High School Sports

At the start of Lauren Sabbatini’s sophomore season, Haybalers coach Ruth Testman gave her the nickname Popeye. Another nickname might suffice: hammer. At times, the junior outside hitter delivers a swing with such precision and authority that she bludgeons the ball through any block.

The Nov. 18, 2002 cover of Sports Illustrated featured an iconic shot of Brian Brohm, who at the time was a star junior quarterback at Trinity High in Kentucky. The subtitle of the cover story, “Inside the changing world of our young athletes,” was the first of a four-part series that detailed a semi-revolution in high school sports, where the top athletes started specializing in one sport rather than play multiple ones.

Entering Friday night’s Monterey Bay League Gabilan Division game, San Benito had trailed five previous opponents by a grand total of 6 minutes. That’s half a quarter in high school football. So it was uncharted territory for the Haybalers to be facing their largest deficit of the season against Monte Vista Christian early in the first quarter.

During the week, Bryan Smith is out of the house by 6 a.m. and doesn’t get home until around 7 p.m. Such is the life for many high school football coaches, where juggling work and family life can be quite a chore if one is not prepared for the grind.

It wasn’t its most impressive performance of the season, but San Benito High will take it. The Haybalers’ 37-20 win over host Alvarez Friday kept them perfect at 5-0 overall and 1-0 in Monterey Bay League Gabilan Division play.

With under a minute left in San Benito High’s season-opener against York on Aug. 30, Zander Bonnet came in on a breakaway after receiving a pass from fellow junior Oliver Garcia, who took the ball away from his York counterpart.

When the San Benito High girls volleyball team is involved in a competitive match, Nicole Andrade never comes off the court. The junior libero is one of four players on the squad—Marisa Villegas, Kieley Hoskins and Lauren Sabbatini are the others—who play all six rotations.

Notes, thoughts and anecdotes from San Benito High’s 45-30 win over Wilcox last week, thus completing a perfect non-league slate for the first time since the 2009 season:

From an early age, Elli Kliewer and Samantha Cortez realized they had running talent. But their potential wouldn’t be realized without developing a true love for running. And that’s exactly what the two San Benito High juniors have: a passion for cross country.

The players weren’t happy. Not even after a convincing 45-30 home win over Wilcox Friday night. Such is the lofty standard of the San Benito High football team this year, when a postgame atmosphere that normally would be festive resembled more of a funeral.