July 20, 2006

SPORTS

Opponents for just a few hours, family for a lifetime

When football head coach Mark Krail’s Pioneer Mustangs square off against Leland
on Sept. 8, it will mark the first time he will face his son Kevin as an opponent

By Diego Abeloos
Sports Editor

For a few short hours on Sept. 8, Pioneer head football coach Mark Krail and his son, Kevin, will be standing on opposite sidelines as the Mustangs will host the Leland Chargers in a non-league match-up.

Pioneer head football coach Mark Krail gives his son Kevin a playful head ruffle after last season’s Leland-Pioneer frosh/soph football game. Kevin Krail took the opening kickoff for a touchdown to help lead Leland to victory over the Mustangs. Photo by Kevin Jones at www.johub.com

For both coach Krail and Kevin, the day will mark the first time they will face each other as opponents.

“This year, it will be interesting,” said coach Krail, who took over as athletic director and head football coach at Pioneer in 1998. “Obviously it’s the first time we’ve had to go through this, but for a couple of hours, we’ve got to play it like we would as much as we can in any other game. We’ll shake hands and hug after the game and go from there.”

“It’s definitely going to be weird,” added Kevin, a junior wide receiver/running back for the Leland Chargers. “…We both know it’s coming, but it’s not like we get angry at each other. We laugh about it and stuff.”

And while they may be temporary adversaries on the field on Sept. 8, they are anything but on every other sporting occasion. In short, both profess to be each other’s biggest supporters.

“I’m very proud of what he’s done on the athletic field,” coach Krail said of his son. “He’s had a lot of success and he works hard at it. He’s a fierce competitor and he works very hard.”

“He himself said that he hopes our team (Leland) goes 9-1,” added Kevin.

The one loss, naturally, coming against Pioneer on Sept. 8.

“They’re a great family,” said Leland head coach Jason Tenner. “Mark’s a great guy, he’s a good coach and has a great program over there, and we’re trying to build up this program to be able to compete against them a little bit better than in recent memory. But they have a great father-son relationship. …In our scheduling meetings, the first thing he does when he’s done setting his schedule is to come and look at mine, to see when he’ll be able to see his son play. They have a great family and they’re really supportive of each other.”

For coach Krail, seeing his son succeed both academically and athletically is part of what he calls a truly “blessed life” that he shares with his wife, son Kevin, and daughter Courtney in Almaden.

“First of all, I’m just really lucky that I have Kevin and Courtney, both who like sports,” coach Krail said. “We’re blessed. We have good kids.”

Although the elder Krail is now known for his head coaching accomplishments at Pioneer, it was baseball that drove the 1981 Willow Glen High graduate to the diamonds of UCLA, where he played as a first baseman/outfielder for two seasons. Coach Krail also excelled in football at Willow Glen, playing as a quarterback and free safety. He also played basketball during his time as a Ram.

Likewise, Kevin shares a love of baseball and football with his father. The elder Krail has served as his son’s Little League baseball coach each year, including this season, which will be his last as Kevin’s coach. In addition, coach Krail also coached Kevin in football, albeit just one year because of the elder Krail’s scheduling conflicts with his own football program at Pioneer.

Still, Kevin said he enjoys playing wide receiver and running back instead of quarterback because it affords him the opportunity to get the ball in his hands frequently and score touchdowns, something he did last season during a win over Pioneer’s frosh/soph football team on the game’s opening kickoff.

“I like having the ball and doing things with the ball,” Kevin said. “When I was little, I used to love all the touchdowns I would get, so that’s why I chose wide receiver and running back.”

Kevin’s talents, and football savvy, have certainly been noticed by Tenner.

“He’s a tremendous athlete,” Tenner said of Kevin. “He’s an asset to our program. He’s a great kid who works hard. He’s a coach’s kid, so he knows football and he knows exactly what you want him to do, and he does it well.”
Although coach Krail said he thought his son would’ve done well at Pioneer, he left the ultimate decision, after much family discussion, up to his son as to where to go to high school.

Leland junior wide receiver/running back Kevin Krail (with ball) said he chose to play his positions over quarterback, his father’s position in high school, because he enjoys “having the ball and doing things with the ball.” Photo by Kevin Jones at www.johub.com

“We talked a lot about where to go to school, and ultimately it was a family decision,” coach Krail said of his son’s preference to go to Leland. “My wife and I thought, ‘let him go where he wants to go.’ His friends were all going to Leland and they grew up together, so that was a natural choice.”

By all accounts, the elder Krail said it was a solid decision that he’s very comfortable with, including the Leland football coaching staff, which was first headed by Kelly Edwards upon Kevin’s arrival, and now by Tenner.

“I’m quite comfortable with coach Tenner and his whole staff,” coach Krail said. “I think there are guys there that keep an eye out for Kevin for me, because they know a coach’s kid is something to keep an eye on for each other, as I would do for them if they were under my leadership. It’s a good situation.”

Coach Krail said he has always taken a hands-off approach when it comes to his son’s decisions about where to go to high school and football because it’s important for Kevin to establish himself his own merit. That said, dad is still there when his son needs him, whether it’s football, or anything else.

“He knows that I’m always there if he has questions,” coach Krail said. “I don’t push things on him. I’ll share if I see something in a camp or passing tournament, or something like that, just to try and help him out to be a better player.”

“The other day, he gave me a tip on how to run my routes, and it helped me,” added Kevin. “The next day in camp, I improved and I ran better routes. Usually after I go home or after he watches me, he’ll give me some tips, but other than that, he just steps back and lets me do it.”

Still, the game on Sept. 8, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Pioneer, has to be played, which brings about the hypothetical questions of what will happen when one of the Krails wins, while the other loses.
And so, what if dad wins?

“If dad wins, well, he’ll win like a champion and lose like a champion,” coach Krail said. “I’ll give him a hug, maybe give him a wink of the eye, and do a ‘next year’ type of thing.”

And what if Kevin gets the upper hand on his dad?

“I don’t know if I’ll be eating at home that night,” Kevin said jokingly. “But, I’m sure we’ll be fine and stuff. We’ll give hugs after the game and I don’t think any hard feelings will be held. It’ll be good.”

Regardless, both Krails said the game is something they’ll remember long after it’s done.

“I think it can be a real special night, that’s my hope,” coach Krail said of the game. “Win or lose, Leland or Pioneer, I just hope that it’s an experience we look back on and we smile and count our blessing for where we are.”

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.

Field hockey is for boys too!

Arvind Singh pushes for local interest in sport while sons Arman
Raj and Hans Raj Singh excel and encourage local boys to join

By Margo Consul
Times Intern

Field hockey has always been a popular sport with high school girls. If Arvind Singh has anything to do with it, boys will catch the bug soon too.

Hans Singh plays field hockey for the U11 Coolkats team, based out of Stanford University, which won the silver medal at the California Cup this year.

Singh, a local field hockey coach in Almaden, said “the sport of field hockey has been a part of the Olympics since the 1900s and is played in many countries, especially the UK, India, and Holland.”

Singh, however, has another message about the sport—it is not just for girls.

“At this moment, we are trying to promote field hockey for the boys,” he said.

With his oldest son Arman entering Leland next year, Singh is disappointed that there is no team for the boys.
“I’m talking with the girls’ coach at Leland about getting a boys team,” Singh said.

Singh feels he can generate enough interest to create a team and is convinced he can build some popularity for the sport.

“About four or five years ago we started to gain interest in the kids,” he said. “We started the program CoolKats for young boys and girls. It’s a coed program under 13. We’re basically [trying to build] interest in the young kids to play field hockey.”

Hans, Singh’s youngest son, is playing on the U11 Coolkats team based out of Stanford University, which won the silver medal at the California Cup this year. There are four teams in the Bay area for boys and girls to play on, with teams in Hayward, San Jose, Stanford University and San Francisco.

Singh also said that field hockey teams come from different areas in the country, including San Francisco, southern California, the mid-Atlantic region and the Washington, D.C. area.

“For the ages 8-14, we are real close to starting a program here in the Bay Area,” said Singh, who played field hockey while he went to school at a university in India and hopes to make it available for boys to play in this area. “I’m hoping that my son will be on the U.S. team.”

Arman, Singh’s oldest son, is on the U16 San Francisco regional team at the age of 13.

“I started playing when I was 11,” Arman said. “I played with the CoolKats until I was 13. Then I started playing with the Cougars and now I play with the San Francisco regional team.”

Arman said he picked field hockey because it is a sport that “I enjoy and my dad played it previously and he can teach me and it’s a very vigorous sport.”

For more information about field hockey, contact Arvind Singh at singharv@gmail.com or (408) 644-6715. You can also visit the United States Field Hockey Association homepage at http://www.usfieldhockey.com.

Almaden Little Leaguers advances to sectional championships after 12-9 win over Lincoln Glen

Parents, coaches and players had plenty of reason to celebrate on July 18 when Almaden won 12-9 over Lincoln Glen in the championship game for the District 12 Little League title.

The night before, Almaden upset heavily favored Saratoga 9-8 to get into the championship game.

Almaden now advances to the sectional championships on their quest to reach the Little League World Series.

Cabana Champs witness some sensational swimming for second place

Almaden, Shadowbrook, Crossgates slug it out for silver

By Justin Petersen
Staff Writer

Cabana swimming dried up with three Almaden squads racing for second place at the area Champs meet July 15, hosted by Saratoga High School.

Shadow Brook, Almaden and Crossgates spent the balmy Saturday afternoon chasing Creekside of Evergreen, who sprinted to an early lead, and never did come up for air, capping a perfect 5-0 streak through dual meets with the Champs win.

In the end, it was the Almaden Dolphins, 2-3 in dual meet action, who snagged second place, while Crossgates, 4-1 in league, took third ahead of 2-3 Shadow Brook.

Shadow Brook
Shadow Brook enjoyed its finest finish in 14 years, according to coaches, who reportedly injected life into the sagging tradition between their own swimming and water polo seasons at West Valley College.

Head coach Kyle Kikita and assistant coach Spencer Hammacker were shocked when they learned to what depths the program they inherited had dipped. Yet, they realized it was an opportunity as well, and veteran swimmers, such as Lisa Trinberger, were helpful teaching younger Sharks how to compete in heats.

Trinberger, in fact, broke a longstanding club record, winning the 50-yard freestyle event in 25.96 seconds at Champs.

“It was excellent,” said Hammacker. “We hadn't won a dual meet in 14 years, and this year we won two.”

Speedster siblings Morgan and Megan Johnson also breathed life into the Shadowbrook club, and just in time for the Champs meet last week. Early this year, the Johnson sisters, 6 and 8-years-old, left the team and state, when the family relocated to Texas. But a week prior to the final meet, Kikita and Hammacker received a warm voicemail message letting them know that the sisters were coming back for the Champs meet, despite the move.
“It was really special,” said Hammacker

With one event left, the Sharks were eight points out of third, but a 12-point swing kicked them back to fourth.

“I wanted to get top three, but how it turned out was how it turned out,” said Kikita. “I felt like the team did a great job this year. You have to first change the attitude of the team. That's when we started winning meets.”

Kikita said the highlight of the meet came when the 9-to-10-year-old girls' freestyle relay team came from behind to win the event. The team consisted of Alyssa Pezzoni, Delaney Gaydon, Sarah Macinnes, and Maddy Newton.

“Maddy dove in and we were in third place,” said Kikita. “She caught up and we held them off.”

Yet, Shadowbrook's success didn't surprise the coaches.

“We are swimmers ourselves,” said Hammacker. “So we were very hands-on with the kids—a lot of attention to detail. We honed in on the basics, and the kids all responded very well. It was great. We spent a lot of time in the water with those kids.”

Crossgates
The Crossgates Cabana Club also enjoyed its finest dual meet campaign in recent memory, according to coach Mick Kelso.

While the talent was present, enough to climb to a 4-1 standing in Cabana duel meet action this season, spirits were low heading into spring practice. The Gators were sloshing around without a coach.

“I applied for the job because I read that Crossgates was without a coach,” said Kelso. Being an ex-Gator himself, Kelso can be identified in Crossgates' photos circa 1966, the position tugged at his heart and he applied.

Under his tutelage, which he said is based on the underlying philosophy that kids should “get better times,” Crossgates finished behind only Creekside in the regular season.

Kelso held high hopes headed for Champs.

“Second place was a big run-off,” said Kelso. “We were leading most of the way, but we lost in breaststroke. We gave it all up. We were in second place for a long time.”

The battle for second between Almaden players ensued.

“We had a great race with two good teams,” said Kelso. While the Gators failed to edge out Almaden, they did edge out Shadow Brook.

Kelso said 8-year-old Sierra Painter, 15-year-old Travis Jensen, and 6-year-old Hannah Blazing anchored the team this season.

“It was a great year,” said Kelso. “We'll be better next year. We'll be back next year.”

San Jose office of Smith Barney announces donation to Pat Tillman Foundation

The San Jose office of Smith Barney has announced that it presented the Pat Tillman Foundation a grant in the amount of $10,000.

This grant was made possible by the Citigroup Foundation as a part of its local contributions program, which Smith Barney offices across the country participate in.

Alex Garwood, executive director of the Pat Tillman Foundation, said that the Foundation is pleased that a global business like Citigroup and Smith Barney recognizes Tillman’s passionate legacy especially in his hometown San Jose. The funds will be used to expand the Foundation’s Leadership Through Action Program into South Bay Area High Schools. Garwood accepted the check from Allan Walsworth and Kurt Carrasquilla from Smith Barney.

“We are pleased to strengthen our commitment to help make communities where we do business better places through our support of organizations like the Pat Tillman Foundation and know this grant will have a meaningful impact here in San Jose,” said branch manager Alexandra Moysov.

Walsworth and Carrasquilla, both financial advisors at the firm, headed the initiative and selection process on behalf of Smith Barney.

Smith Barney’s Local Contributions Program was designed to enable the firm’s branches to forge partnerships with the communities they serve through a combination of financial contributions and hands-on employee involvement.

Mustangs end summer league hoops with loss to Oak Grove

Coaching staff pleased with team, individual improvements throughout summer session

By Diego Abeloos
Sports Editor

The Pioneer Mustangs finished off the 2006 Summer League Basketball season as near-champions, winning games over both Sobrato and Mt. Pleasant before dropping a finals match-up against Oak Grove on July 14.

The Mustangs began their final stretch of the summer league schedule by defeating Sobrato by 26 points on July 13, before taking the semifinals over the Mt. Pleasant Cardinals by 12 points the next day. Still, having to play back-to-back games on the final day of summer league proved to be too much for the Mustangs, who held close to Oak Grove for three quarters before the Eagles ran away with the win.

While a summer league title isn’t quite as impressive as being crowned BVAL Champions, Pioneer assistant coach Kevin Mack said the league served its purpose—to work on much-needed things both individually for the players, as well as team-wide issues, such as finding potential starters out a crop of young and largely inexperienced players. Moreover, the team has started to form good chemistry as a whole on the court.

“They’ve got an understanding of what we wanted out of them on both sides, offensively and defensively,” Mack said of the team, which will field an entirely new starting lineup this coming season. “…I think right now we’re playing really well as a team. I think the big thing is toward the end of the summer, seeing that cohesiveness and being able to play together as a team. We’ve really gelled.”

One of the focal points of summer league for the Mustangs, according to Mack, was working on improving the team defense. To that end, Mack said the team has made solid strides, pointing to the team’s 60-34 win over Sobrato on July 13.

“That Sobrato game was big,” Mack said of the team’s defensive improvement. “That was probably our best defensive game all summer. We held that team to 34 points, and that’s big, because they have a really good team on the offensive end.”

As for some of the individual players on the roster, Mack said he was pleased with returning senior Gilbert Mendoza’s continued improvement on offense. During the early stages of summer league, Mack said Mendoza, a wiry and athletic 6-foot-1-inch guard/forward, had the ability to be a “go-to guy” in the Mustangs’ offense.

Mendoza proved as much in the win over Sobrato, according to Mack, posting better than 20 points in the win while showing the ability to operate in the low post, as well as shoot from the outside.

“He was our leading scorer in the summer,” Mack said of Mendoza. “He’s just playing such great basketball right now. He’s aggressive and he’s a versatile player. He can shoot the three from the outside, but he can also take his man off the dribble, and he can score in the post.”

Likewise, point guard Matt Montelongo has made strides offensively as well, said Mack, noting that the 5-foot-10-inch incoming senior has been scoring with more frequency when needed as well. More than that, Mack said Montelongo has become a leader out on the court.

Along with Montelongo, Mack said Marty de Gier, an incoming senior forward who played sparingly last season, has opened the coaching staff’s eyes with his energetic play this summer.

“He brings an energy to our team,” Mack said of de Gier. “He’s kind of one of those guys who isn’t afraid to go up against anyone. If he has the ball inside, he’ll go up against anyone, it doesn’t how big the guy is or how strong the guy is. He’s just an aggressive player.”

As for the incoming players from the frosh/soph level, Mack said junior forward Andrew Springer has asserted himself offensively and defensively throughout the summer in the low post and is in contention for a starting spot when the season rolls around. Like Mendoza, Mack sees Springer as the type of player with the ability to score in both the low post and from the outside.

“He’s been going up against guys that are bigger than him and he’s been throwing his body around, being aggressive on both ends of the court,” Mack said of Springer, who stands at 6-feet-2-inches. “He’s doing a great job of taking that role and he might be starting next year, or at least be one of the top six or seven guys on our team. Making the transition from the frosh/soph level to varsity can be tough sometimes because it is a totally different game at the varsity level. …He’s done a good job on the post, rebounding the basketball, defensively especially.”

Aside from a team camp at St. Mary’s College during the last week of July, Mack said the team will focus on hitting the weight room and staying in playing shape through running and open gym sessions before regular practices resume in early fall.

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