SportsWrap Fall 2009

A few weeks prior to the writing fall’s SportsWrap, Director of Athletics Rich Mazzola gave a TOADTalk at Monday morning’s Assembly. His intention in it was “to focus on the palpable energy and unity of spirit that everyone can experience when they come together for certain events.” He encouraged everyone in the Thacher community to get their best, most cheer-full selves to the volleyball and football teams' first round playoff contests. The stomping, hollering crowds those days proved the effectiveness of Rich’s exhortation.

 

Here’s a snippet from that talk, after which follow a few specifics from each team’s fall season.

 

Note: CIF = California Interscholastic Federation

 

The metronomic thwup-thwup-thwup-thwup of running shoes hitting pavement filled virtually every 3:30-5:15 this fall—the 27-lads-strong boys cross country team on their afternoon workouts. Coached by Fred Coleman and Mike McGowan and captained by seniors Joel Reimer and Alex Macmillan, the Condor League Championship squad emerged at or near the top of each important competition: they won all three Condor League meets, snagged third at the Brentwood Invitational, placed 2nd in the Southern Section, and a stunning 4th in the State of California. “This was probably the best team in Thacher cross country history,” said Coach Derf, comparing the course and times against the 1988 team that also took 4th in the State championships. Senior leadership was ably provided by Captains Reimer (Most Valuable, with junior Will Callan) and Macmillan (Most Improved Veteran with junior Will Rutter, and, with Joel, Most Inspirational), Max Hoffman, Most Improved First Year Runner Nick Kohli, Javier Quiroz, Tim Reed, and Jackson Berler. Elected as the 2010 Team Captain: Will Callan.

 

Derf’s comments on the dream season:

More runners logged more miles during the crucial summer training period than ever before. Twelve boys qualified for early camp and eight attended, four choosing to remain with their families and train at home during that highly valued last week of summer. Our first significant test came at Midland School where the boys won the initial Condor League Meet (by ten points over 2nd place Midland) despite the absence of five of our top seven runners due to flu. This result was an early indication of the amazing depth of quality on this team.

 

Just three days later, we traveled to the Brentwood Invitational and placed 3rd in a strong field of eighteen teams, some from higher divisions. The following Wednesday, the boys took the 2nd League Meet at Cate by a huge 39-point margin over Midland, who was again runner-up. Although our sick boys had returned, they had trained for only three or four days and were not in top form. At this point it became apparent that we were more than deep; we were good.

 

Following two weeks of uninterrupted training our top seven varsity runners were the fifth best Division 5 team at the famous Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) Invitational, the largest cross country invitational in the land. They gained valuable experience on the course that is the site of both the Southern Section Prelims and Finals.

 

On November 4 at Dunn the boys secured their third consecutive Condor League Championship with a dominating performance that saw eight Thacher runners finish in the top eleven. The top seven varsity runners qualified for post-season competition as individuals!

 

Then on to the post-season: At the Southern Section Prelims, the boys ran extraordinarily well, placing 2nd in our heat (behind defending four time State Champion Woodcrest Christian) and posting the 2nd best time in all three heats. This qualified us for the sectional finals where, the following Saturday the boys ran true to form, placing 2nd in the Southern Section and earning an invitation to Fresno for the third consecutive year. Then, on 28 November the boys placed 4th at the California State Championships. This equaled the final standing of the 1988 boys team’s, but it should be noted that 2009 was a much faster race than 1988. The order of finish at the State meet was:

 

#1 Will Callan 16:15

#2 Joel Reimer 16:37

#3 Nick Kohli 17:18

#4 Alex Macmillan 17:23

#5 Javier Quiroz 17:34

#6 Carson Land 17:36

#7 Jesse Gonzalez 17:40

Note: This was a 5K (3.11 miles), flat course. For an approximation of a flat three-mile time, subtract about 40 seconds.

 

Counterpoint to the rhythm of the big boy-feet were those in the shoes of what Coach Theana Snyder called “a small but mighty team.” Captains Kelly Timmes and Sarah Boneysteele (two of the three seniors, Brianna Bohnett being the third) led the way to the team’s taking 2nd place in the Condor League and ensuring their eligibility to participate in the CIF-Southern Section preliminaries. There, Most Valuable Runner Jasmynn Roman “ran quite well,” according to her coach. “Though she didn’t move on in post-season, she’s the first freshmen in a very long time to qualify as an individual. She improved her time on the same course by about a minute and a half!” Promising future there? We think so.) Coach Snyder’s report continued, “With four regular runners and three freshmen who joined us when they weren’t riding, we didn’t have the largest team, but we certainly performed quite well considering our size. Jasmynn Roman had a stellar first season, finishing 2nd and 3rd in the last two Condor League meets. Freshmen Hutton Becker and Brittany Holden also contributed to our success. All of the seniors made huge strides over the course of the season [every pun intended1]; in some cases, they improved their time by five minutes!” Earning their teammates’ votes for Most Improved were those comprising the senior triumvirate: Brianna, Sarah and Kelly. As for Most inspirational—“the whole team!” smiled Theana.

This fall offering, with choreographer and dancer Gallia Vickery setting the barre high, includes classes in ballet, modern dance and occasionally jazz. The ongoing focus is on strengthening and stretching exercises, alignment and turnout, and techniques for jumping, turning and floor work. They learn, as the weeks progress, longer and longer combinations of steps. This fall, Ms. Vic (undaunted by a challenge even of this magnitude) opened the door to 19 dancers from rank beginner “to a few of the best dancers we’ve had in my time at Thacher.” The season wrapped with a special West African Dance workshop with Lisa Beck and live music provided by four drummers—a thundering good time. Senior Lauira Ammons won her peers’ praise as Most Inspirational Dancer. Most Improved Experienced Dancers were senior Sam Meyer, and juniors Francesca Fataar and Leeah Stickelmaier, while Most Improved New-to-Dance Dancers were Eva Batalla-Mann and Cassie Disner. Senior Jane Fisher was named Best Turner; Valorie Denton-Moore Best Jumper. Other seniors included Eunice Ruiz, Sarae Snyder, and Trudy Park.

This team started working out in the pale light of dawn in late August (temperatures being what they typically are late summer) and finished in the 50-degree chill of late November, taking their skills and determination all the way to the CIF semi-finals. Coaches Hooper, Snyder, Omansiek, and Tony Franco effectively linked arms with Captains Austin Krause, Kyle Dietrich, and Morgan Krey (all seniors) to lead the team to a fourth Condor League Championship in five years—they were undefeated—and a season record of 9-2. Other seniors contributing to the effort’s success: Sebastian Schell, Will Waste, Tom Kim, Emmanuel Camarillo, Cole Ryder, Brandon Tate, Evan Praetorius, Mark Whitley, Nick Hwang, Trent Holden, Sean Ongley, Stephen Yih, and Casey Wyman.

Although they lost in that semifinal game against Santa Clarita Christian, the boys hung up their pads with earned satisfaction. Highlights, quoth Coach Hoop, “included capturing that fourth Condor League Championship in five tries with a 42-34 win at Cate (having come back from a 28-0 deficit) and winning our first two playoff games by combined score of 150-46.” Notable players: MVP Austin Krause, who threw for 19 touchdowns and ran for 15; Cole Ryder, who ran for 17 and caught 7 TDs; Kyle Dietrich, who led defense with 75 tackles; Morgan Krey, who anchored line; and Will Waste and Casey Wyman, who combined for 11 receiving TDs. Other end-of-season awards: Most Improved Player was Kyle Montes; Most Inspirational, Kyle Dietrich and Sebastian Schell.

By the time November came ‘round, the JV gridiron gang, which included a record 14 freshmen, had put together a season record to be proud of: 4-1 (and 2-0 in the Condor League). Captained by MVP/Offensive MVP Chris Colson and Most Inspirational Scott Lee (both juniors) and coached by Bill Omansiek, Tony Franco, Jeff Hooper, and Aaron Snyder, the squad was one that put itself in a strong position by meeting the daily grind with gung-ho enthusiasm and grit. Lots of awards at season’s end: Most Improved—Jean-Jacques Ntshaykolo, Best Offensive Lineman—Marco Hernandez, Defensive MVP and Most Reliable Defensive Player—Zane Schryver ’13; Most fun to watch play defense—Scott Lee ’11; Most fun to watch play offense: Kyle Griffith ’11, QB Chris Colson ’11. “We had a well-balanced offense producing positive yards both in the passing game as well as the running game,” said Coach Omansiek, “and possibly the strongest passing attack of any JV football team in the last 4 years. It was also our luck to have very strong and experienced offensive and defensive lines, with freshman Grady Jacobson playing all but offensive plays at center. At linebacker cornerback and running back, freshmen Zane Schryver, Jack Weil, and J.J. Ntshaykolo really stepped up to play huge productive minutes and improved each day they were on the field.” The squad had some big victories against strong opponents such as Cate, Faith Baptist, and Santa Clarita Christian. Their sole defeat was in a tough-fought, well-played game against a very talented Windward team. “The boys worked hard every day, and it was a pleasure to see them grow as individuals and as a team.”

 

“In terms of effort, enthusiasm, attitude and willingness to learn,” said Coach Pete Fagan of his team, “the season was a great success. The girls worked hard every day in practice, competed with passion and determination. Although we came up short against Cate and Laguna Blanca in our Condor League competition (final record 2-4), I saw many girls transform themselves from beginner tennis players into competitive match play competitors. Every player played in every match throughout the season.” Senior Taryn Van Vliet captained the team, with classmates Sydney Bowie, Lauren Rosenfeld, and Lauren Stephanian—the squad’s MVP—also providing leadership on the court and off. Most Improved player was sophomore Zoey Poll, and elected co-captains for next year were Mouna Lawrence and Jo Min. Coach Fagan concluded, “I applaud the efforts of all the girls!”

 

How do you limit the list when there are so many potential “highlights of the season”? That was a tough one for this high-spirited and high-jinksy team led by senior Captains Amanda Brown, Hannah Yelton, and Lauren Zakarian-Cogswell, but here’s the top five from their several weeks together with their coach, Jason Carney, this fall: 1—Putting together the tennis video; 2—Creating themed practices on Fridays; 3—Taking a trip to In-n-Out Burger; 5--Hitting tennis balls at the coach; and 6) Going down to the football field at the end of practice and moving the blocking sleds. Go figure—but it must’ve done some good, because they had a winning season (5-3) and a very, very good time. Most Valuable Player was Lauren Z-C; Most Improved, sophomore Lucy Han; Most Spirited, junior Katie Taylor and freshman Julianna Childs.

Coached by Jason Burt and captained by seniors Iona Hughan and Natalie Swift (both elected MVP), this team qualified for CIF playoff action, even having graduated two-thirds of last year’s team. This, of course, can be a glass-half-full situation, as Coach Burt chose to see it: “We had a lot of ‘opportunities’ for new players to step into. We were a team unsure of its identity, one with many young players new to Varsity. We started the season with limited confidence—and yet our youthfulness gave us hopeful expectations.

 

“After our preseason combined with a week’s worth of practices, we stepped into our first competition. The girls traveled to Santa Paula High School for the annual ‘Cardinal Classic.’ We were thrown to the wolves from the get go. Our opening match was against perennial power, La Reina, defending CIF Champion and a State Championship Semi-Finalist. Despite our inexperience, it was in this first match that we established our foundation for the year. We showed signs of scrappy defense (led by the captains), good serving (led by Iona, Natalie, and Paige Bowie), and strong net play (led by Sarah Hancock, Emma Patterson, Remy Fisher, and Wohona Delgadillo). Our tournament placing culminated surprisingly with our young group advancing to the winner’s bracket of the 16-team tournament. The highlights of our non-league schedule included 3 game sweeps of Fillmore and Santa Paula. As we hit the Condor League portion of our schedule, we started off with a 3-game sweep at Dunn, the 2008 CIF Semi-Finalist. The win was followed by a humbling loss at Laguna Blanca, the eventual 2009 CIF Championship Finalist. We had high hopes of an upset going into that match, and the defeat was difficult for our young team to rebound from. The loss had rattled our confidence and it unfortunately carried over into our next game at Cate. Our girls lost in three straight games.

 

“After a great week of practice and some team-building talks by our captains, the team started to recover and prepare for the second round of League competition. Our second game with Dunn proved to be much like the first one. The girls swept the match 3 games to 0. The win put us back on track and led us into Family Weekend and our rematch with Laguna Blanca. Our match with Laguna showed a balance of our overall improvement and our building of game experience. Although the girls lost the match, they never gave up. Game 1 was an example of the best volleyball that the girls played all year as we narrowly lost 25-22. Our experience really showed in the loss. Instead of our girls beating themselves up over the defeat, they began to focus and build on the positives that happened throughout the day. It was this mindset that put them in the right place heading into our highly anticipated seasonal finale versus Cate.

 

“The girls knew that a win would tie them for 2nd place in the Condor League and give them the opportunity to qualify for the CIF Playoffs. Nerves definitely played a part in Game 1, and the Toads dropped the opener. They quickly settled into rhythm, though, and won Game 2. In Game 3, they really found their stride and played our most dominant game of the season. At one point, Emma blocked four Cate hits in a row and Anouk’s setting gave us an extremely dominant 25-8 win. Our Game 4 win closed out the match and we came away with a big 3-1 victory. After the match, we won the Condor League tie-breaker and advanced to the CIF Playoffs as the #2 team in the Condor League.

 

“In the playoffs, the girls were awarded a 1st round home game, drawing Serra School. Despite losing the match, the girls had an incredible and very spirited showing. While the loss ended our season, and the team felt an initial sadness, they walked away extremely proud of themselves and their teammates. They’d improved dramatically, and over the course of the season, they developed into a fantastic team on and off the court.”

 

In addition to Co-Captains Natalie and Iona, seniors included Claire Frykman. Wohona Delgadillo, and Remy Fisher. Most Improved Player was sophomore Emma Patterson; Most Inspirational was her classmate, Sarah Hancock. (And, for fun, some other awards: Most Graceful Player—Tabitha Sullivan-Wallace; Most Likely to Wear a Scarf—Remy Fisher; Most Likely to Dig a Ball with Her Head—Margot Hughan.)

 

“This,” said Coach Chris Vyhnal, “was the deepest and most talented JV volleyball team at Thacher over the last eight or nine years—eighteen girls, including six freshmen, four of whom saw significant playing time, and two of whom—Ellie Hancock and Maddie McMorrow—were promoted to the varsity roster for CIF playoffs. When regular starters got hurt or had to miss a game for a weekend, there was always someone ready to step in and fill the spot in the rotation. We won lots of games when we played well, but we also won a few games when we weren't at our best—the surest sign of a strong and deep team”—which logically spilled into a Condor League record of 7-2, and included two big, straight-set wins over Cate (a team that’s been tough to beat this last decade), a come-from-behind, 3-set win over non-league opponent Fillmore at home,

and a four-game winning streak to close out the season.

 

“Before our last match of the season at home against Cate, Maggie Miller [who co-captained the team with Noelani Nasser] encouraged the team in our pregame huddle to win on all three scoreboards. We are all well-versed in Thacher’s first and second scoreboard, but I was in the dark about the third scoreboard. When I asked Maggie about it, she told us all: ‘We’re going to play better than they do, we’re going to cheer louder than they do, and we’re going to look hotter than they do.’ This gave everybody a laugh and put the girls in a relaxed frame of mind to go on and win a tight match.

 

Stand-out players included Alice Hyde and Noelani Nasser at setter; MVP Maggie Miller at outside hitter; Ellie Hancock, Gracie Farese and Giovanna Grigsby-Rocca at middle blocker; and Maddie McMorrow at libero. With lots of young, returning starters from a varsity squad that made the CIF playoffs this season and a handful of young, talented players moving-up from the JV squad, the future of Thacher volleyball looks very bright indeed.” Most Improved was Molly Wyman and Most Inspirational, Hailey Everett.

 

From Director of the Outdoor Program and Rock Climbing Instructor Brian Pidduck CdeP 1992: We started the term bouldering out at the Gymkhana Field and learning the critical knots, along with belay technique on the lawn in front of Camp Supply. Once we had solidified these abilities we moved onto using the ropes on Y-Crack and Banjo Cave in our backyard. On Wednesday afternoons we ventured to the nearby crags of Foothill Crag and Sespe Gorge. We also took a Saturday trip to San Ysidro Wall, located in the Montecito backcountry. Often our objective was to put our skills to the test on certain climbs, but often we found ourselves enjoying the simplicity and beauty of our surroundings. In our backpacks were the tools for climbing and communing with nature in a physical and emotional way . . . along with some food and water.

 

We took two weekend camping trips: one to the Needles in the Southern Sierra and the second to Joshua Tree in the High Desert. In the Needles, Doug Coughran and Nick Orr climbed the remarkable “White Punks Route” on Voodoo Dome – a 6-pitch climb that requires a broad range of techniques and approach. Our rapid and successful ascent of this route (despite being a party of four climbers) is a testament to the skills Doug and Nick have so quickly acquired during their time at Thacher. (They were named Most Valuable Climbers at the end of the season.)

 

In Joshua Tree we climbed such features as Sentinel Dome, Saddle Rocks, Cornerstone Dome and the Freeway Wall. On Saddle Rocks we climbed in what is known as “multi-pitch” style, climbing up about 150 ft, arranging an anchor in the rock that would support our weight and that of a falling climber—which got us halfway. Once we had belayed each other up the first pitch, we then repeated the process to reach the top of the formation. This can take a few hours! Such experiences are critical for these students: they apply skills they initially developed on the lawn in front of Camp Supply and slowly learn how to tackle bigger objectives. We follow this same process in climbing, whether it is in the climbing itself or in the process of learning how to climb and use the necessary safety systems (ropes, carabiners, hardware, etc.).

 

Seniors included Nick Orr, Cory Dolphin, Arjun Dutta, Doug Coughran, Sarina Patel (who earned Most Improved), Laurel Poolman, Charles Hancock, Charlie Sun, and Michael Stenovec. A sophomore, Mac Combs, won Most Impressive First-Year Climber/Rookie Award.

 

In yoga class this fall Cathy Bautista and her students were able to explore a broad range of the more active and advanced asanas/poses, including the peacock, crow and the scorpion—all of which involve the weight of the body being entirely on the hands or arms—and the headstand.

 

For a few more photos, check out the Media Gallery.

 

Photography: Christopher Land, Robert Leiter, Brian Pidduck CdeP1992, Joy Sawyer-Mulligan