Lots of questions, few answers
By Juan Manuel Salas
Cambridge College
and
David Boldt
SCISL News Editorial Director
This year’s SCISL basketball season could be as close and hotly contested as last year’s soccer and volleyball seasons, with the past champions facing greater competition in an increasingly well balanced league when the season starts this week.
The fact that some teams either declined to disclose the rather innocuous information requested for this preview, or have been slow to send it, is perhaps a further indication of how close people think things could be. (After all, no point in letting the opposition know too much.)
But here is the way things seem to be shaping up, as best we can determine.
New players might be key for boys
Since the start of the league four years ago, the story of boys varsity basketball has been Christian Learning and Cambridge -- then everyone else. The Eagles and Knights have played in all three previous championship games. Christian Learning won the first year, Cambridge the second, and then the two teams sort of divided the honors last year.
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PHOTO: Knight Juan Manuel Salas waits to shoot against leaping Eagle David Zimmerman in last year's championship game.
The Eagles won the regular season, going undefeated – though one of those wins was by one point over Cambridge in double overtime. Then in the final game of the playoffs Cambridge shot the lights out in storming back from a nine-point deficit with five minutes remaining to win by one point on a lay-up scored with ten seconds left. Prior to that the Knights had sunk four three-pointers.
It was probably the most exciting sports event played in Santa Cruz last year.
Cambridge has a base to build on
Cambridge lost two big stars through graduation – defensive stalwart Manfred Grote and sharp-shooting floor general Jorge “Chino” Yuan. But two starters will be back: junior Juan Manuel Salas. Salas, a hard-charging, sharp-shooting guard has been a starter since eighth grade, and senior Josep Song.
But height will be a problem for Cambridge. Salas, at 174 cm. might often be the tallest player the Knights have on the court.
The Knights have two other players with extensive playing experience – seniors Sergio Palazuelos and Zhau Fue Zhou Zeng, but neither qualifies as a “big man” though Zhou Zeng in particular makes up in speed and hustle much of what he lacks in height.
And the team will be counting on help from two players newly arrived from the US, Benjamin Ezpeleta, a senior forward, and guard Jose Chavez, a seventh grader with a fine shooting eye.
Victor Coronado will be in his fourth year as Cambridge coach where he has a reputation for being able to develop good shooters, and for teaching his teams tenacious, aggressive, stick-like-glue defense. The Knights allowed opponents only 27 points a game last year, lowest in the league.
Eagles must replace four starters, but has talent
The picture is somewhat more mysterious at Christian Learning, which has new coaches, and must replace four starters lost to graduation including its most prolific scorer, Jim Estes, and its best rebounder, Micah Racke. However, there is little question that a strong team can be built around the Eagles' star forward, Jeff Stabler, who is a junior this year.
Several players who got considerable playing time last year are back , including Paul Estes, Tim and Kyle Swope, and David Lotz, along with several talented younger players. Christian Learning is known for its seemingly limitless supply of skilled players, and presumably some players will be moving up from last year’s talented and undefeated junior varsity, which outscored its opposition 223-67. (The next highest JV team scored only 128 points.)
The new coach for the boys at Christian Learning is Chad Jackson, a faculty member, and his assistant is James Wolheter. Both clearly know how the game is played. The varsity was looking sharp in preseason drill sand it seemed to have gelled as a team in eking out a one-point victory in a preseason exhibition game against a talent-laden but somewhat out-of-shape parent and faculty team. (The game was "a real nail-biter," according to one eyewitness.)
Will this be the Jaguars year?
This could be the season in which Co-operative becomes a threat. The Jaguars, in any event, will not be as dependent on new players. The only player from last year’s team not here this year is Nicolas Rios, whose family moved to Argentina.
In fact, it could field a starting line-up of all seniors led by Daniel Linggi, Pablo Taborga, and Juan Peredo. The team will also be counting on 10th grader Diego Morales and 11th grader Pablo Limpias, both of whom have shown promise in preseason practices.
But there is a question mark. Jaguar boys teams in the past have been strong on ball-handling and defense, but lacked players who could put the ball in the hoop. Last year the Jaguars scored only 25 points a game, while Christian Learning and Cambridge were averaging over 40.
Developing more scoring punch will be the main challenge facing Co-operative’s new coach, Max Francisco Farfan. Farfan has 22 years of coaching experience, which has included coaching at Colegio Rio Nuevo and guiding Santa Cruz city teams.
Farfan was cautious about the team’s prospects, saying the team still lacked confidence in shooting, and needed more experience in playing as a team. The coach said he was concerned about the short time available to prepare for the season, but the squad has been practicing hard since mid-January.
International has a goal: Improvement
The big question mark is International, which has been the league doormat since play began, and was winless last year, getting outscored by its opponents 213 to 108. It has almost seemed as if International somehow attracts track stars rather than basketball stars. (It has been a perennial champion in track and field.)
But that could be changing. The new International coach is Eduardo “Presi” de la Riva, former athletic director at Cambridge, who will be seeking to imbue to previously hapless Griffins with some of his former school’s winning tradition. De la Riva, while he was not the Cambridge basketball team’s coach, is well known for his shooting skill.
Record numbers of students reportedly tried out for the team this year, and De la Riva expects to have a squad of 12 capable players, built around two juniors. Sharp-shooting guard David Huang is back from last year, and will be augmented by forward Mario Rohrman, a new student with considerable playing experience in Germany.
Moreover, de la Riva believes that he will have at least five players who can play creditably in the backcourt, and five more who can play up front, giving him more flexibility as a coach than has been true for International in the past. He expects his starting line-up to have considerable height, with the addition of players like senior Martin Fernandez de Cordova, a senior who has specialized in track in past years. Jose Martin Landivar, a standout on the Griffins league champion boys volleyball team, will also be playing basketball. Christopher Saltzsieder, a 10th grader, played well for International last year, and is getting better.
"I´m not thinking about just the current moment," de la Riva said. "I am thinking about the future. I need to teach the game. If we can get a trophy, good, but my goal is to improve."
Girls situation even harder to forecast
Christian Learning and Cambridge also clashed in last year’s girls championship game, with Cambridge winning by three points. Cambridge posted a 5-1 regular season record, losing only to the Lady Eagles, which had a 3-3 record during the regular season.
Cambridge has lost two important players, sure-shooting Nan Jordan and defensive stalwart Liliana Sainz, both of whom graduated. However, the Lady Knights welcome back 11th grader Raquel Lopez, probably their most gifted player, and Vania Rueda, another junior with a lot of playing experience.
They will also be counting on 10th grader Mariana Escaño, who has shown occasional flashes of brilliance but has lacked consistency, as well as 9th graders Maira Lino and Camila Johnson.
Victor Coronado will again be the coach of the Lady Knights.
Christian Learning's new coaches for the girls team -- Jarrod Davis and Mike Warren -- will reportedly be seeking to build a team around three returning stars, high-scoring forward Sabrina Hallock, floor general Roxy Jien, and the highly skilled Anne Marie Hawthorne. Like the boys team, the Eagle girls are known for having a pool of skilled players. Its girls junior varsity tied for the league lead last year with Co-operative, as each posted a 5-1 record, The Lady Eagles are also known for improving during the course of the season.
But both the Knights and Eagles could be challenged by Co-operative, which finished second in the regular season last year, ahead of Christian Learning. The Co-operative school girls varsity, like the boys, suffered no significant losses from graduation.
Among the outstanding returning players are seniors Natalie Noguer and Mariana Perez, as well as 10th grader Cecelia Aponte. The varsity should also get some help from three of last year’s junior varsity players, who, as mentioned, tied Christian Learning with a 5-1 mark. They are Nicole Boersma, Sofia Sotelo, and Ana Paula Peredo, all eighth graders.
The female Jaguars have a new coach, Mike Vande Loo, who moves up from coaching the boys junior varsity last year, posting a highly respectable 4-2 record in finishing second.
“I think we have a good potential this year,” Vande Loo said. “We have a lot of new players, but also a great core of returning players who can mold our team into one that will be tough to contend with.”
International is again the wild card. Last years Griffin girls varsity had the same record as the Griffin boys – 0-6 – and was outscored 75 to 190.
But again there is a new coach and it is a new season. Change may be in the air. Coach de la Riva says he is gratified by the turnout for try-outs, and, as with the boys, will have a squad of 12 girls. The core of the team is expected to consist of seniors Daniela Zelada and Melissa Roca, together with 10th graders Regina Landivar and Stephanie Gioto, along with ninth grader Maria Victoria Gutierrez.
