Sports

Gavilan College removed 17 out-of-state football players—all but one of them African American—from the team and campus last week, claiming the athletes had received prohibited transportation, housing and food benefits and were improperly recruited. They all lived in the same three-bedroom house in Hollister, rent-free...

By defeating Kings Christian 26-14 in its season-opener last Friday in Lemoore, the Anzar High football team has already equaled its win total from last season. One game does not make or come close to defining a season; however, the Hawks are seemingly in...

With its biggest turnout in several years, the San Benito High girls tennis team expects nothing less than a 180-degree turnaround from a 2016 season that saw it finish in last place in the Monterey Bay League’s Gabilan Division. Demoted to the Pacific Division...

Despite going 1-2 in the Homestead Tournament last weekend, the San Benito High boys water polo team is far from worried. In fact, the Haybalers are more confident than ever. “We’re looking a lot stronger this year for sure,” senior Oliver Garcia said. “I expect...

Before the season started, San Benito High football coach Bryan Smith said Adam Mendoza’s name will be called early and often. It only took the first game of the 2017 campaign to see why. The versatile senior did it all last Friday in the...

Back-to-back Monterey Bay League championships, including an outright title last year. A 2017 California Interscholastic Federation Northern California playoff victory. Sixty-three—count, ‘em, 63—wins in the last two years, the most in any two-year stretch in program history. The San Benito High girls volleyball team is...

Jonny Gonzalez had a succinct response when asked about the outlook for the upcoming season. “Everybody is doing their job—period,” said Gonzalez, a senior running back who is one of the team’s top returners and leaders. “That’s the Baler way, and how football is supposed...

Former San Benito High and Gavilan College standout Erica Chapa has already started practice for the Cal State University Monterey Bay women’s volleyball team. In fact, this week the Otters have been engaged in some serious training, with two practice sessions each day to...

Perhaps it’s only appropriate former Haybalers standout Davonte Butler has earned a scholarship to play baseball at Cal State University Bakersfield—their nickname is the Roadrunners. And as Baler fans have witnessed the last couple of years, Butler is swift on the basepaths. On Aug. 7,...

Rising boxing sensation Sammy “Trouble” Torres has continued his upward trajectory this summer, earning gold medals in the Golden Gloves and Desert Showdown to go along with a silver medal in the prestigious Junior Olympics. That makes the Rancho San Justo seventh grader a...