First Ever Middle School All-Star Basketball Game Sunday

The 1st Annual Central Coast Middle School All-Star Classic featuring  7th and 8th grade boys basketball players will take place this Sunday, March 11th at the Scotts Valley High School Gym.

Five players from the San Lorenzo Valley Middle School have been selected to participate.  7th graders Taney Murray and Joseph Oard and 8th graders Michael LaCapria, D'Shawn Hopkins and Davon Northcutt will play for the north squads in two contests with the 7th graders tipping off at 4pm followed at 6pm by the 8th graders.

A 3 point shooting contest will be held at halftime of both games and the entire event will be televised by Community Television of Santa Cruz for later broadcast.

Cross Country Teams Finish Dream Season

Photo by Sheryl Germany

Congratulations to all the runners on the SLV High boys and girls cross country teams for another outstanding season.  Both the boys and girls teams finished undefeated in dual meets, won the league and CCS titles and finished 2nd (girls) and 4th (boys) in the State Championships.

For the boys, Junior Cody Johnson  and Senior Nick Hicks were the team leaders with Johnson taking the individual title at both the league and CCS meets. Landis MacMillan, Jacob Hicks, Matt Abernathy, Stephen Bracken and Branden Caldwell also all had great years.

For the girls, Sophomore Anna Maxwell added individual titles at Hawaii, Stanford, Mt Sac., SCCAL and CCS to her impressive resume.  Fellow underclassmen Claire MacMillan (so), Abby Sherman (so), Jessica Germany (fr), Jessica Jensen (so), and Katrina Luque (so) along with senior Hyllery Hershberger joined Maxwell accepting silver medals for their second place team finish in the CIF State Championship.

Here are the final times and finish places for SLV runners at the State Championships:

4 Anna Maxwell 18:06
7 Claire MacMillan 18:45
15 Abby Sherman 19:06
32 Jessica Germany  19:39
58 Jessica Jensen  20:16
82 Hyllery Hershberger 20:54
98 Katrina Luque 21:17


10 Cody Johnson  16:04
13 Nick Hicks  16:17
25 Landis MacMillan 16:34
46 Jacob Hicks  16:51
88 Matt Abernathy  17:26
91 Stephen Bracken  17:28
149 Branden Caldwell 19:01

SLV School News for The Week

Student, parent teacher conferences are beginning today for home schoolers affiliated with the Coast Redwoods...At the High School parking tickets for cars without proper permits may be issued starting this week...The Boys and Girls Water Polo and Girls Volleyball teams are in action at home today. Volleyball in the gym vs Prospect High at 4 (JV) and 5 (Varsity). At the pool the girls take on Salinas at 4 and 5 while the boys host Harbor High at 6 and 7. The Girls Volleyball team is back in action on Wednesday hosting North Monterey County High with matches beginning at 4:30 and 6PM...Auditions for the fall play, You Can't Take It with You, are this Wednesday and Thursday from 3-6pm in the PAC. Students need to come prepared with a one-minute comedic monologue and grade print-out. Sign-ups will begin Wednesday at lunch.

Wednesday is an “early out day” at both elementary schools and the School Board has a regular meeting at 6PM at Quail Hollow...The High School parent organization the Cougar Club will hold their first meeting of the year on Thursday at 1PM in the Multi-purpose room...Boulder Creek Elementary School has their Back to School Night on Thursday. The Girls Volleyball team travels to Harker School for matches at 4:30 and 5:45 and the Girls Water Polo team heads to Carmel for contests at 3:30 and 4:30 while the Boys Water Polo team go to Watsonville for matches at 5 and 6. The Girls Tennis team will host Soquel at 3:30 and the Girls Golf team will head to DeLaveaga for their match with Harbor at 3:30.

The Boys and Girls Cross Country runners are headed to Hawaii to compete in the Kamehameha Invitational meet on Saturday and the Varsity and JV Football teams have their home openers vs Piedmont with kick offs at 11AM and 2PM.

Cougar Athletes Get Serious This Week

The SCCAL Football jamboree this past weekend provided the first opportunity for parents and fans to see Cougar athletes in action as the Varsity, JV and Frosh teams were put through their paces in the annual tune-up scrimmages.  On Saturday all three teams head to Atherton for their first real games of the year vs Sacred Heart Prep.  The freshmen kickoff is at 10AM followed by the JV’s at noon.  The Varsity contest gets started at 2:30PM.

The football teams are not the only athletes on campus who have been getting ready to represent their school.  On Thursday the girls Varsity and JV volleyball team as well as the girls Water Polo squad kick off their year with matches at home vs Los Gatos and Santa Cruz respectively and on the weekend the boys Water Polo team travels to Hollister to participate in the San Benito tournament.   

Next week the girls tennis and golf teams see action vs Harbor High and the highly ranked boys and girls cross country teams head to Hawaii to compete in the Kamehameha Invitational.   

Local Disc Golf Course Could Get Crowded

One of SLV’s best kept secrets might get out this coming week. Local disc golfers have known the pleasure of playing the Black Mouse Disc Golf Course behind the SLV Middle School since the course was first built by Nature Academy students in 2002. The beautiful 18 hole course through the redwoods is well maintained by local volunteers who take justifiable pride in the ‘the maze”.

With over 400 competitors from 14 countries expected in the area to compete in the 2011 Professional Disc Golf World Championships to be contested on four local courses - DeLaveaga in Santa Cruz, Pinto Lake in Watsonville, the Oaks Course at CSUMB and the Ryan Ranch course outside of Monterey - the rapidly growing ranks of amateurs will be pushed off those popular spots for the week and many will likely wind up in Felton. Given the reputation that Black Mouse has gained for the beauty and technical challenge it provides a few of the pros are likely to pay a visit too.

If you want to catch a glimpse of a local favorite, two time World Champion Nate Doss or a living legend Ken Climo, who’s won an unprecedented 12 world titles there should be ample opportunities with a variety of promotional events to be held throughout the week including opening ceremonies at the Santa Cruz High gym on Monday night at 7PM. Earlier in the day, distance and putting competitions will be at Anna Jean Cummings Park in Soquel starting at 1PM and will be repeated at the Main Beach in Santa Cruz on Thursday beginning at 3PM. A pre-tourney mixed doubles event kicks off a week of activities on Saturday and practice rounds at all courses can be played on Sunday.

The men’s and women’s championships, in 10 divisions from open to legends, begin play on Tuesday and continue through Friday before the fields are cut for semi-final and final rounds on Saturday.

On Tuesday night the world premiere of Chains the first full-length documentary on the sport will screen at the Rio Theatre. You can purchase tickets online by clicking here.

For the full schedule of tee times and activities visit the tournament website. For information about the Professional Disc Golf Association go to http://www.pdga.com/.

You can check out happenings at Black Mouse on their Facebook Page. You can see where and how the course is laid out on this Google map.

News From The SLV Little League

Via Sue Sutherlin League Information Officer/Webmaster for the San Lorenzo Valley Little League


Opening Day, almost a week ago, boasted picture-perfect weather and an outstanding program, complemented by awesome breakfast burritos early in the day, followed by traditional grilled hot dogs and hamburgers served up by the always-friendly volunteers at the snack bar (MANY thanks to new snack bar coordinators Katie Snyder and Chuck Wise for overseeing this HUGE, very important part of our league, and to Steven Shabry for being willing to share his expertise to help facilitate a smooth transition)!

Games have started (barely - already a few rained out . . . more on that in a minute), and we're working on getting game results posted as quickly as possible. If you don't see your scores within a couple of days of your game, please contact webmaster Sue Sutherlin or head scorekeeper Scott Murray with your game results, and we'll get those scores updated as soon as possible.

CANCELLATIONS . . .
ALL games scheduled for Saturday, March 19, have been canceled due to weather-related field closures. For the upper divisions (Majors, Minors and AA), division reps and the fields coordinator, along with the umpire in chief, will determine when make-up games will be. Since no standings are kept at the lower levels (A and T-ball), no plans are made at this time to make up those games (although individual managers are welcome to work together to perhaps schedule a make-up game during one of your practice times).

POSTPONED . . .
The t-ball clinic scheduled for this Sunday, March 20, is being postponed. Watch the web site for the new date!

NO DECISION YET . . .
regarding the pitching clinic, also scheduled for Sunday, but check on the web site by Saturday evening for the most up-to-date information.

While I've got your attention, I'd like to let you know about some fun events in the near future, specifically targeted for Little League families.

Sunday, April 17, 2011 - 6th Annual San Lorenzo Valley Day at San Jose Giants! By now all managers should have received tickets for their players (cost was included in registration, and if you don't have tickets yet, division reps should be getting them to you soon), and there are more available for purchase/sale (a portion of the money from ticket sales helps to support SLVLL). Several fun events are planned for that day, please refer to the SLVLL web site for more details.

Sunday, June 5, 2011 - Little League Day at AT&T Park - Watch the SF Giants with thousands of Little Leaguers and their families! SLVLL has bought a block of 250 tickets to sell to our local community. A portion of every ticket ($20/ticket) comes back to our SLVLL. A separate email will go out to team parents, letting them know how tickets can be purchased. Think how much fun it would be to go to a big-league game, to see World Series champs SF Giants play against the Colorado Rockies, with a group of SLV families! Please check the SLVLL web site for more details!

For all the above events, you can find full details at the SLVLL web site www.SLVLittleLeague.org. And while you're visiting the site, please check out your child's team page; check to make sure your child's name is spelled correctly, and if you find mistakes anywhere on the site, feel free to let me know!


You can visit our site at

Little League Opening Day Saturday

Opening Day for the SLV Little League is this Saturday. Traditional Opening Day ceremonies are held on the Majors field at SLV High School.  All indications are that the weather is going to cooperate and it should be a great day to kick off the season. The official ceremony starts at 10 AM and should end no later than 11:15. (Players and coaches should plan to arrive no later than 9:30AM for parade assembly.)

A limited number of tickets to see the World Champion SF Giants take on the Colorado Rockies on Sunday, June 5 at 1 PM will be on sale for $20.  

The refurbished Snack Shack will be open for business with hot coffee, fresh breakfast burritos, donuts and of course peanuts and hot dogs. Support the SLV Little League by spending a few dollars for breakfast or lunch.

The first pitch of the season should be thrown around noon and games will go on throughout the afternoon on both the Majors and Pony fields.  Parking could be a problem so you’re encouraged to carpool and as always bring your sunscreen and a lawn chair as bleacher space may be hard to come by.

For more information including game and picture schedules visit the League website:
www.SLVLittleLeague.org.

Winter Sports Teams in Full Swing

Five basketball teams, four soccer squads, a lot of wrestlers and the indomitable Cougar Cheer Squad under first year coach M'riah Bounds are all in action this week as the winter sports season heats up in Felton.


BASKETBALL
Athletic Director, Marcus Northcutt has taken over the coaching duties for the boys varsity team and Laura Lange replaces him as the girls varsity coach.  Riley Park and Brian Elliott will handle the JV teams and Steven Johnson is coaching the freshmen boys team.  
The SCCAL season got underway this week with home losses for both varsity squads against Aptos.  Friday night the girls JV and varsity along with the boys varsity will travel to Santa Cruz for games beginning at 4PM (JV girls) followed by the varsity contests at  5:30 (girls) and 7:00 (boys).  (When the girls teams and boys varsity travel the boys JV and freshmen will play at home and vice a versa, so Friday you can catch the younger boys in Felton against the Cardinals beginning with the JV game at 4 and the freshmen tipping off at 5:30.)  The next week the boys and girls varsity plus the girls JV teams will play Scotts Valley at home on Monday night, travel to Soquel on Wednesday and host Harbor on Friday.


SOCCER
The boys and girls soccer squads also opened league play this week against Harbor. Both varsity teams are coached by former Cougar all stars, Nate Hill and Heidi Romswinckel-Guise.  The boys earned and draw in their opener while the girls fell to the undefeated Pirates.  The girls return to the pitch today at home vs Scotts Valley at 3:30 and travel to Soquel for 6PM match next Tuesday.  The boys are at home Friday for 3:30 match against the Falcons and visit Soquel on Wednesday. The girls JV team is coached by Angela Reling, they will play today at Scotts Valley. Coaching the boys JV team is Dave Okrant.


WRESTLING
Coaches Ken Pollastrini and Julian Romele are building the SLV wrestling team around returning SCCAL and CCS champion senior Logan Kellogg who is undefeated so far this year.  Another league champion, Michael Kraft should also be fun to watch. A number of wrestlers will be competing this Saturday in the Apple Cider Tournament in Watsonville.  SCCAL competition begins on Wednesday, January 19th when the Aptos Mariners come to town for matches beginning at 5:30.  The following Wednesday, 1/26, the Cougars host Soquel.    

SLV Little League Registration for Spring 2011

Registration for Spring 2011 Continues

WALK-IN

The SLVLL board has decided to offer two more walk-in registration opportunities before try-outs in January.  

Thursday, December 16, from 5-7 PM, in the Staff Lounge at SLV High School (VERY last chance for early bird pricing!!)

Wednesday, January 5, from 5-7 PM, in the Staff Lounge at SLV High School

ONLINE:

Online registration began October 18, 2010 and will continue through January 4, 2011.  We've extended early bird pricing to 11:59 PM December 16; after that the price goes up $20 to $150 (sibling discounts still available). Click here to be taken to ONLINE REGISTRATION.

In order to take part in online registration, you will need to be prepared to pay with a credit card (it is a safe, encrypted site).

If you are new to SLV Little League, you must provide the player agent with a copy of your child's birth certificate before your child can be placed on a team.  You can mail it to: 

SLVLL 

ATTN: Player Agent 

P.O. Box 1208

Felton, CA 95018 

Cougar Distance Runners Continue to Impress

The long and proud tradition of great distance runners at SLV under the guidance of Rob Collins and Thea Jorgenson appears to be continuing.

The San Lorenzo Valley High School Cross Country team ran in their first meet Saturday and the results hold promise for the Cougar harriers. The 3 mile course at the Early Bird Invitational at Toro Park in Salinas drew over 1500 runners from 45 schools throughout Northern California.

The freshmen girls, with a 1,2 finish by Anna Maxwell and Abby Sherman combined with Claire MacMillan, Adela Weigel and Jessica Jensen to claim first place among ninth graders. The Sophomore girls, led by Emily Lamb and Raquel Yeomans took 5th place.

In the combined score SLV finished 5th overall out of 39 schools based on combined time and would have placed 3rd had the meet been scored in the traditional manner by finish order. Sophomores Allison Mears, Jennifer Housek, Jesssica Patterson and Juniors Hillery Hershberger and Mariah Lindberg all posted quality times.

Juniors Landis MacMillan and Nick Hicks were the best finishers for the boys. The combined times of MacMillan, Hicks and sophomores Cody Johnson and Karl Johnson and senior Alex Rinkert and freshmen Jacob Hicks was good enough for 8th place overall among the 45 schools competing. Freshmen Matt Abernathy and Junior Branden Caldwell also placed high overall.

The other Cougar boys competing were sophomores, Ran Barton and Daniel Genis, junior, James Spriggs and seniors Nick Sherrell, Erik Johnson, and Dillon Kennedy who all finished with respectable times.

Complete meet results including times can be found here:

http://www.dyestatcal.com/ATHLETICS/XC/2010/ebird.htm
To see Pictures on Facebook click here: 
http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=31492&id=1720196484

Matty Kiel Impressive in Debut

Former SLV standout Matty Kiel scored a touchdown on his first reception and threw for one in the fourth quarter in his first game with the Malone University (Canton, OH) Pioneers of the Mid States Football Association.  His efforts weren’t enough however as the NAIA team lost their season opener to Tiffin University, an NCAA Div II squad, 31-21.

Kiel scored on a 3 yard catch from QB Logan Francis to tie the score at 7-7 in the first quarter.  He caught another pass good for 47 yards but that drive was aborted a play later by an 84 yard interception returned for a touchdown. A nifty 17-yard double-reverse pass from the wide receiver to tight end Ryan Boland on the first play of the fourth quarter pulled the Pioneers to within 10.  On third down and 11 from the Tiffin 17-yard line, the Pioneers managed to find the end zone with a little trickery. After running back Markus McFolling took the snap and a couple of pitches were made behind the line of scrimmage, Kiel threw to a wide-open Boland to trim the Tiffin advantage to 31-21 three seconds into the fourth quarter.

Malone will travel to Davenport, Iowa on Sept 11 to play St Ambrose.

Other Local Athletes in Action:

Defensive lineman Julius Sosaia from Boulder Creek is playing for the Midwestern State Mustangs, in Wichita Falls, Texas.  The Mustangs are ranked 19th in the American Football Coaches' Association's Preseason Division II Coaches' Poll. They are coming off their  first Lone Star Conference championship as the team advanced to the NCAA Division II playoffs for the third time in school history when it closed the 2009 campaign at 9-3.  The Mustangs opened with a 52-6 win at New Mexico Highlands.  Darin McGinness  is a redshirt sophomore for the Azusa Pacific University (Azusa CA) Cougars competing in the Golden West Conference (NAIA).  After coming to school as defensive back he’s been switched to the offense where he hopes to get playing time as a wide receiver.  Darin sat out last year after undergoing shoulder surgery. Midfielder Gabe Hernandez is getting playing time with the Cabrillo Men’s Soccer squad who are in Salinas this weekend to compete in the Hartnell Tournament.

Check out the Philly Press on Pat Burrell's Visit

BURRELL: Giants at Phillies Game Thread, August...
The Good Phight (blog) - ‎2 hours ago‎
Oh, and the return of Pat Burrell, that little subplot. Partly cloudy. Winds blowing in from left field at 5-10 mph Game time temperature around 90. ...
Resurgent Burrell Returns for Key Series
Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia - Ben Seal - ‎1 hour ago‎
Hours before Pat Burrell went to bat against the Phillies for the first time in a meaningful game, he poked his head inside the Giants' ...
Pat the Bat is back
phillyBurbs.com - Kevin Cooney - ‎19 hours ago‎
Former Phillie Pat Burrell returns to Philadelphia with the San Francisco Giants and a lot on the line for both teams. The text messages between Jimmy ...
Former Phillie Burrell having a blast in San Francisco
Philadelphia Daily News - Paul Hagen - ‎18 hours ago‎
Pat Burrell has been a godsend for the Giants ever since. And if that says something about San Francisco's offense, it also says a lot about the former ...
Ex-Phillie Burrell Finding a Niche in San Francisco
Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia - John R. Finger - ‎Aug 16, 2010‎
After being designated for assignment by the Rays in May, Pat Burrell has found a resurgence as a Giant. (AP) By John R. Finger NEW YORK — Contrary to ...
Burrell returns to Philly as a Giant
Blinq (blog) - Steve Kroner - ‎12 hours ago‎
JEFF CHIU / Associated Press Pat Burrell averaged 28 homers with the Phillies. "More than anything," he said, "I appreciated the fact that I think the fans ...

SLV Coach Doug Morris Ranks High in CCS

SLV High Football coach Doug Morris is fourth on the list of winningest active coaches in the Central Coast Section. Coach Morris ranks 15th on the list of career wins among all coaches in the CCS going back to the 1950's.  (Number 3 among active coaches is former SLV and current Palo Alto High School coach Earl Hansen.)

The Cougar's coach is far and away the leader among active coaches in the County and trails only Dewey Tompkins in career wins in the SCCAL.

Morris has 169 wins in 22 seasons. Former Soquel coach Tompkins had 187 wins in his 32 years at the helm of the Knights and former Holy Cross and Marello Prep coach Norm Costa had 253 wins in his 36 years of coaching although most of his wins came in 22 seasons at Palma.

Los Gatos Coach Butch Cattolico with 239 wins is the leader among active coaches and former Saratoga coach Benny Pierce amassed 269 wins in 34 years and holds the record for most wins by a CCS coach according to records compiled by Don Nash and John Spalding and published by Dennis Knight in his After School Blog for the Mercury News.

SLV LITTLE LEAGUE FALL BALL TRY-OUTS AND REGISTRATION!
(Via www.SLVLittleLeague.org)

You asked for it and it's coming - the 2010 Fall Ball Season is getting underway.  We are looking forward to another successful year.  Last year we had 85 players participate.  This is a great opportunity for all players interested in playing baseball to improve their game and have a lot of fun.  We are looking into interleague play at least for our upper division teams (no guarantees, but we hope it can happen).

Registration and tryouts:

Registration and tryouts will be held at 9:00 am at the pony field on Saturday August 7^th and Saturday August 14^th.  Final cost is still to be determined; we try to keep it as low as possible, as close as possible to the price last year.

Managers and coaches:

We are calling all managers and coaches that are interested to apply for positions.  If you filled out volunteer forms for the Spring 2010 season, they remain on file through the fall ball season.  Otherwise, new managers and coaches will need to fill out a Volunteer Form (look on the Handouts and Forms page).

 

Please email Charlie Prograce at charlie@r3ce.com. Cell number 831-588-7628.

Ben Lomond's Andy Levitre Impresses in NFL Debut on Monday Night Football

Andy Levitre, former standout lineman for SLV High School and Oregon State made his NFL debut for the Buffalo Bills in a heartbreaking loss to the New England Patriots in Foxboro. Levitre impressed announcer Ron Jaworski early on and then got a downfield block out in front of Fred Jackson on a screenplay which netted 21 yards on the Bills first touchdown drive.