SPORTS

Student athlete Darren Gemoll: A coach’s dream

By Miranda Schultz
Sports Editor

Darren Gemoll is basically the student athlete most coaches dream of. He has an impeccable GPA, excellent work ethic and a monumental love of baseball. Leland’s first baseman is simply a model student athlete.

Stanford bound with a 3.96 GPA, the 5-foot-11-inch, 210-pound lefty switch hitter also posted six school records last season. Most homeruns and RBI in one game; highest batting average in a season (.603); most hits in a season (45); most stolen bases in a season (29); and highest slugging percentage in a season (.969). Gemoll transferred from Bellarmine before his junior year, and has been on varsity for three years, (one at Bellarmine).

Baseball was instilled in Gemoll at a young age. He began his career at the age of 3, playing in the yard with his two older brothers, Brandon, 23 and Justin, 26.

“I started T-ball when I was 6, and I’ve been playing ever since. I played a lot of sports, but baseball was the sport I looked forward to the most,” says Gemoll.

“Baseball has taught me leadership as well as just working with people. I work well with others in class. It’s given me a strong work ethic. I don’t just work hard at baseball. I take how hard I prepare for a game and I do that in class as well,” he says.

Gemoll says that baseball keeps his family close. Having his brothers to set an example has really given him an advantage. He watched as his two older brothers were recruited into the minor leagues. “They were always asked, ‘What is your GPA? What is your SAT score?’” says Gemoll.

He also watched as his older brothers were injured playing in the minors. “I signed with Stanford because I know that I’ll need an education to fall back on. Both of my brothers got hurt, and I figured Stanford is a pretty good education to fall back on,” Gemoll will attend Stanford on a baseball scholarship.

Gemoll said he had a 4.0 GPA until the second semester of his junior year. “I got my first B. I got one B all through high school.”

He doesn’t know what he wants to major in at Stanford, but his father Gary has a feeling he’ll be successful there. “I think he has what it takes to succeed at the next level. He’s coachable and driven. He understands that you don’t just show up, that it takes a lot of work to succeed in the classroom as well as on the field. It isn’t going to be easy; it’s a national program and they get such tremendous athletes throughout the country. I wish it would be a cakewalk but I know better,” says Gary.

The Leland baseball head coach agrees. “He is a great team leader with an incredible work ethic. He is a pleasure to coach and an extremely talented baseball player with great character. I expect he’ll do well at Stanford.”

Gemoll’s older brothers have shed a light on him that may have given him a great advantage in some ways, but according to Gary, can also be a curse. “He’s been around a lot of highly successful athletes; many guys that my boys have played with have gone on to the big leagues. He’s seen what you have to do to prepare yourself for success, but a lot of people hold him to a different standard because of his brothers,” says Gary.

Gemoll doesn’t actually know what drives him, but he knows he loves baseball. “Baseball has kept my brothers close, and it has kept me close with my parents. My family has been so supportive. My dad works very hard for us, and I want to work hard for myself, and for them,” says Gemoll.

Gemoll was first team all league last year in the BVAL Mt. Hamilton division, and second team all CCS. He was also first team all league in football as a linebacker. This season, he’s hitting .405 with 13 stolen bases.
“My biggest accomplishment so far is either getting a scholarship to Stanford, or my batting average last year,” says Gemoll.

Gemoll and the Leland baseball team embark on CCS play against San Benito on Wednesday.

Leland finishes strong at CCS swim finals
Monsees shine

By Justin Petersen
Staff Writer

May 15 marked the end of the 2004 Monsees’ season. This past weekend at CCS Finals, Leland High School’s record books were caught in a torrential downpour of broken records coming at the webbed hands and feet of Zac and Courtney Monsees. Senior Zac and freshman Courtney secured three CCS titles between them, in addition to the destruction of five historic school swim records.

“It was a fun day,” said proud dad and Leland boys’ swim coach, Mike Monsees. Daughter Courtney was the only freshman to win an event, taking first place in the 500-yard freestyle race, while son, Zac, won the 200- and 500-yard freestyle events for the third consecutive year. An added bonus, Zac and Courtney secured two All-American awards each, finishing with qualifying times in 200- and 500-yard freestyle.

Courtney, who has already qualified for U.S. Olympic Swim Team Trials, took home an additional Leland record, breaking the 100-yard freestyle mark with her swim in Leland’s 400-yard relay.

“Obviously she was awesome,” said Leland girls’ coach, Mike Haake. Courtney accounted for 37 of the Leland girls’ 75 points.

Zac, who came within hundredths of a second in breaking Leland’s 500-yard freestyle record last year, suffered no such letdown this season. The U.C. Berkeley-bound senior left his mark amongst Charger legends, finishing with the top mark in both the 500-yard free and 200-yard individual medley events.

The Leland girls’ 200-yard relay team also scored well, finishing ninth overall with a time of 1:42:74. The relay consisted of Monsees, Nichole Atkin, Casie Armstrong and Melanie Plott.

“I’m very proud of the girls this year,” said Haake, whose team finished 12th overall. “Last year we weren’t even in the top 20.” Haake expects even more next year, mentioning realistic hopes of a top 10 finish in 2005, despite graduating three top swimmers in Atkin, Jenny Wickersham and Katherine Kirtland, and one diver, Tiffany Ryan.

“We won’t know what the incoming freshman class is like until they show up, but with our performance this year and with the number of talented returners, it doesn’t really matter.”

As for the boys, Coach Monsees loses, arguably, one of the most talented swimmers in Leland history with his son, Zac, headed up Hwy. 880 to Berkeley. However, the future is bright as the Blossom Valley Athletic League, Mount Hamilton Division champion, frosh-soph squad shoots up the ranks.

“The longer you swim, the better you get,” said Monsees, commenting on the success of the Leland swim program, coupled with off-season endeavors such as water polo. The Chargers also finished 12th in CCS boys’ standings.

This summer, Leland will host water polo practice, thanks to a new heating system in the Charger pool. For more information regarding dates and times, contact Leland High School at (408) 535-6290.

Sports Schedules

Leland High School

Thursday 5/20
Badminton CCS TBA

Saturday 5/22
Baseball CCS playoffs TBA
Track & Field CCS semi-finals SJ City College TBA

Wednesday 5/26
Baseball CCS playoffs TBA

Pioneer High School

Saturday 5/22
Track & Field CCS Finals TBA

Sports Roundup

By Miranda Schultz
Sports Editor

The Leland golf team tied for seventh in the CCS playoffs with a score of 394. Competition ended at Rancho Canada on Tuesday, and senior Erich Wegscheider had the lowest score for Leland with a 72. Wegscheider’s score put him into a playoff to advance to Norcals, but he was eliminated on the third playoff hole.

“Overall, I think the team will benefit from the experience and we should be able to accomplish more next year. I think we had a good year and I am proud of the whole team. We made it further than a lot of other teams, and it was nice to be participating in the finals this year and not waiting to read about what happened in the newspaper,” says Head Coach Adam Schiro.

Although Schiro is proud of many performances, he feels that the amount of disappointments will drive them to do better next year.

The Leland softball team received the number-four seed in division one for the CCS playoffs. They played Westmont on Thursday and won 4-2. The game was 1-0 until the sixth inning when Westmont tied the score. Senior Jamie Vranich came along and hit a three-run triple in the top of the seventh.

Head Coach Joe Gron says, “This was our 20th victory on the season, so it made it more special for us.”
The girls end their regular season play with a record of 20-6, and play number-13 seed, Aptos High School on Wednesday. A victory will place them possibly against Oak Grove on Saturday at PAL Stadium at noon.

“This has been a great year,” says Gron. “We’ve worked hard, and as long as we keep doing what we’re doing and swinging the bats, it will take care of itself when it’s game time.”

Nothing less than expected

Leland boys volleyball team bids farewell to a season

By Miranda Schultz
Sports Editor

The Leland volleyball team didn’t disappoint Head Coach Jason Hilbert this season. At the beginning of each season, Hilbert writes down his predictions for the season, to be revealed at the end of the season. This year, he wrote that the guys would have a 12-4 league record and be 22-12 overall. He knew what he was working with. The boys ended their 2004 season with a 22-13 overall record, and went 13-3 in the BVAL Santa Teresa division, a second place finish.

The boys were defeated in the quarterfinals of CCS, blown away by top team Los Gatos High School. “I’m not upset about losing to them at all,” says Hilbert. “They’re the best team of all. They’ll probably win the whole thing this year.”

Los Gatos certainly had the height over the Leland boys; one member of their team was a 6-foot-7-inch senior who will be attending Long Beach State in the fall. “The only thing that even made our guys 6 feet is their hairstyles,” says Hilbert laughing.

Hilbert wouldn’t have changed anything this season. He did have some surprising performances by sophomore Scott Lucas. “I pulled him up to train as a middle blocker, and he ended up starting. He got a lot more playing time than even I expected. He was the only guy who could pass that Long Beach guy’s serve in the Los Gatos game,” says Hilbert.

Also pulling their weight for the season were junior outside hitters Tommy Phan and Sam Lee. “They were awesome; every coach made a comment about both of them. They came out of the blue as far as the league is concerned,” says Hilbert.

“We couldn’t have had the season we had without our setter, Jeff Kwok. He was our number-one setter. He’s a leader all the way, very quiet leader, but all of the guys definitely looked up to him,” says Hilbert. Kwok set up senior Noah Hall to lead the way in kills with 214 for the season.

The guys ended their season with a loss to Los Gatos, but weren’t disappointed about that. More so, they were, as a team disappointed they didn’t achieve the league title.

“We were all disappointed that we didn’t win the league title,” says Hilbert. “We played some great volleyball and the young guys got better. I initially thought we would get third in the league this year, but halfway through, I knew we had a shot at the title. But oh well, we had our chances. We have a lot of promise for next year, our JV guys won the league, we just reload.”

In the three years Hilbert has coached the team, they haven’t finished lower than second in the league. “I wouldn’t have changed a thing this season. We have a winning program and a winning tradition. We have three straight 20-win seasons. I think there are a lot of programs that wish they had what we have.”

Former Charger Dan Mollo places sixth in State Meet
Dan Mollo, former Central Coast Section 400-meter champion for Leland High School (Class of 2002), didn’t finish his West Valley College career as strong as he had hoped. But finishing sixth in the State Community College Track and Field Championships closed a string of oh-so-close performances.

Mollo finished second in the Coast Conference Championships in Salinas, fourth in the Northern California Championships in Modesto, and finally he clocked a 48.86-second effort at the State meet in Bakersfield last weekend.

“I think I peaked a littler early and ended on a little lull,” said Mollo, who set a personal best of 48.21 in the Coast Conference Trials, and backed it up with a 48.24 in the final. In the Nor Cal Meet, he was timed in 48.81.
Leland coach Jerry Rose said that someone with Mollo’s work ethic would be valuable to any four-year college program, but Mollo said he will spend another year at West Valley to finish his Associate of Arts degree.
—By Karl Laucher

Spirited Special Olympics athletes compete Saturday
Special Olympic athletes will show off their hard work on Saturday May 22 at 9 a.m. at Stanford University. Watching these spirited athletes will inspire anyone in attendance. Competition will follow opening ceremonies. For more information, visit www.sonc.org.

Citywide youth track meet
On Sunday, May 23, the City of San Jose Police Amateur Athletic Foundation will sponsor a track meet open to boys and girls born between 1990 and 1995. Track events include the 50-, 100-, 200-, 400-, 800- and 1600-meter runs and the 4X100. Field events include the standing long jump and softball throw. The event is at Evergreen Valley High School, beginning at 10 a.m. Registration is free, and is 8-9:30 a.m. Call Kathy Carrillo for more information at (408) 369-3900, or e-mail Kathy.Carrillo@sanjoseca.gov.

A ‘fund’ time was had by all Mustang boosters

The 11th annual Mustang Stampede golf tournament, held last week at the Santa Teresa Golf Course, grossed some $28,000 with 144 participants hacking divots in behalf of the Pioneer High School athletic programs. But most importantly, said tourney coordinator Jeff Steinberg, was the convivial atmosphere and the hospitality shown by the golf club. The winning team (inset) included (from left) John Franza, Jim Marino, Dean Correa and (not pictured) Leo Hermoso. Among the cheerful participants were (from left) Joe Berticevich, Gary Scott Thomas (KRTY morning radio show host), Mark Krail (Pioneer athletic director), Kevin Jones, Greg Bernarding, and John Lapava. Marino proved to be a double winner, also holding the raffle ticket that awarded him a week’s use of a motorhome donated by Alan Cezar of Family RV on Monterey Road.

—By Karl Laucher

Almaden Cyclery progenitor for ST Bikes/Memorial Day races

They started as the frisky sons of Bill and Barbara Ruffner, owners of Almaden Valley Bikes in the Almaden Oaks Shopping Plaza. They’re still the energized offspring, but now John (left) and Bill Ruffner have bought the business from their parents and have morphed the establishment, founded 1973, into ST Bikes, located in the Waterford Shopping Center on Capitol Expressway. The Ruffner brothers (Bill is 38, John is 36), both graduates of Pioneer High School, sponsor many activities for youth, but they are most focused on cycling, and, at this time of year, especially on the ST Bikes Memorial Day Criterium set for Monday, May 31 in Morgan Hill. Some 300 riders are expected to participate in the criterium on a 1.1-mile loop at Cochran and Sutter streets behind the Target store. The event is part of a two-day competition gut-buster that includes the Mount Hamilton Hill Climb staged the pervious day. The pros and top-category amateurs will start the 164-mile Mt. Hamilton race between 8 and 8:30 a.m. at Joseph George Middle School on Mahoney Drive. Racing in the ST Bikes Criterium begins at 8 a.m. with the pro women going off at about 2 p.m. followed by the pro men at 3:15 p.m. Any hopes John Ruffner might have had as a competitive cyclist were set back when injured in a motorcycle accident as a policeman several years ago. Bill Ruffner, meanwhile, is a longtime triathlete just getting into competitive cycling as a road racer. He will be entered in the Category 5 field (lowest of the rankings) on Memorial Day looking for a top-third finish. For more information on ST Bikes, call 408 264-2453. For more information on the races call (650) 969-6456 or go online at www.teamsanjose.org.

—By Karl Laucher

Players of the Week

Zac and Courtney Monsees
School: Leland, senior and freshman
Sport: swimming

Probably the most prolific sibling duo in Leland High School history, senior Zac Monsees and his sister, freshman Courtney, rewrote the record books this weekend at the CCS finals. Courtney set Charger records in the 200-, 500- and 100-yard freestyle events while Zac took the 200-yard individual medley and the 500-yard freestyle events.

In addition, Zac won two CCS events (the 200 and 500 races) while Courtney was the only freshman to win an event outright, finishing first in the 500-yard free and second in the 200-yard freestyle event.

“It was a good day,” was the understatement from Dad and Leland boys’ swim coach Mike Monsees.
Next year, Zac is headed to UC Berkeley to play water polo and continue swimming, while Courtney will return to Leland for three more years of high school competition.

The Monsees also secured two All-American awards and are in consideration for three others.
Wanna race?

Lopes, DeLay, Ramon earn BVAL titles
Tangled route to CCS Trials spurs call for change

By Karl Laucher
Staff Writer

Let not the well-deserved 800-meter championship of Sean Lopes of Pioneer High School be tainted by the imperfect policies of the Blossom Valley Athletic League track and field championships. Beyond reproach, of course, would be 3200-meter champion Alex Ramon of Leland High and 1600-meter titlist Steven DeLay of Pioneer. At least they ran head-to-head with all of the competition. Well almost.

More on that later. The good news for the top nine BVAL athletes in the competition held Thursday at Mount Pleasant High School was that they qualified for the Central Coast Section Trials set for Saturday at San Jose City College. Field events begin at 9:30 a.m.; the first foot race goes off at 11.

Well, not exactly all of the top nine survived from the Thursday competition, but more on that later.
Because the BVAL championships, in the running events from 100 to 800 meters, are conducted as heats without a final round—places determined on times—woe be it to the ambitious runners who are placed in the slow heat.
Case in point: The Leland girls 4x400 relay team won their heat by some 30 meters, running about three legs of the race without any competition in sight. But when compared by time to the heat won by Silver Creek, the Charger ladies were reduced to fourth place in the standings.

It was double jeopardy for Leland junior Jessica Chen, who handily won her heat of the 300 hurdles, but timewise was second best to Oak Grove’s Iosefa, a runner Jessica had never lost to before.

“It’s not fair to any of them,” commented Leland Co-Coach Jerry Rose. “If they’re not in the fast heat, they get screwed. Jessica is a gamer. She runs to win.” Chen’s time of 49:94 was three one-hundreds of a second behind Iosefa. Rose said he plans to propose some rule changes at the post-season coaches meeting.

On another gut-wrenching policy note, both Leland and Pioneer lost a would-be CCS trials qualifier in a special run-off held Monday for “hardship” cases, athletes who could not be at the BVAL meet because of either illness or superseding obligations. Thus Pioneer’s Jeff Higashi, eighth in the 3200 on Thursday, and Leland’s Monica Song, ninth in the girls 3200, were eliminated.

Despite the belated loss of Higashi, Pioneer Coach Mark Krail was feeling good about the showing of his charges, who ascended from the tier-three West Valley division of the BVAL to compete well in the 22-team BVAL final.

“We’re really pleasantly surprised to see how well a majority of our kids did,” he said. “(Fifteen) kids (including all four relay teams) going to CCS is phenomenal for us.”

While Lopes, who has the second fastest time this year in the CCS at 800 meters, is likely to continue using the 200 meters as a speed-enhancement system (he placed fifth in the BVAL meet), the busiest of the Mustangs is likely to be Harold Richardson, who qualified for the CCS trials in four events: the 100 meters, high jump, long jump and 4x100 relay. Camille Brown, runner-up at 400 meters and fourth in the 200 meters, also will have a 4x400 relay assignment on Saturday and Bianca Chavous has earned racing rights in both the 200 and 400 and both relays at CCS.

The runner the Mustangs will be looking to replace the bundles of points produced by Lopes this year is DeLay, a junior who won the 1600 meters in impressive fashion, giving the Chargers’ Ramon his first BVAL loss of the year. Ramon finished third at 1600, after getting stuck behind the pack at the beginning, but was a virtual wire to wire leader as he later clinched his first BVAL 3600 championship. “He is running like a man possessed,” commented Rose during Ramon’s 3600-meter effort. “He’s really mad at himself after that mile run.”

Among the slight disappointments for Pioneer was the performance by strongman Rolando Gomez, who went undefeated though the BVAL West Valley campaign only to settle for third in the discus and seventh in the shot, falling several feet behind his best performances in both events.

There still much to be played out before the 2004 season closes. Leland is looking for more senior luminescence from Ramon while emerging players, such as sophomore Connie Wang (third in the BVAL 800 meters) and freshman Dana McKenzie (second in the BVAL high jump) will have much to do with the Chargers’ status as a top-tier BVAL Mount Hamilton Division entry next year. Pioneer likewise has a shooting star in Lopes as well as a bright future in array of fresh faces.

The CCS Championships will be held at SJCC on Friday, May 28.