Month: April 2017

By Phuong Nguyen

The PHHS Wrestling team gets ready to tackle the upcoming season by building up physical strength and maintaining a healthy diet.

“We try (to) get physically stronger so that during the season, we can maintain our strength rather than build (it) up,” said Co-Captain James Grier.

Three or four times a week, practices usually consist of one hour of drills, a half hour of technique and the final 30 minutes of live wrestling.

“Practices are really tough right now because Coach (Max Gonzalez) is trying to condition all of us so we don’t get tired during our matches. But it should get easier (as we practice more),” admitted varsity wrestler Jordan Palamino.

In addition to those practices, Co-Captain Isaiah Gonzalez receives private training to prepare for the upcoming season.

“(For me), I do private lessons at a local gym called Smash Gym,” revealed Gonzalez. “The coach that teaches me is actually the father of one (of) our wrestlers (who was a) four-time state finalist.”

Gonzalez and Grier feel that the practices are going well but there is always room for improvement.

The team finished its last season off with a record of 6-1. Its only loss was on Feb. 10, 2015 with a score of 37-33 against Sobrato High. Gonzalez hopes that his team members will maintain their record in the league after placing first in Beeli for BVAL (Blossom Valley Athletic League).

“Last year (was) a good season but I got a concussion after league finals so I wasn’t able to wrestle in CCS,” recalled Palamino. “My goal is to wrestle (at the weight class of) 115 by the end of the season and beat as many people ahead of me in the CCS rankings as I can.”

“I’m looking forward to (the) league finals and CCS because I’m hoping that I can outdo what I did last year,” said Grier.

The wrestling team’s first dual meet of this year’s season will be on Jan. 4, 2017 against Pioneer High School.

 

By Sophia Xiao

Last month, Boys’ Soccer kicked off with an exciting start to the season. While still in preseason, the team competed in the Christmas cup, a local tournament with a current score of 1-1-1. The team also played their first game that counted towards league this Monday with Saratoga High. The next league game is a home game this Wednesday against Independence High.
“These past 3-4 weeks, we (have had) preseason, so something Varsity’s doing new this year is the Christmas tournament,” explained sophomore Benjamin Calderon.
“We’re doing pretty well (in the Christmas Cup),” said Varsity member Rajguru Purewal. “The team is more structured. Overall, the team’s cooperation is doing a lot better this year.”
Varsity lost their final Christmas Cup game last Saturday with a score of 5-3.
With the regular season starting soon, the team had high hopes for themselves this year.

“I think the main goal for us would be to get out of C division, and for us to be winning the league,” said Varsity member Oscar Rodriguez.

In order to achieve their goals, they decided to focus their energy on gameplay.

“We’re not doing as much conditioning as we did last year, because we were really tired last year. We weren’t really playing with the ball that much. We weren’t practicing our strategies enough, so that may have led to how we performed last season,” elaborated Rodriguez.

Another thing the team worked on throughout practices was building chemistry with each other.

When asked about the importance of teamwork, Calderon replied, “Definitely, particularly in this sport. If you don’t talk a lot, you don’t communicate to your team, you could just end up kicking the ball around and never doing anything with it.”

The teamwork aspect of the game was also what many players loved about the sport.

“I’ve been playing it forever, and it’s fun,” recounted sophomore Saranjit Singh. “The coach really pushes you. (I like) just being out there on the field with my team.”

 

By Alyssa Gutierrez

 

Piedmont Hills Boys’ Varsity and JV Basketball teams swished into play this winter after Varsity became CCS (Central Coast Section) champions for the first time in the school’s history during their 2015-2016 season with a record of 21-7 overall and 10-4 in the league.  JV finished with a record of 5-6 overall and 2-4 in league, and the Freshman team finished with 12-1 overall.

Varsity players are eager to get back to CCS and take the title once again.

“It feels pretty good coming off a win from CCS last year; we’re just trying to repeat that this year.  It was the first time in the school’s history, so we’ve been working hard trying to reach that goal,” explained Senior Point Guard Goose Persin.  “I’m most excited for the games just to play, be in front of everyone and try to do what we do.”

The players are hard at work going through vigorous training in-season and during the off-season to try and improve their skills.  “We do a lot of conditioning like weight training and running.  We also scrimmage against other schools and go to different tournaments” smiled Senior Center Albert Mendoza. “This year, we went to Vegas over the summer.  We stayed for 3 days, and we got to know each other better.” The players who went to Vegas participated in a basketball tournament.

Varsity is also starting in a new league after moving up a division.

“(I’m excited) to see how our new league plays out.  I think it’s going to be really fun.  I’m hoping we have a lot more school participation, because it’s fun to come out and support your school team,” says Varsity Coach Mr. Peter Simos.

JV is looking to improve their skills.

“The only challenge we faced last year was chemistry amongst ourselves but we were able to fix that,” stated sophomore Point Guard Jorryn Amador.  “Some of us got pulled up for Varsity conditionings, so those who were pulled up have to bring that varsity tone back down to JV.”

The Freshman team is fresh out of middle school and hungry to play on a new and bigger stage.

“Middle school was not as serious as a high school team is.  We travel, have buses do fundraisers, and we also have to balance our grades with it,” said freshman Point Guard Kameron Navalta.

“It’s really important that they understand the commitment that we run at Piedmont Hills,” added Coach Simos to the freshmen who want to try out for the team.  “The program runs about 45 weeks a year and if they want to do it, it’s a commitment to not just being a good basketball player, but also being a good person.”

Varsity kicks off their season with an away game at Palma High School in Salinas on Wed., Nov. 30.   JV and Freshmen begin with a home game against Seaside High School next Tuesday.

 

By Trevor Glassey

Girls Soccer has kicked off the preseason strong currently holding a record of 2-1 for Varsity, and 2-1 for the JV team during its own preseason.  Coach Fred(dy) Espinoza hopes that the team can keep pushing and rank highly in CCS.

“We’ve shown a lot of promise in terms of progression,” explains Coach Freddy.

After losing nine Varsity players to graduation, the team needed to recruit the best players it could find to Varsity.  This need led to an unusual six freshmen on the Varsity team.

“Getting into Varsity wasn’t that hard,” says freshman Varsity Forward Emily Ramirez, “but I guess a lot of girls didn’t want to sign up.”

Despite that, the team performed quite well and has improved rapidly, with most of the improvement now needed on team chemistry according to Coach Steve Sellers.  However, team cohesion seemed to be building just fine.  According to Varsity player senior Cindy Reyes, the team already feels like it has connected like a family.  Hopefully, this cohesion truly come together and complete the team chemistry during their next game against San Benito.

Meanwhile, JV has also been doing well.  With the same preseason record against the same schools as Varsity, they look poised to also place highly in their league. JV Coach Joey Jaramillo has been proud of their performance, especially their 1-0 loss against Presentation High School on Thurs., Dec. 4.

“Presentation is an excellent team, so to lose to them just 1-0 is a victory in itself,” asserts Coach Joey.

According to Coach Joey, the JV team has excellent discipline on ball possession and a good sense of tactics.  He believes if they get better at touching the ball, they could place third or second in their league.