July 6, 2006

SPORTS

The early bird gets the worm—and the workout

Leland football commits to hitting the gym during the wee
hours of summer to prepare for 2006-07 season

By Diego Abeloos
Sports Editor

Six a.m. No snoring football players catching up on sleep. Instead, the players are sweating and grunting it out during a weightlifting session at Leland.

And that’s just how they like it.

While several of their classmates are enjoying the summer by sleeping in until the late-morning hours, the Leland football players are committed to working themselves into the best possible shape for the upcoming 2006-07 football season by taking part in early morning workouts that begin at 6 a.m., an unlikely occurrence for many teenagers. What is perhaps even more unlikely is that the players voted for it as well.

Leland defensive lineman Joe Peera works out in the early morning hours with a pair of 120-pound dumbbells in the Leland weight training room on June 30. Photo by Diego Abeloos

“Football is the first priority,” said Leland running back Lance Gemette. “The summer, you need summer to get through the whole experience. …It’s cold, but when you’re sweating, everything’s fine.”

The early morning sessions, which include one hour of weightlifting each morning as well as ample time out on the field taking part in cardiovascular exercises, are a part of the Leland football program’s dedicated goal in making the 2006-07 season a successful one under head coach Jason Tenner.

To that end, the Chargers, who finished last season with a Mt. Hamilton Division record of 2-5, are focusing on conditioning as a way to better the team overall. After all, said Tenner, how good is a team without being in the best shape possible?

“We have great kids,” said Tenner. “We have the type of kids who are trying to take the program to the next level, and they made a commitment to getting up and doing things early. With the parents’ support behind them, it’s enabled us to do a lot more things. …We’re working on laying the foundation for a successful 06-07 season.”

“It’s the main thing,” added Gemette of the conditioning program. “If you’re not conditioned, you’re not on the field. He (Tenner) makes that very clear.”

And while the early morning routine of lifting weights and other exercises is clearly about getting into shape, it’s also an exercise in commitment to the team for the players as well, said Tenner.

“It kind of helps you weed out those who think, ‘I might want to play, but I’m not sure,’” said Tenner. “… Those kids fall by the wayside. It has a way working out. The ones who are committed and who buy in, will do whatever you ask because they want to be successful and they know what you’re asking them to do will make the team more successful.”

Although the regular season is still weeks away, Tenner is also planning on getting his players as much on-field experience as possible this summer by having the team take part in several football camps. The Chargers will get an ample dose of the varsity experience when the team will compete against other schools in the Competitive Edge Football camp at Piedmont Hills High School on July 10-12. The camp, and other like it that the Chargers take part in, will allow the team to see the speed of the varsity game and provide the players with some on-field experience prior to the start of the season.

For Tenner, the entire package of early morning workouts and football camps is a necessary component in building a successful Leland football team in 2006-07.

“We’re not blessed with the biggest and fastest athletes,” Tenner said. “So we have to work to get to that level, so we can compete with the teams in our league. All the teams out here have good athletes and play good football. We’re just trying to give our kids the tools that they need to be successful in the fall and give them the ability to compete with their peers at other schools.”

Sports Briefs

Cheer coaches needed for South Valley Pop Warner
Cheer coaches are needed for South Valley Pop Warner. If you're interested in joining a team of outstanding coaches, call Tiana Zarate at (408) 464-3285 or Teresa Smith at (408) 603-8280, or go to http://www.stpopwarner.org/

Sports officials needed for high school sports
FERMAR Corporation, which contracts with high schools in Santa Clara County, is recruiting officials for high school athletics. Officials are needed for fall season sports such as football, volleyball and field hockey.

Men and women are encouraged to apply. No experience is necessary, as FERMAR will provide training through classes, clinics and tests. All training materials are provided.

Officials are paid $32-$61 per game, depending on the sport and level of competition. Additional opportunities to officiate youth and adult sports are also available.

Interested parties are encouraged to call FERMAR at (408) 567-1700.

Central Valley Edge Class 3, U18 girls’ team seeks players
Central Valley Edge Class 3, U18 girls’ soccer team, is looking for players born after July 31, 1988 for the upcoming fall season. Contact Coach Ary Afsari at afsari@comcast.net or call (408) 507-7008 for more detailed information.

Almaden Valley’s All-Star cheer team, Cheer Divas, host cheerleading signups
The Cheer Divas program has a few spots available for the 2006-2007 season. Practices are held at Almaden Valley Gymnastics.  For more information call 408-370-DIVA or visit www.CheerDivas.com.

New chief in town for Chargers’ basketball

Ed Campbell takes over young and inexperienced Leland boys’ basketball team

By Diego Abeloos
Sports Editor

For the Leland boys’ basketball team, the 2006 summer league will provide an opportunity for new and returning players to get familiar with, of all things, a new head coach.

Ed Campbell, who previously coached the Leland boys’ frosh/soph squad for two seasons, is taking over the reigns of the varsity program, after being named the head coach following Dave Frandsen’s retirement at the end of April.

Being around the basketball court and calling the shots isn’t something new for Campbell, who has a combined total of over 15 years of basketball coaching experience.

“I’m real excited about it,” said Campbell, who was recommended for the new position by Frandsen. “I had a great experience working with Dave the last couple of years. It’s a real nice group of kids and we have a good group of parents. It’s really rewarding to be able to move into the head coaching spot after working hard the last two years.”

Campbell originally joined the coaching ranks at Bellarmine in the late 1980s, working under boys’ head coach Steve Pinkston, before becoming the boys’ head coach at Sacred Heart Prep.

From there, Campbell took over the boys’ basketball program at Santa Clara High School before taking a two-year break to move to the East Coast with his wife. Upon his return to the South Bay, Campbell found himself back at Santa Clara, this time as an assistant coach for the girls’ basketball program. Before joining the coaching ranks at Leland, where he also spent some time helping out coaching the girls’ basketball team, Campbell also experienced coaching at the junior college level as an assistant for the Foothill College boys’ basketball team.

“I’ve had some opportunities to get some experience at different levels,” Campbell said of his coaching career. “I think that’ll be beneficial for me over here at Leland. Hopefully, I’ll be here for a long time and I won’t have to worry about any more stops.”

In his first year as the boys’ head coach for Leland, Campbell will inherit a young and inexperienced team, with several of his top players from the frosh/soph ranks joining the varsity squad. Following the end of the 2005-06 season, the Leland boys’ basketball program lost nine seniors to graduation, leaving only six players with varsity experience on the team. Of those six returning players, only forwards Collin Gootee, Adam Munoz and Daniel Ortiz saw most of the varsity action on the court as bench players.

To that end, Campbell said he’s open to anything that may transpire during the summer league action in terms of determining his starting lineup for the upcoming winter season, including starting a few of his frosh/soph players from last season.

As for his coaching style, Campbell said he’s different from Frandsen in several ways.

“I think Dave is a little more of a fiery type of personality,” said Campbell. “…I tend, I think, to have a little bit more of a cerebral approach to coaching. It’s not that I won’t get in kids’ faces if they need it, but I like to do it where, if I do it, the kids know something’s up. It’s been my experience as a player and a coach that if you rely on it too much, the kids tend to let it go in one ear and out the other.”

Instead, Campbell prefers to view the basketball team as a class or business, using well-planned strategies on the court to see the team succeed. However Campbell views the team, he also realizes the need for players with talent to make it all work.

“What I view the basketball program as is an advanced placement class,” said Campbell following a 38-22 loss to Andrew Hill on June 27, leaving the Chargers winless to date in summer league play.

“We don’t allow everybody to be on the team. There is a certain skill set that needs to be required in order to play, just like if you want to go into an advanced chemistry class or a calculus class at school. You’re going to have certain (prerequisites) that you’re going to have to keep up. Since I view it as an advanced placement class, I try to take the approach that we’re really going to work every day and it’s incumbent for them to learn how they have to motivate themselves,” added Campbell.

Several Leland and Pioneer players to represent schools at
32nd Annual Charlie Wedemeyer All-Star Football Game

Class of 2006 Leland High School alumni Melis Barota, Mike Dally, and Travis Delamore, as well as class of 2006 Pioneer High School alumni Shaun Souza, Nick D’Antonio, C.J. Miller, and J.J. Goulden have been selected to represent their high schools in the 32nd annual Silicon Valley classic, the Charlie Wedemeyer All-Star Football Game, on Wednesday, July 19 at 7:30 p.m. at San Jose City College.

They will join the South team as they try to add an 18th overall win against the North Squad, which currently holds 12 wins total. The teams are composed of the best graduating high school football players in the Silicon Valley.

Melis Barota, a 5-foot-10-inch, 200-pound defensive lineman, was named to First Team All League (DL) Blossom Valley Athletic League. The Leland Chargers recognized him as Most Valuable Player. Barota not only has excelled on the field, but in the classroom as well. He has been on the honor roll for the past three years. He has received the Principal’s Award, Scholar Athlete Award by the National Football Foundation, and 4/5 in AP U.S. History. He will attend Foothill College in the fall.

“Melis is an undersized defensive lineman who possesses great strength and speed for someone his size,” said South head coach Jason Tenner, who is also the Leland head football coach. “He is an intelligent football player who is a factor in each and every play.”

Mike Dally, a 6-foot-1-inch, 175-pound defensive lineman, was the team captain for the Leland Chargers, and received the Coach’s Award. He was also an Honor roll student for the last four years. He will attend San Diego State University in the fall.

“Mike is a fast, tough defensive end who plays with reckless abandon,” said Tenner. “I had him at Leland and you could always count on him to be in on the play.”

Travis Delamore, a 6-foot-1-inch, 195-pound tight end/defensive lineman, was the Chargers team captain and received the Coach’s Award. He was named Competitive Edge Football Camp Big Camp Stud. Delamore is also an honor roll student. He will be attending De Anza College in the fall.

“Travis is an outstanding blocker at the point of attack,” said Tenner.

Shaun Souza, a 5-foot-10-inch, 180-pound running back, received Honorable Mention All Mercury News (RB), First Team All League (RB) in the Blossom Valley Athletic League, and League Senior of the Year. The Pioneer Mustangs named him Most Valuable Player and Offensive Back of the Year. Souza is also an honor roll student and will attend Menlo College in the fall.

“Shaun is a complete back who possesses blazing speed, and is capable of hitting a homerun on any play,” said Tenner.

Nick D’Antonio, a 5-foot-11-inch, 180-pound defensive back, was named League Utility Player of the Year. He received First Team All League BVAL, and was acknowledged as Cal Hi Sports Offensive Player of the Week. D’Antonio also excels in the classroom having been on the honor roll all four years. He will be joining his teammate, Souza, in attending Menlo College in the fall.

“Nick is a talented defensive back with great cover skills. Has a nose for the ball and is capable of shutting down anyone he lines up across from,” said Tenner.

C.J. Miller, a 6-foot, 195-pound linebacker, was named the team’s Linebacker of the Year, and to First Team All League (DL) BVAL. He will attend Gavilan College in the fall.

“C.J. is an athletic, active linebacker who can not only stuff the run, but who also possesses good cover skills,” said Tenner.

J.J. Goulden, a 6-foot-2-inch, 180-pound wide receiver/free safety, was awarded League Special Team Player of the Year and to the First Teams All League (WR) BVAL. He was the Mustangs team captain and was recognized as their Most Valuable Defensive Back. Goulden also excels in academics receiving the National Football Scholar Athlete Award. He will attend Gavilan College in the fall.

“J.J. is an awesome speedy skilled player capable of stretching a defense vertically. He is also a wideout that catches everything thrown his way,” said Tenner.

Charlie Wedemeyer is a former college football player and the 1960s Prep Player of the Decade in Hawaii. He attended Punahou Academy and Michigan State University on athletic scholarships.

In 1977, he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and was give three years to live. He is still alive today and is the founder of the Charlie Wedemeyer Family Outreach. The program’s mission is to fight ALS. He will be at the game to encourage players and show his support for this grand tradition.

Past stars include former Arizona Cardinal Pat Tillman; former San Francisco 49ers Jeff Garcia, Brent Jones, and Carl Monroe; former Dallas Cowboy Doug Cosbie; and current 49er Jeff Ulbrich.

Tickets for the 32nd Annual Charlie Wedemeyer All-Star Football Game are $15 and can be purchased at the San Jose Box Office. All proceeds from the game will benefit the Charlie Wedemeyer Family Outreach and other local charities. For more information about this event, visit www.youthclassic.org.

Manifest destiny

Leigh grad Steve Bethune to cover country on foot, 40 miles at a time

By Justin Petersen and
Diego Abeloos
Times Staff

What’s the farthest you’ve ever run?

Most likely it’s not as far as Leigh High grad Steve Bethune hopes to attempt in the next couple of weeks. He will jog out of New York City on Aug. 15, embarking on a 3,000-mile run home to San Jose, while raising money to aid the American Heart Association.

Leigh grad Steve Bethune intends to cover the country on foot. He will depart from New York City on August 15, and plans to run 40 miles each day for three months, on his return to San Jose. Photo by Katie Thrapp

Bethune said he will complete the trek, covering 40 miles each day, in approximately three months, while he pounds the pavement in search of sponsors between legs, aiming to raise $50,000.

He’ll cover 3,000 miles and consume 700,000 calories—8,000 daily—while a friend, Katie Thrapp, trails behind him in a pickup truck with a camper shell. Along the way, Bethune and Thrapp plan on camping at various campsites throughout the country as an economical way to have a place to rest at night.

“She’s been really great about this whole thing,” Bethune said of Thrapp. “She and her mom (Roz Thrapp) actually are helping to plan it too. They’re going through, looking up campsites across the way. She’s gotten me a bunch of maps. They’ve stocked up on food for the trip already. And it’s her mom’s truck that we’re taking across (country).”

Bethune chose to run for heart disease in part because of the direct affect running, and physical activity in general, has on the disease.

“When I was looking for a cause to do the run for, I decided on heart disease for several reasons,” said Bethune, who plans to leave for New York on August 3, tracing over the course he plans on running back to San Jose. “Because of the family members I lost to it … it’s the number one killer in America, especially for women. Whereas running doesn’t have a direct impact on something like cancer, it directly affects heart disease. I mean, those are kind of the three reasons I chose this, because it’s such a prevailing disease in our society today.”

The 25-year-old Bethune, who spent the past year teaching sixth graders at Los Osos Middle School in Los Osos, near San Luis Obispo, witnessed the tragic effects of heart disease firsthand several years ago, when his grandfather passed away from the ailment. In addition, Bethune also had a great uncle, whom he did not know, who passed away from the debilitating effects of heart disease decades ago.

“I’m hoping that the run helps bring attention to heart disease and maybe inspires people to get out there and run, or at least inspires people to become more active,” he said.

Sporting world
Bethune is no old pro, but running for a purpose is familiar to him.

As kids, Bethune and his brother would sprint to and from Guadalupe Elementary School, never breaking stride between the family’s Montevideo neighborhood home and school.

A neighbor said that’s what she remembers most about the boys, bobbing past her house everyday.

But Bethune said it was strictly survival and that running was a lesser hobby.

While running will go down as his most noted sporting accomplishment, swimming is the 6-foot-5-inch, 185-pound teacher’s first sporting love, a sport he competed in for four years at Leigh. In addition, Bethune also enjoyed the hobby of playing hackey-sack.

Bethune first pictured himself running across the country during his senior year while doing undergraduate studies at UCSB.

“I read about a guy doing it,” said Bethune. “I had never heard of people running across the country before. I became intrigued at that point, but I forgot about it for a couple of years.”

Bethune was reminded last summer, while traveling in Tokyo. He said he watched in awe while Japan’s National footbag team held practice, and that the dedication displayed by Japanese hackey-sackers plucked an emotional chord within him.

“It wasn’t so much what they could do, but the fact that they had dedicated themselves to something so completely and I wanted to know what that felt like,” said Bethune.

Training regimen
The college experience ended last December for Bethune, with a teaching credential earned from Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo.

“I was in that area between college and career, and I have always wanted to do something big,” Bethune said. “I love a challenge and this would be a big challenge. I have never run track or cross country before. I have never truly tested myself.”

Bethune was running four miles daily last August, when he decided to cover the country.

Building from the four-mile base, Bethune has tacked an additional mile onto his course every two weeks. He is currently at 35 miles per day, with plans set to reach 40 miles per day at the start of the run.

Leigh high graduate Steve Bethune stands in front of a pyramid of supplements provided to him by Hammer Nutrition for the cross-country run. Photo courtesy of Ann Bethune

During training for the run, Bethune initially passed the time listening to his MP3 player, which held approximately 60 songs. Tired of listening to the same songs while running the same course over and over again, Bethune switched to listening to books on tape. That led to a sponsorship from All Ears Audio Books in Saratoga, which is providing Bethune with a free one-month, four-book membership.

“I’d listen to those and it got to the point where some of the books were so good that I’d want to get out and run just so I could hear what would happen next,” Bethune said of listening to the books on tape. “It really helped out, it became less tedious at that point. …It made the run seem faster and more enjoyable. I got to catch up on a lot of popular reading that I hadn’t ever done, like the Harry Potter series. I’d never read any of them and I’ve gone through all six of them. I actually did them in two months.”

While the total number of miles will swell to 40 in a single day, Bethune is confident that his body will hold up. He has consulted two men who accomplished the same feat, doctors and a nutritionist. They all say it’s possible.

“The running at this point isn’t the hardest part for me,” Bethune said. “It’s the preparing. I have to make hundreds of phone calls to different companies to try and get last minute things that can help us out.”

Bethune will break daily totals up into four segments. He will cover 10 miles, rest for an hour and continue.

Bethune said, in fact, that the most important thing he can control is filling his body with the appropriate levels of nutrients and energy.

“When I got up to about 15 or so miles per day, I found that my body was becoming extremely achy and tired,” said Bethune. “I started looking up Web sites for ultra endurance.”

One company that Bethune discovered was Hammer Nutrition. Hammer learned of Bethune’s challenge and proposed to outfit him with energy supplements.

Popular sporting apparel company Under Armour also stepped forward to outfit Bethune with all-weather running gear. Zeal Optics, Fuel Belt, and Spread Shirt also formally sponsored the effort.

“Right now we are at around $3,000,” said Bethune of the fund-raising efforts for the heart association. “What gives me hope that we will reach the goal is that there will be a lot of little cities in between New York and my return home. …I can continue the fund-raising after I’m done as well.”

Attention from major media sources also helps Bethune rest easy. It appears that people view Bethune’s as a worthy cause: The San Luis Obispo Tribune wrote a feature story on it, and radio stations in Wichita, Chicago and San Diego have contacted Bethune regarding the story.

“Spread Shirt donated about 1,200 shirts for us to sell and we’ve received individual donations from people,” Bethune said.

For more information, or if you are interested in contributing to Steve Bethune’s fund raising efforts, e-mail him at stevenbethune@hotmail.com. To read more about Bethune’s run, including updates once the run kicks off, go to www.aheartinmotion.com.

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