Page 9 - Sanger Herald 3-28-18 E-edition

SangerSports
SANGER HERALD * PAGE 1B * THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 2018
Golf team gets drenched but looks to a strong season on links
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Weather happened.
It just chose practice rather than the big match pairing Sanger’s young Apaches with the perennial powerhouse that Bullard often fields on the golf course.
“Yesterday in the hail, it was a bonding experience,” said Apache golf coach Trevor Schmidt. He kept his voice low on the greens to avoid interfering with the game, which was in progress at the time. He said nearly everybody got drenched and definitely compared notes on the van ride home.
The day of the match, March 15 and 24 hours after the rain storm, the sun broke through scattered clouds and turned Sherwood Forest Golf Club into a panorama of springtime, with chattering birds and whispering majestic trees casting sharp shadows across the fairways. The Knights in white and the Apaches in red and black played with
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Seth Maxwell makes a putt against Bullard last week.
almost no conversation.
A nod here or there proved sufficient
communication.
The Apaches in the
preseason had proved their mettle by emerging undefeated. Playing at the Bullard match in first position was sophomore Cody Williams; in second, freshman John Pena; in third junior Seth Maxwell; in fourth, junior Dominic Daddino; in fifth, sophomore Alejandro Mendibles; in sixth, freshman Xander Perez; and alternates Jordan Garza and Wyatt Fulbright, both freshmen.
The course proved a little water-logged, which meant everybody, even the coaches, had to travel by foot. No electric carts.
Schmidt said his team is young and most play near the same skill level. “This is the first real test,” he said of the Bullard match. And then he offered this: “You’ve got to make your guys confident.”
The key is making them believe they can play their best despite the intense
pressure of the sport — and win, he said.
Golf is a mental game. Tiger Woods continues to battle through injuries and lapses in confidence. He posted this on Twitter on March 18, “It was a great two weeks of being in contention again. I feel like I’m getting a little better. Great playing by Rory today to win at the King’s place. Arnie would have been proud of golf today and the charges!!!”
Woods referred to the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Fla. where Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy nabbed his first victory since 2016. Woods finished eight shots behind, but Tom Goldman of National Public Radio said McIlroy shared the spotlight with the one-time dominant force in golf.
Woods found his way back after about five years “wandering in a golf desert,” Goldman said.
Mike Edger wrote in Sport Psychology Today a half dozen years ago how golf is a mental game, especially at the higher
levels and said the best golfers must develop “a strong inner game or mental toughness.”
“The key is to find a mental game system to apply to practice and competition on a daily basis,” he said.
Maxwell said he’s working on it. His coach said he, like the other players, shows potential on the course. “What I tell him (Maxwell) is that he’s the only one on the range, and he’s painting it,” Schmidt said. “Pretend nobody else is there.”
Maxwell appeared determined to find that sweet spot of mental focus. “Some days, I can be playing really good,” he said. “And if I’m too nervous one day, it affects how I play.”
Maxwell said during practice he sent the tiny white golf ball soaring, exactly where he wanted it. Without fail, or mostly. But during the match, he didn’t locate the same rhythm. Referring to the
See Golf, Page 2B
Apaches cage riled Timberwolves
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
The Apaches and the Timberwolves went at it.
Hard.
Neither wanted to give an inch. This boys volleyball match meant something. Clovis East had beaten Sanger at their last meeting just two weeks before at the Apache- hosted tournament, the Sanger Slam with 14 teams. And the loss still stung. Despite injuries to both sides, neither team showed the other any quarter.
So on March 15, again in Sanger territory at the Coach Dean Nicholson Gym, the battle went to five games.
And Sanger won despite trading points with the Timberwolves the entire final game, ending with a 19-17 score. The Apache team was ecstatic, Clovis East less so.
“We didn’t expect it to be easy,” said assistant coach Colby Hashimoto. “But we fought back. We fought hard.”
Fellow assistant coach Marcos Mireles echoed the sentiment. “They smashed on us,” he said. “But you didn’t give up.”
Head coach Scott Okada, boys volleyball coach of the year in 2016, beamed at the end of the last game. “You had the fight,” he said. “It was good volleyball. This was a great win.”
However, he cautioned that more remains. “We have a long season to go,” Okada said. “Thirty more matches.”
Okada told his team after the game that he wanted them to continue to improve, that he wanted them to peak in May. “We still have more work to do,” he said.
The rivalry with Clovis East likely will return. The Timberwolves missed a repeat performance of their Sanger Slam win by a couple points, a couple mistakes. Likewise, the Apaches could have
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Coach Scott Okada, No. 1 Aidyn Jalao and the rest of the team react to an Apache on-court victory vs. Clovis East.
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Jesus Gomez blocks a shot by Timberwolf Mason Huynh during the grudge match.
Timberwolves won in brutal fashion 25-15.
Sanger returned to top form in game three, winning 25-17.
And for much of game four, Sanger dominated. The steely look of determination reflected in Clovis East coach Marcos Orro’s eyes hinted that he expected nothing but the best from his team. And he rotated his lineup repeatedly, putting in taller players from his bench when he knew their blocks could do the most damage to a somewhat height- challenged Apache team.
The result was positive. For Clovis East, anyway. The Timberwolves tied the game at about 21 points each. The two teams traded the lead three or four times before Clovis East pulled off the win 26-24.
And the game five proved neither team wanted to lose. Sanger dished a couple kills in the final minutes, and that proved the difference.
And it riled the crowd. But it really thrilled the bench. Those guys were loud. They quieted only when they were rotated in.
Senior Seth Moua just about lost his voice. “We pushed and we finished,” he said, his voice a near whisper. “I’m proud of this team. We’re a young team.
“The bench is loud.” But Moua said that’s good. “A lot of energy comes from the bench,” he said. “We just go loud here. When I was on the court, hearing them cheer me on, it gave me energy. Plenty of energy.”
Senior Jesus Gomez said some players suffered injuries and it inspired others to improve their game. “We’ve had a lot of ups and downs,” he said. “(But) everyone gave it their best. We didn’t put our heads down.”
The team at the end of the match was 8-2 on the season and looking to add more to the win column.
One of the three freshmen on the team said, “This isn’t middle school volleyball anymore.”
Nope. But it’s more than that. Moua said they’re a family. “When we lose, we lose as a team,” he said. “When we win, we win as a team. We’ve been waiting for this. We had to win.”
And next time, these Apaches may lose. But they’ll be itching for a rematch. And they are determined.
The reporter can be contacted by email at sangerheraldsports@gmail. com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.
flubbed it once or twice more and left the court in a funk.
Okada praised his team for keeping its composure throughout the ups and downs.
Senior Kacy Maine allowed himself to savor the moment just after the win. “It was insane,” he said. “I’m glad we won. We came back and did it with this big crowd.
“We were expecting it to be a big hard match. (And) we stepped it up since we
last played them.”
The crowd proved pretty
big and plenty loud for a volleyball game. The Timberwolves brought a solid knot of supporters who got pretty vocal at the end, chanting, “Let’s go T-Wolves!”
That got Apaches fans dueling with “Let’s go Sanger!”
And at the scorers table, Sanger High principal Dan Chacon said, “Let’s get this done,” to nobody in particular. He, like others,
was glued to the game. Sanger superintendent of schools Matt Navo had mentioned the game’s likely competitiveness at an event earlier in the week at Sanger High. He said the match would be a good one.
He was right.
Game one went in Sanger’s favor, 25-23. And it looked as if the Apaches had Clovis East off balance. Like winning three in a row might be easy.
The second game proved that concept wrong. The