November 28, 2003

Leland dazed by North Salinas stampede in CCS football opener
Andre shines after injury to Day

For a high school football team that lost all 10 games in 2001, there was much to celebrate after winning nine out of 11 games in 2003. But the Leland High School gridders were reduced to a catatonic gaze after absorbing a 57-33 pounding at the hands of North Salinas High School in the first round of the Central Coast Section Division II championships on the Charger field Saturday.

North Salinas (7-4) next takes on Aptos in the CCS semi-final this weekend, while Los Gatos (9-2) faces San Benito (7-2-1) in the other half of the draw.
One Charger who appeared the most miserable on game day, but was ready with a positive spin after some cool down time, was running back Michael Day, whose ankle injury in the opening minutes of the game was a defining moment. Day, who had gained more than 2,000 yards rushing and scored 23 touchdowns this season, was knocked out of action three minutes, 45 seconds into the game. He had already returned the opening kickoff 84 yards for a touchdown.

“One of the hardest things I ever had to do was sit there and watch with the game out of my hands,” Day said. “We all thought we could go further. This was a tough way to go out.”

Nevertheless, Day noted that the 2003 Chargers, the Blossom Valley Athletic League Santa Teresa Division champions, “put Leland football back on the map. Hopefully, the juniors will carry on and learn from our CCS experience.”

North Salinas coach Tracy Felice said he expected a low scoring game. “I thought it would be three points either way with Day in there. He’s a good kid. I saw him on film. He runs very, very well.”

Oddly enough, the runningback position is one area where the Chargers lost little steam with junior Kirk Andre, a tackling dynamo on defense, stepping in and gaining 199 yards on 22 carries and scoring three touchdowns.
That effort helped the Chargers stay within hailing distance of North Salinas, at 43-33, when Joe Hurley hit fullback Darren Gemoll with a six-yard TD pass with 11 minutes, 41 remaining in the game. However, North Salinas then stamped their unequivocal authority on the contest with two touchdowns in the final seven minutes.

Leland Coach Kelly Edwards, who suffered through the 0-10 season as a first-year coach, was not going to let a post-season whipping get him down. “I was happy with the way the team responded when Mike went down,” he said “The O line stepped and Kirk Andre did, too. He’s going to be tough to contend with next year.”
Day, who plays baseball for the Chargers in the spring, said he has been talking with football coaches from UC-Davis and is hoping to soon be offered a scholarship.

While he looks forward to a possible future as an Aggie, Leland’s underclassmen are indeed expecting to build on the success of the 2003 season when they move into the stronger BVAL Mount Hamilton Division in 2004.
“We’re going to come back next year and do the same thing—win a championship,” said junior wide receiver Albert King, Jr. “We’re going to compete.”

Pioneer gets another shot at Pacific Grove
By Justin Petersen

On a windy Saturday afternoon, number-one seed Pioneer High School rolled to a lopsided, 42-19 victory over visiting Gonzales High School to advance to the second round of the Division IV C.C.S. football playoffs. The win sets up a bitter showdown with number-four seed Pacific Grove and a rematch of the 2001 title game, which crowned Pacific Grove champs and sent the Mustangs back to the stable.

The Pioneer-Pacific Grove semi-final game will take place at 7 p.m. Friday night inside the P.A.L. Sports Complex near King Road. Pacific Grove comes into the game hotter than lava, winning their last seven by a combined score of 198 to 50, on their way to the Mission Trail Athletic League championship.

But if Pioneer moves the ball like they did on Saturday against the Gonzales Spartans, no league championship will protect Pacific Grove. Versus the Spartans, Pioneer racked up 417 yards on offense. Four minutes into the first quarter, Jeremy Landucci set the tone for the game, scoring on a two-yard blast up the middle. Three minutes later, junior runningback Andrew Schulz followed Landucci’s example, taking a counter and bolting 40 yards for the score.

“Gonzales tried to make some adjustments changing their fronts,” said Pioneer coach Mark Krail. “But our misdirection plays were really working today.”

All said and done, Pioneer ran for 345 yards. Schulz led all ball carriers, trekking 120 yards and scoring three touchdowns. Landucci chipped in with 104 yards and two touchdowns, while fullback, Sinan Dumlugol, added 58 yards of his own.

“It’s tough to key on one back,” said Krail. “Our backs (Landucci, Schulz, and Dumlugol) have played great all year long.”

“They (the Spartans) were pretty strong, but we were well prepared,” recounted Schulz. “I give our offensive line a lot of credit.”

After jumping out to a 14-0 lead, it appeared as if Pioneer would cruise to the victory, however, Gonzales found spurts of success offensively. Passes to the tight ends and quick sweeps to the outside produced several large gains for the Spartans. But every time the momentum began to shift, Gonzales seemed to wind itself, duking it out in the trenches versus a stronger and deeper Mustang O-line.

Pioneer quarterback, Jared Koblis added one more score, running it in from four yards out. Koblis also finished with 72 yards passing, connecting three times with Eric Myatt for 52 yards.

“We haven’t played a better game offensively,” said Krail. “I couldn’t have been more proud of our guys on the offensive side of the ball, but the real test is coming up against Pacific Grove.”

SAVING THE DAY

Almaden Stars goalie Dana Sever squeezes the ball after stopping a shot on goal by the West Valley Dragons in the final minute of play in the final game of the season in Almaden Valley Soccer League Under 10 action last weekend. Dana is a fourth grader at Los Alamitos School. The final score: 1-1.

Post season anti-climatic for Leland girls tennis team

A second consecutive undefeated Blossom Valley Athletic League season under Coach Nicole Arnold came to an abrupt halt on Monday as four-time BVAL champion Myra Davoudi got eliminated in the first round of the Central Coast Section singles while the Chargers No. 1 doubles team called in sick.

Davoudi was eliminated by 6-4, 7-5 by Ashley Lipton of Monte Vista High School. Leland’s doubles team of Alison Keilen and Melisa Joe failed to report for duty due to Keilen’s bout with walking pneumonia.

Arnold said Davoudi was “very disappointed” with her loss, indicating she still was recovering from the knee surgery he had a year ago. Davoudi agreed the loss was painful, but attributed it more to disagreements with her opponent over line calls. “I didn’t want to shake her hand after the match,” Davoudi said.

Lipton became the top-seeded player in the tournament after National Junior Under-14 Clay Court champion Denise Desai of St. Francis High School pulled out to participate elsewhere. Davoudi, the No. 6-ranked player in the tournament, somehow got paired against the new No. 1 seed, Lipton, in the first round. It’s known as the bad luck of the draw.

“This is just going to make me more motivated,” Davoudi said.
Otherwise, said Arnold, “we (the Chargers) had a very good season. The kids had a lot of fun. We’re a very strong team, but we were strong before I got here.”

Next season also looks bright for the Chargers with the No. 2, 3 and 4 singles returning in Roshie Larijani, Connie Wang and Roxy Pourmirzaie, respectively, and Melisa Joe in No. 1 doubles.

Arnold noted that only team in the BVAL--Oak Grove High School--came close to matching Leland this year and that was because Leland played without three of its top players. Arnold said that if she returns as coach next year, she would seek more matches against the tougher West Catholic Athletic League teams.

--By Karl Laucher

Zac Monsees repeats as BVAL’s Most Valuable Player
Leland’s water polo dynasty second to mighty Bellarmine in CCS

By Karl Laucher
Sports Editor
and
Dennis Jamison

A tradition of water polo prowess at Leland High School maintained its frothy crest as the Chargers boys won the Blossom Valley Athletic league championship for a second straight year, and gained a Central Coast Section post-season playoff berth all six years under Coach Mike Monsees.

The Charger dynasty, however, is in the shadow of an even greater power in Bellarmine College Preparatory as the Bells proved with a 14-5 over Leland in the CCS championship game on Saturday in the Independence High School pool.

It was the sixth consecutive CCS title for Bellarmine (33 wins, two losses this season) and the Bells 18th crown in 21 years. Leland (25-8 this season) took the CCS crown in 1988 and ‘89.
“They kind of out-manned us,” said Monsees. “It kind of felt like they had eight guys playing against our seven guys all of the time.”

Leland was stung early as Bellarmine quickly jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the opening minutes. Although the Chargers answered this initial attack, it seemed that for each goal they scored, the Bells would put up three goals. Most of the scoring took place in the first half and when the action was halted, the halftime score was 11-3.
Coach Monsees knew going in, his defense would be challenged by the veterans on the Bellarmine team, especially Mike Hayes, who did lead the Bells’ attack with five solid goals. But the goals seemed to come from all sides of the pool as Leland found it difficult to defend against such a balanced and disciplined offense.

At the other end of the pool, Leland struggled against the Bells’ experienced and entangling defense. Zac Monsees, the Chargers’ leading scorer, was held to just two goals. Trevor Foote scored two as well and Mike Walter added one to round out Leland’s total.

Early in the game the Leland fans started to get vocal over some contested penalty calls. Even coach Monsees, who become quite critical of one call, was cautioned and carded by one of the CCS officials. The PA announcer cautioned the fans two separate times and reminded them to maintain an atmosphere of good sportsmanship. From that point on, the remainder of the game was contested in the water.

Nevertheless, Monsees will no doubt forever have fond memories of the 2003 Charger squad led by his son, Zac, who was named the BVAL Most Valuable Player for a second straight year. “We had a great season,” Mike Monsees said. “We won two tournaments and placed second in two others.”

More importantly, he noted, was the winning attitude of his team. “It was real good bunch of students who listened and worked with together.” At the end of the CCS (championship) game the seniors got together in a group and talked about the good points in the game.

“They had a great positive attitude. The were a lot of fun to work with, that’s for sure.”
Monsees will have a challenge rebuilding for 2004 with 11 of his top 14 players due to graduate in June. The biggest losses will be Zac Monsees, around whom opponents stacked their defenses, plus BVAL Senior of the Year Michael Walters, team captain and standout goalie Ryan Rodrigues and Nick Beene, both first-team All-BVAL selections. Other BVAL honorees were second team selections Trevor Foote and Steve Hoang.

Other seniors who closed out with an upbeat loss in the CCS finale were Chris Keller, Steve Gardner, Erwin Nguyen, and Tim McLinden. The juniors with “significant playing time” were Eric Burriss, Brian Perasso and Adam Mjolsness.
Asked if he expects a difficult rebuilding project in 2004, Mike Monsees said, “well, we always start out thinking, ‘uh-oh, look what we lost,’ but you never know until you starting playing the game. I’m looking forward to building another team.”

Leland's Alex Ramon aims to make fast work of State Cross Country meet
By Karl Laucher
Sports Editor

Alex Ramon of Leland High School prepared for the State Cross Country championship early this week by blasting up the steep grades of Almaden Quicksilver Park and finishing up with a six-mile round-trip romp to Guadalupe Reservoir.

It's all in a days work for the senior who hopes to follow in the footsteps of his father, Hector E. Ramon, as a lawyer (personal injury and criminal defense). On the way to the courtroom, Alex hopes have a running career to complement his studies at either Occidental College or Claremont College beginning next fall.

Ramon earned a berth in the State Cross Country Championships, to be held on a 3.1-mile course at Woodward Park in Fresno on Saturday, by placing 12th in the Central Coast Section Championships at Crystal Springs in Belmont on Nov. 15.

Asked his goal for the State Meet, Ramon said, "I don't know. I've never seen this course, so I'm doing this on the fly."

He added that he is not too complex a runner. "I just try to finish as quickly as possible. They shoot the gun, I run."

The 5-foot-8, 115-pound Ramon (not 6-0, 150 as reported previously) finished in fourth place in the Blossom Valley Athletic League championships held at Crystal Springs earlier this month. He also was a top five finisher in the BVAL two-mile championship race in track and field last spring. He says he hopes to improve his mile best time of 4 minutes, 32 seconds down to 4:20 in the spring while also dropping his two mile best of 10:18 by about 50 seconds.

As for this meet's State Championships, a 16-minute performance would be reward enough for all of those hours pounding trails in the Almaden hills.