SPORTS

Young Chargers hope to make impression on varsity basketball level

Handful of frosh/soph players getting much-needed varsity experience during summer league basketball

By Ken Lotich
Times Intern

After going 9-5 in the Santa Teresa Division of the Blossom Hill Valley Athletic League, the Leland Chargers basketball team is setting its sights on improving individual players’ skills in the summer.

Incoming junior guard Dave Janes (shown here in a frosh/soph game during the regular season) said he hopes to earn some minutes during summer league action with the varsity basketball squad. The adjustment for frosh/soph players at the varsity level is big, Janes said, because of the speed of the game. Photo courtesy www.mikejanes.com

Head Coach Dave Frandsen has high hopes for the squad in the winter, but for now will focus on tinkering some small things in summer league.

“Right now, we have to work on correcting mental mistakes,” Frandsen said. “(The players) are getting used to handling pressure situations.”

With nine returning seniors, some of the younger blood on the squad is looking to compete for playing time.

One of the newcomers to the team is Daniel Ortiz, who played varsity basketball for Gunderson High School in last year. Ortiz, a junior in the fall, said he chose to come to Leland because of its high standards for sports and academics.

“The students are much more active over here,” Ortiz said of Leland.

Ortiz, who stands nearly 6 feet, 4 inches tall, is hoping to contribute to the team at the center position. With an impending match against his former school in the winter, Ortiz said he hopes Leland dominates.

“I hope we stick it to them,” he said.

Dave Janes, also an incoming junior, hopes to earn some minutes as a guard. Janes said the experience of varsity ball is quite different than that of the frosh/soph level he played last season.

“The game moves a lot faster at this level,” Janes said. “You’re forced to think and react quicker.”

Janes said despite the competition for playing time, the returning varsity members have welcomed new players with open arms.

“They’ve always been here to help and show us what to do,” he said.

Janes is hopeful the Chargers will be able to build chemistry with strong communication this summer.

Kevin Stenn, also an incoming junior, said despite the competitiveness among teammates for playing time, he said the overall success of the team comes first.

“We’re all like a big family,” Stenn said.

Stenn, who’ll be competing for playing time at the power forward and center spots, said he wants to improve his game by being disciplined in the paint and as a defender.

“I want to continue to play smart,” Stenn said. “There are bigger guys (at this level), so you have to stick to fundamentals.”

Stenn, who saw lots of court time at the frosh-soph level, said he knows that playing time at the varsity level doesn’t come easy.

“On varsity, you really have to earn it,” Stenn said. “I’m just here to improve as much as I can at this level. If it means not playing, that’s fine, I’m ready to pay my dues for playing time.”

Sports Briefs

Central Valley Edge holds youth soccer tryouts
CV Edge, a Class 3/U17 girls’ soccer team, is offering Monday/Wednesday tryouts to girls born after 7/31/88 for the fall season for all positions. Contact Patty Rashid (408) 267-2740 or Afsari at (650) 771-6213 for more information.

South Valley Lacrosse Chiefs offer free clinics July 23 and Aug. 20
South Valley Lacrosse Chiefs are offering free clinics during the summer for kids in grades three through eight on July 23 and Aug. 20 from 10 a.m. to noon at Williams Elementary School in San Jose. 

The Chiefs are adding a seventh/eighth grade team in spring, 2005. The free summer clinics give newcomers a chance to try the sport before they purchase equipment (loaner sticks available on first-come, first-served basis), so bring a friend and  have some fun with lacrosse.

RSVP to joy.bender@prodigy.net or visit the Web site at www.svlax.com.

Almaden Metro holds soccer tryouts
Almaden Metro Class 3, U17 boys, is holding tryouts for fall season most Sundays. Date of birth after 7/31/88.

Contact Jeff Earl at (408) 268-5125 or jesvo11@yahoo.com.

Bret Harte seeks boys junior lacrosse coaches
Bret Harte Middle School in San Jose is looking for boys junior lacrosse coaches for the 2005-2006 season.

Multiple positions are available for both head coaches and assistants. Previous lacrosse coaching experience strongly recommended; a competitive salary is offered. If you are skilled in lacrosse, kid-oriented, and motivated to create a winning team from the ground floor up, we would love to talk with you. This is an exciting, and rapidly growing sport in California, and these Bret Harte boys are ready to go!

For more information, please contact Mike Garcia at 408-590-6949 or email mgarcia@gmail.com.

Pioneer’s Robbie Nelson gets ready for life, and baseball, after high school

Two-sport athlete heading to Menlo College as a pitcher

By Ken Lotich
Times Intern

After a successful year with the Pioneer Mustangs, Robbie Nelson is hoping to keep posting wins as a pitcher for Menlo College.

The recent Pioneer graduate went 9-1 on the season for the first place Mustangs, leading the team to its first Central Coast Section entry in 10 years. The Mustangs went 17-1 in the Santa Teresa Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League, and 23-7 overall.

Nelson was named team and league MVP, boasting a 1.26 ERA with 61 innings pitched and 72 strikeouts.
Although Nelson said he is excited to play ball for the Owls, he knows he will miss Pioneer. “High school was a blast—I wish I could go back and do it again,” Nelson said. “I had good coaches throughout the four years I was there, and they made high school a lot more fun through sports.”

Nelson said he ultimately decided on Menlo because he really enjoyed the small, quaint atmosphere it provided.
Nelson, who received a Menlo College Dean’s Scholarship, plans to live on-campus. He is currently undecided on what his major will be.

Pioneer baseball head coach Jake Hernandez said without Nelson, the squad would not have been able to match the same success it had this year.

“If you take him away from our team, we don’t finish 17-1 in league,” Hernandez said. “He gave us six or seven innings every single time out—he’s a gamer.”

Hernandez said whenever Nelson took the hill the Mustangs were optimistic in their ability to come out victorious.
“Every time he went out on the mound we knew we had a great chance of winning,” Hernandez said. “He’d keep us in every game and was very confident in his ability.”

Nelson, a two-sport athlete, also played point guard for the basketball team in the winter. The Mustangs made it to the CCS semifinals, which delayed his arrival on the baseball team.

Gary Nelson, Robbie’s father, said Robbie did well in making the transition from shooting baskets to hurling fastballs.

“When basketball went to CCS, he got out (to the baseball team) late,” Gary said. “For a pitcher this is more difficult than a position player. He was ready for this and worked hard to get to the level he was at this season.”

Gary said Robbie trained profusely in the off-season, while also growing 2 to 3 inches taller and gaining some muscle.“He picked up velocity and he was able to work through tough times,” Gary said. “He became more tenacious on the mound.”

Although Robbie is moving on to greener pastures, Hernandez said he sees a bright future for him as a college pitcher.

“I’m expecting him to get better every year,” Hernandez said. “He’s going to mature both mentally and physically.”

AAA Almaden Reds

In a tight race all season, the AAA Almaden Reds pulled out an exciting win against the first-place Cardinals to win the South tournament and advance to the Tournament of Champions. The Reds played well in the tournament, but in the end, lost a 7-6 thriller against Saratoga in the semifinals. Taking his second team in two years to T.O.C.’s, Manager Dave Painter was successful in coaching the team to a league-high 18 wins with a balanced approach of power offense, solid pitching, and fundamental defense. Although T.O.C’s didn’t turn out as the Reds had hoped, the season was full of great accomplishments.

Front row, from left: Conner DiNaro, Travis Painter, Justin Rehklau, Zachary Nollette, Matthew Holden and Cale Brendlen; second row: Eric Rios, Shawn Li, Mitchell White, Daniel Yur, Trenton Drummond and Rohan Varma; and back row; Coach Ken Brendlen, Coach John White and Manager Dave Painter.

Four Pioneer Mustangs to compete in Wedemeyer All-Star Football Game

A successful season for the Pioneer football team will see a grand finale when four Mustangs will take part in the 31st Annual Charlie Wedemeyer All-Star Football Game on July 20.

For the four Pioneer all-stars—Steve Matos, Pat Walsh, Rolando Gomez and Bobby Lopez —the Wedemeyer all-star classic at San Jose City College will represent the last high school game played in their respective careers.

Matos (pictured sacking the Soquel quarterback during CCS playoffs) starred as a two-way player for the Mustangs in the 2004-05 season, registering 77 tackles (including 14 solo tackles) with three sacks as a defensive lineman. Matos also starred as an offensive lineman for the Mustangs.

Walsh was a steady force on the offensive line for the Mustangs while also playing sparingly as a defensive lineman, totaling six tackles and one sack throughout the season.

Gomez, another two-way player for the Mustangs, spent the majority of his time on offense as a blocking tight end, catching one pass for eight yards, while opening up lanes for his running backs. His impact on defense was a key to the Mustangs’ successful 6-4-1 season, as the 6-foot, 4-inch senior registered 41 tackles (including 10 solo) with five sacks and a blocked field goal for the Pioneer defense.

Lopez was an offensive threat for the Mustangs as a kicker, going a perfect 5-for-5 on field goals throughout the regular season, including a season-long 43-yard field goal during an Oct. 2 game against Silver Creek. For the season, Lopez was nearly perfect with PATs, kicking through 30 of 31 attempts throughout the year.

—By Diego Abeloos
Photo by Ron Reed

Almaden North 8-year-olds clinch District 12 championship

Team rallies from a 5-0 deficit to overtime win

By Robert Cerone
Special to the Times

After going 3-1 in their pool during the District 12 all-star games played at Branham Hills, Almaden North 8-year olds advanced to the semi-finals where they played against Quito (4-0) on June 27 and won 17-7, advancing to the championship game against Saratoga the next night (Saratoga also went 4-0 in their pool).

Even with some spectacular pitching displayed by Almaden pitchers Daniel Del Carlo and Kevin Asplund, Almaden North faced a 5-0 deficit heading into the fifth inning.

However, Almaden stepped up with some great hitting by the boys and closed the gap to 5-4 heading into the sixth. By the bottom of the sixth inning, Saratoga was up 6-4 and then Almaden rallied back to tie up the game at 6-6, forcing the game into a seventh inning. With Almaden gaining momentum, pitcher Josh Wells came in and held Saratoga to only four batters aided by two key defensive plays by Michael Cerone at third base to shut Saratoga down. Going into the bottom of the seventh with runners Cameron Meeks and Shane Smith on base, Josh Wells delivered the game-winning hit into center field to win the game for Almaden.

This was the first time Almaden has won an all-star championship game at any age group since splitting into two teams (Almaden North and South) last year.

Local author chronicles history of Japanese baseball in San Jose

Author Ralph Pearce reflects on the making of “From Asahi to Zebras”

By Diego Abeloos
Sports Writer

After 12 years of tedious research work, Ralph Pearce has finally chronicled something no other author has attempted—a definitive history of Japanese baseball in San Jose.

This picture of the San Jose Asahi team was taken in 1925 in Osaka, Japan, when the team was invited on a baseball tour of the country after beating Japan’s Meji University at San Jose’s Sodality Park in 1924. During the trip, the team also went on a smaller tour of Korea to play exhibition games. Photo courtesy of the Kifune Family

Pearce, a library clerk in the California room of the Martin Luther King Jr. Library, began his long journey in 1993, when he stumbled across information in books about baseball in Japan and some of the American players who played there in the 1930s.

While attending a world baseball fair in San Diego, Pearce came across Jeff Hayamizu, who mentioned that his father played against the Tokyo Giants in San Jose during a one-game exhibition in 1935.

After meeting the man’s father, Pearce became hooked on the idea of researching Japanese baseball’s history in San Jose. The result is the book, “From Asahi to Zebras: Japanese American Baseball in San Jose, California.”

“I always had in mind that I wanted to do a book with it, but I never knew if that would be feasible,” Pearce said of his research. “So, when I transferred to the California Room at the library I saw all these local histories that had been done … I just thought, ‘there’s got to be a way that I can put this into print, even if it’s just locally.’”

Scheduled to be released July 23, along with a book signing by Pearce at the Martin Luther King Library that day from 2 to 4 p.m., the book examines in painstaking detail the humble beginnings of Japanese baseball’s rise in San Jose.
Pearce said much of the help he received in doing interviews and research for the book came from the Japanese American Museum of San Jose, which also published the book.

The book chronicles the beginning of the San Jose Asahi baseball team, a group of first-generation Japanese men often referred to as Issei, who formed the team in 1913 before disbanding in 1917. One year later, an original member of the Asahi team, Harry Okida, convinced Harry “Jiggs” Yamada, another original member, to reform the team and hence, the second San Jose Asahi team was born. It consisted of mainly second-generation players, known as Nisei.

The book also examines the fate of the Asahi team during Japanese internment throughout World War II, when many of the players and their families were relocated to Tule Lake and other camps. Out of those camps came the San Jose Zebras, mostly a mix of Nisei players from the second Asahi team that played during the pre-war days in San Jose.

“To be honest, a lot of these guys really were great athletes,” said Pearce. “… So many of these guys that played were great players in high school and they also played on a lot of American teams.”

During his work on the book, Pearce had the chance to interview several of the still-living members of both Asahi teams as well as the Zebras. He found out some interesting facts about the Japan Town area. For example, the existence of Asahi Park, which was formerly located on Seventh and Younger streets, a park funded with the help of Issei players and other first generation Japanese men, including the Horio family, which later had four brothers play on the same team.

Above all, Pearce said the players he interviewed supplied him with something else that was hard to come across—baseball pictures and other memorabilia, such as a baseball signed by the Tokyo

Giants when they played an exhibition game against the Asahi team in 1935 and again in 1936.

“I was always surprised when I would go and interview these guys and they had all these kinds of photographs,” Pearce said. Many of those pictures, along with other baseball memorabilia such as jerseys and signed baseballs, are now on display in an exhibit at the King Library’s special collections lobby.

This picture features the San Jose Asahi and Fresno teams in 1938 at Asahi Park. The Asahi disbanded at the Santa Anita Assembly Center during Japanese interment, forming the Azucars baseball team, which played competitively throughout Japanese internment. Photo courtesy Ralph Pearce

Another tidbit Pearce came across dealt with the Asahi team’s trip to Japan on a baseball tour in 1925. That information came to him when a family member of one former Asahi player came into the Japanese American Museum.

Up until that point, the only information available about the tour was stories told from the experiences of former Asahi players like Russ Hinaga, who is chronicled prominently in the book for achieving the game-winning single against the Tokyo Giants in 1935, giving the Asahi a 3-2 win.

“By chance, a player came down to the museum who was the nephew of one of the players who went to Japan in 1925,” Pearce said. “He told the museum that he had the original score book from the tour in Japan. It took me some time to locate him, to get in touch with him. He supplied me with copies of that tour book and it basically outlined the entire tour in detail. It told us everything we wanted to know.”

For Pearce, the book represents a part of San Jose’s Japanese-American history that has gone untold for too long.

Although Pearce said he is pleased with how the book turned out, his one regret is not getting it done sooner for some of the now-deceased members of the teams. Nonetheless, Pearce hopes the book will bring further awareness to the history of baseball in the area.

“Maybe the book will encourage a little more of the appreciation of the areas that nobody has any idea about now,” said Pearce, adding that he wished a plaque could be created to honor the efforts of these San Jose men who long ago played America’s favorite pastime.

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