Page 9 - Sanger Herald 12-27-18 E-edition

SangerSports
SANGER HERALD * PAGE 1B * THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2018
Samorano returns from Los Angeles a boxing champ
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Alyssa Samorano traveled to Los Angeles for her big amateur fight and returned with a medal that on the back reads, “California State Silver Gloves Champion.”
She didn’t even throw a punch. Her opponent in the 90-pound division didn’t make weight. Samorano, 11, won by default — although she would rather have gone the rounds with a worthy opponent.
Mario Irazoqui, longtime Sanger boxing coach, said soon boxers will be lining up to challenge her.
“She’s the California state champion,” he said. “There’s going to be a hell of a lot of people gunning for her. She’s on the books now.”
Samorano said she’s ready, that she’s trained hard over the past months to prepare. She said while she’s disappointed no actual fighting took place in the
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Alyssa Samorano wants to box, and she'll get ner chance, now. Pictured with her are her father Albert Samorano, David Valenzuela, Ernesto Betancourt and Mario Garcia.
especially in her debut.” Alyssa fought at 80 pounds in that earlier fight. Her opponent was from Fresno. “I was ready,” she said at the time. “When I first started (the fight), Ijustwentatit.AndI remembered everything. In the middle, I just went
for it.”
Alyssa is but one story
at the Sanger Boxing Club, which practices at the Sanger Youth Center at 818 L St. The club continues to grow and attract fighters from all over the Valley, boys and girls.
“Now we have potential,” said Manny Cortes, who appeared on the undercard of two big boxing events at the Save Mart Center this past year. “We are growing as a club. Before it wasn’t like that. You’re seeing more the effect of the training. It’s evolving.”
Cortes’ and Alyssa’s coach, David Valenzuela, said fighters are coming from Fresno, Parlier and Orange Cove. “This club,”
he said in Spanish. “We’re doing something. It’s the most beautiful thing. We’re making something in Sanger.”
And he said Alyssa’s got what it takes to make a champion. And he should know. He has guided at least three boxers to success in a career that started in the ring and evolved into coaching in the 1970s.
Alyssa said she’s looking forward to whatever comes her way now that opponents won’t be as difficult to track down. And she’s pretty much solid muscle after a training regimen that would put any of her male counterparts to shame.
“I feel good,” she said. And she added, “I still fight boys here anyways.”
The reporter can be contacted by email at sangerheraldsports@gmail. com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.
LA match, she’s looking forward to booking some real fights.
Albert Samorano, Alyssa’s father, said he’s proud of how hard his little girl has worked. “This is her, right here,” he said. “She’s something already. It looks like everything’s
opening for her. A door opened.”
Getting an opponent in the past had been difficult. Girls in Alyssa’s weight class were few and far between. Girls boxing in the central San Joaquin Valley is growing but only in the past four years or so,
and girls are just beginning to sign up in significant numbers. Alyssa fought her first amateur opponent at the Fresno fairgrounds Oct. 7 in a WBC Amateur Boxing event that featured about 15 fights. Albert Samorano said he was “really, really proud of her,
WAMS girls teams volunteer for 2nd year
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Cory Amoroso, warehouse manager, coordinated the small army of Sanger girls, almost all of them wearing brand-new matching red sweatshirts that read “Warriors Basketball.”
“Go ahead and grab some bags,” Amoroso said, referring to the bins of medium-sized white bags. Each bag was full of toys. “We got scissors. We got tape. Toys are separated by age group.”
The girls’ task involved wrapping all the presents, many hundreds of them. The Washington Academic Middle School seventh- and eighth-grade basketball teams embraced the tasks of volunteering at the Poverello House in Fresno for the second straight year. The effort involved not only the wrapping but serving that night’s dinner to more than 100 diners later that evening on Dec. 21.
“It’s a bonding experience,” said Ryan Jackson, eighth-grade coach. He said the biggest reaction from last year’s visit came when the team discussed the experience afterward. All, he said, appeared to have benefitted from helping others during the holiday season.
“When we brought it up this year, you should have seen their faces light up. We can’t complain about everything basketball- wise or life-wise. It’s about teamwork today.” And he added, “Let’s get the joy out of this right now.”
And joy certainly appeared to be part of the process.
Seventh-grade coach Don Tullman, who has decades of coaching on his resume, concocted the concept of the young teenagers heading over to the homeless shelter and soup kitchen as a way to help them better mesh on the court. The team- building concept is one he had used many times in the corporate world to enhance communication skills and
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Jocelyn Sandoval, left, and Hailey Pasillas wrap gifts with the rest of the girls basketball teams from WAMS.
remembered their experience from the year before fondly. Pasillas, a shooting guard, said, “Last year we didn’t really know what we were doing. Now, we’re doing something completely different.”
But, she said, they’re asking questions and learning. And Christmas music played in the background, filling the warehouse with familiar holiday sounds. “Because we’re communicating with each other about how to wrap presents better,” Pasillas said. “And it will help us on the court.”
She said she hopes her team is better than last year.
Sandoval said, “I think we’re all progressing as players, especially during winter break. We’re also doing a lot of conditioning. So the first game back we should do good.”
Alyssa Torrango, another seventh-grade team captain, said she appreciated the experience “because we got to help people and we’re doing it in a very good way. And we’re doing it together. It’s a team bonding experience.”
Sandra Alves, who played for WAMS in her younger days and now sells commercial insurance, signed on as an assistant coach this year. “It’s definitely beneficial for them to work together,” she said. “It’s nice to see them enjoying themselves off the floor. It’s good for the community as well.”
Natali Herrera, on the eighth-grade team, said last year she and rest of the group had a good time. “It was fun being with everybody. Now we have seventh-graders. It’s fun to bond.”
Jason Romero, an assistant coach and English teacher, said he was initially just trying to figure it all out but began to see the value right away. “When we started, it was just a bunch of individuals. Now you can see the friendships,” he said of the beginning of the season.
bolster relationships. Kirstin Cockrell, a seventh-grader, wrapped a Princess Leia and Wickett the Ewok package. “It’s great,” she said. “You help people.” And as for her teammates, she said she already knew them pretty well but was getting to
know them better.
Annika Hassan, another
seventh-grader and who plays guitar at Sanger Academy Charter, wrapped a volleyball, which was proving difficult. She required the input of her teammates on how best to complete the task. They gave her tips.
“A very good bonding experience with our team,” she said. “This is my first time doing a ball.”
And to fellow seventh- grader Sienna Gonzalez, who all acknowledged as a wrapping expert, Hassan said, “It looks good, right? Sienna, right?”
Sienna nodded.
Each gift was marked w i t h t h e a g e g r o u p and gender for later distribution. Amoroso said Poverello House can have up to 50 volunteers on
each of two daily shifts. The Sanger teams weren’t alone wrapping, but they were by far the biggest contingent of volunteers in the warehouse.
“These toys just came in,” said Leticia Martinez, a case manager at Poverello House. She explained the toys had been donated after a drive by Les Schwab tire centers and KMPH Fox 26. The drive brought in many, many bins of toys, she said. “I’m just glad we were able to get everything in so they (the WAMS teams) could have this opportunity.”
Yunuen Resendiz, an eighth-grader who stands 5 feet 11 inches and would make a great addition to the Apaches, really didn’t have much experience wrapping. “I’m so lost right now,” she said.
But not for long. Others told her what to do, how to tape and how to cut the paper so it laid down nice and clean.
Julie Martinez, a seventh- grade shooting guard, had her own methods. “Sometimes I don’t like to follow the lines,” she said. “This is my first time
wrapping. You see how magnificent this is?”
Martinez said, “Rich or poor, I’m forever grateful for what I have. It’s very, like, kind that we’re helping out others. It’s better to give than receive.” And then she clarified, “You’re helping yourself by helping society become a better place.”
And Sienna Hernandez, also on the seventh-grade team, said the whole experience underlined for her how much she has. And she said her mother told her they all should be grateful for that. “When you live in a society where lots of people complete for what they have, you can lose sight of what you’re grateful for.”
And volunteering brings clarity to what’s really important, she said.
Krista Sheaffer, one of the seventh-grade captains, enjoyed the camaraderie of the experience and agreed that the Christmas-season outing would bolster team bonding. “I think they’re awesome,” she said of her teammates. “I love being out with them.”
Annie Byrd, a cousin to Cameron Stanley on the boys Apache team and a seventh-grader, said Sheaffer, Martinez, Hernandez and herself had an especially good time. “I think we’re going to be the most bonded group here,” she said.
Esha Ball, who plays center for the eighth-grade team, said she enjoys helping those less fortunate than herself. She said last year she bagged candy that would be used as gifts, and that the experience helped them as a team. “We all got closer,” she said of last year’s trip to Poverello House. “We all said we really enjoyed it. We communicated better on the court.”
She suggested others follow their example.
Anjeanette Zapata, an eighth-grade team member, had wrapping to a science.
“She’s like the best wrapper here,” Ball said.
Zapata estimated at that point she’d already wrapped 20 or more presents.
Hailey Pasillas and Jocelyn Sandoval