The Viking: Volume 5 Issue 6

The Year In Review

BY EMMA BECKSTROM

AND HILDA HUANG

OLYMPIC PREVIEW

Sign up for Express, the daily e-mail news

digest from Palo Alto Online and the Palo Alto

Weekly, and find out how Paly teams fared, with

links to stories and stats. Plus an update on

local news and upcoming community events.

Sent every weekday morning at 10 a.m.

Join 13,000 others and sign up for Express by

going to PaloAltoOnline.com and clicking on the

link at the top of the page.

Or, visit PASportsOnline.com and find stories,

photos, schedules and other updates on all

high school and Stanford teams.

Get Paly scores by e-mail every morning in

24/7 online

Weekday mornings via e-mail

Fridays in print

WWW.PaloAltoOnline.com

Volume V, Issue 6

Staff ListEditors-in-ChiefKevin Dukovic

Alan LamarqueNora Rosati

Design EditorNina Kelty

Managing EditorsCharlotte Biffar

Spencer DrazovichAustin Poore

Sammy Solomon

Photo EditorsScotty Bara

Grant Shorin

ColumnistJonny Glazier

Video EditorAnnie Susco

Business ManagersHilda Huang

Michael Strong

Senior StaffMira AhmadPaige BorsosSam Borsos

Peter DennisJohn DickersonMarina Foley

Sapir FrozenfarKevin Kannappan

Emy KeltyJacob Lauing

Brennan MillerNathan NorimotoShannon ScheelAlana SchwartzNikolai Solgaard

The VikingPalo Alto High School50 Embarcadero Road

Palo Alto, CA 94301650-329-3837

Email contact: [email protected]

Letters to the editorThe Viking, a sports magazine published by the students in Palo Alto High

School’s Advanced Magazine Journalism class, is an open forum for student ex-pression and the discussion of issues of concern to its readership. The Viking is distributed to its readers and the student body at no cost. The staff welcomes letters to the editor, but reserves the right to edit all submissions for length,

grammar, potential libel, invasion of privacy and obscenity.

Advertising in The VikingThe staff publishes advertisements with signed contracts providing they are

not deemed by the staff inappropriate for the magazine’s audience. For more information about advertising with The Viking, please contact the The Viking by email at [email protected] or call 650-329-3837 for more information.

Printing ServicesThe Viking is printed six times a year by Fricke-Parks Press in Fremont, Calif.

AdviserEllen Austin

May 2012

StaffAnthony AmanoniEmma Beckstrom

Julia FarinoMichelle Friedlander

Colin PattersonRohit Ramkumar

MAY 2012 | 3

4 | T H E V I K I N G | w w w. v i k i n g s p o r t s m a g . c o m

32

A recap of Paly’s best and worst moments from the

2011-2012 sports year.

Female Upperclassman

Athlete of the Year

by Anne Hildebrandphoto by Grant Shorin

page 44

SECTIONS

Features

Columns

Kickoff15

10 Questions: Lydia Guo (‘12)

Wrap-ups20

Olympic Previews London 2012

50Shannon Says

by Mira Ahmad, Sam Borsos and

Nathan Norimoto

COLLEGE RECRUITING MAPAn overview of the senior

athletes committed to playing in college.

26

by Emy Kelty

BOTTOM AND TOP 10 MOMENTS

May 2012Volume V, Issue 6The Lineup

28

Zooms8

JASMINE TOSKY

Hot or Not

Inside the Mind: Nicky Hu (‘12)

Pop Culture

Home Field Advantage

photo by Alex Kershner

Awards26

Coach of the Year

Female Team of the Year

Male Team of the Year

Female Upperclassman of the Year

Male Upperclassman of the Year

Female Underclassman of the Year

Male Underclassman of the Year

Alok Subbarao

In Memoriam8 Emily Benatar (‘11)

1993-2012

photo courtesy of Creative Commons

Last Word

Volleyball coach Dave Winn was voted as

Coach of the Year.

COACH OF THEYEAR

37

by Paige Borsos

photo by Scotty Bara

MAY 2012 | 5

TEAMS OF THE YEAR

The Viking selected volleyball and boys’ track as

Teams of the Year.

38

by Sammy Solomonand

Austin Poore

UNDERCLASSMEN OF THE YEAR

Katie Foug (‘15) and Keller Chryst (‘14) represent the

Underclassmen of the Year.

42

The Viking honors Arun Varma (‘12) with its annual

Alok Subbarao Award.

48

by John Dickersonby Michelle Friedlander and

Rohit Ramkumar

ALOK SUBBARAO

B.J. BOYD

Male Upperclassman

Athlete of the Year

by Colin Pattersonphoto by Scotty Bara

page 46

photo by Anne Hildebrand photo by Scotty Bara photo by Scotty Bara

Intro/from the Editors


We’re proud to present this sixth and final issue of The Viking for the 2011-2012 school year. Before going further, however, we’d like to extend a huge thank-you to the edi-tors who are now passing us the torch, Emy Kelty and Nathan Norimoto. Their energetic leadership and unrivaled passion for the publication has rubbed off

on all three of us and we look forward to following in their footsteps next year. We are thrilled to continue the esteemed legacy they and the four preceding Viking leadership staffs have left us, and we eagerly anticipate expanding on that legacy during our time as editors. This issue contains the annual Year In

Review summation that provides closure on a fantastic year of Paly athletics. We hope you enjoy this issue of The Viking. Have a fabulous summer and GO PALY!

Letter from the Editors

See you in August,Kevin, Alan and Nora

We love our seniors

Paige Borsos Sam BorsosMira Ahmad Peter Dennis

John Dickerson Anne HildebrandSapir Frozenfar Marina Foley

Jacob Lauing Brennan Miller

Nathan Norimoto

Emy KeltyKevin Kannappan

Alana Schwartz Nikolai SolgaardShannon Scheel

Over the past year, our 16 seniors have served us well. From the very first day, they have mentored and supported us. We wish these seniors the best of luck with their bright futures and thank them whole-heartedly for their work on The Viking.

Dear Readers,

MAY 2012 | 7

Staff View

PALY STRONG Several Paly students support the varsity girls’ lacrosse team on May 11. The Lady Vikes lost 20-9 to St. Francis.

PYear’s sporting events bring community together

aly Strong. That was the motto for the 2012 Palo Alto High School girls’ lacrosse team. From their grueling preseason work-outs to their emotional elimination in the Santa

Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) semifinals, this close-knit group of girls took their own interpretation of the United States Army’s slogan and grew even closer with every step they took as a team. The Viking believes that while each high and low moment of the school year may entail its own emotional re-sponse, it without a doubt brings the community closer. In the case of girls’ lacrosse, the team suffered two huge blows this season. Due to a Central Coast Section (CCS) transfer technicality discovered on April 19, the team was forced to forfeit six league victories, dropping its record from 8-1 to 2-7. Although this infrac-tion brought the Lady Vikes from first place to the bottom of their division, a playoff berth was still a statistical pos-sibility. “We were all frustrated and pretty down at that point,” midfielder Layla Memar (‘12) said. “But if anything, it forced us to work harder and focus more. Having an obstacle and having to overcome it made us stronger as a team.” So they bounced back, winning five of their six remaining games and clinching a spot in the league semifinals against first place St. Francis, where they eventually lost, 20-9. But the girls’ lacrosse team had ex-perienced an even greater loss earlier that day, when Emily Benatar (‘11), co-captain of the 2010-2011 team, died of bacterial meningitis at the young age of 19. As word of Benatar’s passing spread, her former teammates responded, cre-

ating an eye-capturing memorial with flowers displayed in a heart shape, personal notes, decorative posters and candles by the lacrosse field fence to honor the loss of a fallen teammate, former captain and, above all, friend. This shrine was visible from the quad, where over one hundred Paly students gathered during fifth period, some assisting in the decorations and others observing the memorial, sitting in tears, and sharing their memories of Benatar. This loss in the Paly community highlighted an important aspect of sports that every Paly team can learn from; although we often come togeth-er in celebration after a win, the way

in which a team and community unite after a tough loss can be just as impor-tant. Our community came together this year when our hometown hero Jeremy Lin (‘06) took the NBA by storm and proved all his skeptics wrong. We put together a parade downtown to com-memorate the Paly volleyball and foot-ball State Championship seasons last season, and rejoiced when the volley-ball team won it all again this year. Whether we band together to over-come an obstacle, support each other in a time of need, or celebrate a victory, the emotional moments we experience as a team inevitably bring us closer to-gether. <<<

Former Palo Alto High School varsity cross-country runner and 2010-2011 girls’ lacrosse co-captain Emily Benatar (‘11) died of complications arising from bacterial meningitis at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Mo. on the morning of Wednesday, May 10. Benatar, 19, had been attending Wash-ington University in St. Louis as a fresh-man when diagnosed with the disease last month. For the full story, go to vikingsportsmag.com

News of death of Paly alum reaches campus News Brief

Photo by Allie Shorin

In Memoriam

EMILY BENATAR

1993-2012

In Memoriam

EMILY BENATAR

1993-2012

...You know you can’t catch him. E.J. Floreal (‘13) breezes to first place in the 100 me-ter dash with a time of 10.61 seconds at the SCVAL Champi-onship at Santa Clara High School on May 11. At one point in the season Floreal held the fastest 100 and 200 meter times in California.

ZOOMSLOW DOWN...

MAY 2012 | 11

Photo by Scotty Bara

12

Alex Francis (‘13) completes the open-ing of a one and a half pike somersault at the Palo Alto Invita-tional at Paly on April 14.

ZOOMVIKING PIKING

MAY 2012 | 13

Photo by Hilda Huang

Business of One

www.elance.com

Kate Wilson

avg. rating jobs25

PHP, Ajax, LinuxHTML5, Java,MySQL, C++

As told to Alana Schwartzphoto by Sammy Solomon“

I’m pretty excited. The coach talked to me pretty early on and I got pretty lucky. I

snagged one of the three recruiting spots

this year at Harvard and the coach is

expecting me to play pretty highly on the team next year. The

team actually got ranked 16th in the

country this year (the year before I go), so

hopefully my year [and the next] we will be

top-10 in the country.

On Tennis at Harvard

It’s not worth it to stay in a relation-

ship unless you think there’s a

long term future, which I think

mine does.

On Staying in a Relationship in College

It’s kind of an unofficial name for my group of friends of about 10 guys. It ignites some rivalries between us and other un-officially named groups.

On The ‘Tool Belt’

Don’t take hard classes senior year, because you will really regret it second semester when you lose all motivation. Do not take AP Econ. You will struggle to get a “B”.

On Senior Advice

”“Great hopes make

great men.”

Favorite Quotes“Not everything that counts can be

counted.”

Inside the Mind ofNicky Hu

Intro/Nicky Hu

MAY 2012 | 1 5

R a c q u e t s • A p p a r e l • S h o e sS t r i n g i n g • J r. E q u i p m e n t / A p p a r e l

Town & Countr y Vi l lage 99B855 El Camino Real , Palo Al to CA 94301

659.328.3223 • www.tennis townandcountr y.comMon Sat 10 - 6, Sun 12 -5

G R A N D O P E N I N G

HELP YOUR STUDENT GET INTO COLLEGE.

Our 1-on-1 tutoring is the most efficient and effective way to improve your score, while our small group classes provide students with a positive, dynamic and collaborative learning environment that fits your budget.

Higher SAT/ACT scores in less time.

Personalized approach with proven results.

Over 10 years of rapid growth thanks to the enthusiastic word of mouth from thousands of clients from Paly, Gunn, Menlo, Menlo Atherton, Sacred Heart, Castilleja, Woodside Priory, St. Francis, Mountain View and Los Altos. Charismatic, professional and flexible tutors.

CALL AJ TUTORING TODAY!650.331.3251 • ajtutoring.com

50%

MAY 2012 | 1 7

10with

Questions Lydia Guo

Athlete Advice from GuoFind a sport you love and focus on it. Don’t force yourself to do something you don’t want to do in order to please the people around you.“ ”

Aaron ZelingerBoyfriend

Torie NielsenFriend, Teammate

Jason FungTrack Coach

Category

40%

Lydia GuoSenior Track Runner

30%

Best part of summer

Most embarrassing track moment

Best thing about NYU

Favorite summer hang-out spot

Go-to summer outfit

What You’ll Miss Most About Paly

Best track event

Favorite part of track

Pre-meet snack

Best friend

Traveling & country music

When I tripped Pippa

The 4 by 1

The 4 by 1 and Niko

Tank top and shorts

The beach

Good food in the city

Coach Fung and Pippa

Salad and chicken

Lauren Wong (‘12)

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Trips and falls

In bed (napping)

Pippa and babysitting Fung’s Kids

Classy short shorts

Very special friends

4 by 100

Cottage cheese and other nasty things

Lauren Wong

She is

No school

Don’t have one

It’s not home

6 a.m. practice

Flip-flops and shorts

Aaron Zelinger’s house

Luna Bar

4 by 100 relay

Tor-Dog

No school

Getting “cutest couple” with Tremaine Kirkman (‘12)

Their mascot. Go Violets!

Pippa and the 4 by 1

Shorts, rainbows and shades

Anywhere with Aaron Zelinger (‘12)

Fung and his kids

Bananas and Luna Bars

Food and Toby (her dog)

Coach Fung

We went to senior Paly track star Lydia Guo to ask her 10 questions about herself. We then asked the same 10 questions to her friends/teammates Aaron Zelinger (‘12) and Torie Nielsen (‘12), and coach Jason Fung to see who knows Lydia best.

Images taken from

As told to Marina Foley

The 4 by 1

Intro Section


Favorite summer activity

PIPPARAFFEL

Track (‘14)

BEN SNEIDER

Baseball (‘12)

SIMONE BUTEAU

Lacrosse (‘13)

TORY PRATI

Track (‘12)

OLIVIA VORT

Swimming (‘15)

I’d like tosee ___ streak.

Summer movieI’m anticipating

Where da party at?

Sleeping in Baseball Pool basketballat Tyler’s

Going to the beach The beach

No guys Meghan Byrd (‘12)

Ted Ted The Lucky One

Brennan Miller (‘12)

Chris Ramirez (‘12)

The HillsWherever I am

Spiderman The Dark Knight Rises

Pool partyat my house!The weight roomThe Valenti’s

Ray-BansRay-BansRay-BansOakleysOakleysOakleys

or Ray-Bans?

W H A T D O P A L Y A T H L E T E S S A Y ?

POSITIVE THINKING Pitcher Julia Saul (‘14) fires a pitch during a win over Santa Clara High School on April 20.

The op ulture GridP C

Explain Yourself...

Torie Nielsen (‘12)

“Swing batta SWING. The ump better call this a strike.”

-Julia Saul (‘14)photo by Hilda Huang

HOT

NOT

Sit back and relax Paly! Take a seat on one of the new additions to the quad. Chill with your friends or get a tan on your own time, all thanks to ASB who hooked up the quad with some new stress-re-lieving lounge accessories. Way to put all that excess money to good use guys!

L AW N C H A I R SLike countless colleges, the Paly quad has become infested with frisbee players. If you see a shirtless senior guy running around, it’s not your usual shenanigans; it’s fris - Paly’s most addicting and seductive sport.

U LT I M AT E F R I S B E E

S U M M E R TA N S

One of Paly’s most fun and beloved traditions has been on the brink of total can-cellation. Thanks to some last minute work and a response to the student body’s protest against the cancellation, powderpuff will still take over the Paly quad, just a little bit later.

Nothing says summertime like a tan. We’re not talking about the beds or spray tans; it is time to absorb some Vitamin D from real rays. With the California sunshine that we’ve been get-ting, it’s easy! Get out in the sun and get your golden brown on!

Senioritis has been spreading like wildfire, just in time for AP testing. Unfortunately, seniors had to study hard despite their urge to slack off. Hopefully it will pay off.

T E S T I N G

P O W D E R P U F F

The op ulture Grid

MAY 2012 | 1 9

winning percentage volleyball Coach Dave Winn has accumulated in his six-year tenure at Paly

BY THENUMBERS.820

Katie Foug’s fastest mile time, run at the CCS semifinals

5:15 number of Paly ath-letes participating in the 2012 USA Summer Olympic trials

510.52 E.J. Floreal’s best time for the 100 meter dash, good for fourth in Calif.

FINISH LINE

BOYS’ WATER POLO

GIRLS’ WATER POLO

The boys’ water polo team ended its season with an overall record of 17-13, losing in the semifinals of both the SCVAL and CCS tournaments. After a disappointing loss to Gunn High School on Senior Night, the boys entered the SCVAL playoffs with renewed fire and energy. The Vikes made it all the way to the semifinals where Gunn stopped them again by beating them in a tight 15-14 contest. However, the Vikings performed well

enough in their league that they were able to gain valuable experience and qualify for the CCS playoffs, where they lost to Bellarmine in the semifinals. The team will graduate four seniors, open-ing an especially large hole at goalie where Daniel Armitano (‘12) played this year. De-spite these heavy losses, none of their top three scorers were seniors and there is a sur-plus of talented underclassmen on the squad.

For a team that had lost eight seniors from the previous season, the girls’ water polo team exceeded all expectations and finished the sea-son with a 14-11 overall record. The girls qual-ified for the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) playoffs in which they won their first round game, dominating Wilcox 15-3.

Despite losing to the Los Altos Eagles in the quarterfinals of the SCVAL playoffs, the girls qualified for the Central Coast Section (CCS) tournament, and although they lost in the sec-

ond round, they were proud of their season.“This year our team worked hard and

became a competitive part of the league,” driver Abbey Kinnaman (‘13) said. “I’m proud of what we accomplished this year.”

The team is graduating four seniors, includ-ing co-captains Skylar Dorosin and Shannon Scheel, which will hurt the team’s goal-scoring production, but next year’s captains Kinnaman and Martine Leclerc (‘13) will look to lead their team deep into the CCS tournament playoffs.

A review of Paly sports this year

For more online coverage and game recaps visit:

20

12


Skylar Dorosin (‘12)

Peter Rockhold (‘12)

photo by Grant Shorin


20

11

vikingsportsmag.com

MAY 2012 | 21

BOYS’ CROSS-COUNTRY

GIRLS’ CROSS-COUNTRY

GIRLS’ TENNISAfter qualifying only two singles play-

ers to play in a doubles match in CCS, the young girls’ tennis team is looking to rebound from close losses this year and send more players to CCS next year.

After winning third place in the annual Paly Invitational tournament, the Lady Vikes faced stiff opposition from Saratoga and Monta Vista. Despite two close 4-3 losses against Lynbrook and Mountain View, the team was able to slide past rival Gunn High

School 4-3 midway through the season. With a 4-6 league record, the team placed fourth in the SCVAL, falling short of quali-fying for the CCS Championships as a team.

After graduating only one senior, Amy Ke, next year’s team will showcase strong singles players, including Aas-hli Budhiraja (‘14) and Sammy Solomon (‘13), as well as a strong doubles lineup.“I’m really looking forward to next year,” head coach Andy Harader said.

With frontrunner Katie Foug (‘15) and other strong performances from Chika Kasa-hara (‘13), Audrey DeBruine (‘14), Nora Rosati (‘13) and Sophia Robinson (‘15), the girls’ cross-country team finished sec-ond in the Palo Alto City meet, third in the SCVAL Championship meet and sixth in the CCS Championship meet to end its season. Though the team was unable to qual-ify for the State Championship meet, Foug qualified and raced as an indi-

vidual to represent the Lady Vikes. The Lady Vikes also performed well in the invitational meets including 12th out of 29 teams in the Stanford Invita-tional, second in the Cal Poly Invitation-al and third in the Lowell Invitational. The Vikings will not lose many seniors this year and hopes for a strong season next year are running high. The team looks to Kasa-hara, Rosati, DeBruine, Foug and Robinson to lead it forward into the 2012-2013 season.

The varsity boys’ cross-country team had somewhat of an unsuccessful season, which ended with a disappointing sixth- place finish in the SCVAL league race.

Senior runner Nikolai Solgaard man-aged to finish first for Paly and 13th overall with a time of 16 minutes and 39 seconds in the league race. Sam Carilli (‘12) fin-ished second for the Vikings at 29th overall, while Ben May (‘13) and Ben Hawthorne

(‘13) tied for third at 31st and 32nd overall.Although the team is going to be losing some

strong runners like Solgaard, Carilli, William Hall (‘12) and Corso Rosati (‘12), it will also be returning key runners such as May, Haw-thorne, Kevin Lavelle (‘12), Justin Zhang (‘13) and Matan Geller (‘13), as well as several prom-ising underclassmen for the 2012-2013 season.

Longtime coach Joe Ginnani will not be re-turning to coach the 2012-2013 team next year.

FOOTBALLThe football team finished the season with a

disappointing loss to the Bellarmine Bells in the CCS Open Division Championship. The Vi-kings were disappointed to not follow up their 2010 State Championship victory with another.

The team, which finished with a re-cord of 8-2, was led by sophomore stand-out quarterback Keller Chryst, who trans-ferred to Paly at the beginning of the year, and B.J. Boyd (‘12). Boyd was especially dominant this season, averaging 88 rush-

ing yards per game and 12 points per game. The veteran offensive line, anchored by

three year starter Tory Prati (‘12), added much needed experience and stability to an otherwise young and inexperienced team, and did an immaculate job protecting Chryst.

The team will graduate 20 seniors but is still looking to reload and come back as a formida-ble force in the SCVAL next season. With re-turning players such as Chryst and Matt Tolbert (‘13), the future looks bright for the Vikings.

Aashli Budhiraja (‘14)

Sam Carilli (‘12)

Maryssa Sklaroff (‘13)

Erik Anderson (‘13)

photo by Hilda H

uangphoto by G

rant Shorin photo by A

nne Hildebrand


Feature Story


BOYS’ SOCCER

After an unexpected loss to cross-town rival Gunn High School early in the season, the Paly girls’ basket-ball team came back with a vengeance.

The high point of the Vikings’ season was a 47-46 victory over the Wilcox Char-gers. Emilee Osagiede (‘12) scored 16 points in the victory, 14 of which were scored in the fourth quarter. After being down by as many as 16 points at one point in the con-test, the Lady Vikes tied the game up with

only five seconds left. Then Osagiede came through again for the Vikings by sinking the game-winning free throw with seconds re-maining. The win vaulted the team into first place in the De Anza Division of the SCVAL.

The team, which ended up ranked sec-ond in CCS’s Division I, was led by Osa-giade, Stephanie Allen (‘13) and Lindsay Black (‘12). The girls made it all the way to the CCS Championship game where they lost to Gunn in heartbreaking fashion.

The Palo Alto boys’ soccer team (0-8-2 league, 0-14-4 overall) finished in last place in league this year and will be demoted to the El Camino Division due to its poor record.

Many attribute the disappointing record to the absence of returning varsity play-ers, including Gerrit van Zyll (‘12), Sky-ler Felt (‘13), Grant Shorin (‘13), Josh Totte (‘14), Peter Laminette (‘13), Fede Clerici (‘12) and Kris Hoglund (‘12).

This year’s team consisted of mostly under-

classmen and inexperienced players. The team was further hurt when returning varsity players Geraldo Neto (‘12) and Michael Sullivan (‘13) left mid-season for similar reasons. As a whole, the team scored only four goals all season.

However, despite the team’s poor record this year, the Vikings have potential to succeed this coming season against weaker competi-tion in the El Camino Division. A first place finish in the El Camino Division would per-mit the team to rejoin the De Anza Division.

The Paly varsity girls’ soccer team (2-8-2 league, 7-8-2 overall) finished a mediocre sea-son by failing to earn a spot in the CCS playoffs.

The Lady Vikes’ two toughest opponents, Los Gatos High School and Mountain View High School, were responsible for four of the team’s losses this season, but these games were compensated by late season victories over both Saratoga High School and rival Gunn.

The Lady Vikes spent the majority of the season adjusting to the new coaching

style of Kurt Devlin and filling in the gaps of the graduating class of 2011, as well as adjusting to injured players who were unable to participate in the season.

The team graduates nine seniors includ-ing Lily Seedman, Marina Foley, Mays-sen Labidi, Emily Brown, Suzanna Ack-royd, Hannah Totte, Mira Ahmad and Emy Kelty. The team looks to Nina Kelty (‘13), Erin Chang (‘13) and Jordan Smith (‘13) to lead it into next year’s upcoming season.

BOYS’ BASKETBALLAfter a deluge of junior players left the

team, it appeared as if the 2012 Paly boys’ basketball team would crumble. How-ever, after strong contributions from se-niors Israel Hakim and Alec Wong, the Vikes managed to pull out an impressive 21-5 record in their 2011-2012 campaign.

“We had really good team chemistry,” center Tory Prati (‘12) said. “Despite hav-ing a small roster we were able to overcome this obstacle and have a successful season.”

Despite a strong 10-2 record in league, the Vikings saw their season come to an end at the hand of rival St. Francis in the CCS playoffs.

High-scorer E.J. Floreal (‘13) and shoot-ing guard Aubrey Dawkins (‘13) will have to continue their strong play in the upcom-ing season if the Vikings hope to recover from the loss of five seniors. For next year, the Vikings expect to get back some of the younger players who chose to leave the squad this year, including Eilon Tzur (‘13).

GIRLS’ BASKETBALL

GIRLS’ SOCCER

Stephanie Allen (‘13)

Aubrey Dawkins (‘13)

Lena Chang (‘15)

Kirby Gee (‘13)

photo by Scotty Baraphoto by Scotty Bara

photo by Samm

y Solomon


MAY 2012 | 23

The Paly varsity wrestling team (5-1 in league) finished its season first in SCVAL for the first time in two years.

The season started off on a high note for the Vikings when they defeated the rival Gunn High School Titans with a narrow 36-31 victory in their first taste of competi-tion. The team went on to win four more dual meets with its only loss coming against Los Gatos High School. The team was very proud of the outcome of the season.

After the successful season, 14 varsity wres-tlers at Paly qualified for the SCVAL tourna-ment, and, following grueling SCVAL and CCS tournaments, the team sent three wres-tlers, Andrew Frick (‘14), Kalen Gans (‘12) and Nick Ortiz (‘12), to the State Tournament.

Other notable performances include those from James Giaccia (‘15), Trenton Mar-shall (‘13) and Gary Hohbach (‘13), who helped lead the team with an abundance of pins in the lightweights and midweights.

The girls’ lacrosse team finished the sea-son on a disappointing note with an emo-tional 20-9 loss to St. Francis in the first round of the SCVAL playoffs on Wednes-day, May 9. The game came the same day as news of the passing of 2011 team captain Emily Benatar (‘11), who died of bacterial meningitis in Saint Louis on Tuesday night.

The team ended up compiling an overall re-cord of 7-12 after a drama-filled roller coaster ride that included the forfeiture of six league victories due to faulty paperwork. The team was set to take the No. 1 seed in the SCVAL play-offs this year before being informed of a CCS

rules violation late in the season that caused the automatic forfeit of six league victories.

This year, the team was led by co-captains Kimmie Flather (‘12) and Emy Kelty (‘12), and supplemented by Division I-bound ju-niors Charlotte Biffar (UC Berkeley) and Nina Kelty (USC). The four combined for over 61 percent of the team’s 237 goals on the season.

Although the loss of players like E. Kelty, Flather, and Layla Memar (‘12) will hurt the team in the coming year, the Vikes are left in good hands with several return-ing starters, including Biffar, N. Kelty and netminder Emma Beckstrom (‘13).

Even after a season that saw a profusion of injuries to players such as J.P. Flather (‘14) (meniscus), Logan Mendenhall (‘13) (ankle), Tyler Valenti (‘13) (thumb) and defense-man Scotty Bara (‘13) (shoulder), things were still looking up for the Vikes after a decisive 18-5 victory over Carlmont High School in the first round of the playoffs.

However, the Vikings’ season end-ed with a frustrating 12-9 loss to Men-lo Atherton in the SCVAL semifinals.

The Vikings finished third in league be-

hind second place Menlo-Atherton and first place Sacred Heart Preparatory.

The team is graduating six seniors this season, including Kris Hoglund, Matt Lam, Lukas Peterson, Nathan Norimoto, Kalen Gans and Gabe Landa. Hoglund finished the year with almost 50 goals, 19 assists and a two goal per game average for the Vikes, and will take his talents to Tufts University next year. The team will look to Jordan Gans (‘14), Skyler Anderson (‘13) and Jonny Gla-zier (‘13) for offensive production next season.

BOYS’ LACROSSE

BOYS’ TENNISThe boys’ tennis team finished

the season with a 4-7 league record. Following a 5-2 victory over Gunn, the

team was able to qualify for the CCS tourna-ment as a team. The Vikings then trounced the Harker School Eagles in the first round, but were knocked out by Bellarm-ine College Preparatory to end their season.

With the loss of seniors Nicky Hu, who will

play tennis at Harvard College next year, as well as Dar Shavit and Justin Wang, the team will need new leaders to step up and fill those roles.

The Vikings will look to Mason Haver-stock (‘13), Blake Smith (‘14) and Austin Leung (‘14) to lead the team to a stronger record and CCS berth for the 2013 season. However, the losses of Hu, Shavit and Wang will be tough to stomach for the squad.

WRESTLING

GIRLS’ LACROSSE

Kris Hoglund (‘12)

Simone Buteau (‘13)

Christian Lonsky (‘12)

photo by Emy Kelty



photo by Samm

y Solomon

Dar Shavit (‘12)

Feature Story


GIRLS’ TRACK & FIELD

BOYS’ SWIMMING

GIRLS’ SWIMMING

After triumphing over Los Altos, Sara-toga and Lynbrook, the girls’ track team’s momentum was stopped by a loss to rival Gunn High School. However, the team’s hard work earned it a fourth place finish in the SCVAL, with many athletes continuing on individually to the CCS Championship.

The team was anchored by sprinters and jumpers Torie Nielsen (‘12) in the 100 me-ters and 4 by 100 relay, Pippa Raffel (‘13) in the long jump and 4 by 100 relay, Lydia Guo

(‘12) in the 4 by 100 and 400 relays as well as the 400 meter dash and Anna Dukovic (‘15) in the high jump and 4 by 100 relay.

Distance runner Katie Foug (‘15) raced the 1600 meter and the 300 meter hurdles, but will only continue to race in the 1600 me-ters, in which she is ranked fourth in CCS.

In field events, throwers Lindsay Black (‘12) and Charlotte Alipate (‘13) are ranked fourth and sixth respectively in shot put and will also continue on to CCS.

Boys’ swimming and diving ended its season with a second place finish at CCS and another victory at the SCVAL Cham-pionships. This marked the seventh SCVAL Championship in head coach Danny Dye’s eight seasons at the helm for Paly.

The team was led by Byron Sanborn (‘12), who will be going to the U.S. Olym-pic trials for the London Games. San-born had an especially impressive show-ing this season when he set three SCVAL records and broke a 43-year-old CCS record.

The team will be graduating seniors Rol-lin Lau, Corso Rosati, Charles Zhang, Peter Rockhold, Daniel Armitano, Youngkuk Lee and Sanborn. Despite these losses, the team has the potential for a strong season next year and is looking to Andrew Liang (‘14), who also qualified for the U.S. Olympic trials, and Eren Kiris (‘13) to carry the team next year.

Diving also shows strong potential for next year with three-time SCVAL cham-pion Cole Plambeck (‘13) and team-mate Alex Francis (‘13) both returning.

Girls’ swimming and diving ended its season with a third-place finish at the 2012 CCS Championships. It also captured its 10th consecutive SCVAL Champion-ship this year, with divers Emma Miller (‘12), Serena Yee (‘13) and Nadya Nee (‘13) taking a historic first, second and third place sweep at the diving championships.

The team was led by Jasmine Tosky (’12), who is likely to qualify for the 200 meter freestyle, among other events, at the U.S. Olympic tri-als in Omaha, Neb. this summer. Tosky broke her own SCVAL record and set a new one of

0:55.05 for the 100 yard freestyle, in addition to breaking her own 2010 CCS record for the 200 yard freestyle in the 2012 CCS preliminaries.

After graduating 10 seniors, this year’s juniors and underclassmen hope to speed up their times and try to finally win CCS.

Future captains Molly Zebker (‘13), Ab-bey Kinnaman (‘13) and Quitterie Col-lignon (‘13) hope to lead Paly to its 11th SCVAL Championship next season. Yee and Nee will take the reins of the diving team, with Yee unveiling her back and reverse double somersaults at this year’s CCS meet.

After a promising regular reason and high expectations, the Paly golf team failed to qualify for the CCS playoffs. The team fin-ished tied for third place in the SCVAL, but was not able to win the league tournament.

“We were favored to win leagues,” Sam Niet-hammer (‘14) said. “We had a great regular sea-son, we just didn’t play up to our expectations.”

Niethammer, however, shot a 72 in the CCS playoffs, one stroke over par, earning himself a spot in the individual CCS Cham-

pionships where he shot a disappointing 80.“We just need to play better

when it counts,” Niethammer said.Next year, the Vikings will return the

same team, with Grant Raffel (‘13) and Ni-ethammer at the helm. Underclassmen John Knowles (‘15) and Alex Hwang (‘15) will also return after impressive rookie seasons. The Vikings will look to build upon this year’s successful regular season and carry momentum into the league season next year.

photo by Anne H

ildebrandphoto by Paige Borsos

Sam Niethammer (‘14)

photo by Brandon Dukovic

Rachelle Holmgren (‘12)

Byron Sanborn (‘12)

photo by Paige Borsos

Katie Foug (‘15)

GOLF

BADMINTON

GYMNASTICSThe Paly gymnastics team finished its third

season with co-captain Sarah Miller (‘12) placing 30th in the CCS individual all-around competition. Miller placed 16th in the same event for the North SCVAL Championships.

The JV girls’ team also contributed to much of the team’s success, expanding to almost twice the size it was last season and taking its first win in a meet against Los Altos on April 30. JV also took second place at the SCVAL Cham-pionships in Tracy, although varsity failed to

place in any competitions as a team (includ-ing CCS) because there were only two varsity gymnasts, Miller and Sophie Jorasch (‘12).

Since the team will be graduating both of its varsity athletes, it will be up to Mi-chelle Yin (‘13) and Sharissa Holopanien (‘15) to keep the team on track next year. Without Miller and Jorasch holding down the fort for the Lady Vikes, the young team and new gymnasts will need to work hard to maintain the team’s success next season.

After a promising start to the season, Pa-ly’s badminton squad finished the season on a low note. In the year’s incipient stages, Paly racked up six straight meet victories.

“I guess [we] surpassed expectations in the first half of the year,” said Brian Chen (‘13). “But afterwards we slumped.”

Paly’s season went into a downward spiral as the team’s record dropped to .500 after a deluge of nail-biting defeats. However, the Vikes kept their season afloat by winning three of their

last six games to maintain their even record.The forecast for next year may be a little grim

due to the fact that the Vikings will graduate their four top girls in Linda Li (‘12), Jodie Chen (‘12), Tiffany Tsung (‘12) and Karine Hsu (‘12).

If the Vikings hope to make a League Championship run and capitalize on the potential that they displayed early in the year, co-captains Oliver Wang (‘13) and Gavin Chen (‘13) will need to pay dividends for the Vikings in their 2013 campaign.

SOFTBALL

BASEBALL

After finishing 4-8 in league and 7-18 overall, the Paly softball team was un-able to qualify for the CCS tournament.

Among its notable victories were a 12-2 trouncing of Fremont and an 11-5 victory over Santa Clara to end the season, but 10-plus run defeats were all too common for the squad.

After losing last year’s head coach, Tim Anderson, and seniors Gracie Mar-shall (‘11) and Mariah Phillips (‘11), the Lady Vikes had big shoes to fill. And al-

though the team had its second straight los-ing season, it is a young team that looks to build on the experience gained this year.

With the return of key players Julia Saul (‘14), Anna Rizza (‘13), Maya Padilla (‘13) and Hannah Bundy (‘14), the Lady Vikes look to step up next season and become a formidable force in both their league and CCS. This season may have been more of a rebuilding year, but the reloaded Lady Vikes should come back ready to roll next year.

With a 13-1 league record (25-6 overall) the Vikings entered the first round of the CCS Championships as the No. 1 seed and de-feated Evergeen Valley 9-0. Two games later, however, the season came to a close with a 4-2 loss to Valley Christian in the semifinals.

The Vikings started the season strong with key league wins over Wilcox, Los Ga-tos and Mountain View. However, a mid-season loss to Mountain View slowed the Vikings’ momentum. Despite this loss, the

Vikings bounced back to win the SCVAL regular season. But, after losing the cham-pionship series to Los Altos in the playoffs, the Vikes became co-league champions.

The Vikings were led by seniors Ben Snei-der, Ozzy Braff and B.J. Boyd. Boyd was the team’s best hitter with a .507 batting average and Sneider sat atop the rotation with his 0.91 ERA. The senior-heavy roster will leave the team depleted next year, with very few juniors gaining significant game experience this year.

MAY 2012 | 25

photo by Alex K

ershner

Jack Witte (‘12)


Maya Padilla (‘13)

Oliver Wang (‘13)

photo by Brandon Dukovic

photo by Hilda H

uang

Sarah Miller (‘12)

Feature Story

20122012Recruiting Map

San Diego State, Kimmie Flather(lacrosse)

UC Davis, Nikolai Solgaard (track and field)

BY EMY KELTY

Claremont McKenna College, Rachelle Holmgren (swimming), Jack Witte (baseball)

Univ. of Washington, Melanie Wade(volleyball)

Humbolt State Univ. AnaCena Zander(track and field)

UC Santa Cruz, Dar Shavit (tennis)

San Jose State Univ., Caitlin Warmack-Tirador (softball)Gabe Landa (football)

Pomona College, Kevin Kannappan (baseball)

Univ. of the Pacific, Emilee Osagiede (basketball)Kimmy Whitson (volleyball)

Chapman Univ., Brennan Miller (football)

UC Berkeley, Monica Van Luven(crew)

Stanford Univ, Skylar Dorosin(water polo)

Whitman College, Ozzy Braff(baseball)

Montana State Univ., Morris Gates-Mouton(football)

Athletes from the class of 2012 who will continue their athletic careers next year.

By Sport:

Football (6)

Swimming (5)Baseball (5)Volleyball (5)

Lacrosse (3)

Basketball (2)Soccer (2)Crew (2)Water polo (2)Track and field (2)

Diving (1)Softball (1)Wrestling (1)Tennis (1)

1234


Biola Univ., Megan Bredenberg(swimming)

Univ. of Southern California, Jasmine Tosky (swimming)

UC San Diego, Gerrit Van Zyll(soccer)

women

men

2012Amherst College, Emy Kelty(lacrosse, soccer)

Tufts Univ., Laura Cui (swimming),Kris Hoglund (lacrosse)

Middlebury College, John Dickerson (baseball)

Univ. of Washington, Melanie Wade(volleyball)

Georgetown Univ., Luke Prioleau (crew), Mikey Lyzwa (football)

U.S. Naval Academy, Peter Rockhold (water polo)

Bucknell Univ., Emma Miller (diving)

Connecticut College, Caroline Martin (volleyball) Univ. of Connecticut, Maddie

Kuppe (volleyball)

Trinity Univ., Ben Sneider (baseball)

Carleton College, Ashley Shin(volleyball)

Princeton Univ., Byron Sanborn (swimming)

Harvard Univ., Nicky Hu(tennis)

Johns Hopkins Univ., Tory Prati(football)

Macalester Univ., Chris Bisbee(football)

Stevens Inst. of Technology, Kalen Gans (wrestling)

Montana State Univ., Morris Gates-Mouton(football)

By Gender:

Female

45%55%Male

Division I

Division II

Division III

By Division:

Division I

51%3%

Division II44%

Division III

MAY 2012 | 27

Feature Story

Prairie View A&M Univ. , Isreal Hakim (basketball)

2

12

sum

erm

pening ceremonywill be broadcast on NBCFriday, July 27


lympics

British soccer superstar David Beckham

began the 2012 Olympic torch’s 8,000 mile journey on May 17. Af-

ter being lit by the sun in Athens, the torch was escorted by Beckham in the

first class cabin of British Airlines flight 2012, where it sat in its own seat. It is cur-

rently being passed by 8,000 people on its 70-day tour of the United Kingdom,

beginning in the west and ending in the north. The flame will burn

until the closing ceremonies on August 12.

74

you won’t want to miss:The Opening Ceremony. England has already spent a whopping $125 million on this year’s opening and closing ceremonies alone.

Michael Phelps swimming for the three medals he needs to trump Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina’s record of 18 and become the most decorated Olympian.

Jamaican 100 meter dash champion Usain Bolt attempting to beat his own world record of 9.58 seconds on August 5.

Paly sophomore Lily Zhang onAmerica’s table-tennis team.

Southern California local and Stanford University graduate Tony Azvedo leading the U.S. water polo team.

Californians Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings team up on the beach vol-leyball court. Carmelita Jeter, the second fastest woman in the 100 meters, taking the track.

55 men and 55 women racing through Hyde Park in the fourth Olympic 51.5 kilo-meter Triathalon (women’s August 4, men’s August 7).

British tennis champ Andy Murray going for an unheard of three golds; he will be the first ever to compete in men’s singles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles.

Terrence Jennings competing in the 150 pound weight class for Taekwondo.

10moments

36

TEAM

sports

neU S A

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

July 27 - August 12

3spend at leasthours per week

watching the

of Paly students

*Results based on a survey taken by 100 Paly students.

by EMMA BECKSTROM & HILDA HUANG

%Olympic Games

Feature Story

MAY 2012 | 29


Feature Story

Goldlympic

Here’s our preview of some of Paly’s favorite events

BASKETBALLTRACK & FIELD VOLLEYBALL

Despite losing center Dwight Howard and point guard Derrick Rose to injury, the 2012 U.S. men’s basketball team is still the over-whelming favorite to repeat its Bei-jing gold-medal performance. The biggest threat to the Americans is the star-studded Spanish squad highlighed by the Gasol broth-ers and OKC blocking machine Serge Ibaka. Rosters are not yet finalized, but the usual suspects, Lebron James, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade, will all likely be the difference for the U.S. in London.

Key names to look for in the sum-mer 2012 Olympic track events include American runners Sanya Richards-Ross and Allyson Felix. Richards-Ross is aiming for gold in the 400 meter race while Felix’s hopes lie in the 400 meters as well. In the men’s 4 by 400 meter relay, Usain Bolt of Jamaica, world re-cord holder in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4 by 100 meter relays, has tough competition from David Rudisha of Kenya. This year’s Olym-pic track events should finish with many close matches and upsets.

According to the FIVB world rankings for volleyball, the favor-ites in the 2012 Olympic volley-ball competitions include Brazil on the men’s side and the United States on the women’s side in the indoor events. In beach vol-leyball, the Americans Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser are favored to win the men’s compe-tition, while Chinese Zhang Xi and Xue Chen and Americans Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh may repeat the 2008 Bei-jing battle for the gold in London.

Contributions by KEVIN DUKOVIC, ANNE HILDEBRAND & NIKO SOLGAARD

For 302 events in 26 sports,

over 160 nations,

their athletes and at least

“Inspire a generation,”

When the countdown clock in

Trafalgar Square reaches

London will be the only city in the world with the distinction of hosting

will look to

one Paly Viking

three Olympic Games.

0:00.00

athletic distinction

MAY 2012 | 31

battling for the ultimate

photo by Scotty Barapphoto by G

rant Shorinphoto by G

rant Shorin

Lily Zhang (‘14)

Byron Sanborn (‘12)

Jasmine Tosky (‘12)

GYMNASTICSSWIMMING & DIVING

After the recent death of Nor-way’s first Olympic swimming medalist Alexander Dale Oen, vet-eran Olympians Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Rebecca Soni and Missy Franklin are leading the way in the American race for Olympic qualifications. Paly will also send two athletes, Jasmine Tosky (’12) and Byron Sanborn (’12) to the trials. 16-time Olympic medalist (14 of which were gold) Phelps remains the favorite in the short freestyle and butterfly events, while Soni looks for gold in the

breaststroke events. Australia and the United States will likely battle for the distinction of having the most medals, with their athletes swimming the tightest races in the 4 by 100 meter and 4 by 200 meter medley and freestyle events. China and Britain will be the dominant nations in the diving competition, with Wu Minxia and He Zi likely contenders for one of the women’s individual med-als and Tom Daley, who finished seventh in the men’s individual 10 meter platform event in Beijing.

USA Gymnastics boasts a fresh roster of young athletes like Jordyn Weiber and Alexandra Raisman, in addition to veteran Olympians Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin and Alicia Sacramone. All-around fa-vorite Weiber remains one of the United States’ strongest contend-ers for the individual gold after winning three American Cups and last year’s World Championships, and her consistency proves valu-able in anchoring the Americans in the team competition. Ameri-cans will face the stiffest resistance

from the Chinese and Russian teams, which have shared many top world podiums within the last decade. The Japanese men’s gymnastics team looks to con-tinue its legacy in London, with three-time defending world champion Kohei Uchimura anchoring the Japanese in the team competition. The Chinese and Americans have emerged as the other top teams in the competition after winning two of three top team positions in world team competitions.

Feature Story


by MIRA AHMAD, SAM BORSOS & NATHAN NORIMOTO

Jeremy Lin is a hometown hero, Volvo celebrity spokesperson and NBA star. However, his season-ending knee injury halted all talks of Linsanity in the playoffs and sent all the “Linsan-

ity” shirts to the sale racks for 50 per-cent off. We want to wish Jeremy a speedy recovery, and can’t wait to watch the most “Linsane” player de-stroy the NBA next year. Paly pride!

This was the last year that Giovanni Napoli-tano was the head coach for the varsity water polo team. After a fairly successful season in which the Vikings made it to the CCS semifi-nals before losing to Bellarmine, the admin-istration announced that Napolitano and the rest of his coaching staff would not be return-

ing. The coaches were dismissed quietly and some players disagree with the excess of parent involvement in the making of the deci-sion. While Principal Phil Winston says that the coaches were not “fired” but instead that their “contracts were not renewed,” it was a tricky issue for the water polo program to handle.

Jeremy’s knee Lin-jury

Boys’ water polo coach catastrophe

Baseball strikes outThe Vikings won a CCS Championship last season, but somehow managed to lose to De Anza Division cellar-dwell-ers the Mountain View High School

Spartans on March 21. This was the Vikes’ only league loss of the season and the Spartans finished their season in second to last place. Embarrassing.

Boys’ basketball ousted in OTAfter the boys’ varsity basketball team tied for first in the De Anza Division with a 10-2 record, the team went into the CCS playoffs and crushed South San Francisco 75-42 in the first round. In the second round, Paly was matched against third seeded St. Francis High School, a pri-

vate athletic powerhouse. After a back-and-forth battle, the teams tied at 58 at the end of regula-tion, sending the game into overtime. After this exciting opportunity, however, Paly could not overcome a six point lead by the Lancers, who beat the Vikes 70-64. So close and yet so far.

BOTTOM10 sports moments

2011-2012

The Viking’s

A compilation of Paly athletics’ worst moments of the year

0 1 9

8 7

Ozzy Braff (‘12)

Jeremy Lin (‘06)

MAY 2012 | 3 3

It was another tough season for the varsity girls’ soccer team, which went 2-7-2, defeating only rival Gunn High School 3-1 and Saratoga High School 1-0. Last season the team went 2-7-3 in league but managed to stay in the more prestigious De Anza

Division. Despite outstanding underclass talent, the Lady Vikes are being relegated to the lower division next season, where they hope to thrive against weaker competition. After this year’s poor performance, better luck next year Lady Vikes!

Paly not only crushed the Lady Titans 65-49 in its first matchup against Gunn High School, but also made it look easy. However, after losing to the Ti-tans 52-42 the second time around, the team had a chance at redemption when the CCS title saw Paly take on Gunn at Santa Clara University. After

back-and-forth play in which Paly struggled as a team to communicate and break through Gunn’s defense, the Lady Vikes were down by five with seconds left. Paly’s Emilee Osagiede (‘12) hit a bittersweet three-pointer to cut the deficit to only two points right as the buzzer went off. Ouch.

Last year, the Paly varsity football team stunned the Palo Alto community by beat-ing Centennial High School for its first ever State Championship. Although Paly had some impressive wins this year, the team’s lowest moment was when Bellarmine quar-

terback Travis McHugh (‘12) proved to be too much for the Vikings’ defense to handle. The team fell 41-13 to the Bells after beat-ing them last year to qualify for States. The loss put dreams of returning to the Home Depot Center on hold for next years team.

Despite earning a spot in the SCVAL play-offs the girls’ lacrosse season was marred by league-imposed restrictions. Forced to forfeit six games due to an error on the roster sheet,

the girls’ lacrosse team plummeted from first to fourth place in its league, but still managed to secure a spot in the playoffs before fall-ing to St. Francis 20-9 in an emotional game.

The varsity boys’ soccer season was, in a word, miserable. The team lost many key returning players, due in part to head coach Donald Briggs’ strict policy, imple-mented at the beginning of the season, that prevented most club soccer play-ers from participating on the high school team. As if losing most of the returning

players wasn’t enough, the team pro-ceeded to lose or tie every single one of its games this season, including both league and non-league contests. While the team is being relegated, hopefully next year’s underclassmen will have an edge on the easier competition after gain-ing a year of varsity experience this year.

Girls’ soccer demoted

Softball team dresses to unimpress

Girls’ hoops passes CCS crown to Gunn

Girls’ lacrosse transfer fiasco

Football gets rung by Bellarmine Bells

Bereft boys’ soccer struggles

The varsity softball team has had a disap-pointing 2012 season, losing games by 10 or more runs on a fairly regular basis throughout the season. After losing key players Mariah Philips (‘11) and Gracie Marshall (‘11) from last year, the team had a rebuilding sea-

son. While there have been some victories, the losses (and dress-up days), have been so dramatic they were hard to ignore. The team is currently 3-8 in league and 6-18 overall, in stark contrast to last years’ team that went 6-6 in league and 10-15 overall.

Hannah Bundy (‘14)

1 3 5

6

4

Jacob Dorward (‘13)

2 B.J. Boyd (‘12)

Feature Story


TOP10 sports moments

2011-2012

1 0 If it was socially acceptable at golf events, the Paly golf team would get a roaring ap-plause for its season. Instead, a light golf clap will do. The team had an impres-sive regular season, with standout per-

formances from Sam Niethammer (‘14), who qualified for the State Tournament. At the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course on March 22, when Paly defeated Cupertino 198-217, Niethammer shot a team-low 38.

15 seconds into overtime against rival Menlo High School, Logan Mendenhall (‘13) flipped a pearl past the Menlo goalie to secure a win for the Vikes. This was the first time in two years that the Vikings were able to win at Menlo’s field, lifting a huge weight off the

shoulders of head coach Craig Conover and defensive coach Casey Clark. The Vi-kings were also able to push the Knights to a fourth place finish in league. The long stick defense and talented ball handling was too much for Menlo to handle. Sorry ‘bout it!

Can I get a golf clap?

Boys’ lacrosse ramps it up in overtime

Katie Foug puts the “mile” in smile There was something in the Paly track air on May 3. The same day that Floreal broke the school record for the 100 meter dash, Paly’s Katie Foug (‘15) took fourth place in the mile with a personal record

time of 5:15.86 minutes at the De Anza League finals. This contributed to the girls’ track team’s second place overall finish in the tournament. The boys’ team took home first place in its competition.

Baseball blasts five home runsWhat else is there to say, other than that the Paly baseball team had not one, not two, but five home runs in one game against Carmel High School in a non-league game? Paly

crushed the Carmel Padres 14-4 on April 21, and Isaac Feldstein (‘13), Sean Harvey (‘13), B.J. Boyd (‘12), Jack Witte (‘12) and Austin Braff (‘12) each went deep for Paly.

9

7

8

A look at the greatest moments from Paly athletics

The

Viki

ng’s

Katie Foug (‘15)

Grant Raffel (‘13)

by MIRA AHMAD, SAM BORSOS & NATHAN NORIMOTO

MAY 2012 | 35

momentsIn order to beat the 34’6’’ school record for shot put, track star Lindsay Black (‘12) realized she would have to beat her personal record by about two feet. At a meet against Mountain View High School, however, Black did just that and more, throwing a 36’4’’ and beating the school re-cord set in 1992. Prior to the throw, Black took only a few

warm-ups, having just come from competing in a high jump event minutes earlier. Not only that, but Black went on to beat her own record later in the season at cross-town rival Gunn High School, setting the current record at 37’7’’. Life’s not bad when the only person you’re worried about beating in sports is yourself.

Trailing a basketball team by 16 points with just under five minutes left is like trying to study for a test during second semester senior year: only the most advanced can handle the pressure. On Feb. 3, the Paly girls’ varsity basketball team trailed Wilcox High School 45-29 with less than five minutes remaining, but roared back in the

fourth quarter and went on a 17-1 run. The key moment of the game came when Paly’s Emilee Osagiede (‘12) was fouled by Wilcox forward and league MVP Josetta Fatuesi (‘14) with only seconds remaining in the contest. Not only did Fatuesi foul out, but Osagiede made the game-winning free throw to wrap up the victory.

The heat that Palo Alto has been ex-periencing lately may be coming from junior E.J. Floreal’s track skills. On April 29 at a dual track meet at Saratoga High School, Floreal not only broke the 31-year-old school record for the 100 meters, but he also soared to No. 1 in California with a time of 10.52 seconds

(now fourth). He had a personal best time of 21.16 on the 200 meters at the De Anza League finals on May 3, beat-ing the old school record of 21.61 sec-onds and ranking him No. 2 in the state for the 200 meters (now fourth). In other words, don’t run behind Floreal unless you want dust kicked up in your face.

Let’s face it. We love Jeremy Lin (‘06), and were all a little bit disheartened when Linsanity was put on hold after his season-ending knee injury. Well Paly, wipe those tears away and make way for Paly’s lat-est celebrity athlete: Lily Zhang (‘14), a table tennis

master who will compete in the 2012 Summer Olym-pics. The 15 year-old practices for hours a day and will represent not only Paly but also the United States this summer in London. Make sure to cheer on Zhang this summer as she competes on the world stage!

This fall, the Palo Alto High School girls’ volleyball team amazed the Palo Alto com-munity once again, capturing its second CIF Division I State Championship title in a row. What’s more, the Lady Vikes made a miraculous eight-point comeback in the fifth set against the Marymount High

School Sailors. The team was led by a plethora of talented seniors this year, in-cluding Melanie Wade, Kimmy Whitson, Caroline Martin and Maddie Kuppe. The win earned Paly the No. 1 rank in the na-tion according to MaxPreps, and double the amount of bragging rights as before.

Lindsay Black beats her shot put record

Three wrestlers at States

Girls’ hoops stuns Wilcox to tie league

Lily Zhang is Olympic bound

E.J. Floreal can run on water

Volleyball makes the ultimate comeback

The varsity wrestling team had an im-pressive 2012 season, winning the majority of its dual meets and many non-league tournaments. This year was especially unique as three wres-tlers from the varsity squad, Kalen Gans (‘12), Nick Ortiz (‘12) and Andrew

Frick (‘14) all made it to the CIF State Championship meet for their respec-tive weight classes. Although none of the Vikings won their tournament matches, it was a great accomplish-ment for the program, which hopes to build on its success next year.

65

34

21

E.J. Floreal (‘13)

Mad

die

Kupp

e (‘1

2)

Kalen Gans (‘12)

Feature Story


2011-2012Paly Athletic Awards

COACH OF THE YEAR

UNDERCLASSMEN OF THE YEAR

ALOK SUBBARAO

ATHLETES OF THE YEAR

The Underclassman of the Year award is given to one male and one female freshman or sophomore who have dem-onstrated athletic excellence in their sport(s) despite their young ages. These athletes are exceptional due to their outstanding performance given their lack of experience with Paly athletics and are expected to dominate in the years to come.

The Coach of the Year award goes out to the coach who made a significant contribution to the Paly athletic program that he or she is involved in. Coaches are such a vital component in the athletic realm, not only for their teams, but for the Paly community as a whole, that it is immensely important to give a Paly coach recognition for his or her hard work. This award is a ‘thank you’ to a coach who has dedicated his or her time to better the team and individual players.

The Alok Subbarao award goes out to the player whose greatest impact on his or her team is not necessarily printed in the newspaper or visible at the top of every statistical category. The Viking grants this award to the player who carries his or her team with great leadership and acts as the glue that keeps the team working as one cohesive unit. The value of this athlete cannot necessarily be measured by statistics, but rather by the motivation he or she brings to the team.

The Athlete of the Year award is granted to one male and one female athlete who have stood out as the leading forces behind their teams’ successes. The two winners are the athletes who have delivered standout performances day in and day out, propelling their teams to be the best they can possibly be.

TEAMS OF THE YEARThe Team of the Year award recognizes one male and one female team every year for their hard work and outstand-ing performance throughout the year. These teams are those that try their best in every game and produce impressive results.

Awards

MAY 2012 | 37

COACH of the YEARDAVE WINN

arsity volleyball head coach Dave Winn could not know for sure whether he would capture a sec-ond State Champi-onship this year af-

ter leading his team to its first State Title and an almost perfect record in 2010, so going into the season, he decided to take on one game at a time. Winn directed his attention away from the previous cham-pionship season and towards a simple goal: working hard and playing tough.

“I thought: ‘How am I going to coach a team after winning a State Champion-ship?’” Winn said. “I had to think about what things would be motivating and how we could continue to set the bar high.”

If the bar was set high before, the Lady Vikes have now raised it to a whole new level. The team is the first in Paly’s history to win back-to-back State Championships, first in 2010 when the team (41-1 over-all record, 11-1 league) beat Long Beach Poly, and again this year, when the team (36-3 overall, 12-0 league) captured its second State Title against Marymount High School and earned them the No. 1 rank in the nation according to MaxPreps.

The Viking is awarding Winn the title Coach of the Year for his rigorous determi-nation, strong belief in his team and ability to show that with simple hard work, seem-ingly unattainable goals are truly possible.

“It’s not about how you win a State Title,” Winn said. “It’s about focusing on the present and not looking all the way to the end. I think we did that by work-ing hard in practice and playing tough.”

Winn’s strategy carried the team through the League Championship, the Central Coast Section playoffs, the Northern Cali-fornia title and finally the State Champi-

onship. The Lady Vikes even came back from a 13-7 deficit to win 17-15 in the fifth and final set of the State game, prov-ing their mental and physical toughness.

Along with his novel practice ad-justments, Winn’s morale encour-agement helped the team to unify.

“He encouraged us to find our pas-sion, the motivation in ourselves, in or-der to pull together and play as a team,” outside hitter Maddie Kuppe (‘12), who played under Winn for four years, said.

Part of what keeps a team motivated to work hard is a coach who is equally dedicated.

“In the four years I got to play for him, I can honestly say I finished ev-ery single practice feeling like we had made some kind of change,” Kuppe said. “The focus [those practices] gave us could easily be what made a difference in the end that led to our recent success.”

Kuppe’s teammate, set-ter Ashley Shin (‘12), agrees.

“The fact that he is 100 percent com-mitted to the team and that he cares just as much, if not more, than the players is his best quality,” Shin said.

Winn’s coaching career is, to say the least, one for the record books. Along with winning The Viking’s award for Fe-male Coach of the Year, Winn was also a runner-up for MaxPreps’ National Female Coach of the Year award. Despite these impressive accolades there is one aspect of coaching that Winn has enjoyed most.

“Seeing how much the team can be-lieve in themselves even more than the prior year, and seeing that it was all possible [is the highlight of my ca-reer so far],” Winn said. “It was very rewarding for me to be a part of that.”

Shin echoes this opinion and empha-sized the belief Winn had in the team.

“In every single game this past sea-

son, I’ve felt he’s always believed that we could win and I’ve never felt like he has given up on our team,” Shin said. “Him believing in us made us be-lieve in ourselves and motivated us.”

Just as Winn could not predict a sec-ond State Championship this season, the future is equally uncertain. But whatever it holds for Paly volleyball, Winn hopes to continue pushing the team to new levels in the coming years.

“We’ve built a legacy of success,” Winn said. “It’s no longer a question of what we’re aiming for. We’ve seen what it takes and what can happen.”<<<

VBY PAIGE BORSOS

ALL HE DOES IS WINN Coach Dave Winn looks on during the State Championship on Dec. 4. In his six years at Paly, Winn has enjoyed an impressive .820 winnning percentage.

design by Nora Rosatiphoto by Paige Borsos


FEMALE team of theYEARAwards

CELEBRATION Co-captains Kimmy Whitson (‘12), Maddie Kuppe (‘12) and Melanie Wade (‘12) celebrate around the C.I.F. Division I State volleyball trophy.

MAY 2012 | 39

inning a State Championship is an arduous task that re-quires disci-pline, focus, de-termination and

strong team chemistry. For most schools, it is an extremely rare feat to win one title and it could take decades to win another. But for Paly athletics, expectations can always be exceeded.

After a remarkable 2011-2012 season that ended in an underdog victory over Long Beach Poly and a celebratory pa-rade through downtown Palo Alto, many may have wondered what this year’s vol-leyball team would do for an encore.

At the start of the 2011-2012 season, Coach Dave Winn and his squad estab-lished their goal. While they hoped to repeat as State Champions, the players would take the season one game at a time.

“We started to just focus on the present,” Winn said. “We spent a lot of time preparing for the next opponent and played every match like that was the most important match.”

In order to help the girls gain experi-ence playing against strong competition, Winn entered the team into challeng-ing tournaments throughout the season.

“This year we made sure we got into some tough tournaments with the knowledge that we could take a cou-ple losses along the way,” Winn said.

Co-captain Melanie Wade (‘12) be-lieves that the girls’ experience against strong opponents was a key component in the success that the team had this season.

“We were a lot more confident coming into this year [compared to] last year because we’d been in the situation before and everyone had experience in a State game,” Wade said.

This experience, along with the girls’ per-

severance throughout the season, contrib-uted to team’s ability to make it back to the State Championship for the second time in two years. There, the Vikes played a talented Marymount High School squad that was eager to knock off the defending champs. However, the Vikings’ unflappable resilience proved to be too much as they overcame a seven point deficit in the fifth set to become the first team in Paly history to win back-to-back State Titles.

While winning the championship was a his-toric feat, the road back to the top came with an additional challenge: high expectations.

“[Winning States] a second time is so much more difficult because there are so many more expectations to fill,” setter Kimmy Whitson (‘12) said.

But, in the face of enormous pressure, the girls did not lose sight of their goal and shoved other people’s expectations aside.

“We trusted each other when we were down,” Whitson said. “We didn’t doubt that we could do it. We believed in each other.”

Following the win, the girls experienced the rewarding feeling that comes when hard work pays off. For many of the players, this game was the high point of their athletic careers. “This is something that I will remember for my whole life,” libero Shelby Knowles (‘13) said. While some winning teams rely solely on physical ability to bring them success, it was the Lady Vikes’ confidence in each other that carried them through the past two seasons. “[Our key] was our team’s belief that we could win and each player’s men-tal toughness,” Knowles said. “On top of physical ability, we had the most heart.” With eight seniors graduating this year, the team will look to returning starters Knowles and Becca Raffel (‘14) to lead next team. While the chances of a three-peat are slim, with the same work ethic and team spirit the team is sure to have another strong season. <<<

WVOLLEYBALL

BY SAMMY SOLOMON

Honorable Mentions

With a 10-2 league record and 19-6 overall record, the girls’ basketball team was ranked 1,061 in the nation after the sea-son, up from 1,073 previously.

As the girls’ swim team well knows, placing third in CCS is no easy feat, and breaking a few records in the process makes it even more impressive.

Swimming

Basketball

photos by Paige Borsos


MALE team of the YEAR

END IN SIGHT Brian Benton (‘12) clears a hurdle in the 110 meter hurdle race; Sam Carilli (‘12), Justin Zhang (‘13) and Ben Hawthorne (‘13) accelerate from the starting line of the 1600 meters; Jayshawn Gates-Mouton (‘13), Tremaine Kirkman (‘12) and E.J. Floreal (‘13) blast to the finish of the 200 meter dash.

Clo

ckw

ise fr

om u

pper

left

corn

er: p

hoto

by

Ann

e H

ildeb

rand

, Ann

e H

ildeb

rand

and

Sco

tty B

ara

Awards

MAY 2012 | 41

.J. Floreal (‘13) is fairly well-known around the Palo Alto High School campus as one of the stars of the basketball team and a frequent par-ticipant in the annual Spirit Week slam dunk contest.

He led his team in scoring, rebounding and blocks this year, and finished second in steals and assists even while spending the major-ity of his time in the post. But now, Floreal is scorching the competition in a completely dif-ferent sport. One that does not even use a ball.

Last spring, Floreal opted to follow in the footsteps of his track athlete parents, both for-mer Olympians, and joined the Paly track team following the end of the basketball season. The school records have not been safe since, as this year he has already shattered both the 100 me-ter and 200 meter records with times of 10.52 and 21.16 seconds in the events respectively, both of which top this year’s CCS standings.

However, Floreal is not the lone bright spot for the track team this year. The rest of the athletes have also stepped up to help propel the team to an undefeated record and a Santa Clara Valley Athletic League Championship. In addition to Floreal’s outstanding races thus far, the track team has received strong perfor-mances from distance runner Nikolai Solgaard (‘12), sprinter Jon Alee (‘13), hurdler Michael Johnson (‘13), throwers Tory Prati (‘12) and Spencer Drazovich (‘13), jumper Vic-tor Du (‘13) and a number of other athletes.

For the team’s outstanding performance this year, The Viking decided to award boys’ track the 2012 Team of the Year award.

“What makes the team so special is the amount of depth we have in our athletes,” coach Jason Fung said. “We have a lot of talent at the top, but it’s when you look at the amount of kids we have filling in at the second, third and fourth spots, that’s when we dominate.”

Fung believes that the many hours of work the athletes have put in over the course of the season are the main key to the team’s success.

“They’ve all worked at this all year,” Fung said. “[From] putting in the time from the beginning, to trusting the work-outs and knowing it’s the day in and day out grind you have to put in to get better.”

Du believes that in addition to all the time each of the athletes put in, some fortunate timing also contributed to the team’s outstanding season.

“All of us work really hard, and this year we just happened to hit all of the events,” Du said. “We can’t win the league with just one or two good people. Right now, we have a lot of good people all over the place, and that gets us all the points.”

According to Floreal, the team has bond-ed over the course of the season, which has also contributed to the string of victories.

“We’ve got to be like a family,” Flo-real said. “Everyone has to be cool with everyone. [The sprinters] are like my brothers. We just have that family kind of aspect, where you trust each other.”

This trust among the teammates will only help the team’s pursuit of its ultimate goal: Paly’s first ever Central Coast Section (CCS) Championship. Standing in the way are the always-formidable Bellarmine Bells and a handful of other strong teams wait-ing to take down the undefeated Vikings. Yet even the prospect of such daunting competi-tion has not dampened the team’s optimism.

“Fung set it down for us in the beginning of the season [when] he told us we could win CCS,” Floreal said. “We were told from the be-ginning what we had to do [to reach our goal].”

And now that the season is coming to a close, the rest of the team hopes to follow Floreal’s blazing footsteps straight to a championship, as long as they can keep up. Which, as Floreal’s opponents will tell you, is no easy task. <<<

ETRACK and FIELD

Honorable Mentions Baseball

Wrestling

Led by MLB hopeful B.J. Boyd, Paly baseball had a successful season that ended with a shared league title and a CCS berth.

Three wrestlers, Kalen Gans (‘12), Nick Ortiz (‘12) and Andrew Frick (‘14), all went to States after the team went 5-1 this season.

BY AUSTIN POORE

photo by Anne H

ildebrandphoto by Scotty Bara

FEMALE KATIE FOUG

UNDERCLASSMEN

Wby MICHELLE FRIEDLANDER and ROHIT RAMKUMAR

ith two seasons wrapped up and one to go, Katie Foug (‘15) stepped onto the track this spring ready to con-tinue her freshman success as a varsity

athlete. As a member of the girls’ cross-coun-try, soccer and track teams, Foug has become a rising star on all three, qualifying her as the Female Underclassman of the Year. With her dedication to Paly athletics evi-dent through her three-season career, Foug proved herself to be a well-rounded athlete on each of her teams. Moreover, her outstanding performances have earned her the respect of older, more experienced teammates, includ-ing cross-country and track captain Torie Nielsen (‘12). “Katie is really dedicated,” Nielsen said. “During the track season a lot of different events were thrown at her, and she just did them without complaining, so that made me respect her.” Foug showed a preview of what her stand-out year would become early in her Paly ca-reer. She was the only member of the cross-country team to qualify and compete at the State meet. “[My biggest accomplishment was] probably going to States for cross-country,” Foug said. “A couple people on my team stayed around and helped me train, and one girl came with me [to the race].” In her second varsity sport of the year, Foug did not see much playing time, but gained valuable experience through her time spent with other players on the varsity soccer team. For her third and final sport of the year, Foug excelled on the track. Her season records include 2:28.67 minutes in the 800 meter run, 5:15.86 minutes in the 1600 meter run, and 50.64 seconds in the 300 meter hurdles. Foug’s 1600 meter time qualified her to compete in

the Central Coast Section (CCS) semifinal meet on May 19. Though playing three sports is no easy feat, Foug learned to balance her many commit-ments by going from one practice to the next and occasionally missing workouts. “In the fall it was a lot harder [to balance everything] because soccer and cross-country practices were right after school, so I had to miss practices,” Foug said. “Now my soccer practices are at night so I go straight from track to soccer.” Foug explained that much of her speed can be attributed to her experience with her club soccer team, the Union Football Club, which trains intensely to build agility and stamina. “Both [soccer and running] help each oth-er because we do a lot of running in soccer,” Foug said. “In games I run a couple miles, which helps, and track is getting me in shape too.”

However, her athletic ability is not the only thing that differentiates Foug from her peers. According to girls’ cross-country and track coach Paul Jones, Foug is more than just a fast runner: Her willingness to compete and her enthusiasm are aspects that make Foug the outstanding athlete she is. “Katie doesn’t get buffaloed by competi-tion,” Jones said. “[Her] attitude is really the big thing about how good she is.” Foug’s soccer teammate Suzanna Ackroyd (‘12) agreed with Jones in that Foug’s char-acter makes her an exceptional athlete, but also adds that her drive as a player singles her out. With high expectations now set, Foug stays positive and looks onward to her future in Paly athletics. “I just want to [focus on] improving,” Foug said. “I want to [keep] making new goals and [working] hard to meet them.” <<<

SPEED KILLS Katie Foug (‘15), a three-sport varsity athlete, competes in the Stanford Invitational for cross-country on Sept. 24.


Awards

photo by Jim Foug

design by Nora Rosati and Nina Kelty

nly a year ago, the San Francisco 49ers were 8-8 to finish the season and the fan base was looking to run quarterback Alex Smith out of town. How-ever, in the off-season the team hired Stanford coach

Jim Harbaugh and a new quarterbacks coach who the team hoped would turn things around. The 49ers tasked Geep Chryst, previously an of-fensive coach for the Carolina Panthers, with the daunting assignment. Chryst brought his family with him, including his son Keller Chryst (‘14), to Palo Alto where he could compete for the starting quarterback spot at Paly. So far, Chryst has shown people at Paly and around the Bay Area that he is for real and that Paly will be a formidable force with him at the helm for the next two years. Chryst was initially given unjust expectations

when he took over for the Vikings. Following in the footsteps of Christoph Bono (‘11), who led the team to a State Championship last year, was a tough task, but center Spencer Drazovich (‘13) feels he handled it well. “He knew what his role was, he had big shoes to fill, and he filled them better than any other person could have,” Drazovich said. Despite being an underclassman on the foot-ball team with major responsibilities, Chryst worked extremely hard in the weight room and studied the playbook to get up to speed with the the offense. “We have a difficult offense, but Keller did a masterful job of learning it,” Drazovich said. Safety Matt Tolbert (‘13) attributes Chryst’s athleticism and matured physical tools to his smooth transition to Paly. “Keller was shy coming in but it helps that he is so big and he has a cannon for an arm,” Tolbert said. “This made his transition a little easier.”

At times this year, Chryst showed flashes of brilliance and at others he made mistakes. How-ever, unlike most underclassmen on varsity, Chryst did not hunch his shoulders or hang his head. Instead, he rose to the occasion and al-most led Paly to a second straight Central Coast Section (CCS) Open Division Title. “I expected myself to do the best I possibly could but I also didn’t want to be too hard on myself and take the fun of the game out of it,” Chryst said. “I didn’t hang on one win or good performance for long or hang on a loss or bad performance.” Quarterbacks need to be vocal and command-ing while keeping an even keel during pressure situations. At school, Chryst may not come across as the talkative type, but on the gridiron he takes on a different personality when tasked with the job of commanding players. “He is asked to lead a group of guys who are mostly older than he is but he grasped that role very well and he never lost his composure,” Dra-zovich said. Despite the age discrepancy Drazovich allud-ed to, Chryst tries to keep it simple and lead by example. “I try to lead by setting an example, not just commanding people what to do,” Chryst said. Drazovich also attributes Chryst’s poise to why he will be a star in the future. “He’s methodical and he has a better work ethic than anybody,” Drazovich said. “He goes about doing his business without any distrac-tions, and he has that killer instinct.” What’s more, as an underclassman, Chryst feels like he still has the opportunity to improve his game. “I can improve my mental aspect of the game and become an even better leader,” he said. Chryst has proven to the coaching staff, team and the Paly community that he will be a force to be reckoned with for the years to come. <<<

athletesMALE KELLER CHRYST

yearof the Honorable Mentions

MALE:

FEMALE:Becca Raffel (‘14), Pippa Raffel (‘14)

Andrew Frick (‘14), Andrew Liang (‘14)

OIT’S IN HIS GENES Keller Chryst (‘14) finds an open man in a game against Mountain View. Chryst threw four touchdown passes in the 46-14 win.

MAY 2012 | 43



of the yearATHLETE

n April 18, something unprecedented happened in Paly’s swimming pool. In a 100 meter race, Ra-chel Acker (‘12) of Gunn High School beat Paly’s prospective Olympian

Jasmine Tosky (‘12). It was Tosky’s first loss in her four-year Paly swimming career, although it came in an event in which she typically does not compete. Staying true to her character, Tosky shrugged it off and continued to swim in her other events, winning every one of them. Every year, The Viking chooses an outstand-ing male and female athlete who have each positively impacted the Paly sports commu-nity. Of all the many phenomenal and deserv-ing athletes at Paly, The Viking selected Tosky as Female Athlete of the Year for her strong

work ethic and attitude, which enabled her to qualify for the 2012 Olympic trials. Even more than piling up points upon points for the Lady Vikes, Tosky has had a profound effect on the aspirations and goals of many lo-cal athletes. “It was kind of exciting to know that I was swimming in the same lane as Jasmine Tosky,” Isabella Richter, a young Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics (PASA) teammate of Tosky said. “I felt fast. It feels kind of fun to be on the same team with her and it’s kind of fun to sometimes show off for her.” It is not every year that Paly has a prospec-tive Olympic athlete on a varsity team. But its even more rare that that athlete has 12 out of the 13 possible swimming Olympic trial nominations, an amount topping even 13-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps’. Tosky’s accolades also include a national re-

cord time of 51.92 seconds in the 100 yard but-terfly. Additionally, Tosky has, in 2011 alone, won a silver medal in the 200 meter butterfly at the U.S. Nationals and a gold medal in the 4 by 200 meter freestyle at the World Cham-pionships. She also has comparable times in the 100 meter and 200 meter butterfly, as well as the 200 and 400 meter individual medley events. These accomplishments showcase her hard work and are part of the reason she de-serves the award. However, record-breaking times are not all that set Tosky apart. In addi-tion to being a nationally ranked athlete on the U.S. team, Tosky is an exemplary teammate. “She sets an example by hard work and per-severance, but also by leadership [and] friend-ship,” coach Danny Dye said. “She gets along with all the girls. She’s just a good role model.” Although Tosky has not attended many team practices due to private training for the 2012

JASMINE TOSKY

FEMALE

Awards

by ANNE HILDEBRAND photography by Alex Kershner design by Nora Rosati and Nina Kelty

O

MAY 2012 | 45

Summer Olympics, her close friendships with many of her teammates as well as her openness and kindness to everyone on the team, regard-less of their skill level, have made her a vital part of the team. “[Being on the Paly swim team] brought me closer to a bunch of friends,” Tosky said. “It gives me a lot of bonding time to fool around with friends. It’s a mental break and time to en-joy senior year.” Tosky also feels that her friends on both the PASA and Paly swim teams have helped her get to where she is today. “Friends, especially ones on PASA I’ve known for so long and created in my 10 years there [have helped me],” Tosky said. “People I [have] met have really changed who I am.” Furthermore, with this willing attitude and ability to inspire others through her hard work, Tosky has become a force to be reckoned with

both at Paly and the Olympic trials. “She has dreams and aspirations,” Dye said. “Being able to live them out, I mean, that’s what every athlete should strive for. Jasmine’s a great example at a high level of really being able to accomplish what you set your mind to.” Regardless of what the future holds, Tosky has already had an immense impact on the Paly community by inspiring other swimmers. “I don’t even notice I have that much of a role with people,” Tosky said. “I’m surprised. Maybe I’m humble, but I don’t see myself as special.” It is exactly this attitude that leads many younger athletes to aspire to follow in her footsteps, and a primary reason why Tosky de-serves to be Paly’s Female Athlete of the Year. “I’m going to try [to become an Olympian like Jasmine],” Richter said. “I don’t know if I’ll make it, but I hope so.” <<<

Honorable MentionsKimmie Flather (‘12)

Melanie Wade (‘12)Volleyball middle blocker Melanie Wade (‘12) had a team-high 27 kills in the State Championship game against Marymount High School.

Midfielder Kimmie Flather (‘12) had 38 goals, seven assists, 37 ground balls and an average of two goals per game on the nationally ranked girls’ lacrosse team.


ATHLETEMALE

of the year

B.J. BOYDn the first 10 seconds of the 2011-2012 Paly football season, B.J. Boyd (‘12) found the end zone. Using his blistering, 4.4-second 40-yard dash speed, Boyd took the open-ing kickoff 85 yards all the way past the San Benito High School defense. Three months and 25

touchdowns later, Boyd closed the season with another touchdown return and a touchdown reception against Bellarmine High School. As a two-sport varsity athlete, he con-tinued his standout performance on the baseball field. Not only does Boyd bring his undeniable talent to both sports, but he also brings his positive outlook. “He’s got a good attitude,” head base-ball coach Erick Raich said. “He’s fun and keeps things a little loose. Guys

like him [are] all you can really ask for.” As a vital component to the varsity football and baseball teams, Boyd inspired his team-mates with his constant effort. He manifests his raw talent and enthusiasm to achieve his full athletic potential, demonstrating his merit for the Male Athlete of the Year award and often serving as the motivating factor that sparked the rest of the football squad into action. “I started off with [kickoff re-turn], brought a couple touchdowns back to get the team going,” Boyd said. Boyd transferred from St. Francis High School as a sophomore, and once his eligibility as a Paly athlete was confirmed, he became a mem-ber of the varsity football team his junior year and earned a position as starting running back. “He didn’t start out like a gangbuster his junior year,” head coach Earl Hansen said. “But he got

used to what was going on and did a good job.” Boyd quickly became a key part of the of-fense and helped steer the team to a State Championship victory. This year he came close to doing it again, leading the team to its second consecutive Central Coast Sec-tion (CCS) Championship game against Bel-larmine. Despite the disappointing 41-13 loss for the Vikings, Boyd continued giv-ing his all and scored Paly’s only two touch-downs. He finished the season ranked first on the team with five kickoff returns for touchdowns, 11.5 points per game and 1,108 receiving yards according to MaxPreps. Along with his effort during the football team’s State Championship run, Boyd was also a contributing factor in the baseball team’s success last year. The team reached new heights in 2011, with Boyd scoring twice

Awards

photography by Scotty Baraby COLIN PATTERSON

Idesign by Nora Rosati and Nina Kelty

MAY 2012 | 47

Honorable Mentions

E.J. Floreal (‘13)

Kris Hoglund (‘12)Lacrosse attackman Kris Hoglund (‘12) came back from a broken leg he suffered last year and this season had 36 goals, 19 assists, 58 ground balls and scored an average of two goals per game.

E.J. Floreal (‘13) not only has top-five times in Califonia for the 100 and 200 meter sprints (as of May 22), but he is also a leader and dunking machine on the var-sity basketball team.

in Paly’s first ever CCS Championship game, and this year the baseball team went on to fin-ish the season as SCVAL co-champions and earned the No. 1 seed for the CCS playoffs. “He puts the [other] team on defense right off the bat being in the leadoff spot,” Raich said. On the baseball field, Boyd excels on both offense and defense. Hitting in the leadoff spot, he batted an impressive .507 with 13 runs batted in and 32 runs scored this season as of May 14. Not only has he been a force to be reckoned with in the batter’s box, but also on the bases, swiping over 25 bags this season. “B.J. is a really good offensive spark when we need a few runs,” teammate Jack Witte (‘12) said. “He tends to get rallies going be-cause he gets on base a lot and his speed kills. His speed is something we can utilize on the base paths to manufacture some runs.”

As Witte alluded to, Boyd’s speed is a key part of his game in both sports. From sprinting past defenders on the gridiron to stealing bases on the baseball diamond, his speed is beyond ordinary. However, Boyd understands that he will have to keep improving his baseball game to accomplish his goal of making it to the pro-fessional level, and he relishes any opportunity he gets to improve on this and anything else. “I got more experience when I went up to a thing called Area Codes in Los Angeles,” Boyd said. “It’s the top kids from California and all over the world and that got me going.” Area Code Baseball is a camp for gift-ed athletes who get specialized base-ball training and a chance to play on one of the teams created by scouts. Back at Paly, Boyd was able to implement these new skills and experiences into his game.

Hansen, who watche s all of the baseball games, has noticed Boyd’s formidable presence at bat. “He’s a threat every time he swings a bat and when he gets on base because he steals bases all over the place,” Hansen said. On the defensive side, Boyd has been an accomplished center fielder, prov-ing himself as a crucial outfield element who can be counted on to make plays. Following his high school career, Boyd hopes to make it through the draft and play pro ball for his favorite team, the Oakland Athletics. After coaching and working with him for two years, Raich is proud of Boyd’s progression. “From this year to last year, I’m just happy with how he’s grown up and matured,” Raich said. “I hope he continues to improve and get better, because that’s what it’s going to take for him to go a long ways in this game.” <<<


ALO

K S

UB

BAR

AOA

RU

N V

AR

MA

BY JOHN DICKERSON photography by Scotty Bara design by Michelle Friedlander

ach year, The Viking chooses one athlete to re-ceive the honorable Alok Subbarao award. The re-cipient must demonstrate the spirit of Alok, a for-mer cross-country run-ner who showed impec-

cable character and attitude both on and off the playing field. The award is only given when a qualified candidate exists. This year, the recipient of the Alok award is baseball player Arun Varma (‘12). To receive this award, an athlete does not necessarily need to be the best player on his or her team; instead he or she has to show outstanding character and spirit. Varma embodies this persona. Varma came to Paly with the hopes

of competing on the baseball team. How-ever, those hopes were quickly put on hold at the start of his high school career. He was cut from the junior var-sity baseball team during both his freshman and sophomore years. “I could not give up without a fight,” Varma said. “I was unwill-ing to let go of my beloved sport.” Getting cut was not easy, but coming back again was even harder for Varma. “I’m not going to lie - it hurt,” Varma said. “Rejection never feels good, no matter how you look at it. It took me some time to bounce back, but I learned to look forward and not back. Sophomore year was harder still, having already been cut the previous year. Honestly, I almost quit. But I didn’t give up. That’s one of the best lessons I

have learned from this whole experience.” While some athletes who were cut from the Paly baseball team never came back, Varma instead honed his skills by play-ing for Old Pro in the Palo Alto Babe Ruth League and the NorCal Bulldogs travel team. “I played on two teams both freshman and sophomore year and really got a lot of playing time,” Varma said. “That’s ex-actly what I needed, a shot to show I could play and a chance to get even better.” Although Varma is not an especially hard throwing pitcher, he came to try-outs his junior year determined to make the team. The hours of practice had paid off, and it showed. His command had im-proved, and he was an effective pitcher. “He is 18 years old, but he is like a crafty veteran, throwing off-speed stuff, keeping it

Awards

E

MAY 2012 | 49

LEFT Arun Varma (‘12) smiles for the camera after a practice during the 2012 baseball season. RIGHT Varma, a right handed pitcher, warms up before one of his games this season.

“Just because I wasn’t good enough initially wasn’t going to keep me from play-ing,” Varma said. “I also had a lot of people rooting for me, and it really meant a lot.”

low, and getting mostly ground balls hit,” assis-tant coach Dave Goldman said. “He is a smart kid, he is using his intelligence to pitch well.” Goldman spends a large amount of time working with the pitchers on the team and has had a chance to wit-ness Varma’s development firsthand. “I think [his progression] is incred-ible,” Goldman said. “It’s the result of per-severance, hard work, and dedication.” Varma saw time as a relief pitcher his junior year, and even got a win against Bellarmine High School towards the end of the regular season. “His hard work really translates to his per-formance on the field,” teammate Alec Wong

(‘12) said. “Without his work ethic he wouldn’t be where he is today as a baseball player.” Varma entered his senior season with higher expectations and a larger role than before. This season, he pitched a total of 13.1 innings, and had an earned run av-erage (ERA) of 3.15, despite missing roughly two weeks due to college visits.

Varma’s journey from being cut to being an important component of the Paly varsity baseball team is no small feat, but the fact that he did so with near perfect grades and a positive attitude is even more impressive. His high school grade point average is 4.0 unweighted, he is currently en-rolled in a plethora of advanced place-ment classes and he recently enrolled at Brown University in Rhode Island. Furthermore, Varma takes the term student-athlete very seriously. When asked by a team-mate if he would “trade A’s for B’s to make the team,” Varma responded with “of course not.” Even though he may not be making headlines

for baseball, Varma is noticed around campus. “Arun is an inspirational player and he makes the most out of everything he has through hard work and dedication,” for-mer teammate Will Glazier (‘11) said. “I have never seen a kid get cut twice but keep working at it, on top of all the other things he does, and the lack of sleep he gets.”

Varma’s attitude and dedication hold true to the character that Alok Subbaro showed. Varma was cut twice, but kept on trying. He did not let this setback affect his athletic or academic career in the long run. “Just because I wasn’t good enough ini-tially wasn’t going to keep me from play-ing,” Varma said. “I also had a lot of people rooting for me, and it really meant a lot.” He may be leaving Palo Alto in the fall, but Varma plans to take his extraordi-nary academic and athletic work ethic to Brown, where he hopes to compete for a roster spot on the baseball team

just as he did his freshman year at Paly. “I’m going to work on my pitching this summer and I’ll try out [in] the fall,” Varma said. “It’s a D-1 school, so it’s a long shot. But at this point, no matter what happens, I’ll be happy. These last years in varsity baseball have been some of the best of my life.” <<<

Annemarie Drez (‘14) powers her way past a St. Francis defender in the first round of the SCVAL playoffs on May 10. The Lady Vikes lost 20-9 just hours after learning that 2011 team cap-tain Emily Benatar (‘11) had died.

ZOOMPALYSTRONG

MAY 2012 | 51

Photo by Grant Shorin


or a sports team, there is nothing more sacred than de-fending the honor of its home field, and there are few feelings more demoralizing for athletes than walking off their home field after a loss. Members of

the Paly football team, like guard Tory Prati (‘12), thoroughly understand this concept. “There is an unwritten rule in sports that you don’t lose at home,” Prati said. The rest of the football team has taken on this mindset, and as a result, has not lost a game at home in over two years. Walking onto your home field on game day brings a certain sense of comfort that can greatly benefit a team. This “home field ad-vantage” is a combination of many factors,

both literal and psychological, which work together to build a certain confidence and swagger often felt by Paly athletes, includ-ing varsity soccer player Jordan Smith (‘13). Smith recognizes everything when playing at home: how the ball bounces when it hits the field, which way the wind swirls on the pitch and every idiosyncrasy the field contains. “My team and I are more familiar with our home field than the opposing team,” Smith said. The feeling of reassurance that Paly ath-letes receive from their knowledge of their own field can impact their attitude and ulti-mately influence the outcome of their games. The home field advantage often enters an athlete’s brain during a game, potentially giv-ing the player and team that extra boost of confidence they need to perform at their best.

Athletes also often feel motivated and encouraged by their fans, who play an es-sential role in inspiring momentum throughout the game. Moreover, fans con-tribute an added pressure to perform, which for some serves as added motivation. “You never want to give your home fans less than a victory,” Prati said. Throughout the season, this field becomes an athlete’s home. Every team forms a spe-cial bond with its home field; it’s where play-ers practice everyday, compete against other teams and occasionally make history. For varsity boys’ lacrosse player Walk-er Mees (‘13) and his teammates, the ad-vantage hits home because of historical ties: They became league champions on that field during their first year as a team.

F

BY JULIA FARINO photo by Grant Shorin

Just how important is “home field advantage” at the high school level? Paly athletes offer insight into its significance.

NoPlaceLikeHome

Feature Story

MAY 2012 | 53

“[The Paly field] has had a special feel to it ever since then,” Mees said. Paly teams feel the need to keep up their reputation at home, and play well to show that they deserve the field they play on. Athletes can let the psychology from the home field advantage make or break them, or they can chose to ignore it and play their best on any field. Paly athletes utilize their own home field advantage, but do not let that mindset inter-fere with their focus and emotions during the game, and instead use it to improve their play. “[Playing at home] can elevate the team’s play and demoralize the opponent,” var-sity basketball player Kenny Jones (‘13) said. Just as playing at home can have encour-aging factors for players, away games can weaken morale and make a team ner-

vous. Varsity lacrosse player Simone Bu-teau (‘13) compared the differences be-tween playing at home and playing away. “I like driving right to the game,” she said. “I get on the field, I do my thing with my teammates and it’s the same thing every time. With away games you have to get on the bus, do a forty-five minute drive and warm up somewhere else.” Many athletes feel there is a different vibe while playing on an opponent’s turf. Athletes can gain a little more energy walking into a new place and stepping onto an unfamiliar field, which often gives them the motivation to upset the home team and leave their mark on that field. Some teams, like the Castilleja lacrosse team, have no field to call their own. Because they have to play all games away at opponents’ fields, the girls do not get to experience the

coveted home field advantage, nor host a Se-nior Night to honor the seniors on the team, which can be disheartening to some players. “It is pretty tough [not having a home field], especially for lacrosse, because our only expe-rience on a full field is during games,” Castille-ja lacrosse player Martha Harding (‘12) said. Teams at Paly, however, have the oppor-tunity to build memories of grueling prac-tices, celebratory Senior Nights and criti-cal moments in games which all took place and helped shape them and their legacies. According to Mees, these ties combine to create individual mindsets that all share a communal sense of pride and can push an athlete forward. “I have a lot of memories on that field, and right when I walk on to it they all flood back,” Mees said. “It’s a powerful place.” <<<


Columns: Shannon Says

Shannon’s Laws BY SHANNON SCHEEL

FIELD OF DREAMS Shannon enjoys a final tender moment on the baseball field, taking in its wondrous sights.

Well Paly, here it is. Shan-non’s last col-umn ever. I just put “The Final Count-down” on via iTunes as I sat

myself down to write this. Oh, how the time goes... But I am not going to launch into some ridiculous rant about “how much I will miss this” and all that stuff that fills every Viking columnist’s final page (even though I will miss Paly and The Viking more than words can accurately express). No no, fair readers, I will not disappoint you. Because more impor-tant than my going away speech (as I think of it) are the memories we have shared together: as a school, as team-mates, as athletes. Which is why I feel it appropriate to give something back to the com-munity that I have so thoroughly en-joyed being a part of these past four years. Paly Vikings, you are the best athletes around and I feel privileged to have been called one of your own. So here’s the word on some advice that I wish I had known before stepping onto this campus as a wee (and decently dressed) underclassman: 1. If you are in the stands at a Paly football game...FOR GOODNESS SAKES, STAND UP IN THE STU-DENT SECTION. You are a student, and thus a fan. You go to the games to

CHEER. So, please. Do it. And if peo-ple tell you to sit down because they can’t see, stand on your tip toes. 2. It takes approximately 10 minutes to squeeze one’s body into a properly sized racing swimsuit...when you are dry. I don’t even want to know how long it’s going to take to shove myself into Jasmine Tosky’s (‘12) size 24 FS Pro after Central Coast Section (CCS) warm ups. So if you are wearing ANY sort of brand new athletic gear prior to a major competition...make sure you try it on beforehand and wiggle around a little to get the feel of it. 3. Heckling (within reason) at bas-ketball games is actually effective. The gym echoes and you might play your role as a fan if you squawk while the other team attempts to hit those free throws. 4. Powder puff is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. Just ask coach Tory Prati (‘12) and his coach-ing visor. Don’t be afraid to try out next year. Trust me, it is the best. Plus, senior year you get to wear the football player’s actual jerseys. 5. I admit, I made fun of the cheer-leaders. But I shouldn’t have, and you shouldn’t either. Have you tried doing one of their practices? Well, when you tear your groin trying to do splits in the air, come talk to me. Respect the cheerleaders. They are making up for the serious lack of spirit at this school. Which brings me to... 6. Don’t have high expectations for

getting your dream jersey number, freshmen. Especially if you are a var-sity letterwinner. You will get the slim pickings at the bottom of the heap, but view it as the opportunity to give that number an identity. I was initially “stuck” with number 14 for water polo but after three years, I’ve grown to love it. 7. Ladies, I have been a student at this school for four years. And I will say that, excluding various individu-als on the other male sports teams, the varsity baseball team as a whole, over the course of my years at Paly, takes the cake for hottest boys’ team on campus (basketball and lacrosse tie for second). So if you are looking for the cute ones, ladies, I’d hit up one of those three sports. (As I said above, there are individual exceptions to this, so no one get heated now.) 8. If you are pulled up to the CCS team for playoffs, it is easy to be in-timidated by the upperclassmen start-ers. Don’t be! You are the future of the sport, and they want to encourage you to play your best. So embrace your role as a varsity athlete and follow their lead. Well Paly, those are my final tidbits. I hope you’ve learned something new from one of The Viking family’s great-est (just kidding...I am far from it) and I wish you a prosperous next few years in your high school careers. Once a Vi-king, always a Viking. For the last time…Scheel is out. <<<


MAY 2012 | 55

cold sweat formed around my brows. A lone bead broke free and trickled down the side of my face. My breath-ing was nervous yet con-trolled. I lowered myself into position and moved my hand over my weapon of choice. My eyes locked on my prize… target acquired.

Thirty seconds until it was time to strike, I exhaled and got ready to pounce. Five seconds until show time. Every muscle in my body is tense. My nerves are on high alert, I have complete focus… I am in control. The clock strikes zero, with one swift move of the mouse I attack and secure my prize buck. I can hear the commissioner in my head… “With the first pick in the 2012 fan-tasy baseball draft, the Croatian Crushers (my fantasy baseball team) select Albert Pujols.” I jump up and run around the house like a ra-bid dog. My brother gets in the way of my vic-tory lap and is promptly run over. As my adren-aline rush subsides and my blood pressure returns to somewhat normal levels I return to my throne and ponder what has just occurred. This was my year. The baseball gods had spo-ken and their divine intervention had secured me the first overall pick in the draft. With that pick I had treated myself to a heaping, full serv-ing of the greatest player to step on a baseball diamond in the last decade. Albert Pujols has hit over 30 home runs in each of the last eleven seasons. In the off season he had transferred to sunny Los Angeles to play for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. This move to beautiful California and the $240 million contract he had signed would surely motivate him to have the best season of his career… or so I thought. Two months later, here I am sitting in front of my computer evaluating the first month of the baseball season and how my team has performed. I am sitting comfortably in ninth place out of 10 teams and 38.5 points be-hind the league leader. Obviously this is not optimal. However, to make matters worse, my marquis player, good ol’ Albert is hit-ting like a 12 year old facing Randy Johnson. As a matter of fact Pujols is playing so poor-ly that ESPN baseball insider, Tim Kurkjian, said that Pujols “has been the worst hitter in the American League throughout the first month of the season.” In 113 at-bats Pujols had not gone ya-ya once, the longest streak

of any power hitter in the history of the game. I am not going to pretend like I know what Pujols is going through. I’m sure there is a lot of pressure on him and walking around with $240 million in his back pocket has to be a terrifying experience. But, for the sake of the Croatian Crushers franchise I would really appreciate if he could turn it around a bit and put his wood to better use.

Finally, on a fateful day in May, my luck changed. Angels’ fans and disgruntled fan-tasy owners all over the world rejoiced. With one runner on a base on a mild Sunday after-noon, Pujols ended his drought and launchedthe ball into the deep left field bleachers. I found myself plopped down on my couch with a lone tear sliding down from my eye. Watching him trot around those bases felt better than waking up on Christmas morn-

ing. This is what I had been waiting for. With my team dangling by threads Pujols was able to give me a sense of security in one colossal swing of the bat. I don’t care if I looked like a teenage girl watching Titanic. It was a beautiful moment. My mom brought me a box of tissues and I cried to myself, soaking in the moment. For one fleeting second I thought this could be the change in luck that I had desperately been awaiting. With Pujols hitting again my team would ascend from the depths to be-come the dominant force it was destined to become. My whole team would receive the jolt of energy it would need to turn its sea-son around and take the league by storm. The sky was the limit and no that’s not hyper-bole because things could not get any worse. Unfortunately for my team and it’s unfor-tunate manager, Pujols has hit a total of two home runs since his initial bomb. This of-ficially makes him the most expensive show-piece in the history of baseball. Fans have booed him and analysts have criticized him, and yet none of it seems to be what he needs to start hitting again. Could we be witnessing the end of one of the most appreciable careers in modern base-ball? It’s very possible and at the moment it’s looking plausible. If Pujols does not turn it around quick, the Angels may have just pur-chased themselves a $240 million hunk of man meat... That can’t hit a baseball. <<<

The Last Word

BY SPENCER DRAZOVICH

FALLEN ANGEL Albert Pujols has been one of the worst hitters in the MLB this season, leading to the demise of my fantasy baseball team.

If Pujols doesn’t turn it around, the Angels may have purchased a $240 million hunk of

man meat.

Machinery Malfunctionphoto by Scotty Bara

If you are the parent of a young athlete, you may be concerned about the demands of their training, and you may worry about the potential for injury or permanent damage.

For over forty years, Palo Alto High School has trusted the sports medicine experts at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation - including current team physician Dr. Colin Eakin - to help its student athletes stay in the game.

The Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s Sports Medicine Department is nationally recognized for its non-surgical and surgical approaches to adolescent sports injuries. They are committed to helping young athletes prevent future injuries, and they’ll be the first to tell you when there is a better alternative to surgery.

Learn more about how your student athlete can stay in the game at pamf.org/sports.

Palo Alto CenterClark Building795 El Camino Real650-853-2943

Sports Medicine SpecialistsFrank Chen, M.D.Colin Eakin, M.D.Sally Harris, M.D., MPHWarren King, M.D.Amol Saxena, DPM

Sean Cutright, P.A.-CMelissa Fought, R.N., N.P.Laurel Greenfield, P.A.-CBeth Ogelvie, P.A.-C

pamf.org/sports

2011-2012 The Viking staff

Date post:	01-Mar-2016
Category:	Documents
Upload:	the-viking-magazine
View:	226 times
Download:	0 times

The Viking: Volume 5 Issue 6

Documents