Page 9 - Sanger Herald 7-12-18 E-edition

SangerSports
SANGER HERALD * PAGE 1B * THURSDAY, JULY 12, 2018
Evan 'Shoot' Medina Tournament returns for the sixth time
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
The sixth annual Evan “Shoot” Medina Memorial Basketball Tournament comes to Sanger on July 14.
Starting at 9 a.m. that morning, athletes from 20 teams will officially test the new floor in Sanger High’s Coach Dean Nicholson Gym, which will be divided into two courts. A third court will be in the adjacent smaller gym. Play continues until 5 p.m. when winners in the boys and girls divisions will be chosen.
“The place should be packed,” said Al Medina, who has organized the event in the years since his son’s death. “I want everybody to come here and have an experience and leave happy. Everybody gets welcomed. It’s a way for us referees and coaches to socialize.”
And it’s a way for basketball teams to get on-court experience against competitors as they work
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Referees use the tournament for training and learning the latest rules for the upcoming season. Twenty teams play.
The tournament also serves as a master class for young referees and a place where established referees get a chance to learn the latest regulations. Medina, a longtime referee who says he’s still got several years officiating games, said there is a distinct need for people interested in putting on the black and white vertical striped shirts and getting on the court.
“Seventy percent of referees are 50 and older,” he said last year. “We’re looking for young people. But it takes time for younger refs to build the confidence.”
At the tournament that bears his son’s name, young refs who have just been working at the club team level get an opportunity to move up to what is called a three-person game. Elementary, middle school and freshmen and junior varsity only require two refs. Varsity requires three.
The Amateur Athletic Union, or AAU, level is a good place for aspiring refs
to start. Those interested in working weekends can work four games a day during the two-month season and get a backlog of 20 to 40 games during the spring, Medina has said.
The triple threat this year comes from veteran refs Fernie Montanez, Ron Johnson and Mike Bulicka. More on that later.
The event this year is sponsored by the San Joaquin Valley Officials Association; Sanger Knights of Columbus; Perez, Williams, Medina & Rodriguez LLP personal injury law firm; and Sanger High basketball.
It’s been about six years since Evan Medina’s death on the outskirts of Sanger in a car accident. Medina said after Evan died Sept. 6, 2012, about 100 referees showed up to his funeral to pay their respects. And the tournament has become a way to see each other, albeit briefly since everybody is officiating.
The younger Medina was an up-and-comer in
the regional referee world when he died, as well as a former basketball player for Sanger’s Apaches. The elder Medina recently as a referee an average of more than 80 games a year, but he may be slowing down a little because of that bum knee.
“Dean Nicholson was my coach and I’m honored to be the first on the new floor of his gym,” Medina said. The gym was rededicated in honor of the long-time Sanger High coach last year.
Teams this year are for boys, Sanger, Roosevelt, Lemoore, Parlier, Fowler, McLane, Firebaugh, Selma, Fresno and Riverdale. Girls are Sanger, Madera, Corcoran, Caruthers, Sunnyside, Kerman, Firebaugh, Strathmore, Dinuba and Selma.
The reporter can be contacted by email at sangerheraldsports@gmail. com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.
toward the new season. The event was expected to draw at least 500 people, according to last year’s count. And there were the same number of teams. Medina said problems arose this year when construction to the gym floor delayed the tournament. Last year’s event took place about
three weeks earlier.
And other issues
developed when three teams lost coaches. Medina said six teams dropped
out of the competition early on. He had to find replacements.
“I put out an all-points bulletin,” Medina said. “And I had 42 teams reply that they wanted to attend.”
But Medina wanted to keep the event manageable. He didn’t want to make it too big. “I could easily double the size,” he said. “But I don’t want to go to two different sites, and I want to keep it to a single day.”
Wrestlers on the warpath in Sanger
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Jose Mendoza, right, demonstrates a takedown technique on Spencer Hill for a wrestling camp at Sanger High recently. Coach Narciso Juarez wants to make it an annual event.
Camp draws
students and
coaching
talent from
across the
Central Valley
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Jose Mendoza had just gone over a classic, hard-to- defend takedown technique called a fireman’s carry to a group of 32 young wrestlers.
“The most important part of this move is the arm,” he said.
Mendoza, assistant wrestling coach at Selma High and former California State Bakersfield wrestler, was one of three clinicians who instructed those attending the On the Warpath Wrestling Camp on June 30 in Sanger High’s small gym. He was
joined by Sanger High head wrestling coach Narciso Juarez, AJ Valles and Spencer Hill.
The program, which was open to male and female wrestlers 8 years old and up, is one Juarez said he plans to repeat next year. “I wanted to offer this camp to expose them to college experienced wrestlers and coaches,” he said. “I hope it grows to 100 kids.”
And on a mild but sunny summer day, when they could be doing anything else on a Saturday, the young wrestlers listened intently as Mendoza went through each move and each possible evasion technique an opponent could use. Hill was his victim. His observers absorbed every nuance of the demonstration and every word he uttered.
It helped. They each had to repeat the moves on their own, splitting up in one-on- one teams.
Thalia Williams, a
standout wrestler on last year’s Apache team, said she appreciated the instruction. “It’s not dumbed down,” she said. “And it’s very inclusive. The teachers are very informed.”
She said there are a lot of different ways to take down an opponent.
Dulce Macias, a junior next year, agreed. “I’m actually learning difficult techniques that I can use,” she said. And “I will retain them.”
Williams said it was especially good how “everybody has their own way” of applying moves and how she learned from the different styles.
Vince Stafford, an Apache expected to be a standout in the coming season, said he’s invested in the sport and tries to improve with every practice. He gave the camp high marks. “It all helps in the end to get better,” he said. “I still learn new stuff coming to the camp.”
Stafford, whose sister Brianah also wrestled, said the goal is to improve his techniques, gain precision and make state next season. He will be a junior next year and said he’s focused solely on wrestling.
The camp included a lunch catered by Bobby Salazar’s restaurant, complete with a section of trademark sauces. Juarez said Salazar himself signed on as a sponsor of the event. He said the goal of the camp is to have “kids meet other kids from others areas in the Valley.”
Hill is Shafter High assistant wrestling coach, former Division I wrestler at California State University Bakersfield, two-time PAC-12 place winner and All American. He said the camp should prove beneficial to those who attend. “This is a pretty good deal,” he said. “They’ve got all three of us (referring to himself and fellow clinicians Mendoza
and Valles).
“I think it’s great he
(Juarez) brought us together. The young kids just learning to wrestle and the older ones (looking to improve). Hopefully this will continue for years to come.”
Hill said he believes the culture of wrestling, so important to building a strong program, is gaining steam in Sanger. “Coaches in Sanger are doing what it takes to get to the next level,” he said.
Valles is assistant men’s wrestling coach at Menlo College and two- time NAIA All-American. He graduated from Sanger High in 2010. Hill graduated from Buchanan the same year, and Mendoza graduated from Selma High in 2009.
“Overall, most of these kids are hungry, and they have some very big goals,” Valles said. “They could be out doing other stuff like playing video games.
But they’re here, and that shows dedication.”
Mendoza is assistant wrestling coach at Selma High and a former CSU Bakersfield wrestler with Hill. He called the camp “pretty cool” and said the first one should “set it up for future events.” The three of them all know each other since their days competing in high school, and Mendoza said he and Hill wrestled together in college for two and a half years.
“We’re bringing that (skill) to a new generation,” he said. “I grew up with AJ and met Spencer in high school. His family always welcomed me.”
Hill’s brothers and father also attended the camp, helping where they could.
The reporter can be contacted by email at sangerheraldsports@gmail. com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.