Hollister High guard Broc Sondgroth had just had the game of his
life.
Hollister High guard Broc Sondgroth had just had the game of his life. He poured in a career-high 23 points with some long-distance shooting in the Balers’ statement-making win over Salinas at the Bob Steinbach Classic at North Salinas High.
Sondgroth, of the high-arcing trajectory, knew it was his time to talk. The words came out almost the way he wanted to say them.
“This was the biggest game of my life next to Live Oak,” said Sondgroth, referring to the Balers near miss against the Acorns in the Bob Hagen Tournament in Gilroy.
What Sondgroth could have easily have said was “This was the best game of my life.”
It was. Let’s hear it for the little guy. The Balers have been doing it with big men Kyle Sharp and Anthony Butler as they have surged to a surprising 12-2 record and two tourney championships. Butler and Sharp have been getting most of the early-season ink, and deservedly so, but guys like Sondgroth, fellow guards Eric Davis, Thomas Fernandez and Jeff Fajardo, and forwards Danny Brooks, Kevin Zanella and Jason Sims, have been pulling their weight.
No, there is nothing wrong with Sharp and Butler donating 20-plus points per game. In fact, the Balers have to rely on them to do that for them to win.
That makes Sondgroth’s surprising 23 a right-on-time joy for head coach David Kaplansky. Hollister shook off a slow start vs. the Cowboys, got behind 10-0 and didn’t look good doing so. The whole team caved in to the relentless pressure of the Cowboys, who have one of the section’s better backcourts in Drew Sanchez and Casey Neligh. Sanchez is one of those players who nets 20 points rolling out of bed. He’s one of the slicker guards I’ve seen in recent years and can even put on a show passing the ball. He had at least three late-look passes against the Balers which were muffed at the other end and should have been turned into baskets. On one play, he took a loose ball near the top of the key and passed blindly overhead to Neligh in the corner. Neligh handled the pass, but looked as shocked as everyone in the Salinas gym.
So little known Sondgroth, sophomore Davis and unsung Fajardo had to ride the tide against the better known and probably better-skilled guards of the Cowboys. They had to rally from errant passes. Yeah, some were dropped unprovoked by the Baler big men, whose hands took a few minutes to warm up.
But the Baler guards settled down, became more patient and when it was time to make the right pass, they did it as well as Sanchez and Neligh did.
The win by the Balers gave them a ton of credibility going into the Tri-County Athletic League season. The Balers host Live Oak on Jan. 18, but Kaplansky isn’t looking past Monterey, the first of three tough non-league games the Balers have before Live Oak. The Toreadores have a big force in the middle in 6-foot-7 Yousef Smith, a transfer from New York.
“We’re taking them one game at a time,” said Kaplansky. “Monterey is a great team. They have great athletes. Everyone is going to try harder to beat us now that we’ve been winning.”
I like this Baler team to go far in the CCS Division I tournament. Writers can look ahead. Coaches and players can’t. I kidded with Sharp that the Balers’ chances of winning CCS might be easier than winning the TCAL. Then I looked at the CCS D-I field from late February of this year and found Gilroy, Live Oak and North Salinas, three TCAL members among the field. Other top D-I teams include Serra, St. Ignatius an Bellarmine from the always tough West Catholic Athletic League. Oak Grove of San Jose won the CCS title on March 1, edging Serra 48-41. And then there’s San Jose’s Andrew Hill, whom many say is the favorite to take D-I.
So I retract my whimsical statement. Winning CCS will be just as strenuous as winning the TCAL for the Balers, if not harder.
“Every game is going to be a dogfight from now on,” said Kaplansky.
The Balers have one thing going for them in league. Three of the last four games are at home. The last road game, which is second to the last game of the regular season, wll be a dandy – at Salinas on Feb. 19. That could very well be for the league crown.
It will be important for the Balers to hold serve on their five league games. It won’t be easy. But, I suspect that once the Baler student body jumps on the old bandwagon and turns up the volume, the Balers will be tough to beat.
Especially if Sondgroth throws in his 23 points every game for good measure. Heck, if they do that, there will be no limit for this team.
