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best in prep sportsJune 7, 2012vol. 3. issue 47
Freebay area
handing out hardware for 2012 Pg. 8
SaSha Wallace iS golden. Pg. 20
triple
threatjameS logan’S 4th
title SatiSifieS Pg. 28
Sweet Spot
Batter up!on deck: bay area World SerieS. Pg. 34
6gold MedalSfor norcal at State MeetPg. 14 StrategieS for
Strength & PoWer Pg. 183
6 SportStars™ Upload photos and team stats! www.SportStarsOnline.comJune 7, 2012
PHONE 925.566.8500 FAX 925.566.8507EditOriAl [email protected] Chace Bryson. Ext. 104 • [email protected] Bill Kolb, Erik Stordahl, Mitch Stephens, Doug Gardner, Matt Smith, Clay Kallam, Jim McCue, Eric Gilmore, Dave Kiefer, Liz Elliott, Tim Rudd, Jonathan OkanesPhotography Butch Noble, Bob Larson, Jonathan Hawthorne, James K. Leash, Norbert von der Groeben, Phillip Walton, Doug Guler
CrEAtivE dEPArtmENt [email protected] manager Mike DeCicco. Ext. 103 • [email protected]
PublisHEr/PrEsidENtMike Calamusa. Ext. 106 • [email protected]
AdvErtisiNg & CAlENdAr/ClAssiFiEd [email protected], (925) 566-8500Account Executives Erik Stordahl • Erik@SportStars Online.com, Phillip Walton • [email protected] sac Joaqin edition: Ron Davis • [email protected] • (916) 564-0111, Dave Rosales • [email protected]
rEAdEr rEsOurCEs/AdmiNistrAtiONAd Traffic, Subscription, Calendar & Classified Listings [email protected] • Deb Hollinger. Ext. 101 •
distributiON/dElivEry [email protected] manager Butch Noble. Ext. 107 • [email protected]
iNFOrmAtiON tECHNOlOgy John Bonilla
CFO Sharon Calamusa • [email protected] Manager/Credit Services Deb Hollinger. Ext. 101 • [email protected]
bOArd OF AdvisOrsDennis Erokan, CEO, Placemaking GroupRoland Roos, CPA, Roland Roos & CoSusan Bonilla, State AssemblyDrew Lawler, Managing Director, AJ Lawler PartnersBrad Briegleb, Attorney At Law
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This Vol. #3, June 2012 Whole No. 47 is published by Caliente! Communications, LLC, 5356 Clayton Rd, Ste. 222, Concord, CA 94521. SportStars™© 2010 by Caliente! Communications, LLC. All rights reserved. Subscription rates: 24 issues, U.S. 3rd class $42 (allow 3 weeks for delivery). 1st class $55. To receive sample issues, please send $3 to cover postage. Back issues are $4 each. Repro-duction in whole or in part without permission of Publisher is strictly prohibited. The staff and management, including Board of Directors, of SportStars™© does not advocate or encourage the use of any product or service advertised herein for illegal purposes. Editorial contributions, photos and letters to the editor are welcome and should be addressed to the Editor. All material should be typed, double-spaced on disk or email and will be handled with reasonable care. For materials return, please enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope. SportStars™© and STARS!™© Clinics are registered trademarks of Caliente! Communications, LLC.
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First Pitch ....................................................8
Locker Room .......................................... 10
Behind the Clipboard ............................ 11
AAA SportStars of the Week .............. 13
Health Watch .......................................... 16
Training Time ........................................... 18
Impulse ..................................................... 36
Camps + Clinics ..................................... 38
Photo Finish ............................................. 46
hey frosh: Don’t be a follower, play the sport you want to play. Pg. 11
Crazy new high school sports are popping up. You wanna get crazy? Let’s get crazy. Pg. 11
No, you can’t share it. The NCS title belongs to Acalanes and they’re feeling selfish. Pg. 24
Sasha Wallace enjoys life but she is deadly serious about winning. Pg. 20
ON tHE COvErConnor Hornsby, Acalanes.
Photo by Phillip Walton.
StoryBook finiSha fourth championship now belongs to james logan
If Bass Fishingcounts ... it’s all
theirs now
28
FUN ’N’ GAMES
Butch Noble
Phillip Walton
Upload photos and team stats! www.SportStarsOnline.com
Chace Bryson Editor
First Pitch
Chace@ SportStarsOnline.com
(925) 566-8503
A new tradition for the end of the school year: The SSMies
Once this issue hits the streets the 2011-12 interscholastic sporting year will be done. And typically
at this time, I use my column to point out some of our favorite stories that came across our pages from September to June. This year, I wanted to create a way to look back at the year in a new way.
Thus, we begin a new tradition. We welcome all of Northern California to the red star-patterned carpet and the first annual handing out of the SSMies (pronounced S.S.Emmys).
Let’s begin, shall we? ■ Most Domi-nant Championship Performance: Aaron Gordon, Archishop Mitty-San Jose basketball — Hard to look anywhere else than Gordon, whose 33 points and 20 rebounds seemed effortless as he lead the Monarchs to a second straight CIF Div. II state title.
■ Best Story of the Year: Campolin-do-Moraga football — Chronicling the Little Cougars Who Could was a great deal of fun for us. Campolindo’s unexpected run all the way to the CIF Division III State Bowl game — becom-ing the East Bay’s first public school to play in the event — was like Cinderella on PEDs. It doesn’t get much better than a team that was picked to finish last in its league by some, essentially builds its offensive line during the first few weeks of August, comes from behind to win multiple playoff games and finishes the year 14-1.
■ Gutsiest Performance of the Year: Carrie Verdon,
Cam-poindo
(twice!) — Anybody who
says distance runners aren’t tough hasn’t met Verdon. Only a few hundred meters into the CIF Div. III State Cross Country Championships, Verdon began
to feel pain in her right foot. With her undefeated season and state title defense on the line, she ignored the pain and came from behind to beat Oakmont-Roseville’s Karlie Garcia by a mere second. She did the same thing during the track and field season, fighting through injury to eventually win the 3200 by two seconds over Julia Maxwell of Branson.
■ 2013 Female Athlete to Watch: Sasha Wallace, Holy Names-Oakland — You’ll see her name a few more times in this edition, and plenty more as we head toward 2013. Wal-lace was NorCal’s brightest star at the CIF State Track & Field Championships, winning gold in two events (100 hurdles, triple jump) and setting national-best marks in both.
■ 2013 Male Athlete to Watch: Eddie Vanderdoes, Placer-Auburn — The 6-foot, 4-inch, 285-pound football and baseball standout may have our favorite nickname heard
this year: The Floor Safe. Vanderdoes (who had 59 tackles and eight sacks last season) has a ridiculous list of football scholarship offers. However, a quick look at his baseball stats (.417 average, 4 HR, 17 RBI; 15 IP, 33 strikeouts, 1.87 ERA) has us thinking he might be the next Toby Gerhart.
■ 2013 Team to Watch: Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland girls basketball — How do you improve on a season in which you win the state championship by 38 points? You graduate just one starter and you see if you can run the table on the way to a repeat. That’s exactly what we expect the Dragons to attempt to do. It ought to be fun to watch.
■ Coach of the Year: Sue Phillips, Archbishop Mitty girls basketball — Phillips is no stranger to Coach of the Year honors. That tends to happen when you win multiple CIF regional and state championships. But this year’s title run was impressive on multiple levels. Not only did Mitty knock off the defending three-time state champion, St. Mary’s-Stockton, 53-51 in a thrilling Northern
Regional final, but Phillips had to reshuffle her
lineup over the last two games after her starting point game was lost due to injury.
■ Comeback Athlete of the Year: Austin Puckett, De La Salle-Concord baseball — After a freak accident led to a head injury that kept him from playing football in the fall, Puckett was healthy in the spring and turned in a stellar pitching season for a Spartans team which won the NCS Division I title. Puckett (8-2) lead the team in wins and posted a 2.42 ERA over 52.1 innings pitched.
■ Breakout Athlete of the Year: Olito Thompson, Con-cord football — Those who saw him play as a sophomore in 2010 knew he was a talented athlete, but nobody could’ve expected the record-breaking season he posted as a junior. By setting NorCal rushing records and eclipsing East Bay marks set by the Detroit Lions’ Jahvid Best, Thompson made several people take notice in 2011. He has a chance at an encore as well.
And we’re down to our last award of the ceremony. ■ School of the Year: Campolindo — Between its football
team, Verdon, a baseball team which became the first East Bay program to win three straight titles in the modern NCS era, and a boys swimming team that won an eighth consecu-tive section title, this was simply the Cougars year. Oh, they also repeated as boys volleyball champions.
Congrats to all the athletes and coaches who made this school year another memorable one. We’re already count-ing down the days until we can start working on the 2012 Football Preview. ✪
10 SportStars™ Upload photos and team stats! www.SportStarsOnline.comJune 7, 2012
“I don’t want to say “money,” but every time I think of her I go, “cha-ching!”
She is money at shortstop. She’s a team captain, a team leader, and she does
it every day out on the field.”— Concord High softball coach Megan Coddington on her shortstop
Mickey Loveridge. The senior made several key defensive plays in the late innings of the Minutemen’s 3-1 upset of No. 1 Newark Memorial-Newark in the
NCS Div. II semifinals.sayW
HAT
rapidFIRE
Matt Tyler, Granada-Livermore track
Nicole Lane, el Molino-forestville tracka
favorite ice cream
flavor
name parents would have used
if you were opposite sex
The Pillars (cliff
diving)
Jason Statham
Taylor Swift
Fudge w/peanut
butter
Cookie Dough
Annadel State Park
‘Go for it’Katelyn
Gordon No answer
favorite local
summer hangout
tV show you’d make
a guest appearence
on
What actor would
portray you in your life
story
What would be your personal catchphrase
Nitro Circus
Monk
Butch Noble
11SportStars™Support Your Local Business • Say You Found Them In SportStars™ June 7, 2012
I’ll be a freshman in the fall, and I want to play basketball, but all my friends are going to play volleyball. I don’t want to play on a team where I don’t know anyone, and I can’t convince any of my friends to play basketball. What should I do?
A.C., Suisun City
Going from middle school to high school is tough, and not just because you’re going from being the queen of everything as an eighth grader to lowly scum as a ninth
grader.Things that seemed really important in middle school will
start to seem less important much sooner than you think, and things that didn’t matter much at all — such as college, to name just one — will move up the list of priorities.
But here’s another thing: Your middle school friends are probably not going to be your high school friends. In fact, it’s pretty likely you’ll wind up being much closer to girls you either don’t know or hardly talk to now than to the girls you hang out with this summer.
Of course, no eighth grader believes this, but if you have an older sister, or friends who are seniors in high school or who are in college, they can tell you and maybe you’ll believe them. The point, though, is that basing any decision about high school on what your eighth grade friends are doing really isn’t that smart.
It will take much less time than you think to make a whole new set of friends, and it will take much less time than you think for your middle school crew to drift apart. (Now it’s certainly possible that one or two friends will stick with you through high school and beyond, but ask your parents when was the last time that they talked to their best friend from eighth grade.)
So if you want to play basketball, play basketball. The season doesn’t start until November, and by then you’ll know a lot of people you didn’t know before. And if you go to open gyms and play in the fall, by the first day of practice, you’ll know a bunch of basketball players.
By the same token, don’t try to convince your friends to give up volleyball for basketball. If that’s what they want to do, let them do it — as you get older, you’ll discover that as people mature, they worry less about what others like to do and more about what they like to do. (That’s why almost all teenagers see the same movies; something that is not true of 40-year-olds, who are much more likely to follow their own tastes.)
In the end, it’s your life, not your friends’ life, and what they want to do shouldn’t distract you from what you want to do.
Yes, middle-school friends seem like the most important people in the world, but trust me, many of those very same friends won’t even be in your phone in a couple years — and you’ll still be enjoying basketball. ✪
Clay Kallam is an assistant athletic director and girls varsity basketball coach at Bentley High in Lafayette. To submit a question for Behind the Clipboard, email Coach Kallam at [email protected].
To all incoming freshmen: Play sport YOU want to play
Clay Kallam
Behind the Clipboard
SuggeStionS for neW high School SPortS Suited for californiaWe read where the state of Kentucky recently announced that, starting next April, it will sanction Bass
Fishing as an official high school athletic event. Apparently Noodling for Flatheads and Frog Gigging were dismissed as being “too regional.” Anyway. It got us thinking that there are some activities here in the Great State of California that high schools should seriously consider adding to the roster of competitive events. Here are the Top 5 high school “sports” we’d like to see.
1. tEXtiNg FOr sPEEd ANd AC-CurACy. Possibly the first completely gender-neutral high school sport. There is absolutely no male-female dispar-ity when it comes to effective portable electronic device communication. Title IX advocates will LOVE this one, right? OMG. LOL. 2. skAtEbOArdiNg. We’ve already agreed that it’s not a crime, right? Why not go ahead and make it a sport? Are you telling us we couldn’t get a couple THOUSAND high school boys and girls from the Bay Area alone to “try out” for their high school varsity skate squads? Dude. Srsly.3. COmPEtitivE EAtiNg. Wouldn’t it be great to see all those young Joey Chesnuts and Kobayashis scarfing hot dogs and buffalo wings and cubes of butter with wild abandon? We can picture the spittle and food-bits flying al-ready. From a purely selfish standpoint, it’d be cool to point at a kid on the stage at Nathan’s annual Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest and say, ‘See that guy? I covered him when he was eating cocktail weenies in high school…”4. timbErsPOrts. Look. If sitting in a boat all day drinking, um, soda, and waiting for fish that’re too dumb to disregard that there pointy metal hook is a sport, then so are Log Rolling, Springboard Chop, and the Standing Block Chop. And with other mysteriously named events like “Single Buck” and “Hot Saw,” this one’s sure to be a crowd pleaser.5. CAbEr tOss. That’s right. Caber toss. Deal with it.
— Bill Kolb, who secretly longs to toss a caber.
James K. Leash
12 SportStars™ Upload photos and team stats! www.SportStarsOnline.comJune 7, 2012
13SportStars™Support Your Local Business • Say You Found Them In SportStars™ June 7, 2012
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trent shelton
campolindo . baseball . junior
Ice water flowed through the veins of the junior left-hander as he threw a combined 12 score-less innings with nine strikeouts in two playoff starts to help the Cougars collect their third consecutive NCS championship — the first East Bay baseball team at any level to accomplish such a feat. Campolindo defeated Dougherty Valley 6-3 at the O.co Coliseum June 2 in the NCS Div. II title game.
sportstars magazine: How good does this third title feel? Where does this championship rank?
Trent Shelton: Not too bad. I’ve been playing with most of the seniors my whole career … so it was really good for us to go out on top for them. I’d say it’s the best one so far, for me.
ssm: How did you like playing in the Coliseum?
ts: It was fun. It was our sec-ond time playing there this year. It was even better because we had more fans than last time.
ssm: You beasted in the play-offs. What was your secret?
ts: You just get more adrenaline, you know if you don’t win then that’s it. I just feel like I get more into the zone with just everything, and (I know) my teammates are also behind me.
TRENT’S QUICK HITSFavorite athlete: Cole HamelsFavorite team: Oakland A’sFavorite subject: MathFavorite starbucks item: Hot chocolate
honorablemention
noel frazier
The California senior won the CIF state championship in
the high jump posting a height of 6 feet, 10 1/4 inches in Clovis on June 2.
Andrew Gu
The Albany freshman won the NCS tennis singles
championship on May 5 when he defeated Foothill’s Chris Wen 6-1, 6-1 in the final.
Jenna Leavitt
Concord softball’s senior pitcher allowed just one earned
run over her last 21 innings to help lead the Minutemen to their sec-ond NCS Div. II title in three years.
Butch Noble
14 SportStars™ Upload photos and team stats! www.SportStarsOnline.comJune 7, 2012
The gold medals revealed the champi-ons. The waving at the top of the victory stand was another sign, as were the all the paper results handed out to members of the media.
But if all those things weren’t present or visible in the 94th California State Track and Field Championships at Buchanan High, the smiles on the faces of five Northern California track and field athletes told everyone something quite special had occurred.
California-San Ramon senior high jump-er Noel Frazier, Aptos junior 1,600-meter runner Nikki Hiltz, Presentation-San Jose sophomore pole vaulter Taylore Jaques, Fairfield senior hurdler daje Pugh and Holy Names-Oakland junior hurdler and jumper Sasha Wallace all beamed well after their championship performances
Wallace was the only Northern Califor-nian to win two events — the 100-meter hurdles (13.33) and the triple jump (41 feet, 5¾ inches). She finished as the national leader in both events, a monumental feat.
She opened the day dominating a deep
and quality short hurdles field, and this, her second best event. Public address announcer and long time track and field expert keith Conning told the crowd right before the start of the race that it was prob-ably the best overall field of any event in the entire meet.
Wallace then blew out of the gates and left everyone behind. Runner-up Jordie munford of Rancho Cucamonga was sec-ond at 13.58. Four girls broke 14 seconds. Two girls, desperately trying to catch up, were disqualified for pushing over hurdles.
“I have to admit, that was awfully impres-sive,” said Wallace’s personal coach Curtis Taylor. “Sasha has a very good knack of staying focused and relaxed but competitive.”
Coming from Taylor, that’s saying some-thing. He’s trained most of the best from the strong line of East Bay girls who have dominated this race, including previous state champions Trinity Wilson (2011), Julian Purvis (2006), Talia Stewart (2004 and 2002), davetta shepard (1994) and bisa grant (1993).
Wallace also won the triple jump going away at 41-5¾, off from her national best
mark of 42-4¾. Here are the other short stories from the
other winners.
daje Pugh: “beSt PreSent eVer”
daje Pugh has been knocking on a state medal door for the last three seasons. The hurdler from Fairfield slammed it shut with a day she didn’t even fathom.
The senior first set a Sac-Joaquin Sec-tion record by finishing the 100 hurdles in 13.69 seconds to place third, then she did even better, not only winning the 300 hurdles but recording the top time in the nation this season at 40.57 seconds.
It was the eighth-fastest time ever run by a high school athlete and it annihilated her own section record of 41.73, set the day before.
“This is the greatest end to my senior year,” she told reporters afterward. “There’s one more week until graduation and this is the best present ever. I don’t even need a birthday present.”
nikki hiltZ: “What i Want…”Before every race, Aptos junior Nikki
NorCal nets six gold medals at the CIF State Track and Field finalsBy mitCH stEPHENs | Contributor
Jonathan HawthorneCalifornia’s Noel Frazier
15SportStars™Support Your Local Business • Say You Found Them In SportStars™ June 7, 2012
Podium PoWerNorthern California held its own at the 2012 CIF State Track
and Field Championships on June 2-3 in Clovis. Here are all the athletes who earned Top 5 or better.
gOld: Noel Frazier (California-San Ramon) HJ, (6-10¼); Nikki Hiltz (Aptos) 1,600 (4:42.45); Taylore Jaques (Presentation-San Jose) PV (13-4¼); Daje Pugh (Fairfield) 300 hurdles (40.57); Sasha Wallace (Holy Names-Oakland) 100 hurdles (13.33), TJ (41-5 3/4).
silvEr: Nia Dorner (Rosemont-Sacramento) 400 (55.28); Andre McBride (San Leandro) 100 (10.60); Jordan Monteiro-Williams (McClatchy-Sacramento) LJ (23-9¾).
brONzE: EJ Floreal (Palo Alto) 200 (21.38); Ryan Donnahoe (Gridley) SP (61-6), Manuel Hernandez (Oakdale) HJ (6-10¼); Lilla McMillan (Tamalpais) 200 (23.87); Marquis Morris (De La Salle-Concord) 110 hurdles (14.22); Pugh (Fairfield) 100 hurdles (13.69), Nick Ratto (St. Joseph Notre Dame-Alameda) 800 (1:51.57).
FOurtH PlACE: Lovina Akauola (Vallejo) discus (143-0); Ellisa Bryant (Piedmont Hills) 400 (55.38); Floreal (Palo Alto) 100 (10.70); Julia Maxwell (Branson-Ross) 3,200 (10:27.99); Nathaniel Moore (Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland) LJ (23-6¾); Pattriana Perry (Vacaville) 100 hurdles (13.89), 300 hurdles (42.53); Jeffrey Prothro (James Logan-Union City) TJ (48-10¼); Steven Pust (Golden Valley-Merced) PV (15-8¼).
FiFtH PlACE: Kody Atkins (Chico) 800 (2:10.24); Timarya Baynard (Piedmont Hills) 400 (55.50); Daria Cook (Vacaville) 300 hurdles (42.60); Brian Hamilton (Stagg-Stockton) discus (179-11); Kennedy-Richmond boys 400 relay (41.47), Cydney Leath (Mt. Pleasant-San Jose) TJ (38-11¾); Luis Luna (Piner-Santa Rosa) 3,200 (9:08.82); Ricky Strehlow (Wilcox-Santa Clara); TJ (47-8¼, Casey Wheeler (Del Oro-Loomis) 110 hurdles (14.35).
Hiltz writes an inspirational note on her left hand. Before the much-anticipated 1,600 showdown with defending champion Cami Chapus of Harvard-Westlake, Hiltz wrote simply: “What I want is to be No. 1.”
Not exactly something you’d expect to read in a book of famous quotes. Until you consider the source.
“steve Prefontaine,” Hiltz said. “He is my hero.”Hiltz ran a lot like the late, great Oregon distance
star, blew past Chapus with about 300 meters to go and breezed to a scintillating win in 4:42.45, the fastest winning time ever by a Northern California performer.
She won by almost five seconds over runner-up re-becca mehra of Palos Verdes who crossed in 4:47.33. Chapus seemed broken after Hiltz passed her. She finished fifth in 4:53.42.
Hiltz told Julie Jag of the Santa Cruz Sentinel: “When I passed (Chapus) with 300 to go, I though she would be right on my tail. I looked with 100 to go, and there was no one with me.”
And when she crossed the finish line: “That was the best feeling in the world.”
taylore jaQueS: eVerything clickedFive girls had cleared 13 feet in the pole vault — an
unprecedented number for the state meet — and though Presentation sophomore Jaques was one of them, she had an early miss and sat in third place.
But she cleared 13-4¼ on her second attempt and no one else did, to take the state title. Not bad for a second-year vaulter, former standout gymnast and two-year field hockey starter.
She’s following the exact path and working with the same private coaches — bob and steve stover — as two-
time state champion Tori Anthony, who just completed her senior year at UCLA. Presentation coach Warren Jaques, also Taylore’s father, was also a pole vaulter under Bob Stover. Anthony helps train Taylore in the summer.
“For the first time since early in the year she had every-thing clicking,” Steve Stover said. “Her timing was just right. You could see it was going to happen.”
Said Taylore on her winning vault: “It was amazing. I touched the bar on the way down and I told myself to get off of it. When the bar stayed up, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was just very, very happy. My goal all season was to make 13-4 and to do it at the state finals was a great way to end my season.”
noel fraZier: oVer the toPNoel Frazier has seemed liked a fixture at Veterans
Stadium. He placed fifth as a sophomore and second last season. He had just one direction to go — and that was up.
The only question: Would he knock the bar down?He didn’t.After resting his a sore knee that had bothered him much
of the year, Frazier cleared only two heights — his opening mark of 6-8¾ and his winning clearance of 6-10¼. Two others cleared the latter mark, defending champion Cody Crampton of Canyon-Anaheim and Oakdale’s Manuel Hernandez, but Frazier did it on his first attempt and won on less misses.
A polite, quiet, often expressionless sort, Frazier finally let loose afterward. He couldn’t stop smiling.
“It’s definitely a dream come true,” he told reporters afterward. ✪
Mitch Stephens is a national columnist for MaxPreps.com.
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Dislocations of the “knee cap” are a common injury in the pediatric and adolescent population.
Studies estimate the incidence of this injury in children to be as high as 43 per 100,000 kids, with a recurrence rate as high as 60 percent. Most dislocations involve the “kneecap” dislocat-ing laterally (the outside part of the knee).
So what exactly is going on when the “knee-cap” dislo-cates? The official name for the “kneecap” is the patella, and it rests on top of the femur (thigh bone). The femur has a groove in it called the trochlea which is essentially a track in which the patella glides while you are moving your leg.
It’s easiest to imagine a race car (the patella) gliding down a race-track (the trochlea). When the patella dislocates, it disengages from the trochlea, and sits outside of it.
The patella experiences tremendous force during daily activity (i.e. eight times your body weight when running), which makes it a common source of pain and also pre-disposes it to easily dislocate. In order to understand why the patella can dislocate, you have to first understand what keeps the patella engaged in the trochlea (i.e. the race car in the race-track).
There are four main areas your physi-cian will examine to determine what may have caused (or is continuing to cause) your patella to dislocate.
First, your patella may have experi-enced a direct blow that is so strong that it actually pushes the patella out of the trochlea. This can tear the medial patello-femoral ligament; a soft-tissue restraint that helps keep the patella in the trochlear groove.
Second, particularly if your pa-tella keeps dislocating even during non-sporting activities, your bones may be positioned abnormally and/or have formed abnormally from birth (i.e. either the race car itself is abnormal or the race-track is shaped in such a way that the race car keeps driving off the track). This can be from a variety of factors including having a trochlea which is too shallow, a patella which is malformed or sitting too high, having knock-knees, or having
thigh bones which are too rotated. These are more difficult problems to address as there are not very many effective surgical options.
Third, your tibial tubercle (the bony bump below your knee cap at the top part of your shin bone) may be positioned
too laterally. This is a problem since your quadriceps muscles attach to the tibial tubercle, and can pull your patella out of the trochlear groove.
Finally, the structures above your patella may be too tight on the outside (lateral), and very weak on the inside (medial) part of the knee; once again pushing your patella out of its normal position.
If your patella dislocates, your physician will perform a history, physical exam, and x-rays to determine the underly-
ing cause. If there is a concern for a piece of your patella having actually sheared off when you dislocated it; your physi-cian may order an MRI to look at the joint more closely. If there is a loose piece of bone in your joint, your surgeon may have to take you to the operating room using a camera (arthroscopy) to re-attach the piece. Otherwise, the main stay of the treatment for patella dislocations is physical therapy, physical therapy, and more physical therapy to strengthen the muscles about your knee and hip to keep the patella in place.
If you continue to have patella disloca-tions even after physical therapy, your doctor may suggest a variety of different treatment options based on the underly-ing cause. This could be a simple as re-constructing a ligament, or more involved such as moving your tibial tubercle. Pa-tella dislocations are a common problem which are frustrating and scary; but can be treated with an understanding of the complex nature of the joint. ✪
Dr. Nirav K. Pandya is a pediatric orthope-dic surgeon specializing in pediatric sports injuries at the Children’s Hospital in Oak-land. He sees patients and operates in Oakland and our facility at Walnut Creek. If you have any questions or comments regarding the “Health Watch” column, write the Sports Medicine for Young Ath-letes staff at [email protected].
June 7, 2012
Nirav K. PandyaHealth Watch
Kneecap dislocation: Why it happens and how to handle it
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There are many different exercises and strategies for improving your athletes’ strength and power. Some of the ones
I’m going to share might be something they have already been exposed to.
The actual exercises and strategies listed below can be very effective, but in the end they are just exercises and the way they are taught, imple-mented and performed will deter-mine if they will have a positive impact on your athlete’s strength, power and performance.
The fact is that every athlete who is going to be involved in a strength and conditioning program first needs to be assessed by a qualified strength coach. This is vital not only for the safety of your athlete but also the effective-ness of the exercises and strategies being implemented.
If coaches aren’t assessing your athletes, then they’re guessing, and most likely pre-scribing exercises that are ineffective — and even worse, strengthening dysfunction and increasing the injury potential of your athlete!
The initial emphasis should be to get your athletes mobile and stable in the right joints, so they can properly develop the motor pattern of the exercise progression being implemented and coached. This ensures they can use the strategies below safely and effectively.
The following strategies are incredibly powerful for increasing strength, power and performance, and are just a piece of building an explosive and powerful athlete.
jumPS and hoPSJumps are great for increasing power and
speed, as well as improving the ability of your athletes to recruit high threshold motor units, which will have a positive impact on strength.
Trainers will use boxes, vertical, squat and broad jumps as well as single-leg forward and lateral/medial hops and bounds for this purpose. My athletes do these after an effective warm up and before any strength training.
Again, progression is key. The athlete should be taught to properly land first, and then progressively increase the demand by adding hurdles while keeping a focus on landing. Then they should progress to
a bounce before continuous (Plyometric) hops.
olymPic liftSThese are very effective for increasing
power production. My athletes usually use Barbell or one-arm DB hang snatches and cleans for this purpose.
These are complex movements, but learning how to perform them correctly through proper progressions is definitely worth your athlete’s time and effort.
But sometimes there are some athletes who just can’t perform these safely due to mobility, injury and joint stress concerns. This is where Kettle Bell Swings and medicine balls can be used with great benefit to the athlete’s power
and strength.
med ball throWSMedicine balls are a great tool for power
development. The fact is that no other train-ing mode provides the specific strength and power potential of the medicine ball.
Medicine balls are a tool similar to Olympic lifting and Plyometric for the core musculature.
For overhead athletes like pitchers, tennis players and swimmers, medicine balls in throwing motions (chest pass, side throws, overhead throws) provides great eccentric training for the rotator cuff while developing power in the core.
Total body power in all athletes can be developed through throws with heavy balls and should be done in a large open area to simulate the actions of the Olympic lifts (hip hinging and triple extension).
These are some of my favorite power-build-ing exercises that are great additions to an effective strength program. No one strategy by itself is effective, and making sure all the parts are effectively implemented in your athletes’ training will ensure that your athletes will get stronger and more powerful. ✪
Tim Rudd is an International Youth Condition-ing Association specialist in youth condi-tioning (level 3), speed and agility (level 2), and nutrition specialist (level 1). For more information on anything you read in Training Time, email him at [email protected].
June 7, 2012
Tim Rudd for IYCA Training Time
strategies for increasing athletes’ strength & power3
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Sasha Wallace took her mark for the 100 meter hurdles final at the North Coast Section Meet of Champions on May 26. She then waited as the PA announcer introduced each competitor, which
included one or two factoids for each — highlights such as fifth in the section, ninth in the state, and so on.
When it got to the junior from Holy Names of Oakland, though, the PA announcer made it clear who the favorite was.
Second in NCS, third in the state and seventh in the country in the 100 hurdles.
A pause. Then he continued. She’s also a triple jumper. First in NCS, first in California, tops in the country.
The laundry list of accolades stirred the crowd, several hundred lodged in the bleachers on a windy day at Edwards Stadium at Cal-Berkeley. If they weren’t already fixing their gaze on Wallace, camped in Lane 4, they were now.
“It was a long list,” Wallace said of her accomplishments being railed off before the 100 hurdles final. “But it’s happened so fast.”
Then 14.18 seconds later, Wallace captured first place in the event. The NCS Meet of Champions would serve as just a prelude to the
CIF State Championships where she won gold medals in the triple jump and 100 hurdles, and continued her ascent as one of the best track and field athletes in the US.
◆ ◆ ◆When one is blessed with athletic abilities and physical traits like
Wallace, it comes as no shock that she grew up in a family of athletes. Her father, Joaquin, played baseball at San Francisco State and is cur-
rently the women’s basketball coach for the Gators. Her older sister, Ja-meelah, was a track standout winning the 400 meter dash at the Junior Olympics while competing for St. Elizabeth in her high school days.
“It was something I had to look up to,” Wallace said of Jameelah’s Junior Olympics victory.
Wallace began track and field in the seventh grade competing for a
club team in Oakland. While hurdling and running the 400, she gravi-tated to the triple jump.
“It’s funny because I never tried long jump before, ever,” said Wal-lace. “I went straight to triple jump.”
If that admission seems odd, that’s because it is, especially when considering triple jump typically takes a back seat to more popular field events like the long jump and high jump.
The triple jump is awkward in its presentation and even more un-compromising on the body. As an athlete continues to fill in to her body, she has to continue to learn and relearn the techniques and nu-ances of the event. “The more you get older, the more different the boards you need to jump from and the farther away the board is from the pit,” Wallace said. “The most things I probably focused on were getting my phases to get bigger and stretch them out.
“But where I am now, thinking, looking back, I’m really different than how I was in seventh grade. I actually know what I’m doing. I know how to break the jumping down to make it slower. In seventh grade I just wanted to get in the pit as fast as I could to see how far I jumped, which didn’t help at all.”
◆ ◆ ◆Wallace entered her freshman year at Holy Names playing basketball
along with track and field. She trained at East Oakland Youth Develop-ment Center under the tutelage of Laney College coach Curtis Taylor.
At EOYDC, Wallace horsed around and socialized with teammates, which didn’t sit well with fellow teammate Trinity Wilson.
“She’s always playful and joking around and talking,” said Wil-son, the defending state and world youth 100 hurdles champion who missed the postseason due to a toe injury. “She practices and performs well. I just don’t know how. I can’t be around her when I’m practicing.”
Despite the lack of focus, Wallace was third at the World Youth Championships Trials last summer in South Carolina at 40 feet, 8.75 inches. A fantastic finish, but only the Top 2 qualified to compete in
Holy Names’ Sasha Wallace is a bundle of fun-loving energy — with the type of talent that leads to gold
Story by erik Stordahl | photos by phillip walton
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France. Wallace left the trials with a bitter taste lingering.“At that point she was like I wanna go (to Worlds next
year),” Taylor said of Wallace. “I told her you got to (train) early before the season, in September.”
Wallace got the message loud and clear. Last fall, she quit hoops to focus full time on track and field.
She goofed off less in practice and worked to perfect her stride and technique. The result is nothing short of staggering.
Her personal record currently sits at 42 feet, 4.75 inches. According to dyestat.com, only two other girls in the nation can top 42 feet.
The day before she won the 100 meter hurdles at the NCS Meet of Champions, Wallace won the triple jump with a dis-tance of 42 feet, 3.25 inches – more than five feet ahead of second place. Each runner gets three attempts, but Wallace declined her third try, opting instead to save her legs for the fol-lowing day and the CIF state championships June 1-2 in Clovis.
Preparing for CIF means preparing for the triple jump and the 100 hurdles, the latter Wallace could win since Wilson, last year’s junior world champion, won’t be participating. Still, Wallace owes a good portion of her success to Wilson.
“I always like running against people that’ll push me,” Wal-lace said. “Only because my time might get lower or my jump might get farther. I just like the competition. Even if I don’t win in some cases, I just like running against heavier competi-tion. It brings out the best.”
She definitely got that at the state meet. Wallace put it all together in Clovis with the 100 hurdles, not
only winning, but setting the national high school mark this season with a wind-legal time of 13.33. An hour or so later, she won the triple jump with a modest 41 feet, 5 3/4 inches.
“I didn’t think I’d go that fast but I’ve been training to PR,” Wallace said of her blazing 100 hurdles time. “I go into every race trying to be the winner in whatever I do. Last season, it
didn’t happen a lot of the time.”◆ ◆ ◆
To think, all of this almost went away before it really even started.
It was May 19, the day of the NCS Bay Shore Athletic League championships, and Wallace foot fouled on her first two at-tempts. If she foot fouled on the third, she would be elimi-nated from the rest of postseason competition, and her triple jumping reign would come to a screeching, premature halt.
“It’s something that you don’t want to freak about, because then you’ll end up being a nervous wreck,” Wallace said. “In that type of situation you just want to be more calm than any-thing. So I just had to make the transition … however many feet, and just go off the pile and my jump goes from there.”
She played it safe on her third try, taking off well behind the line and still ended up with a distance of 41 feet, easily win-ning the championship.
What’s the end goal? That’s a question that not even Wal-lace can answer. She is extremely talented. She’s blessed with physical traits and athletic ability. The scary thing is she’s only scratching the surface. Taylor believes there’s no question she can make the Olympics.
“I think she’s operating on 60 percent of her talent right now,” Taylor said. “If she sticks to it with her passion and gets some good coaching talent that learns how to buckle down with her, she can be in the Olympics.”
As flattering as that sounds, Wallace just takes all the acco-lades and glory in stride. She truly lives in the moment.
“I’m the type of person that breaks things up in steps,” Wal-lace said. “My goal is, of course, make it to state next year. And my goal from there is to get a full scholarship. From there I can decide whether or not I wanna go for the Olympics. I don’t wanna look as what’s the biggest goal, because I have smaller goals that will lead up to my biggest.” ✪
June 7, 2012
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The SportStars are back. That’s right, the East Bay’s all-star baseball club bear-
ing our name will once again field a pair of teams to compete in the National Team Identification Series (NTIS).
The NTIS, which is also in its second year of existence, is hosted by USA Baseball as a means of discovering players for its teams of various age levels. It begins at the regional level and ends at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina.
In its first year, the SportStars fielded teams in three dif-ferent age groups and sent a total of 13 players onto the na-tional portion of the series. Those players included Chris Flexen, Colby Wright, Vince Fernandez, Dylan Hecht, Dylan Isquirdo, Marcus Williams, Erik Nielson, Jacob Rebar, Domi-nic Foscalina, Nick Allman, Justin Hooper, James Smart and Christopher Castillo.
Thirteen players from an original pool of about 60 kids was a remarkable start for the SportStars, who were founded by Jason Sekany of The Pitching Center and Cabernet Indoor Sports in Livemore.
“I thought it went fantastically well (last year),” Sekany said. “The players and parents and everybody that was in-volved in the East Bay SportStars program really seemed to benefit from the experience, and that includes the kids who weren’t selected to move on.
“I had several parents come to me afterward and tell that it was the best baseball event that they’ve been a part of in their kids playing days. Being that it was the first time for the event,
to get that sort of response was fantastic.” This year’s Northern California NTIS qualifiers are being
held for the 14U and 17U levels. The 14U division will go first, with the showcase tourna-
ment being played June 19-20 at the Cooperstown Dreams Park in Manteca and Banner Island Ballpark in Stockton. The SportStars 14U tryouts have already taken place and the roster is expected to be finalized by June 8.
Sekany said he was pleased with the talent, and mentioned that a few familiar faces would be back from last year’s 13U team. That includes both Foscalina and Rebar.
The 17U tournament is July 10-12 with games at College of Marin and Sir Francis Drake High in San Anselmo. The Sport-Stars expect to have tryouts for that team during the second week of June. Organizing that workout has been tougher due to timing issues.
For the kids who are selected to move on to the national stage as part of the Northern California all-star team, the tournaments at the USA baseball complex will be held from Aug. 24-26 and Sept. 7-9. Once they get to the national NTIS event, they will be competing for an opportunity to be invited to 15U and 18U National Team Trials.
According to the USA Baseball website, from the three age groups (there is also a 16U NTIS), USA Baseball will name a minimum of eight players to the 2013 18U National Team Tri-als; a minimum of eight players to the 2013 17U National Team Development Program (17U NTDP); and a minimum of 16 players to the 2013 15U National Team Trials.
Flexen, who just completed his senior year at Newark Me-
morial High, was the SportStars’ biggest success story a year ago. He will be attending the 18U Team Trails this year based his performance in North Carolina last August.
Sekany and his staff are constantly evaluating how to im-prove. “We realized that in respects to fundraising we need have to get an even bigger jump on things,” Sekany said. “I think what we’re realizing is this is really a year-round project.”
Sekany has the SportStars players using eTeam Sponsor’s electronic donation system to help raise funds. This year the team also plans to have a fundraising auction featuring items donated by past success stories at The Pitching Center and other friends of the program. ✪
East Bay SportStars begin another summer of chasing Team USA dreamsBy CHACE brysON | Editor
ContributedChris Flexen of the East Bay SportStars.
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Story by Chace Bryson • Photos by Phillip Walton
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Andrew Merken just kept throwing. It’s all he could do. Standing on the O.co Coliseum mound, pitching for Acalanes High in the North Coast Section Division III baseball
championship, Merken was a hard-throwing, right-handed contradiction.After five innings of work against Tamalpais, he walked off the mound having thrown 95 pitches. His team led 4-0. He’d walked
seven batters. He’d struck out six.He had not surrendered a hit.Three-year coach of the Dons, Justin Santich-Hughes had the wheels moving. He thought through several scenarios. He had
three different kids warming up in the bullpen at different times between the fourth and the sixth innings.But with a four-run lead and a zero still in the hit column, Santich-Hughes simply went with the pep-talk approach and patted
Merken’s tail end to send him back onto the hill.“He brought me aside and said you’re better than these guys,” Merken said of his coach’s brief chat with him behind the closed
door of the Oakland A’s home dugout bathroom. “You can get them out. Just make them hit it.”Merken kept throwing. He opened the sixth with a strikeout and a harmless fly ball to right field. Then
another walk — no. 8 — which took him to 110 pitches. Still no hits. Keep throwing.That’s when Tamalpais’ Matt Davis, a left-handed hitter, shot a one-hop screamer
toward third baseman Connor Hornsby. The hop came right at Hornsby’s feet, and the senior had to let the ball play off his chest. He smothered it and fired it across the diamond, but Davis was ruled to have beaten the throw.
First ruled a hit, then changed to an error, Merken still had a no-hitter working but Santich-Hughes decided that 116 pitches would be enough.
John York was summoned and he retired the last four batters of the game for the Dons — though not without adding his own drama. A gritty Tamalpais team used two more walks, and then got its first hit of the game on a sharp single to left by Chris Hayman to load the bases.
“Last year we were really nervous,” Santich-Hughes said of the Dons champion-ship appearance which ended in a bittersweet tie and co-championship with San Marin-Novato. “I was a nervous wreck from pitch one to the end. Today, I really didn’t get nervous until two-outs, bases-loaded. I think that our guys reflected that as well. You saw the poise of our guys. Not giving in. Never panicked.”
York completed the one-hit combined shutout by getting Jonathan Wachtel to
One year after being forced to swallow a co-championship, Acalanes grabbed an outright NCS title in fascinating fashion
FAr lEFt: Dons junior Andrew Merken deliv-ers a pitch during the Div. III final at the O.co Coliseum. He earned the win after throwing 5.2 hitless innings. lEFt: The team meets in front of the mound for the obligatory championship dogpile.
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chop weakly in front of the mound and then threw him out thanks to a nice scoop by first baseman Drew Gaylord.
The final totals were astonishing. The Dons allowed 12 base runners in seven innings. Ten were by walk, one reached on an error and one singled. Not one scored.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,” Acalanes senior Grant Diede said of his team’s shutout despite its propensity to keep providing Tamalpais base runners. “And I hope to never have to see it again. ... I tell our pitchers every game, as long as we don’t walk people we’re going to win. We fought through it though. ”
For Diede and the rest of the Dons core group of veterans, it was going to take more than a steady stream of walks to keep them from the NCS crown they’d been gunning for since June of 2011.
◆ ◆ ◆A text message. That’s how the 2011 Acalanes players found
out their NCS Div. III championship game against San Marin — which had been sus-pended by rain and darkness with both teams tied 4-4 through 10 innings — was not going to be completed.
“Yep,” senior Connor Hornsby said with a smirk. “Coach texted us later that night say-ing, ‘Congrats boys. Way to be co-champi-ons.’”
Santich-Hughes learned the game wouldn’t be completed as part of a conference call. It was equally tough to swallow for him.
“It wasn’t the best feeling,” the coach said.The school received an NCS banner and
each member of the team got championship rings, though several admitted to never really wearing them. It was important to them that they weren’t satisfied, and they wouldn’t be until they owned the title outright.
And if they were going to do it, 2012 was supposed to be the year. It had basically been a three-year plan since Santich-Hughes took the job before the 2010 season.
“We recognized right away, the first day I stepped on campus, through our first tryouts, that we had a special class of sophomores and freshmen,” the coach said. “We decided as a staff that we’re going to start those guys and play them for better or worse. We were going to build for this year.”
After the postgame awards ceremony was completed and Santich-Hughes had addressed the team in an empty section of the Coliseum field level seating, he and his coaching staff dismissed the team but asked Diede, Hornsby, Drew Gaylord and Spencer Henderson to stay behind. These were the four sophomores who comprised the core of his first team and played for him all three years. The players had nicknamed themselves The Core Four.
Santich-Hughes thanked them for all they had put into the program and hugs were exchanged. There’s no doubt it was a tough
goodbye for the coach.“They were good athletes, good baseball
people, and listened,” Santich-Hughes said of his first impressions of that group of guys from the first tryouts he held at Acalanes. “They had played Little League and youth ball together, and they were so close. And they re-ally bought into what we were teaching. That’s the first thing. If they didn’t buy in right away, it wouldn’t have gone as well as it did.”
Hornsby went 3-for-3 in the final, scoring the first run of the game in the top of the first and then driving in a run during the Dons’ 3-run second inning. Henderson went 2-for-4 with an RBI and two stolen bases. Diede went 1-for-3, and Gaylord had a hit and drove in a run before fittingly making the final put out with his pick of York’s throw in the dirt.
“It’s been incredible,” Henderson said. “It’s just been awesome. Those guys are three of my best friends. Going three years with them and getting a championship to ourselves has been pretty special.”
Santich-Hughes knew that quartet and the rest of his returning players (only three grad-uated off the co-champion team) were going to have that extra motivation to win the title outright this season. But it didn’t really mani-fest itself until the postseason.
“We played so much better in the play-offs this year than we did during the season, where we probably lost to some teams we shouldn’t have,” the coach said. “They were just waiting for the playoffs to come around, I truly believe. Once it showed up, they were a completely different team.
“It was their goal. They finally had a chance to reach their goal, and they played like it.” ✪
Connor Hornsby, a descendent of Baseball Hall of Famer
Rogers Hornsby, was one of four Dons seniors who had been starting
since their sophomore year.
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GETTINGEVEN
STOrY BY CHACE BrYSONPHOTOS BY BUTCH NOBlE
James Logan won its fourth NCS softball title
in a thrilling final — beating a rival that
won’t be going away any time soon
Sometimes the game is simply the story. And sometimes the story is part of something bigger. To aptly embody what transpired in the North Coast Section Division I softball cham-
pionship game June 1 at Saint Mary’s College, one simply needs to start with those first two sentences.
Most reconstructions of the game between James Logan and Amador Valley — oral or writ-ten — are naturally to gravitate toward James Logan center fielder Marissa Perez and her game-winning defensive play. Her perfectly thrown ball from center retired the potential game-tying run at home plate for the game’s final out, securing the Colts their second NCS title in three years by defeating the nation’s top-ranked team 1-0.
Focusing on just that play ignores the following, however. ■ Amador Valley sophomore pitcher Johanna Grauer, who in a losing effort still solidified her
standing as the most exciting/talented pitcher the East Bay has seen since Valerie Arioto gradu-ated from Foothill in 2007.
■ James Logan junior pitcher RaeAnn Garza, who despite not having the electric stuff of
James Logan catcher Caley Bonansea embraces pitcher RaeAnn Garza as the rest of the team rushes to the middle of the diamond following the final out of the NCS Div. I final.
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Grauer — and having thrown 140 pitches in a semifinal win two days before — managed to work herself out of jams in each of the last four innings. Oh, and she also had the game-winning hit in the top of the seventh.
Furthermore, focusing on just this game between the Colts and Dons would be like beginning a new book at Chapter 2.
There’s history between these teams. Intense history. Immediate history. There’s also undoubt-edly a future for both programs, unwritten chapters featuring many of the same characters.
In Chapter 2, however, the game was the story. ◆ ◆ ◆
Garza and James Logan coach Teri Johnson were not in agreement. The pitcher wanted to throw the rise ball. The coach wanted something down. “We had a little back and forth,” Johnson said with a sly smirk.Garza subsided. Zoe Price stood in the batters box. Price, a senior, was the designated player for Amador Val-
ley. She was hitting eighth in the order, and was hitless in her first two at bats. The count was
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0-2 and she’d fouled off two pitches. Ashley Lotoszynski stood at second base, 120 feet from tying the game. Garza threw a drop and Price sent it right back up the middle, skidding across the dirt before reaching the center field grass and a hard-charging Perez.
“I knew that anything on the ground I was going to have to throw home,” Perez said. “Automatically, right off the bat, I rushed the ball, came up with it, took my time on the throw and was just glad it went where I wanted it to go.”
Lotoszynksi was still a full step-and-a-half from the plate when the ball arrived, on a line and without a hop. She barely had time to start her slide when Colts catcher Caley Bonansea caught and tagged her on the shoulder.
As James Logan and it s throng of supporters scat-tered across the field following the postgame awards ceremony, several players got to share their answers to the same question.
What was your first thought when you saw the ball going to center field?
“I can say that (Marissa) practices that play every day,” Colts shortstop Jazmine Reed said. “That’s her favorite play. Right when it got hit to her, I knew she was going to gun that girl at home. I would never run on her.”
Fellow senior Alexis Martinez: “Marissa has a hard work ethic and she will never stop practicing until that play is right. I knew that throw was going to be right on the money.”
◆ ◆ ◆ Two hours earlier, no team could’ve appeared less
nervous for a title game than Amador Valley. As the pregame sportsmanship meeting at home
Colts senior Marissa Perez, left, reached based once in the final, but she made the big-gest impact with her arm. She threw out a runner at the plate for the game’s final out.
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plate took place between captains, coaches, umpires and school officials, both teams remained gathered in front of their dugouts. While the James Logan players showed little emotion and were somewhat fidgety, the Amador Valley girls were practically dancing to the music playing over the public address system.
How could the Dons not be confident? They were the defending champions, were ranked No. 1 in the country by MaxPreps.com, and owned a 38-game winning streak that dated back to April 2011.
And they had Johanna Grauer in the circle. No amount of hype bestowed on Grauer could have been classified as hyperbole during her
sophomore campaign. She posted 18 shutouts and three no-hitters during the regular season. One of those no-hitters came against James Logan in a 2-0 nonleague victory on Mach 22. Quite simply, she was nothing short of dominant.
So it was no surprise she opened the game with a strikeout and posted seven more before she surrendered her first hit with two outs in the fourth inning. She didn’t give up another hit until the seventh when Reed lead off with a sharp single up the middle.
Grauer then posted back to back strikeouts before elevating a pitch to Garza. With the wind blowing to left field, the ball carried and Amador Valley’s left fielder could not get under it. It went for an RBI double.
The sophomore pitch-er finished her day with three hits allowed, 17 strikeouts and one walk.
“Hands down the best pitcher around,” Ama-dor Valley coach Julie Marshall said afterward. “Johanna Grauer is the next Lisa Fernandez/Jen-nie Finch. She does it of-fensively and defensively. There’s not much I can’t say in describing how great she is.”
Garza admitted that she wasn’t sure how long they could’ve gone if her double hadn’t broken the scoreless tie.
“I was definitely thinking that nobody was scoring and we could be out here all day,” she said. “Our mentality was that we knew we had to play solid defense and we had to have focused at bats. Just stay up. No matter what, stay up.”
◆ ◆ ◆ One year earlier, it was Amador Valley celebrating a championship shutout over the Colts.
Chapter 1. James Logan had been attempting to repeat and ran into a Dons’ team that started five freshmen that night, including Grauer, who became the only pitcher to shut them out that season.
Following that loss, and the subsequent no-hit loss in late March of this year — James Lo-gan’s only loss of 2012 — Johnson may have felt her team needed some extra encouragement.
“In the dugout before the game, Coach Johnson told us ‘We’re going to take this today,’” Martinez said. “She’s never said that to us before. She said ‘I feel it today. We’re going to get the W,’ and that’s what we did.”
The championship was Johnson’s fourth with James Logan. “This is just as exciting (as the others),” Johnson said. “It’s just like my 1990 championship
my first championship. For this group of girls, the way we played together all year long. The way we bonded. That’s what makes it great. There was never any drama.”
On the other side, Amador Valley watched the postgame award ceremony with a steely glare. A roster full of underclassmen was not only attempting to accept its missed opportunity, but also clearly thinking that it would have a chance to rectify this loss in 2013.
Both teams only graduated four seniors. “They’re a great team,” Marshall said. “We always battle with them. They did the things they
needed to do when it counted (today), and we go from there.” The next chapter awaits. ✪
June 7, 2012
2012 ncS chamPionSbAsEbAll
div. Champion runner-up scoreI De La Salle California 3-2II Campolindo Dougherty Valley 6-3III Acalanes Tamalpais 4-0IV Marin Catholic St. Mary’s 8-1V Head-Royce Valley Christian-Dublin 3-2VI Point Arena Ferndale 5-3
sOFtbAlldiv. Champion runner-up scoreI James Logan Amador Valley 1-0II Concord Petaluma 2-1III San Marin Bishop O’Dowd 13-8IV St. Patrick/St. Vincent Salesian 7-2V St. Vincent College Prep 5-0VI Ferndale Laytonville 17-1
FiNAl rANkiNgsVisit us online for our final season rankings.
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In it’s eighth year, the Bay Area World Series baseball show-case event is slated for the last weekend in June, just a few hours further south than usual.
With field renovations bumping the event from its normal home of Schott Stadium at Santa Clara University, and several other Bay Area venues unavailable, the three-day event had to take a vacation to sunny San Luis Obispo and the campus of Cal Poly.
While it may not be the Bay Area, there are worse places to spend three days than San Luis Obispo. Are we right?
There are six teams at BAWS, representing six different re-gions. This year those regions/teams are: Contra Costa, Alam-eda, North Bay, South Bay, West (Peninsula & 831 area code), and Central (Fresno area). Each team plays three games and after two games for each team, the teams are paired up based on their record, with the top two teams squaring off for the Bay Area World Series championship. The players are catego-rized by their most recent grade completed.
Here’s a preview of some of the talent to expect at this year’s BAWS, straight from the founder and event director himself,
Blaine Clemmens.
alamedaFour players in particular stand out as players to watch.
Austin Piscotty (P/INF) of Amador Valley-Pleasanton is go-ing to get attention for his ability, but he will be on the watch list due to his name too. His older brother Stephen is projected as a 1st round pick out of Stanford, and his other brother Nick just finished his freshman season at Duke. Daniel Slominski (3B/P) of Livermore is a talented hitter who has craft and feel on the mound. He has long been known as one of the better players in his age group, going back to his Little League days. Ryan Anderson (INF) of Foothill-Pleasanton has the type of body and talents that will earn him a lot of attention. Each of these first three players just completed sophomore seasons. Foothill junior Dylan Isquirdo is one of the more talented, all-around catcher’s in the 2013 graduating class.
centralThe top talent on the Central team is junior Carlos Salazar
BAY ArEA WOrld SErIES PrEVIEW
rigHt: Dougherty Valley-San Ramon
junior outfielder Draco Roberts is expected to
be one of the stand-outs for the North Bay
team during this year’s Bay Area World Series taking place from June
29-July 1. FAr rigHt: Alameda
High’s David Elzig swings at a pitch
during BAWS 2011.
Photos by Phillip Walton, left, and
contributed, right.
35SportStars™Support Your Local Business • Say You Found Them In SportStars™ June 7, 2012
In the fall of 2003 the concept of a baseball show-case focused on the different regions of the Bay Area was hatched. Meaningful games between the top teams and players from all over the area are tough to come by because the California high school season ends at the section level and does not have regional or state playoffs. That is basically how and why Bay Area World Series (BAWS) came about.
BAWS was first held at St. Mary’s College in June 2004. Santa Clara University has been the primary home of the event since then. The name of the event changed for a two year period (2008-2009) before once again becoming the Bay Area World Series.
Since the beginning of the event, there have been nearly 450 participants who have received an opportunity to play collegiately at the Div. I level. Nearly 130 have either been drafted or played professional baseball, including four first-round seletions, seven second-round picks, and 12 others drafted in the top five rounds.
The first former BAWS participant to be selected in the first round is former Miramonte-Orinda and Cal-Berkeley star Brett Jackson. Jackson was a shortstop in high school and was moved to center field at Cal. The Cubs selected Jackson in the first round of the 2009 and he remains ranked among the team’s top prospects. The BAWS Most Outstanding Player Award was renamed the Brett Jackson Award in 2010. In 2011 Joe Ross (Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland) and Robert Stephenson (Alhambra-Martinez) were first-round selections while Tyler Goeddel (St. Francis-Mountain View) was taken in the supplemen-tal round.
The first BAWS participant to reach the big leagues was Livermore High and Long Beach State pitcher Bryan Shaw of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Shaw was an infielder/pitcher at Livermore who could really run. His velocity steadily climbed during his senior year when Long Beach State identified him and signed him as a pitcher. Shaw was selected in the 2nd round of the 2008 draft and was called up to the big leagues on June 10th, 2011, when he also made his big league debut with a scoreless inning against the Marlins. So far he is the only former BAWS participant to reach “The Show” but there will be others.
In the 2012 draft there will be many former participants drafted in the upper rounds, including the potential #1 over-all pick, Stanford RHP Mark Appel (Monte Vista-Danville). His Cardinal teammate, 3B/OF Stephen Piscotty (Amador Valley-Pleasanton) is also projected as a top pick. ✪
— Blaine Clemmens
BAWS’ talented past
(RHP) of Kerman. Salazar is already known by pro scouts due to his ability to get his fastball into the low 90s. A pair of Clovis West juniors are likely to draw attention as well: Marco Pierce (RHP) and teammate Joey Gallegos are big kids with ability. Pierce has a good fastball and Gallegos swings the bat well from the left side, while also showing good ability around the bag at first base. Soph-omore Jack Labosky of Clovis North is an advanced body type for his age and has shown projectable ability to hit and play defense. Lastly, Porterville junior right-hander Tyler Davis is a good pitch-er with projectable velocity and bloodlines of interest. His father played some pro ball and was the head coach at Porterville JC for a number of years.
contra coStaA pair of junior right-handers from De La Salle-Concord are
going to draw plenty of interest, A.J. Puckett and Andrew Buck-ley. Both are athletic pitchers with good body types. California-San Ramon junior infielder Daniel DeFazio is a good player who will draw the attention of college coaches due to his hard-nosed style of play, outstanding defensive ability and good hitting ability. Clayton Valley-Concord junior Jesse Medrano (INF) will also get strong interest from the college coaches. He is a high-level defend-er and plays the style of game that translates to the Div. I level. He was the Most Outstanding Defensive Player at BAWS 2011.
north bayEach year it seems the North team has a pitcher or two who
burst onto the scene. Last year it was Cal Becker (Redwood-Lark-spur), Jordan Lazor (Branson-Ross) and Jesse Scholtens (Rodri-guez-Faifield). This year Ryan Bohnet, a junior right-hander from Benicia is a good bet to make a name for himself. Casa Grande-Petaluma junior southpaw Kevin George will also draw interest thanks to an upper-80s fastball and good athleticism. A hitter to keep an eye on will be another Benicia junior, Tyler Hall (1B). Hall hits from the left side with a strong, compact stroke. He showed well last year and is ready to break out this year. The player who may draw the most interest on this team is Dougherty Valley-San Ramon junior Draco Roberts (OF). Roberts stands out with his body type and tools.
South bayThis team has had some of the most outstanding talents over
the years, including many from St. Francis-Mountain View. This year will be no different. Keep an eye on sophomores John Gavin (LHP) and Tyler Deason (3B/P). Both have already been noticed by pro scouts. Junior right-hander Tanner DiSibio of Sobrato-Morgan Hill is a very talented pitcher with a complete repertoire and projectable talent. Two Bellarmine Prep-San Jose sophomores are also going to get a lot of interest, catcher Jackson Thoreson and infielder Scott Jarvis.
WeStYet another Eichhorn is making his way to BAWS, this time it is
junior right-hander Steven, the youngest son of former big league pitcher Mark Eichhorn. His older brothers Kevin (now playing in the Arizona Diamondbacks system) and Brian also participated. Eichhorn plays for Aptos, and his teammate, junior catcher Bryan Bucher is also going to get good attention from college coaches. He has a nice catch/throw game and swings the bat well. He didn’t get much time for Serra this season but he is a developing talent. Junior catcher Jacob Tonascia of San Benito-Hollister will emerge as one of the best all-around catching prospects. He has good raw power, a good arm and good size. Also keep an eye on one of the best all-around athletes in the event, St. Ignatius Prep-San Fran-cisco junior OF/LHP Jack Stinn. ✪
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Welcome to Impulse, your one-stop shop for gadgets, gizmos and gear. Compiled by staff writer Erik Stordahl, Impulse pro-vides you with the latest & greatest and what’s currently hot on the market. This week, we continue to look at summer hotspots for your family, friends and bros.
de la Salle Summer camPSThese will be going on throughout the
month of June on the De La Salle campus. Come join us at the SSM me-dia tent, where we’ll have a Heavenly Greens putting challenge, Jamba Juice fun-draiser, and tons of goodies from our friends at Mountain Mike’s, Children’s Hospital Oakland, and more. Also, come hang out with supporters of De La Salle athletics like Concord Disposal and Rocco’s Ristorante and Pizzeria. Fun will be had.
aaa We know a ton of you are Giants fans
and we just wanted to make sure you’re aware of the deal our friends at AAA have going on right now. Turn to our SportStars of the Week page and you’ll find that you can win two tix to a luxury suite at an upcoming game. All you have to do is call and get a quote. That’s it! Just tell ‘em you found ‘em in SportStars Magazine and you’ll be entered to be treated like royalty at AT&T.
dianne adair enrichment centerS
Parents! Send your kids to Dianne Adair for daily summer camps and field trips that feature trips to Giants games, scavenger hunts, the Oakland Zoo, Alcatraz and more! It keeps them busy AND out of the house so you don’t have to hear them complain about how “there’s nothing to dooooo” all summer.
alameda county fairIf you’re looking for more rides, games and cotton candy to
make your stomach explode, then you gotta hit up the Alameda County Fair. It’s going down June 20 to July 8. There will be tons of live music so you’ll need your dancing shoes to get down to the likes of Salt ‘n’ Pepa, Tower of Power and The Temptations. Booyeah.
eaSt bay Summer camPSIf you were unable to get your kid into one of
the prestigious DLS camps, send ‘em on over to East Bay Summer Camps. HQ’d in Walnut Creek, they offer everything from sports camps like tackle and flag football, softball, volleyball, basketball; to specialty camps like skateboard-ing, teen leadership, even television production! Whatever your kids are passionate about, they can learn more and grow at one of these sum-mer camps.
big 5 SPorting goodSBe sure to check out www.SportStarsOnline.
and click on their banner ad for cool deals. Right now they’ve got a coupon that’s good for 15 percent off your entire purchase. And it’s good through the 4th of July! Look, for most of you it’s the offseason and high time to replenish the shoes, cleats, gloves, balls, rackets, etc.
SteVenS creek toyotaIf you really wanna make a splash this sum-
mer, head on over to Stevens Creek Toyota and test drive a new Prius V today! This is the bestest and baddest one on the market so get ‘em while they’re hot!
Getmore
impulse!
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bAsEbAll/sOFtbAllAll American Sports AcademyAll American Sports Academy aims to train and educate all student athletes on the correct physical skills and mechanics needed to compete at all levels, as well as understand the proper practice habits and time management skills needed to improve their game. The organization is holding camps at various locations from June 11-July 26. Info: (209) 833-2255, Email: [email protected] BaseballWe are a year-round competitive baseball program based in Danville. The Camp focuses on teamwork, hustle and sportsmanship. We also offer small group training as well as one-on-one training. Info: [email protected] or 925-708-3173.Cabernet Baseball ClubThe Livermore-based club hosts baseball and softball camps beginning as early as June 12. Camp are for players ages 8-14. Lil’ Baseball also offered for ages 3-7. 925-416-1600, http://cabernet.thepitchingcenter.com.East bay youth sportsBaseball is Fun Beginner Camp. July 25-Aug. 4, 9 a.m.-noon, Mon.-Thur. at Tice Valley Park; Extended day/week available with Deluxe Sport Option. Ages 5-9. $35/$75. Registration: 925-952-4450, www.walnutcreeksportsleague.com.EJ sportsEJ Sports provides individual, group, team, coaching and manager clinics in many levels of
baseball. Among the numerous different services offered, the Spring Clinic, Summer Clinic and the Fall League for children of Little League age. Contact EJ Sports for a list of upcoming clinics. Info: 925-866-7199, www.ejsports.com.the Pitching CenterIn an effort to develop baseball players to their full potential, The Pitching Center has become the Total Player Center (TPC), a full-service baseball/softball training academy. Age- and skill-specific programs available for students age 8-High School. Info: 925-416-1600, www.thepitchingcenter.com.
bAskEtbAllCalStarsThe Stars Basketball Academy (SBA) is pleased to announce our youth and high school summer camps. The SBA is a fundamental based skills development camp for kids in 3rd grade-High School. We offer three youth (3rd-8th) sessions and two high school (9th-12th) sessions. Go to www.calstars.org for more info.East bay youth sportsBasketball is Fun beginner camp. July 11-21, 9 a.m.-noon, Mon.-Thur. at Tice Valley Park; extended day/week available with deluxe sport option. Ages 5-12. $35/$65 per week. Registration and info: 925-952-4450, www.walnutcreeksportsleague.com.FastBreak BasketballMargaret Gartner, the highly-decorated girls
basketball coach for Carondelet High in Concord, leads this girls basketball camp focused on fundamentals. Five week-long sessions are available. Session I, June 18-22, is for grades 6-10; Session II, June 25-29, Grades 1-6; Session III, July 9-13, Grades 1-6; Session IV, July 16-20, Grades 6-10; Session V, July 23-27, Grades 4-10. Info: www.FastBreakBball.com; or email [email protected]
CHEErCheergyms.comSix camps are offered from June through July: Coaches Camp, Freedom High School 2-day Cheer and Dance Camp, 2-Day Cheer Camps at ALL Cheergyms.com facilities, Jr. High/High School Cheer Camp-California Session 1, Individual/Group Stunt Cheer Camp, Jr. High/High School Cheer Camp (Elite)-California Session 2. For more info: 925- 685-8176, 866-685-7615, [email protected]; www.cheergyms.com.East bay sports AcademyEast Bay Sports Academy offers the best in gymnastics and cheerleading training. Our top of the line recreational and competitive programs earned us the exclusive “Best in the East Bay” award for Best Gymnastics Classes 2011. All of our team camps are custom-built to complement your coaching needs and team goals. Info: 925-680-9999, www.EastBaySportsAcademy.com.Xtreme Cheer CampsXtreme is a competitive All-Star Cheerleading, Dance and Recreational Tumbling Gym in
39SportStars™Support Your Local Business • Say You Found Them In SportStars™ June 7, 2012
Antioch. All of our camp classes are fast-paced, fun and geared toward achieving your child’s goals. Info: 925-565-5464; [email protected]
ENriCHmENtdianne Adair ProgramsCome join any of our eight Dianne Adair summer sites for our fun and exciting summer program. Each week campers will be able to choose from several camps, including sports, fashion, drama, CSI, science and so many more. In addition to our weekly camps, we offer weekly field trips and in-house entertainment. Field trips and camps vary by site. Please consult your site of choice for more details. Bring in this article and receive half off our $40 summer registration fee. Info: www.dianneadair.org.
FitNEssFit 2 the Core As a Youth Conditioning, Speed/Agility and Nutrition Specialist with the International Youth Conditioning Association, Fit-2-The-Core Training Systems offers an innovative approach to getting your young athletes back on the field of play post-rehabilitation (which gets your athletes to normal function). For F2C’s Back to Sports programs we offer training weekdays, with 2 days/week or 3 days/week program options. Sign up today for your two-week free pass at www.fasteryoungathletes.com, or call 925-639-0907 for more information.
Walnut Creek Sports & FitnessWalnut Creek Sports & Fitness is offering a wide range of different sports fitness camps and classes in 2012. Here are three we’re featuring. Pilates for Sports — An ideal form of fitness for athletes to improve performance & prevent injuries. Hardcore Golf Fitness — A four-week golf-specific fitness camp is the ultimate physical conditioning program for golfers of any age who want to take their game to the next level. TRX Team Fitness —A cutting-edge six-week small group personal training program is a team-sports inspired program for athletes of all levels who want results in a challenging, motivating environment. For all info: Contact Bob Boos, Personal Training Director. Phone: (925)932-6400 or email: [email protected]
FOOtbAllAcalanes Football Dons CampThe Acalanes coaching staff will host players from grades 3-8 on June 18-20. At our camp you will learn skills, techniques, rules and how to perform to the best of your ability. There are daily camp awards. All athletes receive a T-shirt. This is a non-contact camp focused on having fun while learning the game of football. Staff members are coaches, teachers and parents. Info: contact Mike Ivankovich at [email protected] Diamond Football CampBlack Diamond Football Camp is a four-day contact team camp from June 18-21 running from 4 p.m.-7:15 p.m. each day. Cost is $1000 per team. This camp is designed to strengthen
team concepts within YOUR program. Hosted by Pittsburg and Concord High Schools, it will take place at Pittsburg High. There will be Individual drills and team periods to install your offensive/defensive schemes. There will be a 7-on-7 passing competition, a pass protection/blitz pickup session, team goal-line challenges, and controlled, full-contact scrimmages. Info: Contact Victor Galli at (925) 473-2390 ext. 7736.Football UniversityFrom the creators of the U.S. Army All-American Bowl comes a one-of-a-kind football training experience exclusively for the nation’s most elite youth and high school players. Born out of the appreciation that the most successful and skilled football players have mastered great technique, and that for many younger players this level of coaching is simply not available, the Football University (FBU) experience focuses on intense position-specific technique training taught by our expert faculty of former and current NFL coaches who have a passion for sharing this experience with young athletes.
gOlFthe First tee-Contra CostaThe First Tee Summer Camp is a youth development Golf program for boys and girls ages 7-18. Participants will learn about golf and the life skills and values inherent to the game. In addition to golf skills, rules and etiquette, participants are introduced to The First Tee Nine Core Values.
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Our Summer camps are four days a week, 4 hours/day @ Diablo Creek Golf Course, Concord. We have several weeks and facilities from which to choose. Fee assistance available. Info: Angela Paradise, 925-686-6262, Ext. 0, [email protected]; www.thefirstteecontracosta.org. The First Tee-OaklandThe First Tee of Oakland participants receive a minimum of 12 hours of instruction over an eight-week period. Instruction is conducted at three City of Oakland affiliate golf courses. Each of the golf courses donates their range, golf course and classroom use. We introduce the game of golf in a way that allows participants to progress with the mechanics required, and that teaches the values of the game, celebrates the fitness aspect of playing, and is offered at little or no cost. Info: 510-352-2002, [email protected]; www.thefirstteeoakland.org.The First Tee-Silicon ValleyThe First Tee of Silicon Valley develops youth through the game of golf throughout Silicon Valley. We impact the lives of young people by providing educational programs that build character, instill life-enhancing values and promote healthy choices though the game of golf. Seasonal classes are offered at Rancho del Pueblo Golf Course (San Jose) and Palo Alto Golf Course. We welcome participants ranging from second to twelfth grade. Scholarships are available upon request. www.thefirstteesanjose.org.
The First Tee-Tri-ValleyWe’re a youth development organization using golf and its etiquette to teach important life skills and core values. We offer seasonal The First Tee Life Skills Experience Classes and Summer Camps for youth ages 7-17, held at the Pleasanton Golf Center on the Alameda County Fairgrounds. Once-a-week Summer Classes will be held Monday-Saturday, beginning the week of June 11. Junior Golf Summer Camps - Summer Camps will be held 8-10 a.m., Tuesday-Friday for seven weeks this summer. Camps begin on the following Tuesdays: June 11, June 18, June 25, July 9, July 16, July 23 & July 30. Info: Call our office, 925-462-7201; www.TheFirstTeeTriValley.org.
HOrsEbACk ridiNgEarthquake ArabiansSpring and summer camps are around the corner for Earthquake Arabians! Registration is OPEN. Log on to www.earthquakearabians.com for more info. 925-360-7454.
lACrOssEAtherton/Vitality LacrosseJoin Atherton Lacrosse and learn the basics of the game in their spring, summer and fall camps. Every camper receives a free t-shirt and access to the best high school, college and professional lacrosse coaches in the
Bay Area in a setting with an extremely low coach to camper ratio. Every camper needs a lacrosse stick - we have partnered with Sling It! Lacrosse to bring the best value possible. Go to www.athertonlacrosse.com for more info. Sign up with Vitality Lacrosse to join one of their summer leagues in the Peninsula, Marin, East Bay, Petaluma and San Francisco. We serve the entire Bay Area! Info: www.vitalitylacrosse.com.
mArtiAl ArtsusksAdult and children’s programs, kick box fitness, mixed martial arts. Providing excellence in martial arts instruction and services for the entire family. 925-682-9517; www.usksmartialarts.com.
OutdOOr/AdvENturE sPOrtsBear Valley Mountain Bring the entire family to mountain summer camps. This summer, Bear Valley has residential & day camps for soccer, archery, climbing & a variety of outdoor adventures including kayaking, tennis, cycling, hiking, camp fires & so much more. Bear Valley’s summer camps offer outdoor recreation programs for the whole family & is a great place to visit. Info: www.bearvalley.com.Diablo Rock GymWe will be offering kids summer camps every week starting June 19, ending August 18. Sign up for a week at a time or multiple weeks. Ages 6-12; multiple kid and/or week discounts. Call for pricing, 925-602-1000.
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rugbyDiablo RugbyYouth rugby is one of the fastest growing sports in the United States. Based in Clayton, our club is dedicated to providing a positive rugby experience for boys at High School, Jr. High School and Youth levels. 925-381-5143, [email protected]; http://diabloyouthrugby.clubspaces.com.
sOCCErDiablo FC With a history that goes back two decades, the Diablo Futbol Club has proved to be the premier training ground for youth soccer players in the area. Headquartered in Concord, Diablo FC offers training to boys and girls from levels U6 to U23, and has premier, gold, silver and bronze level teams with players from throughout Contra Costa, Solano and Alameda counties. For complete info, call (925) 798-GOAL or visit www.diablofc.org. Gino’s Soccer Academy Gino’s Soccer Academy is in its 14th season of running summer soccer camps. We are offering eight one-week programs this summer and have programs to challenge and enrich the game of
every soccer player. Half- and full-day sessions available. Ages 4-17. Info: www.ginossocceracademy.com.Heritage Soccer ClubIn 2012, HSC will not only offer a members-only summer soccer camp, but will offer two separate soccer camps — one for boys, June 25-28, and one for girls, July 9-12 – that will be open to the community. HSC will also conduct their annual 6v6 Blow-Out tournament in June and their second annual Harvest Cup Tournament in October. HSC is based in the Pleasant Hill/Martinez area and serves the surrounding community. Info: www.heritagesc.com.Walnut Creek Soccer ClubThe Walnut Creek Soccer Club uses all the resources available to provide the proper coaching and playing environment for all members. Our goal is for every member of our club to learn and grow as a soccer player and person. We will promote a positive learning environment for our players and families as we work to provide the highest level of coaching and coach’s education.
Info: [email protected]; www.wcsc.org.West Contra Costa youth soccer leagueOur program caters to competitive youth players ages 8-9 regardless of race, creed, gender or religion. The main focus of our program is not on winning, but on the development of the total soccer player within the framework of a team. We also offer specialized training for strikers and goalkeepers. We desire to promote personal responsibility, fitness, sportsmanship and teamwork. 510-758-5288, http://wccysl.com.
sWimmiNg-diviNgSherman Swim SchoolOur year-round schedule allows children and adults to learn, retain and improve their swim skills with little interruption. Lessons are usually offered in sessions of 3-4 weeks. (During the slower months of Fall, Winter and Spring, schedules can be more flexible, such as M-W, W-F, or only one day/week.)
We teach from age 9-months to adults, from non-swimmers to competitive levels. Since our lessons are private, they are tailored to each student’s age, ability and readiness. We also offer beginning and competitive diving classes. Beginning sessions typically have three students and are 30 minutes long. Classes are taught in three-week sessions. Info: 925-283-2100, www.ShermanSwim.com.Walnut Creek Swim ClubSummer practice sessions will be offered 7:30-10 a.m. daily beginning June 11 @ Las Lomas High School. Info: www.walnutcreekswimclub.org.
tENNisClubSport Valley VistaClubSport Valley Vista has successfully been hosting summer tennis camps in Walnut Creek for 33 years, with expert instruction. Tennis pro Dale Miller and his team of seasoned professionals will teach your children the fundamentals of tennis or help them improve their
skills for recreation or competition. Camps are designed to touch on every major aspect of the game. Players will be grouped according to level of play and age. ClubSport Valley Vista members receive discounted rates. Info: 925-934-4050.
vOllEybAllPacific Rim VolleyballThrough private lessons, and the opportunity for year-round skills classes, athletes
June 7, 2012
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of any age or level can learn and improve the skills needed to gain a competitive edge. Our advanced training, for junior levels (12th grade & below), will provide athletes the opportunity to excel at becoming elite players in preparation for high school and/
or collegiate volleyball. Info: www.pacificrimvolleyball.com.U.S. Youth Volleyball LeagueThe USYVL is the leader in developing and maintaining youth volleyball leagues for boys and girls ages 7-15. USYVL summer camps are typically three days,
with each day meeting for three hours. Camps are for beginner, intermediate and advanced players, and players will
be grouped accordingly, based on age and playing experience. Info: 888-988-7985, www.USYVL.org.
WrEstliNgCommunity youth CenterThe CYC wrestling program offers young athletes the opportunity to participate and excel in one of the
world’s oldest sports. The program trains and challenges wrestlers at all age groups from kindergarten through high school, and all experience levels from beginner to champion. The program is nationally recognized under the guidance of Head Coach Mark Halvorson. Info: 925-671-7070, Ext. 229, www.communityyouthcenter.com.Creighton School of WrestlingCSW was established to provide a successful youth wrestling program in the Palo Alto/Mid-Peninsula area that serves youth of all ages. Info: 650-219-6383; [email protected].
multi-sPOrtDe La Salle CampsDe La Salle High School will host athletic summer camps to provide a fun, skill-building week for kids. They offer the following
sessions: Football, Track & Field, Lacrosse, Wrestling, Quarterback & Wide Receiver, Lineman, Volleyball, Baseball, Soccer, Water Polo and Strength & Conditioning. Week-long sessions will run June 9-June 28. Online registration. For more info: [email protected]; 925-288-8100, Ext. 7090.Velocity Sports CampsOur Sports Specific Summer Camps provide campers with a fun-packed, enjoyable environment where they can increase athleticism, develop wide range of skills. Velocity Sports Performance is looking for boys, girls ages 8-14 who are dedicated to making themselves better athletes. Team Training programs are designed to deliver a challenging workout that is organized, educational, progressive and customized for entire sport teams. Info: 925-833-0100, velocitydublin.com.Cal CampsCamps are offered in a variety of sports for girls and boys ages 5-19, with week-long, half-day,
June 7, 2012
43SportStars™Support Your Local Business • Say You Found Them In SportStars™ June 7, 2012
full-day and overnight options. Most camps will take place on campus in Berkeley from June through August. Camps include the following sports: Baseball, Boys and Girls Basketball, Boys and Girls Rowing/Crew, Field Hockey, Football, Boys and Girls Golf, Girls Gymnastics, Rugby, Boys and Girls Soccer, Softball, Boys and Girls Swimming, Boys and Girls Tennis, Boys and Girls Volleyball and Girls Water Polo. Information: CalBears.com/camps. Or email [email protected] Mary’s College CampsWe offer boys, girls overnight, day, team and specialty camps. Camps available for ages 4-18. Dates posted, registration is open. Our camps include: Multi-sport, baseball, boys basketball, girls basketball, golf, rugby,
girls lacrosse, strength and conditioning, boys soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball. Click “summer camps” at www.smcgaels.com for information and to register. More info: [email protected], 925-631-4FUN (4386).City of Walnut CreekWe offer 9-13 year-olds a fully-staffed, supervised recreational camp. Program is eight weeks of sessions with choice of two sports for each of the sessions, with a ninth session offering bowling. Camp designed to teach, develop training skills, basic individual skills, sportsmanship, team strategies and concepts as well as building confidence, self discipline. Sports: Tennis, Baseball, Multi-sport, Flag Football, Soccer, Lacrosse, Basketball, Golf, Volleyball and Bowling. Camp start week of June 18th, run through August 17th. Info: www.walnutcreekrec.org or call 925-943-5858. ✪
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❒ A A A Northern California, Nevada & Utah ......................................................12 ❒ Alameda County Fair ........................................................................................7 ❒ All World Sports .............................................................................................17 ❒ Army National Guard Recruiter .........................................................................4 ❒ Back Forty B B Q .............................................................................................26 ❒ Bald Eagle Sports Camps ................................................................................41 ❒ Big O Tires ........................................................................................................2 ❒ Blankenship Baseball .....................................................................................39 ❒ Cabernet Indoor Sports ..................................................................................27 ❒ Cal Athletic Camps..........................................................................................42 ❒ Championship Athletic Fundraising ...............................................................18 ❒ Cheergyms.Com .............................................................................................35 ❒ Children’s Hospital And Research Center .........................................................15 ❒ Club Sport ......................................................................................................14 ❒ Community Youth Center ...............................................................................45 ❒ Concord Disposal ............................................................................................28 ❒ Concord Police Association .............................................................................44 ❒ Concord Youth Football & Cheerleading .........................................................41 ❒ Crowne Plaza .................................................................................................44 ❒ Delta Patriots Youth Football & Cheer .............................................................38 ❒ Delta Patriots Youth Football & Cheer .............................................................41 ❒ Diablo Car Wash & Detail Center .....................................................................44 ❒ Diablo Creek Golf Course ................................................................................44 ❒ Diablo Rock Gym ............................................................................................43 ❒ Diablo Trophies & Awards ...............................................................................43 ❒ Dianne Adair Enrichment Programs ...............................................................26 ❒ Dream Courts U S A ........................................................................................33 ❒ E J Sports Elite Baseball Services ....................................................................40 ❒ Earthquake Arabians ......................................................................................44 ❒ East Bay Pit Bulls ............................................................................................31 ❒ East Bay Sports Academy ...............................................................................30 ❒ East Bay Summer Camps 2012 .......................................................................37 ❒ Eden Medical Center .......................................................................................22 ❒ Epic Indoor Skatepark.....................................................................................40 ❒ Excellence In Sport Performance ....................................................................38 ❒ Fit 2 The Core ..................................................................................................43 ❒ Golden State Warriors.....................................................................................18 ❒ Halo Headband ..............................................................................................44 ❒ Heritage Soccer Club ........................................................................................8 ❒ Home Team Sports Photography ....................................................................32 ❒ Hyatt Place Sacramento / Roseville ................................................................32 ❒ Image Imprint ................................................................................................39 ❒ Intelligent Choice Fundraising Solutions ........................................................40 ❒ Kinders B B Q ....................................................................................................3 ❒ Mountain Mike’s Pizza ....................................................................................17 ❒ Oakley Raiders................................................................................................42 ❒ Oakley Raiders................................................................................................40 ❒ Pacific Rim Volleyball Academy ......................................................................38 ❒ Passthaball .....................................................................................................45 ❒ Pleasant Hill Youth Football Rebels ................................................................39 ❒ Red Zone Training ...........................................................................................45 ❒ Renegades Volleyball Club .............................................................................39 ❒ Rocco’s Pizza ...................................................................................................43 ❒ Rocco’s Pizza ...................................................................................................16 ❒ Rockin Jump ...................................................................................................47 ❒ Rockin Jump ...................................................................................................40 ❒ Saint Mary’s Athletic Summer Camps .............................................................45 ❒ Sheldon Jr. Huskies Youth Football & Cheer ....................................................38 ❒ Simply Selling Shirts ......................................................................................43 ❒ Sky High Sports ..............................................................................................43 ❒ Skywest Golf Course .......................................................................................44 ❒ Sport Clips ......................................................................................................23 ❒ State Farm Kelly Sopak Agent.........................................................................43 ❒ Stevens Creek Toyota ......................................................................................19 ❒ Sutter Urgent Care ..........................................................................................48 ❒ The First Tee Of Contra Costa ...........................................................................34 ❒ The First Tee Of Contra Costa ...........................................................................41 ❒ The First Tee Of Contra Costa ...........................................................................44 ❒ The Sports Authority ........................................................................................5 ❒ Tilden Park Golf Course ...................................................................................44 ❒ Trucks Training ...............................................................................................16 ❒ U S K S Martial Arts ........................................................................................45 ❒ United States Youth Volleyball League ...........................................................45 ❒ Universal Sports Academy ................................................................................9 ❒ Valley Christian Vikings ..................................................................................42 ❒ Velocity Sports Performance ..........................................................................29 ❒ Velocity Sports Performance ..........................................................................43 ❒ Walnut Creek Soccer Club ...............................................................................38 ❒ William Jessup University ...............................................................................41 ❒ Xtreme Tumble And Cheer Gym ......................................................................39
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