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1995
From the Sentinel on June 7 covering the valedictorians at Santa Cruz High, Alaina Kipps and Gabe Murphy.
Gabe Murphy This summer, Gave Murphy will be doing medical research in a LA hospital, and putting out guidelines for doctors on the Internet. He learned about the job from his grandfather, an anesthesiologist who inspired him to consider a career in medicine. Watching a surgeon close up “made a great impression on me,” he said, adding, “I like science and I want to help people.”
He will attend Pomona College where he will also play tennis.
Murphy learned the game at age 6. In four years of Santa Cruz High singles, he lost only two matches. “Its pretty important to me,” he said.
The Cardinal tennis team won the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League championship all four years. Playing No. 2 singles this spring, Murphy was 8-2 in league matches and finished with a 42-2 career record against league opponents. He also won the SCCAL doubles title with partner Sander Nauenberg and represented the league at the Central Coast Section championships.

Alaina Kipps
Many know Alaina Katheryn Kipps as a star volleyball player; member of Team Mizuno, ranked No. 1 in the nation, captain of the Santa Cruz High volleyball team, player of the year and MVP for 93-94; invited to the Olympic Training Center by the National Volleyball Association last July.
Others know her academically. She plans to major in molecular biology (with minors in environmental studies and Spanish) at the University of Southern California on a full-ride scholarship to play volleyball. Her goal: to become a Rhodes Scholar or receive an NCAA post-graduate scholarship. She spent the fall semester as an exchange student in Spain. Kipps lived with a Basque family for four and a half months in Vitoria-Gasteiz, four hours north of Madrid. She attended college prep class in chemistry, physics, math, mechanical drawing, literature and philosophy, admitting “reading ‘Plato’s Republic’ in Spanish was a bit tricky.” She also played for a volleyball team named UPV Gastedi, traveled to other cities and learned sports lingo in Spanish. Kipps, who just turned 17, was the youngest player on the team made up of players from 18 to 26. “The level of play is about as good as the top teams in the SCCAL. The team was in first place, when she left. Being so far from home was “at times a trying experience,” but Kipps said she gained “a broader view of the world, many new friends and memories for the rest of my life.”

Sentinel Female Athlete of the Year Kaiser can do it all–and did for the Cardinals.
If there’s a sport at which Kelly Kaiser isn’t adept, it’s probably just because she hasn’t tried it yet. Everyone knows about Kaiser’s prowess in volleyball, basketball and softball. After all, she was n all-league and all-county selection in all three, as well as being the Player of the Year in basketball. She was a key factor in the Cardinal basketball and softball teams winning league titles. But that only covers the surface of her talents. Recently, Kelly and her father, Rod Kaiser, won their flight at the annual junior-senior golf tournament at DeLaveaga Golf Course. Kelly also won the closest to the pin award among the girls.
However, it is for her star quality in volleyball, basketball and softball that Kelly Kaiser was chosen as the Sentinel’s All-Santa Cruz County Female Athlete of the Year.
Kaiser has a sports resume that most athletes only dream of. In volleyball, she is a two-year starter for the Cardinals and was a key middle-hitter for a surprisingly strong team that took third place in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League, one of the toughest volleyball leagues in the state. Santa Cruz’s strength was all the more impressive in that it came in a year when senior Alaina Kipps, who earned a volleyball scholarship to USC, was away on a foreign exchange program.
In basketball, Kaiser’s favorite sport, she was chosen the All-SCCAL and All-County player of the year. That Kaiser was second in the league in scoring with 13.6 points a game and averaged 6.1 rebounds only tells part of the story. She was the heart and soul of a Santa Cruz team that ended Harbor’s 10-year run atop the SCCAL standings and reached the Central Coast Section Division III semifinals. She was the player the team looked for to take the critical shot. She was the one who could take over a game at both ends of the court. She was the one who drew the tough defensive assignments. She was the unquestioned league leader in coast-to-coast baskets.
And in softball, Kaiser was a second basemen, .287 hitter in the leadoff spot and scored a league-leading 30 runs. Kaiser was also a repeat all-league and all-county player in both basketball and softball. And she’s only a junior.
Asked what she could possible do for an encore, Kaiser said: “I’ve told my dad I’m going to take up tennis, soccer and track.” And undoubtedly she would do well in those.
While Kaiser’s natural abilities are obvious, she doesn’t merely rely on her physical abilities. John Wilson, her basketball coach, points to a strong work ethic and something she and her older brother K.C., who played baseball under Wilson, shared. “They both had the mental part of the games,” Wilson said. “They have magnificent composure and are great leaders. If it’s a 32-minute basketball game they’ll give 32 minutes of 110 per-cent mental focus.”
If any athlete was groomed for success in sports, it was Kaiser. Growing up with two athletic older brothers made sports ability a requisite for survival. For as long as she can remember, sports have been at the center of her life.
From the front yard, Kelly Kaiser moved on to play in parks and rec leagues, competing with and against kids like Alicia Beach, Katie David, Evie Smith, Joanne Hutson and Niki Sudduth–all who now play with her on various teams at Santa Cruz High.
In following her brother’s foot-steps, Kaiser has emerged as a star in her own right and is pretty much leaving her brother’s accomplishments in the dust. While K.C. was a good athlete in three sports, Kelly is a star in all three of her sports. Kaiser is looking ahead to the future, hoping she can play sports in college. “I’ve written to some schools and gotten some letters back,” Kelly Kaiser said. “I’m still going back and forth whether I want to play at a small school, or walk on (at a major university). “K.C. says you miss sports so much when you get out (of high school), she aid. “You just yearn for it. If it doesn’t work out I think maybe I’d try bowling.” And probably do it well.

From the Sentinel. Top girls Scholar-Athletes from Santa Cruz County, included Evie Smith, all league, all county guard in basketball, averaged 10.4 points a game. Second in league high jump. 3.3 GPA and Niki Sudduth, all league, all county outfielder in softball, hit .320 with 15 RBI’s. Solid in basketball and volleyball. 3.7GPA.

From the Sentinel. Top boys Scholar-Athletes from Santa Cruz County, included
Gabe Murphy, class valedictorian and standout tennis player . Half of SCCAL doubles champion team. 4.0 GPA.

Kim Reimann on the girls swim team in SCCAL competition was within the top four swimmers placed in five individual events and three relay events for a total of eight events all together. What she did is listed by event, her place in the event and her time.
200 freestyle: 1. Reimann, 1:58.84
100 freestyle: 2. Reimann, 56.29
100 backstroke: 2. Reimann, 1:01.67
200 individual medley: 3. Reimann, 2:20.42
100 breaststroke: 4. Reimann, 1:17.40
200 freestyle relay: 2. SC team of Miller, Nagy, Reimann, Cummings, 1:51.26
200 medley relay: 2. SC team of Miller, Nagy, Reimann, Cummings 2:08.48
400 freestyle relay: 2. SC team of Cummings, Nagy, Miller and Reimann 4:03.47

All of the following general information about the past comes from the yearbook.
Tackling The Past At SCHS
The history of football at SCHS starts back in 1907, when the first football game, rugby was played. Rugby was played until 1914, when a student Russell Pease was killed during a game. Soccer was then played during the 1915 season. Because of World War I, no sports were played until 1919, when football as we know it today was reinstated. Since, many talented football players have adorned the Cardinal Red, including Bob Costa, John Kirby, Glenallen Hill and New York Jets pro running back Johnny Johnson.

In 1973 Santa Cruz’s league, the MBL, regulations said that any girl could try out and compete in any boys varsity sports. Between 1977 and 1980, the CIF allowed girls to compete in organized sports against other schools. From then on, the girls swim team (and all the other girls programs) have been an important addition to our athletic program.

SC water polo began as a school sport in 1970. It was quite successful in it’s first year, placing high in the Cabrillo College, High School Water Polo Invitational Tournament, beating Soquel in overtime. This must have reflected in its popularity, because three teams, varsity, junior varsity and frosh-soph squads were used just as the football and basketball team have. Cary Smith, an old star water polo player, class of 1985, has returned to coach the team. Dedication and sacrifice are the two main qualities a water polo player needs and SC certainly displays both.

In 1913 SC entered the CCAL (Central Coast Athletic League) and went undefeated to win Santa Cruz’s first championship ever, all in its first year. Three years later SC once again went undefeated. In 1920 the only lost came from the UC Berkeley freshman team. Coach Pete Newell, who has coached the Cardinals for two decades, is labeled as the Dean of the leagues coaches has led the team to five SCCAL championships and to the CCS finals in 1988.

Girls Hoops In The Past. 1974 was a time of great change for SCHS. The first, in the modern era, interscholastic girls basketball team was started by coach Ray Hunter. With such talent and athleticism on this powerful first year team pulled out an amazing upset victory over defending league champion North Salinas by one point in the championship game. The talent has continued year after year, as SC continues to contribute to the strong history of the sport. Under the leadership of Coach John Wilson this years team has proved to be one of the best.

Boys soccer was started at SC in 1975. The most well known soccer players to play at SC were the Sierra’s: Sergio, 82; Jose, 84; Jorge, 86; Pedro, 91 and Blanca, 95. Of these Sierra’s, Sergio is the boys varsity head coach, Jose the girls varsity head coach, Jorge is in his first year as boys JV coach and sister Blanca plays on the girls varsity soccer team. Along with the Sierra Legacy, many others have helped soccer become on of the most competitive and dignified sports at SC.

Wrestling started in 1952 with an outstanding star Pete Likins, who eventually went on to became Dean at Columbia University in New York City and President of the University of Arizona. Coach Tex Ronning took over the program in 1963. During Ronning’s time Mark DiGirolamo, who posted a 34-5 record was the only SC wrestler to receive the High School All American Trophy.

The first organized girls softball team with a league schedule started in 1973. The following year, Pete Newell was the varsity coach and Vic Miguel the JV coach. In 1976 Miguel took over the varsity and is still the head coach. The program has always been a strong contender and will remains so for years to come.

In 1922 a swim team of eleven boys defeated San Jose and Pacific Grove and took four place in the Northern Section of the CIF. At this time boys swimming wasn’t very popular as far as school sports go. Some of the top SC swimmers were the Hatch brothers, Rob and Steve, John Mockus, John Melton, Rob Henry and Bill Hackborth. All of whom swam year around and competed in such swimming competitions as the Junior and Senior Nationals and the Olympic Trials.

Soon after the turn of the century, in 1907, SC had its first tennis team. As the years progressed, so did the sport and in 1934 SC put in new tennis courts that were ranked as the best on the West Coast. In 1942 the boys team captured the State Tennis Championship.

Golf was started at SC in 1940. A year later SC won the CCAL championship at Pebble Beach. The Cardinals were such a powerhouse in its beginning years that it was rumored that they played for the score and not against the competition. One of their few losses came from the Stanford University JV team.

Surfing has always been an important sport for students attending SC, but in the classes of 1988 it took a turn. A group of guys got together and with a lot of hard work were finally able to form the SCHS Surf team. So for seven years the SC Surf team has been riding the waves in the Santa Cruz County Surf league.

SCHS Has Great History Of Famous Surfers. Out of all the surfers in the world only a handful rise to the top of the surfing world gaining recognition, fame and fortune. Their pictures can be seen on magazines and their faces on posters starring the latest hottest surf videos. Some of these elite few attended SCHS, a school with a tradition of producing some of the best and well known surfers in the world. Some of the more famous surfers, like big wave rider Richard Schmidt, Vince Collier, Shawn Barron, Daryl Virotsko and many others have walked the campus years ago. The list is endless, perhaps no high school on earth can boast about producing as many stars as SCHS can. With the talent and quality of surf in SC, perhaps the next world champ is walking the halls of SC right now.

1995
FOOTBALL Practice games: Stevenson 0-26, Carmel 14-15, Westmont 53-7, South San Francisco 42-12 Practice record 2-2. League: Aptos 29-34, Monte Vista 18-15, Watsonville 0-41, SLV 0-37, Harbor 0-14, Soquel 7-25. League record 1-5 for sixth place. Season record 3-7.

A Player to Watch Nick Dunn seems determined to whip the Santa Cruz team into shape. If it means doing it in the literal sense.
Dunn, one of the stalwarts for the Cardinals last year, is a full-bore guy who goes hard all the time. He has little patience for guys who don’t share his enthusiasm.
“This year there’s a lack of intensity,”: Dunn said. “We have some talent and I know we can do something with it. Some of the juniors think this team might not do so hot, but they have to step up.”
To Dunn, practice is no place for slacking. “I know I come down hard on some players,” Dunn said, “I always play hard and people get mad at me. But the people coming up (from JV) hardly ever go full-speed. In JV you can get away with a lot of things. In varsity, there’s no room for error.”
The 5-foot-11, 215-pound Dunn is solid, strong and extremely physical. Coach Ron Mehuron’s main worry is that Dunn may tend to overwhelm some of the players he’s trying to help.
“The thing you have to watch is that (bigger players) don’t intimidate the others, especially Nick,” Mehuron said. “He’s going to have to take the time to give (another player) a good shot and some instruction along the way.”
“All you can do is make sure everyone knows his place, the rest is personal,” said Dunn. “You can try to fire them up, but you can’t push a person who won’t push himself. Some of these guys have to dig deep and fine desire to play.”
So, if Dunn doesn’t beat his teammates to a pulp, he may pull them up with him. “He’s important not only for what he contributes, but I think he’ll prove his real worth if others are motivated to play to his level,” Mehuron said.
Dunn’s dedication to the team is exhibited by the fact that he has accepted returning to the offensive line, despite a desire to play halfback, where he worked out during passing leagues.
Mehuron said Dunn would make a good running back, he is just a step slower than wide receiver Gino Marini, but is needed on the line. “He is a skill player. He has everything you like to see,” said Mehuron. “He has a tremendous heart. He’s as important as anyone we have returning.” All he has to do now is get others to follow his lead.

Sentinel preseason write up. After going undefeated in league and up until the finals of Division III of CCS this years team will have only nine players back from that team. Coach Mehuron has felt that with 16 returning veterans with three years of football, a team should do well. This years team is a little short on that number and has only 24 players out. “It’s going to be a struggle, but we have some talent to work with.” Such as Nick Dunn, outside linebacker/offensive line; Justin Hansen, inside linebacker/halfback; Rob Truhitte, outside linebacker/tight end; Gino Marini, wide receiver/defensive back; George Arnott, quarterback/defensive back and Gabe Lopez, offensive/defensive lines. Dunn and Marini made the Sentinel All County first team last year. Hansen made All League last year. This is a good nucleus to help us be competitive in league.

Yearbook. Other team members: Elias Alvarez, Robert Bush, Chris Hintz, Julian Thompson, Bernardo Xicotencath, Brad Canepa, John Dawson, Herb Brown Jr, Marcus Williams, Bryan Stinson, Javier Andrade, Danny Whiting, Steven Chiv, Lee Keyser-Allen, John Howard, Justin Lundberg, Jimmy Jones, Nick Thompson, Dylan Harley and Jude Zills. Coaches Ron Mehuron, Vic Miguel and Mark Hodges.

Missed Chances Fatal To Cardinals in 26-0 loss to Stevenson at Pebble Beach. SC had its chances to score taking the ball inside the Pirates 10 yard line three times. On the opening drive of the game with fourth and goal from the ten, quarterback George Arnott was stopped a foot short of the goal line. Stevenson then went 99 yards for a score. Senior Chris Hintz intercepted a pass on the Pirates 36 yard line in the second quarter. Then the Cards drove down the field, but a fumble into the end zone was recovered by the Pirates. Still at half the Cards were very much in the game down only 6-0.

Penalty Cost Cardinals A Win,. A penalty on Nick Dunn’s 43 yard field goal with 5:30 left in the game wiped out the go ahead score in a 15-14 loss to Carmel. The illegal procedure penalty backed up the Cards five yards and although Dunn’s kick was long enough it was wide right, “We improved a lot from last week, said Coach Mehuron.
SC scored first, capitalizing on a Carmel fumble near midfield. Arnott scored on a 16 yard sweep for a 7-0 lead. Carmel then scored, but missed the extra point to leave SC still up 7-6. SC then fumbled on the Carmel 48. With two passes and a one yard run Carmel scored to go up 12-7. SC scored on their next possession on a well executed 71 yard drive that included a 43 yard pass play on third and long from Arnott to Gino Marini. Arnott scored on a 15 yard keeper with the help of a excellent block by Marini at the five yard line. Dunn’s kick made it 14-12 with less than a minute into the second quarter. In the third quarter a 27 yard field goal put Carmel ahead to stay 15-14.. Justin Hansen, who had been out with a broken arm, returned to action and rushed for 106 yards.

Cardinal Roll To 53-7 Win Over Westmont. Santa Cruz Shows Flashes of ‘93. Senior wide receiver Gino Marini scored five touchdowns, three receiving, one rushing and one on a 90 yard return of a blocked field goal attempt. The Cards went ahead 21-0 at the end of the first quarter and 40-7 at halftime. On the third play of the game, Marini made the first of his two interceptions. Two plays later Arnott connected with versatile Nick Dunn on a five yard swing pass for a score and the Cards were on their way. Marini scored the next three touchdowns on passes of 67, 10 and 5 yards. Defensive end Rob Truhitte intercepted a pass on the 7 yard line and trotted into the end zone untouched. It was his firs career score. John Dawson closed out the first half with a ten yard scoring run. Justin Hansen did not score, but rushed for 112 yards in ten carries. Marini finished with 84 yards receiving, 65 rushing and over 100 yards in various returns. Arnott completed 8 of 14 passes for 119 yards and four touchdowns.

Aptos Claims Classic Battle 34-29. The television cameras were rolling and they captured a high school football classic that will likely be talked about for years to come. It was good exciting drama, big plays, trick plays, celebrations and disappointments. The game could have gone either way.
The Cards actually had a third down and goal with one second left, but Marini was stuffed for no gain. Aptos at 4-0 opened a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. SC came back in the second quarter with Marini scoring twice. First on a 11 yard reverse and the second on a 34 yard pass from Arnott to close the score to 14-13. Aptos scored to make it 21-13. But with two seconds left in the half, SC scored on the strangest play of the game. Arnott took the snap and handed off to Justin Hansen, who then reversed the ball to Marini. Meanwhile, Arnott slipped into the Aptos secondary and Marini, the back up quarterback found him for a 43 yard touchdown. Hansen ran the ball in for a two point conversion to tie the score 21-21 at halftime. In the third quarter, Aptos went back ahead 34-21.
In the fourth quarter, Arnott hooked up with Nick Dunn for a 33 yard touchdown pass. Marini ran in the extra point to make it 34-29. SC regained the ball with 3 minutes left and steadily worked the ball inside the Aptos 10 with 16 seconds left. The big play was Arnott’s end around on fourth down which netted 17 yards. On first and goal, John Dawson was dropped for a two yard loss. Arnott’s pass on second down was incomplete. On third down Marini was swarmed by the Aptos defense to end the game. “We did better than anybody expected us to do. I think this sends a message to the rest of the league,” said Marini.

Cards Survive MVC Threat winning 18-15. Cardinals Edge Mustangs. SC scored on its first possession, reaching the end zone on a 6 yard slant pass from Arnott to Marini. The extra point kick was wide. Hansen got the drive started with a 43 yard run on the Cards first play from their own 43. Monte Vista scored on its last series of the half using a consistent running attack to go ahead 7-6.
SC after an emotional game against Aptos last week, looked flat in the first half. SC had only 62 yards rushing and just two first downs. On their first two drives in the second half, the Cards looked anything but flat. SC took the opening kick off of the second half and went 62 yards for a go ahead touchdown. Hansen got SC going with a 20 yard run on the first play. Nick Dunn later ran up the middle for 24 yards. Hansen capped it off when he went over on fourth and goal from the one for a 12-7 lead.
SC came right back after a Monte Vista punt and needed just five plays to cover 45 yards. Arnott went the final 23 on a keeper around the left side for an 18-7 lead with 30 seconds left in the third quarter. With 8:22 left in the fourth quarter, Monte Vista took ten plays to score a touchdown and two point conversion to get to the final score of 18-15. With 1:21 left in the game the Mustangs had the ball on the SC 32 yard line. A 22 yard pass attempt was intercepted by defensive back Marcus Williams to preserve the win.

Cards Leave South City In The Cold. Gino Marini scored three touchdowns and the Cards exploded for a 42-12 win over South San Francisco. The Cards are now 3-3, winning three of their last four games. Marini was the big play maker opening the game with a 97 yard kickoff return for a touchdown, breaking the ice, almost literally on a cold, windy night. Marini had two catches for 60 yards. SC didn’t start breathing easy until the fourth period as the Warriors cut the score to 28-12 with two minutes remaining in the third quarter.
But any South City comeback hopes were wiped out on the next Card possession. Fullback Justin Hansen broke off a 34 yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter, for a 35-12 cushion. Marini wasn’t finished and took over as quarterback and went 24 yards for the final TD to make the final score 42-12. Arnott passed for 90 yards going 4 for 8. He hit Marini for a 46 yard touchdown and Nick Dunn for a 16 yard score and ran for a six yard TD himself. SC finished with 326 yards gained to the Warriors 244.

Wildcats Romp Over Cards 41-0. Watsonville rolled up 244 yards and a 35-0 lead in the first half of the Cards homecoming game. The Cards turned the ball over eight times. SC received courageous efforts from Marini, Justin Hansen and Nick Dunn as it did what it could with its 26 man squad. Marini, facing double coverage, had three receptions for 39 yards and a 57 yard kick off return. Hansen rushed for 76 yards in 20 carries and Dunn had 29 yards in six carries. All three played both ways virtually the entire game.

SLV Buries SC 37-0. SLV is 4-0 in league and 6-2 for the season. Aside from the final plays of each half, SC never moved beyond the SLV 44. Marini was used as a wingback extensively in an effort to get him more involved in the running game. But he was able to impose himself on the game only on the final plays of each half. After intercepting a pass at the Card 17 yard line on the final play of the half, he zig-zagged 62 yards until tackled at the SLV 21. On the final play of the game, he caught a 57 yard pass from Arnott and was tackled on the SLV 30. Marini accounted for 102 of SC’s 130 yards from scrimmage, 32 rushing and 70 receiving. He also played well in the Cards secondary.

Last Laugh Goes To Surging Pirates who defeated SC 14-0 to up their league record to 4-1. There were no whipping boys on the muddy quagmire of Harbors field. It was a sloppy battle that came down to turnovers and penalties, both of which plagued the Cards. SC was whistled for four personal fouls, including a clipping call that nullified a 79 touchdown run by Gino Marini near the end of the first half. SC fumbled the ball seven times and lost two of them to the Bucs. John Dawson led the Card ground game with 52 yards in 12 carries. George Arnott was 2 for 6 passing for 41 yards with two interceptions.

Soquel Beat Cards 25-7 In Finale. Gino Marini, the six foot standout wide receiver scored the Cards sole touchdown with three minutes and eight second left in the game. Marini finished the year as the SCCAL leader with 671 receiving yards for and average of 20.3 yards per catch and ten touchdowns. Marini said, “this was the biggest game of my life and it’s over. I would give away all my stats for a winning season like last year.”

Sentinel final SCCAL stats. For rushing listed by place in the order, name, number of carries, yards gained, average per carry and touchdowns.
Individual rushing
OR NAME CA YD AV TD
2 Hansen 111 671 6.0 2
19 Dunn 48 310 6.5 0
20 Dawson 51 259 5.1 0
23 Marini 25 200 8.0 3

Individual receiving
2 Marini 33 670 20.3 7
15 Dawson 9 59 6.6 0
George Arnott was second in passing. He attempted 129 passes and completed 54 for .419 percent. His total yards passing were 902 for an average of 6.9 and 10 TD’s. He had 7 interceptions.

Individual scoring by place, name, touchdowns, extra points and total points.
OR NAME TD EX TP
4 Marini 12 1 75
16 Arnott 5 0 30
19 Dunn 3 9 29
Marini and Dunn each scored a two point conversion

On team offense SC was fourth with 163 plays run, rushes gained 1524, passes gained 935, total yards gained 2459 and average per play 245.9.

On defense SC was last. Plays against 226, rushing yards given up 1973, passing 747 total yards 2720 for an average of 272.0.

Sentinel All County team: Offense: Gino Marini, 6-0, 170, senior wide receiver;
Defense: Nick Dunn, 5-10, 215, senior defensive end; Justin Hansen, 5-9, 200, senior, linebacker. Honorable mention: George Arnott, quarterback and Rob Truhitte, offensive lineman.

The SCCAL ALL LEAGUE team selected by the coaches included one Cardinal on the offensive first team: wide receiver Gino Marini a 6-0, 170 pound, senor. On the defensive first team where Nick Dunn a defensive end at 5-10, 215 pound, senior and Justin Hansen a line backer at 5-9, 200 pound senior. Honorable mention were quarterback George Arnott and offensive lineman Rob Truhitte.

JV FOOTBALL Yearbook. Record 7-3.
JV’s Show Teamwork And Dedication In Winning Season. The strong team was led by Jason Cardoza and the Edmonds twins Sule and Kenyatte, Jeff Truhitte and Travis Roland. Jason Cardoza was the teams leading rusher with 1100 yards gained.

Other team members: Jeff Whiting, Shane Turley, Jesus Quintanilla, Adrian Morales, Robert Ofrancia, Tyler Masamori, Tristan Kass, Loren Rush, Mike Rible, Mike Carillo, Pierre Andr’e-Munger, Robert Ames, Nick Robinson, Brandon Williams, Timothy Jackson, Clay Tol, Matt Anderson, Billy Logan and John Peterson.
Coaches John Hopping, Randy Quilici and Brian Criswell.

FRESHMAN FOOTBALL
Yearbook. Football Rookies Give It Their All
Freshman football was a success this season. Not only was there a big squad, the players were dedicated and determined, but they also had fun. Football is a challenging sport and for the freshmen who came out, they showed what it takes to have a winning season.

Team members: Sam Marticius, George Urban, Daniel Cortez, Chris George, Gary Gilholm, Cody Muhl, Apollo Terry, Eric Hansman, John Howell, Robert Alvarez, Shown Rich, Marcus Olivas, Matt Windt, Jacob Husky, Damon Favor, David Anderson, Rob Lawton, Jeff Satterly, Ryan Dean, Ryan Villanueva, Tim Miller, Nigel Miller, Clifford Hodges, Boris Quintanilla and Danny Dufau. Coaches Vic Dopee, Bill, Jesus Cortez and Bill Digrace

CROSS COUNTRY BOYS
Yearbook. New head coach Mari Lang had to deal with devastating injuries, which at times did not allow the boys team to have the five runners necessary to form a full team to race.
With David Kessler and Josh Small placing on the All SCCAL team the boys crawled out of last place, by beating SLV.
Other team members: Ethan Fitzhenry, Tawn Kennedy and Michael Ross

October 30. The 11 team Pacific Grove Invitational meet had an unique format, but it was suitable for several SC runners. Separate races were held for each position in the running lineup. Number one runners for each team ran against one another. That means each running group had 11 runners. “That’s the first time I’d seen that,: said Coach Lang. Junior David Kessler took third in the number one runners race, covering the 2.5 miles in 13:07. Senior Josh Small took a spill while leading the number two runners race, but recovered to take second place in 13:19. “It knocked about ten seconds from his time and the guy who won beat Josh by ten seconds,” Lang said.

Trident. Nov. 22. David Kessler took third place at the SCCAL finals, which qualified him for the CCS finals at Crystal Springs course in Belmont. He placed thirteenth in CCS and was designated an alternate for the State meet in Fresno on Thanksgiving weekend.

CROSS COUNTRY GIRLS
League dual meets: Soquel 25-31, SLV 15- incomplete, Harbor loss, Watsonville won, Monte Vista won, Aptos loss. League dual meet record: 4-2.
At the SCCAL meet SC beat out defending champion Aptos to take second place in league meet, while Soquel won the title. The team placed tenth at the CCS finals.

Yearbook. Heidi Brockman (SC student body president and graduate of West Point Military Academy) recalls, “I think we came together really well. There was always another team member cheering you on s you were running, which really helped you out a lot when you knew you still had two miles to go.”

Leading the ladies were Ellen Scherrill and Elizabeth Conerly.
Other team members: Francis Perez, Bridgette Connerly, Jenny Daly, Heidi Brockman, Sarah Hardin, Robin Garron, Melissa Connerly, Janeen Aldirch, Jennifer Croghan and Renee Ivison.

Sentinel. October 23. Cardinals’ Sherrill First In First Race. Runner Ellen Sherrill, a sophomore soccer player competing in her first high school race burst out ahead of the field in her teams dual meet with Soquel. Sherrill kept up her early lead, too, and ran away to victory as SC won 25-31 in their SCCAL opener. “She sprinted about 400 yards in front of everybody and I said, “Who is that person out there,” SC coach Mari Lang. When she came off the hill, she was way ahead of everyone. I just told her to keep it up. Sherrill hit the tape in the 2.5 mile race in 17:15. The Cards also captured places 4-6, which helped lock up the win.

October 30. The 11 team Pacific Grove Invitational meet had an unique format, but it was suitable for several SC runners. Separate races were held for each position in the running lineup. Number one runners for each team ran against one another. That means each running group had 11 runners. “That’s the first time I’d seen that,“ said Coach Lang. Sophomore Bridgette Connerly placed second in the third runners race in 17:43., while her older sister, senior Melissa Connerly was second in the fourth runners race in 18:08. Jenny Daly’s 22:26 was good for fifth place in the fifth runners race.

Trident. Nov. 22.
The season began by beating Soquel there.
At SLV, the team overcame an intensely challenging course, finishing with a straight 1-5 sweep.
Next came Harbor at De Laveaga Park. The team was not up to par, because of injuries and illnesses. Due to treacherous and dangerous terrain comprising most of the course, many runners fell and/or were injured. The win went to Harbor.
SC rerouted their course at UCSC due to construction to take on Watsonville and Monte Vista. All victories for the day went to SC.
Aptos took the top three spots, automatically earning the win. SC never gave up and took the next six places and then twelfth through fourteenth.
Every Saturday was an invitational. At RLS’s Pebble Beach course, both Brigette and Melissa Connerly finished in the top ten with Francis Perez trailing directly behind.
At Half Moon Bay, Jenny Croghan and Bridgette ran together, trailed by Melissa Francis Perez and Jenny Daly.
At Crystal Springs near Belmont at the prestigious Serra Invitational, the Cards were given bad starting positions among over 200 runners. The girls had to push hard from the beginning in order to avoid being caught in the pack. (no mention of order of finish)
In the last Invitational of the season at Pacific Grove, there was an unusual format of putting each teams top runner in the same group race, to the second best runner and on the way down. Jenny Daly placed fifth in her race and both Bridgette and Melissa placed second in their group.

At the league finals at Mt. Madonna Park, the weather was chilling making the 3.1 mile course harder than ever. The JV girls seized the league title with strong performances by Francis Perez, Sarah Hardin and Jenny Daly. Three out of the top varsity girls ran into bad luck, which ended up costing them the league title. The team pulled together well, taking second place one point ahead of Aptos, but losing to Soquel. “It was frustrating knowing we could have won if everyone had shown up. As it was, there was no way we could win five against seven,” commented a runner.

At the CCS held in Belmont, the team was represented by Ellen Sherrill, Brigette and Melissa Connerly, Jannen Aldrich and Heidi Brockman came in tenth. Jenny Croghan and Abby Haney, who had qualified to run individually were not able to participate due to injuries.

Coach Mari Lang, a former SC outstanding athlete, coached the team to perfection. “I think we all came together as a team really well. There were always other team members cheering you on as you ran, which helped you out, when you knew you still had two miles yet to run,” said sophomore Heidi Brockmann. The team will remember the winning season and especially those eight mile jogs.

GIRLS TENNIS LEAGUE CO-CHAMPIONS WITH APTOS. Record 9-1 in league.

Yearbook. SCHS Girl’s Tennis Aces Season. Megan Fleming Repeats As SCCAL Singles Champion.

Leading the team to another championship were two time defending league champion Megan Fleming, seniors Gloria Padilla, Andra Tom and new comer Geneva Smith. Plus junior Sarah Hoffman, who is expected to wreak havoc next year. Other team members: Jamie Thompson, Meghan Dixson, Greta Hansen, Allison Johnson, Catherine Dunn, Alison Marshall, Cathy Scargill, Sara Walsh and Belinda Colmenarez. Coach Scott Buss.

Sentinel. September 23. SC 7, Soquel 0. In their league opener, SC considered among the favorites to win the SCCAL title, left no doubt by shutting out Soquel. Defending league singles champion Megan Fleming raced to a 6-0, 6-1 victory. At number two, Andra Tom won 6-0, 6-0. The closest match was at number three doubles were Catherine Dunn and Meghan Dixon won 6-4, 6-4.

September 28. SC 5, Watsonville 2. SC swept all four singles, not dropping more than four games in any match, improving to 2-0 in league. Number one singles, Megan Fleming won 6-1, 6-1 and Andra Tom, Gloria Padilla and Greta Hansen each followed suit. Watsonville won the number two and three doubles matches.

May 8. Card’s Fleming Gets Tennis Scholarship. Santa Cruz High tennis standout Megan Fleming, the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League singles champion the past two seasons, has accepted a scholarship to play at Westmont College next season. Fleming compiled a 41-4 career record during the SCCAL regular season. Aside from league championships and unbeaten league seasons in 1995 and 1994, the Cardinal star reached the 1993 SCCAL finals against winner Gry Frid-Nielsen of Harbor and was 9-1 her freshman year playing No. 4 singles. Westmont is giving Fleming a $4,500 academic scholarship and a $3,000 athletic grant for each of her four college seasons. The NAIA school is located in Santa Barbara and is a national powerhouse among small colleges. Coach Kathy Lesage had directed her program to divisional NAIA titles in nine of the past 12 years. The team was ranked 10th among NAIA schools this spring. “I visited there two weeks ago and liked the campus a lot,” Fleming said. “It’s a strong team and I liked the players.” Fleming, who has a 3.95 grade-point average in her Santa Cru career, chose Westmont over the University of Portland and a number of NCAA division I schools. She plans to major in elementary education. Fleming plans to play Northern California Tennis Association age-group tournaments to prepare for her college career. She has been coached by Michael Velasco of La Madrona Swim and Racquet Club and Scott Buss of the Santa Cruz High program.

BOYS WATER POLO Played also played powerhouse teams Los Gatos, St. Francis Mt. View, Gunn and league rival Harbor for losses. Monterey Bay Tourney St. Francis of Mt. View 2-14, Fresno 4-11. Aptos Tourney: Reno 8-9. The team placed third at the Watsonville Invitational and sixth at the Southside Tournament in San Jose. League meet: Watsonville 21-12.
League record last place

Despite Record, Team Shows Dedication and Sacrifice
Yearbook. This years team was led by senior co-captains Chris Reefe and Sean Clew. Reefe, the goalie, was selected to the first team All SCCAL and Clew to the second team All SCCAL. Junior Andy Stumpf made the second team All SCCAL. Honorable mentions were seniors Matt Bonnel and Paul Kele.

Senior Jamil Haje (a girl) was voted by the team as Most Inspirational by the team. Another senior Adam Lathers was always there in clutch situations. Top juniors were Seth Gargano and Nilo Alvarado. Other team members, Boys: Sean Echols, Casey Nichols, Alan Willis, Anthony Torchio, Joel Silver, Jesse Callahan, Cary Webber, Nate Kent and Bobby Hansen.
Girls: Ali Chapin, Liz Schiffrin, Shelley Gill, Corey Miller, Laura Strickland, Heather Tyler, Taryn Nagy and Maria Willis. Coaches: head Cary Smith, assistant Ramey White.

Trident. The team placed third at the Watsonville Invitational and sixth at the Southside Tournament in San Jose. They also played powerhouse teams Los Gatos, St. Francis Mt. View, Gunn and league rival Harbor. Coach Cary Smith said, “This years team was a young team that had a lot of heart and dedication. I’m really honored to have coached a great team that always stayed together as a team.”

Sentinel preseason write up on September 13. Coach Cary Smith, second season. 1994 record: 1-7 tied for fourth. Key players: Chris Reefe, senior goalie and Sean Clew senior, field. Weakness: Lack of speed. Outlook: We’re improved after playing US water polo in the summer. We have a strong junior group. The key to our season is playing tough, mental water polo. We’re not the fastest or the strongest, be we’ve got a game plan going. We’re executing things that we haven’t done in years.

Sentinel. At the Monterey Bay tournament at Hartnell College in Salinas, the inexperience Cards all saw playing time in two tournament losses. SC lost to St. Francis 14-2 and Fresno 11-4. Junior Seth Gargano had three of the four goals in the Fresno game, which was 6-4 going into the fourth quarter.

Sentinel October 8. At the Jeremy Smith Memorial tournament, hosted by Aptos and played at Cabrillo College, SC lost to Reno 9-8 after being ahead 8-7 in the third quarter. Reno was one of the favorites in the tourney. The loss drops SC to 5-9 overall. Andy Stumpf and Seth Gargano each scored two goals.

October 14. Cards Break Through. SC came together as a group and it showed it on the scoreboard, with a 21-12 win over Watsonville. “Finally, a good one for us,” said coach Cary Smith, whose team had not won a SCCAL regular season game since the 1992 season. Watsonville was down only 12-7 after three quarters, but was outscored 9-5 in the fourth. Andy Stumpf scored a season high seven goals, while Seth Gargano with four and Paul Kele added three. SC goalie Chris Reefe fighting bronchitis, made 20 saves and scored from cage to cage for the twenty-first goal.

Trident. Oct. 24. With only one win last season, the team is back with determination to win. Coach Cary Smith in his second year explains, “Proliferation of water polo can best be exhibited by extensive training in water polo programs and youth development at the junior high level is the key to successful high school programs, Water polo is one of the most physically demanding sport in high schools, It is a sport in a different environment, which makes daily adaptation a key element in practice.” Key returning senior players include Sean Crew, Paul Kele and goalie Chris Reefe, plus juniors Seth Gargano, Nilo Alvarado and Andy Stumpf. Jamil Haje, the only female senior on the team, ”I think our team would be great if we could just pull together. We need to work more on scoring, than beating up on the other team.”
“Through summer development, the team has improved in every aspect of the game,” said coach Smith.

Sentinel Nov. 13. Harbor wins twelve water polo title in a row in beating Soquel 14-7 in the SCCAL championship game.

Sentinel. Dec. 3. Senior, goalie Chris Reefe was named the CO- MOST VALUABLE GOALIE of the SCCAL and also ALL SCCAL first team player, by the league coaches. On the second team were Shawn Clew and Andy Stumpf. Honorable mention were Paul Kelly and Matt Bonell.
Reefe, the quarterback of the SC defense, stood out on a Cardinal team that finished last in league. He scored three goals from his cage position. SC coach Cary Smith, “We had a young team. With the returning players we had, Reefe kept us in the game a lot. He made some games closer then they otherwise would have been,”

JV WATER POLO
Trident. Oct 24. With only five returning sophomores along with additional freshmen and new sophomores, who are looking to learn the sport, experience and skill is scarce. The returning players are Steve Kele and Casey Nichols and three girls Corey Miller, Shelley Gill and Liz Schiffrin. Corey Miller spoke about the challenges of playing co-ed water polo. “Sometimes it is hard to play co-ed water polo, because girls physical strength in not equal to boys, yet we’re still playing at their level.” Coach Ramey White in his first year coaching is looking at the season with a positive attitude.

GIRLS SWIMMING AND DIVING
League: Soquel 102-84, record second in league.
At the SCCAL meet, SC took second

Yearbook. Led by seniors Amy Belcher, Kim Strickland, Vaidehi Campbell and Jessica Abood placed second in league behind Aptos. Top juniors were Kim Reimann and Taryn Nagy and sophomores Corey Miller and Jennifer Cummings.

Putting in two hard hours of swimming every day, including morning workouts at 5:30 on some days, helped the Cardinals qualify for CCS in the 200 and 400 yard freestyle relays. The relay teams consisted of Kim Reimann, Jennifer Cummings, Corey Miller and Taryn Nagy. Qualifying individually for CCS was Kim Reimann, who swam in the 200 yard freestyle and the 100 yard backstroke. At CCS she placed tenth in the 200 freestyle in 1:58.78 and eleventh in the 100 backstroke in 1:01.64.

The diving team was also strong with senior Tatiana Lang, junior Maria Willis and freshman standouts Laura Beach and Cathy Shumate.

Other varsity team members: Shelly Gill, Lacey Ivison, Allie George, Brooke DeWorken, Ali Chapin, Jessica Abood, Shera Grellmann, Heather Tyler, Laura Strickland, Anne LeBear, Moriah Chandler, Vaidehi Campbell, Kim Strickland, Amy Belcher, Shana Barton and Elizabeth Schiffrin.
Diving coach Rob Holmberg, head coach Traci Kreppel and assistant Carol Kreppel.

October 28. SC 102, Soquel 84. A trio of double winners powered SC to the win. Corey Miller won the 200 free in 2:13.54 and the 100 free in 1:00.95. Kim Reimann was first in the 200 individual medley in 2:20.42 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:17.4. Taryn Nagy won the 100 butterfly in 1:13.05 and the 100 backstroke in 1:10.17. Laura Beach added a win in diving with 204.70 points. Cara Shumate took fourth place with 199.00 points. Soquel won only one event.

Trident. Oct. 24. Mother – Daughter Team Takes On Girls Swimming. It is a year of change as long time head coach Carol Kreppel is switching places with her daughter Tracy. Tracy speaks of her mother, “She is better at teaching the basics, I’m not that patient.” They make a dynamic duo. This year there is no PE credit for being on the team, therefore many would be swimmers did not come out and some who did are not attending practice regularly. Tracy says they are “flaking out.”
In their first practice meet with St. Ignatius, junior Kim Reimann qualified for CCS in two different events: 200 yard freestyle and 100 yard backstroke. Top girls returning in additions to Reimann are junior Taryn Nagy and sophomores Corey Miller, Shelley Gill, Liz Schiffrin and Jennifer Cummings.

Trident. Dec. 14. Eat Our Wake! Girls Swimming Wraps Up At CCS. The team had a triumphant season. At the SCCAL finals held at Cabrillo College, SC took second place. Many Cards placed. The 200 medley relay team of Liz Schiffrin, Ali Chapin, Heather Tyler and Jessica Abood place third.
Kim Reimann took second in the 200 free with a time of 2:00.18 to qualify for CCS. She placed second in the 100 backstroke in 1:03.31 to also qualify for CCS.
Taryn Nagy placed fifth in the 200 individual medley and sixth in the 100 free
Shelley Gill placed fifth in the 500 free
ennifer Cummings placed fourth in the 50 free
Corey Miller and Liz Schiffrin placed fourth and sixth in the 100 backstroke. Corey barely missing the CCS qualifying time of 1:08.46 with a 1:09.82. Corey also placed fifth in the 100 free, just barely missing the CCS time. “I was pretty bummed about not making CCS in the 100 free, but I took it as a goal to strive for over the next two years.”
Heather Tyler and Allie George place fourth and fifth in the 100 fly
The 200 free and 400 free relay teams, both were made up of Taryn Nagy, Jennifer Cummings, Corey Miller and Kim Reimann, placed second in 1:51.26 in the 200 and 4:03.47 in the 400, both times qualifying for CCS.

Those qualifying will travel to the Santa Clara Swim Club for the CCS Championships. Kim Reimann was the first to swim in the 200 free. Her goal was to break 2:00.00. Kim not only did, but with a 1:58.76, almost breaking the school record of 1:58.18. Kim’s time put her into the consolations the next day.
Next was the 200 free relay, which was disqualified for a false start.
In the 400 free relay with a chance to redeem themselves, they did by breaking their best time of 4:03.47 with a 4:01.53, which qualified them for the finals the following day. (no results shown)
Kim Reimann in the 200 free, she failed to better her time, but in the 100 backstroke, Kim found a personal victory. She broke her best time the previous day of 1:02.56 with a 1:01.64, a personal best and a new school record. Kim victoriously remarked, ”They were both goals I had been striving for and my taper really paid off.”

Sentinel stats for girls swimming on December 2.listed by place in rankings, name and best time.
Kim Reimann placed in five individual events and three relay events for a total of eight events all together.
200 freestyle: 1. Reimann, 1:58.84
100 freestyle: 2. Reimann, 56.29
100 backstroke: 2. Reimann, 1:01.67
200 individual medley: 3. Reimann, 2:20.42
100 breaststroke: 4. Reimann, 1:17.40
200 freestyle relay: 2. SC team of Miller, Nagy, Reimann, Cummings, 1:51.26
200 medley relay: 2. SC team of Miller, Nagy, Reimann, Cummings 2:08.48
400 freestyle relay: 2. SC team of Cummings, Nagy, Miller and Reimann 4:03.47
Diving: 3. Beach, 5. Shumate

JV GIRLS SWIMMING
Team members: Tricia Hall, Corey Fitzpatrick, Soji Howe, Melissa Garrett, Connie Cotlein, Kristin Young, Katie Semas, Brenda Kerr, Katie Burke, Rebecca Abraham, Kira Duckett, Kelly Dumont, Jamaica Haveman, Elrin Bareis, Ashley Curtis Adams, Molly Miller, Genevra Migliore, Shaney Matyas, Nicole Shepard and Summer Vanslager.

GIRLS VOLLEYBALL
Santa Cruz captured the championship of its own Invitational tournament, beating Half Moon 2-1 in the finals and beat Monterey, Carmel, Seaside and Monte Vista along the way to the title match.
League matches: Monte Vista 3-0, SLV 3-0 On Oct 25, SC was 4-2. (Only matches found)
The team qualified for the CCS Division III playoffs and beat King City 3-0 in first round.

Yearbook. Girls Volleyball Unites Together To Have Great Season despite a difficult schedule and the loss of 6’1” star middle blocker, Alaina Kipps, who was studying in Spain. Harbor and Aptos were both ranked in the top 25 teams in the state. The team stuck together with positive teamwork. Senior leader Niki Sudduth stated, “What we lacked in height, we made up in intensity and hustle.” Other senior leaders were Joanne Hutson, Trisha Lee and Stephanie Sauer. Top juniors were Kelly Kaiser, Allicia Beach and Katie David.

Sentinel. September 18. Santa Cruz captured the championship of its own Invitational tournament, beating Half Moon Bay in the finals 14-16, 15-7, 15-7. SC 6-5 beat Monterey, Carmel, Seaside and Monte Vista along the way to the title match. The Cards only loss was in pool play to Gonzales.

October 14. Cardinals Sweep Past Mustangs. Monte Vista hung tough with SC for two of the three games, but ended up losing to the Cards 15-13, 15-0, 15-12. SC is 3-2 in league and 20-7 overall. Leading SC was Kelly Kaiser, who had 26 digs and two solo blocks. Setter Nikki Sudduth had eight kills, 53 assists and two service aces.

Oct. 24. Volleyball Players Secure In Their Confidence. There are four retuning seniors: Joanne Huston, Niki Sudduth, Trish Lee and Stephanie Sauer. The seven returning juniors are Miriam Abrams, Katie McGraw, Alicia Beach, Ann Hamilton, Kelly Kaiser, Katie David and Natalie Gibbons.
Also freshman Cori Tom has been moved up to varsity. “One of our biggest problems is our height, but with Pliametrics, a jumping drill, put together, by coach Gabby Houston, we should be very powerful and have enough leg strength to get up and pound the ball over the net,” said Kelly Kaiser.
Six foot senior Alaina Kipps, who was first team All League last year is in Spain studying, which means the team will need those springs in their legs. The Cards started off with a win over Carmel.

October 25. SC cruised to a 15-13, 15-2, 15-4 league win against SLV. Katie David had nine kills and Kelly Kaiser had 22 digs and three solo blocks. SC moved to 4-2 in league.

Trident November 10. SC Sweeps In Playoff Opener. SC advances to the second round of CCS Division III play with a 15-9, 15-13, 15-13 win over King City. The fifth seeded Cards will play the fourth seeded Los Altos next. “King City gave us a good match and we had to sweat it out. They were tougher than we thought they’d be. They didn’t do too much offensively, but they kept the ball in play. We had a lot of serving errors and that didn’t help,” Coach Gabby Houston. Kelly Kaiser had 12 block assists and 12 digs. Nikki Sudduth had 50 assists and ten digs. Joann Hutson had five kills. “We’re looking forward to playing Los Altos. We’re hoping to give them a match, for sure, which would get us to the semifinals,” Houston.

December 9. Sentinel ALL COUNTY second team included senior, setter, Joanne Hutson and junior, middle hitter, Kelly Kaiser. Huston is a dual threat for the Cardinals, this senior was not only the teams best setter, but also the teams best outside hitter. Kaiser, one of the few elite players in the league, who doesn’t play volleyball year round. This junior used her athleticism to become a strong player in the middle of the SC defense.

JV GIRLS VOLLEYBALL
Roster. Magan Eastman, Sarah Paul, Isa Reeser, Laura Logan, Amy Reidt, Kriya Bahn, Lily Abood, Gabby Chirinos, Katie Hintz, Amelia Coulter, Anita Fearnley, Jacquie Ramos, Katie Brigante, Harmony Hooper and Elena Russel-Nava.

BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL LEAGUE CO-CHAMPIONS.
League record 8-4 second in league round robin, but defeated Harbor twice in league playoff, to share the crown. Overall record 19-12.
Practice games: Dads Club: Paso Robles loss, Lynbrook 53-51,
League: Soquel 55-46, loss; Monte Vista 69-65. 95-64; Aptos 70-63, won; Watsonville two wins; Harbor 63-66, loss; SLV loss, won. League record 8-4 for second place in the round robin schedule. In the SCCAL playoffs: Aptos 76-67 in semifinals beat Harbor and the next night beat Harbor again 66-63 to earn the Co-Championship of the league.
CCS playoffs: Aragon won. Gunderson 32-63 in quarterfinals.

League standings from Sentinel by school, league record and overall record.
SCH LE OV
Harbor 12-0 23-6
SC 8-4 19-12
Aptos 7-5 16-13
SLV 7-5 17-14
Soquel 5-7 12-17
MVC 3-9 8-19
Watsonville 0-12 5-21

Yearbook. SCHS Basketball Slams The SCCAL. Pete Newell Leads Young Team To Top Of SCCAL The team consists of only two seniors Sam Payne and Jake Seigle, seven juniors and six sophomore sensations. The Cards started off slow, but turned it around with a victory against an undefeated Aptos team. Sophomore point guard Nick Theodosis and juniors Kam Watson and Jason Brooks were all ranked in the top ten in league scoring. Watson averaged double figures in scoring and rebounding every game. Brooks was a monster on the boards. Guard Sam Payne lit up three points consistently. Other team members: Jermaine Hunter, Jimmy Jones, Jesse Hunter, Jimmy Cahill, Jeff Block, Katel Chirinos, Nick Thompson, Tao Enna, Anthony Torchio and Mike Harbison.

Sentinel pre-season write up. Coach Pete Newell twentieth season. Last seasons record: 21-10 overall and 10-2 in league for the SCCAL title. Key seniors: Marcus Williams, 5-11, forward and Sam Payne, 6-1, guard. Juniors: Kam Watson 6-4, forward and Jason Brooks, 6-6, center. Sophomore, Nick Theodosis, 5-10, guard.
Scouting report. No matter how the roster looks at the beginning of the season, the dean of local prep coaches, puts together a team that is almost guaranteed to contend for the SCCAL title. Newell will do what he usually does, let the players gain experience by playing everybody early in December, while aiming to get at full force by the start of league play. Last season the Cards were 8-7 in preseason, but went 10-2 to win the SCCAL.
“Last years group, at any moment could cure any coaching mistake,” said Newell. But the current crop has less pure instinct and athletic ability. SC is young with three seniors, seven juniors and six sophomores, with only five returning lettermen. Watson, Brooks and Theodosis are the surest starters, while Payne and Williams will be fending off challenges for a while. Newell promises that wing Tayo Enna, off guard Mike Harbison, point guard Jake Siegle, forward Jermaine Hunter and center Jesse Hunter at 6-7, 242 won’t be sitting in their warm-ups long. SC will spread the scoring responsibilities around, since rebounding seems to be the main focus in the preseason.
Coaches outlook: “We have a difficult December schedule. The most important thing for us is to go into league with confidence. Our objective is to get better ever game, as it is every year. We want to be able to compete by the time we get to league. Our up tempo style will be the same. We may not get it up the floor as quickly, but we’ll pressure the ball and push it up court on offense, taking what’s there. If we don’t get layups, then we’ll drop into a disciplined half court offense. Our inside game needs work. The big question is our rebounding.”

Sentinel. December 10. Santa Cruz Hants On This Time. Cardinals Avoid Second Last Second Dads Loss. After a heart breaking loss to Paso Robles in the first round, The Cards came back to take a 53-51 victory over Lynbrook in the consolation semifinals. “We’re a young team and games are an adventure now. There are critical lessons you learn in close games and tonight we took advantage and showed we learned our lessons well,” Newell said. SC 3-4 squandered a second half lead against Paso Robles, ultimately leading to a last second defeat in the first round. SC led Lynbrook 52-44 with 2:21 left when things got interesting. With 1:26 reaming Lynbrook had closed the deficit to three points. SC’s Jeff Block hit one of two free throws with 46 second left. Lynbrook scored again to make the margin only two points. All SC had to do was hold the ball, but a Card shot and missed with five seconds left, but Lynbrook could only get a heave at the basket, which missed. Kam Watson led the Card scoring with 19 points and Nick Theodosis added 11.

January 7. Cards Turn Up Heat, Top Soquel 55-46. Scoring only 17 points in the first half, SC was spinning its wheels, but putting out lots of effort with little production. It was time to get a grip and relax on offense and keep up the intensity on defense. “We were out of rhythm in the first half, but we had to keep playing. We came out the second half and felt more like ourselves,” said Kam Watson. SC had a 25 point third quarter.
“We just had to find our touch and pick it up on D,” said Watson, who scored ten of his game high 24 points in the third quarter, also finished up with 13 rebounds in the league opener for SC, which has a 9-7 overall record. The third quarter turned a 20-17 Soquel lead into a 42-33 SC advantage. That was the offensive part Coach Newell wanted to see. In the fourth quarter, SC provided the defense Newell wanted, holding Soquel to one field goal until the last minute with SC leading 55-37. Then the reserves took over. In the third period, SC changed up defensively, using a zone for a stretch and outscored Soquel in a 12-4 run.

January 21. Cardinal Twosome Tames Mustangs 69-65. Monte Vista was not able to contain Kam Watson and Jason Brooks on the boards. SC led 24-14 at the end of the first quarter.
Monte Vista got within one point, 59-58 late in the game. Watson led the Cards with 24 points and had 11 of the Cards 18 points in the fourth quarter. Brooks scored 17. (Practically all the write up was about Monte Vista.

SC Hit Freebies, Tops Aptos 70-63. SC showed how much they’ve grown, by converting 10 of 13 free throws in the fourth quarter. The top shooter of these free throws was sophomore point guard, Nick Theodosis, who was 6 for 6 in the final three minutes. Coach Newell, “I think we are coming together at the right time. It seems each game we play better for longer stretches.”
SC 15-11, whose most used lineup combinations surround senior guard Sam Payne, with players from a pool of three juniors and four sophomores, pulled into a tie for second place in the SCCAL with Aptos, both at 7-4. “We really defensed the 3 as Aptos hit only three in the game. And it means Sam Payne is playing both ends of the court.” Payne lit a fire under the Cards early in the second quarter with three straight 3 pointers of his own, which took SC from a 13-10 lead to 24-14.
Although Aptos was down 34-20 at half time, they continued their style of second half comebacks scraping back to 61-57 with 2:57 left to play. During this time, SC lost its inside strength, when Watson and Brooks got into foul trouble. They both came back in and Watson hit a field goal before fouling out and Brooks hit a baseline shot to make the score 65-58 with 1:45 left. Aptos scored, both teams had turnovers an then Aptos had to take fouls. Theodosis hit 4 for 4 from the line in the final 15 seconds for a team high 18 points.

February 14. SC 95, Monte Vista 64. The Cards were running and gunning and there weren’t enough Mustangs to get in the way. SC, 16-11 overall, finished the SCCAL round robin season alone in second place with a 9-4 mark. Point guard Nick Theodosis hit three 3 pointers and led SC with 20 points. Kim Watson added 16, Jermaine Hunter and Sam Payne each had 15 and Jason Brooks had 12. SC poured in 26 points in the first quarter, 27 in the second and 30 in the third, before letting up with 12 in the fourth.

February 18. Down Goes Harbor 66-63. Santa Cruz Now Shares League Title.
What the victory means is SC 18-11 and Harbor 22-5 share the league title, since Harbor won the regular season round robin with a 12-0 record, beating SC twice along the way. It may improve the Cards seeding in next weeks CCS tournament. Newell predicted Harbor will be seeded number four in Division III.
Harbor missed two front ends of 1and 1 free throws in the final 57 seconds. “It all happened so fast,” Harbor’s top player said of the Pirates appearing to take control 63-60 on back to back baskets with 2:49 to play. Harbor didn’t score the rest of the game as their last five possession ended in a turnover, missed jumper, two missed free throws and a desperation 40 footer at the buzzer.
In the meantime, Theodosis and company took advantage. Watson made two free throws with 1:57 left to pull within 63-62, when the game clock broke, causing a three minute delay. Harbor missed, then went into a zone, forcing a turnover and pulled the ball out. SC fouled with 57 seconds left. The free throw was missed. Tayo Enna, a sophomore, scored his only basket of the game on a runner down the lane with 17 seconds to play for a 64-63 lead. Harbor called time out with ten seconds left, to set up a play. SC fouled, Harbor missed and Jason Brooks rebounded and was fouled and hit both fouls shots for the final of 66-63.
“This is really special,” Theodosis said. “I’ve watched other guys and they don’t get to start as a sophomore and win a championship.” Half a championship. After the game, everyone was talking about Theodosis. “He is going to be one of the greatest point guards in Santa Cruz county history,” said a Harbor player after Theodosis ignited he Cards fourth quarter surge. “He made some of the most unbelievable plays I’ve ever seen.” Flying up the floor with the ball, contorting his body in mid-air driving to the hoop the 5-10 Theodosis exploded through the Harbor defense for 21 points, as the Cards earned a co-championship with Harbor.
“He was fantabulous,” Kam Watson said of Theodosis, after the Cards were mobbed by their fans on the floor in a wild celebration. Apparently there aren’t enough words in the dictionary to describe what Theodosis means to the Cards. At the end of the first quarter it was Harbor 18-14, at half 34-32, end of third 50-46. SC scoring: Theodosis 21, Payne 10, Jones 4, Harbison 0, Jesse Hunter 0, Watson 10, Enna 2, Jermaine Hunter 1, Chirinos 4 and Brooks 14.

February 21. Athlete of the Week was Nick Theodosis, a sophomore guard was a big force in helping SC win two games, including a huge upset of Harbor in the championship game of the SCCAL post season tournament. The win over Harbor at 12-0 in the round robin league games gave SC a share of the league title. Theodosis opened the tournament with a 26 point, six assists performance against Aptos in a 76-67 victory. He then burned Harbor for 21 points in the tournament finale. He slashed through the Pirate defense with bold charges to the basket. “He’s just a point scoring playmaker. He may have shown he’s the best guard in the league because of those performances,’ said coach Newell.

SC won the first round CCS playoff game against Aragon

Sentinel. February 26. In the quarterfinals of CCS Division III Gunderson defeated SC 63-32.
Gunderson’s record is 21-3

Trident. March 7. Review of the league season. It was supposed to be a rebuilding year for SC. There were only two seniors, Sam Payne and Jake Seigle and seven juniors and six sophomores. The team went 19-12 and went to the quarterfinals in CCS.
Payne seemed to be the leader of the team and was bombing threes throughout the season.
Kam Watson was the star junior on the team. He had double-double averages per game, 10 points and 10 rebounds.
J unior Jason Brooks’ tenacious rebounding and killer offensive post up move on the block were very effective.
Sophomores Keitel Chirinos and Jermaine Hunter shared the small forward position. They showed maturity and hustle, not to mention quality defense.
Bench support came from juniors Jimmy Jones and Jessie Hunter, while sophomore Teyo Enna led all non starters in points scored for the season. Jimmy Cahill played the role of the designated 3 point bomber.
Nick Thompson provided added rebounds and offense.
Nick Theodosis was the teams point guard and top scorer with a high game in the playoffs of 37. He lives in Scotts Valley, but came to SC because of the incredible basketball program run by coach Newell. Theodosis said, “Pete Newell is not only a coach, but a friend. It makes it so much nicer to play the game when you have a coach who takes the players point of view.”

League game review from Theodosis’ perspective.
HARBOR always hardest team to play. Edged out SC in the total series 2-1, but SC won when it counted most, which gave the Cards a share of the league title. Theodosis led the scoring with 21 points in a game he basically dominated.
SLV gave SC its toughest challenge. In the first game, SC wasn’t ready to play and lost. In the second meeting, SC played solid as a team and won in overtime. Clutch free throws sealed the victory.
MONTE VISTA. Both games were won convincingly by SC, who controlled the tempo.
SQUEL was the first league game and was on cable TCI. Great rebounding by Watson and Brooks made the difference. Poor shooting in the second game and the effort was not there ended with a loss.
APTOS, The Cards went 3-0 against a team that stayed in games by shooting threes. Sam Payne played some good ball and Keitel Chirinos and Jermaine Hunter proved themselves as sophomores by stopping the Aptos forwards nicely.
WATSONVILLE was the doormat of the league. Both games were blowouts and everyone on the team played. Anthony Torchio made the most of his playing time, getting a couple of buckets and cheers from his teammates.
CCS GAMES
In the win against Aragon, the Cards had way too much offense. Watson scored 20 points and made some clutch rebounds. Theodosis had his top scoring game to-date with 37 points.
Second CCS game vs. Gunderson, who had two players over 6-6 and SC missed its first seven shots. The slow start made it almost impossible to catch up. In the third quarter, SC down by ten went into a zone and Gunderson just held the ball out for almost seven minutes.

March 12. Santa Cruz Coach Turns Kids Into Co-champs
The cast Pete Newell, Jr. assembled for his 19th basketball season at Santa Cruz High almost seemed like a replacement team. There were that many holes to fill. And that much work to do. Then the Cardinals lost six of their first nine games, including three by three points or less. But nobody gave up. Particularly Newell, who tired to slam dunk a year’s worth of experience into a month. He discovered, if he didn’t know already, that he had a bunch of sponges, soaking up everything he was saying. “It was a challenge,” Newell said, “particularly with the fact we had minimal varsity experience and scheduled a rather difficult preseason.” Then things started to fall into place. The Cardinals won six of their next seven.
Kam Watson, a junior in his third season on the varsity, moved from power forward to small forward. Sophomore point guard Nick Theodosis emerged as a big talent. Senior guard Sam Payne, playing more than ever in his life, started hitting key jumpers. Junior center Jason Brooks became a brute inside. Underclassmen such as Tayo Enna and brothers Jermaine and Jessie Hunter began to make a significant contributions in special stretches of games. Despite some bumps along the road–which is expected for a team that relied mostly on sophomores and juniors–Santa Cruz charged into the prime time of the season to win the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League tournament, and the co-championship that goes with it.
Then the Cardinals won in the first round of the Central Coast Section Division III playoffs before being eliminated by top-seeded Gunderson. They wound up 19-12–going 9-3 after mid-January. Not bad for a “replacement season.” Which is why Newell has been selected as the Sentinel’s All-Santa Cruz County boys basketball Coach of the Year.
“I was fortunate to have the daily enjoyment with this team,” said Newell, who came to Santa Cruz in 1974 from Serra High in San Mateo. “With rare exception, we had great practices,” he said. “The kids competed, accepted their roles on the team and that made it easy to coach. “And in terms of the games, we really improved by significant leaps.”
So look out, Already, the Cardinals are considered the SCCAL favorites for next season, with four of five starters coming back, as well as Enna, the sixth man. Mike McDuffie, a 6-foot-2 forward who played as a sophomore but was hurt this year, is coming back. They are going to be very good and very deep–but still will have a lot to learn. Which is where Newell come in. “The challenge for next year will be for the kids to understand our team can’t worry about anybody’s expectations and play as well as we can, whenever we play. “The hardest thing is that 17 of 18 kids are coming back. They will have to understand their role. “There will be greater competition next season,” Newell anticipates. “For me, it will be trying to manage the mindsets of 16 or 17 individuals.” If he changes their minds like he changed their momentum this season, Newell and the Cardinals will manage just fine.

March 7. Sentinel SCCAL statistics for SC follows. By place in order, name, games played, total points, high game and average per-game.
PL NAME GP TP HI AV
4 Theodosis 31 450 37 14.5
7 Watson 31` 416 24 13.4
21 Payne 31 272 20 8.8
22 Brooks 27 215 25 8.0

Tops in rebounds were by place, name, games played, total rebounds, high game and average per game.
PL NAME TR TR HI AV
1 Watson 31 344 24 11.1
8 Brooks 27 215 19 8.0

In team offense, SC’s record is 19-12. SC scored 1797 points with a high game of 95 points and had an average per game of 58.0. On defense SC was third, giving up 1458 points with a low of 42 and average 54.7 points a game.

Sentinel ALL COUNTY first team included two Cardinals, junior, 6-4, forward Kam Watson and sophomore, 5-10, point guard Nick Theodosis.
Pete Newell is COACH OF THE YEAR, Kam Watson is JUNIOR OF THE YEAR and Nick Theodosis is SOPHOMORE OF THE YEAR.
Kam Watson a third year starter, emerged as a force with the ability to grab a rebound, lead a break and finish at the other end. “He played both ends of the court, every game and we depended on him to score, defend and rebound, to make the key baskets and to get the tough rebounds and hold down the other team’s best front line scorer,” said coach Newell.
Nick Theodosis is maybe the most electrifying player in the county. He made the biggest impact of any newcomer. “Nick had a very steady and consistent season with his best scoring games in the most important contests,” Coach Newell said of his sophomore phenom, who was fourth in the league in scoring at a 14.5 points a game average. Theodosis led the Cards to the SCCAL tournament title and scored 37 points in his first section playoff game. “The team had total confidence in him as a sophomore,” Newell said.

JV BOYS BASKETBALL
Yearbook. Loss Of Starters Doesn’t Stop Heart and Determination.
The team had high expectations coming into the season as they had an excellent crop of sophomore sensations, but they all moved up to varsity. But other players stepped up and played hard all season. Led by sophomores Kenyatte Edmonds, Brian Winerle, Nick Robinson and Clay Tol, the team played their hearts out but suffered some painful losses. Other team members: Ben Kennedy, Billy Logan, Matt Anderson, Greg Stephan, Isaac Klotz-Chamberlin, Dante Barnes, Colin Arlt and Sule Edmonds. Coach Charles Burks.

FROSH BASKETBALL
Yearbook. New Comers Learn Ropes In Great Season.
The team started off strong by posting wins against tough Watsonville, Monte Vista and Harbor. Overall the team boasted a strong record and learned the work ethic it take to play hoops in high school.

Up and coming talents were George Urban, Apollo Terry and Cody Muhl.
Other team members: John Howell, Ryan Villanueva, Eric Noeller, Marcos Olivas, Chris George, Eric Lynch, Nigel Miller, Chriz Plaza, Adam Kent, Matt Windt and Nick Doan.
Coach Steve Olds.

GIRLS BASKETBALL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS.
Practice games: Milpitis 39-33
League: Harbor loss, 61-44; Soquel 60-43, won; Monte Vista 60-42, 60-52; Aptos won, loss; SLV 66-50, won; Watsonville two wins. League record 10-.2. League playoff beat Monte Vista 53-40 and in the final Harbor 42-38, for the undisputed championship. CCS playoffs: Lincoln of San Jose 62-42, North Monterey 63-52 and Burlingame loss. Overall record 21-7.

League teams by school, league record and overall final record.
SCH LEAGUE FINAL
Santa Cruz 10-2 21-7
Monte Vista 9-3 19-3
Harbor 8-4 15-10
Watsonville 7-5 15-12
Aptos 4-8 10-16
Soquel 1-11 4-17
SLV 1-11 3-21

Yearbook. Girls Basketball Goes To The Top. Seniors Leads Varsity Girls To A Great Season
The Cardinals started the first half of the league season going 5-1 led by seniors Jamie Vlassis, Niki Sudduth, Jessica Brown and the queen of 3’s Evie Smith. Joining this years ride to success were juniors Allicia Beach, Janeen Aldrich, Tara Hill, Natalie Gibbons and all around star Kelly Kaiser. Other team members: Abby Gonzales, Katie David, Jamie Ross and Soji Howe. Assistant coach Phil Netto. “What we lacked in height this year, we made up in heart, speed and skill. I am really proud of these girls, they always came through in clutch situations as a team!” exclaimed Head Coach John Wilson.

Sentinel. December 3. SC 39, Milpitas 33. At the Pioneer Tournament, the Cards, 3-1, won the consolation championship as senior Evie Smith sank 7 of 8 free throws in the fourth quarter. Smith’s 10 points led SC, which didn’t make a fourth quarter field goal after leading 29-24 at the end of three.

January 7. SC 60, Soquel 43. SC used a 19-8 run in the third quarter to pull away from a scrappy Knights team. “We didn’t play much defense in the first half, but everyone played and all but one of them score,” said coach Wilson. SC 8-2 were led by Kelly Kaiser with 16 points and Evie Smith with 12.

January 21. SC 60, Monte Vista Christian 42. SC’s second quarter push looked wasted, when the Mustangs came out with a 10-1 run at the start of the second half. But, SC 5-1 in league and 12-5 overall was too solid down the stretch. Harbor beat Aptos to put SC in sole possession of first place. Aptos and Harbor are 4-2. “We are starting to play up temp and getting more girls involved,” said coach Wilson, who used all 12 of his players in his all court press attack. “Being able to get girls off the bench and keeping our intensity is very important.” The second quarter was important, when the Cards shot 8 for 18, with Evie Smith nailing three 3 pointers, as SC built a 32-15 halftime lead. MVC saw their standout inside player held to two free throws in the first half, but she didn’t go away. She scored eight points in the second half and MVC pulled within six points with four minutes to play. SC countered with Kelly Kaiser, who knocked down nine of her 15 points in the fourth quarter. Smith and Tara Hill score 11 points each, for the Cards, who shot 20 for 54 for the game. Jamie Vlassis grabbed 10 rebounds.

Sentinel. February 3. SC 66, SLV 50. SLV had one of their better offensive outings, but there was no way they could match up with the Card attack. Kelly Kaiser led the Cards with 17 points, Tara Hill added nine. Jaime Vlassis had eight rebounds. SC managed to get off 73 shots making 27.

February 5. Santa Cruz Shows It Is Team To Beat. There is a new team to beat in the SCCAL race. After nine years of supremacy, Harbor may have passed a symbolic torch over to SC, going down 61-44 to the Cardinals. SC led the game most of the way, as Evie Smith and Kelly Kaiser caught fire early, combining for 20 of the Cards 29 first half points, which led to a SC 29-24 halftime lead. Smith led all scorers with 19 points, while Kaiser chipped in 17.
“When we get off to a good start shooting, we’re tough,” said coach Wilson as his team ran it’s SCCAL record to 9-1, while Harbor is 6-4. “We were very focused and ran our transition very well.” After a close first half, SC opened the third quarter with a decisive 20-9 run, keyed by Smith, who pushed a 41-31lead to 48-34 by connecting on three straight shots, one from the 3 point land.
Even more impressive during the run was the play of point guard Tara Hill. Consistently throughout the third quarter, Hill broke down the Harbor defense by driving to the basket, drawing two or three Harbor defenders to her, then dishing inside to Smith and Kaiser, who knocked down wide open jumpers. Hill scored only five points, but ran the show for the Cards by dealing 12 assists and acting as the leader on the court. Despite trailing 50-34 going into the fourth quarter, Harbor did not get frustrated and fold against a relentless full court pressure from the Cards.
Down but not out, the Pirated put together a 9-2 run to trim the 16 point deficit to nine with three minutes remaining. But Harbor then completely ran out of gas against SC’s full court press. “I have to tell my team something that felt pretty good today. We played like champions,” Wilson said.

February 14. Cards Claim Share Of Crown. For the second time in three years SC has earned a share of the SCCAL championship, by winning the league’s round robin title. With a 60-52 win over Monte Vista Christian, the Cards finished the league season 10-2 and 17-6 overall. They head into the SCCAL championship tournament as the first seed. At the end of three quarters SC led 41-31. Monte Vista outscored SC 21-19 in the final quarter. SC made 22 of 33 free throws to MVC’s 8 for 18. SC forced turnovers to help in their win. Kelly Kaiser was the only Card in double figures with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Sentinel. February 18. Bucs’ Reign Is Over. Santa Cruz Wins League Tourney 42-38. There will be no 11 peat for Harbor. And SC ended what seemed to its players like a lifetime of being one upped by the Pirates. After six straight years of suffering SCCAL season ending losses to the Pirates, the Cards finally have a league title of their own. SC 19-6 also ended a ten year run by Harbor 18-10 as either champions or co-champions of the league. Kelly Kaiser and the Cards made sure that this time the Pirates go no further.
In recent years, some of the best teams SC had ever put on the floor couldn’t stop the Harbor express. Two years ago, SC shared the regular season title with Harbor to become co-champions, but were beaten by the Bucs’ in the SCCAL tournament and then again in the third round of the CCS playoffs.
In 1992, under a different format in the SCCAL tourney, after beating the Bucs’ in an overtime game at the tournament, the Cards lost a special one game playoff to the Pirates. And so it went, until Friday. “Since my sophomore year, I’ve just been waiting for this moment,” said senior guard Evie Smith, fighting back tears. “We did it , we finally did it,” she yelled while hugging former teammate Faith Hasty, who is now playing at Cabrillo College. “This is the best. It’s the last game and we beat Harbor,” Smith said. “We knew this was our game,” said junior Kelly Kaiser, who led the Cards with 12 points. “We didn’t want Harbor to be a part of this championship.”
And Kaiser did a good job of wrestling the title away almost single handily, taking control of the third quarter. With SC clinging to an 18-14 halftime lead, Kaiser score SC’s first seven points of the third quarter and nine of 11 in the quarter, to help the Cards bolt a 29-20 lead that the Pirates would never overcome, even seriously challenge. During the run, Kaiser put her signature on the game when she ripped down a defensive rebound and converted a three point play with a drive and a free throw. “We’ve always been a second half team,” said Kaiser. “I thought I had to take over or no one else would.”
SC got eight points and six steals from Smith and seven points from Natalie Gibbons, including six straight in the second quarter, when SC took the lead for good. Scoring by quarters: First quarter, Harbor 8-7; second quarter SC 18-14; third quarter SC 35-26. Individual scoring: Kaiser 12, Smith 8, Hill 4, Brown 2, Vlassis 4, Beach 0, Sudduth 4, Bibbons 7, David 0 and Ross 1.

February 21. Athlete of the Week was Kelly Kaiser, junior guard, led SC to a pair of wins in the SCCAL post-season tournament. The tournament title and the league round robin champion made the Cards the sole SCCAL champions. Against Harbor in the title game, a 42-38 win, Kaiser’s 12 points and six rebounds told only part of the story. She scored nine of SC’s first 11 points in the third quarter, when SC pulled away to a nine point lead. During the run, she also had several key steals and rebounds. In the semi-finals, Kaiser had a season high 23 points, seven rebounds and six steals and keyed a late 13-2 run that put the finishing touches on a 53-40 victory over Monte Vista.

February 22.Cardinals Warm Up, Trounce Lincoln of San Jose 62-42 in the first round of the CCS Division III playoffs. Lincoln led 19-17 after the opening quarter, but SC outscored them 45-23 the rest of the way. The Cards like to play up and down transition basketball, had plenty of opportunities to take the ball the other way. SC had 14 steals and Lincoln committed 29 turnovers. “It took us a while to get going,” said guard Tara Hill, who scored 12 points, including two 3 pointers. “But in the second half we really kicked it in. We’re a second half team. That’s how it’s always been for us.” Lincoln 13-11 struggled with the Cards full court press all game and rarely had an open shot. SC had little trouble beating Lincolns 2-3 press. SC wasn’t shy about putting the ball up from outside. SC got off 71 shots making only 23. Evie Smith led SC in scoring with 16 points and had three steals. Kelly Kaiser had 12 and led in steals with four. Hill had 12 points as 10 Cards scored. Jamie Vlassis had seven rebounds.

Sentinel. February 26. Santa Cruz Girls Team Up To Stop North Monterey Star. After the North Monterey star made 28 points and had nine rebounds, when they won their first round CCS game, it was obvious what SC would have to do. So, SC’s Kelly Kaiser and Tara Hill did it. They combined to hold the star to ten points and Kaiser led all scorers with 23 as the Cards won 63-52. Number three seed SC 21-6 will play number two seed Burlingame 24-5 in the semifinals. Hill, who didn’t score, guarded the star in the early going and disrupted the Condor transition game. Later Kaiser took over, kicked it into gear both offensively and defensively to help the usually slow starting Cards to a 41-30 halftime lead. “I think we had control the whole game, because we came out strong,” said Kaiser. “We had heard a lot of things about her. She usually goes to the left, when she has the ball and we’re used to covering the right side. That sort of complicated things, but we ended up shutting her down.”
The Condors, former member of the SCCAL and now in the MBL, had won the MBL championship last year and were tied for second this year with a 17-11 overall record. There was little drama in the second half. Three straight baskets by Kaiser late in the third quarter stretched the SC lead to 54-38. Coach Wilson was impressed with senior forward Nikki Sudduth, who came off the bench for a season high 12 points. Evie Smith had 14 points and Jamie Vlassis led in rebounding with 11.
“They were overly aggressive,” Vlassis said of the Condors, who suffered from sloppy passing, errant shooting and lax ball handling. “But maybe its good to play a game like that to prepare for the next game.” A relaxed approach to the playoffs seems to be working well for the Cards. Beating longtime rival Harbor for the SCCAL championship, ending the Pirate’s ten year reign, has made the postseason a little anticlimactic. Yet one more victory and they earn a ticket to the Northern California Tournament. “Everybody’s pretty serious, but this is all pretty much gravy,” said Kaiser.

March 12. Sentinel SCCAL statistics for SC follows. By place in order, name, games played, total points, high game and average per-game.
PL NAME GP TP HI AV
2 Kaiser 28 380 23 13.6
7 Smith 28 290 21 10.4

Top rebounders by place, name, games played, total rebounds, high game and average per-game.
PL NAME GP TR HI AV
4 Vlassis 27 210 16 7.8
7 Kaiser 28 172 11 6.1
9 Smith 28 143 10 5.1

SC was first in team offense with a 21-7 record, scoring 1496 points with a high game of 74 and averaging 53.4 points a game. On team defense the Cards were second, giving up 1235 points, a low score of 24 and an average per game of 44.1.

Trident. April 6. Dream Season. The Girls Remembered.
Rundown of the season by the Trident. The girls had a major goal at the beginning of the season. It was to become league champions, not co-champions, because for the past nine years, Harbor either won or shared the title. The Cards were able to do it with a thrilling 42-38 victory over Harbor in the SCCAL playoffs. The team was fast and stocked with experienced seniors, impressive juniors and two good underclassmen. Leading the seniors was the best outside shooter in the league Evie Smith. When she was hot she was unstoppable. She easily earned a spot on the Sentinel All County team. She more about Evie in All League article below.
The teams only weakness was its lack of height, but senior Jamie Vlassis, the tallest on the team at 5-9 was ferocious on the boards an made third team All League. Jamie had one of the top rebounding averages in the league, plus a nice jumper for easy baskets.
Abby Gonzales, after taking some time off from basketball. helped the team nicely. Abby is known for her passing ability and when she decided to shoot could hit the three.
Niki Sudduth was great at the wing, especially when she drove the lane. Niki was always positive and worked hard.
Jessica Brown definitely was the spirit of the team, from pumping them up to starting the soul train in the locker room. Jessica made the season fun for the team.
Kelly Kaiser was the star junior on the squad and in the league. More on Kelly below.
Tara Hill was the off guard. “She went off this season.” said a teammate. Tara is quick and is famous for her sweet shot off the glass and three pointers from the top of the key. She was named third string All League.
Natalie Gibbons was a superb defensive player, who gave 110% every game. Look out for Natalie next year.
Alicia Beach, Katie David and Janeen Aldrich round out the fine crop of juniors. Alicia was the graceful post up player, Katie the mad bomber from three point land and Janeen was the hard working defender.
Soji Howe was the only sophomore on the team. Soji intimidated opposing players with her ability to block shots. Soji might have been the quietest player on the team this year, but is sure to make some noise in the league next year.
Jamie Ross, a freshman, is sure to have a bright future in the league, Her fouling out of a game in three minutes of playing time, has to be a school record.

Trident wrap up of league games and CCS
HARBOR. In a game the night after the prom, the Cards lost to Harbor. In the second game SC won by 17 points as Evie hit everything for 19 points and Kelly had 17. Evie explained what sparked their fire was the Chuck wagon dinner to everyone at Alfaro’s the night before. The third and final game with Harbor was in the league playoff final and there was no way the Cards were going to lose. They won 42-38 for the sole SCCAL title.
SOQUEL. SC breezed through both games. Almost everyone scored.
MONTE VISTA. Who was the toughest team in the league. The hard work of the post players, Jamie Vkassis, Allisa Beach and Soji Howe stopped the Mustangs inside game, which helped SC win all three games. Tara Hill had quality performances every game.
APTOS. SC won the first game by 33 points, but let their guard down the next game and lost. In the first game everyone on the team scored. In the second game Aptos was pumped and skimmed by the Cards by one point.
SLV. In the first game everyone scored and SC enjoyed the victory. But in the second game the Cards shots weren’t going down and SLV played hard. Kelly Kaiser made some clutch plays to keep SC in the game. Then SC suddenly lit up the scoreboard and won by 16 points.
WATSONVILLE. In the first game SC was squeezed by the quick Cats, but won the game by only one point. Vlassis shut down a first team all leaguer and score ten points of her own. The second game was an easy victory for SC. The run and gun offense was too much for the Cats.

CCS Wrap Up
After starting from behind against Lincoln of San Jose, the Cards breezed to a 20 point win.
In the quarterfinals against North Monterey it was a tough game, but SC clinched the victory behind the 23 point performance of Kaiser. Smith proved she was the queen of threes by nailing three of them in the second quarter. Sudduth came off the bench and scored 12. Vlassis and Beach each scored 8 points inside and Brown had six.

In the semifinals SC lost to Burlingame. SC just didn’t click this game. Despite Natalie Gibbons valiant defensive effort and Kelly’s 22 points, SC couldn’t pull off the victory.
The girls were disappointed by the loss, but were more than satisfied with their season. Allicia Beach summed it up best, “It was a Dream Season.”

Sentinel ALL COUNTY GIRLS BASKETBALL. She’s One Of The Stars Now. Kaiser Has Grown Since Frosh Days.
Sentinel ALL COUNTY first string included senior guard at 5-8 Kelley Kaiser AS PLAYER OF THE YEAR
A little starry eyes and our of her league, Kelly Kaiser felt lucky to be suited up with the other members of Santa Cruz High’s 1992-93 girls basketball team. Back then, as a 5 foot 5 inch freshman, Kaiser didn’t see extensive playing time on one of the best teams in Cardinal history.
“It was so exciting,” she said. “I was the only freshman. Playing with Kenna and Faith and Jessica was great because they were great players.” Her unexpected promotion from the junior varsity squad placed her alongside all-Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League choices Kenna Karst, Faith Hasty, Jessica Lang and Christina Thompson for the playoffs that season–one in which Santa Cruz rolled to a 25-4 record and reached the semifinals of the Central Coast Section Division III tournament before losing to cross-town rival Harbor. It was the program’s best performance since the 1983-84 Cardinal team advanced as far as the CCS Division II Semifinals and finished at 25-3. Kaiser saw the stars of her first varsity team as great players, but now she has grown into one herself.

The SCCAL coaches voter her the Most Valuable Player in the league this season, and now the 5-foot-8 junior has been chosen as the Sentinel’s All-Santa Cruz County girls basketball Player of the Year. The past two summers, Kelly Kaiser has played on an age-group team, the Golden State Fever, that has played in tournaments across the western states. She has played alongside standouts from heralded programs like Mitty and Sacred Heart Prep. Last summer Kaiser played on the Fever’s 16s “B” team, which traveled to Colorado Washington, Oregon and Arizona.
John Wilson, the Santa Cruz coach who brought up Kaiser to the varsity her freshman year “because she had already accomplished everything she could on the JVs and was ready for the next level,” said her high school and club experience gave her the edge she needed this season. There never is an intimidation factor with her,” Wilson said. “She even did it in the playoffs. All of a sudden she took over. When we needed something, or when everyone else was tired or didn’t want to take charge, she did.”
Like in the SCCAL tournament title game Feb. 17 against Harbor, Kaiser, who finished with a team high 12 points, scored the Cards’ first seven points in the third quarter as Santa Cruz erased an 18-14 deficit and bolted to a 29-20 lead that would never be threatened. The Cardinals won 42-38 to stop Harbor’s SCCAL championship reign at 10 years. Kaiser started her post season run with a 23 point effort in a win over Monte Vista Christian and finished it with 23 against North Monterey County and 22 in a season-ending loss to Burlingame in the CCS Division III semifinals. Kaiser averaged 18.5 points in the postseason, five points better than her season average.
It was also a boost to have teammates such as forward Evie Smith and point guard Tara Hill to take the pressure off Kaiser. Smith scored 10-4 points a game and hit a league-high 40 3 pointers while Hill took over the position Kaiser played last season and racked up assists while driving the lane. “Having Tara and Evie opened up (Kaiser’s) game,” Wilson said. “With Evie on one side of the court, you really have to be aware. Tara’s ability to push the ball up court put pressure on the defense.”
“I think Santa Cruz had a well-balanced team,” said Watsonville Coach Steve Meyers, “but from what I could tell, Kaiser seemed to be the leader. She was the only thing that made the team click. I knew they had other weapons, but she’s the type of player that you love to have the ball in her hands–and as an opposing coach you don’t want her to get the ball.” When the ball was in her hands in the final few games this season, Kaiser was driven to score. “Maybe it was because I didn’t want our seniors to leave,” she said. “I wanted the season to keep going. If I played up on my intensity level, everyone else would play up, too, and we’d be able to continue.” All Kaiser could ask for next season is a freshman on the bench with the same kind of determination as that kid three years ago.

SC other first stringer is Evie Smith a 5-7 senior guard. “She can do everything when it comes to being an outside threat, putting the ball on the floor and playing defense,” said coach John Wilson of SC’s record holder for 3 point goals in a season with 40. She’s a great player and she knows the game.” With Smith averaging 10.4 points a game, she finished in the top seven in points and thirteenth in rebounding at 5.1 per game. SC came within one game of playing for the CCS Division III championships. “She has the type of attitude that every coach wants in a player,” Wilson said, “and that is somebody who works hard and is very coach able.”

Trident, March 7. A Profile on Evie Smith. Early in the season with the Cards behind in the closing seconds, Evie hit a three point to win the game. She led the league in three pointers with 39. Evie loves all sports and started playing basketball in fifth grade. She now coaches a team at the same age group. Dedication, a love for sports and a great deal of natural talent make Evie the player she is. Evie credits her coach John Wilson for much of her inspiration. “John coached me for all four years of high school. He has taught me so much and he is not only one of the best coaches I’ve had, but he is one of the greatest people I have ever met.” “Without Jessica Brown being there I don’t know if this year would have been so eventful. Natalie Gibbons is a tough player and whenever I play with her, she makes me want to work even harder.” Winning the league over Harbor was the biggest thing of the season.

Switching Positions Pay Off For Kaiser.
Kelly Kaiser was named the PLAYER OF THE YEAR, by the league coaches. John Wilson was named COACH OF THE YEAR. Senior, 5-6, guard Evie Smith was selected for the first team. Senior 5-10, center Jamie Vlassis and junior 5-3, guard Tara Hill were selected for the third team. It wasn’t like Kelly Kaiser was doing a bad job at point guard last season. It’s just that Santa Cruz High girls basketball coach John Wilson thought Kaiser would be more valuable playing a wing. He thought right. Kaiser’s strength at the position led the Cardinals to the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League championship, and she has earned honors as league Most Valuable Player. “She’s been our go-to-person and most consistent person,” Wilson said of the 5-foot-7 junior, who was third in league in scoring (12.9 points a game) and ninth in rebounding (6.1 a game). “She can play the point, the wing and is down there on defense playing the post when we are in a zone.” Kaiser showed her value to the team in the finals of the SCCAL tournament Friday night. Whenever Harbor made a run at the Cardinals, Kaiser would seemingly take the ball and score, or make a key steal or grab a big rebound.
“She’s such a good all-around basketball player, with her rebounding, steals and assists,” Wilson said. “And she’s a press-breaker. All those things accumulate.” Kaiser Also accumulated enough votes (out of seven) to edge Aptos’ Chaska Potter–the league’s leading scorer and rebounder–for MVP honors.
“I am a little surprised,” said Kaiser, who is the only repeat selection to the all-league first team. “I am only a junior and I thought there were a lot of good competitors in our league.” Kaiser said she’s been pleased with her play in the new position, which she played sparingly last season as a sophomore. “Mainly it was my shooting.” she said. “I worked on that a little more. I had to play smart and make good passes.” Wilson said Kaiser’s physical maturity and strength made a big difference in her output and her confidence. “If I have an open shot, I take it.” Kaiser said. “And I take the ball to the hoop if nobody is stepping up on defense.” That’s all part of Wilson’s plan. “She really takes advantage of what a defense gives you.” he said.

JV GIRLS BASKETBALL Blow Away Competition
Skill and Spirit Lead JV’s To The Top

Yearbook. The team beat every team in the league at least once. The team was led by sophomores Jenny Croghan, Shelly Gill, Katie Hintz and Shera Grellman, who was always able to wrestle the ball away from any opponent. They were constant sources of leadership and skill. There were two new coaches this year. Head Coach Barbara Christensen and her husband Mark. Adding to this new breath were freshmen Kali Campbell, Amy Reidt and Cori Tom.

Coach Christensen believed that the teams success was led by, “Their ability to make quick shots, keeping their spirits up and unity as a team.” Other team members: Katie Burke, Lisa Chandley, Angela Anderson, Kira Duckett, Tricia Hall and Elena Russell-Nava.

WRESTLING
Yearbook. Led by seniors Jamil Haje and Jason Villanueva the small squad of eleven made up for the lack of numbers with heart and intensity. Jamil became the first girl to wrestle at SC. Jason, who wrestled at 125 pounds, won his weight class at both the Sonoma and Overfelt Invitational. Junior Travis Roland and freshman Boris Quintanilla both made their presents known in league action. Boris also won the frosh-soph 119 pound division at the Lone Star Invitational. Other team members: Mitchell Toshitune, David Kessler, Daniel Whiting, Jesus Ruelas, Ryan Dean, Ethan Fitzhenry and Jesus Quintanilla. Coach Garth Taylor.

Sentinel. January 10. Senior wrestler Jason Villanueva was selected a Sentinel Athlete of the Week, won his first individual weight class title of the season and most significantly of his high school career, Saturday at the Valley of the Moon tournament at Sonoma Valley high. And he competed at 125 pounds, one class above his regular weight of 119. Villanueva went 8-1 in the two day event with five pins. In the championship match, he earned a 8-6 overtime win over the top seed. Villanueva, who is 17-4-1 on the season, suffered his only loss to an opponent from El Dorado, but ended up beating the same wrestler 8-7 in the semifinals with a takedown as time ran out.
“He’s really stepped it up,” said coach Garth Taylor. “He’s been wrestling better on his feet, which was something he’s been working really hard on. Jason took second in the league last year and was one match away from placing at CCS. He was pretty disappointed about that, because those were his two main goals. If he keeps improving, he can reach his goals this year.”

Sentinel. February 24. Wrestlers who qualified at the SCCAL meet had to place third or higher to qualify. SC qualifiers were by weight classification, place, and name
WT PLACE NAME
121 second Boris Quintanilla
127 first Jason Villanueva
147 second Danny Whiting
277 second Travis Rowland

Sentinel. February 26. Wrestlers off to State. At the CCS meet a wrestler has to place fourth or higher to qualify for state. Jason Villanueva of SC qualified in the 127 weight division, by finishing in fourth place. Watsonville qualified six wrestlers and Harbor one, to give the SCCAL eight wrestlers, who qualified for the state meet at the Alex Spano center at UOP in Stockton. Independence scored 202 points to take first place and Watsonville was second with 170 points. Villanueva lost to the top seed and eventual winner, but gave SC a boost with his fourth place finish.

SOCCER BOYS AND GIRLS PROBLEMS
Yearbook. For the first time the boys and girls soccer teams were forced to limit their play to two fields in the SCCAL, because of the torrential down pours during the Winter season. The two fields were at Monte Vista Christian and Watsonville. At first games were canceled, but then the district decided to prohibit further usage of the waterlogged fields. Non of the soccer teams were allowed to touch the field, even for practice, until five suitable days in a row of sunshine. Although rain had slowed the season down, it didn’t stop SC soccer teams from having excellent seasons.

BOYS VARSITY SOCCER LEAGUE CO-CHAMPIONS. Tied with Watsonville for the regular season with 11-1 records, but lost in the playoff with Watsonville 1-3.
Participated in the CCS playoffs, no results.
Practice games: Alisal won, Overfelt 2-0. Gonzales tie. Preseason record 3-0-1.
League: Watsonville 2-1, 1-2; Harbor won, 2-0; Monte Vista 4-0, 1-0 in overtime; SLV 2-0, 5-1; Soquel 7-1, 8-1; Aptos 0-0 turned into forfeit, 3-0. Regular league play 11-1. Season record without CCS games 14-2-1.

Trident. Oct. 24. Last year many of the losses were to inferior teams with less raw talent then SC. In many cases, the Cards would be ahead at half, only to lose in the last minutes. The returning players this year are more determined than ever. “Last year the team lacked motivation and unity. Coach Sierra is ready to kick this year. He was upset with what happened last year,” said captain David Bianchi. Returning starters from last year are seniors David Bianchi, Teo Seeger, A.j. Marquez, Daren Commons, Jason Gunstra, Eddie Perez and Danny Marquez. Superstar sophomores are Wes Bare, Ivon Wilson and Yori Seeger.

Yearbook. Varsity Soccer Kicks It’s Way Through To The Top
The team went undefeated in preseason 3-0-1 and the first half of league play, in which they knocked off top rivals Watsonville, Harbor and SLV. Senior leadership came from seniors, Teo Seeger, Jason Grunstra, A. J. Marquez, Captain Dave Bianchi and Goalie Ryan Doan. Sophomore sensations were Wes Bare, Ivan Wilson and Yori Seeger. Freshman David Cooper is also a future star on the team and league. The team had many shut outs and despite the horrible field conditions around the league, did not have many close games. “The rain stopped us from playing to our full potential,” said junior Joel Abraham.

A big boost for the team was beating defending league champion Watsonville in the first league game. Junior Bernardo Xicotencati and Wes Bare scored the winning goals. Senior Ben “Striker” Molin summarizes the season best by saying, “We came into the season determined, we left as winners. I am” Striker” hear me roar!” Other team members: Jesse Gelwicks, Kumi Rauf, Daniel Marquez, Elias Alvarez and Miguel Heredia. Head coach Sergio Sierra and assistant Jorge Sierra.

Sentinel preseason write up. A year older and a year tougher, the Cards are taking aim at getting even with all the teams that beat up on them last year when they went 4-8 in league. Senior leadership will came from forward David Bianchi and midfielder Teo Seeger, both All League last season. Seasoned as freshmen last year, the now sophomores, stopper Yori Seeger, left halfback Ivan Wilson and striker Wes Bare are now veterans. Coach Sergio Sierra comments: “Now you can hardly tell between them and the seniors. The whole team as a unit is play above my expectations. They are adjusting to each other’s play.
The Cards are showing the skills, the ball handling, eye communication and movement without the ball that will make them a title contender. The physical aspect of out game is stronger. Last year we were younger and getting pushed off the ball. We were losing the 50-50 balls. This year we are winning the 50-50 balls. SC has beaten Alisal, a perennial playoff team and Overfelt, which was a CCS Division I semifinalist last season and tied Gonzales.

Sentinel. December 3. Cards Roll In Soccer. Santa Cruz Tops Strong Overfelt 2-0. SC countered Overfelt’s high pressure offense with its own version and pulled out a victory over last years CCS Division I semifinalists. Using superior speed the Cards scored twice in the first half and held on. David Bianchi buried a beautifully placed corner kick, from Wes Bare just inside the far post. Ivan Wilson kicked a ball loose from the goalie for the second goal. Sierra praised stopper Yori Seeger and goalie Ryan Doan, a converted basketball player for super efforts. SC improved to 3-0-1.

Sentinel. December 12. Soccer Upset: Cards Knock Off Wildcats. In the Sentinel soccer preview, coach Sergio Sierra said his team couldn’t hang with perennial powerhouse Watsonville. The Cards not only hung with the Wildcats, but beat them 2-1. Coach Sierra, told his players at halftime, he would dive in the mud if they pulled off the victory. The Cards, locked in a 1-1 tie at halftime, neither disappointed their coach nor their fans. With about ten minutes left, senior Dave Bianchi hit striker Wes Bare, who nailed a spectacular crossing shot to the far right hand corner of the net, giving SC a 2-1 victory.
“My team can play with any team in CCS,” said muddy and wet Sierra after taking a head first dive into the slop. “I told my team that at halftime. Some of the quotes in the paper before the game were negative. An experienced coach wouldn’t say something like that. So, I told my guys that I’d dive in the mud if they won.” Under extremely slippery field conditions, both teams played an intense defensive battle. Both offenses were reduced to attack and counterattack.
Trailing 2-1, Watsonville continually attacked the SC defense, controlling the ball and keeping it in the Cards zone during the final ten minutes. Watsonville brought nearly the entire team into the attack, but the Cards kept the visitors out of the goal. “Our defense came up big tonight. We withstood their attack for the first 15 minutes. They weren’t able to play the offense they are used to playing in those conditions. They pressured us constantly, but we stayed aggressive,” Sierra said. The Wildcats scored first at 32:30 on a crossing shot. SC knotted the game at 1-1. When Dave Cooper fed Bernardo Xicotencatl, who beat two defenders and side stepped the goalkeeper, before rolling the ball into an open net at 39:00.

January 14. Muddy Conditions Ruin A Good Thing. Rain Has Turned Fields Into Quagmires. Field conditions are ridiculous and will make games closer than they might be on dry ground. Coach Sierra said that was the case as SC beat SLV 2-0. “The conditions neutralize the style of game that either one of us could establish,” said Sierra, whose team is 4-0 in league and 8-0-1 overall. After being taken down inside the penalty box, Wes Bare punched in the penalty kick at the 25 minute mark, for a 1-0 SC lead. Ian Wilson scored midway through the second half. Goalkeeper Ryan Doan, who had his third consecutive shutout, only touched the ball twice in the second half. Defender Yori Seeger also played an outstanding game.

January 25. No Soccer At Three Schools Until Muddy Fields Dry Out. The three high schools in the SC City School District will not practice or play soccer games on their muddy fields until the area gets an extended string of dry weather of five straight days without rain. Even now most teams have a number of games to make up. The SCCAL coaches have inquired about delaying the post season playoffs for a week or two, but CCS has not been interested.

February 2. SC 2, Harbor 0. SC with a 6-1 record scored twice in the second half in a game played at Watsonville, because of poor field conditions in SC. A.J. Marcus scored off an assist from Danny Marcus ten minutes into the second half and 15 minutes later Bernardo Xicotencatl scored off an assists from Wes Bare. “Harbor definitely played with more enthusiasm and more pressure than SC in the first half. They were pretty outstanding in the first half. Both time they’ve played us they’ve played strong, Coach Sergio Sierra said.

February 4. Santa Cruz Survives in OT. Sophomore Ruben Gonzales was just called up from the junior varsity team, so he could become acquainted with the other sophomores and freshmen on the Card roster. In his second varsity game, he got acquainted with the net. Gonzales placed the ball past the goalkeeper two minutes into the first ten minute overtime and SC won a critical SCCAL 1-0 victory over Monte Vista. Gonzales, the star of the junior varsity team, was playing center halfback in the overtime. Teo Seeger took the ball down the middle and passed to Wes Bare, who saw Gonzales positioned 8 yards from the net. Gonzales stopped the pass with his chest and placed his kick past the goalkeeper into the corner of the net. SC at 7-1 is battling to keep pace with Watsonville 9-1, nearly was caught flat footed by an aggressive Mustang team with a 2-6-1 league record. “We thought with their good field, we could play our good ground game. But we couldn’t. They were beating us to the ball. We couldn’t do anything, because of their more aggressive play,” Coach Sergio Sierra.

February 5. SC Title Hopes Dealt Blow. Aptos by playing SC to a 0-0 tie, opened the door for a clear path for Watsonville to win the SCCAL title. SC missed a penalty kick with no time remaining in the second 10 minute overtime. SC the only team with a chance to catch Watsonville has three games this week. The Card defense had given up only four goals to league opponents this season and did the job again. Ryan Doan has his sixth shutout in goal. David Bianchi moved from midfield to stopper and “was the biggest factor in Aptos not being able to capitalize on our end,” said Sierra. “By no means are we discouraged by our performance. We feel good about it. My guys are still high spirited. Obviously, we’re not in first place, but we are a dominate team and can represent the SCCAL very strongly. If we can play the way we did intensity wise, we’ll be fine. Whether first or second place, it’s OK because I know people get up to play SC.

Trident. Feb. 7. Against SLV, the only undefeated team in the league, whose players are all as big as the Cards biggest player and hits hard, but have only 11 players. The strategy is to go equally hard and wear them out. SLV did come out hard and took control of the game. Their strategy was boot the ball over the defenders and let their fast forward catch up with the ball. It was an ugly technique, but appeared to be working. SLV had several break a ways, but the field conditions didn’t allow any fast breaks, because the Card defenders could converge on the ball sticking in the mud. SLV was a little too physical and fouled a SC player in the goal box. Wes Bare drove in the penalty kick to put SC up 1-0 and pump the Cards up. In the second half Ivan Wilson and Junior were able to move the ball through the boggy middle of the field to score the final goal in the 2-0 win for SC.

February 8. SC 8, Soquel 1. There are only two seniors on the Card team, but they celebrated in style for what may be their last game at Memorial Field. Senior A.J. Marquez had a hat trick and senior Teo Seeger scored twice as the Cards rolled to victory and improved their record to 10-1 in SCCAL play. “This was an emotional game for the seniors. We wanted to have them play the whole game,” Coach Sierra. And they came through. Also cashing in on the scoring binge were sophomore Wes Bare with two goals and Ivan Wilson with a solo score. Sophomore Jed Brady, in his first game since being called up from the junior varsity, had two assists.

February 9. Cards Back In Title Hunt. After being tied by Aptos on Saturday, the Cards were determined not to suffer a similar fate on Monday. So they went out an scored in the first five minutes and never let up on the way to a 5-1 victory over SLV. The Cards got even better news, their tie with Aptos had become a forfeit victory, since Aptos used an ineligible player. Together, it boasts SC’s record to 9-1 and renews the possibility of a playoff with Watsonville 10-1. “We went in there with the attitude that we’d come away with a victory no matter what it took. We kept the pressure on and didn’t let up,” Coach Sierra. At five minutes, Bernardo Xicotecalt, made a centering pass toward the goal that went over the keepers head and into the net. SLV tied the score. Wes Bare scored two times, one on a bullet in the upper right hand corner of the net, the other was on a breakaway. Ivan Wilson and Teo Seeger put the game out of reach with goals in the second half.

February 11. Special Playoff Today For Boys Soccer Teams. With the Watsonville team lined up on the sidelines to watch, SC forced the tie breaking playoff Friday with a 3-0 victory over Aptos, which tied SC and Watsonville with 11-1 records for the SCCAL title. The playoff will be held at Monte Vista, which has the best conditioned field in the league. “Forcing Watsonville into a playoff game in itself us a major accomplishment. If we play well and execute our game plan, we feel we can come away victorious. Everyone on my team has to have a strong game for that to happen,” Coach Sierra. All three Card goals, from Ivan Wilson, A.J. Marquez and Wes Bare, came in the second half Senior goalkeeper Ryan Doan recorded his seventh shutout in 12 league games, with the tight support from center fullback Yori Seeger and left fullback Ben Mullen according to Sierra. Playing on a good field, both teams can bring out their skills now. Both teams have tremendous talent, but haven’t been able to show it this season because of the field conditions.” Coach Sierra.

Trident. March 7. Condensed story “Keepers World” by keeper Ryan Doan. Ryan started playing soccer at age six and started playing goalie at age eleven, but did not continue playing at SC. I injured my foot in football this year and was just getting over the injury, when three soccer friends said, the varsity soccer team needed a goalie and heard that I had been pretty decent. Being a first string baseball player, some of the team gave me a bad time about playing in the mud. But with the opportunity to play for a championship team, I tried out. To my surprise the team and coach Sierra seemed impressed. In our first game against a strong a strong Alisal team, after being away from soccer for over three years, I was nervous. We won 2-0. I realized that this team was awesome and this shutout was just a preview of the games to come.
I injured my foot again before the Watsonville game, but the team won for the first time in the 90’s 2-1. Next came Harbor a 2-0 win, followed by Monte Vista 4-0, SLV 2-0 and Soquel 7-1. In the second round, we lost to Watsonville 2-1. Four shutouts and six wins later, we were still tied for first. The league title would be determined by a playoff to decide on CCS seeding. The team ate at Denny’s and seemed pretty relaxed. Despite our positive feelings before the game, we were beaten totally senseless 3-1. Jed Brady, in only his second varsity game was the bright spot, scored the Cards only goal.
At the CCS seeding meeting, the Cards were given the number one seed in Division II, which means CCS is convinced that we are good and gave us the respect we deserved. I along with the defensive players, finished the season with seven shutouts, the most in the league. There were only six goals scored against our team, the least in the league. Watsonville had four of them.

February 21. The ALL SCCAL team selected by the coaches, included the OUTSTANDING FORWARD, Wes Bare and CO-COACH Of The Year, Sergio Sierra. On the first team are sophomore forward Wes Bare, senior mid fielder David Bianchi and sophomore defender Yori Seeger. Honorable mentions were Ryan Doan, Ivan Wilson, Ben Molin, Teo Seeger and Bernardo Xicotencati.
In Santa Cruz coach Sergio Sierra’s offense, the striker is given freedom to roam the field and attack at will. Bare was in constant attack mode. He scored 12 goals in league and added six assists to lead the Cards to a 11-2 record after its loss to Watsonville in the league playoff. With the freedom to pick his spots, Bare became a threat from both sides of the field. “He mixed it up a lot. That’s why defenders had a hard time with him. He has the ability to strike with both feet,” Coach Sierra. Bare is also blessed with good size, at 6 feet and blessed with excellent speed to go with his ball control. “He is just a machine. He works hard, listens to instructions and is open to criticism. He realizes he might have the opportunity to take soccer to the next level. If he can refine his skills, he’ll be a great player,” Coach Sierra.

JV BOYS SOCCER
JV Soccer Follows In Footsteps Of Varsity Made up mostly of sophomores, the JV’s defeated many of the same teams as the varsity. Led by the forward line of three sophomores captain Ruben Gonzales, Jed Brady and Robert Gleason, who relentlessly pushed the ball to the goal. Outstanding efforts by sophomores Cesar Onesto, Miguel Marquez and goal keeper Jose Montesinos denied the opposition to score in key situations. First year coach Jorge Sierra, who’s brothers coach the varsity and girls team, guided the team through their winning season.

Other team members: Joe Avery Rogelio Barranco, Hector Bracamonte, Saul Cartajena, Jose Gonzales, Oscar Cuevas, Hugo Escalante, Robert Gleason, Noe Heredia, Jesus Jiminez, Noe Lomeli, Lee Martin, Ricardo Martinez, Tyler Masamori, Chris McCann, Sol McCormick, German Ogarrio, Manuel Onesto, Jacqui Ramos, Julio Romero, Miguel Salinas, Ian Schragg, Daniel Tepperman, Matt Turner and Rogelio Quintin.
Head coach Jorge Sierra and assistant Sergio Sierra.

GIRLS SOCCER LEAGUE CHAMPIONS
For the first time ever a SC girls soccer team played in CCS. Lost to Menlo on penalty kicks after a 2-2 tie.
Practice games: Gunderson 4-0,
League: Watsonville 1-0, 6-0; Harbor 0-1, 0-0 in OT; Monte Vista 1-0, 1-1; Aptos 2-1, won; SLV 1-0, 0-1; Soquel 4-0, 2-1. League record 8-2-2 for the championship.

Yearbook. Is one of the most competitive and popular female sports at SC.
Seniors Take Command For A Successful Season
The defense lost many key players from last year, but seniors Cathy Shumate, Lisa Howell, Laura Kelly and junior Emily Street rocked during the season. Other key players were senior Megan McGuire a driving force in mid field, junior Naomi Rothman a constant threat in any part of the field and senior Blanca Sierra an intelligent and skillful component of the offense. Bernadette Ferrante was always full speed and gave positive motivation to the team. Other team members: Ellen Sherril, Melissa Connerly, Marie Miller, Shannon Griggs, Kyoko Jackson, Francine Lynch, Katie McGraw, Anne Rentz, Heather Tyler, Megan McGuire.

December 13. Sentinel preseason write up. SC lost their entire starting defense, but return their entire starting offense. It’s an even trade, until one factors in SC’s tremendous freshman class. The addition of some young stars from the Red Hot Chili Peppers age group team should make the team a league contender again. Two first team all league players are back, in senior Bernadette Ferrante and junior center halfback Naomi Rothman, a stopper last year. Rothman may form a potent combination with returning senior forward Blanca Sierra and sophomore forward/halfback Ellen Sherrill, the latter two being honorable mention all league last year. “We’ve got some of the top player in the league,” said coach Jose Sierra, whose team finished third in the league last year at 7-4-1.
“Bringing Naomi up front is only going to help the team. Factor in the presence of impressive freshman forward Shannon Griggs and all league honorable mention halfback Megan McGuire and Sierra’s confidence is fully understood. So far on defense, senior Kathy Shumate and freshman fullback Francine Lynch have emerged as reliable forces to protect junior goalie Heather Tyler, who played basketball this winter.

Sentinel. December 1. SC 4, Gunderson 0. Three goals in the second half, two by junior Emily Street, broke it open for SC in the season opener. Street scored at the 5 minute and 9:30 of the second half. Freshman Shannon Griggs had the final goal. Sophomore Ellen Sherrill had the first one, an 18 yard breakaway midway through the first half. Coach Jose Sierra credited goalkeeper Heather Tyler, sweeper Cathy Shumate and stopper Annie Rentz with standout defensive play.

December 14. SC 1, Watsonville 0. Shannon Griggs scored off an assist from Naomi Rothman 20 minutes into the second half as the Cards prevailed in muddy conditions at Geiser Field. SC out shot Watsonville 13-3. “We missed many golden opportunities,” Coach Jose Sierra said, noting that SC had eight corner kicks to two for Watsonville. “There was a lot of pressure throughout the game. We were missing. The finishing was not there for us. At times I thought we passed too much.”

January 6. One Goal Enough For Harbor. In a typical Santa Cruz- Harbor game, the Pirates got a second half goal and made it stand up for a 1-0 win in the mud at Memorial Field. It was the only scheduled game played. Coach Jose Sierra, thought his team played well, but was hurt by the mud. “My team gave me all the effort they could. Tactically we are a better team. We beat them on through balls only to have them stop in the mud.”

January 13. Cards Use ‘Home-Mud Advantage’ To Beat SLV 1-0. Sophomore center halfback Ellen Sherrill struck midway through the first half, which got SC its first victory over SLV in six tries. “There’s been some frustration there,” said third year coach Jose Sierra. “I always felt we had the better team and that things did not go our way. This time we just put it together. I had said that we had to have the perfect game to win and they came through.” SC got a shutout from first year goalkeeper Heather Tyler and improved to 3-1 in league. On the only goal, Naomi Rothman threw the ball inbounds to Blanca Sierra, who headed the ball to Sherrill in the penalty box. Sherrill turned and fired from seven yards out.

January 18. Sherrill’s Hat Trick Keeps SC In First. Ellen Sherrill racked up three goals as SC vaulted to a 3-0 lead at halftime to defeat Soquel 4-0. “I think the reason we put so much pressure on them is we beat them to the ball in the first half. In the second half the whole team got to play,” Sierra said. SC got on the board early as Sherrill took a centering pass from Bernadette Ferrante and knocked it in at 2:43 into the game. At ten minutes, Ferrante headed in a corner kick from Blanca Sierra. Sierra converted another corner kick into an assist 15 minutes later, with Sherrill poking the ball home. Sherrill completed the hat trick three minutes later on a penalty kick.

Sentinel. January 20. Cards Roll Over Wildcats 6-0. SC’s halfbacks controlled the action as the Cards jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first half. Ellen Sherrell and Naomi Rothman each scored two goals and Megan McGuire added a goal and two assist. Bernadette Ferrante had a goal to lead the offensive effort. Blanca Sierra had a pair of assists, include one of her patented corner kicks, which Sherrill headed in got the game’s first score. Defensively, goalie Heather Tyler, recorded her third straight shutout, fifth overall. “The key element for us is we’re starting to play with confidence, said coach Jose Sierra, whose team improved to 5-1 in league. “In the middle, my halfbacks have been dominant. I don’t think you can find any better in the league. Sierra’s rotation of five halfbacks include Rothman, McGuire, Sherrill, Marie Miller and Shannon Griggs. Sherrill especially is a weapon on offense, while the other four provide both offense and defensive strength. Sierra says his team is playing an almost seamless game right now, including playing especially well away from the ball. “Coaching a team to run through away from the ball is the hardest things to do,” said Sierra. “But we’re doing a good job of running to our spots and knowing the ball can cross over at any time.”

February 2. Coach Jose Sierra was upset, because he thought his team didn’t play well in its 1-0 win against Monte Vista Christian. SC is now 6-1-1, behind first place Harbor 8-1-2. SC scored the only goal of the game 20 minutes into the half, when Blanca Sierra found stopper Emily Street, who poked the ball past the goalie, who misjudged the ball.

Sentinel. February 3. SC 1, Monte Vista 1. The Mustangs did first place Harbor a major favor by tripping up second place SC. Freshman forward Shannon Griggs scored in the final two minutes of regulation. She headed a bouncing loose ball into the right corner of the net. Coach Jose Sierra credited the upstart Mustangs, but blamed himself for the surprising tie. “Some players were not playing up to their potential and I should’ve taken them out. I don’t sub very much. It may have worked, but it may not have. At least I would’ve had fresh legs in there.” SC had outscored opponents 16-2 heading into the game. “We had the ball in their half of the field like 95 percent of the time,” said a frustrated Sierra, whose team wraps up league play against SLV, Aptos and Soquel.

February 8. League Totally Interesting After SLV Shuts Out SC 1-0. SC is now tied for second place with a 6-2-2 record. SLV is 6-3-1, Harbor is 7-1-2 and Aptos 7-2. After a scoreless first half, SLV used its long passing attack to break the ice 15 minutes into the second period. A few minutes later Sherrill was loose on a break away and beat the SLV goalie. With two SLV defenders closing in, Sherrill tried to negotiate on the muddy turf and missed the open goal from point blank range.

February 9. SC 2, Aptos 1. A hard fought game, critical to both teams, cam down to a couple of hand ball penalties, one called and one not. At least that’s how the Aptos coach saw his teams loss to SC. According to the Aptos coach, his team was called for a hand ball penalty in the first half, that SC converted into a goal. But in an identical play in the second half involving a SC player was not called and therein was the problem. With the win SC is now 7-2-2 and Aptos 7-3. “We haven’t had a lot of fire lately. Today they showed it and it worked out,” said coach Sierra. Aptos opened the scoring. SC responded on a penalty kick by Blanca Sierra, then won on a Bernadette Ferrante’s goal off an assist from Ellen Sherrill. Jose Sierra praised the defensive work of Cathy Schumate and Emily Street.

February 10. Wild Finish Puts Cards In Playoffs. Wednesday, coach Jose Sierra was 28 years old. Thursday he turned 56. “They doubled my age , said Sierra after his girls scored twice in the final three minutes to beat upset minded Soquel 2-1. The win clinched second place in league and an automatic berth in the CCS playoff, which start next week.
“I’ll never lose hope on my soccer team again,” Sierra said. That’s because he watched as Bernadette Ferrante beat her defender, took a throw from Naomi Rothman and cracked a shot that went into the left corner to tie the game 1-1 with three minutes to go. Then with 20 second left, just when it looked like the two teams were heading for overtime, Ellen Sherrill took a pass from Rothman on the same type of play and was able to kick the ball in with her left foot just before it went out of bounds. Sherrill slipped in the mud and wound up on her butt, but she had done her job. Soquel took a 1-0 lead in the twenty-fifth minute of the second half. Sierra said middle halfback Shannon Griggs and stopper Emily Street both had excellent games for the Cards now 8-2-2.

Trident. April 6. Girls Soccer Wrap Up. In three years under Coach Jose Sierra, SC has developed into a number one team. Bernadette Ferrante, Ellen Sherrill, Blanca Sierra, Marie Miller and captains Naomi Rothman and Gail Shumate helped lead the Cards to the league title.
Listed below are some of the teams harder or more important games.
Jan. 31. HARBOR 0-0 tie in overtime. This was the Cards most difficult game. The outcome of this game would decide who would take first place. Harbor had beaten SC in their first match. Cable TV covered the match and everyone was nervous. It was one of the most intense games. SC started off with the ball and had it down the field in no time. Control of the field during the next ninety minutes, plus 20 for two overtimes, went back and forth. Goalie Heather Tyler saved a penalty kick and the regulation time ended in a 0-0 tie. During the first overtime, Harbor thought they scored the winning goal, but it was nullified, because Heather had been pushed in the goal. The defense saved the game with its aggressiveness. Laura Kelly, Francine Lynch, stopper Emily Street and captain Cathy Shumate were key to the tie. The Cards were in first place by one point.
MONTE VISTA 1-1 tie and story above.
SLV won. SC defeated SLV in the first round 1-0. SLV is one of the top teams in the league. SC didn’t have its usual intensity.
APTOS a 2-1 win for SC. See story above.
SOQUEL in the last game of the season, Soquel scored first. SC out shot Soquel eight to one in the first half, yet nothing went into the net. If the team were to lose this game it would never see CCS. During the second half players were asking the referee how much time was left. Suddenly Bernadette scored the tying goal with five minutes left. About a heart beat later Ellen Sherill slipped past the goalie to win the game. SC is on the way to CCS.
Freshmen Shannon Griggs, Kara Shumate, Francine Lynch and Annie Rentz were important parts of winning league.
CCS against MENLO. This is the first time for a SC girls soccer team to play in CCS. SC allowed two goals in the first half. There was a need to communicate more. In the second half the Cards started passing better and got a header from Bernadette Ferrante off a corner kick from Blanca Sierra. The second goal came on a pass from Megan McGuire to Bernadette for a left footed shot. The score was 2-2 when the whistle blew.
The next step was penalty shots. Each team picked five players who were on the field to take them. In order, Ellen Sherill, Megan McGuire, Blanca Sierra, Bernadette Ferrante and Shannon Griggs. Menlo went first. Both of the first shooters scored. In the second round Menlo missed as did SC. In the third round both made their shots. Both of the fourth shooters missed. Both the fifth shooters scored, leaving the score tied 5-5. The CCS rule book states that no player can take more than one penalty shot. Menlo made their sixth shot and SC did not. The Cards had a great season.

February 20. Santa Cruz had four members on the ALL SCCAL first team. They were senior forwards, Blanca Sierra and Bernadette Ferrante. Senior defender, Cathy Shumate and junior midfielder, Naomi Rothman. Megan McGuire, Emily Street and Heather Tyler were honorable mention.

JV GIRLS SOCCER
The team was able to barge through muddy fields and tough opponents.
Leaders were junior Rocio Ruiz, sophomores Laura Stricland and Coral Gilkie and freshman Julie Dryden.

Other players: Allison Marshall, Kaitland McNally-Murphy, Kelly Hirayama, Seanna Haynes, Sarah Partch-Smith, Julie Dryden, Coralia Hernandez, Elizabeth Shaermaria, Amanda Acevido, Phaela Peck, Ariel Carter and Carla Valdez. Coach Gary Masamori.

BASEBALL
Practice games: Pescadero 11-6, Yerba Buena 7-4
League: Harbor 5-4, Aptos 8-4, Watsonville 5-1
(These were the only games available)

Yearbook. Team Fills In Gaps Left By Last Year’s Team.
Returning players from last year: catcher George Arnott, shortstop Wes Bare, centerfielder Gino Marini, pitcher Dylan Harley and second baseman Ryan Doan filled the void and led the team to a much better season then last year. Noah Kerrigan and Brad Canepa were also reliable players. Other players: Jason Cardoza, Jimmy Jones, Noah Kerrigan, Mike Pollastrini, Tony Quartararo, Forrest Rayfield, Andy Stumpf, Jeff Swolgaard and Julian Thompson. Head coach Mark Hodges and John Wilson.

Sentinel. February 18. Coach Mark Hodges first season. 1994 record: 7-15 overall and 4-8 in league, sixth place. Key senior players: Dylan Harley, P; George Arnott, C/CF; Gino Marini, CF/LF and Ryan Doan, 3B/SS. Season outlook. All SCCAL honorable mention players were Arnott and Doan. Hodges expects his team to score a lot of runs. “I see us being in a lot of 10-8 type ballgames,” said Hodges. “We’ll have to score a lot of runs this year,”
Hodges, though this is his first year at SC as a coach, is no rookie. He taught and coached at Redondo Beach for five years and played for the Cardinals in high school. Hodges said that he attributes many things in his coaching philosophy to Dodge long time SC coach. Hodges said that Marini, Arnott and senior outfielder Jeff Swolgaard are swinging the bat well so far. Harley with the 1994, 2-3 record and a 4.20 ERA will be the mainstay on the mound. But Marini and Wes Bare are slotted for a significant share of the innings as well. SC will have to improve on their league worst ERA 4.88 and batting average of .215 if they expect to compete for the title.
Coaches outlook: “We have a strong group of players who can play defense. We’re still getting to know one another. But I like the way things are being set up right now. We are in the early stages of building a winning tradition.” In the infielder are seniors: Tony Quartararo, Ryan Doan and Julian Thompson. Juniors are Brad Canepa, Forrest Rayfield and Jimmy Jones and sophomore Wes Bare.

Trident March 7. Baseball Is Back. Senior outfielders include Jake Seigal, known for his good defense and his speed. Gino Marini for speed, the strongest throwing arm and occasional power at the plate. Jeff Swolgaard has a powerful swing. Two catchers are George Arnott, easily the most powerful hitter on the team has caught before, but did not last year and junior Andy Stumpf, moving up from JV’s with a good bat and tough defense.
Starting pitchers are seniors Dylan Harley and reliever turned starter Ryan Doan. Each is a little different. Harley with hard low strikes and Doan with a more off speed, junk ball style. Two sophomores Jason Cardoza and Mike Pollastrini will more than likely be relievers. Infielders are seniors:
Tony Quartararo at first base and a decent contact hitter, Ryan Doan and Julian Thompson a much improved player will fill in at third base and has excellent speed. Juniors: Brad Canepa has soft hands and good speed at second base, Forrest Rayfield and Jimmy Jones both can play shortstop and sophomore Wes Bare is a patient batter and solid defender at shortstop. Bare and Doan are first stringers on the soccer team and will be delayed getting on the diamond.

Sentinel. March 18. Arnott Muscles Up In Santa Cruz Win. George Arnott was a double away from hitting for the cycle, going 4 for 4 to help SC 2-2-1 get its second straight win, 11-6 over Pescadero. SC scored in all but one inning, riding Arnott’s first inning RBI triple, second inning single, four inning solo home ran and a sixth inning RBI single. Jeff Swalgaard added a 3 for 3 effort. SC had a season high 15 hits.
On Tuesday SC beat Gilroy on Wes Bare’s eighth inning home.

March 25. SC 7, Yerba Buena 4. Holding a 5-4 lead in the fifth inning, SC reliever Jimmy Jones induced a groundout to get out of the inning and strand a Yerba Buena runner on second base. SC later added a pair of runs and improve to 4-2-1. Ryan Doan and Gino Marini each had two hits. Dylan Harley pitched the first four inning and allowed no earned runs.

March 29. Cardinals Rally Past Harbor 5-4. Mike Pollastrini had a couple of bad breaks early in the game and fell behind 4-1. It was frustrating for the SC pitcher, because he had only surrendered seven hits in his first 23 innings this season and owned a tiny ERA of 0.30. His teammates had piled up three errors in the early going, but they decided to make up to Pollastrini. The gift was a four run rally in the sixth inning and a 5-4 SC league opener win. “ Three or four times, Harbor players got hits with 0-2 counts,” said Mark Hodges, who got his first SCCAL coaching victory. “He was winded and the ball started coming up, but he had enough confidence to stay in there. He didn’t fall apart.”
Pollastrini watched his defense save him, when the Pirates put on a challenge in the top of the seventh inning. A pinch runner stole second and would have scored had left fielder Romeo Baddo not made a diving catch of a line drive, Then another line out to right fielder Jason Cardoza ended the game. Jeff Swolgaard led off the sixth inning with a double. Pollastrini helped his cause with a RBI single and later scored on Wes Bare’s triple. Brad Canepa and Ryan Doan had sacrifice flies in the rally.

April 26. Ryan Doan hadn’t started all season. But the right-hander took on the heavy hitting Mariners Tuesday night and didn’t give up an extra base hit en route to a 8-4 SC victory. Doan pitched a complete game giving up seven hits, three walks, two earned runs and struck out five. Coach Mark Hodges said, “He kept batters off balance with his curveball. Aptos, which came into the game in second place, dropped to 4-4 in league and behind three teams, Soquel 6-1, SLV 5-3 and Watsonville 4-3. SC, 1-5 in league going in, scored five runs off the Aptos starter in the bottom of the fifth to take a 7-3 lead. Jason Cardoza, number nine in the order, delivered a two out, two run double for the big hit of the evening. Brad Canepa and Wes Bare added RBI singles. George Arnott homered. SC had three errors.

May 4. SC 5, Watsonville 1. In a rain make up game, sophomore right-hander Mike Pollastrini 2-1 went the distance and scattered seven hits, which moved SC to 3-5 in league. Watsonville slipped into a three way tie for second place with SLV and Aptos. Jason Cardoza and Wes Bare hit RBI singles in the second inning to put SC ahead for good. Watsonville closed to 2-1, but SC struck for three runs in the fifth inning. One run was forced in on a walk and the other two were driven in on Andy Stumpf’s groundout and Pollistrini’s fielders choice. “He threw the curve for a strike with a full counts few times,” said coach Hodges of Pollastrini. “He fought through a couple of tight situations.”

Trident. May 19. The losing record you see in the Sentinel no way displays the ability of the team. The talent is there, but the attitudes of the players are not. Individualism plagues the team, which has turned the season from one of promise to one of disaster, That is basically the only problem with the team. Their such a good team. They are stepping it up more than pervious years, but one bad inning always happens. (this is written by a four year veteran of the team and one of its best players) Sophomores have improved the team. Wes Bare is one of the best hitters on the team. Jason Cardoza starts in right field and provides some pop in the bottom of the order. Mike Pollastrini is pitching soundly.
Impressive juniors are Brad Canepa and Andy Stumpf. Canepa has speed in the outfield and is turning base hits into outs. He is also hit the ball hard. Stumpf at catcher is hitting the ball well. Senior leadership is coming from Gino Marini, Ryan Doan and George Arnott. Marini is a spark plug providing either power or excellent bunting at any time. He is also one of the best outfielders in the league. Doan is hitting the ball hard and is errorless at his new shortstop position.

Arnott had a slow start, but is heating up now and hitting the ball. He has a solid glove in centerfield. Jeff Swolgaard is having a career year with the top batting average on the team from the DH position. Dylan Harley is pitching his heart out, but has had some tough outings. If his pitching stay consistent, the team will repay him with wins. The race for the SCCAL title is close and SC is still in the hunt. The team is presently at the bottom part of the standings, but the team has the ability to beat every team in the league.

May 20. SC had no one on the ALL SCCAL first team. George Arnott and Ryan Doan were selected for the second team. Wes Bare was an honorable mention.

JV BASEBALL
Team Battles Through Season With Sportsmanship
Under the leadership of Coach Barry Bariteau the team was a team of honor that represented the true meaning of leadership and team work.
Team members: Ruben Gonzales, John Howell, Sule Edmonds, Kenyetta Edmonds, Jeff Cook, Ryan DeLong, Niguel Miller, Nick Doan, Tyler Masamori, Adam Kaen, Chuck Lynn, Colin Tardoff, Saol McCormick, Appollo Terry, Chris George and Eric Noller.

Sentinel. April 26. SC 12, Aptos 7. Winning pitcher Sule Edmonds. Top hitter Kenyetta Edmonds went 2 for 3 with four RBI’s. SC is 6-0-1 in league and 11-1-1 overall.

GIRLS SOFTBALL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS. CHAMPIONS OF THE DEL MAR TOURNAMENT. CHAMPIONS OF MIGUEL TOURNAMENT.
Practice games: Mt. Pleasant 2-1, Monterey 4-3 in eight innings. Del Mar Classic: Lincoln 2-0, Milpitas 3-3, Mills 2-1, Piedmont Hills 1-0, Gunderson 2-1 for the championship. Miguel Memorial Tournament in San Jose: Saratoga 8-1, Pioneer 4-3, Mitty 8-0 no hitter. Champions. League: Harbor 10-0 and no hitter, 4-0 and no hitter; Watsonville 14-2, 3-1; SLV 1-4, 4-0; Monte Vista 3-0, 1-0; Aptos 11-0 no hitter, 8-1; Soquel 9-0, 11-0. League record 11-1 SCCAL champions. CCS playoffs. Lost to Presentation of San Jose, Overall record 26-4-1.

Yearbook. Seniors Niki Sudduth and Summer Easterby stepped up and took over the leadership of the young team. Besides these two seniors there were five juniors, two sophomores and one freshman. Top other players were juniors Kelly Kaiser, Amie Ghio and Naomi Rothman, plus sophomores Brenna Williams and pitcher Jennifer Cummings. Other players: Allie George, Kara Hallum, Coral Gilkie, Katie Hintz and Anita Fearnley.

February 19. Sentinel pre-season write up. Coach: Vic Miguel, nineteenth season. Last years record 22-11 overall and 9-3 in league. Key players: Senior Nikki Sudduth, OF/INF; juniors: Naomi Rothman, SS; Kelly Kaiser, 2B; Aimee Ghio, OF/INF and Brenna Williams, P; Sophomore Jennifer Cummings, P. Scouting report: A young but experienced team looks poised to make a serious run at the SCCAL crown.
Cummings and Williams give the Cards an established pitching staff, that will be as strong as any other staff in the league. Rothman, Kaiser, Sudduth and Ghio are all returning starters from a team that took last years champion, Soquel down to the wire. Cummings and Kaiser were both first team selections to the All County and All SCCAL teams, which will provide leadership for a talented team with high expectations.
As a freshman last year, Cummings was perhaps the most dominant pitcher in the league behind the Soquel ace. Cummings was 13-9 with a 1.30 ERA last season, with one of those wins coming in a no hitter against Soquel late in the season. Miguel says, “Cummings has added a few more pitches and is getting command of those pitches. She’s got mental toughness to go along with the physical talent. I‘m sure she‘ll have another successful season.” Kaiser, Rothman and Cummings will give the Cards one of the most explosive offenses in the SCCAL. Should Rothman and Kaiser, .287 and .286 hitters respectively get on base often, Cummings, who led the league in home runs, RBI and triples, could have a huge year offensively. Coaches Outlook: I’m looking forward to us having a good season and there is the good possibility we’ll be near the top. Last year, we won a lot of close, crucial games and it was very surprising to people because we were so young.

Sentinel. March 3. SC 2, Mt. Pleasant 1. Sophomore Jennifer Cummings pitched and hit the Cards to a season opening win. Working with catcher Anita Fearnly, Cummings struck out ten, walked only one in a three hit performance. Cummings put SC ahead with an RBI double in the first to score Aimee Ghio. In the third, Cummings single drove in Ghio again to make the score 2-0. Cummings went 2 for 3. Ghio and Summer Easterby each had a double.

Trident. March 7. With championship teams in basketball and soccer, about a third of the players will be late coming to softball. Some players have been lost to the new water polo team or just senioritis setting in.

Sentinel. March 17. Cards Win In Extra Innings. For the third time in three games the Cards were involved in a thrilling one run ball game, this time knocking off Monterey 4-3 in eight innings. SC broke a 2-2 tie in the eighth on a two run single by Amy Ghio, then held on as pitcher Jennifer Cummings, after giving up a run and then struck out the last two batters to preserve the win. Cummings struck out six, walked three and scattered seven hits in going the distance. Summer Easterby was singled out by Miguel for a strong performance as an emergency catcher, subbing for a sick starter. Cummings went 2 for 4 with and RBI triple and Ghio was 2 for 4.

March 18 two games in the Del Mar tournament. SC 2, Lincoln 0. In the first round, SC played errorless defense for Brenna Williams, who was making her first pitching performance of the season. Williams scattered four hits, struck out four and walked one. Naomi Rothman doubled and scored on Jennifer Cummings triple in the seventh inning for the first run of the game. Cummings scored on a squeeze bunt by Katie Hintz.

SC 3, Milpitas 3. The Cards second game of the day, ended in a tie, because of a time limit of 1½ hours used by the tournament to get all the games in. It spoiled the effort by Cummings, who struck out 12 and walked none in a one hitter with no decision. All Milpitas runs were unearned. SC 4-0-1 trailed 3-1 entering the fifth and final inning, Summer Easterby slapped a line drive double to center to score Cummings and Nikki Sudduth.

March 19. Unbeaten Cardinals Roll To Two Victories. They won two more games by one run, defeating Mills 2-1. Tied 1-1 after six innings, SC pushed across a run across the plate in the seventh inning with the help of the international tiebreaker, each team starts the extra inning with a runner on second base with no outs. They held Mills scoreless in the bottom half of the inning. Brenna Williams went four innings, allowed five hits and one run. Jennifer Cummings won with two scoreless innings of relief. Anita Fearnley was 3 for 3. Aime Ghio’s RBI in the fifth tied the game and Williams drove in the winning run.

In the fourth round of the tournament, SC defeated Piedmont Hills 1-0. SC improved to 6-0-1, when Kelly Kaiser scored on a groundout by Cummings. It was the fifth one run win of the year. Cummings gave up two hits, struck out five and had no walks. SC played their second errorless game of the day.

March 26. Milestone For SC Softball. To the best of Miguel’s knowledge (and he has coached the SC softball team of all but three years and they were in no tournaments during that time) SC has never won a tournament before. Miguel said that the team has come close many times through the years, but never seized top prize. Saturday, SC not only won a tournament for the first time in the history of the program, but did it with incredible back to back one run victories. In the semifinals the Cards were forced into a international tie breaker to beat Gunderson 2-1. The unlikely hero was freshman Katie Hintz, who’s first hit of the season scored the winning run. Gunderson won a consolation game to gain the finals of the tournament against the undefeated Cards. Nikki Sudduth scored on a throwing error in the ninth inning to clinch a 3-2 win.
All Tournament pick Jennifer Cummings turned in two outstanding performances. She had 11 strikeouts in a three hitter in the first game, forced into a tie breaker and 12 strikeouts in a one hitter in the championship game. “We got into trouble a couple of times, but our defense was tight and we were able to hold them,” said Cummings. One run games are standard operating procedure this season for SC, which improved to 9-1-1. Miguel’s team had done it eight times out of 11 games. “There used to be games where we’d score a lot of runs,” Miguel said. “I haven’t seen anything like this. It makes for some real tough decisions out there.” Hintz had been successful with sacrifices and advancing runners, but was officially 0 for 22 prior to her game winning hit in the semifinal game. She hit the ball between the pitcher and the shortstop and beat the throw to first allowing Fearnley to score. SC scored twice in the first inning of the title game, getting an RBI groundout from Rothman and a sacrifice fly from Cummings.
Gunderson scored one run each in the fifth and sixth innings to tie the game 2-2. Sudduth hammered a line drive double over the left fielders head with one out in the ninth. Fearnley then bunted and was thrown out at first. But Sudduth took off for third on the throw to first. The first baseman threw the ball away at third in an attempt to get Sudduth. It went out of bounds allowing her to score and end the game.

March 29. Santa Cruz Hurler No Hits Harbor. Jennifer Cummings, a sophomore is already the premier pitcher in the SCCAL, hurled her second no-hitter in two seasons, beating Harbor 10-1. She struck out 10, walked two and set down the final 20 batters in order. “It’s her strongest performance by far,” said coach Vic Miguel of Cummings, who threw a three hitter and a one hitter over the weekend in leading SC to the championship of the Del Mar Tournament. She’s coming into her own as a real bona fide pitcher who deserves the respect from opposing teams.” Cummings was changing speeds and mixing pitches. She threw a lot of curves and screwballs, because the Pirates were laying off her rise ball. “The spin on the curveball and screwball doesn’t take as much effort as the spin on the rise ball, either,” said Cummings. Against Harbors top hitter, Cummings was able to strike her out all three at bats. (Tia Pleasant went on to be a top hitter and long ball threat for Humboldt State a top Division II team) Cummings struggled early, walking two of the first four batters, one of whom scored on a pass ball.
But Harbor never came close to getting a hit. Only one ball left the infield. Cummings went to three balls only four times after the second inning and only one of those was in the final three innings. She threw 99 pitches, 36 balls and 63 strikes. “I had a rough start, because I had trouble gripping the ball. But I figured if I kept trying, I’d be all right. I always do better at the end,” Cummings said. The powerful built Cummings had a good day at the plate, too, driving in three runs, two on a home run in the seventh. SC took control of the game with a four run first inning that included four of Harbors nine errors. SC had seven hits in the game.

March 31. Santa Cruz Claims Watsonville As Latest Victim. In Vic Miguel’s nineteen years as SC softball coach, he’s had some pretty good teams. His first team in 1977, reached the CCS semifinals and in the years since then, the Cards have won six SCCAL championships. But until this season, he has never had a team get off to an 11-1-1 start. SC a prohibitive favorite to win league this year is 2-0 with a 14-2 win over Watsonville. SC’s 14 runs and 12 hits was its best offensive output of the season. Miguel credits his defense for the team’s fast start.
Eight of the SC wins have been by one run. They had two errors against Harbor in their previous game, none on batted balls and three against Watsonville, two on batted balls. With a pitcher like Cummings, its hard not to ooze with confidence. Just get the hard throwing sophomore a few runs and a W is almost a done deal. She shutout Watsonville for six innings, finishing with a two hitter and 11 strikeouts. Cummings retired 19 of 20 batters in one stretch. In her previous three games, she had a three hitter, a one hitter and a no-hitter. “She’s got to be the most dominating pitcher I’ve had so far. Only being a sophomore is kind of scary. She has two more years to mature and develop.”
SC batted around in the first inning and scored four runs. Brenna Williams had a two run single and Anita Fearnley had a RBI single and in the second innings she added another one run single and then Nikki Sudduth had a two run single to make the score 7-0. Leadoff hitter Kelly Kaiser went 4 for 4 with four runs and two RBI’s. Watsonville came into the game with a 2-0 record. SC and Monte Vista are now tied for first 2-0.

April 2. Cardinals Win Two In Tourney. SC blew out Saratoga 8-1 and then won the second game against Pioneer 4-3 in one of their prototypical one run decisions in the Miguel Memorial Softball Tournament. Against Saratoga, Brenna Williams went six innings, throwing a three hitter and allowing only an unearned run. Naomi Rothman led the eight hit attack going 3 for 3.
Against Pioneer, Nikki Sudduth’s two run triple in the bottom of the third was the decisive blow in the 4-3 victory. Cummings got the win, allowing three hits and one earned run. She struck out 10, giving her 105 for the season. Kaiser was 2 for 3 and Rothman went 2 for 3 with an RBI and a double.

April 3. Cummings pitched a one hitter in a 8-0 win over Mitty at the Miguel tourney. Cummings also led the offense going 3 for 4 with three RBI’s. Amy Ghio was 2 for 3 and Rothman was 2 for 3.

April 5. Jennifer Cummings pitched a two hit shutout, with nine strikeouts in a SC 4-0 win over SLV. SC made the most of their four hits, with two run rallies in the third and sixth innings. In the third, Rothman drove in a run with a single and Kaiser singled and scored on a pass ball. In the sixth, Kaiser drew a bases loaded walk and Rothman, who went 2 for 4 got another RBI with a ground out. “We have to stay focused. We’ve never been a team that starts to celebrate after the third league game. There is a lot of ball ahead of us,” said Miguel. Cummings got out of her biggest jam in the fourth inning, with the bases loaded and one out, she then got a strikeout and a soft liner to shortstop.

April 7. On Target. Special Workout Helps Cardinal Ace Whiff 12, Shut Out Monte Vista 3-0. Jennifer Cummings hadn’t been too effective with her rise ball. So she had a workout with her pitching coach Wayne Richards, who said, “After taking the ball down below her waist to start pitching, she was throwing her head up ahead of he shoulders and it made everything flatten out. If the head comes up too fast, so do the shoulders and the body doesn’t whip up with the correct timing.” So, Richards had Cummings drop her eyes down in front of her and then pick up the target when she lifted up with the ball.
The results were devastating, for Monte Vista, which went down on strikes a dozen times. “I threw much better today. The lesson helped me a lot.” said Cummings. It was clearly the best Cummings has looked all season. She had total control of the strike zone. Her strike out to ball ratio was better then two to one, 77 strikes and 32 balls for the first time in four league games. Through five innings it was three to one, 57 strikes to 19 balls. She finished with a two hitter and walked two.
SC had some problems with Monte Vistas freshman pitcher, who is the leagues second best pitcher. In the second time through the order in the fourth inning, Rothman lined a double to left center, stole third and scored on the bad throw to third. SC scored twice in the sixth, when Nikki Sudduth jumped on the second pitch of the inning and drove it over the fence in left center. Sommer Easterby followed with a walk, took second on a pass ball and came the rest of the way on successive bunts to make the score 3-0.

April 19. Cummings Paces Victory Over Soquel. First place was on the line, which was OK with Cummings, who entered the game with a 15-2 record. She fired a one hitter as the Cards rolled to a 9-0 win over Soquel. SC is now 5-0 in league. Cummings struck out 13 batters and hit a triple, she didn’t feel she had a particularly good game. “We didn’t practice over Easter break. I had control problems. The shutout belongs to the team,” Cummings said. Cummings did walk five and had to pitch out of jams in the second and seventh innings, but always seemed to get the strikeout when she needed it.
SC got the only run they would need in the first inning on four walks. SC added a run in the third and two in the fourth and ended all doubt with five in the seventh. The big blow of the inning was a bases loaded double by Aimee Ghio. Coach Miguel, “We only had one day of practice last week. I felt they had earned a week off. We’ve played 23 games. I can’t complain about a shutout. We got beat three times in a San Jose tournament, so we know we’ll have to step it up. We’ve had inconsistent hitting. We haven’t played our smartest yet. We have yet to peak,”

April 25. Cummings no-hit Aptos in a 11-0 win.

April 26. Cardinals’ Cummings Rolls Over Aptos Again. After 13 innings of frustration, Aptos at least scored a run off Jennifer Cummings, while losing 8-1 in there second game against each other in two days. Cummings helped the Cards improve to 7-0 in league. She improved her record for the season to 21-1, as SC jumped to 22-3. The Aptos coach said, “She’s pretty intense. I hate to see her when she’s a senior. She’s going to dominate.” The Card offense powered up with 11 hits, led by Naomi Rothman with four RBI’s and Cummings with two.

May 3. Cardinals Chart Unfamiliar Territory. Rally in Seventh Enough To Beat Cats, Keep Record Spotless. Powerhouse SC found themselves in unique position trailing Watsonville 1-0 going into the seventh inning. By the time they finished their at bat, they had rallied for a 3-1 win, to stay unbeaten in league at 8-0. Cummings improved her record to 19-2, even though she wasn’t her usual overpowering self. She had only five strike outs, while walking two and giving up three hits. The one run was unearned. The first two Cards walked in the seventh and then on a double steal, they moved up a base. On a slow roller to the mound, the pitcher checked the runners and threw the batter out at first, but Summer Easterby broke from third and tied the score. Aimee Ghio singled to right to drive in the go ahead run. Naomi Rothman singled in the third run. “I was really nervous,” said Ghio, “I haven’t been good with runners on base. It was a big hit for me.”

May 4. Yet Another No-No for Santa Cruz Ace. What was Jennifer Cummings most proud about after her team beat Harbor 4-0? That she didn’t walk anybody. Her fourth no hitter took a back seat. “I didn’t walk anybody and my pitches had a lot of movement, especially to the better hitters,” said Cummings, who no hit Harbor in their first meeting. Her other no hitters where against Terra Nova and Aptos. “My changeup helped a lot with their best hitters. I kept my screwball high and tight.” Coach Miguel, didn’t think it would be another great day for Cummings as she was stiff and aching from the tight game with Watsonville the day before. “I was just hoping the defense would come through behind her. I was expecting that the defense would have to pick it up a notch and they did and Jennifer came through,” said Miguel. Cummings struck out five and went 2 for 3 at the plate, driving in runs with singles in the fourth and sixth innings.
Aimee Ghio and Anita Fearnley drove in the other runs with RBI singles. “I really felt stiff warming up. I slowly worked out of it as the game went on. You have to get down and pitch, no messing around,” said Cummings. The hardest hit ball was a line drive, caught by first baseman Brenna Williams. A Harbor runner reached second base twice. Catcher Fearnley cut her down stealing third and was picked off second by third baseman Ghio on a fake throw to first, but instead throwing behind the runner at second.

May 9. Cummings In A Class By Herself. But Is Card Sophomore Better Than Knipfer Was Last Year? Cummings is clearly the most dominant player in the league since, well Knipfer was last year. Cummings is 21-2 with four no hitters an a 0.43 ERA, 212 strikeouts and only 40 walks, 48 hits in 161 innings. There isn’t another pitcher in the league within 9 wins or 145 strikeouts of her. She is the reason SC is 10-0 in league going into today’s game against Monte Vista with a 8-1record for the league championship.
The logical person to compare the two pitchers is their pitching coach Wayne Richards. “You can’t compare the two. They are different girls and there’s no way to tell what’s going to happen to Jennifer over the next two years. She’s doing well physically, mentally and is a good learner, all the things are there. I don’t want to put pressure on her. She’s going along at a nice pace and we’re satisfied where she is. She has her head on right and is on the right track,” said Richards.
Both have the same repertoire of pitches, screwball, rise, curve, drop and change, but different needs for the pitches. It was no secret that the team behind Knipfer was not nearly as good as the SC team this year. Knipfer need to strike out a lot of people to win. Cummings plays on a team that has the best overall talent in the league. It doesn’t matter if she gives up a run or two early, because SC can usually coming back. SC has five .300 hitters in the lineup and SC is 24-3-1 this season. As a result, Cummings doesn’t need to go for a strike out all the time. She can let her defense, which is better then average, do the work. “When I have Kelly Kaiser at second base, Naomi Rothman at shortstop, Brenna Williams at first base, Aimee Ghio at third and Anita Fearnley behind the plate, there are not going to be too many base runners,” said Cummings.
A difference between the two is their rise balls, which is the pitch that scholarships come from. It rises and explodes when it gets to the plate. Knipfer perfected it by her senior year. Cummings best pitch now is he screwball, which backs up into the right handed batters quite effectively. There are not too many balls hit hard off the handle of the bat. Watsonville player, “Jennifer has a lot more junk, she throws to a lot of spots and gives batters trouble.” Cummings has been working with Richards for four years now. In that time she has become the best pitcher in Santa Cruz county and as good as any pitcher in the Santa Clara Valley. “She can pitch with any kids over there. No one over there is going to make her look bad,” Richards said. “Wayne tells me about how much he and Knipfer had to practice,” Cummings said. “To have her success motivates me to practice as much or more. She bloomed in her junior and senior years and the gives me a little more incentive, because I’m younger. I don’t hope to break records and things like that. If they come, they’ll come on there own.” Class dismissed.

May 11. Cards Claim Crown. On Day Two Of Game SC Tops Mustangs. With a 2-2 count, two outs and runners on second and third in the bottom of the ninth of a scoreless game, Anita Fearnley was looking for something hard. But as Monte Vista’s ace pitcher a freshman, went into her delivery, Jennifer Cummings, who was on third base, shouted, “Changeup!” So Fearnley, who normally moves up in the box and slaps at the ball, stayed back and waited an extra second, got the a changeup and slapped it into left field to score Cummings and give unbeaten SC a 1-0 win over second place Monte Vista 8-2 in a game that was suspended by rain after eight innings, the previous day. The victory gave SC with 11-0 league record. its first SCCAL championship since 1989.
“Jen knows best,” said Fearnley, “When I’m up, I only focus on her voice, because she knows the most about pitching, so I trust her.” “I saw the pitcher palm the ball in her hand,” said Cummings, who had a clear view into the right-handers glove from third base. “The only way to throw a change is to get a lot of skin on it. That makes it go slower.” “It was good, alert softball on Cummings part,” said coach Miguel.
SC had runners on first and second with one out in the ninth after Cummings singled to right and Nikki Sudduth was hit by a pitch. Summer Easterby bunted the runners along to set the stage for Fearnley and Cummings. Cummings had breezed through the top of the ninth, looking as strong as ever. She retired the side in order on ten pitches, eight of which were strikes. “I wanted this game bad, I had been thinking about it all day,” said Cummings.

May 12. Cards Wrap Up 11-1Season. There was no letup in the SC team the day after wrapping up the SCCAL title. If anything, SC turned it up a notch rolling to an errorless performance in a 11-0 victory over Soquel. SC finished 11-1in league and 26-3-1 overall. “After such an emotional win yesterday, the team could have let down, but they didn’t. They were able to concentrate and focus today,” Miguel said. Cummings tossed a two hitter striking out 12 and allowed one walk to face just three batters over the minimum. Aimee Ghio was 2 for 4 with three RBI’s. Nikki Sudduth had three hits. Naomi Rothman homered and Cummings tripled.

Trident. May 19. The team is stocked with young talent and has only two seniors. They have dominated the league this season and won the Del Mar Classic tournament early in the season. SC took second last year, so the win boosted the teams self esteem and raised their level of play. Sophomore pitching phenom Jennifer “K queen” Cummings helped win close tournament games, which gave the girls confidence early. Along with the great pitching, their potent offense and stingy defense are a key to their victories. Naomi Rothman, Jennifer Cummings, Aimee Ghio, Kelly Kaiser and senior Niki Sudduth are the fab five of the Cards lineup. Rothman is the leading hitter and is an excellent fielder at shortstop or second base.
Ghio has been nailing the ball, is leading the league in doubles and patrols the hot corner with intensity.
Kaiser is holding down second base, because of her quick feet and superb instincts. Kelly is a sure stealing threat and scores a majority of the runs, because of her speed.
Sudduth hit a home run over the fence and is solid in left field. She won two games with clutch hitting.
Playing first base is junior powerhouse Brenna Williams, who has pounded the ball and is an important ingredient in the lineup. She has some wins on the mound also.
Catcher is a tough position, especially with a pitcher who has so many different pitches. Anita Fearnley has accepted the challenge of catching all types of pitches and is gunning out base stealers left and right.
Katie Hintz is a freshman centerfielder, who is one of the best in the league.
Summer Easterby is gunning runners out from right field. She also provides senior leadership and timely hitting. The team should be even better next season.

In the first round of CCS, SC lost to Presentation of San Jose.

Sentinel. June 3. Cummings: double-deadly weapon
Jennifer Cummings will beat you, make no mistake about it. It may come the usual way, with an arsenal of pitches that whiz by a flailing hitter (she finished the season 19-7 with a 0.41 ERA). Or it may come with a virtual explosion off her own bat (.320 average, four home runs).
But the Santa Cruz High softball standout will beat you. Or die trying. The San Lorenzo Valley Cougars coached by Mark Crivelli were the only Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League team to pin a loss on Cummings and the Cardinals, 4-1, in early April. The defeat broke a 17-game league winning streak (spanning two seasons) for the dominating righty, who stood at the plate late in the game with a runner at first and a chance to tie with one of her famous mammoth shots. Crivelli, in his infinite wisdom, walked her. The next batter grounded out. End of game. Cummings was perhaps even more dominating on the mound a year ago, when she posted a 23-3 record with a .038 ERA. She struck out 242 hitters in 184 innings. This year she struck out 215 hitters in 185 innings. “I don’t think I had quite as successful a season as last year, like with strikeouts,” Cummings said. “But my hits have gone down and my earned runs down. And I hit four home runs, which made me happy.”
While it’s hard to improve on near perfection, her coach, Vic Miguel, noticed subtle improvements in his ace. “The improvement I recognized in her is certainly her stamina, the ability to throw well over multiple games and be consistent,” he said. “It’s amazing she can be in control that much all season long. There was virtually no dip in her performance.” The Cardinals–and, of course, Cummings as well–lost two in a row only one time. They were back-to-back non-league losses to Monterey and Presentation by scores of 2-1 and 2-0. The most runs scored off Cummings this year were the four tallied by Los Altos in a non-league game. Many of her losses came due to imperfect defensive play behind her. She gave up 48 runs all season, but only 11 of them were earned. In the 4-1 loss to SLV, the Cardinals committed six errors.
The selection of Cummings as the county’s top player came with little debate. “She’s the best,” said Harbor’s Tai Pleasant, who hit .417 but had little success against Cummings. “I looked at it as a challenge. She just doesn’t give you anything to hit. Your best chance is on the first pitch.” Even then it’s a crap shoot. Will you see the riser? The sinker? The curve? The changeup? And where will the location be? Cummings has pin-point control, walking only 47 hitters all year. “The quality of her pitching all of a sudden looms on you,” Miguel said. “You say, ’Gosh, she only walked one?’ Some of our defensive players had games where they never touched the ball.” And what of an amazing third straight run at Player of the Year honors next year?
Cummings sees room for improvement. She currently plays for two select teams, including the talented San Jose Strikers Gold squad, and plans to work harder in the off-season. “I want to master more control over my pitches, to throw them any time, any count,” she said. “I can be better.” And that certainly is the most scary thing of all.

Sentinel High School Softball Statistics. Individual hitting for those players who have hit over .267, by place in order, name, at bats, runs, hits, RBI and Average.
OR NAME AB R H RBI AV
6 Rothman 100 17 35 16 .350
8 Cummings 91 14 31 23 .341
15 Sudduth 75 13 24 15 .320
16 Ghio 97 21 31 15 .320
25 Kaiser 94 30 27 8 .287
27 Fearnley 71 11 19 12 .268

Individual pitching stats were led by Cummings with a 23-3 record, 185 innings pitched, 53 hits, earned runs 10, walks 41, strike outs 242 and ERA 0.38.

Rothman led in doubles with 9, third was Ghio with 6. Cummings was second in triples with 4 and Sudduth had 2. Stolen bases: Eighth was Kaiser with 10.
SC with a 26-4-1 record topped the team batting with 741 at bats, 145 runs, 200 hits, 113 RBI’s and an average of .270. SC was also tops in team pitching: 206 innings pitched, 73 hits, 38 runs, earned runs 15, walks 46, strike outs 249 and ERA 0.51

June 2. No One In County Compares To Cummings. In A League Of Their Own.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR was Jennifer Cummings and COACH OF THE YEAR, Vic Miguel.
Sentinel ALL COUNTY first team included four Cardinals: sophomore, pitcher, Jennifer Cummings with an ERA of 0.38, junior, third baseman, Aimee Ghio with a .320 average, junior, second baseman, Kelly Kaiser with a .287 average and junior, shortstop, Naomi Rothman with a .350 average. On the second team was senior, left fielder/first baseman, Nikki Sudduth with a .320 average.
As a freshman, Cummings introduced herself to the SCCAL with some impressive numbers, both at the plate and in the field: league best, five home runs and 26 RBI’s hitting and in pitching: 109 strikeouts and only 70 hits in 145 innings. This year she owned the league. There was Cummings and then everyone else. She threw four no hitters, had 234 strikeouts, a 0.39 ERA, and a 23-2 record. In leading SC to its first unbeaten league season since 1980, she went 12-0 with seven shutouts and gave up just 20 hits.
“Jennifer has all the tools,” said Wayne Richards her pitching coach. “She‘s physically strong and mentally strong, that’s what a lot of kids don’t have. If you‘re in the top of the class on the mental half it makes the physical half a lot easier. Evan as a seventh grader, Richards could tell that Cummings was something special. “She did some things that kids do not do until they are seniors. It was not taught, it was softball-sense type things.” At times it is hard to believe she’s this good as a 16 year old. She is articulate, composed, intelligent and has a work ethic that cannot be questioned. “Everybody gets tired from school and practice,” Miguel said, “But she has a desire for improvement and doesn’t mind putting in the practice time.”

Capsule Look At First Team.
Aimee Ghio made a conversion from outfielder to third base this season and had the best all around season in the league at the hot corner. Showed great instincts on bunts and knowing when to go for the lead runner, which helped keep runners from getting into scoring position,” said Miguel.
Kelly Kaiser a model lead off hitter, worked pitchers for 19 walks. She had more runs than hits, 30 to 27. No one else came within seven runs. Excellent second baseman. “You could always count on her to be around first base when the corners were up to field bunts. I don’t recall very many errors,” Miguel said.
Naomi Rothman came into her own in her second season as the SC shortstop. She had no trouble making the long throw from the hole to first base. “She developed into a truly fine defensive player,” said Miguel. “She held down her position really well, making very few errors. Was second in the league with 16 RBI’s.

Sentinel Dream Team batting order: Number five hitter, Jennifer Cummings hit’s the long ball. Always a threat. No equal as a pitcher.
Number seven, DH, Naomi Rothman second in county with 16 RBI’s. Good hitter for average.
Number nine, Aimee Ghio, good pressure player. In own way a team leader.
First base, Nikki Sudduth, solid defensively, whether play first base or the outfield.

JV GIRLS SOFTBALL
Yearbook. Freshman Lead Team Into Battle. Girls PE teacher Kim Cave took over as coach said, “We have some real talent this year, these girls should do very well.” Led by freshmen Kira Duckett, Tricia Hall and Oryan Johnson and junior Amy Anderson the team the team did well as the coach predicted. Other players: Julie Dryden, Morgan Eastman, Corey Fitzpatrick, Alicia Flores, Crystal Geiger, Coral Gilkie, Brenda Kerr, Amelia Metcalf, Sarah Mitchell, Erin Oneto, Nikki Robinson, Jamie Ross and Karla Valdez.

TRACK INFORMATION FOR BOYS AND GIRLS
SCCAL boys championship meet was SLV 115, Harbor 106, Watsonville 99. Monte Vista Christian 68, Soquel 44, SC 42, Aptos 21.
Boys league dual meets: Aptos 46-69, SLV 47-89. Harbor 42-85, Soquel 46-60. Record 0-4. (Missing results for Watsonville and Monte Vista for both boys and girls.)..
Girls league dual meets: Aptos 51-74, SLV 80-46, Harbor 62-70, Soquel 66-61. Record 2-2.

From the Sentinel March 13. Coaches: Andre Dunkell, Jennifer Hodges, Mila Fierro and Kristan Knight, all in their first year of coaching, all off campus and all new to coaching. Dunkell, a nationally recognized master’s athlete in the 800 meters is serving as the head coach and is coaching the middle and long distances. Knight, a former Harbor athlete is coaching the hurdlers. Hodges is coaching the jumpers and Fierro an ex-Cardinal is working with the sprinters. Seth Williams helps out coaching the vaulters. Dunkell said, “So many seniors are gone and we aren’t able to recruit at school. It makes it hard for us. We don’t have a teacher looking out for us. There’s no one person in the whole school motivated to help the track team.” So the new coaches decided to have fun and make the best of a tough situation. At least the athletes, who are out for the team are motivated, something that has not changed with the program.
This years team only has 31 athletes combined boys and girls teams, it could be a long season. Former coach and athletic director Bryan Wall, now an assistant principal at Harbor said, “the team averaged between 80 to 90 athletes over the previous eight years.
Top girls: Evie Smith senior, high jump; Melissa Connerly sophomore, hurdles; Maria Willis junior, throws and Soji Howe sophomore, distance.
Top senior Boys: David Kessler, distance; Josh Small, distance; Sjon Tol, pole vault.
Scouting report: Rebuilding seems to be operative around the SC Campus. A new coaching staff feels its way through its first season. Top returning athlete is Evie Smith in the girls high jump. She was a CCS finalist last year. Smith has a shot at the state meet this year. Otherwise the Cards are young and inexperience. There is hope in the distance races. Kessler and Small are solid runners and will score points. “There going to be busy,” said Dunkell, who coaches the distance events. “We don’t have many bodies.” Beyond that, the Cards, all 31 of them are unproven. A third straight boys title seems like a remote possibility. “The top athletes have the top attitudes right now. I’m happy with the kids we have,” Dunkell said.

May 7.
SCCAL boys championship meet was SLV 115, Harbor 106, Watsonville 99. Monte Vista Christian 68, Soquel 44, SC 42, Aptos 21.
The SCCAL Track and Field Championships were held at Soquel. Three Cards qualified for the CCS finals at San Jose City College, they are David Kessler, who was second in the 1,600 in 4:40.7, Josh Small in the 3,200 and Lee Keyser-Allen in the pole vault were the only SC athletes to qualify to go on to the finals at San Jose City College. Keyser-Allen was a non factor most of the season, but came on in the past two weeks, and when the league leader no heighted, which means, he was not able to get over the bar on the height he started with. Keyser-Allen won with a personal best 11-6. “He’s made huge strides,: said coach Dunkell. “It was a pleasant confirmation of what I thought he could do.”

Girls: At the SCCAL meet, Evie Smith got off on the wrong foot, the night before the meet. While out jogging she turned her right ankle and was not able to compete in the long jump or triple jump, but was able to take second in the high jump. The injury still bothered her on Saturday and she did not advance to the finals for the first time in her high school career. Her personal best in the high jump is 5-4, but she could only clear 4-10 at the meet. “It was not a good day. I’ve been to the finals three years in a row. My ankle was all ‘biffed,’ and its still swollen. I haven’t practiced at all,” said Evie. “That was the biggest heart break for everybody,” said coach Andre Dunkell. “She is a model athlete. I think everyone would agree with that. What she did was on real guts.” No other Card was mentioned other than Katie David finishing fourth in the triple jump at 32-5.

After the SCCAL championship meet, some 40 schools met on a wet, cold, windy and long day at Soquel in the CCS South Trials to qualify for the CCS semifinals.

May 12. Critical Day Comes For Area Track Stars at the CCS South Trials at Soquel. The CCS semifinals will be held the following week at San Jose City College. Leagues in addition to the SCCAL are the MBL MTAL and Blossom Valley league. The SCCAL will show off its new Omega computer timing system, a $12,000 state-of-the-art setup the shows the finish of a race on a computer screen, eliminating controversial calls. Wharf to Warf Race funds were used to purchase the system. Getting it up and running wasn’t without its problems, however. The league will be renting out the system to other leagues in the future to help defray costs.
Evie Smith should be ready to go in the high jump, despite a twisted ankle suffered while jogging last week.`

START OF SEASON DUAL MEETS AND INVITATIONAL MEETS
March 13. SC Program Starting Over. Something of a track power for the past decade, with two time defending boys team champions of the SCCAL, SC is now in a major rebuilding mode.
Sentinel. Changing Of The Guard Brings New Life To The Team
Former head coach Brian Wall left to be vice principal at Harbor and assistants Don Roberts and Jim Scott are also gone. Stepping in are Andre Dunkell, the sprint and distance coach, who is nationally recognized master’s athlete in the 800 meters. Assistants are Jennifer Hodges, Kristian Knight and Mila Fiero. A combined turn out of only 31 is way down from the between 80 to 90 the previous eight years. Non of these coaches are on the school staff, which effects turnout. “The kids are enthusiastic, have a good attitude, but fairly young.
Top boys: seniors, David Kassler, distance; Josh Small, distance and Sjon Tol, pole vault. Taking the lead this year are senior Josh Small and juniors Joel Abraham, David Kessler and Danny Whiting. Even though this years team has a lower turn out than most years, they were able to make a viable run for the league title. Other members: Joel Abraham, Lee Keyser-Allen, Elias Alvarez, Colin Arlt, Guerderno, Chavez, Gordon Hamhock, John Howard, Lee Martin, Clay Tol, Matt Windt.

Team Unity And Leadership Show In The SCCAL.
Andre Dunkell and Mila Fiero are double up as boys and girls coaches and alum Kim Hodges the current school record holder in the 400 meters will also assist in coaching. Team leaders are Heidi Brockman, Jessica Duncan and Evie Smith, the three time defending league champion in the high jump. From the past, two athletes with school records are Mercedes Blair and Maria Shanle. Other team members: Melissa and Bridgette Connerly, Jennifer Croghan, Maria Willis, Rebecca Abraham, Ashley Adams, Laura Beach, Gabriela Chirinos, Elizabeth Conerly, Greta Hansen, Geneva Smith, Cara Shumate, Kahli Nueva and Sjon Tol.

Sentinel March 17. Boys: Aptos 69, SC 46. David Kessler emerged as the standout individual performer. He won the 3,200 in 11:16.9; the 1,600 in 4:55.9 and the 800 in 2:13.3
Girls: Aptos 74, SC 51. (No information on SC)

Sentinel. March 26. Fun Day For Soquel At County Relay. The relays don’t have the high pressure of the post season track and field championships. Soquel won both the boys and girls competition.
SC girls tied with Watsonville for third with 50 points to Soquel’s 112 and SLV’s 88.
In the boys meet, SC ended in last place with 28 points to winners Soquel with 112. (No SC athletes were mentioned in the article.)

Sentinel. March 31. Girls: Cards Smith Off and Flying. Evie Smith set the early season standard for the rest of the SCCAL to chase in the high jump with a leap of 5-2. Smith also claimed he long jump and triple jump to help led SC to a 80-46 victory over SLV. As usual, the Cards were strong in the sprints as Francine Lynch won the 100 meters in 13.3 and the 200 in 23.0. Heidi Brockman won the 100 hurdles in 18.3 and 300 hurdles in 53.2. In the distance events, Soji Howe won the 800 and 1,600 in 2:43.3 and 6:08.6 respectively.
Boys: SLV 89, SC 47. (No information about SC scoring.)

Trident. April 6. After the special season last year, the strong mixture of 35 sprinters, distance runners, jumpers and throwers are scrambling to compete against the 70 member teams of Harbor and Aptos. At the meet held at Aptos on March 18, both the boys and girls held their own. The only seniors on the team Melissa Connerly, Josh Small, Evie Smith and Sjon Tol all performed to the best of their ability and pulled out first pace finishes.
On the girls team, juniors Katie David, Janeen Aldrich and Maria Willis made major contributions, as did sophomores Soji Howe, Heidi Brockmann, Bridgette Conerly, Ellen Sherrill and Jenny Croghan. Not to neglect the freshman who make up two-thirds of the entire team: Kali Campbell, Laura Beach, Ashley Adams and Rebecca Abraham.
On the boys side, both junior David Kessler and Josh Small stand a chance to travel to state competition this year in the mile and two mile. Others to keep an eye on are sophomore Lee Martin and freshmen Matt Wind

April 7. Girls: Harbor 70. SC 62. A depleted roster and a four event limit on athletes combined to doom SC, who didn’t have anyone running relays, because athletes were entered in four other events. By entering the relays, SC would have received another 10 points, which would have been enough to win. (Only names listed were Harbor athletes)
Boys: Harbor 85, SC 42. Joel Abraham won the triple jump with a mark of 39-11 and was second in the long jump at 18 feet.

April 28. Boys: Soquel 60, SC 46. David Kessler won the 1,600 in 4:39.4 and had firsts in the 200 in 25.0 and the 400 in 54.8. Josh Small won the 800 in 2:07.5. Kumi Rauf won the long jump at 19-7 and Joel Abraham won the triple jump at 39-5.
Girls: Santa Cruz 66, Soquel 61. Heidi Brockmann knocked more than a second off her time in the 300 hurdles in 51.5 for the third best time in the league this year. Soji How won the 1,600 in 6:01. Evie Smith won the high jump at 4-8, the triple jump at 32-5 and was second in the long jump. Maria Willis won the shot put at 29-0.

Sentinel May. Girls top ten girls in the SCCAL in each event. Listed by event, place, name and time or distance.
400 meter relay
3 SC 53.3

100 meters
10 Lynch 13.3

800 meters
10 Howe 2;43.3

1,600 meter relay
5 SC 4:45.6

400 meter relay
4 SC 53.3

1,600 meters
7 Howe 5:54.9

100 meter hurdles
5 Brockmann 18.1
9 M. Connerly 18.5

High jump
1 Smith 5-2
6 Lynch 4-8
7 Beach 4-8

Triple jump
4 David 32-5
6 Smith 32-5

Shot put
6 Willis 29-7
9 Campbell 28.5

Discus
7 Willis 90-6

Sentinel May 25. Top five boys in the SCCAL in each event. Listed by event, place, name and time or distance.
400 meters
7 Kessler 54.8

800 meters
5 Kessler 2:05.4
6 Small 2:07.5

1,600 meters
4 Kessler 4:39.4
5 Small 4:43.6

3,200 meters
3 Small 10:17.6

300 meter hurdles
10 Quintanilla 48.7

Long jump
8 Rauf1 8-10

Triple jump
2 Abraham 40-4

Pole vault
2 Keyser-Allen 11-6
4 Toll 11-0

CCS QUALIFIERS BOYS David Kessler, Josh Small and Lee Keyser-Allen
GIRLS Evie Smith

BOYS SWIMMING AND DIVING Third place in league.
Yearbook. Despite Turn Out, Seniors Lead Team To Great Season.
Led by seniors Sean Clew and Chris Reefe as well as juniors Nilo Alvarado and Seth Gargano the team took third place in league. Other top swimmers were senior Paul Kele and juniors Cary Webber, Javier Andrade and Bobby Hansen. The teams schedule included big meets like the Serra Invitation, Santa Cruz Sprint Invitational and the Harbor Invitational. New coach Doug Pitrie despite the low turn out held the team together for 5:30 AM and after school practice. Other members: Sean Echols, Matt Porter and Joel Silver.
Assistant coaches Cary Smith and Casey Nichols.

Trident March 7. There were only three seniors returning, they were Paul Kele, Sean Clew and standout Chris Reefe. Other experienced players were juniors Cary Webber, Javier Andrade, Bobby Hansen, Seth Gargano and Nilo Alvarado. The following are expectations of four of the swimmers, who are looking forward to CCS. Two seniors, Chrs Reefe plans on qualifying in the 100 yard breaststroke and 100 fly. Sean Clew in the 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke. Two
Juniors working to make their first appearances are Nilo Alvarado in the 100 breaststroke and Seth Gargano in the 200 freestyle. These four swimmers also plan to combine for two powerful relay teams at CCS: The 200 yard medley relay and the 200 yard freestyle relay.

Trident. May 19. The team maintained a steady season, as they dominated half the league schools in all aspects of the meets other than diving. The two star divers to return had other interests this year and didn’t participate. The swimmers that broke through to qualify for CCS are senior Sean Clew, who qualified in the 50 free as well as both the 200 medley relay and the 200 medley free relay. Chris Reefe qualified in the 100 breaststroke and also on the two relay teams. Bobby Hansen and Cary Webber are the other two members on the relay teams. Two other seniors who were important to the team were Paul Kele and Adam Lathers. The only
teams that were able to dominate SC were Harbor, because of the depth of their team and Aptos, because of the quality of their swimmers. SC was able to take third place in league by sweeping most events against Soquel and Watsonville. Juniors Bobby Hansen, Cary Webber, Seth Gargano, Nilo Alvarado and Joel Silver and others will be moving up to leadership positions in swimming next year along with the water polo team in the fall.

Sentinel. At the SCCAL swimming championships Harbor stretched its consecutive league wins to fifteen. SC’s top swimmer was Chris Reefe, who took second in the 100 breaststroke in 1”06.93 an took third in the 200 individual medley. Corey Webber took third in the 100 fly and Bobby Hanson was third in the 100 backstroke.

Sentinel stats for boys swimming on May 10 listed by place in rankings, name and best time. 200 medley relay: 3. SC, 1:55.28
200 individual medley: League record, Steve Hatch 1:56.10, 1980.
50 freestyle: 5. Clew, 24.11
200 freestyle relay: 3. SC 1:40.92
100 breaststroke: 4. Reefe, 1:09.36
400 freestyle relay: 3, 3:48.10

Trident. May 19. GIRLS WATER POLO is still a club sport. There are four schools playing one another: Soquel, Aptos, Harbor and SC. There is a lot of conflict with players being involved in the musical FAME, to make practices and games. So far SC is 3-2. Taryn Nagy, Shelley Gill, Ali Chapin, Shera Grellmann, Ellen Sherrill and Liz Schiffrin have made a commitment to get water polo as an official SCCAL sport. They presented ASB with a proposition to make girls water polo an official SCHS club and were voted as an official club, so they didn’t have to pay $25.00 an hour for using the pool.

Sentinel May 6. SC 19, Live Oak 11. SC improved to a 7-3 record. SC was led by Corey Millers six goals, followed by Heather Tyler with five and Taryn Nagy with four.

BOYS VOLLEYBALL
Yearbook. SCCAL Recognizes Boy’s Volleyball As Sanctioned Sport. SC has had a volleyball team for several years, but this is the first year that the team is able to participate in a school sanctioned team and in the CCS playoffs. In the past it was a club team and had to settle for the least convenient hours for practicing and games. The had to have fund raisers, so they could have an awards ceremony at the end of the season and pay for their uniforms.

Its only two seniors Sam Payne and Lannis Pope led the team along with junior Jonathan Norvell. Freshman Colin Radach was a top addition to the team.

Three students from the volleyball team from UCSC have become the new coaches of the team. They are head coach Jay Hosack and assistants, George Navarro and Henry Chung. The team consisted of two seniors, six juniors, one sophomore and three freshman. The team put in two hours everyday including practices, matches and grueling tournaments during the weekends, said Sam Payne. Other members: Dan Terry, Will Heyward, Larry McDuffie, Karl Williams, Tony Brigante, Trevor Bodewitz, Tyler Thatcher and Justin Lundbeg.

Sentinel. March 11. After three losses, SC picked up its first win of the SCCAL season by sweeping Monterey 15-13, 15-8, 15-7. Jonathan Norvell had 17 kills and three aces, Will Heyward had five aces, Colin Radach and Tyler Thatcher each had three aces.

April 7. SC defeated Mitty 15-4, 15-5, 15-4. Jonathan Vorvell has 19 kills and 6 aces for SC with a 4-7 overall record.

Trident. April 6. The team has finally been recognized as a legitimate school sport and has practice from 3:30 to 6:30 pm in the gym. The team has only two retuning players and with the addition of three freshmen starters is the youngest team in the league. The coaching staff consists of three UCSC student volleyball players with years of experience. Head coach Jay Hosak and assistants George Navarro and Henry Chuang. Athletic director Vic Miguel has been a huge supporter of making volleyball a sanctioned sport. The record at present is 1-5. The younger players are quickly coming out of their shells and the Cards are becoming a threat to their opponents.

BOYS TENNIS UNDEFEATED LEAGUE CHAMPIONS FOR THE FOURTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR.
Practice matches: Salinas 5-2, Carmel 3-4, (Matches missing)
League: Harbor 7-0, 6-1; Aptos won, 6-1; SLV won, 5-2; Soquel 5-2, 4-3; Watsonville 7-0, 7-0. League record 10-0. CCS playoffs defeated Mt. View 7-0 and lost to number one seed Monta Vista of Cupertino 1-6.

Yearbook. All Senior Team Clinches Third League Title In Row.
The team was led by an almost full senior squad of Gabe Murphy, Eric Knox, Saunder Nauenberg, Rick Godnick, David Avary and Jacob Meyberg. Adding to the experienced seniors was freshman star Gabriel Cowen. “With senior leadership and experience plus the youthful exuberance of Cowen the team had a great year. I’m glad to have coached such a great team, especially the seniors, for four years. I have watched them grow into fabulous tennis players. This was one of the best years for me without a doubt,” said veteran coach Dennis Mullen. Other members: Jared VanKirk, Gopala Walker, Jay Moore, Gabriel Coren and Nick Minnis.

Sentinel. March 2. SC Boys Win Tennis Debut. A pair of three set singles wins carried SC to a 5-2 road win over Salinas in the season opener. SC, defending SCCAL champions, won two of the three doubles matches. In singles, number two, Gabe Murphy dropped the first set, then came back to win the next two. Number four, Sander Nauenberg lost the second set, then battled to win the third. Rick Godnick won at number five singles in straight sets.

Trident. March 7. Card Tennis Gains Freshman Phenom. Gabe Coren, the only underclassman on the squad is currently playing number one singles. He plays in national tournaments around the country, including Chicago, North Carolina and Texas. He is ranked ninth in Northern California in his age group, under 14’s. He is small in stature, but has proven himself on the court. There is a slew of experienced seniors and juniors led by coach Dennis Mullen, who said, “Its hard to say who will be playing were with all the depth we have this year.”
The current line up is number one, Coren, 2. Gabe Murphy, 3. Eric Knox, 4. Sander Nauenberg and 5. Rick Godnick all seniors except Coren. In doubles: seniors 1. David Avary and Jacob Meuberg. Number 2 doubles are juniors Jay Moore and Nick Minnis. Expect to see the Cards shuffled this year. A lot of competition. Two other positive additions to the team are Jared Van Kirk and Gopala Walker. Besides boosting the team’s morale, the two also bolster the teams already impressive overall GPA.

March 17. Stir Crazy. Restless Cardinals Poach Pirates 7-0. So far the team has played only two matches and had limited practices, because of the recent bad weather. “The kids were going bananas,” Coach Dennis Mullen said. SC 3-0 overall took all but one match in straight sets. Number one singles Gabe Coren came back from a sluggish start to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. At number two, Gabe Murphy was solid in a 6-1, 6-4 win.

March 29. Cards Hang Tough To Hold Off Knights. SC had the home court advantage, but their grip was more than loose. Soquel won the first set in three singles matches. The Cards were hanging by a finger until Sander Nauenberg emerged victorious from a three hour session in number four singles. Nauenberg won 5-7, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 and handed SC its match clinching fourth victory in a 5-2 win over Soquel, considered the top contender in the SCCAL this year. Dennis Mullen’s teams have won the league crown 16 of the SCCAL’s 18 seasons. :
”We knew they were going to be tough. Their first five guys played singles last year. We had one returning singles player Gabe Murphy. Its not going to be easier next time,” Mullen said. Shortly after Nauenberg’s win David Avary and Jacob Meyberg wrapped up a 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) win in number one doubles. Mike Marlowe and Jay More won 6-1, 6-3 at number two doubles. Soquel won the top two singles matches. Losers for SC were Gabe Coren and Gabe Murphy.

March 31. SC 7, Watsonville 0. After the hard fought win over Soquel, SC was able to switch to cruise control as they rolled over the Wildcats. At number one singles, Gabe Coren won 6-0, 6-1 and number one doubles, Mike Marlowe and Jay Moore won 6-0, 6-1. SC is 4-0 in league and 6-0 overall.

April 4. SC played one of its best matches of the season and came within a tiebreaker of knocking off undefeated Carmel. But the Padre’s strength in the top of the lineup proved to be the difference as they edged SC 4-3. SC won both doubles, with number one Rick Godnick and David Avary and number two Mike Marlowe and Jay Moore playing well. At number five singles, Jacob Meyberg won for SC. At number four, Sander Nauenberg, played a great match, according to coach Mullen, fighting back from a first set loss before falling 6-4, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3)

April 6. Cougars Give Cards A Fight. But in the end, SC’s depth and power were to much for SLV as SC notched a 5-2 victory. Number one Gabe Coren, a freshman lost 3-6, 2-6. At number three singles Eric Knox lost 7-6 (7-3, 7-6 (7-5). “It was baseline banging back and forth without a whole lot of mistakes, said Mullen. There were two three setters, Gabe Murphy, won at number two singles 6-1, 3-6, 6-1. At number four Sander Nauenberg won 4-6, 6-0, 6-2.

April 19. Santa Cruz Remains unbeaten with a 6-1 victory over Harbor. There were three matches decided in the third set. The most exciting was at number one singles were Gabe Coren lost 6-3, 6-7 (2-7, 1-6. Coren had won the first time the two teams met this season. Two double matches went to a third set with SC winning both. At number one doubles, David Avary and Jacob Meyberg and at number two Mike Marlowe and Jay Moore were winners. At number two singles, Gabe Murphy took a tough 7-5, 6-3 decision. SC is now 6-0 in league.

Santa Cruz Eyes Showdown With Soquel. SC improved to 8-0 in the SCCAL with a 6-1 win over Aptos. SC can clinch the league title with a win over Soquel. SC 12-1 overall took each match with Aptos in straight sets, but not easily. At number one singles, Gabe Coren won 7-6 (7-2), 6-0, while at number two Gabe Murphy won 6-0, 7-6 (7-4) and at number three, Eric Knox survived to win 6-1, 7-6 (7-5).

May 2. Cardinals Win It Again. In Final Year As Coach, Mullen Gets His Seventeenth Title. Not until his SC team beat Soquel last month did Coach Dennis Mullen tell his Cardinals when Soquel had last beaten SC. It was 1973. Well before the current Cardinals were born. Mullen used that fact to inspire the 1995 team. The Cardinals needed it Tuesday afternoon when Mullen’s 17th and final Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League team championship was on the line against the Soquel Knights.
Mullen, who announced at the beginning of the season that this would be his last, had to sweat it out until the last match. Cardinal senior Eric Knox broke a 3-3 team tie by winning the No. 3 singles match, 6-3, 6-1, over Howard Dorfman to ice the title.
The 4-3 Santa Cruz victory gave the team a 9-0 record heading into today’s league finale at Watsonville. Soquel, which had an outside shot at its first SCCAL crown, is 6-2 with two matches left–out of the running. “He’s the man,” said Soquel Coach Chris Yoder. “Mullen’s the man.”
Under Mullen, Santa Cruz has won or shared the SCCAL championship in every year that the league has been in existence except for 1981 and 1991, when Aptos won it outright. Santa Cruz won Monterey Bay League titles in 1975 and 1976 before the SCCAL was formed. “I knew Soquel would be really good this year,” said Mullen, who will complete his 25th season with the Central Coast Section team championship tournament beginning next Wednesday. “I knew they were going after us full-bore.
Chris scheduled a lot of the teams we do, he hit with his guys in a summer program and he practiced them hard. We knew this would be tough.” Knox’s match was the last to begin, but it didn’t last long. Minutes before Knox clinched the championship, Soquel’s Eric Miyoshi created a 3-3 team deadlock with his 7-6(13-11), 2-6, 6-3 win over Jacob Meyberg at No. 5 singles. Minutes before that, Santa Cruz had gone up 3-2 with a 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2) win by No. 2 doubles team Mike Marlowe and Jay Moore.
Earlier Santa Cruz freshman Gabe Coren notched one of his biggest victories of the season at No. 1 singles. Soquel senior Brian Cummings entered the match unbeaten in seven SCCAL matches, but fell 6-3, 6-4. The Knights got wins from No. 2 Chris Harrison (6-0, 7-6 over Gabe Murphy) and No. 4 Tyler Skowrup (6-3, 7-6 over Sander Nauenberg). David Avary and Rick Godnick beat Soquel’s Jon Benjamin and Matt Michelson, 6-4, 6-3, at No. 2 doubles.

May 3. SC 7, Watsonville 0. SC who clinched their fourth straight SCCAL title with a win over Soquel on Monday, finished the season with 10-0 mark by sweeping the Wildcats. All the matches went only two sets. Retiring coach Dennis Mullen, said he was particularly pleased with the play of juniors Gopola Walker and Jared Vankirk, who played well in a step up to varsity. They won their match 6-0, 6-2. It was the last SCCAL regular season match for seniors Gabe Murphy, Eric Knox, Rick Godnick, Sander Nauenberg, David Avary and Jacob Meyberg. SCCAL singles and doubles championships are to be played at the Imperial Courts Racquet Club in Aptos.

May 4. With the 25 year coaching career of Dennis Mullen coming to a close this season, the SC team wanted to send him out in style in the Cards final SCCSL match against Watsonville.
So the Cardinals beat the host Wildcats 7-0 while wearing their Sunday go-to-meetin’ duds–dress slacks, dress shirts, sport coats and ties. “My mouth must have dropped open,” said Mullen, who charged Rick Godnick and the five other seniors as the conspirators. “They really looked. Nice ties.” At first, Mullen was afraid the Watsonville players would be insulted by the formal attire, but the Cardinal players explained themselves and the Wildcats said they did not see it as a sign of disrespect. “We definitely didn’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings,” Mullen said. Notable absences: wingtip shoes and a camera.

May 11. SC Tennis Rolls In CCS. It didn’t take long for SC to earn its way into the second round of the CCS playoffs, by defeating previously unbeaten Mt. View 14-0 and champions of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League B Division. SC won 7-0 to improve their season record to 17-2. In the first four matches, SC won in straight sets, no less. “The kids played really well today, I thought, said coach Mullen.
Rick Godnick at the number five spot was the first off the court with a 7-5, 6-0 win. Sander Nauenberg at number four followed with a 6-2, 6-2 win and Gabe Murphy at number two won 6-2, 6-1 to give SC a quick 3-0 lead. When number three, Eric Knox won 6-4, 6-1, the match was clinched. But the best was yet to come. After Mike Marlowe and Nick Minnis prevailed 6-4, 6-3 at the two doubles, freshman Gabe Coren at number one singles, battled back from two match points in the second set to even his match at a set apiece 6-7 (7-4), 7-5. Then his opponent retired with back spasms. “It was really a great comeback by Gabe. He played great. He didn’t quit. He just kept fighting back,” Mullen said. Dave Avary and Jacob Meyberg finished off the shutout winning 4-6, 7-6 (9-7), 7-5 in the number two doubles.
“That was a great match. It’s one of the better doubles teams they’ve played all year,” said Mullen.
SC is to play top seed Monta Vista, which is one of two team to beat SC this year. “It was a buzz saw,” said Mullen, who noted that Monta Vista has ranked players all the way down to number two doubles. “They’re awesome. We’re not going to try and upset them or anything like that, we’re just going try and improve. We played well today and if we play that well against Monta Vista, we’ll do better than we did last time against them.

Facing such perennial tennis powers as Leland, Monta Vista and Robert Louis Stevenson, the Cards was able to show its strength around CCS.

Trident. May 19. By Ricki Godnicki. Coach Mullen Wraps Up Final League Title. Cards Tennis Wins Fourth Consecutive League Title.
It’s been a year unlike any other for the team. With countless matches and practices being rained out, with the new school schedule creating different practice times for different people and with Coach Mullen’s last year coach the team. It seemed that the team often times lacked the intensity of past years. It may have looked like we were a bunch of slackers, but we were as competitive as any team and finished the league season undefeated.
In my last four years at SC, we never lost a league match, but this year it was apparent that the rest of the league was catching up. Soquel’s only league loss was to SC, so if they were to win this next match it would set up a tie in league. In number one singles, freshman Gabe Coren beat last years league champion. With only two matches still to be played, SC was down 2-3. SC’s number two doubles team of Mike Marlowe and Jay Moore lost their 6-5 lead in the final set and begin a tie breaker. They started playing well and ripped through the tiebreaker to put the match score at 3-3. Senior Eric Knox defeated his man to seal a Card victory and the league championship. The next day SC defeated last place Watsonville.
SC had a tough draw in CCS, being seeded number 8 out of a 16 team field. SC easily beat Mt. View 7-0, but then were matched up with the number one seed Monta Vista of Cupertino, who had beaten SC 7-0 earlier in the season. The Cards were able to win one match and only lose 6-1. Although SC may be kings on this side of the hill, we aren’t on the same level as Monta Vista. Coach Mullen commented it was like playing a college team. All their players are ranked and carry around ten rackets in bags the size of my house an been playing at clubs since age four. SC players play at public courts.
“Coach Mullen is the best coach the Santa Cruz area has ever seen,” Nauenberg. says. Thank you coach Mullen for your 26 years of dedication to Cardinal tennis.

GOLF
The team had a plan to improve their performance over last years team. They succeed when they defeated league champion Soquel early in the season. The team was led by an all junior team of Zack Adams, Matt, Walton, Jared Bogaard, Mike Cook and Jimmy Cahill. (this was the team period) “It was kind of weird having all juniors, but it helped us unite and become better friends,” stated Matt Walton.

Coach Pete Pappas set up a tough schedule competing against top golf schools. “It was a grueling year, but we had s great bunch of guys who were willing to got to the lengths of the earth to play golf,” exclaimed Coach Pappas.

Sentinel. March 3. SC 239, Watsonville 246. Freshman Jimmy Cahill in his first career match managed a 53 in the last group to clinch the SCCAL opener. He just came out from basketball and he really helped,” said Coach Pete Pappas. “I thought we were in trouble. The last foursome took an hour to play the final three holes.” Jeremiah Breeden helped too, with his 5 over par 40, low for the team, with Jared Bogaard adding a 43.