Viewpoints
18 | October 4, 2012
Sports
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Midnight madness basketball Seles Rodriguez Staff Writer
Jeremy Fuerte / NewS Editor
Madness: Tigers freshman, Anthony Rounds, looking to pass the ball during a team practice drill.
The Riverside City College men’s basketball team will kick off its 2012-2013 season on Nov. 6 with its official scrimmage. The Tigers will open the season with a brand new team having 13 freshman players and seven returners. Coach John Smith has great expectations for his team this year and sees a great advantage of their height and ability to perform as a team. “We have a stronger, bigger and taller team this season,” Smith said. He also stated that they are still in the process of learning but senses that they will be ready by November when they will begin to play against other schools. “Saddleback and Irvine Valley are the two schools in our conference that are always our toughest foes,” Smith said. In addition to summer practices, each year Smith organizes a number of teams building strategies to create a strong unit. He strongly believes the team has built a stronger chemistry on and off the court due to these events that took place in the mountains, homes and TV recordings. He has confidence in the idea of the team building trust within the players that will carry on to the court. Still learning each other’s weaknesses and
strengths, the players have a good standing leaving nothing but room for improvement. “Those guys are like brothers and that’s huge because that will carry over as we start developing our system,” Smith said. Smith has set his expectations high and only accepts 110% effort on the court. With the leadership of Dominique Lanier, Jeff Gonzalez, and Anthony Rounds this is sure to be a successful season for the Tigers. An additional player to keep your eyes on this year would be freshman Macam Macam from Lynn, Massachusetts. Macam is doing surprisingly well given that he hasn’t played since his junior year in high school when he tore his ACL on court as well as his disability to hear. “Over the past couple weeks he has made an incredible improvement,” Smith said. “He has become an extraordinary addition to the team.” “We’ve been at the level of the regional eight, nine out of the 13 years so we’re used to getting there but it takes the sophomores to help the young guys get to that point.” Smith said. The team has been practicing since the beginning of summer on defense, shooting averages, and speed with the strong guidance from Smith. This will be Smith’s
thirteenth year coaching the Tigers and has developed many strategies practiced over the years to improve team performance. An example of one of these strategies is a team drill where the players are placed into small groups and attempt to score one hundred points within a ten minute time frame. Every year Smith practices this drill and each year the team only gets passed fifty points but this drill is believed to push the lineup to play harder. “If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’re going to continue to get what you got,” Smith said to his team, suggesting that they give him more and more each day to advance in performance. The team is excited to finally have the home court advantage of playing in RCC’s newly renovated gym. “That type of atmosphere gives you just so much motivation, you don’t want to let your home crowd down,” Smith said. The Tigers have predicted a larger audience and better atmosphere with the familiarity of our new basketball stadium. The Tigers will be holding their “Midnight Madness” on Oct. 6 at 9 p.m. after the homecoming football game. At the event, the team will be introduced; there will be a dunk and three point contest as well as a fifteen minute scrimmage.
Women’s basketball looking forward to 2012 season Usman Siddiqui Staff Writer After being named Coach of the Year by her fellow coaches at Riverside City College in 2011, Alicia Berber returns to a team for which she has high hopes of success when this season gets underway on Oct. 1. Last season the team finished in sixth place in the Orange Empire Conference with a conference record of 4-8 and an overall record of 10-18. Berber is presented with 13 new incoming players and three returning players. Berber has assessed what she has seen thus far on and off the court in practice. “I like the team’s cohesiveness, they’re about the team, they’re there for
one another,” she said. She listed work ethic and the ability to adapt to whatever situation is given to them as the team’s strengths. On the other hand, she listed youth as the team’s main weakness. Berber has seen much improvement from all of her players in practice. “All of the players have improved in some way or another overall as people and their skill levels. You can’t put a heart in those kids, they work hard,” she said. Two of these new players will have to make a quick transition, as they will jump into the basketball season from the volleyball season. Guard Josette Calhoun participated in both sports during her time in high school and will continue to show her talent in both sports at
RCC. Kayla Johns is the other, contributing as a middle blocker on the volleyball team and a forward on the basketball team. Another new addition to the team, forward Demitri Murray was named most valuable player in the Big VIII League while she was in high school. Coming from Hong Kong, guard Wai Ngan has also come to join the group and try to elevate their success. Coach Berber has set high expectations for all of her players and feels that her returning players have experience, that will help guide the new players. Although winning may seem like the only thing that is important, coach Berber puts priorities on other things she believes are more vital.
“I expect my players to go far in life; winning is a bonus. We practice winning every day. We focus on winning every day,” she said. “If a championship comes out of it, we’ll take it but the main focus is making the players better.” Many of the players are coming from very local schools. Calhoun
is a graduate from Riverside North High School, guard Neka Hunter and forward Samantha Ratliff are graduates from Riverside Poly High School, Murray is a graduate from Riverside King High School and Christine Pascua is a graduate from Notre Dame High School who plays both the guard and forward positions.
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RCC announces 2012 athletic hall of fame class
James Williams Anthony Gutierrez Travis West Sports Staff
Riverside City College has announced the 2012 Athletic Hall of Fame inductees and award recipients. The inductees include state champion women’s basketball coach Michael Barnes, former Major League Baseball player Bobby Kielty, softball player Rachael Bermudez, public announcer Richard Hubbard, RCC Marching Tigers’ booster William Locke, and business contributor Scott Hooks.
Barnes led the RCC women’s basketball team to a state title in 1986, to complete the second undefeated season in Tigers’ basketball history at 33-00. He has coached a number of Tigers’ basketball players during his 20 year RCC head coaching career including current head basketball coach Alicia Berber. Berber was hired as head coach after Barnes retired as head coach in 2000. He finished his head coaching career as the all-time winning coach in Tigers’ history with an overall record of 372-230 and was one of only two coaches to have won 300 games. Barnes rejoined RCC as the
women’s assistant basketball coach in 2011. Kielty is a former MLB player, who won a world championship with the Boston Red Sox in 2007. He played for several teams during his career, including the Oakland Athletics, Minnesota Twins, Toronto Blue Jays, and the Red Sox. In 1,792 career at bats, Kielty hit 53 home runs, major league game on Sept. 30 2007. Bermudez played softball during the 2000 and 2001 seasons at RCC. She was named MVP of the Orange Empire Conference and named to the All-State Team. She recorded 322 strikeouts in her sophomore year and also holds
the school record for complete games along with five other career pitching categories records. After RCC, Bermudez pitched at Cal Baptist University, where she
broke a school record with 13 strikeouts in a game. The ceremony will take place Nov. 1 at 5:30 p.m. in the newly renovated Wheelock Gym.