San Benito athletes of the year Elena Fata and Kevin Burley both started in three sports for the 'Balers this year. Fata brought home two CCS titles with basketball and softball while Burley was the scholar athlete of the year and played big parts for bot

Elena Fata and Kevin Burley were named the Hollister Free
Lance’s Female and Male Athletes of the Year for 2007-08
San Benito’s Elena Fata, a three-sport athlete, helped lead two teams to Central Coast Section titles this year, and is the Hollister Free Lance’s Female Athlete of the Year

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Elena Fata’s first memory of playing sports is a distant one, and it didn’t involve softball or basketball or tennis or even volleyball.

When she was six- or seven-years-old, Fata played roller hockey at a rink in Gilroy – “The first real sport I played,” she said.

Perhaps showing that same athleticism that eventually allowed her to excel at the high school level, where she’s stood out despite her small frame, Fata delivered – even at a young age, against the boys, and in roller hockey, no less.

“I remember we went up to a tournament in Antioch to play on an all-boys team,” Fata recalled. “I think I scored five goals in five games.”

Simply epitomizing the word “athlete,” Fata was not only named San Benito High’s Senior Athlete, but also the Free Lance’s Female Athlete of the Year.

A three-sport athlete all four years at SBHS, Fata never optioned to take a season off, despite injuries. After four varsity years for the Lady ‘Balers softball team, Fata will be attending UNLV in the fall on a partial ride.

But instead of filling her offseason with extra cuts in the cage, the San Benito standout played four years of varsity basketball, two years of varsity tennis and two years of junior varsity volleyball.

“I played a lot of sports all my life and I just didn’t stop when I got to high school,” she said. “I didn’t want to stop playing any of them.”

Her three coaches during her senior year – Ed Cecena in tennis, David Kaplansky in basketball and Scott Smith in softball – were probably pleased she didn’t stop playing.

“She’s like the motor in the car,” Smith said of his star shortstop, “without it, you just can’t go.”

Compiling an impressive .518 batting average, Fata connected for five home runs and knocked in 37 runs for the Lady ‘Balers, which won their third straight Central Coast Section Division I title this year. The shortstop also carried an “incredible” .970 fielding percentage, Smith said, stole 14 bases, and was named the Tri-County Athletic League’s Most Outstanding Player.

“I’d be hard-pressed to say there is as important of a player outside the pitcher, but she was for us,” Smith said. “Even if we didn’t have the best pitcher around, she would make us very competitive just having been on the team. Without a pitcher, you don’t win. But without Elena, we wouldn’t have won, either.”

Maybe that’s because Fata seemingly steps up her game when the stakes are at their highest.

The quintessential Fata play came in the CCS championship game against Gilroy. In the seventh inning, with Gilroy looking to make one last-ditch effort, Mustang Emily Castro ripped a ball down the left side that ricocheted off third-baseman Lizzy Gatto and directly to Fata.

Instead of making the routine play to first – where there was no play, Smith said – Fata had the wherewithal to catch Gilroy’s Brittany Balanesi in a pickle at second base, and spoil any Mustang rally.

“Ninety-nine percent of shortstops would not have even been [where she was],” Smith said. “She’s just a real heady player.”

Having the reputation as a clutch player preceded softball season, however. Fata played point guard for the Lady ‘Balers basketball team that won the CCS championship this past season, but it was her 3-pointer against Carlmont in the title game that Kaplansky, at the time, called the “dagger.”

“The memory I’ll have of her is her performance against Carlmont,” Kaplansky said. “She had some huge 3-point shots in that game … She put the nail in the coffin. That one sticks out as far as her performance.”

Putting in 9.6 points per game – second on the team – Fata led the Lady ‘Balers at the free-throw line as well, and attacked the rim with more vigor in the final minute than after opening tip-off, banging against bodies in the paint and scraping herself off the floor to do it again.

“Her leadership was tremendous for us,” Kaplansky said. “She definitely led by example and showed the rest of my kids the right way to work,”

She did it all with a bum shoulder, no less.

After playing two seasons of volleyball her freshmen and sophomore years, Fata made the switch to tennis – the result of a shoulder injury she suffered during basketball season two years ago.

Funny thing, she had never played tennis before, let alone owned a racket.

“It was either tennis or golf,” said Fata, who owed some of her decision to tennis teammate Rachel Maheu. “I said, ‘What the heck,’ so I bought my tennis racket and went out for tryouts.”

Coach Cecena said he wished he had Fata all four years. Although new to the game, Fata picked it up rather quickly – “Coach Ed taught me everything,” she said. Cecena used softball analogies, likening throwing a softball to serving, and catching a softball to volleying.

This year, Fata and Maheu teamed up to form the No. 1 doubles pairing, and went 15-2 on the year.

“She’s one of the best athletes I’ve ever coached, skill-wise and just pure athleticism,” Cecena said. “The fundamentals of tennis came very easy to her through other sports.”

During a match late in the season against Salinas, the ball returned wide to Fata’s side, and she couldn’t reach it with her back hand, Cecena said, so she improvised.

“She threw her racket into her left hand and hit a winner with her opposite hand,” the coach said. “That’s the kind of skills she had on the tennis court … You don’t teach those kind of things.”

Helping San Benito earn four CCS titles, including two this year alone, Fata credits the teams she played on, and thanked her three coaches from this past year as well.

Self-described as laid back, Fata never felt the pressure as a result, and rose to the challenge when possible, in softball, in basketball, and in tennis.

“I just let what happens happen and just have fun,” she said. “If I mess up or something goes wrong, I just try to stay calm. I never really get down on myself.

“We just can’t have any pressure. We just went out there and had fun.”

San Benito’s Kevin Burley, a three-sport athlete, was named the Defensive Lineman of the Year in football, and is the Hollister Free Lance’s Male Athlete of the Year

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Kevin Burley was named the Tri-County Athletic League’s Most Outstanding Defensive Lineman of the Year in football.

He was named to the TCALs All-Defensive Team in basketball as well.

If there was an all-defensive squad in baseball, Burley most likely would have been striving for it.

This time, the unheralded defensive player will not go unnoticed.

Gaining leadership through his three-sport standing, and never faltering in the classroom, either – he was named San Benito High School’s Scholar Athlete of the Year as well – Burley excelled on both ends of the game, but is noted for doing the dirty work on the defensive side of the ball.

“That was never really my role, per se,” Burley said. “I’d play defense, get rebounds and do my thing. It never bothered me that much because I was just doing my role for the team.”

Kevin Burley was named SBHSs Senior Athlete and was chosen as the Free Lance’s Male Athlete of the Year.

While some may be starving for offensive output – the goals scored, the touchdowns, the shots on net – Burley discovered his “role” during his sophomore season in basketball.

He said that his highest scoring game that year, maybe, was eight points. While not exactly a point total that gets you noticed by the coach, Burley was always asked to go in and defend the opposing team’s best big man.

“And that was my job,” he said. “Just to make sure he didn’t score any baskets; just shut him down. That was my job so I did it.”

On the court, at least, Burley’s background as a defensive lineman certainly came into play. Sometimes forced to guard a taller, bigger post player, Burley never shied away from banging bodies in the paint, making opposing teams aware of his physical reputation.

In an early-season contest with Gilroy (a game in which San Benito won, 50-46), the 6-foot-2 Burley was posting up either Marshad Johnson or Lorenzo Dobson – listed at 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-8, respectively – back and forth all game.

Burley had four points, but pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.

“As you can see, we’re small compared to everyone else,” Burley said afterward. “We have to play bigger than we are.”

Averaging 7.55 points, 5.86 rebounds and nearly a steal a game, Burley was described as a constant by basketball coach John Becerra.

“He just anticipated very well on defense and covered their toughest offensive player,” Becerra said. “He anticipated what the offensive player would do and negated that.

“We could always depend on him.”

Football head coach Chris Cameron could always depend on Burley to get his team fired up on Friday night. Like an army general pacing his troops before war, Burley certainly led by example on one particular night last September at Adrian Wilcox High School in Santa Clara.

The Haybalers, awaiting to run out onto the field before the game, spread sideline-to-sideline while Burley paced back and forth amongst the team, emitting leadership and fire.

“He was super fired up,” Cameron said. “Basically, everything he was doing was rubbing off on his teammates. It was contagious. It was spreading like wildfire.

“He went like that all game and carried it out all four quarters.”

In what was perhaps his strongest game of the season, Burley recorded a half-sack, recovered two fumbles, assisted on four tackles and had one tackle to his name by the end of the night. San Benito won the game 13-6 – the team’s first win of the season.

Cameron even recalled the final game of the season against Gilroy. Trying to defend the Mustangs’ potent passing attack, the ‘Balers dropped their linemen into coverage during the game, and Burley batted down a ball and nearly picked off another.

Despite the game’s lopsided outcome, Cameron said Burley was still enjoying the game.

“He was still having fun,” Cameron said, “and we were having fun on the sidelines because Kevin was having fun.”

Burley was third on San Benito in tackles (53), and also had three fumble recoveries, one fumble forced, one hurry, one sack, three pass blocks and three blocked kicks on point-after attempts in 10 league games for the ‘Balers. His defensive lineman of the year award, usually an award reserved for someone on a top team, Cameron said, shows the amount of respect Burley received from opposing coaches.

“He could see things coming before they happened and that really helped him as a defensive lineman,” Cameron said. “He figured out how his opponent was going to block him. He’d use that, get the edge and use his athleticism from there.”

Although he says he’s undecided on his plans next year, Burley does plan on continuing with sports, most likely baseball (“Football, I’d have to gain a lot of weight,” he said. “Basketball, I’m not skilled enough – don’t have that height.”).

And Burley certainly came on toward the tail end of the baseball season this year when he hit a grand slam in the Central Coast Section playoffs against Silver Creek, and connected on a solo homer the following game against Bellarmine.

San Benito manager Michael Luna believes Burley’s sport in the future is baseball.

“At the last part of the year, he was on a tear,” Luna said. “He has size and bat speed. At a baseball program for an entire year, he could surprise a lot of people. I think he has untapped potential.”

Luna called Burley’s leadership, enthusiasm and work ethic instrumental to San Benito’s success this past season, which saw the team go 17-1 in the TCAL, good enough for another league championship as well as the top seed in the postseason.

Noting Burley’s impressive run on the field and in the classroom, Luna feels a full season of hard work can truly pay off (Burley came out late for baseball after an extended basketball season saw the ‘Balers advance to the second round of the CCS playoffs).

“The last couple of weeks of the season, he showed everyone what he’s capable of doing,” Luna said. “It confirmed what I think – that he can play at the next level.”

Owing his work ethic to his father, Mitch, who played basketball at Santa Clara, Burley thanked his parents for their support. In the end, his hard work helped lead the Haybalers into a pair of postseason berths this past season.

“During high school, I just wanted to win,” Burley said. “It didn’t really matter. I just wanted to help my team win.”

San Benito High Athlete Awards

Scholar Athletes

Rachel Maheu, Kevin Burley

Senior Athletes

Elena Fata, Kevin Burley

Junior Athletes

Vanessa Farias, Ryan Shorey

Sophomore Athletes

Sophie Coelho, Kyle Vallejo

Freshmen Athletes

Jessica Vest, Jake Hunter

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A staff member wrote, edited or posted this article, which may include information provided by one or more third parties.

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