Page 9 - Sanger Herald 12-21-17 e-edition

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SANGER HERALD * PAGE 1B * THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2017
Young, talented girls varsity soccer team seeks win column
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Mihailo Jovanovic arrived at Tom Flores Stadium as Sanger High’s junior varsity Apache girls delivered a 2-0 drubbing to visiting Clovis East.
The assistant varsity coach, after an exchange of pleasantries, gave an assessment of his team.
“We have a lot of talent,” he said. “But we have a lot of work ahead.”
The midday sun that day had warmed late afternoon temperatures into the 60s. But as evening settled and the subsequent varsity match entered its second half, the cool it brought appeared to extend to the home team. The 2-1 halftime score gave way to a flurry of Timberwolf offense, forcing the Apaches into a defensive posture for much of the 40 minutes.
The Apaches couldn’t contain Clovis East sophomore Mackenzie Madron, who contributed three of the Timberwolves’ goals in her team’s 4-1 win Dec. 12. Freshman Mylie
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Jasmine Guardado works to control the ball against a scrappy Clovis East team.
10 minutes. And the mood after exiting was hardly upbeat.
Their disappointment in a slow start to the season was acknowledged by several players. And part of it traces back to last season’s Cinderella run in the California Interscholastic Federation Central Section Division II playoffs. No. 5 seeded Sanger under head coach Sarah Bartley blew through Central Valley Christian 2-0, Madera 1-0 and finally No. 1 seeded San Joaquin Memorial 2-1 in the semi-finals to face No. 2 seeded Redwood of Visalia in the final on Feb. 24.
The championship was close enough to taste, but Redwood escaped with a 1-0 win.
This year’s team has just five seniors and a very different roster. Five freshmen have joined the team.
Defender Jackie Segura, one of those seniors, gave a synopsis of what this year’s version of the team needs to attain that pretty much echoed the sentiments of the other veterans and what
Jovanovic had said early in the evening.
“We have to work more on effort,” she said, leaving the field. “Wanting to get the ball. And wanting to get the win.”
And of her new teammates she added, “They’re alright talent wise. They’re pretty good.”
Then Segura said, “I feel like we give up on ourselves too easy. The talent is there. We just need to learn how to get the group together. Everyone’s mindset together.”
Clovis East’s effort showed their athletes had quite a bit of that, at least in the Dec. 12 game. Their passing required only a look or signal and players, who play together in the offseason on a club team, moved the ball forward. Their fluidity showed familiarity with each other, at least in that particular instance.
Mario Mata, father of junior goaltender Maddie Mata, agreed this year’s Apaches have the talent. “They just need to be able
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Sayers scored Clovis East’s final goal with about 29 minutes remaining.
The Timberwolves dominated the midfield, frequently containing Apache offensive
maneuvers. Sanger did break through, sometimes in spectacular fashion with drives by junior Audrey Reyna, senior Victoria Martinez and sophomore Jasmine Guardado. But the
shots on goal failed to find their mark.
After the game, the Apaches’ locker room postmortem extended a little longer than an earlier prediction of 5 to
Apaches dominate Hoover tournament
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Al Alvarado took his team to task for their second half offensive slowdown.
“We probably doubled our turnovers in the fourth quarter by being sloppy,” he said. “You guys are going to want to win for the guy next to you. It’s your hustle, your heart, your togetherness. This game exposes you.”
The post-game conversation took place in a small room off the Hoover High main gym on Dec. 13, the first day of the school’s Varsity Holiday Invitational Tournament, which has become an annual showcase for teams at the start of the season. The Apaches had just dominated the East Bakersfield Blades 69-49.
But Alvarado, Sanger’s head varsity basketball coach, has his eye on the long game. He’s looking ahead, possibly to another shot at the championship. Sanger lost to Selma last season 56-42 on March 4 in Selland Arena for the California Interscholastic Federation Central Section Division III final.
Assistant coach Mark Alvarado, Al’s taller little brother, spelled it out. “It was a decent effort,” he said. “I think we could have (beaten) them by a lot more. We’ve got to continue rising.”
Assistant coach Mike Paredes said, “Tomorrow’s a new day. Apache pride. Don’t forget.”
They didn’t. The second day of the tournament, the Apaches got paired with the Fresno High Warriors, a completely different team than the Blades. Under coach Carvell Wafer, the Warriors have grown increasingly competitive and showed it right away at the opening of the game Dec. 14.
The Warriors’ passing showed a team of players comfortable with each
Miike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Morice Norris, No. 0, blows through a pack of Fresno High Warriors on his way to the basket while Isaiah Cuevas, No. 10, looks on. Right, Avery Chatman goes for two.
more together. We play as a team.”
Rodriguez said the new players work hard but don’t yet have the confidence. “They have to build that up,” he said.
He cited the Apaches’ performance at the 75th Nordhoff Tournament in Ojai from Nov. 29 to Dec. 2 where Sanger finished third. “We’re averaging like 70 points,” Rodriguez said. The Apaches beat the Besant Hill Coyotes 80-29 and the Pacifica Tritons 72-37 before losing to the Buena Bulldogs 76-72. They then beat the Cabrillo Conquistadores 80-64 in game four.
Alvarado said he and his assistants have been working the team hard to prepare for the season. “We’ve had some tough practices,” he said. “We say, ‘We practice hard so our games are easy.’ It starts with working hard. And that’s what Sanger is — a hard-working community.”
Alvarado said one of Sanger’s strengths is its community. “We have us,” he said. “Our little town. But we’re a team. We’re a family.”
That sense of one team, one town, one tribe could be sensed amongst the players. Dillon, the freshman, said he already knows many of the Apaches. Rodriguez said he remembered him from back in the day when Dillon attended Little Apaches camps. Alvarado started the camps as a way of building and recruiting future players.
Stanley referenced this camaraderie when explaining why he was hitting so many threes in the game against East. “Good passes,” he said. Then he added, “I just felt it. They were dropping.”
Asked if fans would be seeing more of his outside shooting, he said,
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other and several times they stole the ball and scored, fast-break style like the Magic Johnson-era Lakers.
Still, they were no match for the Apaches. Sanger won 82-57, getting contributions from across the team. Isaiah Cuevas, a senior, again found the sweet spot behind the three-point line, scoring five times. And newcomers like Luke Dillon, Avery Chatman, Romeo Little and Sal Dhillon showed they’ll be players to watch as the season unfolds.
The day before, Al Alvarado had said Fresno would be a good measuring stick for the team, a way to show how the latest configuration of Sanger Apaches could play. “It’s going to be a war,” he told the team.
It was a blitzkrieg.
The varsity team returned just four players from last year’s hot-shot team — junior Cameron Stanley, seniors Isaiah “I-Rod” Rodriguez and Morice “Mojo” Norris and junior Leo Leon.
And all four showed the
rest how it’s done. Stanley kept hitting from behind the arc against East, Rodriguez played like a center grabbing rebounds and scoring under the basket under pressure, Norris showed that he’s got more in his offensive and defensive bag of tricks and Leon, who towers over the rest at about 7 feet, proved he’s going to be a major factor.
Rodriguez liked what he saw in the new lineup. “I think we’ll do even better than we are right now,” he said. “This year we’re