Fall Sports Teams Feature Many New Starting Players
By Michael Oppenheimer
Turnover is a word that has multiple meanings in the world of sports.
On the field, it describes one team losing control or the other team gaining control of the game.
Off the field, turnover represents the older players leaving, younger players moving up in the ranks and new players joining the team. It also represents coaches leaving and a new coach coming in.
Turnover is all about change, and the fall sports teams at Harbor High School and Soquel High School are seeing a lot of that this year.
“Many of our teams are young, and we have young coaches as well,” Harbor Athletic Director Steve Kopald said. “With most of our coaches having off-campus jobs, I’m hiring new ones every year. They are all strong and enthusiastic in their sports and I’m looking forward to this season.”
Both schools have a new Varsity coach or two, but much of the turnover is in the players.
Take Soquel’s football team: The No. 2 team in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League in 2012 has only two returning starters in 2013 and is starting five sophomores in the upcoming Jamboree.
“We set new league rushing and scoring records for the county last year,” Knights coach Ron Myers said. “This year? Hold on to your hat!”
That’s not to say Myers isn’t excited about his team’s outlook.
“We had an outstanding senior crew in 2012,” he said. “But many of our returning players had lots of playing time and I know we’re going to be good.
But younger teams are more prone to mistakes, and Myers acknowledged that.
“We ‘clocked’ four teams last year,” Myers said, referring to a new rule from last year in which games featuring a 35-or-more point lead at the half played the second half without stopping the clock. “While this gave all our players opportunities to play in live games, it also reduced the time they had on the field.”
Myers expects junior Tylon Seeger to earn the task of replacing 2012’s leading rusher, Fabian Hale, whose 2,360 yards on the ground set the new standard in the SCCAL.
“Seeger has been head and heels above the rest of the running backs in practice,” Myers said. “Nothing is set in stone, but I’m looking forward to seeing him on the field.
Myers only returning starters are John Wenger, playing both offensive tackle and defensive end, and Wenger’s defensive bookend Abel Lile, the two of which Myers calls “a very good combination.”
The Pirates also have a young football team, but unlike Soquel, Harbor has a core group of seniors who’ve been playing together since fourth-year head coach Jeff Cox took over.
“Our team’s skill positions are in pretty good shape,” Kopald said. “Our [offense and defense] lines will need some shoring up and the overall team is very young, but they’re looking good.”
While Harbor has a couple of fall coaches with more time at the school, Cox’s four years edges out boys water polo coach Joel McKown (three years) and two first-year coaches in girls water polo and girls tennis, both of whom currently compete in the sport they’re now teaching.
Eve Okamura is taking over the reigns of the girls water polo team, and if she’s having trouble explaining something, that’s no problem: she can just jump in the pool and show her team what she’s talking about. Okamura is a current Monterey Bay CSU student and on the school’s water polo team.
“The other day she jumped in the pool and played against our team — and wiped them out!” Kopald said. “They were all excited and talking about it the next day. It makes things exciting for the kids to see what can be done”
Ursula Oberg, the new girls tennis coach, also is in playing shape, the captain of her won USTA tennis team. She is also an academic advisor at UCSC, something her team will be able to take advantage of.
Soquel’s girls water polo team will also be young and inexperienced, according to returning coach Ryan Chappette.
“The varsity team has only six returning players, two of them starters,” Chappette said. “Our starting goalie is freshman Hannah Henry.”
The Knights do have three 2012 All-League players returning and Chappette expects great things from them. Seniors Liliana King-Adas and Catalpa “Tally” Hoover are both third-year starters. King-Adas made Monterey Bay League first team while Hoover made second team. Also making second team last year was Taylor Thorson, who was also named the 2012 MBL Freshman-of-the-Year.
Chappette is still in the process of finalizing the varsity team.
“The JV team looks strong, with six sophomores and 10 freshmen,” he said. “Some of them will likely make the varsity squad, if not now then at some point.”
Harbor’s most experienced coaches are Scott Bedell (golf, 10 years) and Matt Ryan (cross country/track, 20+ years).
Bedell has earned multiple coach-of-the-year awards and always puts together a strong team, while Ryan, along with training strong cross country and track and field teams, is the Physical Therapy Director at Palo Alto Medical Foundation and has helped work out a deal with PAMF and Harbor, Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley high schools to provide top level trainers at little or no cost to the cash-strapped public schools.
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The SCCAL Football Jamporee kicked off the fall sports season on Aug. 30 at Cabrillo College. Visit the school websites (http://harborathletics.org/ and http://soquelhs.net/home/Athletics/) for more information about teams and schedules.