL title, led by Coach Larry Siemering. It was the schools first league championship since 1943. Bob Costa became the first SC running back to eclipse 1,000 yards rushing, finishing with 1,002.
*The 1959 team went undefeated with a 9-0 record and was named the best team in Northern California. John Kirby was selected most valuable player on The Sentinel All County team of the last 50 years. He was also named most valuable player in the State All Star High school football game for graduating seniors at the Rose Bowl. (Coach Siemering knew he had an outstanding squad, so he scheduled league champions, top teams for practice games. The Trident Sports Editor, Mike Dominguez called the teams the “Killer B’s” as the names started with B. Bellarmine champion of the Catholic league, Berkeley of the OAL and Burlingame of the PAL all defeated by at least 30 points.)
*In 1967, SC matched the 1959 teams record of 9-0. The Season concluded with a dramatic 19-14 win against at the time undefeated Soquel in the last seconds for the league title before 6,500 fans.
*Led by Larry Griffin, SC went unbeaten in 1962, finishing at 7-0-1. Griffin, an all around star athlete for the Cards, went on to have a tryout with the Dallas Cowboys in football and the Golden State Warriors in basketball. He played basketball at Oregon Tech in college and is a former UCSC women’s basketball coach.
* In 1985, SC featured its most talented player, Johnny Johnson. While the team didn’t win a league championship or even make the playoffs, the Cards did finish 7-2-1. Johnson went on to star at San Jose State and eventually in the NFL. He now plays for the New York Jets and is seventh in the AFC in receiving.
*But it’s the 1959 team that sounds most similar to the current squad, which has a 12-0 record heading into the CCS finals. The ‘59 Cards outscored their opponents by large margins and were the talk of the town, just like today. This years team has already made history with their 12-0 record as no other county team has ever played 12 games. While it may not be fair to compare eras and if you do, you’re sure to start arguments defending each era. One thing is safe to say about the 1993 Cardinals. They have won more games than any football team in Santa Cruz County history.
1994
FOOTBALL SCCAL CHAMPIONS AND FINALIST IN CCS DIVISION III
Practice games: Stevenson 26-7, Carmel 57-0, Gonzales 34-7, South San Francisco 37-19. Practice record 4-0. League: Harbor 30-2, Watsonville 41-14, SLV 35-7, Monte Vista 54-12, Aptos 35-17, Soquel 25-12. League record 6-0 for SCCAL championship. Record 10-0. CCS Division III games: North Monterey 36-6, South San Francisco 28-13, In finals at San Jose State Spartan Stadium against St. Francis of Mountain View 20-35. Season record 12-1.
Yearbook Varsity roster: Reggie Stephens, Jermaine Robinson, Paul Quilici, Strider Kemp, Alonzo Carrera, Justin Hanson, Adrian Corcoran, Tai Lunsford, Ron Miller. George Arnott, Mike Gillingham, Jesus Cortez, James Halliwell, Nick Dunn, Matt Wallick, David Cooper, Cody Murray, Benjamin Jensen, Brandon Barbera, Gabe Lopez, Julian Thompson, Jonathan Pillsbury, Jorge Perez, Gino Marini, Roman Torres, Brendon Ayanbadejo. Head Coach Ron Mehuron, assistants Vic Miguel, Tex Ronning and Booth Wainscoat.
Sentinel pre-season write up. SC has 17 returnees from last year’s squad which finished 7-3. But even with this kind of success, only 24 players came out this year. The two veterans generating the most excitement this year are senior speedsters Jermaine Robinson and Reggie Stephens. Both are multi-sport athletes, who are game breakers, either on offense, defense or special teams. Robinson was the Sentinel All County Offensive player of the year and was also named to the team as a defensive free safety. Stephens was named honorable mention. Stephens was named the Sentinel All County Athlete of the Year after basketball and track seasons.
This year Robinson has been doing a little work at quarterback, but the starting job is open to either senior Paul Quilici or junior George Arnott. Coach Mehuron has good words for Junior Justin Hanson, who has been impressive in the backfield and as a linebacker. Also mentioned were seniors Brendan Ayanbadejo a 6-1, 185 pound linebacker and Ron Miller 6-1, 205 pound offensive lineman and defensive end.
“We have good skill on the lines this year. There are a number of returnees at these positions and we have some decent size, so we should do well.” The problem isn’t with the size and talent of the players, it’s with the number of players.
Card Pair Steals Jamboree Show. Stephens Outscores Three Teams. Reggie Stephens, Cardinal running back and defensive back was the kingpin in his team’s decisive victories over Aptos, Watsonville and SLV. In the Jamboree scoring system SC topped all teams with 46 points followed by Watsonville with 28. Stephens scored 21 points on his own. He eluded tacklers with ease. On the Cards first possession against Watsonville, Stephens capped an efficient drive with a 5 yard scoring run. He finished with eight carries for 48 yards. Stephens intercepted a pass and ran it 60 yards for a touchdown. Against Aptos he darted 34 yards for another score. SLV’s coach said, “Jermaine and Reggie proved they are great, quick athletes who can take a broken play and make something out of it.” Robinson completed 2 of 5 passes for 70 yards. One to Brendon Ayanbadejo for 32 yards and one to Adrian Corcoran for 38 yards. Quilici completed 3 of 5 passes for 77 yards and George Arnott completed 2 of 5 for 22 yards.
September 11. Santa Cruz 26, RLS 7 in the season opener. After gaining only 61 yards in the first half and falling behind 7-0, SC woke up and scored all its points on two touchdowns each by Jermaine Robinson and Reggie Stephens. “The difference between the first and second half’s was the combination of not have certain players on the fields were used to having out there,” said Coach Ron Mehuron. Robinson did not play the first half, because of a team issue. Stephens, who had a first quarter, 74 yard touchdown run nullified by a holding penalty, started things off for SC with 5:24 left in the second quarter. He scooped up a botched handoff on the two yard line and scampered around the right side of the line for a TD. Robinson caught a 48 yard scoring pass from Paul Quilici in the third quarter and later returned a punt 75 yards for six more points. Stephens capped the scoring with a 9 yard TD reception from back up quarterback George Arnott with 2:23 remaining in the game. Despite the scoring highlights, Stephens was held to 3 yards rushing on 11 carries and 9 yards receiving. Robinson had 32 yards on two rushes and 75 yards on three receptions. Justin Hanson led the Cards with 61 yards on eight carries. Nick Dunn and the rest of the SC defense pressured the RLS quarterback all night.
Sentinel Athlete of the week was Jermaine Robinson. Junior football player had two punt returns for 122 yards, including one for 88 yards for a TD. He rushed four times for 65 yards, completed a pass from punt formation for 19 yards and caught a pass for 11 yards. His best punt for the night was for 44 yards. “He had one incredible run for a TD, it was amazing. He was almost on the ground, looking to be going down. Then he did a balancing act for 10 yard and cut across the field for a TD. It was a good show for most backs just to maintain balance for those ten yards, but he pulled up and went the rest of the way,” said Coach Mehuron. Mehuron also said, “We have a lot of excellent backs, but Jermaine adds another dimension to our offense that opens it up for the other players.”
Jermaine was named Athlete of the Week on three more occasions, October 19, November 2 and November 30
September 19. SC 57, Carmel 0. With Jermaine Robinson passing for 129 yards and two touchdowns and running for 89 yards and two TD’s Plus Reggie Stephens rushing for 107 yards and two scores, the Cards rolled to their second win. “It was a strong first half offensively and defensively,” said Coach Mehuron, whose team led 44-0 at halftime. “It was a big improvement from last week. It gives us a good springboard for further improvement, which we’ll need.” Less than 7 minutes into the game, SC had already scored twice, on a 31 yard run by Robinson and a 36 yard run by Stephens for a 14-0 lead. Carmel pretty much abandoned its ground game and went to the air in a futile attempt to catch up. Carmel ran only four times for 2 yards and passed 22 times for a total yards gained of 117. On the other hand SC ran the ball 35 times for 366 yards, better than 10 yards a pop and gained 495 yards total offense.
They didn’t punt once. SC scored four times in the second quarter. Adrian Corcoran scored on a 70 yard pass play from Robinson 1:47 into the quarter. Robinson ran 38 yards for another score with 5:17 left before halftime. Brendan Ayanbadejo returned an intercepted pass 29 yards for a touchdown and 29 seconds later Jorge Perez scored on a 20 yard pass from Robinson with just 4 second left in the half. SC used seven ball carriers. Paul Quilici ran for 83 yards on a team high 13 carries. Stephens carried seven times and Robinson 5.
Santa Cruz Rolls Up Another Win over Gonzales 34-7. By gaining 137 yards on the ground in the second half, the Cards backfield converted a 7-0 halftime lead to a runaway to stay unbeaten at 3-0. Quarterback Jermaine Robinson and running back Reggie Stephens made the game their own highlight film. Robinson rushed for two touchdowns and threw for another. Stephens raced for a 55 yard TD, shedding would be tacklers along the way and added another TD on a 10 yard run. Stephens finished the game gaining 136 yards on 15 carries. Robinson ran for 68 yards, including a 44 yard touchdown. He also went 6 for 12 passing for 129 yards, while giving up a interception. The lack of scoring by the Spartans was a direct result of a big defensive effort by senior defensive back Jon Pillsbury. He stopped two scoring drives with two of his three interceptions.
Unbeaten Santa Cruz Making It Look Easy. There is a lot of difference between this year and last year. The buzzword is defense. “We’ve got a ways to go yet, but all the guys are playing well now,” said Coach Mehuron. The new 4-3 defense is holding the opponents to an average of 178 yards and eight points a game. Despite a roster of only 29 players, Mehuron and his staff have found eager bodies to unleash in their first three games.
One pleasant surprise has been junior linebacker Justin Hanson a 5-9, 195 pounder, who called the shots for the junior varsity defense a year ago. “ We’ve gotten a real strong showing from him. He’s a good read type linebacker,” said Mehuron. The secondary was thought to be SC’s strongest point and it is living up to that billing. Diminutive cornerback Jonathon Pillsbury at 5-8, 140 pounds played big last week against Gonzales with three interceptions. Adrian Corcoran anchors the other side, while Robinson and Stephens roam free in the back 40. “Adrian is a real athlete. I wouldn’t draw anything away from him in comparison to Reggie or Jermaine at all. He has courage. They all come up and throw their body and wrap like their supposed to,” said Coach Mehuron.
Brendon Ayanbadejo and Alonzo Carrera have responded well at outside line backers, supplying above average run support and pass rushing. Ron Miller, Benjamin Jensen and Nick Dunn have been the kingpins in the line. The offensive line deserves much of the credit for the quick start this season. It has some of the biggest players Mehuron has had up front. Tackles Brandon Barbera and Rob Truhitte, guards Cody Murray and Ron Miller and center Jesus Cortez average 210 pounds. Cortez and Miller are returning starters. Tight end Jorge Perez has thrown some key blocks. They are a balanced and solid group.
Robinson has scored six touchdowns, while averaging 13.3 yards a carry. He’s thrown for three scores and completed 62 percent of his passes making him the number one producer of yardage in the league for quarterbacks. Stephens chews up defenses at 7.5 yards a pop.
Cards Displeased With Blowout win over Harbor 30-2. Speed does Kill. SC scored twice via interception returns and twice on the ground to improve their record to 4-0. The Cards were beset by a rash of penalties and lost their composure on occasion. The same could be said of Harbor. It was an intense, hard hitting game and emotions were running high. Coach Mehuron, “We have to understand that individual actions reflect on the whole team.”
The Cards superior speed made the difference. Linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo showed his wheels, running back an interception 65 yards for the first score. Minutes later, speedster, running back Adrian Corcoran plunged in from one yard out. He helped set up the score with two runs of 11 and 19 yards. Stephens added two runs of 22 and 2 yards to the drive. Corcoran booted a 36 yard field goal to put the Cards ahead 16-0 at halftime. Stephens set up his 2 yard scoring run with a previous run of 22 yards. He finished the game with 97 yards gained on 12 carries and scored two TD’s. Robinson intercepted his second pass and ran it back 55 yards for the final score.
Santa Cruz Tramples South San Francisco 37-19, even though the Cards had only 24 players to the Warriors 46. The Warriors were 4-0 going into the game. “Our defense made the difference. The defense held a really strong undefeated team to minimal yardage in the first half. It was the defense that opened things up for our offense,” said Coach Mehuron. SC had a 23-7 lead going into halftime.
Justin Hansen intercepted a pass and went 30 yards for the score. Robinson was sharp at quarterback, completing five of seven passes for 115 yards, including one to Gino Marini for 52 yards at the end of the first half. Robinson was equally impressive at defensive back. In the first minute of the second half, he jarred the ball loose from a wide receiver and returned the fumble 58 yards for a TD. Stephens carried the ball nine times for 146 yards, highlighted by a 82 yard TD run. Stephens scored two other touchdown runs of three and 12 yards.
“I think we improved a lot from the standpoint of our demeanor on the field and that helped us,” said Mehuron.
Santa Cruz Thumps Watsonville 41-14. The Cardinals 6-0 overall and 2-0 in league, established themselves the team to beat by rocking Watsonville 4-2 overall and 2-1 in league. A much tighter game was expected in this renewal of one of the oldest rivalries in the state. SC set off an “explosion’ instead according to Coach Mehuron. Using six straight running plays, the Cards scored on their first possession and kept the pressure on the rest of the game. Twice in the game, Robinson, a jumper and sprinter in track, hurdled defenders for extra yards, drawing plenty of oohs and aahs long the way. One hurdle went for 12 yards and the other for 10.
After Watsonville scored early in the third period to make the score 21-14, Robinson returned the ensuing kickoff 91 yards for a TD. Moments later, defensive end Nick Dunn ripped the ball from a Cat back and ran it back 20 yards. Two plays later, Robinson bobbed and weaved his way into the end zone from 6 yards out, to make the score 34-14. With time running out a bad snap from center by the Cats gave the ball to the Cards on the ten. Stephens ran it in for the score. He had a total of 124 yards in the game. Robinson scored four touchdowns.
The team has set its sights on reaching the CCS playoffs for the first time in school history. “We’ve got to keep it going,” said Dunn, perhaps the most physical member of the SC defense. Some statistics for the game. Rushing by name, carries and yards: Stephens 14, 124; Robinson 8,19; Hanson 3, 8; Corcoran 7, 64; Marini 1, 16. Passing: Robinson completed two of five passes for 28 yards. Receiving: Marini two passes for 28 yards. SC had a total of 231 yards rushing to Watsonville’s 284. SC never punted in the whole game.
Cards Aren’t Underdogs Anymore. The general consensus at the beginning of the season was SLV would be the team to beat and SC among others, would be in pursuit. SLV is now 5-1 overall and 2-1 in league. “We have a ways to go if we want to be a better team,” said coach Mehuron. “We allowed Watsonville to move the ball so handily against us on the ground. That’s something we have to remedy this week.” This is a quirky team with many different personalities and talents. So far the Cards have not shown any willingness to let up on anybody. Consider these facts:
SC has outscored their six opponents by the combined score of 225-53. The most any team has scored against SC is 19. In league only Watsonville with 14, has managed more than a touchdown. Robinson and Stephens have combined to score 23 TD’s. In addition, Robinson has passed for three touchdowns. Stephens, leads the league in rushing with 641 yards for an average of 9.4 yards per carry.
SC offense averages 321.8 yard a game.
Unbeaten Cardinals Blow Out SLV 35-7. For the second straight week, SC turned what was supposed to be a close, hard fought game into a rout. The Cards improve to 7-0 overall and 3-0 in league. SLV coach “I don’t see anybody beating SC. We could not control their speedy, big play offense. They are a talented football team” “We’re a very confident team right now,” said linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo. SC scored on its first four possessions and never looked back. Reggie Stephens, the leagues leading rusher, kept up his hot pace with 130 yards rushing on 21 carries with two touchdowns.
Quarterback Jermaine Robinson also had a strong game with 7 of 10 passing for 134 yards. His best pass of the night went 53 yards over the middle to Gino Marini for a TD. Marini was hard to cover, catching four passes for 108 yards. The game wasn’t all offense for SC. The defense against the run was difficult to penetrate. Ron Miller, Brandon Barbera, Jesus Cortez and Nick Dunn continually plugged holes in the line to limit the Cougars to but a few yards a play. And then there was Ayanbadejo making hit after hit.
“Since we’ve been freshman, SLV always goes undefeated,” he said. “To us, beating them is as good as winning league.” Stephens scored first, plunging in from the one on SC’s first possession. Eight minutes into the game, Robinson pass to Marini made the score 14-0. Three minutes into the second quarter, Adrian Corcoran scored on a one yard plunge. He gained 55 yards on 9 carries. Near the end of the half, Stephens scored again on a 11 yard run. Robinson bobbed and weaved his way for 11 yards for the final score late in the fourth quarter.
October 29. Playmakers Command Respect. Certain players by their mere presence make opposing coaches so nervous that entire practices are devoted to stopping them. That’s respect.
A run down of SCCAL players, who cause the opposition the most problems and therefore, command the most respect. SC players here only.
Robinson is perhaps the toughest player to stop. He is proficient in so many areas. Offensively, the speedy Robinson is a threat to throw the bomb or take off on his own for big yards. On defense, he can intercept passes and return them for TD’s. Or return kicks for TD’s. He’s a big play waiting to happen.
Stephens, too is a nightmare for opposing defenses. The leagues leading rusher with 771 yards is adept at changing directions on a dime and then with a burst of speed, he can outrace defenders to the end zone. He can alter the complexion of a game with just one run. On defense and special teams, the same rules that apply to Robinson apply to Stephens.
Cardinal threats don’t stop with Stephens and Robinson either. Adrian Corcoran, is also a running back with loads of speed. “He runs the fly sweep better than any player I’ve seen,” said the Monte Vista coach, who plays SC this week. “Of all the guys we see, he takes the ball and really moves.” Corcoran’s foot is a weapon as well. He’s kick two field goals and 20 extra points so far this season.
Yet another Cardinal, who gives coaches plenty to worry about is Gino Marini, a fleet wide receiver, who has caught 15 pass and is SC’s deep threat. “And these catches aren’t easy. You’ve got to watch this guy. You must be aware of him on the end around too as he gained 16 yards on it against Watsonville, MVC Coach Ron Meyers.
Robinson’s Magic Act Stumps Monte Vista 54-12. From the Monte Vista coach, “Robinson and Stephens are the two best players I’ve seen since Johnny Johnson.” Robinson threw three touchdown passes, ran for another one, returned a punt 85 yards for a TD and in the last seconds of the game intercepted a pass and ran 72 for a score. Stephens carried the ball 12 times for 167 yards and two TD’s. SC struck first on Stephens 60 yard run for a score. Next, Robinson returned a punt for a score. Robinson connected with wide receiver Gino Marini for 21 yards for a score. Early in the second half, Robinson hit Marini again for 22 yards and a TD.
Big Half Saves Cards in 35-17 win over Aptos. Aptos led 17-14 at halftime. SC rolled in the second half, scoring 21 points in the first nine minutes of the half to set up a championship deciding game against Soquel next week. “I knew we weren’t going to lose this game,” said quarterback Jermaine Robinson, who didn’t play the fourth quarter after taking a blow to the chin late in the third quarter. He suffered some muscle spasms in his upper back.
The fireworks started with a deep kickoff by Nick Dunn to start the second half. Aptos started on its own two yard line. On the first play from scrimmage, Alonzo Carrera recovered a fumble. Three plays later, Robinson went six yards through two defenders for a TD to put SC ahead 21-17. Moments later, Aptos fumbled again. SC scored on a 37 yard pass from Robinson to Gino Marini. Dunn scored the final touchdown, when he recovered a fumble in the end zone, the Cards second TD on defense.
Dunn’s deep kickoffs were definitely a key for the Cards in the second half. The Cards had only one first down in the first half and gained only 29 yards total offense. Two long runs, one on an interception and the other on a kick off return made up for the non existent offensive production in the first half. The first SC score came on a Reggie Stephens pass interception returned for 79 yards for a TD.
Aptos then scored twice. SC didn’t waste anytime closing the gap as Robinson returned the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for a TD to tie the score 14-14. Four of the five SC scores came off turnovers. The Cards were only able to get four first downs in the game. Stephens was held to 51 yards rushing. “It was up to us and we did it,” said Paul Quilici.
SC stats for the game by name, carries and yards gained. Stephens 11-51, Quilici 3-7, Corcoran 3-12, Robinson 2-14, Arnott 3-0 and Thompson 1-0. Passing: Robinson completed three of three attempts for 44 yards. Arnott competed one of two passes for minus 2 yards. Receiving: Marini 2-43, Corcoran 1-2 and Stephens one for minus two yards. Aptos out gained SC 198-121 on plays run from scrimmage.
Fond Farewell Season For Ronning. Hilding Earl Ronning better known as “Tex” has spent 31 seasons dating back to 1960 on the sidelines for SC football. He picked up the name “Tex” while riding horses with friends in high school. The Cards are giving Running a former head coach in football and wrestling a special going away present, their first CCS football playoff berth. The Cards have clinched a tie in league and can win outright by beating Soquel this week. “I am looking forward to it, that we can do our very best,” Ronning says. “It’s really important to me. There have been difficult times.”
Ronning was head of the football program in 1970 and 1971 and both were winless. He was very successful in wrestling, coaching the Cards to five league championships and a dual match record of 178-67-2 over 19 years. He also produced 62 individual league champs and five times took three wrestlers to the state meet.
The last SC football championship and undefeated team came in 1967. Ronning says this team is different than the 9-0 team in 1967.” “Every week we’ve approached our opponents with fear. I don’t remember doing that back then. Even though we have done well, we’ve been just a few mistakes away from a loss. That’s been a pretty motivating thing for us. We have an awful lot of respect for anybody we’ve played. There haven’t been any easy teams on the schedule. By some of the scores it looks easy for us. But in terms of preparation, we haven’t overlooked anybody.”
Sentinel November 14 headlines. “YOU GOING TO THE GAME?” Santa Cruz, Soquel Communities Gather For Renewal Of A Fall Classic. All Roads Lead To Soquel. It was one of those times when the streets stand empty for a few hours while the Earth rotates around 100 yards of turf. It was an occasion when two communities wage war and no one seems to mind. It was one moment, when all roads led to Soquel. Close the streets. The marching band is coming through town. “It’s like the Super Bowl for Santa Cruz,” said Dwayne Whitley, who played three sports for SC in the late 1970’s. About 1,900 other residents of Santa Cruz and Soquel were there to witness their local high school football teams battle for the SCCAL title. In the end SC won 25-12. But the game was bigger than the final score. It was a day for two schools in two small towns. Cardinal players from the 1967 title team were on hand to see a new generation match their heroics. “It’s the last championship team I was on,” said Lovon “Lollie” Lowrey, who played defensive back and right halfback, 26 years ago. “You feel kind of special, because you were a part of it.”
“It’s special for the town,” said SC wide receiver Gino Marini. He was so tired, he sat by himself in the end zone when it was over. Teammate, Paul Quilici couldn’t hide his emotions as he walked off the field. “It gets me right here,” he said, hitting his chest. “Right in the heart.”
A Perfect 10-0. Undefeated Santa Cruz Beats Soquel For League Title 25-12. Coach Ron Mehuron didn’t want to leave the field. He toed the sideline, but didn’t seem to cross for what seemed like an eternity. He was savoring the biggest victory of his career. “It’s hard leaving a game like this. These seasons are so few and far between. I know this feeling is gone fast,” Mehuron said.
A 75 yard strike from quarterback Jermaine Robinson to Adrian Corcoran led to the first score with 5:18 left in the first quarter. Corcoran, then kicked the extra point to put SC up 7-0. “I’m real happy right now,” said Corcoran, who had three receptions for 98 yards and two touchdowns. “I’m glad we were able to win this game. We were a little edgy about it. There was a lot of hype, but we tried not to listen.” SC made it 13-0 in the second quarter, when Reggie Stephens broke loose for a 57 yard TD. Robert Truhitte blocked a Soquel field goal attempt and the first half ended SC 13-0.
“We made some great defensive plays,” said Mehuron, whose defense turned 10 Soquel plays into lost yardage. To start the second half, Soquel scored on a 62 yard pass to make the score 13-6. SC came right back as Paul Quilici broke through the middle for a 45 yard run. Then Quilici went 12 yards to make the score 19-6. A 25 yard pass from Robinson to Corcoran made the score 25-6. Robinson was 6 for 9 passing for 136 yards. Soquel went 80 yards in 14 plays for the last score of the game. Soquel out gained SC by three yards 232-229.
The SC defense proved to be good at damage control. Nick Dunn and Brendon Ayanbadejo were everywhere, play after play, stopping Soquel runners. Soquel, who averaged nearly 200 yards a game rushing were held to 81 yards this game. “We really wanted it,” said lineman Brandon Barbera. “I guess ‘93 belongs to the Cardinals.” “I feel comfortable,” Robinson said of CCS. “I feel we’re one of the top three teams in our division. We’ll handle ourselves.”
November 16 Sentinel Athlete of the Week was Brendon Ayanbadejo, senior linebacker, who spearheaded a defense that limited Soquel to 81 rushing yards in a 25-12 victory that wrapped up an undefeated season and a regular season 10-0 record. Soquel came into the game averaging 197 rushing yards a game, but found little room to run against Ayanbadejo and a Card defense that has allowed an average of only 106.9 rushing yards a game.
Ayanbadejo began the game at outside linebacker, but after starting middle linebacker Justin Hanson went down with a season ending knee injury and back up Jorge Perez was sidelined, too, Ayanbadejo moved into the middle. “He showed great pursuit. He was in on a number of outside plays. He helped stop their running game. Brendon gave us some versatility in there. That sets the tone for us on defense,” Coach Mehuron said.
Cards Date With Destiny. Before the Soquel game the team met for breakfast, but there was more on their minds than eating. They knew they had a date with destiny and there would be no time for lunch. They ate, they talked and then went out and became the first 10-0 football team in Santa Cruz county history, beating Soquel 25-12. Their accomplishments and what it means, wasn’t lost on the Cardinals.
“It’s great to be part of one of the great SC teams,” said Nick Dunn. “I’ll remember this forever,” said Adrian Corcoran. “We’re part of history at SCHS,” Jermaine Robinson. “It will be great just to be remembered,” Brendon Ayanbadejo. They will be remembered in the same breath with the unbeaten SC teams of 1958 and 1967, which both went 9-0. It has been a long 26 years, since the SC football program had something that good to remember.
It was getting even for the Cardinal team of 1982, which lost to Soquel 72-0 and the 1976-77 teams that were thumped 67-0 and 73-0 in consecutive seasons. Coach Ron Mehuron was around for those defeats.
This opportunity has been brewing, as the Cards who are seniors and juniors came through the program. This group is used to winning. As underclassmen, most of them where on teams that went 9-1 twice. But the Cards all knew it can be a long, hard road from 9-1 to 10-0.
“In the beginning, we didn’t know if it was possible,” Dunn said. “We knew we could make it to CCS. We gave the league a run for its money.” “I think they all appreciate the opportunity to be a part of this,” Mehuron said of his players. “This is a really wily group. They are gamers.” “It feels like the tension is off us,” said Corcoran. “It seemed like everything was on the line. We could share the championship or have it all to ourselves.”
Cards Renew Old Rivalry In Playoffs. North Monterey, a member of the SCCAL until this season when it switched to the MBL will be the Cards opponent in the first round of CCS Division III playoffs. Watsonville and Soquel, who were tied in league for second place will also compete in the playoffs. SLV and Aptos, who tied for third place at 3-3 did not make the playoffs. SC was seeded number one in Division III and North Monterey at 6-3 was the last team selected. North Monterey lost two games by one point.
Robinson Lethal Quarterback Too. Gives Santa Cruz Extra Dimension. It isn’t what Jermaine Robinson had planned, but he can live with being the quarterback on a championship team, rather than a running back with a 1,000 yard season. It has been a personal sacrifice Robinson has been willing to make for the team. “The reason I’m at quarterback is to put more people in positions where we could win and stay strong on offense,” Robinson said.
As a junior he had a 600 yard season. He has made a successful transformation to quarterback. In only 73 passes, he has thrown for 874 yards and ten touchdowns, with an average gain per completion of 20.3 yards. His top targets this year have been wide receivers Gino Marini, who has caught 23 passes for 491 yards and Adrian Corcoran for eight touchdowns. He has shown a strong arm, first seen when he quarterbacked the freshman team. No matter where Robinson lines up on the field, quarterback, free safety or kick/punt returner, he is dangerous. In only 53 carries, he has rushed for 227 yards and ten touchdowns. On kicks and interceptions, he’s scored eight more times, for a total of 28 touchdowns.
Last year he scored 14 touchdowns from scrimmage and was named the Sentinel All County Offensive player of the year. It is also why there are several Division I colleges interested in him. “We’ve tried to utilize him running and passing, which adds that extra dimension for us. He has a lot of football savvy to begin with and obviously has made some great plays,” Coach Mehuron said.
Pre-game Sentinel write up for the first CCS game. No reason To Believe Santa Cruz Will Lose. Only once has SC ever beaten North Monterey in a football game and it was 15 years ago. The Condors now in the MBL will face the 10-0 Cardinals in the first round of CCS playoffs. This SC team is special. It has exuded confidence, all season and has not lost in 10 tries. SC has dominated this season. No team has scored more than 19 points on the Cards. SC is banged up for the first time this season. Both Justin Hanson and Ron Miller, both starters, won’t play. Jermaine Robinson and Reggie Stephens are still in the lineup. The two have combined for 35 touchdowns this season. The two are just too dangerous to completely stop. They are probably the fastest duo in CCS.
The Card defense has been underrated all season. They have the ability to pursue and come up with the big stop on third or fourth down. Ask Soquel, who managed only 81 yards on the ground against SC, but ran for at least 200 yards against every other team they played. Nick Dunn and Brendon Ayanbadejo are the pulse of this defense and deserve as much credit as Robinson and Stephens for the Cards perfect regular season. They should play a key role in making it 11 straight. There is motivation for SC for their 24-12 loss to the Condors last year.
There is no effective and consistent way to defense an impromptu big gainer. Be it be a kick return, interception return or a play from scrimmage, the Cards can create their own scoring opportunities. Stephens and Robinson have the ability to ad-lib and make a defense pay for its reactions to their moves. They both have the ability to stop on a dime and then start again with a burst of acceleration. They don’t commit until the defense does. Those two will leave more than one defender frozen in his steps.
Don’t forget Gino Marini and Adrian Corcoran, two other big play threats. SC has the kicking game in its favor. Corcoran is almost automatic on extra points. Dunn can boom kickoffs into the end zone. If the Condors decide to kick deep, Robinson and Stephens will have chances for a big return. If they kick short, SC will have good field position.
November 21. Undefeated Santa Cruz Rolls Over North Monterey 36-6 to open the CCS Division III playoffs. It was a classic SC game, one sided. The Cards scored on touchdown plays of 59, 29, 28, 2 and 59 yards to improve to 11-0 and advance to the semifinals against South San Francisco. Even Coach Mehuron marvels at his teams ability to turn what appears to be nothing into a touchdown. “They surprise me all the time, when we get big plays, I’m as surprised as the person who pays to get in.” That would have been a full house at Memorial Field getting an eyeful. Both sides of the bleachers were stuffed and hundreds more stood around the fence surrounding the field.
SC didn’t wait long to heat things up on a chilly night. On the first offensive play, Stephens raced 59 yards on a sweep for a touchdown. SC opened a 20-0 led by halftime. Gino Marini caught a 29 yard TD pass from Robinson for a score. Following a Condor fumble, Robinson connected with Adrian Corcoran from 29 yards out for another score. The Condors best chance to score was on the first possession in the second half. They went 59 yards on ten plays, but couldn’t convert on fourth down at the SC 18. SC then marched to the Condor 40 where Corcoran kicked a field goal that had plenty of distance and that would have been good from the 50. North Monterey scored its only touchdown two minutes later on a pass interception. SC got that back on the next possession, a three play 57 yard drive.
The big play was a 55 yard run down the sideline by Robinson, who followed Stephens and Corcoran, who ran interference. Stephens scored from two yards out later in the fourth quarter. Stephens finished with 130 yards on 16 carries and two touchdowns. “We just keep going,” said Nick Dunn, who had three sacks on defense and opened some big holes from his guard position on offense. “The offense doesn’t seem like it gets many yards, but that’s the way the defense sets it up.”
SC had plenty of yards Saturday. SC rolled up 215 yards on the ground. In addition to Stephens big numbers, back up Paul Quilici gained 91 yards in ten carries, including a 61 yard swerving, stop and go on a cross field junket. While Robinson had just 67 yards on 4 of 9 passing, he did have two TD passes.
“Practice was kind of weird this week,” said Stephens. “Some people were just going through the motions, we had other guys out sick and hurt. We didn’t seem like we were ready for the game. But come game day, we do it.” One Card expected to miss the game was two way lineman Ron Miller, who is suffering from mononucleosis. He was in uniform and played. “My spleen is a little sore, but you can’t keep a good man down,” said Miller.
As North Monterey learned, its hard to keep any of these high flying Cards down. They keep coming at you and at any moment, boom, they’re gone for a touchdown. While the offense gets all the raves, the defense could still be a deciding factor in the Cards bid for a CCS title. “Defense is the game,” said senior linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo. “Defense wins championships.”
Double Trouble. Ayanbadejo, Dunn Driving Force Behind Santa Cruz Defense. Brendon Ayanbadejo is a flamboyant, in your face football player who at times borders on the outrageous. Nick Dunn, on the other hand, is reserved and workmanlike and not prone to outward displays of emotion. While the two players seem to be polar opposites, they share common ground on the football field. They are the driving force behind a defense that has set the tone for the season and will lead the Cards in the CCS Division III semi-finals against South San Francisco. We’re the same, but we’re opposites,” said Ayanbadejo. “We both go out and hit someone on every play. We both make big plays on defense. But he keeps his energy inside and it grows from there. My energy goes out. I can’t help it. And it grows, too.” Ayanbadejo, a senior, lines up at outside linebacker on the strong side. Dunn, a junior, plays right defensive end in the Cardinal 4-3 alignment, which has allowed just 103 points this season. Both are certain ALL SCCAL selections and have been two of the hardest hitters around. “They’ve made some great plays for us. Plays that have turned around games for us. Those kids stand out because of their aggressiveness,” said coach Mehuron. Ayanbadejo, who has two interception returns for touchdowns this season is the “bad boy” of the two. His arms carry long scars caused by helmets skidding on his arms and views them as badges of honor. He has earring pierces in his nose and he carries himself with the swagger of a bodybuilder, flexing and pumping his way through life. Ayanbadejo, often makes opposing players mad. After making an important stop he raises his arms in triumph and screams at his opponents, who view him as a showboat.
No one can argue, that Ayanbadejo leaves everything he has on the field. He’s a classic gamer. He’s been known to drive his coaches crazy and as a result holds the team record for punishment push ups, doing 250 of them once after practice.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, there’s Dunn, who may be the most physical practice player on the team. “Nick forces people to play at his level. We’ll run a play at Nick and if we can do it, we know we’re executing pretty well. His teammates can get angry with him. Why? Because he kicks their butts. He doesn’t hold back,” said Mehuron. Dunn quietly goes about the business of doing his job, which is shoot a gap, close down on openings/holes on the line of scrimmage and keep blockers off the linebackers, which helps create tackle opportunities for Ayanbadejo and the other linebackers, Alonzo Carrera, Jorge Perez and Justin Hanson before he was injured.
When Dunn talks, there is no indication of the kind of player he is. Soft spoken and humble, he doesn’t go out of his way to get noticed. It just happens. Dunn does the kickoffs and drives them into end zone or close to it. “If I’m mad, I just concentrate on the ball and kick it as hard as I can. Even though Dunn and Ayanbadejo are different, they share a common goal, to win. The Cards would not be where they are without them.
Santa Cruz Puts 11-0 Record On Line in CCS Division III semi-final game against South San Francisco, who they beat 37-19 earlier in the year. South San Francisco has nearly twice as many players as SC, but the Cardinal seniors have always played on small teams and they have been successful. “I think they’re used to it. It’s not a major concern. It’s just a matter of being aware of what they do an playing like crazy. The players are just electric come game time. They’re ready to go. It’s got to be that way with a small group,” said Coach Mehuron. The Cards have practiced hard all week, trying to keep their edge. The players don’t seem to mind, even practicing on Thanksgiving and looked at it as kind of an honor. Jorge Perez has played solid in replacing injured Justin Hanson at linebacker and in the offensive backfield.
Nobody Looks Capable Of Beating Santa Cruz. Cards knocked of South San Francisco 28-13, in the semi-finals to improve to 12-0, uncharted waters for any Santa Cruz county team ever. Finally Inland Dwellers are starting to take notice of SC and its explosive cast of football players. After last weeks romp over North Monterey, eight Pac-10 schools requested videotape from TCI Cable, which broadcast the game. Stanford and USC were the only ones, who didn’t. The recruiters wanted to look at Jermaine Robinson and Reggie Stephens, SC’s bookend speedsters.
The Warriors got their licks in, both verbal and physical. “There was a lot of trash talking going on,” said Stephens, who gained 79 yards on 14 carries. “They were saying my name, ‘Reggie we’re gong to kill you, we’re going to break your legs.” Stephens said he calmly asked the good fellows of South City to check the score board., which showed SC in complete control. The Cards have been in control all season. The breaks seem to go their way, as does the bouncing ball. It may sound trite in calling this a team of destiny, but how else do you explain it.
On SC’s first possession, Robinson threw a pass that was intercepted an run back to midfield, where it was fumbled and Robinson recovered. Seven plays later, Stephens scored from the 8 yard line, to give SC a 6-0 lead. In the second quarter, Robinson pitched to Stephens on an option, but he couldn’t hang on and it appeared to be a fumble. Although SC recovered, it should have been fourth down. But no. An official, who happened to be from the SCCAL, inadvertently blew his whistle, killing the play. The play goes over.
On the next play, with the Warriors seething over the call, Gino Marini streaked down the left side, blowing through coverage and Robinson found him deep to give SC a 13-0 lead. On South City’s next possession, the Warriors tried a shovel pass, but fumbled after a hard hit by linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo. The ball rolled loose, but players from both teams seemed oblivious to it except for Robinson, who always seems to be around the football, scooped it up and raced 47 yards for a touchdown. Within a span of less than a minute, SC went from a 6-0 lead to a 21-0 lead.
The Warriors were demoralized. “That really brought us down,” said the Warrior fullback. The Cards, though, were pumped up. With 8:20 left in the third quarter SSF scored on a 15 yard run to make it 21-7 SC. After taking a punt on his 22, Robinson veered to the right side, where South City and the sideline appeared to have him hemmed in. but he high stepped his way out of one tackle, spun around another, ducked under a third and outran everybody else on his way to the end zone. That made the score 28-7 with 51 seconds left in the third quarter. SSF scored its final touchdown with 16 seconds left in the game.
“I’m speechless,” said offensive lineman Ron Miller. “I’m so excited. We all played so well. It’s kind of scary. It’s been scary for SC opponents. South City wanted to stop Robinson and Stephens and they did to an extent. ”But they made big plays on defense and special teams instead,” said the Warrior coach. “SC had the speed to compete in any division, against anyone.
From offensive lineman Brandon Barbera, “We’ve got a huge game coming up against St. Francis, the defending CCS Division I champion, which moved down to Division III this year. “They have a couple of speedsters and so do we.” Senior linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo, who led the Cards with 11 tackles. “I think we can do it. We work hard, play smart and play hard.” Miller said, “SSF was the toughest team we’ve played and now we’ve beaten them twice. He’ll probably be saying the same thing next week. St. Francis and its history of section football titles, a total eight, is legendary. But, as 12 teams have discovered, SC is having a legendary season. And more people are watching including the Pac-10.
Glory Days. Linemen a Key To Santa Cruz’s Successful Year. They don’t score. They rarely touch the football, except for center Jesus Cortez. They don’t live in the limelight, yet the linemen are as integral to Santa Cruz’s success as any other group of players. Instead, they get down low in their three point stances and knock heads for 48 minutes, fighting like mad for position and a piece of turf to allow the runners to slide through.
Most of the starters, Brandon Barbera and Robert Truhitte at tackle, Ron Miller, Nick Dunn and Cody Murray at guard, Jorge Perez at tight end and Cortez have played together all through high school. They know each other well and have grown and improved together. They are not big by linemen standards, but they’re in fine physical condition and take pride in their technique, that helps them overmatch bigger players. “We’re like a family,” said Miller, the biggest of the bunch at 6-2 and 230 pounds. “We have a lot of heart and desire. We have a passion for the game of football.”
“Tuesday’s practice was the last time we’ll run 40s together,” said Murray of the Cards Tuesday tradition of running 16 forty yard dashes after practice. “We are all going to look back at this team and say ‘Wow‘, what a great ride.” The linemen credit coach Mehuron’s penchant for long and taxing workouts for their success. While they aren’t particularly fond of all the running they’ve done this season, they know it has helped them stay fresh into the fourth quarter of games.
Ron Miller thinks the SC line has an advantage over St. Francis. “They might have discipline, but we have more heart. We’ve gone through a lot to get here, with such a small squad. We’re not used to winning like this. We’re meaner, we have a lot more fire in our eyes.” Two way lineman, Barbera said. “I feel confident, but not over confident. I know we have the talent to beat them, but they’re well coached and are in the playoffs every year. We want this game.”
Reggie Stephens knows the value of his linemen. “With out them I wouldn’t be able to do anything,” said Stephens, who has gained 1,254 yards this season to place him second in school history for the number of rushing yards gained in a season to Johnny Johnson’s 1,729 in 1985, Johnson went on to play in the NFL. Their opponent in the Division III finals is San Francis of Mountain View, who has won the two previous Division I championships for a total of eight, when San Francis moved up two divisions to play the big schools.
Out Of The Shadows. SC’s Marini, Corcoran Make Big Plays, Too. They have been cast in the considerable shadows of the Jermaine Robinson and Reggie Stephens. As often as not, their contributions have been left on the cutting room floor in favor of the more spectacular efforts of Jermaine and Reggie on the highlight reel. There is little doubt that without Gino Marini and Adrian Corcoran, SC wouldn’t have enjoyed the kind of season it has. They have quietly compiled some impressive highlights of their own. They have become like giant pressure relief valves. By popping out of the shadows of their peers, often on their way to the end zone, they take some of the defensive pressure off the big two.
“I think they’re as equally capable of making big plays as Robinson and Stephens,” said coach Mehuron. “They just do it in different ways.” “I think we take some of the heat off them always having to make big plays,” said Marini. “We can make big plays too, so it makes it a lot easier for them.” “When you’re helping the team, you feel at it’s not just Reggie and Jermaine, who can do it, but that you can do too,” said Corcoran. In another season, Corcoran and Marini might have set the league on its ear. They would have gained more notoriety. “Adrian is important in the balance, he offers in blocking, running and receiving. Gino has just come through time and time again. If the ball is there he catches it, he blocks and when called upon to run, he does that well too,” said Mehuron.
Marini is third in the SCCAL in catches with 25, but leads in yardage gained with 575 for 23 yards per catch, six touchdowns that have averaged a whopping 36.5 yards per TD. Amazingly Marini gets wide open on deep pass plays. “Sometimes I just change a route and try to find an open area, Sometimes I have to yell at Jermaine to get me the ball,” Marini said. Corcoran has come up big in the big games. In the SCCAL title game against Soquel, Corcoran had TD receptions of 79 and 25 yards. He scored TD’s against Watsonville and SLV. For the season he is averaging an amazing 35.6 yards per catch. H has also rushed for 254 yards to complement Stephens. “I’ve been happy I got a chance with all the talented players we have,” Corcoran said.
December 3. Mehuron Keeping His Guard Up. A message to Ron Mehuron, football coach at SC. Savor these moments, they may never happen again for you. Your players are talented and confident and they’ve endured a rigorous season. You should be enjoying this week, not fretting about possible distractions. This is the first time you had a team in this position in your 19 years at the school. Feel good, feel relaxed. Your kids have dealt with plenty of distractions all season and they’ve survived just fine. To a player, they seem to hold you in high regard. While you’re tough on them in practice, they seem to know it’s for the best. They have the maturity to realize that hard work and dedication is the only way they could make it this far. They’ve taken your message quite seriously and it has worked for them.
“A football coach can’t be a mother goose type character,” said one of your starting guards, Cody Murray. “He has to be militant sometimes and work you hard to get you pumped up. He’s helped us achieve what no other SC team ever has.” Coaches are known as big worriers and sometimes they border on the paranoid.
“At this point, I’m starting to look under bushes,” Mehuron said. But he appreciates his players. “I want to stop the players each evening and say thank you,” he said earlier in the week in a moment of reflection. “I keep thinking about what it took for us to get here. I’m thinking so many thoughts and they’re scattered. I’m thinking how nice this is for the school and how nice it is to be a part of the athletic ability we have.” And how nice it must be for the coach to finally reap the rewards after so many years of service.
This weeks San Francisco Examiner high school football poll, which includes most of the Bay Area, but not Santa Cruz County ranked St. Francis third behind number one De La Salle, 12-0 and Pinole Valley 11-1.
Jimmy Goukos, owner of Pete’s Family Restaurant on Mission street has hosted the Cards for a pancake breakfast before both the Soquel and North Monterey games and the Cards have won both times. So Goukos showed up for practice Wednesday and told the team he wanted them to come to breakfast again Saturday, before the CCS finals. “It’s good luck for you guys,” he told the players.
Cards To Get No Respect. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY no reason to predict the SC can win the CCS Division III football championship game. None. Nada. Zilch. Ni. But there’s no reason to not think the Cards can’t win. They can. Even if nobody outside Santa Cruz county believes it. “People are still saying, Santa Cruz can’t hang with teams over the hill,” said senior linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo. The Cards are going to be second-class citizens when they get to Spartan Stadium.
Actually, they’ll be treated more like illegal aliens then citizens. Santa Cruz? We’re sorry, but your name isn’t on our list of past CCS champions. We have no record of you. Do you have any identification? Although SC is 12-0, it’s been eight years since they won at least seven games and 26 years since the 1967 team went 9-0. They’ve never been to the playoffs before, which is why nobody outside the SC rooting section will think they can knock off St. Francis, which has won the past two CCS Division I championships and three of the last four Division I titles.
“But this team is for real,” insists Ayanbadejo. “We’re as good a team as any,” junior defensive lineman Nick Dunn said. If anyone is the real thing or the Wild Thing, It’s Ayanbadejo. He’s precisely the type of mean, fast, tough and explosive player, who won’t take any trash from St. Francis. Exactly the type who can turn up his team’s intensity simply be being himself. The Cards have the gifts. If Ayanbadejo leads, by playing on the edge without going over it, SC can win. Of course, nobody would ever think of predicting it. “Ii will take more games like this one for us to get the respect we deserve, But we will get it, in time” Dunn said. Today is that time.
By Ed Vyeda Sentinel sports editor. It Wasn’t In the Cards. In Defeat, Santa Cruz Is Anything But A Loser in their loss to San Francis in the Division III, CCS championship game at San Jose State‘s 30,000 seat Spartan Stadium. They were shocked. They were frustrated. They were getting whipped 28-0. The Cards looked like they were about to give up.
They couldn’t. There were too many people in the stands cheering for them. (Comments from some fans sitting on the opposite side of the field. The roar that went up at the end of the half, when the team returned to the field and through out the game was spine tingling. It had to inspire the players.) “We didn’t want to put our heads down,” said Brendon Ayanbadejo. “They didn’t want to support a bunch of losers. It was Santa Cruz pride.” The Cards lost the game to San Francis 35-20, but won the second half 20-7.
As they walked off the field, the players held up their helmets to salute the 2,000 plus Santa Cruz fans. The team still made county sports history. With more victories than any before, the Cards became the school’s first team to make the football playoffs and the first to win a league football championship since 1967. “The fans were still clapping and yelling, even though we were losing. I could feel it. We never gave up. Our heads were hanging, but we kept playing hard,” said Reggie Stephens.
“That’s spirit. They were saying, hey you’re still in it. They were so much behind us,” said Nick Dunn. The Cards finally gave the fans something real to cheer for when they scored a pair of third quarter TDs that cut the Lancers lead to 28-14 with 3:58 to play in the period. First, Adrian Corcoran returned a fumble 23 yards, for the sixth TD scored by the defensive unit this season. Then quarterback Jermaine Robinson, who seemingly did the impossible all season, magically popped out of a group of tacklers in the backfield and passed 5 yards to Corcoran for a TD.
That was it as San Francis scored again to clinch their third straight CCS football championship and fourth in the past five years and ninth in school history. There really wasn’t much to cheer about for SC. Yet, the fans cheered on.
“That was really something that won’t be forgotten. It was very moving. I’ll remember that the rest of my life,” Coach Mehuron said of the fan support. The season as a whole was something that won’t be forgotten. The Cards accomplishments will be ones by which all future county teams will be compared. They did not go undefeated, but were the winningest football team in county history.
“I hope they remember the camaraderie they developed over the season,” assistant coach Vic Miguel said. “We had a lot of differences. Everybody knew who the skill players were. But even the guys who didn’t make the highlight film hung together. I think they surprised people.”
“This is probably the best experience of my life. It’s been such a good feeling to be with your friends like this,” said Ayanbadejo. “We were like family,” said Dunn. “So many people have known each other for so long.” “Wide receiver Gino Marini said, “It felt special. The fans helped us out all year. And Saturday they stayed behind us the whole way. Even in bad times, they kept cheering us.” The Cards seemed to realize they had become a unique part of the area sporting community.
More articles in Sunday December 5 edition of the Sentinel.
Cards Come Up Short. Defeat In CCS Finals Can’t Erase Memories by Chuck Hildebrand. The odyssey that was SC’s football season ended one win short of its destination, but at least one Card wanted to remember the voyage. Most of the approximately 4,000 spectators, at least two thirds of them from Santa Cruz, had filed out of Spartan Stadium and so had most of the players. Most of the SC players were downcast, a few were crying.
But Cody Murray lingered. He waved his helmet toward the emptying stands as if being acclaimed by thousands, turned a somersault and sprinted off the field. That was the sort of élan and spontaneity that marked the most successful seasons in the school’s long football history. The Cards, whose players were often outnumbered by other teams cheerleaders, made it to the CCS finals, largely because of combustibility and charisma that endured them to the community as well as the school.
Tough Loss Proves Cardinals ‘Mortal’ by Bob Linneman. For the first time this season, SC had to deal with defeat. It was painful, but it didn’t destroy them emotionally. Yes, they were distraught. But they were filled with pride, because they had made it further than any football team in school history. “The bubble finally burst,” said Tex Ronning, an assistant coach who has seen many bubbles explode in his 33 years at the school.
“I guess this proves we’re mortal,” added lineman Ron Miller, who wore a special brace to protect his hip injury, but still gave it all he had. Moments after saying these words, Miller wept and as he dried his eyes, he hugged his supportive friends and family. “I’m so proud of everyone on this team. This has brought us all closer together.
If something positive came out of this loss was the Cards surprising ability to absorb the letdown and still feel good. This is a team, which won its first 12 games, all in convincing fashion. Losing in their final stand was the furthest thing from their minds. A win, just like all the others was what they expected. “It was the first time in our lives that we were getting our butts kicked,: said Miller. But there was hope. With Robinson and Stephens in uniform, there is always hope. “Who needs hope, when you have Reggie and Jermaine,” Miller said. But even these two, as brilliant as they’ve been this season were not enough to offset the Lancers. SC scored twice in the third quarter, to close the gap to two touchdowns. You then got the feeling that if the Cards could catch just one more break, they might be able to turn the game around. The break went the Lancers way instead. An apparent Lancer fumble, deep in their own territory was recovered by the Cards, but the ball carrier was declared down on contact and the ball remained with St Francis. Not only did the play prevent SC from scoring another TD, one they desperately need, but it seemed to sap SC of hope.
“It took the starch right out of us,” Mehuron said. After the game, the Cards seemed more dazed then depressed. They mingled on the field with no place else to go and shook hands with the St. Francis players. They just looked around as if to ask: Is this it? Is it really over? “The fire is still there,” said Miller, “I want to play some more. I wish we had another game.”
Brendon Ayanbadejo refused to view the loss as something negative. “We fought hard all year. We only lost on one game in 16 weeks. To me, that’s good.” “I have a great deal of admiration for these guys. They showed a lot of character and played with class. But it’s too bad it had to end in a loss.” said Mehuron. Added defensive end, Nick Dunn, “I’m a little sad we lost, but we gave it a shot. We got second place.” “I’m going to look back at how incredible our season was. We were 12-1 and that’ll be remember in SC forever,” said lineman Cody Murray.
Stephens Rushing Just Couldn’t Click. By Ed Vyeda. The first burst of speed by Reggie Stephens showed just what he could do, as he snipped off 11 yards off the corner of the St. Francis defense. Right then, it was obvious that if he carried 10 times, he could get 100 yards and the Cards would win. Stephens carried 10 times, but his final stats showed a total of one yard gained. And SC didn’t win. “We did come out like the real SC,” said Stephens. “We just got the jitters and they didn’t go away until the second half.” “The offense wasn’t clicking. We had a couple of bright spots. And their defensive line was good,: Stephens said.
Stephens was the leading rusher in Santa Cruz County this season and including this game, he ended up with 1,264 yards on 161 carries and 19 touchdowns. His final game as a Cardinal, didn’t reflect those figures. “I got a little frustrated,” he said. As always, the Cards depended heavily on the 5-10, 175 pound senior and when he couldn’t get free, the offense slumped. “Every game, we put so much pressure on him to make the big plays,” said wide receiver Gino Marini. “I think he got worn out. But everything shouldn’t be on his shoulder to carry the whole team.”
Given the problems SC had up front trying to block the Lancers, nobody was carrying anything very far. The Cards, who averaged 197 yards rushing in their first 12 games, came away with 20 yards on 25 carries. “Our line was not blocking in the first half,” said tight end Brendon Ayanbadejo. “ It didn’t help when we tried to run sideways. Our line was better in the second half, but the breaks weren’t going our way.”
“I think we were thinking about winning too much and not playing the game,“ Stephens said. Stephens, who is expected to play in college next fall, said “The end to the season couldn’t erase the good memories. I’m still proud of the season. I’m proud of the people on this team.”
An Amazing Ride, All The Way To December. Assistant coach Vic Miguel said the SC football team made his holiday season one of the best ever. “It was unbelievable we were practicing on Thanksgiving day,” said Miguel, who has coached at the school since the 1970’s, but never in the playoffs. “I was thanking them. It was important to me. And for them to keep that whole momentum going, from the league to the playoffs, was amazing.”
Santa Cruz is losing some key players through graduation, but two-way star Nick Dunn and leading wide receiver Gino Marini are among those coming back to defend the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League title. “Next year it’s going to be hard,” Marini said. “Everybody in the league is going to know what we did. But we’ll keep trying and, hopefully, we’ll do it again.”
“The seniors next year are going to know what a great season we had this year,” Dunn said. “We’ll see what we can do. We have time to pull it together.”
None of the Santa Cruz fans came better prepared to cheer for their favorite player than Cardinal quarterback Jermaine Robinson’s family. Close to a dozen of them were wearing white football jerseys, with a red No. 2 on it, and “ROBINSON” on the back. “The whole family just decided to do it,” said Alex Robinson, Jermaine’s cousin. We picked them up today.”
Miguel said the Cards came away with respect for St. Francis. “They are a well-polished group.” he said. When asked about the Lancers’ strength in the line, Miguel just shuddered and shrugged.
Former San Francisco 49er and current St Francis assistant coach Harry Sydney likes the Cardinals, saying they’re a “pretty good” team. He had one criticism though. “They have some good athletes,” Sydney said. “But they have too much on their shoulders. They rely too heavily on their good athletes.”
Ride Of A Lifetime. By Bob Linneman. A Few Things To Remember About Santa Cruz’s Football Season. THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY is over. The best football season in SC history ended Saturday at Spartan Stadium. A few moments and personalities to remember from this special season.
Coach Ron Mehuron. So staid. So reserved. Sp damned intense all the time. Yet he grows on you. But Saturdays loss was difficult for him. “It’s a real disappointment,” the coach said Sunday, the day after. “But you just think about how close you came …at least I have been. That’s the way it goes.” He looked up into the stands during the game Saturday and just wanted to say “Thank you to the 2,000 plus fans who made the trip to support the team. I was just overwhelmed by the number of people who went over there. I wish there was some way I could let them know that each and everyone of the kids thought a lot of that.”
There are two SC players that will be hard to forget. No, Stephens or Robinson are a given. I’m talking about two others. Brendon Ayanbadejo and Ron Miller, both classic characters in what turned out to be a classic season. Ayanbadejo is the ham. Miller the salami. “They both seemed to be able to appreciate the moment, seize it and share it. They will be remember for their honesty and their true innocence.
As for Stephens and Robinson, what more can be said? They did it all this season, offense, defense and special teams. They’re both special athletes and you’ll see them during basketball and track seasons. They will share a special place in this area’s sports history, before they are finished. ( they went on to play football at Cabrillo College and the University of Rutgers, the state University of New Jersey, which is a Division I school. Stephens went on to play for the New York Jets)
Who could forget Dwayne Whitley? He was at every game and so was his camera. The thing I won’t forget was a moment in the championship game. Late in the second half, SC’s last legitimate chance to get back into the game was going bad. SC was forced to punt. Back came two St. Francis players to receive the kick. There’s Whitley. “Your going to fumble man, your
The Soquel-SC game for the SCCAL title. It was hyped and talked about like no other game this season, except maybe for the CCS finals. It didn’t exactly live up to all the hype, but it was a hard fought game, which prove Sc was capable of beating anyone. The 25-12 victory may have been the high point of the season for SC.
After watching SC roll over his SLV team 35-7, coach Doug Morris stood along the sidelines after the game shaking his head, trying to figure out what had happened. Up walks Watsonville coach Mike Spitzer, who earlier in the season watched a similar SC effort derail his Wildcats 41-14. “I know the feeling,” Spitzer said to Morris. By the end of the SCCAL season everyone knew the feeling. The Cards simply dominated.
There were many other moment that left spectators breathless. Incredible runs, big plays and broad smiles. This team was good and knew it. There may never be a team like it in these parts again. It’s worth the remembering.
Thumbs Up To Cardinals. By Ed Vyeda. Once a decade at the most, a bunch of regular kids next door transform into home town heroes. Santa Cruz County already has its team of the 90’s, the SCHS football team that won 12 games this fall, a county record that will be hard to break. For the 1993 Sentinel All Thumbs Up Team awards, the Cardinals, who together get the Thumbs Up of the Year, for being the best of the best.
Several things made the team special, besides its winning. It was a small group, by football standards with only 28 players. But they were big on talent, which showed in the way they routinely made sensational plays. And they were even bigger in desire, which is why they created so many of their own breaks.
One moment during the playoff victory over North Monterey was symbolic. Robinson, on a quarterback run, got loose down the sideline. The last defender bear hugged Robinson’s left leg, but he made a shake and break away move to get free and took off for a TD. That single play encapsulated what the Card program has been through the past couple of decades. Years of getting just so far, before being stopped. This year, like Robinson on the 53 yard run, the Cards shook off the obstacles and went all the way to their first SCCAL football title.
December 14, by Greg Mellen. The Stuff Of Dreams. ( condensed version of the article about Paul Quilici and how he rebounded from not being the quarterback, but through persevering, became an important member of the team. Paul, later become a Card assistant football coach, then moving up to the head coach of the junior varsity and later an assistant on varsity. A Cardinal through and through.) As a sophomore you led your team to the league Junior Varsity Championship and a 9-1 record, along with many members of this team. Your arm was accurate and strong. As a junior you were the back up quarterback. You waited and learned, knowing that your time would come. Then it happened. You came back from a family vacation and one of your best friends was under center.
It’s Jermaine Robinson, maybe the best pure athlete ever to attend your school. It seems so unfair. You’ve done your job. You’ve paid your dues. You followed the rules and now you’re forced to learn one of the toughest lessons of your young life. Sometimes no amount of hard work and dedication, no amount of wanting something are going to change that. It would be easy to quit. But if your Paul Quilici, your a kid mature beyond your years. Somehow you take the ego crush and turn it around. Somehow you will still contribute.
“I took it hard,” Quilici said of his demotion. “I just concentrated and listened and kind of picked up running back. I just paid attention and got a starting position back. But you break your arm in a preseason game. If your anyone else, now you would give up. But you persevere. Amazingly, it pays off. You start at fullback against Soquel and run for 58 yards and a 12 yard touchdown, as your team finishes undefeated in league. In the playoffs, a play of a lifetime, something to hang your hat on. A flash of brilliance to carry into your dotage. A 3-4 Dive Slant, it’s called. “I remember, we ran the same play before. I said to offensive lineman Rob Truhitte, “Get the linebacker and I’m gone.” And he very nearly was. Quilici busted off a remarkable 61 yard swerving, stop and go, happy footed run. The dream season ends in the CCS finals.
But Paul Quilici showed things that too often are overlooked in dream seasons. Personal character, courage, sacrifice and team work. These are the trite terms that have been so overused that they end up having all the impact and weight of helium. We forget that really these are the lessons of sport.
Paul Quilici became an object lesson and embodiment of the enduring truth of these things. Sometimes there’s a memorable 61 yard run. Or a touchdown. Or glowing memories of a historic season. Or just the knowledge that you never gave up. And if your Paul Quilici, you probably have a lot more to offer the world before your through.
Trident. Dec. 15. The Trident staff selected Reggie Stephens as the Trident Athlete of the Month, for not only being a great athlete, but because he has the attitude that it takes to be a strong leader, a key not only to the colleges that are heavily recruiting him, but the attitude of the other players on the team.
Sentinel Prep Football Stats. Final leaders in the SCCAL. Rushing leaders are list by place in order, names, number of carries, total yards gained, average gain for carry and number of touchdowns.
Order name NO YARDS AV TD
1 Stephens 141 1266 7.9 19
12 Robinson 74 303 4.1 11
16 Quilici 47 283 6.0 1
17 Corcoran 44 258 5.9 3
Receiving leaders were by order, name, receptions made, yards gained, average gain per pass receptions and touchdowns.
Order name NO YARDS AV TD
2 Marini 29 717 24.7 6
12 Corcoran 13 418 32.2 6
14 Stephens 12 90 7.5 2
Individual scoring by place, name, touchdowns and total points.
ORDER NAME TD TP
1 Robinson 21 128
2 Stephens 21 126
3 Corcoran 11 114
Corcoran kicked three field goals, kicked 39 conversions and caught a pass for a two point conversion.
Robinson was second in passing, attempted 110 pass, completing 57 for .518 percent per completion, had seven intercepted, passes gained 1086 yards for an average of 9.8 per pass and the passes scored 14 touchdowns.
SC was first in offense with 448 plays for 2385 rushing yards gained, 1361 yards gained by passes, for a total yards gained of 3746 at a 288.2 average gained per game. On team defense, SC was fourth, giving up 1614 yards by rushes, 1397 by passes for a total yards given up of 3011 for an average per game of 231.6.
Sentinel All County team: Offensive Player of the Year, Robinson for the second straight year.. Defensive Player of the Year, Ayanbadeo. Junior of the Year, Nick Dunn. Coach of the Year, Ron Mehuron. Santa Cruz take all the individual honors.
First team Offense: Gino Marini, 6-0, 160, junior wide receiver; Brandon Barbera, 6-1, 212, senior tackle; Ron Miller, 6-2, 230, senior guard; Jess Cortez, 6-2, 205, senior center; Jermaine Robinson, 5-11, 170, senior quarterback; Reggie Stephens, 5-10, 175, senior running back.
Defense: Nick Dunn, 5-10, 200, junior lineman; Brandon Ayanbadeo, 6-2, 206, senior linebacker; Adrian Corcoran, 6-1, 170, senior corner back; Robinson and Stephens both safety’s. Specialists: kick and punt returner: Robinson. Kicker Corcoran.
The ALL SCCAL team selected by the league coaches, had Robinson as everyone’s choice as the Most Valuable Player. The offensive Player of the Year was Reggie Stephens. Ron Mehuron was the Coach of the Year.
It was unanimous. Robinson was a no brainier pick as the SCCAL Player of the Year. A quick scan of Robinson’s resume shows that their was little he didn’t do for the Cards in leading them to a 12-1 record and a CCS title berth against St, Francis. Robinson was the leading scorer in the league with 126 points on 21 touchdowns. As the quarterback he ran for 11 TD’s and caught one, had five kicks returned for scores, three punts and two kickoffs and had four defensive TD’s of interceptions or fumbles. Oh, yeah and he passed for a league best 13 TD’s as well. The Watsonville coach said, “Robinson is one of those players who rarely come along. Just like former SC running back and current New York Jet, Johnny Johnson. It will be a while before we see players of his caliber again.”
Robinson’s best friend Reggie Stephens, was also an unanimous choice as Offensive Player of the Year. Stephens led the league with 1,266 yards rushing and 20 TD’s, 18 rushing and two through the air. Watsonville Coach, “You had a chance maybe of stopping one of the two, but then the other would shine. There was no way possible to stop both, They’re two of the best players in the league.”
The first team offense from SC is listed by position, height, weight and year in school.
NAME POS HI WI YR
Corcoran WR 6-1 170 SR
Barbera T 6-1 212 SR
Miller G 6-2 228 SR
First team defense
Hanson LB 5-9 195 JR
Dunn SL/K 5-10 200 JR
Stephens DB 5-10 175 SR
Second team offense
Marini WR 6-1 160 JR
Second team defense
Ayanbadejo LB 6-2 205 SR
Barbera DL 6-1 212 SR
Corcoran DB 6-1 170 SR
Honorable mention were Jesus Cortez, Jonathan Pillsbury, Cody Murray and Jorge Perez.
(Corcoran and Barbera were both honored offensively and defensively, on the offensive first team and the defensive second team.)
JV and FROSH FOOTBALL rosters are combined. JV record 7-3
Record 7-3.
Yearbook. Sophomore Michael McDuffie was the teams top JV scorer showing great effort and skill during each and every game.
Yearbook: Team roster: John Dawson, Kumi Rauf, Mike McDuffie, Jude Zils, Chance Pryor, Danny Whiting, Bernardo Xicotencath, Carey Webber, Matt Smith, Nate Kent, Joel Abraham, Karl Williams, Bart White, Javier Andrade, Mitchell, Toshintsune, Lee Keyser-Allen, Elias Alvarez, Josh Moyer, Jared VanKirk, Chris Morgan, Nick Thompson, James Cornibe, Brad Canepa, Jimmy Sparacino, Bogdan Kosh, Danny Belgard, Justin Lundberg and Lucas Brooks.
Coaches John Hopping, Randy Quilici and Brian Criswell.
Trident. Dec. 15. Top players like Chance Pryor, Lucus Carter, Bart White and Nick Thompson will help ensure the future of SC football staying powerful.
COMBINATION BOYS AND GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY.
Trident. Dec. 15. End of season wrap up of both squads, who made school history this season taking second place in the league varsity championship races. Both JV teams took the league titles, the first school to ever accomplish this.
BOYS shocked the rest of the county by running “out of their minds” in order to come within 10 points of, undefeated in dual meets, Watsonville. What did it? The second place finish by Mike Liberatore, seventh place by Javier Lainez and most stunningly sophomore David Kessler, who beat his previous best time on the 3.2 mile course by almost two minutes to take ninth place.
GIRLS to the surprise of no one, also finished second, led by freshman Jenny Croghan, who ran an extraordinary race, finishing seventh in a league with five of the best runners in the state from Aptos. Then the girls went on to take third at CCS, due in part to Rebecca Boyd, another freshman, who ran the race of her life to finish seventeenth, only two spots away from a trip to the State Championships.
AT CCS. Mike Liberatore took ninth place at CCS, which qualified him for the State Meet. Melanie Café, who had severe stomach pains at the league meet, rebounded to finish eleventh at CCS to qualify for her second State Meet appearance. Her first was last season as a hurdler in track, She is the first SC girl to qualify since 1975.
CROSS COUNTRY BOYS
Second at SCCAL meet, ninth at CCS
At the SCCAL cross country championship meet at Mount Madonna Park the scoring was Watsonville 31, Santa Cruz 42 SLV 73, Harbor 95, Aptos 99 and MVC 153.
Dual meets: Aptos won 26-31; Harbor won 22-38; Monte Vista won 15-incomplete; Soquel won; SLV won; Watsonville lost: Dual meet record 4-1 for second place.
November 5. Watsonville won its fifth straight SCCAL championship at Mount Madonna County Park. The scoring was Watsonville 31, Santa Cruz 42, SLV 73, Harbor 95, Aptos 99 and MVC 153. Individual results for SC are listed by place, name and time. 2.Mike Liberatore in 17:19. 6. Javier Lainez, 17:56. 14. Ben Henry, 18:37. 17. Josh Small, 18:45. 22. Joe Street, 19:15.
The Wildcats had five runners finish in the top 11. Mike Liberatore took second in 17:19. If the sixth runner were to be counted in the score, SC would have won by about a dozen points. “We had a chance. All my kids ran out of their minds. I had, for five minutes in my mind, that maybe we could win,” Coach Jim Scott. The two teams score almost evenly through three places, with Watsonville having a one point edge 12-13, but the Cats won the meet at numbers four and five where its two runners wee fifth and seventh respectively, while SC’s pair Ben Henry and Josh Small were fourteenth and seventeenth.
Sentinel November 6. At the SCCAL cross country championship meet at Mount Madonna Park
November 28. At the State meet at Woodward Park in Fresno, Mike Liberatore finished sixty-third.
Yearbook. Placed second in league, ninth in CCS and Mike Liberatore qualified for the State championship meet. The team was led by seniors Mike Liberatore, Javier Lainez and Ben Henry. Other team members: Joe Street, Luis Chacon, Jimmy Meyer, Darth Osborne and David Kessler.
Sentinel. October 1. SC 26, Aptos 31. Mike Libertore led the Cards in their league dual meet opener in 14:43 on the 2.5 mile course, with teammate Sergio Lainez second in 14:49.
October 22. Unbeaten SC rolled to two more wins improving to 4-0 in the SCCAL. They swept the top six places in a win over Monte Vista Christian and six of the top eight in a 22-38 win against Harbor at UCSC. Next week will be the Cards biggest challenge to date, a match up with 4-0 Watsonville. Against Monte Vista, Mike Liberatore led the parade of six SC runners across the finish line with a time of 11:46 over a 2.2 mile course. Javier Lainez was second in 12:08, Josh Small was third in 12:21 and fourth, Chris Aproa in 12:29 (the rest were cut off)
Trident. Oct. 29. Only two years after a season that was plagued by forfeits, when the boys could hardly scrounge together a complete squad of five, the Cards are now a team whose size rivals that of the Harbor football team. While losing only two graduates from last years third place team, the now fully experienced Cards are now rivaling long time nemesis Watsonville for the league title. Led by seniors Mike Liberatore and Luiz Chacon, the team’s greatest asset is its depth with five other returning runners, seniors Joe Street, Javier Lainez, Ben Henry and Jimmy Meyers and sophomore David Kessler. Plus there are additions of junior Josh Small and senior Chris Apra. These man along with Coach Jim Scott hope to follow in the foot steps of track team in dominating the SCCAL and bringing home the first cross country league championship.
CROSS COUNTRY GIRLS
At the SCCAL cross country championship meet at Mount Madonna Park the scoring was Aptos 15, Santa Cruz 65, Harbor 75, MVC 97 and Soquel 108.
Individual results for SC are listed by place, name and time. 7. Jenny Croghan, 22.2. Rebecca Boyd, 23.1. 13. Julie Oldfield. 15. Serra Oldfield, 23:10. 18. Natalie German 24:10. 28. Café, 26:53.
League dual meets: Soquel won 15-47; Watsonville 15-incomplete;
November 28. Aptos Fourth Again In State Meet. In division I, SC’s Melanie Café, the only Santa Cruz county girl to qualify individually finished in ? with a time of (was blanked out in the article by someone)
Yearbook. Place second in league. Melanie Café went to the CCS finals and qualified for the State Championship. Melanie has been the most consistent cross country runner. She has been to CCS and the teams MVP for three years in a row. She is also a track athlete and one of the top athletes at SC. Senior Serra Oldfield was also a top runner. Freshmen Rebecca Boyd and Jenny Croghan were the top newcomers. Other members were Julie Oldfield, Natalie Bridgeman, Nanaste Chism, Nicole Narver, Emily Street, Melissa Conerly, Lisa, Sara Hardin, Emily Allison and Robin Garon.
Sentinel. October 8. SC pulled the page from Aptos’ playbook. The Cards top four runners all crossed the finish line at the same time to help the team to a 15-47 win over Soquel. Julie Oldfield, Rebecca Boyd, Natalie Bridgeman and Melanie Café all covered the 2.5 Soquel course in 17:38. For good measure Jenny Croghan finished fifth in 17:46. Aptos, one of the top teams in Northern California, pulled the stunt a number of times last season. Both Café and Croghan became lost on the course, but still managed to finish ahead of any Soquel runner.
October 29. Taking a page from Aptos’ book of style, the top five runners for SC ran in a pack against Watsonville in an easy 15- incomplete win. Chanting a SC cheer as they came down the stretch at Pinto Lake Park, the five interlocked arms and crossed the line together. So, in alphabetical order, the top five were Rebecca Boyd, Natalie Bridgeman, Melanie Café, Julie and Serra Oldfield, all in 22:08. Actually SC took the top 11 spots in the league meet.
GIRLS TENNIS LEAGUE CO-CHAMPIONS
Tied for league with Aptos each with 9-1 records. SC defeated Aptos in a playoff to see who would be the CCS automatic seed. Made CCS playoffs, but lost to Santa Catalina in the first round. Won the league singles and doubles titles.
Dual matches: Watsonville 5-2, Harbor 5-2, 6-1; Aptos 2-5, 4-3 and in the league playoffs to see who goes to the CCS playoffs beat Aptos 4-2.
Yearbook. The toughest competition again was with Aptos. Singles players Nicole Gillette and Megan Fleming qualified for CCS and Gillette and Christina Perry went as a doubles team. Team leader Megan Fleming has been playing since elementary school. She practices four or five times each week during the off season. According to Megan, “Tennis is a mental sport.”
Team members were Amy Harris, Megan Fleming, Andra Tom, Nicole Gillette, Christina Perry, Megan Dixon, Jamie Thompson, Eva Chiao, Catherine Dunn, Cathy Scargill, Sara Hoffman, Jihye Kim, Valerie Lee, Allison Johnston, Sarah Walsh and Gloria Padilla. Coach Scott Buss.
Sentinel. October 1. SC 5, Watsonville 2. SC swept all four singles matches, improving to 3-0 in league play, same as Aptos. Megan Fleming won the number one match 6-0, 6-2. Nicole Gillette, Andra Tom and Valerie Lee added singles wins. SC’s number one doubles team won.
Sentinel. October 6. SC 5, Harbor 2. Megan Fleming won the number one singles match 6-1, 6-0. The rest of the Cards singles players followed suit. Harbor won only seven games in the four singles matches. SC won the number one doubles match.
October 26. Santa Cruz Improves to 8-1. SC defeats Harbor 6-1. The win improved the Cards record to 8-1 going into their next match against 9-0 Aptos. Megan Fleming continued her dominant play at number one singles winning 6-1, 6-0. Only one other player in the league has managed more than two games in any set this season against Fleming. At two singles Andra Tom struggled, but recovered to win 1-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3. Harbor’s win came in number two doubles.
October 29. Santa Cruz Earns Share Of Net Title. “They just outplayed us, said the Aptos coach of the Cards, who avenged a 5-2 loss earlier this season with a 4-2 victory on the final day of the regular season. The number two doubles was not completed, because of darkness and was not needed as it would have no bearing on the winning team. Both teams finished 9-1 in the SCCAL.
It was SC’s first win over Aptos since October 27, 1988. That season, the last for long time coach Dennis Mullen, the Cards were 16-0 in the regular season. I’m humbled said the Aptos coach Gay Sauer, whose mood matched her surname. “They played very well. They used the home court advantage. They used a completely different lineup and maybe we weren’t ready for that. But we’re not going to take this lying down.”
Business is not complete between the two teams. They battle one more time, to see who advances to the CCS team playoffs. The losers season will be over. SC coach Scott Buss was as elated as his players after the victory. It was his first win over Aptos in three seasons as coach, stopping a five match skid. “We were still playing matches, when we clinched it, so we down played it a little,” he said. “But the girls were really excited, high fiving and hugging each other. We’re definitely celebrating.”
SC won with a lineup shuffled significantly, since the previous loss to Aptos. Challenge matches during practice last week created a situation where there were no rematches against Aptos opponents. The number one doubles team of Christine Perry and Valerie Lee surprised Aptos 6-0, 6-4. “That was a was a big win for us,” Buss said. “They have a real strong team and we beat them pretty impressively.”
SC won the top three singles matches and the number one doubles. Megan Fleming, the uncontested ace player of the league won 6-2, 6-0. Andra Tom at number two won 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. At number three, Nicole Tillette won 6-3, 6-0. At number four singles, SC’s Gloria Padilla lost 6-3, 3-6, 5-7.
October 30. Santa Cruz Tops Aptos In Special Tennis Playoff. The Queen is dead. SC pulled off something of a minor miracle, knocking off Aptos in a special playoff match and likely bumping Aptos from the CCS playoff for the first time since 1988. Aptos was a 5-2 winner the first time the teams met, but SC came back to win 4-2 this week to tie for the league title. This playoff was to determine, which team would get an automatic bid to the CCS playoffs. Aptos can apply for an at large berth, but the chances are considered remote.
A couple of lineup shifts gave SC the edge. Andra Tom moved from number three singles to number two. Nicole Gillette dropped down a notch and Valerie Lee dropped from four singles to number one doubles, replaced by Gloria Padilla, who had been at number one doubles. Just switched places. Three of the four switches worked in SC’s favor.
“Those changes weren’t made arbitrarily. They were done through challenge matches,” said coach Buss. In high school tennis, coaches are not allowed to manipulate their lineups. Players advance on the ladder by challenge and beating teammates. Megan Fleming remained undefeated in league at number one singles with a 7-6, 6-1 win. Gillette at number three won 6-0. 6-3 and Padilla at number four won 6-3, 7-5, avenging a loss earlier in the week. SC clinched, when the number one doubles team of Christina Perry and Valerie Lee won 6-2, 1-6, 6-1.
November 2. Streak On Line In SCCL Tennis. SC’s number one singles player Megan Fleming, who holds a 3-0 wining record against Aptos’ number one player, who she defeated 7-6 (7-1), 6-1 in the special playoff between the two teams to break the 9-1 records of both team at the end of league play, to see which team represents the league at CCS. SC won the team match to move on for more team matches.
Today the two girls will play for the right to move on to the CCS singles tournament. The SC doubles team of Christina Perry and Nicole Gillette take on a Aptos pair to see who represents the league at CCS. Aptos’ junior and number one singles player, lost to SC ace, junior, Fleming in their first match 0-6, 3-6. In the second match she lost 2-6, 3-6. Fleming is 10-0 and Aptos player is 8-2 and will meet in the finals. Aptos’ doubles team defeated SC’s Monica Padilla and Andra Tom 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the semifinals. Perry and Gillette reached the finals by beating Aptos’ second doubles team 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals.
November 3. Cardinal Wins Tennis Title. SC’s Fleming Tops, Aptos player in two sets 6-2, 6-3. Megan Fleming, a junior brought a 16-1 season record to the match, defeated Aptos’ top player for the fourth consecutive time this season, to win the SCCAL singles crown. SC’s Christina Perry and Nicole Gillette were outlasted 4-6, 6-3, 4-6 for the leagues double title. Winners move on to the CCS individual playoff, which begin on November 17. Fleming’s shots seemed magnetized to the white lines. Her opponent rallied well, when the ground stokes were down the middle of the court, but when Fleming was painting the corners, she had a pronounced advantage. “I just hit my offensive shots better. I don’t think she played any better or worse than last time,” Fleming just followed her game plan. Fleming reached the finals for the second straight year. She also reached the finals of the Northern California girls 16s tournament, which she said gave her important experience against top competition.
Trident. Dec. 15. In the first match of CCS, the Cards were defeated by one of the best teams in the section, Santa Catalina. Both number one singles player Megan Fleming and the number one doubles team of Nicole Gillette and Christina Perry were defeated. But this CCS match should not take away from the achievements this team has accomplished this season.
Fleming Gets It From Both Sides. Junior Megan Fleming, the dominate singles player in the SCCAL has led her team to tie Aptos for the league title and defeat them in a playoff to advance to the CCS playoffs and will also be in the CCS individual championship tournament. Last year as a sophomore, she was runner up in the SCCAL singles tournament and this year won easily.
Fleming is coached at SC by Scott Buss, the former UCSC standout, who is an established as a top juniors coach in the area. Fleming is also coached by Michael Velasco, the teaching pro at La Madrona Swim and Racquet Club, a respected local authority on both the mental and physical side of tennis. Whom can she trust? Both. Instead of getting whacked out by the bombardment from both sides, she has learned absorb the best tips from both. The unusual formula has led to success.
Fleming the daughter of physical therapist Murray Fleming, has compiled a 16-1 record this season so far, including a 10-0 make in SCCAL regular season play. “Scott is more intense and Michael is more relaxed,” said Fleming. “I like having the balance. They both give good advice.” The coaches, who for more than a decade have been among the top players in the area are careful not to cross up their budding prospect.
“I try to stay away from teaching her mechanics,” Buss said. “I stick to court strategy, court demeanor. When I do help her with her strokes, I always ask her if she wants to change first. She’ll usually try it to see if it works.” Velasco has coached Fleming since she was in grade school, but doesn’t seem to mind another coach dabbling with his student. “Scott is a very good teacher, just as good as me mechanics wise,” he said. “I respect anything he tells Megan. I’m glad she has someone like him as a coach. I think we both have good things to say to her.” Fleming’s only lost came in mid September to the number one player of powerhouse Robert Louis Stevenson 1-6, 0-6. “When I played the girl from RLS, she was at another level,” said Fleming. “I want to learn how to play at that level. I’m going to have to practice a lot.”
BOYS WATER POLO
Practice matches: Monterey Bay tournament: RLS 8-7, Watsonville 9-12. Watsonville tournament: Soquel 5-10, RLS 6-4, Carlmont 4-5. Southside San Jose tournament: Carmel 6-15. Watsonville 11-6, Aragon 6-11, Mt. View 7-9. Cabrillo tournament: Aptos 5-8, Menlo-Atherton 7-13. Practice record 3-8. League: Soquel 5-10, 6-13; Aptos 4-8, 10-11; Harbor 4-23, loss; Watsonville 9-10, loss: League record 0-8.
League playoff: Watsonville 12-11 in overtime, Harbor 7-28 in semifinal. Overall record 4-17.
Yearbook. The seniors were the strongest players. They were Cris Apra the best shooter, Scott Reed the defensive star and Topher Dunlap the speediest. Apra averaged four goals per game. He has played water polo all four years. He also is involved in cross country, soccer, the surf and swim teams. The varsity team had two girls this year, Jessica Smith and Jamily Haje.
Other varsity team members were Javier Carillo, Peter Dixon-Moses, Kerry, Bart White, Sean Clew and Chris Reef. Head Coach Brian and assistant Adam.
Sentinel Sept. 25. At the Monterey Bay Tournament, SC opened its season splitting two games. Due to an accident on the road, SC arrived late and had to forfeit their first game against Gunn.
Later SC beat RLS 8-7. Peter Dixon-Moses and Scott Reed each scored three goals.
Oct. 1. In their first league game, SC lost to Watsonville 12-9. Chris Apra led SC with five goals and Scott Reed had two. SC’ overall record is 1-5 and 0-1 in league. “We’re a little rough around the edges. We have a long ways to go. This was a tough loss,” said Coach Cary Smith.
Oct. 3. At the Wildcat Invitational, Soquel defeated SC 10-5. SC beat RLS 6-4 and lost 5-4 to Carlmont to finish in sixth place.
Oct. 5. Soquel 10, SC 5. Danny Smith and Chris Reese played strong for the Cards now 0-2 in league and 2-10 overall. Scott Reed led the scoring with two goals.
Oct. 9. At the Southside Water Polo Tournament in San Jose, SC split two games, losing to Carmel 15-6 and beating Watsonville 11-6. Chris Apra scored 11 of the Cards 17 points with eight of them against Watsonville.
Oct. 10. At the tournament, SC finished eighth, falling to Aragon 11-6 and Mountain View 9-7. Chris Apra led the Cards with five goals against Mt. View and 16 for the tournament. Scott Reed led SC with three goals against Aragon.
Oct. 13. Aptos 8, SC 4. Aptos jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first quarter and 7-1 by halftime. SC is 0-3 in league.
Sentinel Oct. 16. At the Jeremy Smith Memorial Tournament at Cabrillo, SC lost to Aptos 8-5. Scott Reed led the Cards with three goals.
SC also fell to Menlo-Atherton 13-7. Reed had three goals and Chris Apra two.
Sentinel Oct. 20. Harbor remains unbeaten after beating SC 23-4 at Cabrillo College. Chris Apra and Scott Reed each had two goals. SC is 0-4 in league.
Oct, 22. Watsonville 10, SC 9. SC’s come back bid fell just short. Down 10-6 with 2:59 left in the game, SC scored three times in the next two minutes, but couldn’t get the tying goal. Chris Apra was the Cards top scorer with four points. SC is now 0-5.
Oct. 27. Soquel 13, SC 6. SC’s leading scorers were Peter Dixon-Moses and Scott Reed with three goals. Goalie Chris Reefe had 11 saves.
Oct . 29. Aptos survived a fourth quarter rush by SC to earn a 11-10 win. SC failed to score on four 6 on 5 situations near the end of the game. SC rallied from a 8-5 deficit after three quarters to pull within 10-9 with 1:15 left, but Aptos came right back and scored. SC scored again with 24 second left to get within 11-10. SC’s Scott Reed led all scorers with four goals and Peter Dixon-Moses had three. “We had them on the ropes, we just couldn’t pull the trigger,” said coach Cary Smith.
Nov. 12. SC 12, Watsonville 11. SC finally won a league game at the SCCAL tournament. SC earned the right to met Harbor in the league semifinals with a double overtime win 12-11. “It was a good moral victory for us,” said coach Smith, whose team was 0-8 during the regular league season. Peter Dixon-Moses scored the winning goal. He had three goals in the game. Scott Reed led the Cards with four goals and Chris Apra added three.
Nov. 13. Harbor defeated SC in the semifinals 28-7. Two exchange students one from Hungry and the other from Serbia scored at will against SC. “Our big plan was to keep them under 20,” said coach Smith, who also wanted to score first, which was accomplished by Scott Reed, but Harbor then scored 12 unanswered points to put the game out of reach. “We just wanted them to have fun, but the fun left after the second quarter, when we were down by 15,” said Smith.
Sentinel. Senior, field player, Chris Apra was the only Card to make the ALL SCCAL first team, selected by the leagues coaches. Scott Reed was selected for the second team. Honorable mention was Peter Dixon-Moses.
JV boy team members were Trevor, Steve Kelly, Corey Miller, Andy Stumpf, Nilo Alvarado, Casey Nichols, Seth Gargano and Joel Silver.
Girl members: Tessa Hasty, Liz Schiffrin, Shelly Gill and Heather Tyler.
Coaches Brian and Carey.
GIRS SWIMMING AND DIVING
Aptos rolled to its seventh straight SCCAL swim title scoring 373 points, followed by SC 298, Soquel 213, Harbor 212 and Watsonville 87.
League: Soquel 105-80, Aptos 70-116. Watsonville 142-43 and Harbor 101-80. League record 3-1 for second place. Second at the league finals.
SCHOOL RECORD BREAKERS
The 200 free relay team of seniors Jessica Smith and Kim McGuiness and sophomores Taryn Nagy and Kim Reimann broke the school record with a time of 1:48.43. During the CCS consolation heats, team captain Kim McGuiness broke the school record for the 100 breaststroke in 1:09.48. Kim Reimann set a new record in the 100 freestyle with a time of 55.56.
Yearbook. In the league finals five freshmen had outstanding times to help the team take second place. Sophomore Taryn Nagy swims the 100 meter butterfly and the 200 meter individual medley relay and was a member of the school record breaking 200 meter free relay. Evie Smith is one of the top divers in the county.
Varsity team members were Addie Ochoa, Kim Reimann, Jennifer Cummings, Corey Miller, Beth Sutkus, Tatiana Land, Emily Urban, Liz Schiffrin, Allison George, Jessica Smith, Evie Smith, Maria Wills, Vaidehi Campbell, Cathy Shumate, Heather Tyler, Amy Belcher, Christine MacNamera, Marianne Perry, Casey Fawcett, Shelly Gill, Kim Strickland, Kim McGuiness, Sarah Dunlap, Lacie Ivison, Shawna O’Mera, Taryn Nagy and Renne Ivison. Coach Cathy Tardieau.
Sentinel swimming preview October 4. Coach Traci Kreppel, who has taken over a program once coached by her mother Carol Kreppel, has some good juniors and a bunch of divers, who she thinks may make the Cards the second best team in the SCCAL. Leading the way is junior Kim Reimann, who has already made the CCS qualifying time in the 200 free, 100 free and 100 back. The key support crew includes juniors Taryn Nagy in the freestyle and fly, Jennifer Cummings 50 and 100 free and sophomore Cori Miller in backstroke and freestyle. The team has ten divers. “I think we’ll do pretty good,” Kreppel said.
Sentinel. October 1. Jessica Smith and Kim Reimann each won two events to lead SC past Soquel 105-80 in the league opener for both teams. Smith won the 50 freestyle in 29.42 and the 100 free in 1:06.77, Reimann won the 100 backstroke in 1:05.72 and the 200 free in 2:05.60
October 7. SC 142, Watsonville 43. SC looked extremely strong in winning every event. SC had three double winners. Corey Miller took the 200 free in 2:17.63 and 100 back in 1:11.56. Return CCS qualifier Kim Reimann won the 200 individual medley in 2:24.3 and the 500 free in 5:36.64. Taryn Nagy won the 100 butterfly in 1:17.36 and the 50 free in 28.53.
Sentinel. Oct. 1. SC 105, Soquel 80. Jessica Smith and Kim Reimann each won two events. Smith won the 50 freestyle in 29.42 and the 100 free in 1:06.77. Reimann won the 100 backstroke in 1:05.72 and the 200 free in 2:05.60.
Oct. 22. Aptos 116, SC 70. SC recorded personal best marks, including a school record, but lost to the league power Aptos. Jessica Smith, Taryn Nagy, Kim McGuinness and Kim Reimann finished the 200 freestyle in 1:50.59 to set a school record, even though they came in second to Aptos in that race. Reimann won the 200 free in 1:50.59 and was second in the 100 backstroke in 1:05.16. Evie Smith won the diving with 175.50 points.
Sentinel. Oct. 1. SC 105, Soquel 80. Jessica Smith and Kim Reimann each won two events. Smith won the 50 freestyle in 29.42 and the 100 free in 1:06.77. Reimann won the 100 backstroke in 1:05.72 and the 200 free in 2:05.60.
Oct 22. SC 70, Aptos 116. SC recorded personal bests, including a school record. Jessica Smith, Taryn Nagy, Kim Guinness and Kim Reimann finished the 200 freestyle in 1:50.59 to set a school record., even though SC came in second in that race. Reimann won the 200 individual free in 1:50.59 and was second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.16. Evie Smith won the diving with 175.50 points.
Oct. 29. SC 101, Harbor 80. Kim McGuinness and Kim Reimann each won a pair of individual events to up SC’s SCCAL dual meet record to 3-1. McGuinness won the 200 individual medley in 2:24.38 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:13.34. Reimann won the 100 butterfly in 1:08.78 and the 50 free in 26.85. Both were on the two winning relay teams, the 400 free and the 200 medley. SC came away with a 1-2-3 sweep in the 100 breaststroke that gave the Cards a 98-76 lead. Prior to the event SC led 85-73.
Trident. Oct. 29. Girls Diving. This years diving team is off to a splashing start, showing great improvement over last year. There are three new motivated divers, freshmen Casey Eawcat and Lacie Iveson and junior Evie Smith, plus hardworking and dedicated returning divers, senior Abra Allen, juniors Tatiana Lang and Reena Iveson and sophomore Maria Willis. Coach Matthew Reyes and assistant Rob Homburg, both former SC divers, think the girls have a good chance of going to CCS. Each day, the team goes through vigorous workouts that consists of running, stretching, sit ups and pushups. This dedication paid off at a recent meet, where most of the teams divers placed in the top five.
Sentinel. November 5. In the first day of the SCCAL swimming and diving competition the only event scheduled is the diving competition. Freshman Cara Shumate in her first year of competitive diving took third with a score of 328.9. Freshman Laura Beach took fifth place. Since the top seven advance to the CCS championships, two Cards will be going.
Sentinel. November 6. One year ago, SC’s Kim Reimann was the only person that kept Aptos from sweeping every event in the championship. This year she is the only legitimate hope once again, even though hampered by the flu. Reimann was edged out in the 200 freestyle and Aptos went on to win all 11 events. .
Nov. 6. At the SCCAL Diving section, Evie Smith came in sixth to qualify her for the CCS championships.
Nov. 7. Aptos rolled to its seventh straight SCCAL swim title scoring 373 points, followed by SC 298, Soquel 213, Harbor 212 and Watsonville 87. Aptos won every event, but the 200 freestyle, won by Kimberly Reimann in 2:02.47.
Trident. Dec. 15. Four swimmers reached CCS to compete in the 200 meter medley relay and the 200 meter freestyle relay. Members are seniors Kim McGuinness and Jessica Smith and sophomores Kim Reiman and Taryn Nagy. These girls set a new school record in the 200 freestyle by breaking their own league record of 1:50.21 and resetting it at 1:48.43. They also broke their personal best time of 2:03.24 and left it at 2:01.48 in the medley relay. McGuinness and Reiman also competed in individual events. McGuinness set a personal best with 2:21.64 in the 200 individual medley and set a school record in the 100 breaststroke as she finished with 1:09.81 for eleventh place at CCS, even though she was sick with the flu. Reimann placed seventeenth in the 100 backstroke and thirteenth in the 100 freestyle, as she set a new school record coming in just under a minute in 55.56. Coach Tardiev was impressed with the girls efforts this season saying, “You can’t ask for more, they swam their best times in CCS.”
On December 2, Sentinel girls swimming times for the top five swimmers in each event. Kim Reimann placed in the top five in five events and in all three relay teams. Listed by event, place and time.
Kim Reimann places
200 freestyle, first in 4:58.84.
100 freestyle, second in 56.29
100 backstroke, second in 1:01.67.
200 individual medley, third in 2:20.42.
100 breaststroke, fourth in 1:17.40.
In the relays; 200 medley relay, third with team of Miller, Nagy, Reimann and Cummings
200 free relay: Second, Miller, Nagy, Reimann and Cummings
400 free relay: Second, Cummings, Nagy, Miller and Reimann
Diving: Beach third and Shumate fifth.
JV team members were Allison Chapin, Jessica Duncan, Anne Leber, Moriah Chandler, Tiffany Major, Shera Grellmann, Erica Angel, Nicole LeDoux, Chree Creseione, Shara Hedgpeth, Tammy Vaca, Kristen Marenghi, Melissa Garrett, Tessa Hasty, Brenda Kerr, Laura Strickland, Devon Reyes, Kim Perry and Shana Barton. Coach Soji Howe.
GIRLS VOLLEYBALL
In the 32 team San Jose Classic, SC took third place. At the SCHS best-of-five tournament, SC’s only a loss to the tourney champion Monterey in the finals.
League scores available: Harbor 0-3, 0-3; Monte Vista 3-0, 3-0; Watsonville 3-0, 3-0; SLV 3-2.
Record 6-6 for fourth in league and 17-8 overall. Won their first game in CCS Division III beating Lynbrook 3-0 and lost to Los Gatos 0-3 in the semifinals.
Yearbook. This team has gone farther than any SC volleyball team has ever gone, making it to the quarterfinals of CCS. Team leaders were Alaina Kipps and Joanne Hutson. Senior Yvonne Kramer has played volleyball for six years, which includes Club Volleyball. Out of all her years playing, this has been the best, thanks to the devotion and determination coach Reed Duffus portrayed helping her improve her skills. Noelle Walker also contributed.
Sentinel November 9. SCCAL teams Seeded Highly. Mondays seeding meeting for the CCS playoffs confirmed what has already been accepted everywhere else. The SCCAL has become an elite division. Five of the seven team in the SCCAL received invitations into postseason play this year and none were seeded below fourth in any of the four divisions. Monte Vista finished sixth in the SCCAL, but jumped to second in Division IV. Now that’s respect. Harbor, the defending Division II state champion, received a two seed in Division III this year. They trail number one seed Los Gatos, the number six ranked team in the state among ALL divisions.
In Division I, Soquel finished third in the league and is seed second and this is Division one, folks. Aptos, runner up in the SCCAL and last years state finalist in Division III, got the third seed in Division II.
SC’s Reed Duffus was happy with his team’s seeding, especially the first round bye in the twelve team field. But he makes it plain that just making the playoffs is a payoff. “This is the first time in three years SC has made the playoffs. We worked hard. Last year we rebuilt and this is the year we had hoped to have, reach the playoffs and we reached our goal. So whatever we have after this is extra credit,” Coach Duffus.
November 14. Perfect Day For SCCAL. Aptos, Harbor, Monte Vista, SC, Soquel win in first round. SC defeated number twelve seeded Lynbrook 15-5, 15-4, 15-9. It took SC less than an hour to justify its number four seed in the CCS Division III playoffs. SC used a strong serving game to blitz Lynbrook at North Salinas.
“That’s the best serving match we’ve had all year. I told the girls to keep the ball in and serve tough and that’s what they did. We had no service errors in the first two game,” said coach Reed Duffus. Leading the service assault were Nikki Sudduth and Joanne Hutson. In the second game, Hutson served a couple of five -point runs and she helped the Cards jump to a 7-0 lead in the final game, with three consecutive aces.
“I told the girls to serve sidelines and angles so their passers wouldn’t have straight passes to the setters. We were able to keep the pressure on some of their weak passers,” Duffus said.
November 19. Santa Cruz Goes Quickly, Quietly. SC went into their Division III semifinal game with State ranked Los Gatos, a bit in awe. The Wildcats proved it was a well founded fear, as they pummeled SC 15-4, 15-4, 15-2. “They were a machine. They put that big block up at the net and they didn’t let anything go down on their side. They made no mistakes,” Coach Reed Duffus. It wasn’t that SC played particularly badly. They were just overwhelmed. In the second game with SC clinging to a 3-2 lead, Los Gatos ran off 12 consecutive points.
Last year Harbor defeated Los Gatos in the semifinals of Division II in a thrilling five game match. Both teams were looking for a rematch, but Harbor was defeated in its semifinal match in four games
In a practice game SC defeated Monterey, in a write up on Nov. 13.
Sentinel. September 11. Monterey High captured the championship of the SCHS best-of-five tournament. SC with only a loss to Monterey, finished second. Other teams in order of finish, starting with third place MVC, North Monterey and Carmel. SC Coach Reed Duffus credits Steph Sauer and Katie David with solid play from their outside hitter positions. Nikki Sudduth and Joanne Hutson played well at setter.
September 25. SC at San Jose Classic. Shooting from a twentieth seed at the outset of the tournament to the number two seed at the completion of pool play, SC claimed third place in the 32 team tournament. SC was undefeated in eight matches after two days of pool play. In the first round of playoffs, SC blasted Cupertino 15-4, 15-6, before losing 11-15, 12-15 to Clovis West in the semifinals.
October 1. Cardinals Come Back Strong. Rediscovering their intensity, SC used aggressive serving and jumped on Monte Vista 15-1, 15-4, 15-5, one night after losing to Harbor. SC bounced back with solid passing from Yvonne Kramer and Kelly Kaiser, while Nicole Maddox, a senior outside hitter, went 7 for 12 with one error. “We got the ball where we needed it to go,” Coach Duffus said.
October 8. SC defeated Watsonville 15-4, 15-2, 15-2 and are now 3-3 after the first round of league play. Coach Reed Duffus said,” senior setter Aufrey Mantell and junior outside hitter Steph Sauer looked particularly strong. We are in the drivers seat as far as reaching our goal in this season,” said Duffus. “We worked hard on tough serves tonight and we need to continue to work hard.”
On October 26, SC had an overall record of 11-6 and a league record of 4-5. Harbor defeated SC 15-6, 15-7, 15-6. Harbor was ranked eleventh in the state
October 27. SC defeated Monte Vista 15-9, 15-3, 15-6 as Alaina Kipps had five kills, two aces and several blocks to lead SC. SC is 5-5 in league and 12-5 overall.
November 1. SC beat St. Ignatius of San Francisco 15-1, 15-7 for the championship of the bronze division of the Harbor Invitational tournament. SC had the misfortune of being in the same pool with gold division champion Los Altos and were only 1-5 in pool play to be relegated to the bronze division. SC beat St. Helena 15-8, 15-6. SC beat SLV 15-5, 15-6 in the semi-finals. Alaina Kipps was named to the All Tournament team.
November 3. Santa Cruz Hopes For Playoff Berth. SC beat Watsonville 15-5, 15-1, 15-2 and finished with a 6-6 league record and 16-7 overall and hopes for a CCS playoffs spot. “We’re hoping,” said Duffus, who praised Joanne Hutson’s defense as a key to the win. “We had good play by everyone.”
Trident. Dec. 15. Conditioning started in early August and by the end of the month 12 girls were chosen for the varsity team. Many of these girls were starters returning from last year. They are seniors Yvonne Kramer and Nicole Maddox and juniors Joanne Hudson and Alaina Kipps. The big game for the Cards came about half way through the season against SLV, who had placed fourth in CCS last year. SC won the match and helped themselves to clinch a CCS playoff spot. The next big win was against Lynbrook in their first CCS match. Head coach Reed Duffus has a lot to do with the teams success. He spends a lot of extra time before and after practice helping improve every aspect of the girls and teams skills.
Alaina Kipps was chosen Girls athlete of the Month by the Trident. Alaina is the middle hitter on the volleyball team and helped lead the Cards to a fourth place ranking in the CCS Division III playoffs. Her ability goes beyond just a powerful swing. She is also a big play maker in the back row of the defense.
December 3. Sentinel ALL COUNTY first team included Alaina Kipps a 6-1 junior. Reed Duffus was selected as COACH OF THE YEAR. Alaina Kipps maybe the best blocking middle blocker in the league. Kipps had a good vertical jump to go with an impressive wingspan on her 6-2 frame. Her mere presence on the court intimidated many opponents.
Cards Duffus Not Like Most Coaches. Maybe it’s the folly of youth, but SC coach Reed Duffus, a second year coach, remembers most fondly his team’s five game death struggles with SLV. “I’d be sitting there watching the games go back and forth and think, this is real cool,” Duffus said. “Those are the matches I’m going to remember more than the thumping Lynbrook in the first round of the CCS Division III playoffs.
By beating SLV, a team with whom the Cards battled intensely in the SCCAL standings, SC secured fourth place an its first trip to CCS playoffs, since 1990. The Cards 17-8 record was also its best in the 1990’s and helped Duffus earn recognition as the Sentinels All County Coach of the Year.
JV GIRLS VOLLEYBALL
Yearbook. Team members: Katie McGraw, Kriya Bahn, Isa Reser, Allicia Beach, Sarah Paul, Anne Hamilton, Miriam Abrams and Anita Fernley. Head coach Gaby Houston, assistant Coral Gilkie.
BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS
Practice games: RLS 63-59, Palma 70-37,
Dads Club tourney: Lincoln of San Jose 40-50.
League games: Aptos 76-58, 64-49; Watsonville 88-53, 71-45; Soquel 54-47, 76-68; MVC loss, 81-72, : Harbor loss,75-74; League record 10-2 for league round robin championship. In SCCAL post season tournament: Soquel 63-52 and Harbor 54-36 for the overall league Championship.
CCS Division III playoffs: Mt. View 69-57, Palo Alto loss
League standings from Sentinel by school, league record and overall record.
SCH LE OV
SC 10-2 21-10
Harbor 9-3 22-7
SLV 8-4 15-12
Soquel 7-5 17-9
Aptos 6-6 9-16
MVC 2-10 5-18
Watsonville 0-12 1-23
Sentinel preseason write up. Coach Pete Newell’s nineteenth season. Last years record: 19-13, 10-4 in league for second place. Key players: seniors Reggie Stephens at 5-11, forward and Jermaine Robinson at 6-0, forward. Junior Larry Gross at 6-3, forward. Sophomore Kam Watson at 6-3, center. SC came close to winning the league tournament last year and once again will be challenging rival Harbor for the top spot. Sophomore Eric Crawford and freshman Nick Theodosis will be battling for the point guard position.
If neither is able to play to Newell’s expectations, Robinson will slide over to the point to run the offense. Coaches outlook: “We’ll still want to run an up tempo offense. The reason we transition is to try and get the best shot and that’s layups,” said Newell. The Cards might have one of the youngest teams in the league this year, but Newell said, “We have been very blessed with very promising talent throughout our program. We’re two to three deep at every position and I’ve been pleasantly surprised so far.”
Sentinel. November 28. Card center Willie Bouterse scored seven of his 21 points in the final period, in which SC outscored RLS 16-10 to ice the non-league win. Mike McDuffie hit two foul shots in the final 20 seconds to give SC a 1-1 record. RLS led 32-31 at halftime. Larry Gross added 12 points and Marcus Williams had 11.
Sentinel. December 31. SC 70. Palma 37. Reggie Stephens led a parade of a dozen players. who scored for SC with 16 points, as the Cards took a 17-7 lead after one quarter and never looked back. SC led 32-15 at halftime and 58-31 after three quarters. Adrian Corcoran and Larry Gross each added 11 points and Gross also had 11 rebounds. SC 8-7, won for the seventh time in its past 10 games after starting the season 1-4.
January 16. SC 76, Aptos 58. SC found themselves down by four at halftime. What to do” A 20-0 run to start the second half took care of things as SC improved it’s league record to 3-1. “They didn’t miss a shot. They hit everything. They were running, had the perimeter game going, they just bagged everything,” said Aptos coach Dan Gruber. Reggie Stephens and Jermaine Robinson led the way for the Cards with 24 and 23 points respectively. Mike McDuffie chipped in 10 points. SC made 11 of its 17 shots in the third quarter and 10 of 16 in the fourth . SC also dominated the boards 49-26. Robinson had 13 rebounds and Stephens hauled in seven.
January 14. SC 88, Watsonville 33. SC up only 15-7 after the first quarter, went on a 26-2 binge in the second period for a 41-9 halftime lead. SC bounded back from its loss to rival Harbor in their last game, used their distinct speed advantage to push the tempo wire to wire. SC led 71-20 into the fourth quarter, when coach Newell went to his reserves, who reeled off a 20-13 finish. Reggie Stephens led the Cards with 13 points, while Larry Gross and Mike McDuffie each scored 10.
January 22. Santa Cruz Edged Soquel 54-47. Despite both teams playing with juggled lineups, because of injuries and illness, the teams managed to play the type of game expected, intense and close. It wasn’t until the final five minutes, when SC started a 9-2 run, that SC was able to break free. “We tried to keep up the tempo,” said SC guard Strider Kemp, who moved into the starting lineup and contributed nine points and five rebounds. Kemp started, because forward Larry Gross was out with an injured ankle. Robinson then moved from guard to forward. The game was tied 35-35 at the end of the third period. Reggie Stephens scored 15 points and Robinson 11.
January 26. SC 81, MVC 72. Cardinal Pair Hits 56 Points. The injury to Harbor star Tim Young couldn’t have been predicted. The effect of Stephens and Robinson on the SC team was crystal clear from the get-go. This combination of events has flip flopped the SCCAL standings. Behind 31 points from Stephens and 25 from Robinson, SC assumed first place for the first time this season after a 81-72 victory over Monte Vista Christian on Tuesday. SC is 6-1 and Harbor 5-2. Stephens scored 13 first quarter points, on lay ups, breakaways and a 3 pointer. “Even I had to stand p and applaud them a couple of times,” said MVC coach Steve Miles of the Stephens-Robinson Fast break Clinic. No other Card scored more than five points.
Point guard Strider Kemp had 11 assists and directed the SC attack, which included seven assists and six rebounds by Robinson.
February 2. Santa Cruz Edges Harbor. Young’s Return Can’t Save Pirates. SC survived its greatest test of the season in the SCCAL, edging Harbor 75-74. Harbor pulled to within a point after trailing by seven in the fourth quarter. The win kept SC 15-8 overall and 7-1 in league for first place in league. More significantly, SC was able to survive the return of Tim Young, who has missed the last three games due to a deep calf bruise. Harbor held a slight lead throughout the first half, but SC got hot early in the third quarter, taking the lead on a basket by 6-3, junior Larry Gross. SC built a 42-39 lead, but Young scored 10 points in the final four minutes of the quarter. Adrian Corcoran nearly kept pace scoring eight points. Young was clearly in pain in the fourth quarter as SC extended its lead to 59-54 on a 3 pointer by Strider Kemp. Young was replaced and his substitute scored 13 points in the fourth quarter, cutting down a seven point SC lead. With five seconds left, Harbor hit a 3 pointer to come within one point. Stephens led the SC inside attack with 20 points, while SC as a team made 8 of 15, 3 point goals.
February 4. SC 71, Watsonville 45. It took a while for the Cards to regroup following their emotional win over Harbor. But once they started going, it was no contest. Robinson scored 24 points as SC outscored Watsonville 44-24 in the second half. Until then, the Cats managed to stay close, trailing only 27-21 at halftime. Watsonville got as close as 27-25, before SC took wing. Reggie Stephens had 13 points.
February 6. Spunky Aptos Can’t Hold On. Cardinals Clinch Share Of SCCSL Title. For a while, it looked like Aptos was going to put a dent in SC’s almost unimpeded run to the SCCAL crown. But SC turned up the defensive intensity in the second half to pull away for a 64-49 victory. SC clinched at least a share of the regular season title. SC 9-1, leads second place Harbor and SLV both at 6-3. “It’s very important to win the regular season title, because that assures of at least a co-championship. We’re playing for a championship banner to put on the wall and that doesn’t say co-champion,” said Coach Newell.
Aptos jumped out to a 30-26 lead in the first half. In the second half, Robinson was shifted to guard the hottest Mariner shooter and Robinson held him scoreless the second half, after he scored 14 in the first half. “We put on a full court zone press and got a little spurt that allowed us to open to a ten point lead,” Newell said. He then shifted into full court man to man defense.
In the second half, Aptos was held to 8 for 29 shooting, contrasted to the first half 14 for 25. “I felt they made good adjustments. They put a lot of pressure on the point and perimeter and they did a good job limiting our options,” said Aptos coach Dan Gruber. SC improved their shooting hitting 16 for 26 in the second half, compared to 12 for 27 in the first half. SC hit six of nine 3 pointers in the second half. Stephens scored 17 points, Robinson 15, including a thunderous one handed dunk. Adrian Corcoran, in his only second start rattled in 14 points. Larry Gross had 12 rebounds followed by Stephens with seven and Robinson with six.
February 12. Cards Soar To Title. Stephens sparks SC’s Comeback. SC came from behind to beat Soquel 76-68, to win its first regular season SCCAL title, since the 1989-90 season. SC finished with a 10.2 record, one game ahead of Harbor. Coach Pete Newell, whose teams have shared in league titles five of the last seven years was not surprised. “Starting the season, we know that we could win the league title. It just took us longer to jell as a team,” Newell said.
Stephens lead the SC comeback with ten fourth period points and was game high scorer with 23. Strider Kemp chipped in 17 points and some key points late in the game. Stephens electrified the crowd with eight straight points mid-way through the fourth quarter, including two 3 pointers. “His back-to-back 3 pointers gave us the emotional lift we needed down the stretch,” said Newell.
SC started the fourth quarter down by six, finally pulled ahead 62-60 on Stephen’s basket with 4 minutes to play. SC then out scored Soquel 14-8 to put the game away. On Thursday SC is to face the winner of Aptos-Soquel in the second round of the SCCAL postseason tournament.
February 18. SC beat Soquel 63-52, setting them up to play Harbor and with a win take complete control as SCCAL champions. It depends on which SC team shows up and for how long. If the ball hawking, fast breaking Cards, who disassembled Soquel in the first half and jumped out to a 41-19 lead, it will be a long night for Harbor. If it’s the SC team that regressed into an extended lull on the second half, the Bucs will be hoisting a new pennant up the mast.
“With this team, I try to give them some simple things to do and then let them play,” said Newell. And in the first 16 minutes against Soquel it was a thing of beauty. “We played very well in the first half,” said Newell, in classic understatement. In the early going, the Card defense forced Soquel into a succession of turnovers and that in turn keyed the offense which sprinted to 23 first quarter points. That was the Cardinal squad at its explosive best.
With 1:44 left in the half SC was ahead 36-17. In the span of 3:40, SC out scored Soquel 14-2. That run featured 3 pointers by Adrian Corcoran, Strider Kemp and Mike McDuffie. Robinson with 16 points, capped the run by scoring off an offensive rebound and drawing a foul. On the rebound, the 6 foot forward extended a foot above a trio of would be rebounders to rip down the ball. In the following 10-4 run, Corcoran with 11 point made a high-reel play when he grabbed a (rest of story missing)
Sentinel box. Young out for season. Harbor senior, 7-1 center and SCCAL MVP last year and four year starter for the Bucs, Tim Young has been diagnosed as having a stress fracture of his left leg and will miss the rest of the season. The team physician for Stanford and the SF 49ers made the diagnoses. Young has been sidelined since January 22.
February 19. Cards Don’t Need To Share. Santa Cruz Takes Title Outright. In his 19 years as coach at SC, Pete Newell has subscribed to the philosophy that league championships rank first in importance. Well, add another title for SC, who convincingly beat Harbor 54-36 in the championship game of the SCCAL tournament to add to their round robin championship, which gives them the title outright.
“It says to these kids, we don’t have to share our goal with anybody,” Newell said. Stephens had little trouble finding the bottom of the net, leading all scorers with 23 points, including three 3 pointers. Robinson and Michael McDuffie each added ten points. The first half was pretty ugly. SC led 10-6 after the first period, when Harbor had eight of its 19 turnovers for the game. It was only 21-18 SC at halftime. It could have been worse, but SC shot only 8 for 26 in the first half.
SC picked it up in the third quarter, opening and an eight point lead heading into the o fourth quarter. Then a 13-0 run put the game away for SC. “We have superior depth. The bench came in and played well,” Newell said.
Reserve players like McDuffie, Willie Bouterse and Jason Brooks gave Sc quality minutes, especially on defense. Harbor rarely had an open shot, and when they did they couldn’t convert. In the 13 point fourth quarter rally McDuffie scored seven points and Stephens four. Newell likes the Cards chances in CCS Division III playoffs. His team is certain to get at least one home game in the first round. “CCS is about playing your own game. We got a taste of success last year, beating Mt. View on the road,” Newell said.
In the second round of CCS Division III play, the winner of the James Lick vs. Mt. View game will play at Santa Cruz 19-9.
February 25. Cardinals Get Their Wish. Santa Cruz Earn CCS Rematch with Palo Alto. By defeating their first round opponent Mt. View 69-57. Adrian Corcoran and Reggie Stephens had 16 points each and Jermaine Robinson added 15 for number three seed SC 20-9, which is to play the defending state champion Palo Alto 20-7 Saturday at Cabrillo. Palo Alto, which went 35-0 last year, beat SC at the same juncture of last years playoffs, right after SC had beaten Mt. View in the first round.
“We’re better than last year and they’re not as good and I think our best basketball is ahead of us,” Newell said. SC wasn’t at its best against unseeded Mt. View 16-11, before the fourth quarter. The game was tied 50-50 after three quarters, although SC had led most of the time. Mt. Views 2-3 zone took away the Cards penetration dribbling and they often resorted to 3 point shooting rather than trying to prying apart the zone.
Defensively, SC had trouble denying the first step to the Spartans top forward, who scored 17 points. But in the fourth quarter, SC took over, largely because of two less herald players, reserve forward Willie Bouterse and point guard Strider Kemp. Bouterse, a 6-3 senior, began the season as starting center, but lost the job when Robinson, Stephens and Corcoran joined the team after football season.
Bouterse’s playing time had been diminishing as the season went on, but when he got on the floor Thursday night, Newell had no reason to take him off the floor. In addition to foraging for numerous loose balls and rebounds underneath, he had 10 points, including an offensive rebound for the final basket of the third quarter and a shot in traffic underneath, 35 second into the final period to put SC ahead for good. He later contributed a layup to what became a 11-0 run that put SC ahead 59-50 with 3:30 to play. “To his credit, he kept working hard in practice and tonight he saw the fruits of his labor,” said Newell.
Kemp, who had nine points made two 3 pointers during he third quarter that helped SC survive a 10-0 Mt. View run. Kemp, also was a paragon of control as the Cards spread the court in the fourth quarter and when they tried to push the ball on early release plays prior to that. “When Strider took over the point guard spot, at mid season, he made us faster, more aggressive and more lethal. He plays hard all the time and yet you never see him breathing heavily,” Newell said.
Palo Alto game no information, but lost.
Sentinel end of the season stats. On offense, SC was second in scoring with 63.3 points a game. On defense they were second giving up 57.1 points a game. Out of the top 21 scorers in the league, Stephens was third with 17.5 points a game and Robinson fifth with 15.4. Robinson was eighth in rebounding with 7.3 and Larry Gross was eleventh with 6.8.
Sentinel on March 19, Piques and Praise. To coach Pete Newell for his inspirational speech to the members of the SC freshman and junior varsity basketball teams. Newell stressed that it makes no sense for young people to excel in basketball, if they don’t also strive to be good sons, good brothers, good students and good friends. Newell challenged three dozen young men to give as much to their studies as they do to their sport, From Kris Kennedy.
The Sentinel ALL COUNTY first team included, Reggie Stephens and Jermaine Robinson. Pete Newell was COACH OF THE YEAR. Newell, who won his fifth SCCAL championship, once again has been recognized as the best coach in the area. The Cards won the league title in classic Newell fashion. They staggered through the early season, began to come around in the first half of league and were almost unstoppable down the stretch, especially in the SCCAL tournament. In the beginning, Newell tinkered with his team like a mad scientist looking for just the ingredients.
“We believe December is like a lab for learning,” Newell said. “We’re trying different combinations. Plus, you add the equation of players late from fall sports, players up from the JV and players who have never played before. Also there’s me tinkering with the offense throughout December to find the best weapons we can bring out during league.”
This year, the equation equaled speed. With players like Stephens, Robinson, Strider Kemp and Adrian Corcoran, the Card put one heck of a 400 meter relay team on the floor. They ran at every opportunity. “We were able to win essentially with four guards and inexperience at center, so I think that was a tremendous achievement for the team,” Newell said,
“This team may have been the fastest and quickest of all the teams we’ve had.” And as always, the season and the team points to the league tournament . It is there that Newell’s unique abilities seem to be at their best. In the four years in which Young and Harbor were dominant forces in the league, SC won two league titles and in the past three years is 8-1 in the tournament.
Jermaine Robinson: Its scary to think what this guy would do in a 6 foot and under league. He is easily the most dominant six footer in the paint in the league. Robinson started the season at point guard, but SC took off when he moved inside. Although he never developed a consistent out side shot, his ability to drive and elevate made him a 15.4 points a game scorer. He also averaged 7.3 rebounds a game and possessed the most artful and exciting dunks in the league.
Reggie Stephens: a 5-10 guard, Stephens was often the catalyst, who would start a Card scoring explosion.. “He scores in spurts and more often than not, those spurts would ignite our team,” said Newell of his senior star. Stephens, a three year varsity starter, was the leading SC scorer at 17.5 points a game. This is his second year on the All County team. His ability to hit the 3 pointer kept the opposing defenders honest and opened the inside for his teammates. Stephans was third in the league in scoring with 403 points for an average per game of 17.5 with a high of 31.
The SCCAL ALL LEAGUE first team included Jermaine Robinson at 6-0, senior, forward and Reggie Stephen at 5-11, senior, guard, On the second team was Strider Kemp, 5-11, senior guard. Honorable mention were Adrian Corcoran and Larry Gross. Pete Newell was COACH OF THE YEAR edging out (former SC athlete) Gary Grellmann the SLV coach. Newell, whose team won the SCCAL title with a 10-2 record, nominated his top player, Reggie Stephens as the league MVP, because, “His scoring generally came in spurts. And more often then not, that would be the spark that would ignite our momentum for many league victories.” An injured Tim Young of Harbor won the MVP award with a vote than was not unanimous. Stephens averaged 17.4 points during league play and had 23 points in SC’s 52-36 victory over Harbor in the SCCAL postseason tournament finale. Jermaine Robinson had an average of 15.7 points and 7.6 rebounds per game in league.
JV BOYS BASKETBALL League record 6-6 for fourth place.
Yearbook. This years team had a starting lineup of four freshmen and one sophomore with little experience. Freshmen point guard Nick Theodosis and forward Jermaine Hunter spent some time with the varsity at the beginning of the season, when the football season overlapped the start of basketball. They and sophomore Mike Marlow were the top players on the team. Coach Charles Burks says, “They can only get better,”
No roster included.
FROSH BASKETBALL nothing available.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Practice games: Alisal won, Gilroy 43-41, Burlingame 60-54 OT.
League: Aptos 72-41, 68-43; SLV 67-41, 68-51; Watsonville 60-67.
League record 6-6 for fourth place. Overall record 13-13? (games missing)
Yearbook. The team consisted of six sophomores, six juniors and two seniors. There were six returning players. Second year coach John Wilson said, “We’re a young team. We may lack experience, but not effort.” Senior center Tam Perez is also an outfielder on the softball team. She loves the competition and being part of the team. Some of the other players with pictures in the yearbook are Tessa Hasty, Katie David, Evie Smith, Kelly Kaiser, Tara Hill, Erika Lombard and Jessica Smith.
Sentinel preseason write up on November 26. Coach John Wilson’s second season. Last years record 25-3, 13-1 in league for first place. Key players: Seniors: Tam Perez, center, 5-10 and Jessica Smith, F, 5-8. Juniors were Jamie Vlassis, F, 5-9, Tessa Hasty, G, 5-6, Niki Sudduth, F, 5-7. Sophomore, Kelly Kaiser, G, 5-7. Four top players have graduated, which may make it tough to keep pace in league. Tam Perez assures the team of an above average rebounding game and inside scoring. After that, very few things are assured. Kaiser, who saw playoff action last year as a freshman, could be a solid replacement at point guard. Wilson said Kaiser is an up and coming player and vows she’s as good as Karst was as a sophomore.
There is plenty of quickness in the lineup. Guard Tara Hill and Joanne Hutson, forwards Jessica Brown and Katie David, and excellent team chemistry. That’s a good start. Coaches comments: “We’ll have to use everyone. I’ll use the twelfth girl probably as much as 6 and 7. We have potentially good shooters, except they are all pretty young. This team still might only be playing 500 ball as we get into league, but part of that is because of the tough teams we’ll be playing. We have a great group. They all get along and they’re all basically the same age. That’s why I like the chemistry,” said Wilson.
November 26. Leading only 29-23 at halftime, SC switched back and forth from a zone to a man-to-man defense in their season opening game. And that was enough to disrupt Alisal’s game plan. Sophomore guard Kelly Kaiser scored nine of her game high 19 points in the third quarter in which SC outscored Alisal 15-6. Kaiser also contributed eight assists. Evie Smith added 18 points for the Cards, who maintained an up temp pace on offense, while limiting Alisal to one shot on most possessions. Smith and Alicia Beach each had nine rebounds.
November 28. Scoring only eight points by halftime, it sounds dismal enough that most teams would consider it a learning experience and empty the bench. SC faced a 22-8 deficit at halftime, instead kicked it into high gear and beat the visiting Gilroy Mustangs 43-41. Niki Sudduth took a pass from Evie Smith and hit a jump shot from the top of the key with 1:30 reaming to close the gap to 41-40. Kelly Kaiser then put the Cards ahead 42-41 with two free throws and Jessica Brown added one more with 20 seconds left to secure the win. Smith finished with 23 points, 21 in the second half. She sank five 3 pointers and led the second half defensive effort with teammates Brown and Kaiser. Jamie Vlassis had a team high seven rebounds for the Cards.
December 30. SC 60, Burlingame 54 in overtime. SC rallied from a 12 point deficit in the third quarter and nine points back to start the fourth quarter to improve to 6-5 in their final game of non-league play. Kelly Kaiser, although hobbled by a bad ankle, had four of her 14 points in overtime and Tam Perez also scored four in OT to help SC pull away. Jaime Vlassis led all scorers with 21 points on 9 of 13 shooting and added nine rebounds.
January 16. SC 72, Aptos 41. A big first half helped SC swamp Aptos. “We had 45 points in the first half. I thought we were the Warrior’s for a minute,” said Coach Wilson. Tara Hill scored 16 points and Kelly Kaiser 15 as the Cards picked up their first SCCAL win for the season against three losses. Jamie Vlassis added 10 for the Cards, who are 7-8 overall. SC opened a 25-14 first quarter lead and extended it to 45-23 by halftime. “We just went off,” Wilson said. Vlassis had eight rebounds to lead SC, while Tam Perez and Evie Smith each had six.
January 14. SC 67, SLV 41. SLV led 18-12 after one quarter, the Cards rolled the rest of the game. But SLV couldn’t get a field goal in the second quarter and were down 20-28 at halftime. “We scored 39 points in the second half. That tells the story,” Wilson said. Kelly Kaiser led the Cards with 21 points, including a stretch of 10 straight free throws. Katy David and Evie Smith each scored 10 points, as SC improved to 2-3 in league and 8-8 overall. Tam Perez had 11 rebounds and seven points.
February 4. Emotional Cardinals Fall To Wildcats. Emotion played a major role in a game with Watsonville, who was tied for first place in league. A surge of aggressiveness almost pulled out a win for SC, while a lack of emotion from Watsonville brought the game down to two made free throws in the final 9 seconds to hold on for a 63-60 Wildcat win. In memory of Lefty Waltrip SC’s long time timekeeper, who died Tuesday night, the game began with an announcement of appreciation for him and a salutatory sounding of the buzzer he had manned for 25 years. In a fitting tribute, SC battled back from a 12 point deficit and almost took the game away from the Wildcats. Watsonville had a hard time matching the intensity of SC in the second half. After running up a 32-20 halftime lead, the Cats sputtered.
SC reeled off eight unanswered points to start the third quarter and had another six point burst at the top of the fourth to come within 51-50 with 4:57 left in the game. “I don’t know how much our feelings about Lefty had to do with the way we played. But we came out a little more aggressive than they did in the second half. I do know that something like this brings the girls closer together. I really saw that happen with the girls last year, when we lost Jack Alzina, a part time coach, who died following a league tournament game,” said Wilson.
Early on, it seemed the game would be anything but close. With SC managing only nine points in the second quarter and the Cats’ comfortable lead at the half, the rout was on. But Watsonville’s tanks wee low from playing a tough game on Tuesday and the Cats were worn down, by the time SC caught its second wind in the third quarter.
February 6. SC 68, Aptos 43. The speedy Cards had four players in double figures. Kelly Kaiser led the way with 18 points, 16 in the first half, was followed by Evie Smith’s 14, Tam Perez 12 and Jessica Brown 11. Brown had a team high 11 rebounds and Smith added nine. SC’s biggest quarter was the fourth, out scoring Aptos 22-9. The teams entered the game with identical 3-6 records, but it was the second time SC dominated Aptos. SC won 72-41 in the previous meeting.
February 9. SC 68, SLV 51. SC mounted a 21 point halftime lead and withstood a late Cougar lead. Center Pam Perez scored all 17 of her points in the first half, helping her team jump ahead 39-18 by half. Perez grabbed 13 rebounds and had ten of her points in the second quarter. Perez got many assists from Kaiser and Smith. Kaiser, the point guard, led all scorers with 21 point going 7 for 9 from the foul line and added four steals. “They were playing a zone and we attacked it well in the first half,” said coach Wilson, whose youthful team is 5-6 in league.
In the CCS Division III first round SC 13-12 plays at Monterey 16-8.
Sentinel end of the season stats. On offense, SC was fourth with 50.3 points a game average and on defense was sixth giving up 48.9 points a game. In individual scoring, Kaiser was seventh with a 11.4 average. Smith was fourteenth at 8.2. Vlassis was twentieth at 7.0 in scoring and eighth in rebounding with a 7.6 average.
Sentinel ALL COUNTY second team member was Kelly Kaiser. She was the only Card honored. “When you think about Kelly, even as good as she is, she is very seldom satisfied with her performance even though she does a great job out there. She wants to perform at her best all the time and do great things. That’s one of the things that make her a great player,” Coach John Wilson said. Kaiser a sophomore averaged 11.5 points a game in her first season as the starting point guard for SC.
March 17. Kelly Kaiser a 5-8, sophomore guard was selected by the league coaches to the ALL LEAGUE first team. Kelly was also named SOPHMORE OF THE YEAR. Evie Smith a 5-8, junior, forward was selected to the third team. Tam Perez and Jamie Vlassis made honorable mention.
JV GIRLS BASKETBALL
Yearbook. The team had an outstanding season. Coach Conrad Sudduth said, “the players are talented, smart and play hard.” Freshman Jenny Croghan is the vital point guard and top scorer. Freshmen Lisa Chandly and Anna Miller said, “basketball is good exercise and fun.” Sophomore Maria Willis constantly froze facial expressions of observers with her amazing three point shots. Sophomore Brooke Conner played well in her role of part time point guard and wing. “We have a really short team, but we make up for it with our speed and great team work. Besides, good things come in small packages.” Others mentioned in the yearbook are Alicia Beach, Shelly Gill and Isa Reeser.
WRESTLING
Yearbook. Second place in league, Watsonville first.
Senior Nathan Atkinson a four year wrestler and one of the best on the team also has a 4.0 GPA. Atkinson is a top wrestler in the league at the 135 pound division. Many of the incoming wrestlers look up to Atkinson, because of his experience and skill.
Senior Brendon Ayanbedejo in his first match ever after four practices, took second place in a pre-season tournament. Brendon won the league 189 pound weight class. Strong performances by returning stars, senior Nathan Atkinson and junior Jason Villanueva helped the team take second place. Ayanbadejo, Atkinson and sophomore Chris Morgan advanced to the CCS meet. Ayanbadejo qualified to advance to the state finals.
Long time coach Chris Lovato was not able to continue and assistant Garth Taylor did and excellent job of keeping the team on track. Other players mentioned were Nick Dunn and Kyle Perez.
Sentinel. December 12. Ayanbadejo Stars As Wrestler. Brendan Ayanbadejo proved that he can wrestle with the big boys, literally and figuratively at the Blossom Hill Invitational Tournament. Ayanbadejo, The Sentinel’s All County Defensive Player of the Year in football, took second place in the heavyweight division despite only a week of practice. In his first high school wrestling meet, with only a week of practice and two holds, a two leg takedown and a half -nelson at his disposal, Ayanbadejo was 2-1 with a pair of pins. His only loss was by pin in the finals. Also performing well was 119 pound Jason Villanueva, who finished in third place. He was 3-1 with three pins and then lost a tough 9-7 decision to the eventual champion. At 140 pounds, Nate Atkinson took fourth and Chris Morgan was fourth at 189, suffered an overtime loss.
Jan 1. Ayanbadejo placed second in the heavyweight division of the 20 team San Ramon Invitational. We was 3-1 with three pins.
February 14. Wrestlers Earn High CCS Seeds. Eleven SCCAL wrestlers have been seeded for the up coming CCS championships. It used to be we were happy if we got three or four seeded. Watsonville’s wrestler is seeded third at 189 and Brendon Ayanbadejo is fifth, even though Ayanbadejo beat the Cat wrestler in the league championship finals.
February 27. Happy Day For Area Wrestlers. Off To State at 189 Brendon Ayanbadejo. Seven SCCAL wrestlers qualified for the State meet in Stockton at UOP. At CCS two locals were crowned champions and five others were among the top four to advance. The big surprise was Brendon Ayanbadejo, who finished third at 189 to continue what has been a remarkable season for someone so new to the sport, “His first year and he goes to state, unbelievable. That’s a made for Hollywood movie. I love that kid”, said the Harbor coach.
BOYS VARSITY SOCCER
Practice games: Alisal 2-2 (others ?)
League: Watsonville 0-4, 0-3; SLV 1-2, 3-2; Soquel 0-2, 0-1; Harbor 1-0, 0-1; Monte Vista 5-0, 3-0; Aptos 1-3, 1-2. 4-8 record in league.
Yearbook. Had rocky first half, but pulled it together in the second half. Junior David Bianchi was team captain, athlete of the month and All SCCAL first team. David acknowledges his coach Sergio Sierra as “inspiring and motivating to him and his teammates.” Other top players were senior Tony Garcia, juniors Adrian Cruz and Roman Torres and freshman Ivan Wilson.
Sentinel’s SCCAL Boys Soccer Preview on December 15. SC will field one of its youngest varsity squads every, but that doesn’t necessarily signal a weak lineup. Coach Sergio Sierra plans to start three freshmen and is happy about it. “These guys are good. They are stars from local youth teams and all very coach able. I mean, they stay after practice to work on things. The dedication is really there,” said Sierra, whose team placed second in the league to Watsonville with a 11-3 record last year.
Forward Ivan Wilson and halfbacks Wes Bare and Yori Seeger are freshmen an a sophomore stopper Romi Torres are slated as starters. Juniors fill most of the other high profile positions. Senior striker Carlos Ruiz is a strong leader, who can offset some of the inexperience. Up and comers like junior center halfback Teo Seeger, junior right halfback and sweeper Adrian Cruz will be asked to handle heavy loads. SC is 0-3-1 thus far, but Sierra says, “I think we’re definitely a contender again, partly because of the youth. Maybe some feel like we’re giving up this year for the future, but I don’t feel that way. We are skilled, very fit and everybody is optimistic about each other. SC will be its regular self.”
Sentinel. November 18. SC 2, Alisal 2. Junior Ben Molin made a splash in his varsity debut, scoring a pair of goals for the Cards in their season opener. SC had a 2-0 lead with 20 minutes to play. SC was without four starters, who failed to get their eligibility paperwork done on time.
December 16. Cats Turn Cardinal Miscues Into Win In Opener winning 4-0. Watsonville has not lost in 23 consecutive league games and not lost to SC since January 10,1992, when SC won 4-0. Coach Sergio Sierra’s, whose roster is loaded with underclassmen, said mistakes led to the lopsided score. “I’m not making excuses, but three errors cost us three goals. They maybe earned one on their own. Take away those errors and it’s a different game.”
December 18. SLV’s Late Goal Beats Cards 2-1. Under the lights at Memorial Field the SLV halfback out hustled the SC sweeper with the ball and knocked the ball into the net with 2 minutes remaining for the winning goal. SC led 1-0 in the first half, when freshman Ivan Wilson scored on a crossing pass that eluded the SLV keeper and nestled into the net 35 minutes into the half. Approximately 20 minutes into the second half, Watsonville scored the winning goal.
January 8. Soquel 2, SC 0. (no information about SC)
January 13. SC 1, Harbor 0. SC picked up its first SCCAL victory on an early goal. Teo Seeger, a junior center halfback, scored 5 minutes into the game, taking a crossing pass from the left to the middle, inside the box and cracked home the shot with left, opposite foot. It was a welcome score, since SC had only one score in starting the league season 0-3. The rest of the game consisted of defense, with sweeper Adrian Cruz and the Harbor sweeper containing any action. “Maybe we will start winning some games. This might build a little momentum,” said coach Sergio Sierra.
January 15. SC 5, Monte Vista 0. SC has regained its confidence and the return of keeper Danny Marquez helped too. He had missed the first three league games with an injury. David Bianchi and Wes Bare each score two goals and a solo score came from Ivan Wilson. SC led 3-0 at halftime. Sierra was able to play his reserves, “for future refernce.” “It was a good victory for us. That’s two in a row. We struggled at the beginning, but now maybe we can pick up some momentum.”
January 20. Late Flurry Powers Aptos in 3-1 decision over the Cards. As the dense fog rolled into Memorial Field near the end of the first half, the ball rolled the wrong way for the Cards. SC jumped out to a 1-0 lead, but Aptos came back in the second half to score three goal, while holding SC scoreless. The win puts Aptos in a tie for the league lead with Watsonville at 5-1. SC drops to 2-4. Aptos scored two goals within the first ten minutes of the second half. SC dominated the first half, keeping the Aptos defense on its heels. At one point, SC had three consecutive corner kick opportunities, but were unable to convert them. SC’s only goal was scored seconds after an indirect penalty kick was blocked by the Aptos goalkeeper. In the ensuing confusion in front of the net, the ball rolled to Carlos Ruiz, who punched it in for the Cards. “We had great intensity in the first half, but we were unable to carry it over … due to our youth and inexperience,” said Coach Sierra, whose team is among the youngest in the league. I’m proud of my team. We just didn’t rise to the occasion. We’re young and building.”
January 22. Watsonville 3, SC 0. “SC played hard, they really wanted to beat us,” said the Cat coach. But though the Cards were hoping for an upset, they could only work to keep the score down.
January 27. Cards Notch Win Over SLV 3-2. Struggling SC with a young inexperienced team, recorded the biggest boys soccer victory of the season in edging SLV to avenge a 2-1 loss earlier in the season. It improved SC’s record to 3-5 for fourth place in league. SC, whose scorers were unavailable, had score only seven goals in seven SCCAL games. SLV had only allowed three goals in its two prior losses.
February 3. Soquel 1, SC 0. SC’s record dips to 3-6. (no other mention of SC)
February 5. Harbor Tops Cards For Its First Victory 2-0. “Both teams played hard and we finally got a couple of fortunate breaks.” said the Harbor coach.
February 8. SC 3, Monte Vista 0. Dave Bianchi scored two goals as SC beat both Monte Vista and the elements. Coach Sierra, “Considering the wet weather, I think it’s probably one of the best ground games that we have played, We were able to move the ball quite well on the ground, when it wasn’t puddles. We kept the ball on the wings instead of the middle of the field, which was full of mud and standing water.” Bianchi went to the left wing to score his first goal, ten minutes into the game, when he beat a defender and took a shot from 30 yards. It hit the inside of the far post and went into the net. After Teo Seeger’s penalty kick 15 minutes into the second half made it 2-0. Bianchi scored from 25 yards out.
February 10. Aptos 2, SC 1. Aptos with a 9-2-1 record had second place in league wrapped up, so played a conservative game. SC made it close, scoring on a free kick in the second half.
Sentinel February 22. Two Cards were selected by the coaches to the SCCAL ALL LEAGUE first team. They were junior, forward David Bianchi and junior, mid-fielder Teo Seeger. Honorable mentions were Yori Seeger, Kesma Rauf, Ed Perez, Ivan Wilson and Wes Bare.
JV BOYS SOCCER LEAGUE CHAMPIONS. Lost only one game all year.
no other information
GIRLS SOCCER
Practice games: Hollister 1-0, Gilroy 3-0, Cupertino won, ? Loss. Practice record 3-1.
League: Watsonville 3-0, 5-0; SLV 0-2, 0-1 in overtime; Soquel 2-0, 1-1; Monte Vista 2-0, 2-0; Aptos 3-1, 1-0. League record 7-4-1 for third place. Overall record 10-5-1
Top of the league standings: Harbor 11-0-1, SLV 10-1-1 and SC 7-4-1.
Yearbook. Placed third in league, which is a big improvement for the team. On offense junior Bernadette Ferrante and top scorer freshman Ellen Sherill served as the scoring duo. On defense, Monica Silver, Naomi Rothman and Harriet Norteye tore up the field and the helpless opposing teams. Senior goalie Marrietta Ofrancio blocked, dove and saved almost ever attempted goal.
The team has never looked better and much of the credit should go to Coach Jose Sierra. Senior Harriet Norteye has been a valuable player for four years. During her freshman year she played goalie, then she moved to offense and now she is back on defense at left fullback. She enjoys the competition and its fun way to exercise. A few other girls are shown in the yearbook. They are Blanca Sierra, Lila Walsh and Abby Gonzales.
Sentinel. December 14. This year, coach Jose Sierra has had a full preseason to prepare the team and he says it has been a big help. Last year, Sierra took over the team two days before league play began and the Cards struggled to a 6-8-2 record and 6-7-1 in league. With All League Offensive Player of the Year, Bernadette Ferrante leading the way, Sierra thinks his team can make a run for the playoffs. So far, the team is on target with a 3-1 non-league record.
“SC has never made the CCS playoffs and our goal is to get in. The top three teams in the league are automatically in and I think we’re capable of it. I’m not saying we’ll be first, but I think we can make a run at it.” Ferrante, who scored 12 goals last year, despite being shadowed and double teamed in nearly every game is recovering from an ankle sprain and is doubtful for today’s league opener, but remains a key for the Cards. “She’s very quick with the ball. There are not too many defenders, who can keep up. She was double-teamed almost every game and teams that didn’t pretty much paid the price,” Sierra said. Sweeper Rachel Moeller and Naomi Rothman anchor the defense. Freshman Ellen Sherrill has come on strong with four goals to tie Ferrante for the team lead.
Sentinel. Dec. 4. SC 3, Gilroy 0. Casey Coonerty’s second effort goal helped set the stage for SC. A minute into the game, Coonerty hit the post on a penalty shot. Ellen Sherrill fired a shot that rebounded off the Gilroy goalie and Coonerty knocked it home. Sherril scored in he second half with an unassisted goal from 25 yards out. Blanca Sierra finished the scoring for SC who improved to 2-1.
Sentinel. Dec. 8. SC 1, Hollister 0. SC picked up its third straight win with a shutout on its home field. SC improved to 3-1. Goalkeeper Marietta Ofrancia recorded her second straight shutout. With seven minutes left, Megan McGuire pushed in a shot from 20 yards for the win. Naomi Rothman and Rachel Moeller anchored the Card defense,
Sentinel. Dec. 15. SC 3, Watsonville 0. Freshman Ellen Sherrill scored all three SC goals as the Cards opened league play in a strong fashion. “Ellen really came through for us today. It was great. She was in such great shape coming in. She works so hard and was in the starting line and has been a great asset for our team,” said coach Jose Sierra. With Bernadette Ferrante playing limited minutes, because of an ankle injury, the Cards needed some scoring punch. Stopper Naomi Rothman, sweeper Rachel Moeller and Monica Silver anchored the defense, which according to Coach Sierra was great.
Dec. 17. SLV 2, SC 0. (only information about SLV as it was their home game)
January 7. SC 2, Soquel 0. Frustrated by a scoreless first half, SC 2-1 in SCCAL play, found the spark in Bernadette Ferrante’s header, off Harriet Norteye’s corner kick, then got some insurance on Lilah Walsh’s goal 30 seconds later. It was the first goals of the season for each player. “That gave us a huge boost,” coach Sierra said, of Ferrante’s goal at 15 minutes into the second half. “Bernadette is still hurting from her ankle injury in the league jamboree an I’m not sure she will be 100 percent at all this season. I think the goal meant a lot to her and the team.” Walsh’s goal came right after a previous shot she made that ricocheted back in front of her. Goalkeeper Marietta Ofrancia earned a shutout with help from outside fullback, Norteye.
January 12. Harbor 2, SC 1. Bernadette Ferrante’s goal 8 minutes into the game gave SC a 1-0 lead with an assists from Blanca Sierra. Four minutes later, Harbor scored on a 30 yard shot to tie the score. Harbor improved to 4-0, while SC slipped to 2-2.
January 14. SC 2, Monte Vista 0. After getting both of its goals against MVC from freshman right forward Ellen Sherrill, SC heads into a critical game against Aptos . Both teams are 3-2 in league. “It’s the game for second place,” said Coach Jose Sierra, “It’s big for us. If the other two teams think they’re the only ones in it, they’ve got another think coming. We’re going to the playoffs for the first time in school history this year,” Sherrill scored on a penalty kick in the sixth minute and found a loose ball in front of the net for another score just two minutes later.
January 19. McGuire, Cards Defeat Mariners 3-1. Megan McGuire, who usually dishes out assists was the recipient of two set up passed for goals, which were her first in league play. SC improved to 4-2 in SCCAL play. After the game was deadlocked at halftime 1-1, Ferrante gathered a rebound shot from Lilah Walsh and punched the ball in from close range. Both of McGuire’s goals were short range, one touches also. She got a feed from Blanca Sierra 15 minutes into the game and scored the final goal after Casey Coonerty’s shot was blocked. Harriet Norteye, whom Coach Jose Sierra said is playing, “the best defense I’ve seen from a player in a long time,” combined with fullback Monica Silver, stopper Naomi Rothman and sweeper Rachel Moellar harassed the Mariners.
January 21. Santa Cruz Wins, Looks Ahead to SLV. After defeating Watsonville 5-0, the Cards can now focus on a game that could turn their season around. A month ago SLV defeated SC 2-0, but the Cards think the game was closer than the score indicates. SLV is 6-1, while SC is 5-2. From the SLV coach, “They control the ball well and they’re hard working. Putting away Aptos was big for them. We know they are already prepared for us.” Bernadette Ferrante and Ellen Sherrill had two goals apiece. Ferrante had two assist and her second goal, the game’s last, came on a hooking corner kick. Casey Coonerty scored the other goal. Goalkeeper Marietta Ofrancia registered her fourth league shutout with lots of help from fullback Harriet Norteye.
January 26. Cougars edge Cards In OT to win 1-0 in the second overtime. SLV scored with 5 minutes to play in the second overtime. SLV capitalized in a scramble in front of the net with goalie Marietta Ofrencia, who thought she had a hand on the ball before the shot. In the rain and standing water at SC high, Bernadette Ferrante had chances to score, but was turned back by the SLV goalie and sweeper.
February 2. SC 1, Soquel 1. SC took a 1-0 lead near the end of the first half. Ellen Sherrill scored with an assist from Rachel Moeller. Soquel scored in the thirtieth minute of the second half to tie the score. SC is now 5-3-1 in league.
February 4. Harbor 2, SC 1. Harbor narrowly avoided their first SCCAL defeat, but moved to a 10-0 record and a 27-5 goals scoring advantage in league. SC is still vying for a postseason playoff berth, stands in third place with a 5-4-1 mark. Blanca Sierra gave SC a 1-0 lead 7:52 into the game and Harbor came back at the 11:45 mark and tied the score. Sweeper Rachel Moeller was commended by her coach.
February 9. SC 2, Monte Vista 0. Shooting for a third place finish in the SCCAL and an at large berth in the CCS playoffs, SC improved to 6-4-1. Naomi Rothman and Bernadette Ferrante scored for the Cards and Blanca Sierra earned the shutout in place of Marietta Ofrancia, who was ill. Rothman, a sophomore stopper, scored her first goal of the season 25 minutes into the game. A previous shot rebounded 15 yards from the net and Rothman drilled it through traffic into the goal. Ferrante scored midway through the second half on a 15 yard rocket of Megan McGuire’s throw in.
February 11. Cardinal Girls Fight To Finish. In beating Aptos 1-0, SC wrapped up third place with a 7-4-1 league record and 10-5-1 overall. “We’re good enough to be in the CCS playoffs, I just hope we get it,” said coach Sierra. He noted the Cards beat Gilroy and Cupertino, third place teams in their leagues, in non-league action. Blanca Sierra scored 25 minutes into the game. Sierra trapped the ball, split a pair of defenders and buried a shot into the net from 25 yards out. Sierra praised his defense, which he said has been the strength of the team all season. Sweeper Rachel Moeller and fullback Harriet Norteye stood out and goalie Marietta Ofrnacia recorded her sixth shutout of the season. “Our defense has allowed us to be in every game all year, Sometimes we struggle on offense, but our defense has been solid,” Sierra said
Sentinel February 22. Four Cards were selected by the coaches to the SCCAL ALL LEAGUE first team. They were junior, forward Bernadette Ferrante, senior, defender Harriet Norteye, senior, defender Rachel Moeller and sophomore, defender Naomi Rothman. Harriet Norteye was selected the OUTSTANDING DEFENDER. Honorable mention were Ellen Sherill, Casey Coonerty, Blanca Sierra, Megan McGuire and Monica Silver.
SC coach Jose Sierra had this to say about the league Most Outstanding Defender Harriet Norteye, “I can’t remember one time that an offensive player beat her to the ball. And that may have been the reason the Cardinal was given the honor. “It was pretty much was unanimous,” said Sierra of the vote for Norteye. “When we presented, who should be nominated, I didn’t have much to say. Her presence pretty much spoke for itself.”
JV GIRLS SOCCER
Yearbook. Gary Massamori has been coaching 15 years, but this is his first year at SC. He states, “all of the players are extremely enthusiastic and are always determined to win. There hasn’t been a game that the players have been out of,” Sophomore Sarah Hoffman was a dominant player on the team. Sophomore Gina Wardrop is the leading scorer with four goals. She likes the aggressive style of soccer. She stated, “Our team is by far the fastest team in the league.” Others mentioned were Katie McGraw, Kyoko Jackson and Vaidehi Campbell.
BASEBALL
Practice games: Saratoga 2-1, Silver Creek 1-0, Soquel Tournament: Del Mar 5-15, plus one win and two more losses to show a practice record of 3-3. (But to get the overall practice record it has to be 3-6. Four games missing)
League: Monte Vista loss, 6-15; Watsonville 6-5, 0-5; Aptos 5-13, 0-5; Harbor 9-5, 2-10; SLV 5-6, 6-4; Soquel 0-11 1-6. 4-8 in league and 7-15 overall.
Yearbook. After going to the CCS playoffs last year, this years team is comparatively younger than other league teams. Members returning from last years squad are seniors Jonathan Pillsbury, Albert Cuellar and Ben Pearson and junior George Arnott, who have stepped in as this years team leaders. New varsity players are juniors Ryan Doan, Dylan Harley, Arnoldo Vasquez and Rob Truhitte. Other team members: Tony Quartararo, catcher Jorge Perez, Jeff Swolgard, Gino Marini, Mike Liberatore, Chris Hintz and Julian Thompson. Coaches Rudy Escalante and Geoff Dunn.
Sentinel preseason write up. February 26. Coach Rudy Escalante, first season after being an assistant to John Wilson. Last year the Cards were 21-6 overall and 10-4 in league, tied for second. Key seniors: Jonathon Pillsbury, 2B; Ben Pearson, P/1B; Jorge Perez, C; Adrian Corcoran, P/Util; Juniors: George Arnott, SS; Jake Seigel, OF and Gino Marini, OF. At least seven starters have graduated from last years team, but Escalante believes he’s got an impressive talent pool from which to tap.
SC will start and entirely new infield, with best of friends, Arnott, a right fielder last year and Pillsbury, primarily a DH last year, will provide a good double play combination. They could be the most lethal offensive combo too. Arnott, possess legitimate home run power. Pearson will be at first base when not pitching and Ryan Doane is the front runner at third.
In limited action last year, hard throwing left-hander Pearson was 3-1 with an ERA of 1.40, the top returning mark in the SCCAL. Another lefty Casey Watson, didn’t play last year, but should earn a starting spot. Corcoran, who is playing basketball now, is the staffs wild card, who relies on tremendous natural ability. Rob Truhitte is the top middle reliever and Dylan Harley is the designated closer. Both are junior right-handers.
Coaches outlook: We’re lacking in overall team speed and power, but we have consistent players who can push themselves. There seems to be more smoothness in our ability. Before, we had all this raw talent. In the last two years, we’ve lost 19 players. This year, we have more juniors than seniors, so experience wise, we’re going to be lacking. If we can get the fundamentals down, we can win those one and two run games. We’re not going to be in position to win many at 12-10.”, said Escalante.
Sentinel. March 2. SC 2, Saratoga 1. Monday night, SC used pitching anf defense to even their record to 1-1. Ben Pearson gave up no runs on one hit in the first four innings for the win, striking out six. Dylan Harley finished in relief. Leftfielder Jake Seigel threw out two runners out an third base and made a tough catch at the wall.
Sentinel. March 17. Cardinals Win On One Hitter. Ben Pearson and Adrian Corcoran combined on a one hitter as SC edged Silver Creek 1-0 Tuesday night at Harvey West. Person worked the first five innings, allowing the lone hit. Corcoran pitched two innings of hitless ball to earn the win. SC 3-3 for the season, picked up the win in the sixth. Ryan Doane walked, stole second and scored on Jorge Perez’s single up the middle.
March 26. Thrilling Win In The Cards. The Cards had led all night, but with one out in the bottom of the seventh, Watsonville’s first two batters walked and scored leaving the Cats with the tying run at third and the winning run on second, left-hander Ben Pearson regained his control and struck out the final two batters to preserve the Cards 6-5 victory. Pearson gave up two runs on two hits and two walks in the last inning.
SC had faltered in the last inning in their last game against Monte Vista, which was their first league game. “We wanted to show everybody we are coming to play,” said Adrian Corcoran, who pitched three hitless innings and hit a home run. SC came out fast, Jorge Perez doubled in the first inning and two Cat errors led to a 2-0 Card lead.
Corcoran, led off the second with a first pitch home run to make it 3-0 Cards. SC in the fourth inning, Brendan Ayanbadejo and Gino Marini singled and scored to put SC up 5-0. The Cats score a run in the fourth and two in the fifth to close to 6-3. (some how a run by SC was not in the write up) When the hard throwing Pearson came on the sixth, SC seemed in good shape, as he struck out the three batters he faced.
Sentinel March 30. Aptos 13, SC 5. A lead is never safe at Aptos’ diamond. Down 5-1 at the bottom of the fifth, Aptos piled on nine runs on six hits and three SC errors to take control of an error filled game. Of the five runs SC had by the fourth inning were a aided by five Aptos errors along with Jonathan Pillsbury scoring on a wild pitch and Adrian Corcoran’s double driving in a run.
April 2. Late Rally Boosts SC Past Harbor 9-5. Jon Pillsbury and George Arnott combined for seven runs batted in an, Dillon Harley pitched three solid innings of relief, as SC scored seven runs in the final two at bats to beat Harbor. Pillsbury’s two run double in the fifth gave SC a 4-3 lead and Arnott later singled to make it 5-3. Harbor tied the game 5-5 in the sixth, but Pillsbury broke the tie with an RBI grounder in the bottom of the inning and Arnott made it 8-5 with a two run single. The Cards added a run later in the inning on an error. Harley took over for Casey Watson in the top of the fifth after Watson hit his third batter in two innings of relief to open the inning. Harley retired the next three batters to end the inning. After allowing two runs in the six sat down the side in order in the seventh to nail down the win.
April 6. At the Soquel Tournament. Del Mar 15, SC 5.. Ben Pearson’s psyche and confidence may be a bit bruised, but his earned run average escaped fairly unscathed. Despite a ten run third inning, the senior pitcher suffered through a kind of inning of which nightmares are made. SC leading 3-0 in the third, committed six errors, Pearson walked three and threw a wild pitch, 13 consecutive hitters reached base, but none of the ten runs in the inning were earned. SC started out scoring three runs in the first inning on Ryan Reber’s two run double.
April 13. SLV Rallies In 8th To Tip Santa Cruz. SC pitcher Ben Pearson had it won. In the bottom of the eighth inning with SC leading 5-4 with two outs, a Pearson third strike curve ball got away from the catcher to extend the inning. The next batter tripled to tie the score and a single scored the winning run for a 6-5 victory.
April 16. Soquel 11, SC 0. In a tight game for five innings with Soquel ahead 1-0, then Soquel hit a grand slam home run and SC committed eight errors. Card starter Dylan Harley gave up the first seven runs, but none of them were earned. He was followed on the mound by Casey Watson and Ryan Doan. SC had three
April 23. Monte Vista 15, SC 6. Pitcher Adrian Corcoran faced 13 batters in the fateful first, allowing seven runs all earned and suffered the loss.
April 27. SC 2, Watsonville 1. Ryan Doan’s sharp grounder slipped through the legs of the first baseman, allowing Wes Bare to score from third base to win the game. SC down 1-0 after the first inning, came back with single runs in the sixth and seventh innings to improve to 3-5 in league. Dylan Harley pitched a complete game five hitter for the Cards. After scoring in the first inning, Watsonville got only one runner past first base. SC also only had five hits in the game.
April 30. Aptos 5, SC 0. Ben Pearson, who returned to the lineup this week for the first time since being stabbed in the hand earlier in the month, went the distance giving up seven hits, three earned runs, four walks and striking out two.
May 4. Harbor 10, SC 2. Harbor scored five runs in the first inning and then five more in the third. (no SC information)
May 7. SC 6, SLV 4. SC rallied for four unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, highlighted by Jorge Perez’s two run triple. Then Ryan Doan finished off a complete game win. Doan struck out four and didn’t give up a walk after the first batter of the game. After five innings SLV was ahead 4-2. In the sixth, Wes Bare led off by striking out, but reached base, when the third strike got by the catcher. After two infield outs, Ben Pearson walked and Doan singled in Bare. Jon Pillsbury singled in Pearson to tie the score 4-4. Perez tripled to right field to drive in Doan and Pillsbury for the go ahead runs. SC improves to 4-7 in league.
May 11. Soquel beat SC 6-1 to clinch the SCCAL championship for the third straight time with a 11-1 record and will finish the season against second place Aptos 8-3. SC finished 4-8. The game with two left-handers, Ben Pearson for SC, facing one another was 1-1 until the start of the fifth. With two outs, Pearson, who had retired eight straight batters, gave up a pair of walks on nine pitches and then gave up a three run home run.
Trident, May 18. The Cards are in the midst of a rocky SCCAL season. The team is better then the 5-11 record may indicate. In the preseason the Cards were 3-3 going into their first league game against Monte Vista. Strong performances by senior Ben Pearson on the mound and junior George Arnott at the plate were wasted as Monte Vista scored in the top of the seventh to break the tie and win the game. In the next game against Watsonville, Adrian Corcoran supported his strong pitching performance with a towering solo home run in the third inning. SC took a convincing 6-2 lead into the final inning, but Watsonville came back and scored three runs to close the score to 6-5. Ben Pearson came in and retired the side to give the Cards their first league victory. Next against Aptos the Cards took a 5-1 lead going into the fourth inning, but Aptos came back to win 13-5. A strong defensive performance gave the Cards an impressive victory over Harbor to even their league record to 2-2 to tie for third place.
During Spring break, the Cards played in the Soquel Tournament and suffered three hard losses and had one win. Against SLV for third place, it was a pitchers dual from the beginning. Ben Pearson the Cards number one against SLV’s number one. SC suffered a devastating 6-5 loss in extra innings. It was Pearson’s finest outing of the season and unfortunately, it was his last for a short time because of injury. The team started the second half of the season with good attitudes and high hopes. The team ended the season 4-8 in league and 7-14 overall.
Sentinel Prep Baseball Stats of May 31. By place, name, at bats, runs, hits, runs batted in and average.
PL NAME AB R H RBI AV
18 Perez 60 10 21 9 .350
33 Pillsbury 72 13 20 8 .278
Last SC 581 59 125 52 .215
Individual pitching with at least a one inning a game average.
By place, name, won-loss, innings pitched, hits, walks, strike outs and earned runs.
PL NAME W-L IP H BB SO ERA
10 Pearson 3-5 50 56 53 51 3.56
18 Harley 2-3 48 59 25 28 4.20
Last SC 148 173 108 116 4.80
SC had no players on the 16 player ALL SCCAL first team. On the second team, these selected where pitcher Ben Pearson and catcher Jorge Perez. Honorable mention were Ryan Doan and George Arnott.
JV BASEBALL Yearbook. The players all accomplished their goals of having fun and improving their skills. Coach Barry Bariteau is very proud of his team this year.
Roster: Eric Crawford, Wes Bare, Jimmy Jones, Jermaine Hunter. Jeff Truhitte, Kenyatte, Edmonds, Chuck Lynn, Mike Pollastrini, Andy Stumpf, Sule Edmonds, Saul McCormick, Jason Cardoza, Noah Kerrigan, Tyler Masamori, Brad Canepa, Ruben Gonzales, Brian Winerly and John Dawson.
GIRLS SOFTBALL
Practice games: Gilroy 4-1, Mt. Pleasant 9-4, Monterey 7-3. Del Mar Tourney: Gunderson 3-2, Piedmont Hills 4-1 championship game Homestead ? Mercy of Burlingame won with perfect game no hitter from Brenna Williams. St. Francis of Mt. View 5-3. Shows 7-0 record, (so games are missing)
League: Aptos 8-5, 9-4; Harbor 4-0, Monte Vista 7-5, Soquel 2-0 no hitter from Jennifer Cummings. (games missing) League record 7-3 for second place. Lost to Presentation of San Jose in the first round of CCS. Overall 21-9 ?
Yearbook. Playing in weather conditions from cold and windy nights to hot and blistering afternoons, the team of twelve players composed of two seniors Tam Perez and Kim Perry, four juniors, four sophomores and one freshman pitcher Jennifer Cummings had a year of fun and excitement.
Rest of team: Lizzy Espinosa, Erin Belcher, Erika Lombard, Summer Easterby, Aimee Ghio, Naomi Rothman, Kelly Kaiser and Niki Sudduth. Coaches Vic Miguel and Dina Avila.
Sentinel. SC 4, Gilroy 1. Playing a school nearly double its size, SC 9-3 broke open a 1-1 game wit three runs in the seventh inning. “It’s nice to play those big schools and do well,” said Coach Miguel, who watched Gilroy commit the error that allowed the two go ahead runs to score. Nikki Sudduth added an RBI groundout and freshman pitcher Jennifer Cummings retired three straight batters in the bottom of the seventh to earn the victory. Cummings, who has shared mound duties with Brenna Williams this season, struck out eight and walked two during her three hitter. Naomi Rothman tied the game up 1-1 in the fifth inning with a double in the right center field gap to score Andra Tom. Kelly Kaiser and Tom both singled in the seventh and scored on the decisive throwing error by the Gilroy catcher.
Sentinel. March 2. SC 9, Mt. Pleasant 4. Jennifer Cummings made her pitch for a starting job on the mound for the Cards as she went seven innings with seven strike outs and only a pair of walks in helping SC improve to 2-2. Brenna Williams, the starter last year has been sidelined by a thigh bruise. Cummings also hit a solo homer to help her effort. Kelly Kaiser went 2 for 4 with an RBI and Nikki Sudduth went 2 for 4.
March 13. On the first day of the Del Mar tournament, SC won two games, beating Gunderson 3-2 and Piedmont Hills 4-1 to advance to the quarterfinals. Strong pitching and defense did the job in both games. In the opener, Jennifer Cummings helped her pitching cause with a two run single in the third inning to put the Cards ahead 2-0. Cummings struck out six, allowed three hits, two walks and held Gunderson scoreless over the last four innings. Kelly Kaiser was 2 for 4 with an RBI and Andra Tom was 2 for 4 with a run scored. In game two, Brenna Williams allowed seven hits and only struck out one, but she didn’t walk anyone and was backed by a solid defense to hold Piedmont Hills to one run. SC will face Homestead in the finals.
March 18. SC 7, Monterey 3. Falling behind early as usual, the Cards 10-3 prevailed thanks to a five run rally in the bottom of the sixth. Brenna Williams then escaped a bases loaded jam in the seventh, giving up no runs to get the win. She pitched a three hitter, going all seven innings. Monterey scored their three runs in the first inning. Down 3-2 in the sixth, SC drew six walks and Naomi Rothman delivered a two run double, the Cards only hit in the inning.
March 30. SC 8 Aptos 5. Starting slowly is typical of SC, but winning is becoming commonplace too. SC is 13-5 overall and 2-0 in league. SC broke a scoreless tie with Nikki Sudduth’s RBI single in the fourth and put the game away with five runs in the fifth inning. Summer Easterby triggered the decisive rally with a sacrifice fly that scored Kim Perry. Kelly Kaiser added an RBI double and Naomi Rothman drilled a triple that scored Kaiser and Brenna Williams. The fifth run of the inning scored on an error. “It’s getting to be that way,” said coach Vic Miguel of the sudden offensive outbursts late in the game. “We wait until later on to get started. If you look back at our games, the fifth inning has been the inning for us.” Williams earned the victory for her two walk, five strike out performance.
April 2. We had three errors in a loss to Harbor 4-0
April 3. Cardinal Throws Perfect Game. Sophomore Bernna Williams tossed the FIRST PERFECT GAME every by a SCCAL pitcher, beating Mercy High of Burlingame in the Charlie Miguel softball tournament at Mission College in Santa Clara. Williams and the Cards had zero blemishes. “no hit, no errors, no base runners,” said coach Miguel. “ She set them down in order in each of the innings.” Yes, that qualifies as a perfect game. Williams just whiff two. But she induced 16 ground balls ball outs and three fly balls, two to the outfield and a pop up to shortstop.
“Before the game we were more hyper than usual. We wanted to come back home quickly. It was the first day of Easter break and we wanted to be home,” said the cheerful Williams. She took matters into her own hands by dominating the Rabbist ending the game as quickly as possible. “The first few innings went by quickly,” Williams said. “But that’s usually when they start catching on. But they didn’t. They just kept blooping them to us.” Williams improved to 7-0, while SC is 14-6 overall. “We did so good,” said Williams referring to the flawless defense behind her. “We just played together so well. They didn’t get on base once. It all clicked today.”
Miguel said that, although Williams wasn’t overpowering, “The girls behind her played excellent defense. This was probably our first game of errorless ball. We had to make up for yesterday, when we had three errors in a loss to Harbor 4-0. “I could have kicked myself for that one,” Miguel said. But the Mercy performance made up for the loss in a big way. “It just works sometimes,” Williams said. At the plate for SC, Aimee Ghio drove in a pair of runs, as did Nikki Sudduth with a double in the fifth inning. Kim Perry and Naomi Rothman added two hits apiece for SC, which continues play in the tournament today.
April 6. SC 5, St. Francis of Mt. View 3. Freshman Jennifer Cummings pitched a one hitter with 13 strikeouts in her best outing of the season. She won despite six walks in a game limited to five innings by a tournament time limit. (which meant she needed only15 outs in the game and 13 of them were strikeouts) Cummings and Andrea Tom had RBI’s, but three others came on errors. Naomi Rothman and Nikki Sudduth were both 2 for 3.
April 23. Card Freshman Adds To Solid Season Stats. Pitcher Jennifer Cummings, the soon to be Freshman of the Year in the SCCAL, hit a pair of RBI triples and struck out seven to lead SC past Monte Vista Christian 7-5. Cummings leads the league in home runs with 4, RBI’s 22, triples 5 and on the mound is second with 76 strikeouts.
“Jessica Lang is one of the top freshman I’ve ever had to start at the varsity level,” said coach Miguel, now in his seventeenth year at SC. Lang, a former Card third baseman, is in her first year at Michigan on a softball scholarship.
“Jennifer is the same caliber,” Miguel said. Cummings, the Card cleanup hitter, ripped a triple to center in a two run third inning, that gave SC a 3-1 lead. Then smoked another triple in the four run sixth, that stretched the Cards lead to 7-2. She went the distance, scattering five hits and allowing two earned runs. She walked four, but only one in the first six innings and picked up three of her strikeouts in the first inning. “Striking out people is the best feeling, but hitting triples is not bad either,” Cummings said. Naomi Rothman, who bats third, drove in three runs with a double and a triple.
April 30. SC 9, Aptos 4. Andra Tom and Kelly Kaiser each had two singles and two RBI’s to give the Cards sole possession of second place. Kim Perry also had two RBI’s and a single for the Cards, who had nine hits, all singles..
May 11. Cardinal Pitcher Tops Soquel With No Hitter. No Hitters, Scrappy offense. Brilliant defense. Team spirit. When these phrases are uttered in SCCAL softball circles, Soquel ace Desarie Knipfer is usually the subject matter. Don’t tell that to Jennifer Cummings and the SC Cardinals though. Cummings gave the Knights a dose of their own medicine, shocking the visiting league champions 2-0 on a no hitter. Soquel was unbeaten in SCCAL games before SC turned the proverbial tables. No hitter? This game had one, but it turned out not to be Knipfer’s eighth of the season. (Knipfer ended the season breaking the National Single Season Strike out record with 518)
Rather, it came from the Cards freshman. Cummings didn’t over power the Knights, as she struck out four and walked six, but she consistently forced the Knights to hit her pitch and let a stellar defense do the rest. “Give the defense the credit. They are the ones who truly deserve it,” Cummings said.
Scrappy offense? Andra Tom reached base on an error to open the bottom of the first and then scored after Kelly Kaiser doubled down the left field line for the games only hit and RBI to put SC up 1-0. Kaiser scored the only other run of the in the bottom of the third. With one out, she reached base on an error, advanced to second on a wild pitch, moved to third on a ground out and scored when a drop ball got past the Soquel catcher.
Brilliant defense? While the Cards capitalized on their opportunities, the Knights did not. With two outs in the top of the third inning and the bases loaded, shortstop Naomi Rothman went to her right and calmly back handed a smash and threw to third for the force out to end the inning. “We just simply made all of the plays that we needed today. This was a game of super defensive plays and I couldn’t be prouder of these girls,” said coach Vic Miguel.
With two runners on, a bouncer went over the head of first baseman Nikki Sudduth, Second baseman Kelly Kaiser made the defensive play of the game, snatching the grounder on the edge of the outfield grass and beat the runner to the bag for the out. This left runners on second and third, in scoring position, with two outs. A ground out to first finished the no hitter.
May 15. Three Local Softball Teams Advance to CCS playoffs. “In the past only one or two SCCAL teams made the play offs and this year we were able to get three,” the league representative said. Soquel, the SCCAL champion is joined by runner up SC in the CCS Division II tournament, while SLV, tied for third in league, made the Division III bracket. Watsonville which tied SLV, in league, did not make it as an at large team. There were 26 automatic qualifiers, league champions and runners up, plus ten at large teams. There are 12 teams in each division, based on enrollment figures of the 36 teams. The tournament is single elimination. Soquel is seeded third and draws a first round bye. SC seeded 12 opens the first round against fifth seeded Presentation at PAL stadium in San Jose.
Sentinel ALL COUNTY team included Sophomore of the Year, Kelly Kaiser and Freshman of the Year Jennifer Cummings. They both were selected for the first team. Cummings as a pitcher, first baseman with a .299 average and Kaiser at second base with a .286 average. On the second team were sophomore, short stop Naomi Rothman with a .287 average and junior, third baseman Andrea Tom with a .330 average.
The Sentinel Dream Team batting order included clean up hitter Jennifer Cummings, who crushes the ball, led the league with five home runs and 25 RBI’s.
Capsule Look AT First Team. Jennifer Cummings, a power hitting freshman, league best with 25 RBI’s and five home runs. She turned out to be the Cards top pitcher by the end of the season with a 13-9 record and an ERA of 2.22. “It’s quite surprising that this girl comes up as a freshman and has the skills and talent that she has at this point,” said coach Vic Miguel.
Kelly Kaiser, the heir apparent to be the league’s best second baseman. Kaiser has the savvy, glove and range to hold down an infield. “She is so dependable, she’s such a heads up player. Very intelligent,” coach Miguel said.
ALL SCCAL picked by the coaches. Jennifer Cummings, pitcher, ERA 1.30, freshman. Kelly Kaiser, 2B, .278, sophomore.
JV GIRLS SOFTBALL
Yearbook. With former major league baseball player Bob Gallagher as their coach, the team of 30 girls were taught with same excellent approach he uses in his classroom. He stated, “I want people to play as a team with pride in themselves and work hard in the sport. They need to learn how to win and how to lose..”
Junior Olivia Woodard, sophomore Allison George and freshman Megan Dixon, all of whom portrayed great sportsmanship and support towards each other. Freshman Anita Fearnley enjoys playing catcher, a position in which she must take responsibly for the whole team and is always in the action. Other team members: Irene Ramos, Alicia Flores, Heather Tyler, Carla Valdez, Randi Croghan, Sarah Mitchell, Shannon Niland, Heather Sztenderowicz, Belinda Colmenares, Jaime Thompson, Felicia Dowd, Connie Ponce, Brenda Kerr, Christy Haynes, Elizabeth Parke, Angela Quartararo, Laura Talamantes, Sara Walsh, Allison Johnston and Cheree Creschione.
Trident, May 18. Despite a rocky beginning the JV team has worked to become a strong team and hopes to end on a winning note. Valuable starting players are Heather Tyler, Laura Talamantes, Brenda Kerr, Randy Croghan and Irene Ramos compose a portion of the 24 member team. Captains Cheree Cresionie and Olivia Woodard are the leaders, who feel the team has improved a lot since the beginning of the season.
BOYS WIN SCCAL CHAMPIONSHIP. GIRLS AND BOYS WON COUNTY RELAY CROWN and the LEAGUE DUAL MEET CHAMPIONSHIPS WITH 5-0 records. BOYS TIED FOR THE COAST INVITATIONAL CROWN. GIRLS Second at SCCAL meet.
BOYS SCCAL Track and Field Championships. Santa Cruz 160, Watsonville 77, Soquel 76, Harbor 64, SLV 45, Monte Vista 41 and Aptos 30
Boys league dual meet scores: Harbor 85-50. Aptos 109-20, SLV 77-58, Soquel 69-66, Monte Vista 109-26, Watsonville 86-48, 6-0 record for dual title.
GIRLS SCCAL Track And Field Championships. Aptos 111, SC 97 in second place.
Girls league dual meet scores: Harbor 77-50, Aptos 71-39, SLV 76-56, Soquel 71-56, Monte Vista 97-22, Watsonville 80-45 for 6-0 record.
Sentinel. May 8. SCCAL Track and Field Championships. Santa Cruz 160, Watsonville 77, Soquel 76, Harbor 64, SLV 45, Monte Vista 41 and Aptos 30.
Santa Cruz Boys Race to Second Straight Crown in dominate fashion scoring 160 points to second place Watsonville with 77, at the Soquel all weather track. It had rained up to the start of the meet and then stopped.
“We destroyed them,” said Ben Henry, despite a hamstring injury, finished third in the 400 meters and ran the anchor leg on the Cards winning 1,600 relay team. I’m really proud of the guys,” said Coach Bryon Wall. “This means we work pretty hard as a team. It was a good day for SC.” SC was led by their seniors, sprinters Reggie Stephens and Jermaine Robinson, hurdlers Jimmy Meyer and Henry.
“Our seniors have carried through with a good tradition,” added Wall. “We like to compete. We like to win,” said Stephens, who won the 100 in 11.0, the 200 in 22.5, finished second in the long jump to Robinson and ran the anchor leg of the Cards winning 400 relay team. “We’ve been around since we were freshman and this is what we wanted.”
Stephens, who was league champion in four events last year, was bothered by a heel injury, but he was still able to cook down the track. “It’s pounding,” Stephens said following the 100. “I’ve been trying to take it easy in practice, but every time I do that I lose something in the next meet.”
Meyers racked up some big points for SC as well. He won the triple jump at 43-10, the 300 hurdles in 39.4 and finished second in the 110 high hurdles. While taking second in the high hurdles he broke the meet record of 14.8. along with the winner. He also ran a leg on the winning 1,600 relay race.
Danny Whiting won the pole vault at 10-6.
Robinson tied with a Watsonville high jumper at 6 feet, but the other jumper won with fewer misses.
Mike Liberatore top distance runner for SC was injured an not able to compete in the final meets, which hurt in the scoring. The only thing missing was for the Cards was the traditional victory lap. The championship banner wasn’t at the track, so the team didn’t take the lap. Everything else went the Cards way. Including the weather.
Josh Small in 3,200
GIRLS: SCCAL Track And Field Championships. Aptos 111, SC 97 in second place.
Distance Events Swing Pendulum In Aptos’ Favor. Aptos executed it’s plan perfectly and picked up its third straight SCCAL title. Trailing SC going into the final two events, Aptos went 1-2-3 in the 3.200 meters and then won the 1,600 relay, a 34 point swing, to pull away from the Cards.
From Aptos’ top runner, “It was a lot harder this year for sure. We had to individually work harder this year for the team.” Aptos’ plan was to sweep the top three places in the 3.200. 1,600 and 800. Aptos did that, totaling 72 points in just those three events. Aptos knew full well that the teams lack of depth could cost them the title.
SC with balance and the winning efforts of Melanie Café and Evie Smith turned in strong performances, but not enough to offset the Mariners.
Café won both hurdle races, taking the 100 hurdles in 15.9 and the 300 hurdles in 45.6. Café also finished third in the 400. “I’ve never been happier with a third in my life, because of the people I was running against,” Café said.
Smith won the high jump at 5-2, was second in the triple jump and third in the long jump. Smith knew the Cards would have a difficult time beating Aptos for the team title. We were hoping we could. But they’re so strong in the distances,” Smith said.
May 26. Tonight is the CCS track and field finals at San Jose City College, participants are working to not only place, but to qualify for the state meet.
Jimmy Meyer is going to run the 300 hurdles, but his beat chance for state is the 300, which he has run the second best time in CCS in 38.3, but last week he was only able to make fourth place.
Reggie Stephens is in the long jump and anchors the 400 relay team. “The guy has such an explosive ability, he torqued himself,” said Coach Wall. The Cardinal relay team, which features in order: Jermaine Robinson, Meyer, Ben Henry and Stephens need to do better on their handoffs.
Evie Smith has a shot in the girls high jump. After clearing 5-4 last week to qualify for the finals, Smith has been hitting the same height in practice. “Her chances are good,” Wall said. “The other girls weren’t jumping more the 5-6 and there’s only two girls ahead of her.”
Getting ready for the CCS finals, Reggie Stephens is concentrating on the long jump an event he had the least confidence in, but ended up qualifying in. “The long jump was the one I didn’t think I would make. But now, I can just concentrate on it.
Ben Henry, who runs the third leg on the relay was not happy with himself. He felt the team should have qualified higher than the eighth and final spot. “I hate to say it, but I was the weak link. I had some lousy handoffs. He gets a chance for atonement Thursday night at the finals.
Sentinel May 22. Hits, Misses In CCS Track. It was a day of contrast for area athletes at the CCS track and field semi-finals at San Jose City college.
BOYS: Reggie Stephens false started in the 100 meters and was automatically disqualified. He failed to qualify in the 200 as well, but did manage to qualify in the long jump and the 400 relay, in which he ran the anchor leg in a qualifying time of 43.33.
Jimmy Meyers advanced in both hurdles, finishing with the sixth best qualifying mark in the 110 in 15.06 and fourth best in the 300 in 39.16 to qualify for the finals.
Stephens qualified in the long jump with a leap of 21-6 ½ and then helped the 400 relay team finish eighth for the last spot for qualifying for the finals. The false start in the 100 was disheartening. “He held the gun for a long time,” Stephens said of the starter. “I couldn’t hold up and fell over.” Coach Bryan Wall said he and other coaches noticed the inconsistency in the starting of races. “They were quick in some of the races and took a long time to start in others. It’s usually a set count, but we haven’t seen that today.”
GIRLS: Evie Smith advanced in the high jump leaping 5-4. Things didn’t go well for Melanie Café, one of the favorites in the 300 hurdles, who was bothered by illness and dizziness and didn’t compete in the 300 hurdles. Thus her chance at a return trip to the state championships was ended
May 21. One More Hurdle Before CCS Semi-Finals at San Jose City College all weather track. SC has athletes attempting to qualify for the CCS finals and the state meet in multiple events. But nagging injuries could hamper their performance. Injured athletes and their events: Reggie Stephens competing in four events; the 100, 200, 400 relay and long jump. Jermaine Robinson in 100 and 400 relay. Jimmy Meyers is not injured and will run both hurdles and both relays. Ben Henry runs both relays and Josh Small is in the 3,200.
May 28. Surprise Qualifiers Show SCCAL’s Quality. Six SCCAL athletes advance to the state finals. “Our league did real well. I was a little surprised at some of the placing. But we’re going to be well represented,” said coach Wall. The 400 relay team missed qualifying for state by nine-hundredths of a second . St. Francis of Mt. View finished third for the final qualifying spot, clocked in 42.85, while SC, which was fifth, ran 42.94. Jim Meyers and the winner of his 300 hurdle event had the two top times in the section. Meyers was second in 38.04 for his best time ever. He finished fourth in the 110 hurdles in 15.05, one place past qualifying in the 110.
Others who had good performances. Reggie Stephens ran the anchor leg of the 400 relay, which finished fifth. He also finished fourth in the long jump at 22-3. “I was jumping two inches behind the line. But I’m pretty happy with my season,” said Stephens.
Evie Smith was sixth in the high jump, going 5-2, but missing three times at 5-4. “I was having a bad day. Even if I had a good day, I don’t think I would have made it. My legs felt like lead,” Smith said.
May 14. Soquel is hosting the CCS South Trials, which features athletes from the SCCAL, MBL, Mission Trail and Blossom Hill league, which is divided into three separate leagues, the Santa Teresa, Mount Hamilton and West Valley leagues all of San Jose. In all, 48 schools will participate. The meet is non scoring, so no team champions will be crowned. Most races will feature three heats.
May 15. GIRLS: Day of Highs, Lows at CCS South Track and Field Trials at Soquel.
Tough Day For Girls From SCCAL. Only a dozen girls from the SCCAL survived the individual events in the CCS South track and field trials at Soquel and advance to CCS semifinals. Although Café qualified in the 300 hurdles, she false started in the 100 hurdles and was disqualified. She now advances in only one event. “I wish I could have gone on in the 100, but that happens,” said a somewhat dejected Café. In the high jump, three SCCAL girls, which included Evie Smith, tied at 4-10 to qualify for the next round.
The SCCAL sent three of its athletes to the next round in the high jump. All jumped 4-10 including SC’s Evie Smith. Smith also advanced in the long jump.
BOYS: Hamstring injury fails to hamper Cards’ Stephens. At the CCS South Track and Field trials, Stephens ran for his life, despite his injury at Thursdays practice. Stephens advanced to the section semifinals in the 100 in 10.6, the 200 in 22.1, the long jump 21-1 ¾ and ran the anchor leg of the 400 relay team, which qualified in 44.18 seconds. For a group running together competitively for the first time, SC’s 400 relay team did quite well. The foursome of Jermaine Robinson, Jimmy Meyer, Ben Henry and Reggie Stephens qualified with a time of 44.18. “The rest of my body feels good,” said Stephens, who was smiling after the 200, where he matched his best time ever. “I qualified in everything and that’s what counts
Things didn’t go so well for his friend and teammate Jermaine Robinson, who was bothered by a Achilles injury. The injury affected his high and long jumps, which made him miss qualifying in these two events. Robinson did advance in the 100 meters and the 400 relay. “The Achilles was a real problem for him in the high, especially,” said coach Bryan Wall. As for Stephens, Wall was impressed with his intestinal fortitude. “I know the hamstring was bothering him, but he has a lot of inner motivation. He really wants it,” said Wall.
Jimmy Meyer, also had a day to remember, especially in the 300 hurdles. The senior posted the best time of the day in that event, 38.3 seconds, which placed him second in all of CCS for the moment. “My stride was on,” said Meyer, who took a full second off his previous best time in the 300s. “The last 100, I wasn’t even tired. I felt great. It was a fun race.” In the 110 high hurdles, it was a dead heat, but on the Accutrack photo it appeared that his racing friend slipped in just ahead. “It would have been nice to beat him. I haven’t beaten him in that race in two years. But I am happy with the time.”
Josh Small made the top 13 in the 3,200, which qualifies him to advance.
Sentinel box on May 15, including all SCCAL participants for the first ten places in each event.
Just listing SC, by event, place in event, name and time of distance
BOYS Division
400 meter relay: 1. SC 43.4
Mile relay: 1. SC 3:28.6
110 high hurdles: 2. Jimmy Meyer in 14.6
300 intermediate hurdles: Jimmy Meyer in 38.3
100 meters: 1. Reggie Stephens 10.6. 2. Jermaine Robinson 10.9. 4. Henry, 11.4
200 meters: Stephens in 22.1. 2. Henry 22.4. 6. Meyer 23.8
400 meters: 1. Henry 50.4. 5. Meyer 53.0. 8. Marquz 53.7. 11. Street 53.9
800 meters: 4. Liberatore 2:02.0. 7. Street 2:02.8
1,600 meters: 4. Liberatore 4:32.5. 6. Small 4;38.2. 8. Kessler 4:43.0
3,200 meters: 4. Josh Small in 9:59.9. 5. Liberatore 10:13.0. 6. Kessler 10:34.9
Long jump: 1. Stephens in 21-1 ¾. 2. Robinson 22-0 ½. 8. Meyers 19-1. 10. Marquez 18-7
Triple jump: 1. Meyers 43-9 ¼. 6. Abraham 38-5. 8. Benitez 37-2. 10. Tuthill 36-8
High jump: 2. Robinson 6-2. 8. Meyers 5-6
Shot put: none
Discus: none
Pole vault: 2. Whiting 10-6. 3. Tol 10-6. 4. Martin 10-0. 6. Harman 9-6. 7. Keyser-Allen 9-6
Yearbook.
STARS PUSH THEMSELVES TO THE LIMIT.
They spend numerous hours perfecting their skills. Students join the team for various reasons, some to break a school record, improve their speed and endurance for other sports or to just stay in shape.
Six senior members of the team are listed with what they want to accomplish this season. Jermaine Robinson. Set personal goals to accomplish before the end of the season and keep his speed up for football. He hopes by training everyday for the 4X100 relay, long jump, high jump and 200 meter dash relay will pay off and give him a chance to go to the state meet.
Mike Liberatore. To break the school record in the mile
Javier Lainez. Want to break two minutes in the 800 meters. He also runs the 1600 and 3200 meter races.
Ben Henry. A competitor in a number of running events, hopes to break the school record in the 400 meters.
Reggie Stephens. Runs the 100 and 200 meter dashes, 4X100 relay and the long jump event, practices everyday but Saturday. His goal is to run a 10.4 in the 100 meters.
Junior Josh Small is a top long distance runner.
Other team members: Elias Alvarez, Seth Atkinson, Collin Arlt, Robert Bush, Jesus Cortez, Tao Enna, Larrry Gross, Justin Hansen, Ethan Harmon, Tristan Kass, David Kessler, A.J. Marquez, Lee Martin, Paul Martin, James Meyer, Chris Morgan, Cody Murray, Kyle Plumb, Jesus Quintanilla, Michael Ross, Joe Street, Sjon Tol, Brian Tuthill, Danny Whiting, Jeff Whiting, Ivan Wilson.
DUAL MEET AND INVITATIONAL MEETS FOR BOTH BOYS AND GIRLS
Sentinel. March 11. SC 85, Harbor 50. SC opened the league season in strong fashion. Leading the way was Jimmy Meyer, who had three wins. Meyer took the 100 hurdles in 15.7, the 300 hurdles in 41.3 and the triple jump af 37-8.
GIRLS: SC 77, Harbor 50. The Cards depth more than overcame the return of Harbors top athlete. Melanie Café won the 100 hurdles in 17.3 and the 300 hurdles in 49.8. Evie Smith swept the jumps taking the long jump at 13.5, triple jump with 30.2 and the high jump at 5.0.
Sentinel. March 15. Cards won the team title at the County Track and Field Relays, with a combined boys and girls score of 184 to hosts Soquel with 166, Harbor 149, SLV 102, Aptos 54, Watsonville 45.
In the boys competition SC had the most points with 100 followed by Harbor with 90. SC had an impressive time in winning the 400 meter relay in 45.4. SC’s long jump team of four jumpers, won with a distance of 78-7, beating the next closes team by ten feet. Reggie Stephens led the team with a jump of 21-6 and Jermaine Robinson leaped 20-5.
GIRLS: Cards won the team title at the County Track and Field Relays, with a combined boys and girls score of 184 to hosts Soquel in second place with 166 points. ( No mention of SC)
March 18. SC 109, Aptos 20. Jimmy Meyer accounted for four victories, while Reggie Stephens and Ben Henry participated in three events as SC moved to 2-0 in league dual meets. Meyer won the 110 meter high hurdles in 15.9, the 300 intermediate hurdles in 40.2, the triple jump at 40-1 and helped the mile relay team win in 3:49.8. Stephens soared 22-1 in the long jump, one of the best marks in the CCS thus far. He added wins in the 100 meters in 11.2 and the 400 relay with Henry, A.J. Marquez and Jermaine Robinson. In addition to the relay, Henry won the 200 in 23.5 and the 400 in 52.56.
GIRLS: SC 71, Aptos 39. Four wins from Melanie Café clinched the meet for SC. Cafe was first in the 100 hurdles in 17.6, 300 hurdles in 48.3, 400 in 1:03 and ran on the winning 400 relay team in time of 52.2. Evie Smith won the high jump at 5 feet.
March 26. At the prestigious Stanford Invitational, Reggie Stephens was fifth in the 100 at 11.34. Jimmy Meyers was fifth in the 110 high hurdles in 16.48.
For the girls, Melanie Café was fourth in the 100 hurdles in 16.69. Evie Smith was fourth in the high jump clearing 5 feet ¼ inches.
April 1. SC 77, SLV 58. Jimmy Meyer was a triple winner and Ben Henry and Reggie Stephens were double winners. Meyer won the 100 high hurdles in 16.3, the 300 lows in 41.5 and was on the 400 relay team that won in 45.5. Henry won the 400 in a league best 51.7 and the 200 in 23.3. Stephens won the 100 in 11.2 and anchored the 400 relay team.
Girls: SC 76, SLV 56. Evie Smith, Melanie Café and Jenny Croghan were double winners. Smith won the triple jump at 32-6 and the high jump at 5-2. Café tied for first in the 100 hurdles in 16.2, and the 300 low hurdles in 16.2. Croghan won the 1,600 in 6:19.2 and the 3,200 in 13;36.4.
April 2. At the Stanford Track and Field Festival, the Card contingent was led by Jimmy Meyer, Melanie Café and Reggie Stephens. Meyer finished second in the 400 intermediate hurdles, in a personal best 56.39. Stephens long jump of 21-8, was good for third place. He also ran the anchor leg of the 400 relay team that was timed in 43.56 or .3 second better than last seasons best. Ben Henry, Jermaine Robinson and Meyer were the other runners.
Café took third in the 400 hurdles in a personal best 1:06.36
April 15. Down To The Wire For Cards. Robinson Pulls It Out With Win In High Jump. SC’s 69-66 win over Soquel was a make up of a rain out earlier in the season. It was not decided until the final event of the day, when Jermaine Robinson cleared the bar of the high jump at a modest leap of 5-10 to win the event and the meet for SC. He also won the long jump at 19-11 ½ and competed on the winning 400 relay teams win in 43.4.
Not be out done, Reggie Stephens was also a three event winner. He won the 100 in 10.7, a mark that could land him an invite to the CCS Top-8 meet. He also smoked to a 22.3 in the 200 and ran on the winning 100 relay team. Ben Henry was also strong. He won the 400 in 50.4 and was second to Stephens in the 200 with an excellent time of 22.4. Jimmy Meyer was a triple winner competing on both the 400 and 1,600 winning relay teams and won the 300 intermediate hurdles in 39.5 and was second in the 110
GIRLS: SC 71, Soquel 56. Melanie Café blitzed the field in her two specialties. In the 300, she lowered her league best time to 46.7, which is also one of the best times in CCS. She also took the 100 hurdles in 17.0. Linda Alvarez took the triple jump in 31-6 and the high jump at 4-8.
April 17. At the Gilroy Invitational, on of the most dramatic improvements on a previous best wasf by Mike Liberatore, who cut 24 seconds off his two mile time and took twelfth in 10:13. He took fifth in the 800 in a season best time of 2:02.8. In the 300 intermediate hurdles, Jimmy Meyer took second in 39.49, one of the top times in CCS. He sliced .7 of his previous best time. Meyer took fifth in the 110 high hurdles, to cut .9 off his previous best and finish in 14.87.
GIRLS: Leading the area girls was Melanie Café, who out leaned the second place runner by a few feet to win the 300 lows in 46.7to better her best time. She entered with a season best of 48.3. Café also was fourth in the 100 hurdles in 15.98, another season best.
April 23. At the CCS Top 8 Meet at Los Gatos, Jimmy Meyer was third in the 300 hurdles in 39.62. Jermaine Robinson was fourth in the long jump, at a personal best of 22 feet. Reggie Stephens finished eighth in the 100 in 10.91 and eighth in the 200 in 22.29.
GIRLS: Melanie Café was third in the 300 hurdles in 47.0. Evie Smith was fourth in the high jump in 5-2.
April 24. At the West Valley Relays, Jimmy Meyers won the 400 meter hurdles on a soggy track. No time was available. The 400 relay team of A.J. Marquez, Robinson, Meyers and Stephens took third in 44.0. Stephens passed a number of runners on his anchor leg. Distance runner, Mike Liberatore was sixth in the 1,500 in 4:21.
GIRLS: Melanie Café won the 400 meter hurdles on a soggy track. No times were available. Bernadette Ferrante, Katie David, Janeen Aldrich and Café took the 400 relay team to fifth place in 52.9. Ferrante added a third place finish in the 100 meters in 13.6. Distance runner Jenny Croghan finished seventh in the 1,500 in 5:28.
April 26. Cards Wrap Up Undefeated League Dual Season. Both boys and girls.
SC 86, Watsonville 48. Reggie Stephens rang up one of his standard triple wins, taking the 100 in 11.0, the 200 in 22.5 and the long jump in 21-8. Jimmy Meyers also won three events, taking the 300 hurdles in 40.8, the 110 high hurdles in 15.9 and the triple jump at 40-2. Mike Liberatore won the 800 in 2:03.8, the 1,600 in 4:32.4 and ran on the winning 1,600 relay team.
GIRLS: SC 86, Watsonville 45. Led by a triad of double winners, the girls matched the boys with an undefeated dual meet record. Bernadette Ferrante won the 100 in 13.7, the 200 in 28.2 and was second in the long jump. Evie Smith won the long jump in 15 feet, the high jump at 5-0. Melanie Café doubled in the hurdles winning the 100 in 16.6 and the 300 in 47.0.
League trials and finals are next week.
May 1. In what amounts to an important preview for post season meets SC tied former SCCAL rival North Monterey for the Championship. Saturday at the Coast Invitational Track and Field meet. Stephens didn’t rest up. He gave his team winning points in the 100 meters in 11.2 and ran on the winning 400 relay team in a time of 44.2. Robinson took first place in the long jump at 19-4. Triple jumper Jimmy Meyer soared 41-5 for first place. Mike Liberatore and Joe Street took third and fourth places in the 800, respectively.
GIRLS: Linda Alvarez took second place in the long jump at 14-1 and took fourth at 4-10. Evie Smith took second in the triple jump at 33-3.
Trident, May 18. In the spring of 1991, Victor Lang was the lone Cardinal boy to qualify for the State Track and Field Championships by finishing third in the 800 meter run at the CCS finals. Since then no Cardinal has been able to finish from first to third for one of the precious top three spots in one of the highest quality sections in the state.
There was a close call in 1992, when Jermaine Robinson and Reggie Stephens helped their 4 X 100 meter relay team to a fourth place finish.
In 1993, Ben Henry along with Robinson and Stephens took fifth place in the same event. Jimmy Meyer missed third place by .06 seconds after stumbling over the second to last hurdle in the 300 meter hurdles to finish fourth.
After this frustration, it looks like this is the year to break the slide with the fearsome foursome of Henry, Robinson, Meyer and Stephens, who ranked in the top 8 of the CCS in 10 of the 12 combined events, all returning for their fourth varsity season. A State meet birth is almost inevitable for one or all of them. Seniors Mike Liberatore and Joe Street and junior Josh Small are also capable of doing it.
ALL SCCAL: Danny Whiting, Mike Liberatore
CCS Trials: Josh Small
CCS: Reggie Stephens, Jimmy Meyers, Jermaine Robinson, Ben Henry
Trident. May 18. SC GIRLS finished up their first undefeated dual meet season in five years and even came within 15 points of winning the league meet. Leading the way is the only senior on the team, Melanie Café, who last season finished third at CCS and tenth in the 300 meter hurdles as well as finishing fifth in the 100 meter hurdles at the State Meet. Backing up Café is a first rate contingent of athletes. They are junior Evie Smith, a near State Meet qualifier last season in the high jump. Sprinters junior Bernadette Ferrante and sophomores Katie David and Janeen Aldrich. The distance crew junior Melissa Connerly, sophomore Katie McGraw and freshmen Jenny Croghan and Soji Howe. Throwers sophomores Maria Willis and Jessica Weaver.
Yearbook. Team members: Janeen Aldrich. Natalie Bridgeman, Heidi Brockmann, Sarah Brown, Melanie Café, Elizabeth Conerly, Sarah Coon, Katie David, Jessica Duncan, Bernadette Ferrante, Robin Garon, Alison Gentry, Leslie Harris, Shara Hedgepath, Soji Howe, Kyoko Jackson, Nicole Jackson, Lonnie Jorgensen, Katie McGraw, Maria Willis, Kumi Rauf
Linda Alvarez. Participates in the long jump, high jump and triple jump wants to make it to the CCS meet.
Sentinel box on May 15, including all SCCAL participants for the first ten places in each event.
Just listing SC, by event, place in event, name and time of distance
GIRLS Division
100 meters: 9. Jones 13.4. 14. Ferrante 13.4
200 meters: 8. Ferrante 27.6
400 meters: 3. Café 58.8.
800 meters: 9. Croghan 2:35.8
1,600 meters: 6. Croghan 5:48.0
3,200 meters. 5. Croghan 12:52.0
Mile relay: 3. SC 4:20.2
400 meter relay: 3. SC 51.7
100 meter low hurdles: 1. Café 15.9. 6. Brockmann 18.2. 9. Conerly 19.0.
300 meter hurdles: 2. Café 45.6. 6. Brockmann 51.6
High jump: 1. Smith 5-2. 4. Alvarez 4-10. 10. David 4-6
Triple jump: 2. Smith 33-9. 9. Alvarez 31-6
Long jump: 2. Ferrante 16-1. 3. Alvarez 15-10. 8. Smith 15-6.
Shot put: 3. Willis 30-9. 8. Weaver 30-2. 9. Alvarez 28-10
Discus: 5. Weaver 99-8. 6. Alvarez 94-7.
ALL SCCAL Evie Smith and Melanie Cafe
BOYS SWIMMING AND DIVING
SCCAL Relays: Harbor 110, SC 80, Aptos 78.
Harbor Invitational with 8 teams: Harbor 281, Aptos 196, North Salinas 120, SC 114.
SCCAL meet: Harbor won for the fourteenth consecutive time. SC took second place 32 points behind. (No other SC information.)
League dual meets: Soquel 93-36, Watsonville 99-63, Aptos 89-90, Harbor 70-101
Yearbook. “The team put their spirit, heart and desire into this team. This years team had something special, because each team member was an individual, working together to be a team.” said coach Carey Smith.
Team leaders were seniors Chris Dunlap and Chris Apra, juniors Sean Clew and Chris Reef.
Other players with pictures were Carey Webber, Joel Silver, Seth Gargano and Matt Porter. No other names listed
Sentinel. March 4. Harbor Invitational with the five SCCAL teams plus North Salinas, Monterey and Los Gatos. Harbor won with 281 points followed by Aptos 196, North Salinas 120 and SC 114.
March 18. SCCAL Relays. Harbor won with 110 points, but SC was a surprise second, edging Aptos 80-78.
April 12. SC 93, Soquel 36. SC won 10 of 12 events en route to winning the SCCAL opener. Chris Dunlap won the 50 yard free in 24.46 and the 100 free in 55.62 and was on the winning 400 free relay team in 3:47.1 and the 200 free relay in 1:41.13. Chris Reefe won the 200 individual medley in 2:24.7 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:13.74, he also was on the winning 200 medley relay and 200 free relay team. Ryan Trumm won the 200 free in 2:11.0 and was on the winning 400 free relay and 200 free relay team.
Sentinel. April 23. SC 99, Watsonville 63. SC improved to 2-0 in league swimming dual meets. Among the highlights for the Cards were Chris Reefe winning the 100 yard breaststroke in 1:13.62 and Chris Apra winning the 200 individual medley in 2:32.8. SC also won three relays.
April 30. Aptos 90, SC 89. Aptos clinched the meet when their swimmer out touched Chris Reefe in the 100 yard breaststroke by .08 seconds, 1:11.40 to 1:11.48 and the 400 freestyle relay team won by four seconds. SC’s 200 free relay team qualified for the CCS meet with a 1:40.31.
May 7. Pirates Top Cardinals To Remain Undefeated. It was the closes dual meet score of the season for unbeaten Harbor, who won 101-70. “I was very happy,” said coach Cary Smith. “We had a tough one last week, losing by a point to Aptos. Getting the best score against Harbor gets us fired up going into the league finals. Divers Bobby Hanson and Josh Nelson finished one-two. The 200 free relay team of Sean Clew, Chris Apra, Chris Dunlap and Ryan Trumm won in 1:41.65. The same four recorded a season best in the 200 medley relay.
May 14. In the first day of the SCCAL championship meet, the only event was for diving. Only for divers competed in the 11 round competition. Josh Nelson finished second with 278.4
May 15. Another Swim Title For Harbor at the SCCAL meet for the fourteenth consecutive time. SC took second place 32 points behind. (No other SC information.)
GIRLS WATER POLO
Trident. May 18. Girls Water Polo Makes a Splash. After mastering the basics, the team has proven that they have what it takes to compete. Practicing only two or three days a week, the girls have displayed enthusiasm and a desire to master what for many is a new and complicated sport. Their first competition was relaxed, round robin games with Harbor and UCSC. At a tournament at De Anza College, the girls won their first game, tied the second game and lost the third game, largely due to the efforts of sophomores Taryn Nagy and Heather Tyler and freshman Cory Miller. Other key players are freshmen Ellen Sheron, Liz Shiffrin, Shelley Gill and Issa Grant and junior Kim Strickland, who said, “We hope that in a few years the girls water polo team will become an official team sport.”
BOYS TENNIS UNDEFEATED IN SCCAL 12-0 and 18-3 overall. For its nineteenth title in the last twenty-one years.
Practice record. Carmel 7-0, Leland 4-3, St. Francis of Mt. View4-3
League: SLV 7-0, Harbor 7-0,
CCS Leland 4-3, Palo Alto 2-5.
Yearbook. Coach Dennis Mullen, “believes this team displayed the greatest talent of any team throughout his years of coaching. Unlike other teams, ours doesn’t have any weak spots in the line up. It’s solid all the way from number one singles to number two doubles.”
The team consists of thirteen players. The number one player is Croatian exchange student senior Domagoj Hum. Only three other players are shown in the yearbook. Chris Hiromura, Gabe Murphy and Josh Sheridan.
Trident. March 31. The tennis ladder in order of players: Number one, Domagoj Hum, 2. Josh Sheridan, 3. Gabe Murphy, 4. Chris Hiromura, 5. Tyler Brunnemer. Number one doubles is David Avary and Rick Godnick. Those who will fill the other doubles team are Eric Knox, Jacob Meyberg and Sander Nauenberg. The Cards have won the league title 18 of the last 21 seasons under coach Dennis Mullen and plan to make it 19 this season.
Sentinel. April 16. Another Big Tennis Win For SC. SC earned one of its biggest tennis victory in years by edging Leland, one of the powerhouses of the CCS, 4-3. SC improved to 13-2. “I thought that was the best match we played all year,” said coach Dennis Mullen, whose team lost to Leland last year 4-3. The Leland number one player, who is ranked fifth nationally in his age group, beat Domagoj Hum 6-3, 6-4, despite what Mullen called Hum’s best effort of the season. With the team score 3-3, Eric Knox and Mike Marlowe survived a 7-5, 7-6,(8-6) battle in number two doubles to clinch the win. In singles, No. 3. Gabe Murphy, No. 4. Chris Hiromua and No. 5. Tyler Brunnemer each won in straight sets. SC beat St. Francis of Mt. View, another CCS power, by the same score Wednesday.
Sentinel. April 23. Cardinal Tennis Team 10-0, Clinch Title Tie after defeating Harbor 7-0. “Everybody played really well,” said Coach Dennis Mullen. The Cards didn’t show a let-down after non-league win over Carmel, “They’re all focused,” Mullen said. SC won all, but five matches, winning each in straight sets.
April 28. Dennis Mullen, who last week coached SC to its sixteenth SCCAL tennis championship during his tenure, has been named the 1993-94 CCS Honor Coach by his colleagues. The award is presented to coaches who have made outstanding contributions to their sport at their school, in the community and to the CCS. Mullen is to be honored tonight at the CCS Board of Managers meeting at Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose.
April 30. SC 7, SLV 0. Domagoj Hum helped SC finish with a 12-0 SCCAL record. Hum, from Croatia, won 6-2, 6-0 at No. one singles to finish unbeaten in league. Aptos finished second at 6-6.
May 5. Cards Nab CCS Tennis Opener. As if he hadn’t done enough, leading SC to an undefeated record in SCCAL action and winning the league’s individual singles title Domagoj Hum nailed down the decisive victory as SC dropped Leland 4-3 in the first round of the CCS tennis championships. Knowing the importance of his 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 win, Hum self-deprecatingly said to Coach Mullen, “Finally, I did something for the team.” Mullen said he and the team laughed. It may have been a nervous laugh of relief. When Hum came in with the decisive win the Knights were leading 3-2, with its number two doubles team in a match it would eventually lose in three sets.
For SC, Gabe Murphy won 6-3, 6-0 to get the Card off to a quick start and Chris Hiromura reported in soon after with a 6-3, 6-3 win. Josh Sheridan lost 4-6, 4-6 to close the gap, but Tyler Brunnemer won 6-2, 6-4. At number one doubles Rick Godnick and Sander Nauenberg lost 2-6, 6-7. In the final match, the number two doubles team of Eric Knox and Mike Marlowe lost 7-6, 1-6, 6-7. Despite losing to Santa Cruz earlier this season 4-3, Leland was seeded ahead of SC.
SC next play Palo Alto, the defending CCS champions and number one seed. “They have seven players, who are ranked juniors in Northern California,” said Mullen.
Trident. May 18. SC was undefeated in league going 12-0 and 18-3 overall. The teams non league 4-3 victory over powerhouse St. Francis of Mt. View, helped decide the Cards placement in CCS. In the league finals, Domagoj Hum took the singles title and Josh Sheridan and Chris Hiromura finished second in doubles. Although SC got a surprisingly poor seed in CCS, the team made an impressive showing, finishing with a 5-2 loss to number one seeded Palo Alto.
GOLF not listed
BOYS VOLLEYBALL
Sentinel. March 18. SC defeats SLV 15-5, 15-13, 15-10. Jaime Ziegler, who has rotated with five other setters in the SC lineup, pitched in 10 assists and 12 kills for the Cards with a 4-3 record.
Sentinel. March 19.. SC defeated Aptos 12-15. 15-11, 16-14, 14-16, 18-16, when T’ai Lunsford had a service ace on match point to clinch the win. SC is 3-3 in league. Chris Apra recorded 25 assists, while setting for SC, complementing the passing of Jeremy Lechtenberg and the hitting and blocking of Lunsford.
SURF TEAM
This is the first time that surfing has been declared a sport at SC as far as is known. Seniors Zev Gartner and Pat Green say, “surfing is addicting; its like a drug. It’s a positive drug. Just a part of life.”
Others listed are Jamilah Haje, Justin Thoma, Justin Davis, Pat Fitzsimmons and Dameon DeWorken.
FORMER ATHLETES
Tim Shields, now at UCLA, finished seventh in the 400 hurdles with a time of 53.02 at the Pac-10 track championships at Pullman, Washington.
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