Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Round Table showcases week in sports

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

After dropping a cross-town rivalry game to Santa Barbara last week, Dos Pueblos football coach Jeff Uyesaka said his team needs to catch its breath before this Friday’s “Battle of Goleta” against San Marcos.
“We’re a little banged up,” Uyesaka told a crowd gathered at the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table luncheon yesterday at Harry’s Plaza CafĂ©. “Hopefully we’ll be all healed up to put up a fight against San Marcos.”


San Marcos coach Dare Holdren, whose squad was routed last week 41-16 at Ventura, said he doesn’t know if he can wait for this Friday.
“We’re extremely excited, unfortunately we’ve got to wait for that,” he said. “We’re looking forward to getting after them. I just cannot wait for Friday. It wish it was Friday right now.”
No matter what happens this Friday, one of the two local teams will end up in the winning column, as Santa Barbara did last week in its 29-17 win over the Chargers.
Santa Barbara Football Coach Will Gonzales gave a preview of what the cross-town wins feel like when one does win.
“Playing in those games is just an honor in itself, let alone to win it,” he said.
The Dons, 2-4, travel to Buena this Friday, while the Chargers, 2-4, will face off against the Royals, also 2-4, at Valley Stadium.
Last week’s match up between the Dons and Chargers wasn’t the only big local rivalry game.
Cate School went up against Laguna Blanca in eight-man football, and Cate came out on top with a 57-34 win.
A large part of Cate’s offensive arsenal came from Randy Person, who scored six touchdowns and was named the Athletic Round Table’s male Athlete of the Week.
Dos Pueblos golfer Anna Samson, the female Athlete of the Week, shot even-par in one tournament and one-over in another last week to lead the Chargers to back-to-back wins.
Chargers girl’s golf coach Rob Schiff called Samson a “dream.”
“Everybody looks up to here,” he said, adding that a year ago she was shooting 100 to 110 and has improved by 30 strokes in that time. “I look up to her.”
The Chargers are 13-1 overall and 7-0 in Channel League.
Santa Barbara City College Football Coach Craig Moropoulos praised his squad for grabbing a 17-15 road win against Santa Monica College. Until last Saturday, Moropoulos said the Vaqueros had never beat Santa Monica at home.
“It was a team win,” he said. “It was really challenging for us, but we got it done.”
Moropoulos credited the play of freshman defensive back’s Matt Racowski and Lamont Dupree. The Vaqueros, 2-4, face L.A. Pierce this Saturday in Woodland Hills.
In another gridiron game, the Bishop Diego Cardinals were shut out 61-0 at the hands of Oaks Christian.
While the score wasn’t pretty, Bishop Diego assistant football coach Matt Capritto cited the bravery of backup quarterback Brandon Gonzales, who attempted to fill the shoes of an injured offensive lineman.
“We went to Brandon just about the same time Oaks Christian’s monsters were coming down the field,” Capritto said. “It says a lot about a kid when he’s willing to do something like that.”
Bishop Diego, 1-5, travels to Ojai this Friday where they’ll face Nordhoff.
The Round Table also honored Santa Barbara water polo and swimmer Ken Myers with its Scholar Athlete award.
Ken has a 4.77 grade-point-average and last summer was part of a 16 and under Junior Olympics team that won a silver medal.
Ken is a member of a Santa Barbara math team that competes at Westmont College and is a two-time Math Super Bowl winner. He also is co-captain of the school’s mock trial team.
His academic interests include history, math, English and science. Ken said he’s interested in becoming a teacher or lawyer.

No comments: