Winter sports heat up in time for NCS
The women’s basketball team has made quite a statement in the EBAL this season.
With an impressive league record of 10-1, 21-5 overall, the Grizzlies look to roll into NCS playoffs with plenty of momentum despite losing its last two league games.
The Grizzlies lost at home to Carondelet 85-65 last Thursday and 74-55 at San Ramon Valley on Feb. 5.
By losing to the Wolves,Cal just missed earning its rstEBAL championship in school history. The Grizzlies tied SRV atop the league’s Mountain Division with 10-1 records, but the Wolves won the title on a tiebreaker after winning last week’s game.
The NCS Tournament begins tonight. Seeding for the tourna- ment was revealed last weekend before The Californian went to press.
Throughout the season, Cal has won nearly all of their games, falling to some real competitive teams such as Antelope (70-69) and Clovis North (58-55).
Despite losing their seasonnale to Carondelet (22-4), Cal still put up quite a ght againstthe nation’s 14th ranked team.
Cal definitely had some statement victories against Dougherty Valley (65-30), Tesoro (61-36), and Granada (90-38).
All of the team members have been motivated to win league this year and have formed connections with each other along the way.
“I think the team this year has a really good bond and we know what each player is going to do and their strengths,” sophomore Claire Hinds said. “We’re more connected than we have ever been.”
Basketball has given Hinds something to look forward to and new friends to rely on.
Co-captains EricaAdams and Audrey Moulton, both juniors, have been setting a good ex- ample for their teammates and inspired them to work harder
than ever.
“I’m really proud of the rest
of the team, all of us together have put in a lot of work to get where we are today,” Adams said. “We work toward our goals by taking by taking baby steps everyday.”
Added Moulton, “[Basket- ball] has given me more of a purpose to try hard at something and given me perspective to work hard and establish a good work ethic that I can use in other parts of my life.”
Men’s Basketball
The shot clock has winded down on the men’s basketballseason after losing their nalthree games.
The season has been one of ups and downs, with a four- game winning streak toward the beginning of the year, followed by a four-game losing streak right after and the three-game losing streak to end the season that kept Cal from advancing to the NCS Tournament.
The Grizzlies nished theregular season with a record of 12-14 overall, and 5-8 in league, after a tough 53-43 loss against De La Salle last Thursday.
Cal lost 60-48 at home to San Ramon Valley last Tuesday and 53-50 at Monte Vista on Feb. 1.
“This season has had lots of challenges, but I think it’s been a great season,” head coach Anthony Khoo said.
The team achieved great victories in many different ways. Cal started out the year with a resounding 65-37 trouncing over Oakland. In the next game, they scraped out a tight and competitive win at Washington, 69-66. Their next victory was another close one, but they still managed to edge Alhambra, 65-59.
Cal also suffered some tough losses. One of them a 72-66 home loss to rival Monte Vista on Jan. 8.
But the Grizzlies bounced back from that tough loss with one of their season highlights, beating rival San Ramon Valleyon their own oor, 47-45, onJan. 15.
The team was led by many returning players from last year such as senior guard Marshall Lott and senior forward/center Evan Gosal.
“This is my second year on the team, and it’s been a great year,” Gosal said. “A lot of people didn’t expect us to be that good, but we’ve definitely exceeded expectations.”
For many people on the team, this season was their last at Cal as 10 of the 15 players are seniors.
But the departure of players makes room for new players and returning ones to become leaders for their team.
“Having this rst year ofexperience will be huge for the juniors on the team,” junior cen- ter Tyler Shaw said. “This will help us become good leaders next season and be mentors for next year’s juniors.”
The team used a tough sec- ond-half schedule to show what they can be and proved that they were a good basketball team.
At the midpoint of the season, the team grew together and developed as one.
“The chemistry has been real- ly good,” Khoo said. “This has probably been my best group of guys in the last three years.”
– Andrew Sousa
Women’s Soccer
The Cal High girls varsity soccer team is experiencing an extremely successful season.
“We clinched the playoffs in December, but right now we’reghting for a seeding in NCS,”head coach Edgard Vidrio said.
With an impressive regular season record of 7-4-2 in league,
13-5-4 overall, the girls team keeps striving to perform their best for NCS playoffs, which begin tonight. Cal learned its seed over the weekend afterThe Californian went to press.
“We’re on track to make it to playoffs and if everyone keeps working hard, hopefully we can make it further,” senior captain Nikki Trucco said.
The Grizzlies got a big 2-0 victory over Carondelet (12-2- 6) to wrap up the regular season on Senior Night last Thursday. The win helped the girls, whonished fth in league, avengea 5-2 loss to the Cougars earlier this season.
“Our biggest competition this season is Monte Vista and Carondelet,” Vidrio said. “We want to save their games for the end of playoffs which is why our seeding is so important right now.”
Throughout EBAL, the girls team competed in tough gamesto rst place Monte Vista, butlost the game 2-1 and 2-0. The girls tied fourth place San Ramon Valley twice, 2-2 and 1-1.
“So far, the toughest team we played against this season was Monte Vista,” senior defender Maddie Macedo said. “It was
a really intense game for the players and coaches on and offthe eld the whole time.”
In EBAL play, the team also recorded impressive victories in games against Amador Valley (4-3), Dublin (2-0), Granada (3-0), and crosstown rival Dougherty Valley, 7-0.
Earlier on in the season, the girls played against St. Ignatius with an end result of a 2-2 tie.
“When we were down one point in the game against St. Ignatius, our forward, Nikki, pushed her way through three of St. Ignatius’ defenders and scored all while also getting fouled to tie the game 2-2,” Macedo said.
The girls team did outstand- ing toward the very beginning of the season. In preseason, theystarted off by winning their rst ve games, beating Ukiah (5-0),Casa Grande (4-0), American Canyon (7-0), Central (2-0), and Bullard (3-0). This made the expectations high for the girls well-rounded season.
“We are proud of how much we’ve grown in so little time. We’re a much better team than we were at the beginning of the season,” Trucco said.
– Maddy Klessel
Wrestling
Cal’s wrestling team is mak- ing a statement this season and is hoping to pin their competitionin NCS without a ght.
Going undefeated for the season so far in league play (3- 0), Cal is a motivated, youthful team that hopes to make strides in NCS and EBAL.
“Our program is going to be really strong in the future since we have a youthful team at the moment that will continue to get better,” senior captain Cole Waskey said.
While Cal sports an impres- sive winning record and strong work ethic at the moment, this was not always the case. Waskey notes that these two things were only achieved by hard work and determination to master their craft.
“Our work ethic as a team has gotten much better over the course of the season,” Waskey said. “At the beginning of the season it was in need of helpbut it has improved signi cantlyand it just takes time to show all the guys what it takes to be successful in wrestling.”
Cal’s wrestling team sports many admirable and well respected traits of a successful sports team. The most important to the team, is the will to alwaysstrive for excellence and ght their way to the nish.
“When it comes down to the line, we really work hard andght till the very end to get allthe extra points that we can,” senior captain Luke Nye said. “We don’t ever quit and we don’t ever give up.”
Waskey agreed with this assessment.
“Our team always has been and continues to be good at persevering through all obstacles and this has enabled us to beat some really good opponents,” Waskey said.
Like any sports team, there is always room for improvement and Cal’s wrestling team has continued to set and overcome reasonable goals.
“I’d love to see us get some better technique,” Nye said. “The heart, soul, and passion of our team is there but with some better technique and some time we will be a really great team.”
While Waskey and Nye would like to see the entire team advance to NCS and beyond, they noted that there are several very dedicated athletes on the team who continue to push themselves to be the best that they can be.
“We have a few individuals on our team who have really put in the work this off season and have the possibility to go to NCS and States,” Waskey said.
Cal’s wrestling team continues to set the tone of a successful sports team and solidifies and exceeds all expectations.
Men’s Soccer
The men’s soccer team carried a legacy of hard work, perseverance, and determina- tion throughout the season with
the hopes of roaring into NCS. But a rough season and losing record of 4-8-1 in league, 6-12-2 overall, Cal put up a tenacious effort to maintain their presence in the East Bay Athletic League. The Grizzlies always main- tain a focus on the end result rather than dwelling on any negatives that may present
themselves.
Unfortunately, the Grizzlies
will not be advancing to NCS this season.
“This season has actually been pretty tough due to us not having the best record,” senior captain Blake Hazelton said.“But I think that on the eldwe show up pretty well and we always work super hard despite us maybe not getting the result that we want on the scoreboard.”
While the season didn’t go according to plan because of their record, Cal’s team ac- knowledged the fact that they can improve several aspects of their performance.
“While we are not a high scoring team and could stand to improve upon that,” junior captain Sean Miller said. “We
Nima is a senior at Cal High. This is his third year in the Californian and his second year as a Photography Editor. He has a passion in the biological...
