Cal High kicked of the inaugural flag football with a perfect EBAL record and league title.
From their first league game against Monte Vista to league finale against Livermore, the Grizzlies has seen nothing but improvement and success.
Even so, a 14-0 record wasn’t in their wildest dreams, especially for head coach Frank Grugrina, who became interested in coaching the team after advising last season’s powderpuff practices.
“We tried to make it clear that winning wasn’t the number one goal,” Grgurina said. “One of the main goals we had was for the girls to gain a better understanding and appreciation of the sport and winning came along with that.”
Winning game after game provided nothing but motivation for the girls to continue to get better and showcase their improvement on the field.
“Each win definitely motivated us to do better,” senior captain Kylie Tabor said. “We were talked about a lot because of our winning streak.”
For senior captain Lexi Rinehart, receiving coverage from area news outlets inspired her and motivated the players.
“When they [Mercury News] came out, it made us think, ‘Hey, we’re actually good,’ and that people outside just the school care about the sport as well,” Rineheart said. “It was inspirational as a captain.”
Senior captain Lauren Grgurina said team practices played a vital role in their success on the field.
“You probably heard of the quote ‘Practice how you play’, and we definitely implemented this during practice,” Lauren Grgurina said. “We do our drills 100 percent and are always focused and ready to go.”
“Simply put, our record shows how hard we have worked this season and how we are always ready to play our best,” junior Priya Mistry said. “The team atmosphere is great” Everyone is super friendly and we all work well together.”
Tabor recalls her favorite memory of the team during their first team bonding. “During our first bonding, each grade did a karaoke performance, and the juniors won, unfortunately,” Tabor said.
Coach Frank Grgurina mentions that a lot of memories were made during his first year coaching the team, but mentions one in particular.
“The joy, the pure joy, of the girls when they complete a play. Not for themselves, but for their teammates as well is my favorite memory as a coach,” Frank Grgurina said.
Nevertheless, players, coaches and athletic director Chad Ross are looking forward to next season as the program expands.
Before the season began, Ross’s only expectation for the team was to “create a program that lasts for a long time,” and he now believes that the program is only going to expand in the following years.
In total, 44 girls tried out for the team this year, and 16 were cut as there was only one varsity team.
Ross, Frank Grgurina, and the captains believe that a JV team and an NCS Championship is in the future for the flag football team.
With the amount of interest that the coaches saw this year, “all indications point to that direction,” Ross said.
With no NCS this year, the team is looking to continue their winning streak and grab the EBAL title this Saturday.
Staff writer KK DeMello contributed to this story.
Football
The Grizzlies are looking like a team ready to do damage in NCS even after a tough loss against rival San Ramon Valley and Clayton Valley toward the end of the season.
Cal (6-4) beat Foothill 48-0 in the season finale last Friday and will host No. 4 Clayton Valley on Friday at 7 p.m. The Ugly Eagles (5-5) beat No. 5 Cal 33-24 earlier in the season but lost the right to host the game because of unsportsmanlike conduct following that contest.
Senior Devan Love is one of Cal’s biggest standouts, averaging a little more than 100 yards on the ground per game this season and leading the team with eight rushing touchdowns.
Cal also has a big threat on the outside with junior receiver Nic Fox, who averages about 84 yards per game. He’s also third on the team with six TDs.
On the defensive side of the ball, junior Nick Hubbard leads the squad by averaging seven tackles a game, while senior Jack Schlicher has been dominant on the edge with 8.5 sacks this season.
Another notable impact player for the Grizzlies is junior Chase McGill, who is second on the team with 315 receiving yards. He’s been a solid red zone target with eight TDs.
“When we are playing some tougher teams I believe we can win if we play with a chip on our shoulder like we have in the past in certain games,” McGill said. “We just need to play our game and not the other team’s game.”
Given the Grizzlies’ lower ranking in NCS, they are playing with a chip on their soldier.
“I think we can prove everyone wrong when it comes to projected rankings,” McGill said. “Right now we are playing as underdogs.”
Senior Liam Corkery also has belief in the team getting down into the grind of the season.
“If we work hard in practice during the week and watch films religiously, I’d say we have a chance,” Corkery said.
– Carson Pfotenhauer
Women’s water polo
The women’s water polo team made a big splash this year with an impressive 17-6 overall record, including 5-3 in league.
But Cal lost 16-6 to Washington-Fremont in the first round of NCS on Nov. 2.
Some notable wins this season were nail-biters against Foothill and Amador, both 10-9, and a 16-4 blowout against Granada. Cal fought for its playoff spot and proved that team can compete with the best.
Sophomore attacker Elise Matek, a key role player for the team scored three points, three assists, and one steal.
“Showing up to practice everyday and getting plays down as a lefty is an important role,” Matek said.
Matek is also confident in this team’s ability to keep creating chemistry and a great team atmosphere.
“We all have done club together and going into high high school a lot us knew of each other,” Matek said.
While on this hot streak, Matek and others on the team, including Cal senior Avery Cross, seem to be ready for EBAL playoffs as well as Athlete of the week.
Cross has been dominating the competition, leading the league with 86 goals to go along with 16 assists and a massive 27 steals.
– KK DeMello
Women’s Volleyball
Women’s volleyball has had an exciting season upsetting notable teams.
This was on display in Cal’s three-set win over No. 10 Berkeley in the first round of NCS on Oct. 24. But the No. 7 Grizzlies lost in three sets to second-seeded San Ramon on Oct. 28.
With a solid season of 16-12, the Grizzlies beat some notable schools, including Dougherty Valley and Granada, in an impressive three sets, and Dublin in a staggering five sets.
The team’s hard work paid off when they earned their spot for NCS.
Senior defensive specialist Zoja Janhar, a key player for the back row on this team, is very proud of the outcome for their team.
“I think we’ve done really well this year,” Janhar said. “If we pushed a little harder we could’ve won more games, but I’m not mad with how its going.”
But where there’s a great team there’s an even better coach.
With the absence of favorite coach Todd Baham over these last couple of years, new coach William Gratteau has some big shoes to fill.
“Coach Will is definitely pushing us to be the best we can, and he cares a lot about this team,” Janhar said.
– KK DeMello
Women’s Golf
The women’s golf team faced several holes during their season this year, several beyond their control.
But the Grizzlies still had a solid season and finished 10th out of 21 schools at the NCS Championships on Nov. 30 at Tilden Park Golf Course in Berkeley.
One of the holes Cal had to address at the end of the season included the absence of its top player, sophomore Ishanvi Velagapudi, who missed the final few weeks due to a wrist injury.
Velagapudi, who has been Cal’s top player since her freshman year, was disappointed that she wasn’t able to finish off the season.
“I was top 5 in the league [before getting injured],” Velagapudi said. “That means I had the potential of moving up if I continued to play throughout the season.”
Velagapudi missed the team’s final two matches and the EBAL Championship, making her ineligible for all-league honors. She also missed the NCS Championships.
“Ishanvi not being there is a big blow,” coach Mike Pottinger said. “It is hard to replace that kind of score with her gone.”
Another obstacle Cal faced this year was the new schedule. Traditionally, the golf team would play all schools in the league twice in a double round robin format. which resulted in 18 matches.
But this year, the EBAL changed the format, splitting the league in half to a mountain and valley division so teams had only 13 matches.
Now, each school plays each opponent in its division twice and those in the other division only once. The valley division includes all of the schools in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District plus Carondelet. The mountain division includes Amador, Foothill, Granada, Livermore, and Dublin.
Because of this new split, Cal was in the division with the top three schools in not only the league but also the section: Dougherty, Monte Vista, and Carondelet.
This worked to Cal’s disadvantage since the Grizzlies were scheduled to play six of their 13 matches against these schools.
Cal went 0-6 in these matches while going 5-2 against the other league schools.
“There is no competitive balance in the league,” Pottinger said.
Nevertheless, the obstacles didn’t come without successes.
Many players on the team, including junior captain Emily Zhang, believed the team’s win at the Helen Lengfeld Tournament to open the season was one of the significant highlights.
“It was a good start to the season,” Zhang said.
Cal won the tournament by a single stroke and Velagapudi placed second overall.
Freshman Kate Shu agreed that the highlight of the season was the tournament victory, which was the first tournament title in school history for the girls.
Shu, who was the only freshman on the varsity squad, said she enjoyed the season.
“I liked how we were dependent on each other and communicated with each other,” Shu said.
– Mahita Chava
Men’s water polo
While Cal’s record was only 6-13 this season, all six of those wins came in league and helped the Grizzlies reach NCS for the second straight season.
Unfortunately, No. 9 Cal lost 13-10 to No. 8 Terra Linda in the first round of NCS on Nov. 2.
Cal’s EBAL wins came against Foothill, Dublin, Amador, Granada, Livermore, and Dougherty Valley.
The star of the squad, Aiden Berry, is leading the team in goals for the second year in a row with 56 goals. Last year he scored 86 goals.
Cal’s schedule coming into the year was considered strong, and the teams head coach Patrick O’Brien planned it this way.
“I feel I was pretty confident that we’d be able to qualify for NCS with our league schedule,” O’Brien said. “By adding some tough non-league opponents would better prepare us for the tough games we would have in the playoffs.”
O’Brien believes the team’s record does not reflect how the team has performed, and that the team has had some misfortunes.
“I think we have actually done better than what our record shows,” he said. “We have been very competitive, but unfortunately we’ve come out on the wrong side of them.”
The team has also had some untimely injuries and illnesses that have held them back winning tight games. Senior Jax Milasincic believes the team is different than in years past.
“We expect to do better than last year since we have more dynamic defensive strategies and have played mostly extremely good teams this year,” Milasincic said.
While there are only four sophomores on the team, they still make a large impact, O’Brien said.
One of those sophomore is Cole Lawrence, who believes that their hard regular season schedule prepared the team well for a deep NCS run. The consensus among the team is that the game of the year came on Oct. 5 against Foothill.
“I think that they definitely thought they were gonna beat us,” O’Brien said. “There was a lot of adversity in that game.”
Multiple starters fouled out in that game, forcing backups to step up and try to edge out a win versus an extremely tough Foothill team.
The final score was 11-10, which proved to be a road upset of a 15-7 Falcons team. This Grizzlies team is hopeful to make a deep run reminiscent of the team in 2018-19, where they went 16-10 on the year, won a playoff game vs James Logan, then eventually fell to Redwood in double OT.
– Carson Pfotenhauer
Women’s Tennis
Despite facing challenges and changes this season, the women’s tennis team was able to overcome them and have performed well.
The girls varsity team finished 5-8, while the JV team went 9-4.
There were several spots open on the team following last season, as many of the previous players either graduated or left the team.
“It was difficult at first for everyone to get adjusted with each other since a lot of people were new,” senior Alisha Singhal, a JV captain, said. “There was also a lot of change within both varsity and JV, so we had to build up chemistry within the team in a short amount of time.”
Despite setbacks, the team was able to improve from the previous season. Cal placed fifth at the James Logan Tournament.
The team also beat Amador Valley and Carondelet 8-2 and 7-5, respectively.
“I’d say the season was pretty successful since we had a good winning streak,” freshman Moksha Pedaballi said, “Everyone played well and we won a lot of games we weren’t expected to win.”
The team qualified for the EBAL tournament with junior Gracie Barco and senior Caitelyn Huang playing for the doubles title, which they eventually lost.
– Anika Choudhary
