In 2014, athletes and sports teams from San Benito County purported themselves well.
Then again, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there were a number of captivating moments and standout performances, not when you adopt an attitude that has come prevalent in this county: Talent and hard work equals consistent success.
As we welcome in the New Year, it’s time to say goodbye and look back at 2014 with equal parts nostalgia and celebration. Without further adieu, here is just a small sample of some of the lasting impressions of the past year—split up by the high school sports calendar (winter, spring and fall) that made 2014 a year to remember.
FALL
Top teams: San Benito football and boys cross country
The scene at Rabobank Stadium was downright warm and fuzzy in the aftermath of the Balers’ 14-7 win over Salinas in the CCS Division I playoff championship game on Dec. 5.
Most of the players took turns taking individual pictures with their coach, Chris Cameron, who completed his 21st season at the school by guiding it to its seventh section title, his fourth.
What made this year’s title run all the more special was the fact that the Balers peaked toward the end of the season and avenged two league losses in the postseason, to Alvarez and Salinas.
The Balers got it done with an offense that did just enough, strong special-teams play and a defense that proved to be the team’s foundation in the last month of the season.
To wit: In three playoff games, San Benito allowed a grand total of 13—yes, 13—points. In the team’s last three regular-season contests, it yielded only 26 points, which included a critical 17-13 win over Palma on Nov. 7.
“It’s tough to lose when your defense doesn’t give up points,” Cameron said.
Meanwhile, the boys cross-country team experienced its own moment of nirvana at the CCS Championships. After barely missing out on qualifying for the state meet in 2011 and 2013, the Balers sealed the deal with a balanced lineup of six runners who pushed each other to the edge of what they could physically do.
With a lineup of Elijah Changco, Juan Gutierrez, Rene Nunez, Jose Ruiz, Nolan Sanchez, Javier Azcona and Jacob Morioka, the Balers nailed down third place in the Central Coast Section Championships to earn a berth to state.
A program rich in tradition, San Benito won the Division I team title in 2003 and has been runner-up two other times to go along with several other top-5 finishes. Since the early 2000s, perhaps no other program at the school has been as consistently solid as this one.
Gutierrez summed up the team’s feeling best: “We finally get to live out our dream.”
Top individual performance: Amy Quinones
The San Benito High senior gave a virtuoso performance in the Monterey Bay League Championships at Toro Park on Nov. 1, completing the 3.0-mile course in 18 minutes, 49 seconds, topping her previous personal-record (PR) by a whopping 20 seconds.
Talk about coming through in the clutch: Quinones knew she would have to endure moments of excruciating pain to earn a berth to state.
Once she crossed the finish line, Quinones would’ve collapsed had it not been for Ruiz, who alertly helped Quinones to the runners’ recovery area that is situated 15 yards past the finish line.
One had to marvel at Quinones’ performance, which literally left her dazed and confused afterward. Short of passing out, Quinones literally left it all out on the course, no surprise considering she smashed her old PR by 20 seconds.
“That was the most pain I’ve ever felt after a race,” said Quinones, who followed up her MBL effort with an eighth-place showing in CCS and a 23rd-place finish in the Division I state race. “I just wanted to go out there and show everyone I could do it. I want to thank our coaches and (former) coach (Jess) Morales for getting me into the proper mental state and where I needed to be.”
Best turnaround: San Benito girls’ water polo
After recording just six wins in 2013, the Balers more than tripled that amount a year later en route to a 21-6 record. They got it done by coming together and playing more in the off-season than they had ever done before.
The eight-player core group included Erin Hepner, Ceily Hepner, Rachel Smithee, Shannon Stephens, Heather Smith, Hayleigh Smith, Riley Drexler and Grace Larson.
“What’s more important than the wins and losses is the fact they became a team,” Balers coach Ronni Gautschi said moments after the team lost to Menlo-Atherton 5-2 in a CCS Division I second-round playoff match on Nov. 13 at Aptos High.
“Before I got here, they were yelling at each other in the pool, but we just had a good conversation where everyone went around and said what they learned in life, and the most I got out of that is they became best friends. To me, that’s more important than winning or losing a water polo match.”
WINTER
Top team: San Benito boys’ basketball
The Balers certainly had a year to remember, finishing 21-6 overall, 9-3 in the MBL Gabilan Division and a semifinal appearance in the CCS Division I tournament.
Using a dribble-drive motion offense, San Benito used an entertaining style of play combined with strong fundamentals to nearly upset a tough Bellarmine squad—the Bells beat the Balers 55-53 in the CCS semis—to nearly reach their first-ever section final.
Led by R.J. Collins, Hyram Miskin, Robbie Skinner and Shraee Harrison, San Benito won two tournaments early in the season, which proved to be a harbinger for one of the best seasons in recent memory.
Best overachieving team: San Benito wrestling
Entering the 2013-14 campaign, not many people outside of the San Benito High program thought it could take second place in the MBL’s Gabilan Division—by far the best league in the CCS.
But that’s exactly what the Balers did, going 5-1 in league (their only defeat was to state powerhouse Gilroy).
Although San Benito didn’t meet its postseason goal of qualifying a wrestler to the CIF State Championships, several wrestlers did well in the section tournament.
Competing in the 113-pound weight class, Eric Loredo went 5-2, good for a fifth-place finish.
Loredo won his first two matches via pinfall before suffering a 10-3 loss to El Camino-South San Francisco’s Christian Diokno in the quarterfinals. The Balers’ Patrick Ippolito (138), J.J. Melo (220) and Tristian Medina (heavyweight) all went 3-2. Jaime Aleman (132), Issac Gallope (145) and Simon Coelho (160) all finished 2-2.
Best comeback: San Benito boys’ soccer
In one of the more improbable comebacks to win a championship you’ll ever see at any level, the San Benito High boys soccer team overcame all odds to capture the MBL Pacific Division title, clinching it with a dominating 3-1 win over visiting Monte Vista Christian in the regular-season finale for both teams.
With the victory, the Balers finished 13-5-2 and earned a berth into the CCS playoffs for the first time since 1983—or several years before any of the players on the team was born. San Benito received goals from Jose Lopez Munoz, Jorge Servin and Ricardo Becerra.
“It’s an amazing feeling, and thank God we were able to do it,” said Lopez Munoz, one of the team’s outstanding midfielders. “This was something we never thought was possible.”
Indeed, San Benito needed everything and anything to break right — and unbelievably, they did — to catch and eventually overtake Monterey. To wit: After a Feb. 4 loss to Christopher — a defeat that was later overturned into a win, more on that ahead — the Balers trailed Monterey by a whopping eight points in the standings.
Although they weren’t mathematically eliminated from winning the championship, the Balers needed nothing short of a minor miracle to come back and win it. Here’s how they got it done.
First, San Benito needed to beat Monterey in the teams’ second head-to-head contest on Feb. 11. Check. Then the Balers needed to win the rest of their games and hope Monterey either lost a match or had a draw along the way.
Check. Finally, San Benito still needed something out of the ordinary to win the league championship, and that came earlier this week when it was learned that Christopher had to forfeit at least four league games for using a player who was later ruled ineligible to play.
That meant San Benito’s loss to the Cougars on Feb. 4 was overturned into a win, a huge three-point swing. After all that, the Balers held a slim one-point lead on Monterey as both teams entered their league finale.
The Toreadores ended up beating Palma, 2-0, meaning had the Balers not beaten Monte Vista Christian, they would’ve finished in second place and more than likely would’ve been left out of the playoffs — again — because of a lack of points (teams in a ‘B’ league like the Pacific receive fewer points for playing league games compared to teams from an ‘A’ division like the Gabilan).
“I’m very proud of the guys because they kept on fighting,” Balers coach Tony Deras said. “This is a good team, a very disciplined team. It has always been a goal of mine to bring this program to CCS. It was the first thing I had in my mind when I took over (four years ago).”
SPRING
Standout track and field athletes
Youth was served in the CCS Track and Field Championships, as then-San Benito High freshman Marisa Villegas placed fifth in a loaded 1600-meter run field—Anna Maxwell of San Lorenzo Valley and Sarah Robinson of Gunn entered the race with the nation’s second- and ninth-best times in the event, respectively—and the Balers’ freshman sensation finished in a personal-best time of 4:58.96, less than four seconds off of the state qualifying at-large standard.
Displaying the savvy of an upperclassmen rather than an athlete who was just 14 years old at the time of the race, Villegas settled in comfortably behind the leaders 200 meters in, and consistently hit her times every lap.
“It’s been a great season,” said Villegas, who was one of only four freshmen to earn a top-five finish in an individual event. “I came into the year wanting to improve my form. That was my goal, but once my form got better, my times started to as well. I’m a lot more confident now, and it’s an unbelievable feeling.”
Fellow Balers standout Chris Cook felt the same way after he finished in second in the long jump with a mark of 22-8 3/4. Cook progressively improved with each jump, and on his third and final attempt, knowing he needed to a huge mark, produced his best jump of the season.
Game of the season: Baseball—San Benito 4, Serra 3 (10)
Those who were in attendance for this CCS Division I opening-round playoff game won’t soon forget one of the more thrilling finishes in Balers baseball history.
Facing one of the state’s elite programs—Serra of San Mateo counts Barry Bonds, Lynn Swann and Tom Brady as its most famous alumnus, just to name a few—the Balers were determined to beat another team from the vaunted West Catholic League, something they’ve been successful at the last couple of years.
When Zack Moeller got the exact pitch he was looking for—a fastball on the middle inside of the plate on a 3-1 count—he didn’t disappoint. Moeller’s home run to dead center leading off the bottom of the 10th provided a spectacular ending to a classic battle between two of the section heavyweights.
“It just felt good to help the team out,” said Moeller, who finished with two of the team’s nine hits. (When I hit the ball) I knew it was gone, actually.”
It wasn’t a surprise that San Benito was involved in another nail-biter against a school from the powerful WCAL—the Balers are 4-4 against WCAL schools in the playoffs since 2010.
Greg Steinbeck started for San Benito and went four innings, allowing six hits and two earned runs, throwing just 60 pitches in the process. Hunter Haworth relieved and threw six shutout innings, providing the team with the boost it needed.
Haworth improved to a perfect 10-0 on the season, in the process lowering his already microscopic 0.49 ERA entering the contest.
Although this wasn’t Haworth’s most dominating performance of the season, it was probably the most impressive considering he had absolutely no margin for error, as he came in with the team trailing by a run.
And considering the competition—the Padres had one of the best lineups in the section—Haworth’s performance was one of the gutsiest of his burgeoning career. Now at Chico State, the right-hander allowed four hits, all singles, walked four (two intentional) and hit a batter.
Top headline: Softball team’s title run comes to an end
It’s often said that all good things must come to an end. Unfortunately for the San Benito High softball juggernaut, that adage proved true in 2014. Attempting to win a record-tying ninth consecutive CCS title, the Balers ran into a buzzsaw in the form of Carlmont ace Rebecca Faulkner in the Division I final.
The No. 3 seed Haybalers were no match for No. 1 Carlmont, which rolled to an 8-1 victory. It was the Scots’ eighth section championship, and first since 2004. San Benito had won every D-I title since 2006, one of the great accomplishments in CCS history.
“Ultimately, our expectations are to win this game. We’re disappointed, but at the same time Carlmont deserved to win this game,” Balers coach Scott Smith said. “Absolutely, they were the better team today.”
San Benito, which ended the season with a 23-3-1 record, was the biggest reason why section powerhouse Carlmont (27-3) had gone 10 years since winning its last section championship.
The Balers were 4-0 against the Scots in the postseason since 2005, including 2-0 in finals. However, the two powerhouse programs’ latest tilt belonged to the team from Belmont.
The Scots received a stellar pitching performance from Faulkner, the UC Riverside-bound left-hander who struck out seven and allowed just three hits in shutting down perhaps the best offensive team in the section.
The Balers scored their lone run on Suzy Brookshire’s one-out triple to the fence in right-center. The blast scored Callee Heen, who had reached on her second single of the game. But that was all the Balers could generate against Faulkner, who imparted tremendous movement and spin on the ball to keep the San Benito lineup in check.
OTHER NOTABLES
The rise of high school athletes giving early commitments really hit home in Hollister, where three players on the softball team—then-junior Adriana Ibarra (San Jose State), then-sophomore Callee Heen (Hawaii-Manoa) and then-sophomore Suzy Brookshire (Sacramento State) had given verbal commitments to play for Division I programs … Speaking of the rise of the precocious athlete, Alyssa Ito, an eighth grader at Spring Grove, made the Hollister American Little League 11-12 All-Star team last summer. Ito was a starting infielder and one of the team’s best defensive standouts. Ito has also run several half-marathons, with a personal-best time of 1 hour, 45 minutes.
