Mitch’s Pitches

Mardini thinks that the most important part of preparing for playoffs is for the team to feel the pressure, especially during practice.

“The key is, you want to make sure they are being challenged. You don’t want it to be easy because playoffs are not going to be easy,” Mardini said.

The last regular season away game is at Glendale College on Wednesday, Nov. 16, at 6 p.m. The first round of regionals schedule is yet to be announced, but check in at the cccaasports.org website to find out when the Brahmas play.

The playoffs are set to begin on Nov. 26, but the bracket is still being built because there is one final game for most schools on Wednesday, Nov. 16.

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Soccer game ends in a draw

A scoreless game ended regular season for the Brahmas against the College of the Canyons Cougars, leading them to an overall record of 14-3-3.

Although the Cougars made several goal attempts, none were successful thanks to midfielder and temporary goalie, Karen Widmeyer. Widmeyer is subbing for Brianna Jacobo who is said to possibly return during the playoffs, according to coach Adolfo Perez.

Leslie Ramirez, forward, is ready for the playoffs to begin and has high hopes for the team.

“I’m super excited, I mean it’s like the grind time, pretty much. This is our last, final moments of our season, so I kind of just wanted to go out with a bang and win and make history to be the first women in history here to win playoffs. [It] would be pretty cool, so it’s kind of like we’re the underdogs, ” Ramirez said. mnodelman.roundupnews@gmail.com

This was the last game before the tournament begins and Perez stated that this was a good game.

“This is a preview of the playoffs same intensity except in playoffs [the] winner goes on and [the] loser’s season is over, ” Perez said.

The playoffs begin on Saturday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m. with a road trip to Ventura.

Let me pitch you something: most competitive sports are team orientated, however, for community college athletes, they’re better off playing with a “me first” mentality as opposed to putting the team first, like most coaches preach. If a community college athlete is looking for the opportunity to play Division I sports, then worrying about their teammates’ performance is pointless to your scouting grade.

Sure, a team that gels together, often has more wins, but just because your team has a lot of wins doesn’t guarantee a community college athlete on a Division I roster.

In fact, last year’s Pierce football team finished with a mere 5-5 record, yet 41 of the players received scholarships to play at the university level, including 21 of those at the Division I level.

Community college athletes should not look to impress their teammates by trying to be their friend, but instead should avert their focus on fitness or improving their level of play.

Perhaps, after a game, they should study the game film to evaluate their play instead of going out with their teammates.

The most important thing a community college athlete should do is their job, and by that I mean they should not try to bail out a struggling teammate during a game, by trying to do too much to help their teammate.

They need to just purely focus on their role with the team and work within the system the coach has inplay.

It’s OK to play selfishly and to be a standout over the competition— even if the competition is a teammate.