SM_Sun_SportsYIR_2010

2010

Surprise!

Year in

Rewind

2010 was full of the unexpected

BY JEREMY THOMAS

I

n an anomaly of sorts, no Santa Maria football teams made the CIF playoffs. However, 2010 was kind to Lompoc High and first-year head coach Andrew Jones.

Led by a pair of 1,000-yard rushers in seniors Marcel Blow and Jordan Collins, the Braves captured their first CIF title since 2003 with a 20-14 win over South of Torrance on Dec. 10. Lompoc’s boys’ soccer team also claimed the Los Padres League title in February.

Santa Ynez Valley Union High took home top honors in the pool—with the boys’ water polo team winning the LPL championship on Nov. 4—and on the volleyball court, where the girls topped the standings for the fifth straight year.

In the Pac-7, Righetti’s Warriors wore the boys’ basketball crown, led by center and league MVP Nick Sauer. The Warriors also shined in girls’ golf, and their perennial powerhouse boys’ water polo team, behind league co-MVPs Kyle Stevens and Jeremiah Morales, took the league championship outright.

PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

Long live rodeo! Despite economic woes and a lack of advertising, thousands of fans turned out on a warm June weekend for the 67th installment of the traditional Santa Maria Elks Rodeo.

Riders and ropers dazzled the rodeo faithful with feats of steer wrestling, horse riding, calf roping, and this year’s biggest hit, X-treme Bull Riding. To keep the stands full, Elks Lodge 1538 slashed ticket prices by nearly 50 percent for most of the events.

Rodeo organizer Keith Barks, president of Elks Recreation, said he was pleased with the turnout given the state of the economy and the city’s changing demographics.

“Rodeo is and was an American sport,” he said. “This is a tradition that’s gone back over 80 years. This is a ranching and farming community, and [the rodeo is] its history.”

Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas can be contacted at jthomas@ santamariasun.com.

Another hit: For the second straight year, the Allan Hancock College men’s baseball team qualified for the state playoffs, finishing the season second to Oxnard in the Western State Conference with a 21-14 overall record.

The Bulldogs beat Chaffey College in the first round of the state tournament in March, advancing to the California Community College Athletic Association’s Super Regionals for the first time since 1993. El Camino eliminated Hancock, beating them 3-1 in the series’ final game.

Hancock third baseman Peter Straka, pictured above ripping a base hit in a Feb. 12 game against San Francisco City College, finished the season with a .393 batting average. He joined second baseman Chris Mallory, outfielder J.P. Maestas, and pitcher Jacob Valenzuela as AllWestern State Conference First Team honorees.

PHOTO BY JEREMY THOMAS

PHOTO BY HENRY HOUSTON

Pool party: Santa Maria Swim Club phenom Josh Prenot made headlines throughout 2010, qualifying for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials in the 200-meter butterfly, and the 200 and 400 individual medleys.

Prenot capped off his successful year by winning the 18-and-under National Championship in the 200-yard butterfly event at the Short Course USA Swimming Nationals on Dec. 4. “[The U.S.] Olympic Trials are a pinnacle achievement,” said Prenot’s swimming coach Mike Ashmore. “If you place third in the meet, it could be argued that you would finish third in the Olympics.”

The 17-year-old Prenot, who is home-schooled and lives in Orcutt, will represent the United States on the National Youth Team in 2011. He plans on attending the University of Southern California.

PHOTO BY JEREMY THOMAS

Cabrillo High topped the LPL in boys’ basketball, running the table with a perfect 12-0 record. However, the Conqs program was rocked in August with the suspension of league coach of the year Gary West. The disciplinary action stemmed from an alleged altercation West had with a student; West was later reinstated and no criminal charges were ever filed.

In the fall, all eyes were on St. Joseph High School, which moved on up to the tougher Pac-7. The result? The girls’ volleyball team, perennial leaders of the LPL, went 4-8, and the Knights’ football team struggled through a 2-4 league season.

Before the switchover, however, St. Joe’s girls’ basketball team, led by co-league MVPs Aly Beebe and Analise Riezebos, once again reached prominence. Coached by Ed Torres, the Lady Knights dominated the LPL again and made it all the way to the state regional semi-finals, where they lost to HarvardWestlake of North Hollywood 78-56 on March 13.

What surprises will 2011 bring? While we don’t know where we’re going, we surely know where we’ve been. So without further ado, let’s review. m

PHOTO BY JEREMY THOMAS

Getting dirty: On the weekend of June 26, the Santa Maria BMX track hosted its National Bicycling League (NBL) state qualifier race, drawing about a hundred bicycle motocross enthusiasts from all over the state to the Elks/Unocal Event Center.

Santa Maria is one of just eight cities in California with an NBL-sanctioned track, and recent improvements to it have enthusiasts hoping more local riders will take up the sport.

“Having all these girls out here just shows that we appreciate the people who made this track,” said Santa Maria BMX rider Kayla Hughes, who won her qualifying race. “It’s just a part of us. It’s something we can’t live without.”

Fellow SMBMX racer Andrew Reed-Polowy (pictured) won some style points while finishing first in his moto race.

PHOTO BY JEREMY THOMAS

Weekend warriors: The Santa Ynez Valley welcomed a new semipro football team to the area in 2010—the Central Coast Seminoles of the United Football Alliance League.

Comprised of players hailing mostly from Santa Barbara and Lompoc-area high schools, including a few former Allan Hancock College stars, the Seminoles got off to a quick 2-0 start, but ended their inaugural season 2-4. Playing their home games at Santa Ynez High School, the ’Noles faced off against squads from Orange County, San Diego, Pasadena, and elsewhere in the state.

“A Seminole is a warrior who never stops fighting, and I think that’s a good analysis of our team,” said Seminoles head coach Mark Lopez. “No matter what, if we get beat, we’ve still got guys who are out there competing.”

Pictured is Seminoles’ starting quarterback Teddy Gomez, who looked for an open receiver in a Sept. 11 game against the San Bernardino Raiders.

PHOTO BY JEREMY THOMAS

Hitting the bags: Jose Avalos, 11, was one of many young pugilists to take up the sport of boxing at Santa Maria’s Infinite Boxing Gym in 2010. Seemingly every night, the gym, located in the Stowell Center Plaza on Broadway, stayed rocking into the late hours with the sounds of hissing gloves and pulsing workout music.

To owner Julio Avila, the gym’s success belied the extent of the sport’s popularity among local youths.

“Kids want to do something. They want someone to push them, motivate them, and keep them going,” he said. “We try our best to show them. Even though it’s crazy full of people, we still look at everybody.”

Rock ‘n roller skates: For the first time ever, roller derby had a home in Santa Maria, as the independent Santa Maria Ruff Rollerz delighted crowds at the Fairpark’s Armory building with their brand of rowdy retro roughhousing. Even Mayor Larry Lavagnino took in a game or two from his front row seat.

Hailing from all walks of life, the punky girls with names like Sharon D. Pain, Dolly Thrasher (photo), Crissy Creeper, and Madam Nuclear Winter banged knees with derby divas from Ventura, San Diego, and Reno. The Ruff Rollerz skated into battle led by co-founder Tiffany “Tiffer Tantrum” McIllwain, who was grateful for the strong community support.

“It’s family entertainment for all ages. The kids love it,” McIllwain told the Sun in February. “My expectations and goals are really high, and it’s just getting bigger. I can just see it continuing to grow.”

Warriors again: Led by senior leading goal scorers Felipe Sahagun and Anthony Lang (pictured), the Righetti High School’s boys’ soccer team in February locked down the Pac-7 league title for the second year in a row.

The Warriors won their first eight league games in 2010, extending their record-setting winning streak to 20, stretching from the previous year. They finished 8-1-2 in league and 13-3-3 overall.

Righetti dominated Verbum Dei of Los Angeles in the first round of the CIF playoffs 7-0, but came up short in the second round, losing 2-1 to Garden Grove’s Santiago High.

Sahagun and Lang recently finished their freshman years at Allan Hancock College, with Lang selected to the All-Western State Conference’s second team in December.

Star treatment: On May 21, popular Ultimate Fighting Championship jiu-jitsu practitioner Joe “Daddy” Stevenson stopped by the Hitman Training Center gym in Orcutt for a kids’ clinic, instructing youngsters on the finer points of grappling and submission.

Stevenson was in town to train up-and-coming fighter Art Ramirez, who participated in the Fight For Wrestling event, a benefit for the struggling Cal Poly-SLO wrestling program. The show entertained about 2,000 mixed martial arts fans in Mott Gymnasium, making it the first professional MMA event ever on a college campus, and featured competitors from all over the area.

“The Central Coast has some great fighters,” Stevenson said. “There’s so much to offer in California if you really want to give up everything and just train for fighting.

That’s dedication in itself.”

PHOTO BY JEREMY THOMAS

PHOTO BY JEREMY THOMAS

PHOTO BY JEREMY THOMAS PHOTO BY JEREMY THOMAS PHOTO BY JEREMY THOMAS

Incredible journey: A team of 25 Push America cyclists, in the midst of a 4,000-mile trek from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., dubbed “Journey of Hope,” arrived at the Abel Maldonado Youth Center on June 16.

During their “friendship visit” the riders spent the afternoon with Special Olympians from Santa Maria and Lompoc, sharing lunch and engaging the young athletes in games of volleyball, soccer, and basketball.

“I think it’s really cool they chose to come through Santa Maria as one of their stops on their way to D.C.,” said Rudy Gutierrez, operations coordinator for the Northern Santa Barbara County chapter of the Special Olympics. “To have the cyclists come out and interact and have a good time means a lot to the athletes.”

The cyclists stayed overnight in Santa Maria before heading to Santa Barbara the following morning. The group reached the nation’s capital on Aug. 14.