NorCal Issue 159, January 2019

NORCAL EDITION JANUARY 2019 VOL. 10 ISSUE 159

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SportStars Official Media Partners

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Cal-Hi Sports’ Mark Tennis Says Section Runners-Up Will Be Missing Out On Postseason Opportunity

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Big DeShawn Lynch Rolled Through Football Season And Kept Right On Going Into Basketball Season

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De La Salle Boys Soccer Is Youthful, But With A Mountain Of Tradition On Its Side, Is Still A Force

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Kidest Befikadu and Heritage continue to climb 28 the NCS ladder. Pg. 16

Some Of America’s Greatest Olympians Will Be At The Logan HS Track And Field Clinic In February

Vacavile Wrestling Churns Out Elite Wrestlers Like A Factory, Which It Just Might Be

in the network

a look at the biggest stories from the Cal-Hi SportStars Network

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Mark Tennis and staff remain the standard for All-State football teams. Watch for announcements now through early February

If you’re a wrestling fan and not following our bi-weekly NorCal rankings, fix that. Updated rankings release Jan. 18 and Feb. 1.

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rue story: I’ve spent time behind the officiating whistle. Quite a bit in my younger days.

I was a Little League umpire during my high school years, and progressed to youth basketball. While attending Humboldt State University, I joined the Six Rivers Basketball Officials Association and began working high school games.

I enjoyed all of it, but the job definitely challenges one’s ability to endure criticism. And criticism is fine. Abuse is not.

On Jan. 11, the California Interscholastic Federation emailed an op-ed to the various media outlets throughout the state which still cover high school sports. (It’s not as big a list as it used to be). The title of the editorial was: Dear Mom and Dad, Cool It. The subject matter dealt with the rapidly declining population of high school sports officials across California, with the biggest reason being adult behavior.

We gain no favor with CIF for running it here. I simply feel it’s an important issue and deserving of the space this week. So, here we go. Be kind out there, folks.

JOIN OUR TEAM PHONE 925.566.8500 FAX 925.566.8507 EDITORIAL Editor@SportStarsMag.com Editor Chace Bryson • Chace@SportStarsMag.com Assistant Editor Mike Wood Staff Writer Jim McCue • JimMcCue16@gmail.com Contributors Clay Kallam, Tim Rudd, Mark Tennis, James G. Kane, Harold Abend, Jill Daniels, Anthony Trucks, Erika Westhoff, Ike Dodson, Steven Wilson Copy Editor Bill Kruissink Photography James K. Leash, Phillip Walton, Doug Guler, Berry Evans III, Samuel Stringer, Jim Johnson, Dennis Lee, Dave Lawicka Interns Joshua Howser, Krishna Gomatam Marketing/Events Ryan Arter CREATIVE DEPARTMENT Art@SportStarsMag.com Production Manager Mike DeCicco • MikeD@SportStarsMag.com PUBLISHER/PRESIDENT Mike Calamusa • Mike@SportStarsMag.com ADVERTISING Sales@SportStarsMag.com, 925.566.8500 Account Executives Camps & Clinics: Ryan Arter • Camps@SportStarsMag.com Alameda County: Berry Evans • Berry@foto-pros.com READER RESOURCES/ADMINISTRATION Subscription, Calendar, Credit Services Info@SportStarsMag.com INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY John Bonilla CFO Sharon Calamusa • Sharon@SportStarsMag.com COMMUNITY SPORTSTARS™ MAGAZINE A division of Caliente! Communications, LLC PO Box 741, Clayton, CA 94517 info@SportStarsMag.com www.SportStarsMag.com

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erica miller CARONDELET-CONCORD - BASKETBALL - SENIOR Facing the state’s No. 1-ranked basketball team by CalHiSports.com, Pine-

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wood-Los Altos Hills — a program known for its 3-point shooting prowess — Miller gave the Panthers a taste of their own medicine. The 5-foot-9 shooting guard sank six 3’s and finished with 20 points as Carondelet earned the upset with a 67-59 win on Jan. 9. It was Pinewood’s first loss of the season and it

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moved Carondelet (16-2 through Jan. 17) to No. 7 in the state rankings. The Cougars could climb even higher based on the result of their Jan. 21 showdown with No. 3 Archbishop Mitty-San Jose.

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Behind the Clipboard by Clay Kallam

Cold Comfort For Soccer Fans I don’t get it. It’s rainy. It’s cold. Nobody wants to come watch. Why is soccer a winter sport?

G.A., Lafayette

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his question comes up periodically, and it’s worth answering again, because on the surface it makes almost no sense.

Major League Soccer plays in the summer, because, you know, the sun shines. It’s warm. It’s nice to be outside. You don’t have to bundle up to be a fan. And in fact, it used to be that most high school soccer was played in the spring or in the fall, because, well, the weather’s a lot nicer in those seasons than it is in January.

And even though about 50 NorCal schools still cling to spring and fall soccer seasons, the rest practice and play in the winter for a variety of reasons.

One reason is money — soccer championships in the winter are an opportunity for the California Interscholastic Federation and its sections to generate some income by selling playoffs and playoff tickets to media and fans. Otherwise, the only two winter sports are basketball, which of course does well, and wrestling, which isn’t the attraction it once was. By shifting soccer to the winter, there’s some money to be made at the local and regional level, and maybe even more should a state soccer championship ever come together.

Another reason is participation, as without soccer in the winter, there are fewer athletic options available. Basically, the true winter sports are basketball and wrestling, and not only are basketball rosters small, very few girls are interested in wrestling. So by shifting soccer to the winter, more opportunities, the logic goes, are opened up.

There’s one problem with this on the girls side, however — two of the most popular girls sports are soccer and basketball, and by having them in the same season, it forces those girls interested in both sports to make a difficult choice.

But perhaps the biggest reason is one that really can’t be overcome: field space. In the fall,

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football chews up a lot of available fields every day, as many schools have three teams and more than a hundred boys in the program. In the spring, baseball, softball and lacrosse, not to mention track and field, occupy a lot of green space.

Add soccer to the mix in either season, and at most high schools, there’s simply not enough room to have every team practice. I worked at a small private school where three teams in three different sports would practice on the same football-sized field at the same time. It’s fair to say it didn’t work out well for anyone — especially when the soccer team played at home.

The transition of soccer to the winter was also aided by the increasing number of schools that have switched from grass to all-weather fields. Though the initial expense of artificial turf is relatively high, the maintenance cost is much lower, and the greater availability for interscholastic sports and P.E. make it a good investment — and makes it a lot easier to schedule games in January and February.

All that logic is well and good, but it doesn’t really help during that 45-degree Friday night game when the wind is howling and rain is coming down in sheets. Everyone’s cold and miserable, and it’s certainly not as much fun to play as it would be on a nice October evening or April afternoon. But given the realities of finances and field space, don’t expect a change — the best option, sadly, is to just bring warmer clothes. ✪ Clay Kallam has been an assistant athletic director and has coached numerous sports at a handful of high schools throughout the Bay Area. To submit a question for Behind the Clipboard, email him at claykallam@gmail.com.

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Runners-Up Ruled Out Section Second-Place Open Teams Won’t Get To Play For State Titles

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here’s no doubt that there was genuine joy for the Liberty-Brentwood and Wilcox-Santa Clara football teams after both won CIF state bowl titles on Dec. 15.

The Lions defeated Sierra Canyon-Chatsworth 19-17 in the CIF Division 1-A final at Cerritos College while the Chargers played at their home field and beat KaiserFontana 41-27 for the CIF Div. 3-A championship.

The same was true last year for St. Francis-Mountain View and Milpitas as the Lancers earned the CIF Div. 2-A title with the Trojans taking it all in Div. 4-A. So what do all four Northern California teams have in common? None of them won section titles. All were runner-ups in section playoffs deemed to be “Open Divisions.” This means that technically any team in those sections could be eligible to be in those Open Divisions. The only other Open Division runner-up in the state from another section the last two years has been from the Los Angeles City Section.

Is that why Northern California won more state titles this year than Southern California? No, that was more because eight of nine NorCal teams playing at home were able to vanquish their SoCal counterparts.

Still, it’s no secret that those three sections advancing teams into the CIF regional football bowl games using Open Division runner-ups were bothersome to those from the other seven sections. That’s why on the Monday before this year’s state finals the CIF section commissioners voted to remove a policy from the football guidelines that allowed Open Division runner-ups to play in CIF bowl games.

Therefore, starting next season, only section champions will be allowed to participate beyond section playoffs.

In the Central Coast Section, which has had three separate Open Divisions, and in the North Coast Section, which went to its own Open Division just two years ago and decided to send the runner-up, formats will have to be changed. Or maybe they’ll stay the same in some respects, except that losing teams in section finals will no longer get the opportunity to play on.

As longtime Liberty supporters and players were on the field hugging each other after that state title win, it was hard not to think about the many previous secondbest NCS teams that never got that chance and whether this might be the last time a second-best NCS team will have the same chance.

This is all mainly due, of course, to the dominance of the program at De La Salle-Concord. The Spartans have won every top divisional title in the NCS since 1991 and have been in the CIF Open Division state final ev-

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ery year since 2009. They defeated Liberty in this year’s NCS Open Division championship 42-7.

Last year, when the first NCS Open Division runnerup got to play on in the CIF bowls, Pittsburg lost in the Div. 1-A state final to Narbonne-Harbor City.

The easiest change for the NCS would be to keep the Open Division but instead of the runner-up team going to the CIF bowls (which next year would no longer be possible), that spot would just switch to the Division I champion.

Liberty actually won that title in 2017. This season, San Ramon Valley-Danville was the titlist.

The CCS also will likely keep an Open Division at least for the section’s very best teams. That’s how it’s done in several other sports that send teams to CIF state playoffs in girls volleyball, boys hoops and girls hoops.

From the CIF state football perspective, an obvious difference for next year will be that the CCS teams probably will no longer be placed into NorCal bowl divisions almost straight down the line with Valley Christian-San Jose, St. Francis, Menlo-Atherton, Wilcox and Aptos all fairly close together for this season.

It’s almost for sure there will be lower-ranked teams going to CIF bowls from those two sections, which will also have the additional impact of raising up some teams that had to previously be behind many of the CCS Open teams. An obvious example of that is threetime CIF state champion McClymonds-Oakland. With the CCS Open and NCS Open runner-ups no longer on the NorCal board, the Warriors will have to play perhaps as high as D3-A or D3-AA for next season when they will attempt to win four in a row.

Trying to figure out all of these CIF state and section guidelines and policies takes away a lot of the fun of following all of the teams themselves. However, some of the moves are as crucial to teams winning state titles as anything that happens on the field. Imagine if the CIF never allowed runner-up teams to play on after section football finals? There are four Bay Area schools, for sure, that never would have been able to experience winning state bowl titles in 2017 and 2018. ✪ Mark Tennis is the co-founder of Cal-Hi Sports and publisher of CalHiSports.com. Contact him at markjtennis@ gmail.com and follow him on Twitter at @CalHiSports

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January 2019

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time to

HOOP! Folsom’s DeShawn Lynch thrives in football, but he’s not shy about passion for basketball

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wo-time CIF State Division I-AA football champion DeShawn Lynch didn’t waste any time celebrating his team’s 21-14 overtime victory over Cathedral Catholic-San Diego this past December.

The Folsom football team had just completed a 14-1 season, and become the first team in school history to repeat as state champions, in large part thanks to Lynch and the Bulldogs’ late defensive effort to stymie a game-tying drive by Cathedral Catholic in overtime at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

But after all his selfies and photos with the championship plaque, Lynch cut the party short because the junior defensive end had plans with his other team the following night.

As a two-sport athlete in football and basketball, Lynch missed the first three weeks of the season on the hardwood, but his sense of commitment to his teammates and the Folsom High basketball program never wavered. So he didn’t waste any time returning to the court the moment football season ended.

Even if it was less than 24 hours later.

In fact, the Lynch family took its own ride home from the championship football game. Because as DeShawn said, “it’s a little faster than the bus,” and he needed to get back to Folsom to play in back-to-back games in two different sports.

“We literally left the L.A. area at midnight and drove all night and got home around 6:30 in the morning, got a couple hours of sleep and we got back to the grind,” DeShawn’s mother Tamiko explained. “DeShawn is a workhorse. He loves to play, but he loves the grind of it.”

Despite postgame exhaustion and little rest, DeShawn the workhorse was ready for his team’s game by 4 p.m.

“I was tired, and I didn’t think I was going to be able to run or jump. But I still did pretty good for my first game back,” Lynch said.

The addition of Lynch wasn’t enough to beat Wasatch Academy of Mt. Pleasant, Utah. The Bulldogs fell 76-63, but won nine of

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10 games following that defeat.

“He really hit the ground running, but it took awhile for guys to get back in sync,” Folsom’s coach Mike Wall said. “You know, when you play a few weeks without somebody who’s a huge part of your team it makes it difficult to transition. Because he’s a very unique player — super strong, super good rebounder, really good passer and really the center-point of our offense — so when you don’t have that, it’s like we’re flipping styles.”

With Lynch in the rotation, the Bulldogs are averaging just over six more points per game and winning games by a bigger margin — nearly five points. But his impact can be seen on defense as well.

“I bring a lot to the team, so you could tell that we played different as a team when I came back,” Lynch admitted.

Lynch led the Bulldogs in scoring through Jan. 17, averaging just less than 13 points per game. But the big man’s coach says he does more for the offense than score.

“He may be the best passing big man I’ve ever coached,” Wall said. “He can hit guys on a dime, even when he’s being double- or triple-teamed. He’s got the power to flick the ball out to a wide open guy for the shot. So that’s creating as much of a problem as his scoring.”

Following his team’s second Sierra Foothill League win this season, Lynch noted he’s still getting back in shape. So that’s bad news for the rest of the league.

Lynch summed up his conditioning with one simple word, “tiring.” The 6-foot-5, 255-pound senior admitted his football conditioning left him a vast number of wind sprints short of where he needed to be on the hardwood.

But as he regains his stamina, his team has seen improvement.

“We have a good balance of different guys with different skill-sets,” Wall stated. “We don’t have a lot of multi-threat players, but we have guys who are starting to learn what their role is and they’ve embraced it. … They all seem to complement each other really well.

“When guys really play into their roles, and don’t try to do too much, we’re really a handful to deal with,” Wall added.

One of those key role players is senior Dylan Davis — a dangerous 3-point specialist.

“I’m a shooter – that’s my role,” Davis said after hitting four 3s and leading his team with 17 points against Whitney-Rocklin in their January rematch. “My teammates give me the looks 14

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FAR LEFT: Senior guard Dylan Davis (12) is a key outside shooting weapon for the Bulldogs. LEFT: Junior guard Tiler Fears is the team’s second leading scorer at a little more than 10 points per game. and I try to knock them down the best that I can.”

Davis has seen an uptick in minutes and responsibilities this season and has taken advantage of his opportunities.

“Dylan has really been shooting the ball well — he’s a 40 percent 3-point shooter and he’s really just been knocking it down lately,” Wall added.

Fellow senior Jalen Scott adds more offensive firepower for the Bulldogs as he averages nearly double digits (9.6 ppg), while junior Tiler Fears (10.4 ppg) could be the team’s most versatile offensive threat with his inside-out game.

“Right now, our whole is greater than the sum of our parts,” Wall admitted. “Because of our chemistry and the way guys are coming together, we’re starting to find our rhythm.”

Despite only four seniors on the team this year, coupled with Lynch’s absence early in the season, the Bulldogs have experienced a fair share of growing pains. But that hasn’t affected their aspirations for an undefeated run through the Sierra Foothill League or a deep postseason run.

“There are teams that can shoot the ball well in this league,” Wall acknowledged. “So you are going to have to compete and really bring it; like (our Whitney game), they did not shoot the ball well and that took a lot of energy out of them. So every game (this year) is going to come down to energy, enthusiasm and making shots.”

Lynch, who likes to lead by actions more than his words, has the ability to bring some of that enthusiasm for Folsom this year and has become a key leader for the team.

While hoops remains a passion, it’s not the future.

“I like basketball more, but football is where it’s at,” Lynch confessed. “That’s probably where I’ll end up playing at the next level.”

Although he still has a year to play, Lynch has collegiate football offers from Tennessee, Fresno State, Arizona, San Jose State and Oregon State.

“Whatever school he chooses to go to, we are very open-minded,” Tamiko added. “We’d love for him to do both (basketball and football) and we’ve talked to coaches about that.”

As for now, Lynch has demonstrated he’s fully committed to his job on the court this season.

And he’s ready to lead the Bulldogs to more postseason accolades as they continue to rewrite history at Folsom High. ✪ Follow us on Twitter & Instagram, like us on Facebook!

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Abby Muse

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s the order “Win NCS,” then “Beat Carondelet”? Or the other way around?

In some ways, it doesn’t matter, because if Heritage-Brentwood wants to win its first North Coast Section Div. I girls basketball championship, the road is very likely going to have go through perennial power Carondelet-Concord — just as it has the past two years.

Since Carondelet won both of those encounters (by 25 and 13 points), and is coming off a win over nationally ranked Pinewood-Los Altos Hills, that’s not going to be an easy task.

This year, though, might be different.

Not only is Heritage anchored by 6-foot-3 junior post Abby Muse and Idaho State-bound senior point guard Jordan Sweeney, fourth-year coach Rob Ocon feels it’s all starting to come together.

“The culture is finally starting to sink in,” he said. “Last year, I felt like they were finally getting it.”

Sweeney can sense it too. “This team is about the team,” she said. “We’ve really come together.”

But what is the culture Ocon and his staff have been instilling? Ocon, after all, wasn’t a basketball player. He got his start coaching his daughter Marrissa in CYO. Marrissa was passionate about the sport, and in the beginning she dragged dad along. But after she transferred to St. Mary’s-Stockton for her sophomore year, he really got the bug — and

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he also started to understand what it takes to succeed.

“I didn’t know much about St. Mary’s at the time,” he said, “but I got sucked in by the spirit that they have there. The main thing I came away with was the way they practiced — I wasn’t used to the competitive level of practices every day, but I realized this is how it has to be done.

You have to push the kids every day.”

That doesn’t mean Ocon is a carbon copy of fiery St. Mary’s coach Tom Gonsalves. “For me, given the person that I am, I don’t need to be an in-your-face type coach. Everyone’s different.”

Ironically, though, it may have been a win over Gonsalves and St. Mary’s in the West Coast Jamboree that put the Patriots on track to finally win that elusive NCS title.

“I finally convinced them you can’t play the uniform,” Ocon said, alluding to how his players’ eyes always got a little bigger when they came up against perennial powers.

The 58-39 final in the championship game of the Gold bracket was the clincher in that argument. “It was huge,” said Ocon. “It was like all our hard work was paying off. All the things we talk about in practice we did — we got past the uniform thing.”

Which of course sets up Heritage to get past the white-and-red of Carondelet — if the team can get that far. The remaining schedule is packed with land mines like small school heavyweight Eastside College Prep-East Palo Alto on Jan. 19, SportStars NorCal No. 10 Sacramento Jan. 21 and No. 8 Antelope Jan. 26. Heritage traveled to St. Mary’s-Stockton for a rematch on

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Jan. 9 and lost by 14, so there are still hurdles to overcome.

“We knew we had to schedule tough to prepare for postseason,” Ocon said. “We want to challenge them.”

The only risk is that the challenge might result in enough losses to put Heritage on the road in the postseason, and other NCS teams like Berkeley, No. 16 San Ramon Valley-Danville and No. 19 California-San Ramon aren’t just going to roll over.

But with Sweeney running the show on offense and Muse anchoring the defense with her uncanny ability to block shots, Heritage has the pieces to play with anyone.

Sweeney, a strong, skilled guard, can score as needed or get the offense moving. She plays with the confidence a team leader needs.

“We’ve been in games when we’ve been down,” she said, “but I never worry that we won’t bounce back. The Paige Ziemann game against St. Mary’s was a win to wake the team up — we’re pretty legit.”

The development of Muse on the offensive end has been critical as well. She’s always been a defensive force, though like many young shot-blockers, she was prone to foul trouble.

“I have to realize I don’t have to get every block, or need every block,” Muse said. “I have to understand that they stayed away from the shot they wanted because they were afraid I’d block it.”

That shot-blocking threat inside also makes it easier for the rest of the Heritage defenders.

“We can sit on 3-point shooters and force them to drive,” said Ocon. “It changes team’s mindsets.”

What’s also shifting their priorities is that Muse has developed a mid-range jumper to go along with her inside game. “Offense is more of a focus for me this year,” she said. “Now I want the ball in my hands.”

Of course there’s more to the team than Muse and Sweeney. Senior Kidest Befikadu plays a key role on the boards, Paige Ziemann accounts for nearly eight points a game to go along with excellent defense, and Lacey Santos is adding 3-point range to complement her ability to get to the rim.

Add in a solid bench led by Julie Ramirez and Heritage is primed to finally break through after four trips to the NCS finals and five CIF NorCal berths in the past seven years.

“Everyone has bought in,” Sweeney said. “We all have the common goal of wanting to win.”

As for whether the bigger win would be for an NCS title or against Carondelet, well, let’s just say there’s room for debate. Sweeney picks NCS; Muse wants Carondelet.

Of course, the best answer is “both,” and this could be the year Heritage finally racks up that elusive double-double. ✪

Story by Clay Kallam Photos by Chace Bryson

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“It’s not easy playing sports here. It can be a burden at times because we have such high standards, but I think it helps keep guys in line and the fire burning year after year.”

— Spartans head coach Derricke Brown

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Dominic Giusto

school history.

The 2017-18 season marked the first CIF regional tournament. After winning its section title last season, the Spartans earned a top seed but were bounced out in the quarterfinals in a 2-1 home loss to Burlingame.

Although their 9-1-2 record halfway through this season may not show it, growing pains along with a larger than normal learning curve were the first major obstacles this young team faced.

With a roster that holds a combination of nine freshman and sophomores, the Spartans boast their youngest team to date.

Co-captains, senior Dillon Morley and junior Ben Parker have focused heavily on getting each teammate on the same page. The pair have focused on building the brotherhood and camaraderie that has served as the building blocks for success in years prior.

It takes time to get a newly assembled team on the right track. Sometimes it takes a little friction to reach the proper level of teamwork.

“I don’t push one individual player,’ said Parker. “I push each guy so that they can also be a voice on this team.”

Parker and Morley both believe that for this year’s team to have a chance at a deep run, each player must have leadership tendencies in their game. Equal trust among each one is what any successful team must have.

However, the coaching staff and captains know that great expectations and a storied past also comes with a target on their back.

“As a team we are aware that we get everyone’s best effort,” Brown said. “We can’t take days off here. If we do, we get beat.”

Shut-down defense has become the Spartans’ best way to combat teams looking to catch them off guard. With six shutouts and only eight total goals allowed through the team’s first 12 games, it

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Dillon Morley, front, is congratulated

by Tyler Cesio following a successful PK against Dublin.

has become clear why this team prides itself on a bend-but-don’t-break style of defense.

Coming out aggressive, letting opponents know there won’t be any easy goals has become a game inside the game for these Spartans — a task both captains look forward to week in and week out.

“I look to set the tone early in each game, I don’t play dirty, but I will come in hard,” said Morley. “We are expected to win every 50/50 ball.”

The Spartans faced some early adversity this season as they failed to put a tally in the win column against state power Cathedral High of Los Angeles. After leading early, the Spartans fell 2-1 in the neutral-site tournament game.

Losing to a highly ranked team may not seem like a season dark spot. But the missed opportunity forced the coaching staff to seek a recommitment of focus. “We either do this, or not,” Brown pleaded.

Using that game as a turning point, the Spartans bounced back with a 5-1 no-doubt win over Ridgeview-Bakersfield in their next match.

Overcoming adversity and rough patches isn’t something that happens by accident. It starts at the top and works its way down.

Starting with the blueprint De La Salle as an institution had developed, the coaching staff molded it into something it wanted from its team.

“We have built a culture here that expects our young men to be great people in the community as well,” Brown said. “Good expectations off the field results in great ones on it.”

With the amount of support and trust his players show, it’s clear they have embraced and accepted his philosophy for winning. “Our coaches have such a clear passion for the sport,” Parker said. “As players we want to make them proud.”

That motivation right there is likely the fastest ticket to this team’s spot within the De La Salle soccer legacy. ✪ Follow us on Twitter & Instagram, like us on Facebook!

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“Be legendary,” is a statement subtly placed on the homepage of the Legends Volleyball Club.

At the San Mateo Convention Center on Jan. 12-13, LVBC had 21 boys fulfill that statement.

The players from the 16-1 and 17-1 boys teams became the first to earn USA Volleyball Junior National Championship bids for the five-year-old Sacramento-based club.

“It took them a little while (to realize the magnitude),” Legends club director and 16-1 boys coach Paris Kidd said. “When we went over to get medals, it might have started to sink in.”

Legends Volleyball Club serves a lot of lowincome families and features many first-time club players. In fact, of the nine players on the 16-1 team which took third in the USA Division of the NCVA Boys Far Western Bid Tournament, just three began the season with club experience.

The team opened the tournament with five straight wins. Four of those wins came in straight sets. The team would face Pacific Rim Volleyball Academy’s U16 squad in the semifinals and took 24

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Legends 17-1 Boys

the first set 26-24.

“We might have surprised them a little bit,” Kidd said. “It may have been that they weren’t expecting us to come out full-throttle like we did.”

Pacific Rim took the wake-up call to heart and won the next two sets 25-13 and 15-9. It would go on to take first place, one of three championships for the Pleasant Hill club on the weekend.

Meanwhile, Legends 16-1 flipped the script in the all-important third-place match which determined the final nationals berth. After losing its opening set to Mountain View Volleyball Club 16-Black 25-20, Legends stormed back to win the next sets 25-17 and 15-9.

It was the youngest player on the team, 6-foot4 Anthony Dobie, who delivered the matchwinner.

“This team’s heart is its biggest strength,” Kidd said. “That was definitely the best we’d played all year.”

Kidd singled out Dobie, libero Albert Huynh, setter Avneet Brar and outside hitter Kenny Tecson as key elements to the team’s tournament success. The rest of the roster includes Daniel Follow us on Twitter & Instagram, like us on Facebook!

Dang, Mason Motta, Angadveer Singh, Joshua Gallardo-Ramirez and Jeremy Webster-Hawkins.

While the 16-1 team was clinching its bid, the Legends 17-1 team was its biggest cheering section after having secured its own national berth with a third-place result in the 17 USA Division.

The 17-1 team also won its first five matches before a three-set defeat in the semifinals. After taking the first set 25-18, the Legends 17s fell to Apache Volleyball Club 25-22, 15-10. They bounced back with a 25-19, 25-23 victory over Slainte 17-1 Platinum in the third place match.

Legends 17-1’s roster includes Brandon Day, Ethan Vue, Daren Tran, Samuel Ratliff, Benjamin On, Samuel Waituruturu, Elias Hensley, Robert Lee, Joseph Solomon, Riley Piccione, Prescott Williams and Joshua Cline.

As mentioned, Pacific Rim claimed three titles in San Mateo. In addition to the U16 squad’s USA Division title, PRVA also claimed the 17 Open and 18 Open championships. In the 18s, it wan an all-PRVA final as 18-Black defeated 18-Orange 25-20, 25-20. ✪ Support Your Advertisers — Say You Found Them in SportStars!

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goldenGIV Several Former Track & Field Olympians Unite For James Logan Track Clinic And A Week Of School Visits Story by Mike Wood 26

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I

Dick Fosbury

n choosing a theme and honorees for his upcoming Olympians Week, Lee Webb looked toward one specific year. One tumultuous yet momentous year.

1968.

The 32nd anniversary of the Willie Davenport Olympian Track and Field Clinic on Feb. 9 will be the culmination of a week full of events featuring numerous Bay Area school visits by some of the greatest U.S. Olympians. All of it organized once again

by Webb, the longtime track and field coach and teacher at James Logan High in Union City.

The clinic at James Logan will be dedicated to the 1968 Olympic Team, Speed City — the legendary San Jose State program intertwined with the track and field success in Mexico City and beyond — and 1968 gold medalist Dick Fosbury, innovator and legend of the high jump..

More than a dozen athletes from the ’68 Games will take part in Webb’s clinic. They will work with youth and adult athletes as well as Special Olympians, whose involvement Webb has always made a focal point of the event.

Those Olympics are regarded by many as one of the best performances by the U.S., especially in track and field competitions. In all, the U.S. racked up 45 gold medals. That included 15 in track and field events (12 in men’s events). Legends in the sport were created and others furthered their fame, names like Fosbury, Jim Hines, Willie Davenport, Tommie Smith, John Carlos, Bob Beamon, Al Oerter and Wyomia Tyus.

Several of those Olympians — representing multiple eras — have been regular attendees of Webb’s event. And they will be

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VERS back this year.

“When we come, we come for Lee Webb. We are there to support Lee Webb,” said Dr. Melvin Pender, among the 1968 gold medalists attending. Pender, who won gold as part of the 4x100 relay and earned a Bronze Star in Vietnam, is a frequent participant in the Olympians Week.

“God has blessed me; I have done two tours of Vietnam, and I am now 81 years old, but it doesn’t stop me from helping people and loving my country,” Pender said.

He hopes to inspire young students when he and other Olympians visit schools in Union City, Fremont, Newark and San Leandro, among others during the Olympians Week .

“We hope some of those kids will think, ‘These guys are my heroes,’” Pender said, adding they hope to inspire the young athletes to reach college and achieve their dreams.

Webb describes having friendships with such renowned Olympians as “pretty incredible.”

“I feel really fortunate to be able to do this, and it is because they come,” Webb said. “They competed because they love to do it, and they do this not for money. These are genuine, nice people.”

One of those was Davenport, who won the gold in the 110 meter hurdles in 1968 and the bronze in 1976. He died in 2002 of a heart attack but his inspiration burns brightly. Webb said that Davenport was a driving force in this event becoming what is today.

“When we started getting it going, he always asked to come, and then he would tell others to come,” Webb said. “It was like he was the captain of the team and he was getting his teammates to go, too.

“He exemplified everything we were looking for ... he served this country in the military, he worked with Special Olympics. It was a pretty easy one when it came to naming it after him.”

Those Summer Games in Mexico City were the first to be fully broadcast in color and Americans made the most of that spotlight.

Al Oerter won his fourth gold in the discus. Fosbury revolutionized the high jump by pioneering the back-first technique — dubbed the Fosbury Flop — that became the standard approach. Bob Beamon set the world record in the long jump. Hines did the same in the 100 meters, breaking 10 seconds for the first time. Tyus became the first to repeat as gold medalist in the 100.

It all came in a year that was one of the most tumultuous in U.S. History. Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and presidential candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy each were assassinated. The Vietnam War raged on, as protests of the war heated up. The country was in turmoil.

Social activism was on the rise, leading to one indelible image during the Mexico City Games.

After Tommie Smith won gold and John Carlos the bronze in the 200 meters, each raised a black gloved fist in protest on the medal podium during the U.S. national anthem. To say their Black Power salute was widely controversial would be a vast understatement. But as time went on, the two have received numerous honors for their activism.

Both Smith and Carlos will be in attendance, along with fellow Speed City teammate and ‘68 Olympian Lee Evans.

Fosbury, Hines, Tyus Beamon, and other 1968 competitors like Reynaldo Brown, Larry Livers, Ed Caruthers, Leon Coleman, Madeline Manning Mims and Ron Freeman also will attend. Coming are more recent Olympians like Eddie Hart, Dwight Phillips, Tim Bright, Andre Phillips, James Robinson, Dawn Ellerbe, Harvey Glance and many more.

Fame didn’t come easily for the 1968 Olympians, but it has endured.

“These Olympians didn’t rack up the commercial endorsements like Michael Phelps and others have,” Webb said. “But Mel Pender, Eddie Hart, John Carlos, Tommie Smith and many others have written books.”

Another chapter is being written this February. ✪ Follow us on Twitter & Instagram, like us on Facebook!

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January 2019

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220 pound junior Chris Island

soundPIN

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Vacaville Wrestling Is A Mom-And-Pop Company Worth Buying Into

Nvestment Follow us on Twitter & Instagram, like us on Facebook!

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C

lint Birch and Armando Orozco have a business that is ready for the Shark Tank.

The Vacaville wrestling coaches — emboldened by administrators, parents, alumni and rabid fans — manage the most profitable program in the Sac-Joaquin Section.

Even without a major lender, the team travels great distances and always gets a return on its investments.

“We are a mom-and-pop organization,” Birch explained. “It’s not like we have a great big donor. We have an alumni golf tournament and fund-raise as much as we can, even all the way down to lemonade stands.”

Funds are vital when you travel like a wrestler. Bulldog grapplers will traverse over 7,800 miles this season.

These aren’t sightseeing tours. Vacaville competes in some of the toughest tournaments in the nation, and uses elite competition to prepare the varsity lineup for California’s lengthy postseason that culminates at the all-division California Interscholastic Federation State Wrestling Championships at Rabobank Arena VACAVILLE LINEUP in Bakersfield.

Wgt. Name, Grade NorCal Rank To bring a large group to state and contend 3 for a high team score, the Bulldogs must first 106 Isaiah Medina, Fr. chase success in the SJS. 113 Eric Almarinez, Fr. “You can’t be a state power unless you are 120 TJ Ruiz, Sr. 6 winning in your own backyard,” Birch said.

13 “The No. 1 goal is always the banner in our 126 Connor Shirar, Sr. league, at section duals and (the SJS Masters 132 Jacob Peralta, Sr. 5 Championships).

“If you are winning Masters, you are send- 138 Ethan Birch, Fr. 7 ing lots of kids to state, where this year it is 145 Zane Martin, Sr. even more hard than usual. California has 152 Tyee Ducharme, Sr. 2 more nationally ranked teams and wrestlers 160 Coulter Malone, Jr. than ever before.”

No team has catapulted to state on the back 170 Cole Chapman, Sr. of SJS Masters success like Vacaville. The Bull184 Kenny Probis, Sr. 12 (195s) dogs have more Masters titles (17) than the next two teams (Ponderosa-Shingle Springs 195 Max Polly, Sr. Luke Levengood, Fr. and Turlock) combined. And unlike Ponder- osa and Turlock — who last won titles in 2006 220 Chris Island, Jr. 3 and 2004, respectively — Vacaville has done it 285 Eric Hayward, Jr. lately. The Bulldogs have won 20 of the last 30 SJS titles (Div. I Dual and Masters) since Birch joined the program in 2003.

Last year, Vacaville placed 10 wrestlers in the top eight to win Masters — and finished No. 10 in California. And even after graduating two state runner-up CIF wrestlers at 138 (Lawrence Saenz) and 285 (Jake Levengood) pounds, and returning no CIF medalists, Vacaville is still the team to beat in the SJS. It comes down to depth, pins, finalists and medalists at Masters, and Vacaville will likely enter the tournament with 12 to 14 wrestlers scoring points in 14 different 32-man brackets.

Vacaville had eight wrestlers ranked among the top five in the SJS in the latest release of SportStars’ NorCal Wrestling Rankings, and should see its status improve after a tremendous third-place showing at The Clash XVII Jan. 5 in Rochester, Minnesota, considered the toughest national dual tournament in the United States.

Vacaville beat top seed and five-time Clash champs Apple Valley (Minn.) won the first-day bracket, and ended third in an elite lineup of teams after losing a 34-34 match on tiebreaker criteria (penalty points).

Birch and Orozco attribute Vacaville’s pride for dual meet success to Vacaville’s Midwest roots — stemmed from longtime coach Larry Nelson, a former Big Ten champion with the University of Michigan. Nelson built the program and retired in 1994. Of course, a stout 2019 lineup certainly bolsters the cause.

“You need tough guys who have been there to win dual meets against nationally ranked teams,” Birch said. “We have a big senior group.”

Those seniors — T.J. Ruiz, Connor Shirar, Jacob Peralta, Zane Martin, Tyee Ducharme, Cole Chapman, Max Polly and Kenny Probis — will make significant contributions to Vacaville’s team score at Masters, as the Bulldogs attempt to stay ahead of fellow NorCal top-five teams Oakdale and Del Oro-Loomis.

“We are starting something big this year as a group of seniors,” said Peralta, ranked No. 5 in NorCal at 132 pounds. “We want to keep that going, so we are all excited, but we know we have to work hard, so that’s what we are doing in the wrestling room right now.”

“I just think our team is pretty solid,” added Ducharme, No. 2 in NorCal at 152 pounds. “It’s knives sharpening knives in here. This solid lineup is just making everyone better.”

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Isaiah Medina

TJ Ruiz Oakdale (Masters champs in 2011) and Del Oro (Masters champs 2015-2016) are the only teams other than Vacaville to win a Masters banner in the last 11 seasons.

Since Oakdale and Del Oro are guaranteed to go Div. II at team duals, Vacaville is an overwhelming favorite to beat the likes of Folsom (likely Sierra Foothill League champion), Elk Grove (likely Delta League champion) and Pitman-Turlock (likely Central California Athletic League champion) to win team duals in Div. I. Team duals are Jan. 26 at Lincoln-Stockton.

When all divisions collide at Masters the following week at Delta College in Stockton, Vacaville’s senior leadership, junior star Chris Island (NorCal No. 3 at 220 pounds), and the best of Vacaville’s sensational freshman class should collaborate for significant team scoring.

Isaiah Medina, No. 3 in NorCal at 106, leads that group. He was 4-2 at the Clash and won four matches at the prestigious Reno Tournament of Champions. Freshmen Ethan Birch (Clint’s son) and Luke Levengood (Jake’s brother) are also in contention to occupy a spot in Vacaville’s postseason lineup. Birch won a challenge match to close in on that goal.

You can’t miss the Vacaville fan base at Masters. Bulldog supporters get loud as wrestlers fight through each bracket, and erupt when the program is announced in the top tier of team scores.

“It’s a special thing to be a part of Vacaville wrestling,” Birch said. “We have a great administration. I am proud of everyone who supports us, from our fans on down.”

It’s what makes the program a business, and business is a-booming. ✪

Story and Photos by Ike Dodson Follow us on Twitter & Instagram, like us on Facebook!

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