April 22, 2005

Evergreen Sports

Evergreen Valley tennis steamrolls ahead in 5-2 win over Mt. Pleasant

Win keeps Cougars in first-place tie with Leigh in Santa Teresa Division

By Diego Abeloos
Sports Writer

An April 12 boys’ tennis match-up between the Evergreen Valley Cougars and the Mt. Pleasant Cardinals featured two high school teams headed in polar opposite directions.

No. 1 Evergreen doubles player Daniel Chu (partner Khanh Ngo not pictured) gets ready to return a ball during a 6-2, 6-3 win against Mt. Pleasant’s Ben Payne and David Nguyen. Photos by Diego Abeloos

The Evergreen Cougars came into the match with a 4-1 record in the Santa Teresa Division and were tied for the top spot in the division with Leigh. Mt. Pleasant, on the other hand, came in with a 1-5-league record with a team consisting mostly of underclassmen.

So, it came as little surprise that the Cougars pulled out a 5-2 win over the Cardinals at Evergreen Valley High.

“This is a good win for us,” said Evergreen Valley Head Coach Scott Sachs. “This is the second time we’ve played Mt. Pleasant [in 2005]. The first time we played them it was neck-and-neck. This time, it looks like we’ve improved a little more than they have.”

The last time the two teams met on March 17, Mt. Pleasant gave Evergreen all it could handle in a tight 4-3 win for the Cougars.

In that contest, Evergreen’s No. 1 singles player, Niles Parungao, lost a close 6-0, 0-6, 10-8 match to Mt. Pleasant’s Jimmy Nguyen. This time around, it was Parungao who came out on top, defeating his Mt. Pleasant counterpart in straight sets with a 6-4, 7-5 score.

“Ever since we played them the first time, I’ve been training a lot and trying to get myself hyped up for the next match,” Parungao said.

After taking the first set 6-4, Parungao struggled in the early portion of his second set, finding himself down 5-2. Parungao then battled back, taking the next five matches to pull out an improbable victory.

“I’m real proud of him,” Sachs said of Parungao. “He came back and actually won five straight games to beat his opponent 7-5. He didn’t drop a game and just came back and won five straight. My hat’s off to Niles. He works hard.”

Evergreen Valley’s win was decided fairly early, picking up four points from the start with wins in No.1 and No. 4 singles as well as No.1 and No.2 doubles.

In addition to Parungao’s early win, Evergreen No. 4 singles player Chris Tran defeated Mt. Pleasant’s Mark Tong handily with a straight-set 6-2, 6-2 win.

“When is Chris is on, he’s pretty much unstoppable,” Sachs said of Tran. “…Chris was on today. He’s got a real powerful serve, that’s his weapon. He likes the drop shot a lot so whatever he was doing, he was on. He found his groove early.”

In doubles action, Evergreen’s No. 1 duo of Khanh Ngo and Daniel Chu took care of things early as well with a convincing 6-2, 6-3 win against Mt. Pleasant’s Ben Payne and David Nguyen to remain undefeated as a pair in the league. The Cougars’ No. 2 doubles team of Derek Nguyen and Henry Luu also pulled out a win, albeit a slightly closer one with a score of 6-3, 6-4.

The one bright spot for the Cardinals came in the No. 3 singles match-up of the day, pitting Evergreen’s Ashi Batchu against Mt. Pleasant’s David La. After Batchu took the first set with a 6-4 score, La battled back, taking the second set with a tidy 6-3 score. In the third set, La continued his pace by taking a small 4-3 edge before pulling out a 6-3 win in to give Mt. Pleasant it’s first match of the day.

“He’s a first-year player and he’s really developed,” said Mt. Pleasant Head Coach Lou Padilla of La. “He’s very steady and at that position, that’s what you need to be in order to be successful. You don’t need to have an all-court game, you just need to be steady.”

The win didn’t change the overall outcome of things however. Evergreen’s 5-2 win kept the Cougars (5-1) in a first-place tie with Leigh, while Mt. Pleasant continued to struggle, dropping to 1-6 in league.

“It’s been difficult but they’ve gotten better,” Padilla said of his young squad, which won its’ only league match against Branham earlier this season. “It just hurts when you can be competitive and not win.”

Sports Briefs

Citywide youth track meet at Evergreen Valley May 22
A free track and field meet for boys and girls ages 9 to14 will be held on Sunday, May 22 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Evergreen Valley High School track, 3300 Quimby Road.

Sponsored by the city of San Jose, department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services and the San Jose Police Amateur Athletic Association, the meet includes track events such as the 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 meter runs, and 4 x 100 meter relay.

Field events include the standing long jump and softball throw. Group one is for athletes born between 1995 – 1996; group two is for athletes born between 1993 – 1994; and group three is for athletes born between 1991 – 1992.

The event is a qualifier meet for the Nor Cal Hershey State Track and Field Meet held on Saturday, June 18, at San Jose City College, and is a stop on the road to the National Meet in Hershey, Pa.

Implemented in 1975 as a playground track and field meet, the Hershey Youth Program has become the largest youth sports program of its kind in North America. About 400,000 children participate in the program annually, representing more than 3,000 communities across the country.

Pre-registration is encouraged but not required. For more information and registration forms, call the Citywide Sports Office at (408) 369-3900. Registration will also be accepted on the day of the event between 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.


Silicon Valley Football Classic not renewed for 2005
The Silicon Valley Football Classic, the bowl game held annually at San Jose’s Spartan Stadium, was not re-licensed for the 2005 season.

Last year’s game, which saw Northern Illinois defeat Troy State 34 – 21 in the fifth annual SVFC, has been classified as “The Perfect Storm.” SVFC officials battled a number of immense challenges, including South Carolina and Clemson’s withdrawals from the eligible bowl contingent, which left the 28 existing bowls with only 57 bowl-eligible teams.

Next, SVFC’s local conference partners, the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) and Pac-10, could not provide bowl-eligible teams, and the match up of two at-large teams unfamiliar to the local market didn’t help. The tumultuous rain drove away attendees on game day, and finally, a stream of negative press leading up to bowl week, all strongly impacted the SVFC 2004 game.

“We are truly disappointed in the NCAA’s decision to deny the Silicon Valley Football Classic a 2005 season,” said Chris Hutchins, executive director of the SVFC. “Our executive committee worked tirelessly over the last several weeks to present the NCAA with the positive and successful results associated with the Bowl. We were 100 percent committed to building upon last year’s successes, but unfortunately, attendance criteria became the deciding factor.”

During the last five years, the SVFC has made a direct economic impact to the city of San Jose, generating more than $32 million during one of the slowest tourism weeks of the year.

“Since the first, the Silicon Valley Football Classic has contributed greatly to our community with significant economic, community and downtown benefits,” said San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales. “I appreciate all the hard work from so many people over the years to create what we all expected to become an outstanding San Jose tradition.”

In addition to its economic impact, the SVFC invested and gave back to the community. Last year, the SVFC teamed up with the After-School All-Stars of Greater San Jose, its official charity partner, to host its first-ever Team Community Day. The SVFC was recently able to reaffirm its commitment to the community by presenting ASAS-GSJ with a $10,000 donation early this year.

LeyVa boys’ volleyball reaches new peaks

Team of inexperienced players reaches finals for first time in school’s history

By Diego Abeloos
Sports Writer

Once Annie Williams agreed to take on the task of coaching LeyVa Middle School’s boys’ volleyball team, she erased the apprehension that initially crossed her mind.

Williams, who also teaches social studies at LeyVa, had had only coached girls’ volleyball teams. Nevertheless, she agreed to the challenge of coaching a boys’ team that had no prior experience in competitive volleyball. How quickly a winning season can change a person’s mind.

Given a group of mostly eighth graders, Williams began from scratch, teaching 13 boys the fundamentals and techniques often used in competitive volleyball. The result after a season of hard work was a 6-1 regular-season record in the Santa Clara County North Valley League for the LeyVa Bulldogs and a trip to the league’s playoff finals.

Very proud
“I’m very proud,” Williams said of her team. “I was apprehensive when asked to coach the boys. I didn’t know what to expect, but they were patient enough to take the steps that it took to build a real team and play real volleyball.”

While Williams was nervous with her new coaching venture the boys were equally apprehensive. Many had played volleyball in their physical education classes, but none had ever played volleyball on a team. That changed once the team got comfortable not only with each other, but also with their new sport.

“In the beginning we were a little shaky and nervous,” said team captain Benny Nava. “But toward the end, we weren’t nervous anymore and we came together as a team.”

Competing in a league with other schools from the Evergreen School District as well as schools from districts in Milpitas and San Jose, the Bulldogs started the season with two straight wins before dropping their only regular-season loss to Mathson Middle School.

The regular season served as a learning process for both players and coach. While things tended to be touch-and-go at the start, the team started gelling in practice and soon reflected in the team’s performance on the court during games.

Better than average
Williams realized early on that her team wasn’t just a run-of-the-mill squad. From that point on, the Bulldogs won four straight to end the regular season and continued to win in the playoffs, taking an April 5 first-round game over Herman and a second-round game over Mercy on April 6 to reach the finals.

“About midway through the season when we started winning, I knew we had something special,” Williams said. “At first I would’ve never thought it. I was still trying to figure out the starting lineup.”

Despite losing in the finals to Ocala, a team the Bulldogs beat during the regular season, Williams and the team view the season as a success, considering this was the first boys’ volleyball squad in school history to reach the finals.

“They were really upset,” Williams said of the loss to Ocala. “They weren’t bad sports about it, but they knew they could’ve won … we did put up a good fight.”

While the accolades of a winning season were well deserved, the results didn’t come without hard work. Williams listed the team’s athleticism, mental toughness and team bonding as the three main ingredients to a successful season. Those sentiments are found in the players on the team as well.

Played with heart
“I think one of the greatest ingredients to our volleyball team’s success was our heart,” said Tristan Brown, the only seventh-grade starter on the squad. “Ms. Williams was the greatest coach a player could have, and she really encouraged us and gave us the heart we needed to win every game. Another thing was our teamwork. You can’t play volleyball without teamwork, and we showed a lot of that.”

Williams is already eyeing next season cautiously, and with good reason.

With financial woes saddling the Evergreen School District, the future of after-school sports remains in doubt. LeyVa has already experienced the downfalls of these troubles. After fielding separate teams for seventh and eighth graders in both boys’ and girls’ volleyball in previous years, the school is now forced to field single teams for both boys and girls in the sport.

That means it’s waiting for many sixth and seventh grade students who desire to play, yet end up watching older and more experienced students get playing time until they reach their final year of middle school.

“As far as the future of it, I hope they can continue with volleyball for boys and girls,” Williams said. “It would be devastating if they didn’t.”

Chaboya girls’ soccer wins back-to-back championships

By Dan Larot
Special to the Times

The Chaboya Middle School girls’ soccer team once again proved that it was the best team in the section, racing through the regular season undefeated and stepping it up a notch in the playoffs to defend their title and win a second consecutive championship.

All season long, Chaboya dominated games on both sides of the ball, scoring 44 goals and giving up only five.

Chaboya never trailed in any of its games.

Eighth graders Kim McComas and Meiying Lam anchored an outstanding defense. Teammates Alex Roberts, Sarah Glovin and Danielle Seto all worked together to keep the ball away from the net. Ashley Travaglione led a talented group of players controlling the midfield.

Alaina Thomas, Jacky Zuniga and Hali DePrima all helped to maintain field position and push the ball up to the forwards. Offensively, Raylene Larot, Lia Randazzo and Vanessa Jimenez benefited from such great team effort that Chaboya averaged four goals per game.

In the first round of playoffs, Chaboya traveled to North San Jose to play against Sierramont Middle School from the Berryessa Union School District. The score was 2 – 0 Chaboya at the half, and Chaboya put the game away with two more goals in the second half to win 4 – 1. Larot led the attack with a hat trick, and Randazzo netted the other.

In the semifinals, Chaboya met Ocala Middle School and came away with a 3 – 1 victory over the Alum Rock Union School District team. Travaglione connected for one goal and Larot scored the other two.

In the championship game, Chaboya had a rematch with Bret Harte from the San Jose Unified School District. In the regular season, Bret Harte tied Chaboya 2 – 2, the only blemish on Chaboya’s record.

Attempting to counter Chaboya’s soccer skill, Bret Harte came out playing a physical type of soccer. It was working for them as the half ended 0-0. However, one too many fouls finally caught up with them and gave Chaboya a direct kick 30 yards out from the left side.

With the wind blowing from side to side and a championship riding on her right foot, Travaglione sent a high-arching ball far over the goalie’s outstretched hands for the game winner. It was a tremendous shot and a great way to complete the season.

Without a doubt, Coach Ruby Carino was extremely pleased with the season. “It’s been an honor to work with such a talented and enthusiastic group of young ladies. The Class of 2005 will truly be missed; their contributions toward this program have set a high standard for years to come.”

Carino credits much of their success to the athletes. “We are very lucky at Chaboya to get student athletes who are already playing at the highest levels of soccer, including Class One teams and even at the ODP level.”

Travaglione, McComas, Lam, Roberts and Larot, for example, have been playing soccer since U8 and/or played on the same Mt Hamilton teams.

As a second year coach, Carino has an impressive record of 22 wins and one tie while guiding Chaboya to two section championships. Several of the eighth graders share the achievement with her of not losing a game in two years.

Carino graduated from Chaboya in 1992 and played on a coed soccer team in the eighth grade. Carino is also a graduate of Santa Clara University and was a center-midfielder for the Broncos soccer team. She now teaches math at Chaboya.

Looking forward to next year, half the team will be coming back and a “three-peat” looks possible.

Chaboya girl’s soccer statistics
Overall record: 10-0-1
Overall goals for: 44
Overall goals against: 5
Top scorers: Raylene Larot (14 goals); Ashley Travaglione (7 goals); Alaina Thomas (6 goals)
Keeper Danielle Seto: 23 saves