Boys teams plagued by “no-shows”
The SCISL All-Stars teams demonstrated definitively that they are not ready to compete at the upper levels of sport in Santa Cruz – physically in some cases, spiritually in others.
All four teams lost decisively, but the most discouraging factor at the All-Star games played Saturday at International was the large number of boys who failed to even show up. They had offered excuses that ranged from the somewhat understandable to the laughably flimsy, For example, two big stars reportedly claimed not to have known when the games were, though the scheduled has been posted for over two weeks.
This remarkable display of apathy, disrespect, lack of pride, and shortage of courage will no doubt force a rethinking of whether to continue the all-star program in the future.
At the very least there should be a series of meetings to discuss the continuance of the program at the various schools before basketball season.
At those meetings the coaches who told this reporter privately Saturday that they felt let down by their players should share those thoughts directly with the team members. Ironically, the All-Star program was started in response to student requests.
Girls Volleyball: Promo 92 Triumphs
One does not want to paint with too broad a brush. The SCISL Girls All Stars were present for duty early in the morning Saturday, and played hard. They were simply outgunned by Promo 92, one of the top volleyball clubs in the city, who defeated them 25-10 and 25-4.
Promo 92 had three players who, while not that tall, had enough leaping ability to fly well above the net and smack the ball downward with a precision that was brand-new to the SCISL girls. And the All-Stars were simply not prepared for serves that came over the net so low and so fast. It was a moral victory for the SCISL girls to even get the ball back, with little margin for offensive tactics.
Using spectacularly precise setting Liseth Sanz, spikers Joselyn Toro, Claudia Camacho, and Mariel Cespedes. put it to the SCISL All Stars on nearly every exchange.
But the game was what it was supposed to be: a learning experience. The SCISL girls showed that they were getting the hang of things in a third set played just for fun. The SCISL All-Stars lost again, but by the much more respectable score of 25-18.
Boys Volleyball: UTEPSA Barely Breaks a Sweat
The SCISL boys “all-star” team, fielding a team that included International coach Eduardo “Presi” de la Riva and a player who had come to spectate, lost quickly to a smooth-running team from UTEPSA, 25-14, 25-13. The UTEPSA team had an intersquad game afterwards during which they practiced their double blocks and fake picks to make sure they got enough exercise from the trip out to International to make it worth their while.
Missing from the SCISL All-Star line-up were virtually all of the league’s big hitters, including Jeff Stabler and Esteban Equez from Christian Learning and Juan Alfredo Abuawad from Cooperative.
Also not present for duty were David Shin of Cooperative, Christopher Saltzieder from International, and Martin Pacor and Christoper Cocciani from Cambridge. Abuawad, Pacor and Cocciani had also been named to the soccer All-Star team, from which they were also missing.
Rodrigo Bernal, Jose Maria Landivar, and Juan Narvaez, all from International, together with Danny Canaviri, Alejandro Garcia, and Paul Estes from Christian Learning played hard and did the best they could with what they had. Presi de la Riva demonstrated that he does indeed know how to play the game.
Girls Soccer: Blooming exploits defensive lapses
The SCISL Girls All-Star team played creditably against Blooming’s under-17 team, losing 5-2 in a game that might have been really exciting except for some early defensive lapses that failed to intercept a couple of slow-moving Blooming crosses that were subsequently tapped in for easy goals.
Blooming led 4-2 at the half. The SCISL girls had tallied twice on goals by International’s Melisa Roca. Her first came on a corner kick by Tania Landivar that Roca settled on the right side of the goal, and then unleashed a twisting, curving shot that bounced to the right while the Blooming goalie was diving the other way. Her second goal was a niftily executed free kick just before the end of the first half.
Blooming squelched any thoughts the SCISL girls might have had for a comeback when Nasaria Sarate scored from mid-field on the second touch of the second half kickoff, She unloaded a screaming shot that took everyone present by surprise, including All-Star goalie Tabitha Malloy. That made it 5-2.
Sarate scored three times for Blooming, and Elisabel Peres twice.
Boys Volleyball: Henry Prince squeezes out a win.
The no-show rate was even worse for the boys soccer team. None of the League’s top scorer’s were present. Junior Sanchez and Martin Pacor from Cambridge, as well as Juan Javier Estenssoro and Daniel Baldivieso of International, apparently all had other commitments, along with Abuawad of Cooperative.
In order to put a team on the field the SCISL “All-Stars” had to suit up two coaches – de la Riva and Christian Learning’s Douglas Montaño. The SCISL team was so short of strikers that Christian Learning’s Ricardo Telchi, normally a defensive player, had to be put on the attack.
All that having been said, the SCISL team battled Henry Prince, champions of the Evangelical League, almost evenly, finally succumbing 2-1 after actually dominating play in the second half. The SCISL team had numerous opportunities to even the score, whish was 1-0 in favor of Henry Prince for most of the game.
In the final minutes Prince’s start forward Iver Baldivieso got his second goal of the day when he whacked home an artful centering pass, making it 2-0.
Christian Learning’s Josh Mojia struck back almost immediately as the SCISL team completed three perfect passes, the last going to Mojica in front of the goal.
SCISL got outstanding play from Alvaro Lopez and Jose Zhau Zeng of Cambridge, Alex Apodaca and Richard Ling of Christian Learning, among others, Goalie Alejandro Garcia of Christian Learning played terrifically, giving up only the two goals to Baldivieso, neither of which was stoppable. (Baldivieso popped the first one artfully over Garcia’s head, after luring him out of the goal during a one-on-one breakaway.)
Changes posted for All-Star games
The League announced several changes in the opponents and line-ups for Saturday's SCISL All-Star games at International.
The opening contest at 8 a.m. will pit the SCISL Girls All-Star Volleyball Team against sports club Promo '92's under-17 team. Promo '92 is a widely known local club renowned for its volleyball instructional program and teams that was started in 1992.
That game will be followed immediately by a contest between the SCISL Boys All-Star Team and UTEPSA's junior team.
Award ceremonies will take place at 10 a.m., immediately followed by a game between the SCISL Girls All-Star Soccer Team and the under-17 team from Blooming, the nationally famous soccer academy.
At 11:30, the SCISL Boys All-Star Soccer Team will play Colegio Henry Prince, the champions of the 2008 Juegos Evangelicos, which the top teams from evangelical high schools in the department. The evangelican schools have a league similar to the SCISL that is known for the high quality of play.
Because several players originally named to the SCISL All-Star are unavailable to play, the following changes have been made in the team rosters:
Girls Soccer: Alexia Handal replaces Cecelia Aponte. (Both players are from Cooperative.) Camila Johnson of Cambridge replaces Nadia Rocco of Internatonal
Boys Soccer: Richard Ling of Christian Learning replaces Esteban Eguez of Christian Learning. Mario Rohrman and Jan Ivo Sochtig replace Juan Javier Estenssoro and Daniel Baldivieso. All four of those players are from International.
Girls Volleyball -- Veronica Richter replaces Cecelia Aponte, both from Cooperative.
Boys Volleyball -- Juan Sebastian Narvaez of International has been added to the roster. Esteban Eguez and Jeff Stabler of Christian Learning, Martin Pacor of Cambridge and David Shin of Cooperative will not play in the game. The unavailability of the four was not known soon enough to provide replacements for all, and the consequently much weakened SCISL team will dress only nine players for the All-Star game.
All-Star rosters, games announced
The Santa Cruz Interscholastic Sports League announced this weekend the players selected for the girls and boys soccer and volleyball all-star teams, and the schedule of games that the teams will play.
The all-star games will be played at International on Saturday, Nov. 15 beginning at 8 a.m. The boys and girls volleyball teams are tentatively scheduled to play teams from the Centro Bolivian-Americano, whose teams are perennial champions of Santa Cruz, and almost always contend for the national championship.The boys and girls soccer teams will play against teams from Blooming, also a famous national powerhouse.
The times and dates are still subject to final confirmation. When confirmation is received, the game schedules will be posted on this website.
During the week prior to the all-star contests, the SCISL all-star teams will play practice games against teams from Colegio Henry Prince. Coaches will have the schedules for these games, and for the team practices, which start Thursday, Nov. 6.
The teams will be as follows:
SCISL Girls Soccer All-Star Team
Carla Limpias, Cooperative, defense
Florencia Arnera, Cooperative, defense
Taly Rozenman, Cooperative, defense
Aldana Roda, Cooperative, midfield
Cecelia Aponte, Cooperative, midfield
Tania Landivar, Cooperative, forward
Melisa Roca, International, forward
Fabiana Murillo, International, midfield
Adriana Ocampo, International, defense
Regina Landivar, International, goal
Ariane Nostas, International, midfield
Nadia Rocco, International, midfield
Mariana Chavez, International, midfield
Whitney Belovicz, Christian Learning, midfield
Laura Lindahl, Christian Learning, midfield
Tabitha Malloy, Christian Learning, goal-midfield
Moira Vaca, Cambridge, forward
Alejandra Abastoflor, Cambridge, midfield
Coaches:
Rolando Cabrera, Cooperative
Lorenzo Lindahl, Christian Learning
SCISL BOYS Soccer All-Star Team
Junior Sanchez, Cambridge, forward
Martín Pacor, Cambridge, forward
Nicolás Gamboa, Cambridge, midfield
Christopher Cocianni, Cambridge, defense
Alvaro Lopez, Cambridge, defense
Jose Zhau Zeng, Cambridge, midfield
Alejandro Garcia, Christian Learning, goal
Danny Canaviri, Christian Learning, midfield
Josué Mojica, Christian Learning, forward
Alex Apodaca, Christian Learning, midfield
Ricardo Telchi, Christian Learning, defense
Esteban Egüez, Christian Learning, forward
Juan Javier Estenssoro, International, forward
Daniel Baldivieso, International, forward
Alejandro Rios, International, defense
Jorge Rojas, Cooperative, defense
Hyum Kim, Cooperative,defense
Juan Alfredo Abuawad, Cooperative, midfield
Coaches:
Carlos Euler, Cambridge
Douglas Montaño, Christian Learning
SCISL Girls Volleyball All-Star Team
Alejandra Valencia, Christian Learning
Gaby Tang, Christian Learning
Kaylyn Lampen, Christian Learning
Natalia Egüez, Christian Learning
Karla Flores, Cooperative
Aldana Roda, Cooperative
Alexia Handel, Cooperative
Cecilia Aponte, Cooperative
Mariana Escaño, Cambridge
Ana Saavedra, Cambridge
Melisa Roca, International
Fabiana Murillo, International
Coaches:
Jesús Flores, Coopertative
Eli Vilar, International
SCISL Boys Volleyball All-Star Team
Jeff Stabler, Christian Learning
Danny Canaviri, Christian Learning
Alejandro Garcia, Christian Learning
Esteban Egüez, Christian Learning
Chris Saltzieder, International
Jose Maria Landivar, International
Rodrigo Bernal, International
Martín Gonzales, International
David Shin, Cooperative
Juan Alfredo Abuawad, Cooperative
Christopher Cocianni, Cambridge
Martín Pacor, Cambridge
Coaches:
Alejandra Salto, Christian Learning
Eduardo (Presi) de la Riva, International
