High School Sports

The San Benito High girls golf team has a senior-dominated squad that coach Carissa Filice said will be hard to say goodbye to at the end of the season. One of the half-dozen seniors include Isabella Arreola, a four-year varsity player.

When Jessica Kirschmann had surgery on her right wrist June 9, she wasn’t sure how it would affect her senior season playing on the San Benito High girls tennis team. Turns out things have gone better than Kirschmann could’ve ever imagined. Kirschmann has never played better, as evidenced by her 6-2, 6-0 win over Christopher’s Sydney Tran at No. 1 singles on Oct. 20.

San Benito High senior Shannon Stephens admitted she was downright intimidated and nervous entering the team’s rematch against Santa Cruz on Monday. After all, Santa Cruz’s Meg Hedrick had torched the Haybalers for seven goals in the Sept. 10 match, an 11-10 San Benito victory.

A second straight blowout of a league opponent has the San Benito High football team on a high as it enters the stretch run of the season. The Haybalers dominated in every facet of the game in a 63-6 demolition of visiting Alvarez on Friday. The Eagles actually scored the game’s first touchdown only to see San Benito (5-2 overall, 2-1 MBL Gabilan) run off 63 straight unanswered points.

The San Benito High girls volleyball team is about to enter its toughest stretch of the season. The Haybalers, who swept visiting Monte Vista Christian on Thursday—game scores were 25-13, 25-22, 25-21—lost standouts in outside hitter Marisa Villegas and libero Noel Chavarria after the two collided heads going for a pass midway through Game 2 against MVC.

When Tyler Rodriguez started practicing at fullback last week, the 5-foot-11, 180-pound senior never thought he would hear his number get called. In San Benito High’s 45-6 shellacking of visiting Monterey on Oct. 9, Rodriguez received two carries—and he made the most of them.

By all accounts, the San Benito High cross-country course isn’t exactly at the top of the list when it comes to race destinations. Just take it from the Haybalers’ top finishers—Elijah Changco from the boys team and Brianna Martin from the girls squad—when San Benito hosted a Monterey Bay League Center Meet on Oct. 7.

Anzar High volleyball coach Tom Schatz was put in an unenviable position as his team prepared to play in the Alvarez Tournament on Oct. 10. With most of his seniors attending a college preview day at Cal State University Monterey Bay, Schatz had to call up three freshmen from the junior varsity team to field a full roster and have a couple of reserve players available to play.

There’s an old adage in sports that says any win is a good win. That pretty much summed up the situation for the San Benito High football team in a 45-6 pounding of visiting Monterey on Friday. Against an overmatched Monterey squad, the Haybalers (4-2 overall, 1-1 MBL Gabilan) did what they were supposed to do—win going away.

It’s not often a water polo player can make jaws drop, but that’s exactly what San Benito High senior Daniel Reimer did in the Haybalers’ 14-12 loss to Robert Louis Stevenson on Oct. 6. Simply put, Reimer put on a show that those in attendance won’t soon forget.