October 8, 2004

Evergreen Sports

EVHS Cougars win first league game

Older, more experienced team matches last year’s win record

The Cougars come up with a big play, tackling number 19, to prevent a possible touchdown. Photo by Dave Bouvier for Dabstudios.

By Jeffrey Lo
Times Intern

The Evergreen Valley High School Cougar football team played their first league game at Prospect High School on Oct. 1, and extraordinary performances from halfback Joe Duran and defensive lineman Patrick Tavares led the Cougars to a 26-7 victory.

Duran turned in two key momentum shifting touchdown runs in the third quarter. Tavares made two incredible sacks for the defense. “We worked real hard at practice and our effort paid of,” said Tavares.

Welcome win after preseason losses
After their 1-3 start in the preseason games, two of which were one-sided loses, the Cougars were motivated to come back and win in their first league game of the season.

Linebacker Elden Vien said, “The [preseason] losses just meant that we had to pick it up last week. We have won and lost before, so there was nothing else for us to do but to play our hardest.”

Head coach Dee Quinet didn’t let the losses get him down. “The preseason really prepared us for our league games. We played really good A league teams that helped us get ready to play the teams in our league. Our great coaching staff took the losses and built on them.”

Halfback Justin Sagisi, who scored the first home touchdown of the preseason against the Irvington (Fremont) Vikings, added, “Everyone thinks that we are a joke because we’re new. We work hard every day just to prove them wrong and to show them what we can do on the field.”

First year of senior players
The impressive victory over Prospect High fired up the Cougar football team for the new season and eased the pain of last year’s less-than-stellar record of only one win.

Young players unable to play on a home field for the entire season handicapped Evergreen Valley’s first two years of football. This year is the first time that the team includes seniors who had a home field to play on since the start of the season.

“We have a great team this year, we’re tough and we never give up,” said tight end Jay Archie. “We work hard at practice as well as games.”

Loyal fans, great band
Home games at the sparkling new EVHS football field are proving to be a truly great experience with the EVHS marching band on the sidelines during the game, a performance by the musicians during the halftime show and cheerleaders rallying the fans to support their team.

The first home games packed the stands with a large fan base anxious to help to motivate the Cougars on the gridiron.

“It’s great having games at home,” said Elizabeth Burns, varsity cheerleading captain.

“The lights, the band and the excitement really make for a professional atmosphere at the games.”

If you want to support the Cougars and check out the new field, the next home game at EVHS is Oct. 22 at 7 p.m., pitting the Cougars against Yerba Buena High School.

NYS Evergreen team #952 ends undefeated season

Evergreen Team #952, a coed basketball team in National Youth Sports (NYS), ended the summer season undefeated. Competing twice against five teams in the Bay Area, all players received equal playing time.

“This group of kids practiced twice a week and was awesome on the court. They took the game seriously and played by the rules, ” said volunteer Coach Mary Rodriguez of the 10 to 12-year-old boys and girls on her team.

“My motto is, ‘Believe in yourself and you will succeed,’ ” she added.

The National Youth Sports (NYS) just completed its first full year in Santa Clara County and is now accepting registration for the fall season, which begins Oct. 30. NYS offers a variety of sports including basketball, soccer, flag football, cheerleading and T-ball for a $75 registration fee. The league provides all the equipment, fields and facilities, shirts and referees.

For more information or to register online, go to the Web at: http://www.nationalyouthsports.biz.

Mt. Hamilton Youth Soccer League highlights

Ever since hundreds of young soccer players circled the field with their coaches on Opening Day, Sept. 11, it’s been a busy season for the Mt. Hamilton Youth Soccer League. In addition to weekly practices and games, several teams have been entering and winning competitions.

The SJSC Inter U14 Boys Class 1 team, coached by Jasbinder “Jazz” Bhoot, president of the MHYSL, took the championship for Norcal Premier.  They also won first place in Ballastic Cup and Silicon Valley Cup, as well as third place in the California Cup. SJSC Inter is now one of the top five teams in Northern California and will be participating in one of the top U.S. tournaments—the Nomads Tournament—in San Diego.

The Mt. Hamilton Lobitos U15 Boys Class 1 again won the State Cup for the 2003-04 season, winning this honor for two years in a row, quite an achievement. The Lobitos also won the District II Cup for the 2004-05 Season on Oct. 2-3.

The Innovators - U14 Boys Class 4, coached by Bryan Fish, took second place in District II Cup for the 2004-05 Season, for the second year in a row. “It was an exciting weekend for us,” said Fish. 

“In addition to playing in the tournament, MHYSL ended up hosting the tournament at the last minute because the district was going to cancel it due to a lack of fields,” he continued. “I intervened 10 days before we were supposed to play as soon as I found out about the cancellation, and we put it together in record time, playing the tournament at Matsumoto Elementary School. I must also say thanks to fellow board member Hilario Venagas for all of his help running the tournament.”

Fish coached a new team this year, having lost all but four players from last year’s team due to age requirements. “We played four matches, two Saturday and two Sunday. On Saturday, we won both games, 1-0 and 3-2, and then again Sunday morning in a great match, coming from behind at half time 0-1, to a 2-1 victory. 

“This put us in the championship game, but we were spent after a tough, both physically and mentally, morning match and we just could not get the job done, losing to a very good West Valley team, Thunder.

Fundraiser brings in $6,333
The league met its objective of raising enough money to replace all of its heavy, steel bars with safer, lightweight aluminum goals. The total amount of money raised as of Oct. 6 was $6,333.

“On behalf of Mt. Hamilton Youth Soccer League, I would like to thank each and every one of you for participating in this very worthwhile fundraiser,” said Lisa Davidson, MHYSL secretary who coordinated the fundraiser.

“YOU DID IT! It is because of every single donation great or small that we have met our goal of being able to purchase all new light-weight aluminum soccer goals,” she continued. “Thank you very much! We are inspired and grateful for your incredible generosity.”

Bhoot stressed that all the coaches did a fantastic job. “I think a special thanks is due to Lisa. This was her concept and she saw it through to completion,” added Bhoot.

“We are certainly very excited with the new goals, and all of the kids will get to enjoy them this season.  We will have them on the fields in the next two weeks. Everybody in the league is a winner, however, we had to select two
teams that will get DVDs made of their teams and they are:

- U14 Boys Innovators - Coach Bryan Fish (Raised $825)
- U12 Girls Velocity - Coach Rik Thorbecke ($400)

All of the teams that participated will be posted on the Mt. Hamilton Web site at www.mhysl.org in the next few weeks.

Cevalo Riding Academy’s ‘Mares in Motion’ win state championships

Cevalo Riding Academy’s quadrille team Mares in Motion won the introductory division in the California Quadrille Association’s State Championship show. Quadrille, a synchronized performance by a team of four riders and horses, is a relatively recent addition to the competitive equestrian sports.

The show in Paso Robles, Calif., on Sept. 11 and 12 capped off a successful debut season for the team, including Marguerite Michels on her thoroughbred mare CJ, Dena Whipple on her thoroughbred gelding Dancing Jack Ruhls, Alissa Brandes on the thoroughbred gelding Run Son Run and Deb Adair on the Icelandic gelding Thor’s Thunder.

An outstanding musical freestyle performance on the final day of the show clinched the title. “We were in third place after Saturday’s compulsories, but the scores were close,” recalled Michels. “We knew a solid freestyle ride could move us up, so we went out and gave it our best. As soon as we finished, we knew we’d ridden our test well and were hopeful that it was enough to move us into second place.” 

In the end, they did well enough to move the team into first. “Diana’s choreography really showed off our strengths, and it turned out that some of our moves were more difficult than what the other intro teams were doing,” said Adair.

“The horses were just awesome, too—the other teams had some problems with their horses during their freestyle routines, but by Sunday, our four were comfortable with the surroundings and ready to work,” she added.

Although they’ve ridden together for years, this was the team’s first year competing, and at times it was a challenge just to keep the team together. Brandes’ horse Christopher had to sit out the entire season due to an injury, and Michels had to have knee surgery halfway through.

Along the way, Adair had to switch horses several times after her own horse couldn’t settle into the routine. One of Cevalo’s school horses, Norskidoll, stepped in as Adair’s mount in late spring, but “Dolly” was keeping a big secret—she gave birth to a beautiful little filly named Freya this past July.

Adair finished out the season with Thor’s Thunder—affectionately known as Wyck. An Icelandic gelding with a long flowing mane and tail, Wyck might not have the long legs and lean look of the thoroughbreds, but he has no trouble setting the pace for the team.

Adair says that “Wyck had a real fan club at the championships and seemed to enjoy all of the attention. The team was really fortunate that we could borrow horses to get us to the championships—otherwise we wouldn’t have had a team!” Wyck is owned by Cevalo board member Nancy Acton and Son (Run Son Run) is owned by member Jennifer Hernandez.

After state championships, Mares In Motion will be performing locally during Cevalo Riding Academy’s fall schooling show. For more information, visit Cevalo’s Web site at www.cevaloridingacademy.org or call 408-227-3529.