SPORTS SCENE
It’s been an emotional last few weeks for some of our local highschool teams.
In Central Coast Section action, St. Francis’ gymnasts finishedsecond – again – to Gunn. Softballers from Los Altos, MountainView, Pinewood and St. Francis all dropped out in the early rounds.And Pinewood’s boys swung through to the championship match, butlost to Palo Alto.
Although everything was covered right here in these pages, Ihad to edit down some of the stories to fit the allotted space.So as a tribute to these athletes, and their coaches, they cannow have the final say on their performances this season:
At the gymnastics finals, the only way to spot the winners wasif they carried medals or trophies. In other words, all the athletesseemed happy just to be performing in front of the supportivecrowd – no matter what the outcome would be.
“We couldn’t expect any more, this was our best meet,”said St. Francis’ Nikki Vesanovic. “(Second place) is OK… we’ll get them next year.”
Los Altos also put on a show, finishing fourth – a notch higherthan last year. In the CCS gymnastics scholastic competition,the Eagles triumphed with a grade-point average of 3.5522.
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On the softball front, Los Altos’ loss to Carlmont in the quarterfinalsmay have seemed like a shocker, but the equally talented Scotsjust had the better day. And, being a never-say-die team, theEagles took the loss hard.
Following a lengthy meeting with Coach Bernie Quintero, seniorYma Garcia had the tough task of reflecting on Los Altos’ runfor a second straight CCS title: “My team’s a good team.We did our best and played smart ball. It’s been a real good experience.”
Over at Mountain View, the Spartans bore down defensively, butcouldn’t get their bats ringing in the quarterfinals. Still, CarlieWare was satisfied: “We’re a competitive team, an emotionalteam. The best thing is that we proved that we belong in the (SantaClara Valley Athletic League) De Anza and in CCS.”
It was a youth movement at St. Francis – which only had two seniors.Getting through to CCS was the Lancers’ goal this season, andCoach Barry Ivers knew they could accomplish it if they “jelledhard.” And next season should be just as exciting, withseniors-to-be Saskia Gazenbeek and Catherine Hallada slated ascaptains. “Those are two people who should get us all going,”Ivers said.
Pinewood will also be losing just two players to graduation -Jill Shapiro and Kari Burnett – and Coach Christy Eustice expectsher team to be even stronger next season.
As far as this season goes, Eustice said she couldn’t have askedfor a more enthusiastic crew. “When we won our first gameat the Modesto tournament, against a junior varsity team, youwould have thought we had won the World Series,” she laughed.
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Finally, from the notebook of Town Crier correspondent Pete Borello,Pinewood’s tennis program will be minus the services of CoachBill Shine, who will take over the helm at Menlo School in thefall.
“It’s not hard leaving the school,” Shine said, “butit’s hard leaving the kids. This is the greatest bunch of guysI’ve ever coached.”
Added team captain Cornell Wilder: “He’s the best coachI’ve ever had. He really knows the game.”
Andy Nystrom is the Town Crier Sports Editor.
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