Inside San Benito High’s Mattson Gym the words “Home of champions” is written on the wall. Surrounding the painted words are banners and dates representing those past champions. But that phrase has never rung as true as it did in 2012.
Beyond just having fun and creating solid escapism from school work and tests, sports – and high school sports in particular – have one common goal: Winning championships.
After 2011 saw the San Benito High sports department flirt with championship after championship, the 2012 sports year was a fulfillment of the school’s wildest dreams.
Just look at a quick rundown of what the school was able to accomplish in 2012: A section championship in football, softball and cross country. A first sectional tournament win in girls water polo. A TCAL league title in boys volleyball.
Then you have the baseball team making it to its second consecutive CCS title game and the boys basketball team going on an unexpected run to the CCS semifinals under new head coach David Kaplansky.
But it was the school’s three titles that highlight the 2012 athletic accomplishments. The Balers came out of the final game – or meet – on top in three cases, as Vanessa Estrada added to her impressive resume with an easy section victory, the softball team won its record seventh consecutive title and the football team made an improbable run to a championship.
But in the end, nothing quite represents the school and town like that football team. Battered with injuries and by overpowering losses to Palo Alto, Salinas, Monterey and Willow Glen, the Balers overcame a 2-4 start to claim the program’s sixth sectional title.
After that slow start, San Benito rallied for six wins in seven games, upsetting Salinas in the semifinals 30-13 and Milpitas 35-28 in the championship game.
Head coach Chris Cameron called it the school’s biggest reversal of fortune, showcasing the growth of the team over the season’s four months.
The Balers squeezed into the postseason by the closest of margins, but in the end, it didn’t matter. Following the growth of its quarterback David Stanton, San Benito exercised its demons in the three-week postseason.
Nothing came easy for the Balers but for the first time all year, it looked like it may with a 28-0 first-half lead in the DI title game. But it wouldn’t have been the 2012 San Benito football team if something interesting didn’t happen. Instead injuries started to catch up – the Balers lost two starters to head injuries – and Milpitas started to make a run.
In flash, the Balers’ lead was gone. Thanks to Stanton, though, the game wasn’t tied long. After an 80-yard drive and Damien Botelho crossed the goal line, the turnaround was complete.
As rain poured down, the sidelines leapt in the air and players dropped to their knees to quell their emotions. After four months, emotions – even from Cameron – were released all at once.
It was an exclamation mark on the Balers impressive 2012.
For the school, Estrada’s cross country win was a culmination of a great career, that saw school records fall. The softball team’s victory was just further validation of the section’s best softball program under Scott Smith.
But the football victory was more than that. It was a showcase for the school. Despite all the hardship of the year, the team accomplished something everyone said they couldn’t – including myself.
And the Milpitas faces told it all – It was a shock and surprise. And when it comes to sports, nothing is better than a surprise championship run. But now for San Benito High and the Baler nation, surprises will become harder to come by thanks to 2012.
I don’t think anyone will complain.
