Sports

Text and photos by NADAV STERNHEIM

ATHLETES ANSWER

Seniors, what are your expectations and goals for the upcoming winter season?

“Our goals were set after the heartbreak last year. Everyone that’s returning knows how badly we want it [Central Coast Section Champion] after the way we went down last year.”

— ZACHARY COOPER, boys soccer

“My main goal is to get everyone to bond and cohesively mesh as a team, so on the field we’re not disconnected.”

— PAYTON ANDERSON, girls soccer

“I’m expecting wins in the duals and I also have high hopes for me and my fellow wrestlers to get to states and CCS.”

— JOSHUA WILDE, boys wrestling

“I’m excited for the tournaments, hopefully we’ll see some hard work pay off. Most of the varsity has been training since the end of last season.”

— HAILEY OSHITA, girls wrestling

“We’re a really young team this year, and we have very few seniors, so hopefully the seniors can take a big step and lead a lot of our underclassmen.”

— JACKSON MARTIN, boys basketball

“We went Open [Division] last year so we’ll see if we can do that again. [I want] to have a fun year and good experiences with the whole team.”

— KAELLA PETERS, girls basketball

WATER WARRIORS — Palo Alto High School senior and varsity boys water polo captain Ivan Izjerman fires a shot during the team’s 10-8 win over Los Gatos. Ijzerman fires a shot during the Palo Alto High School boys varsity team’s 10-8 win over Los Gatos. Ijzerman’s two goals and senior goalkeeper Ian Johnson’s two penalty saves helped propel the Vikings to the senior night victory. “On the [second penalty stop], I was mostly thinking about what celebration I should do after I block it,” Johnson said.