Written by: Shireen Ahsan, Lawrence Chen, Roy Shadmon and Rani Shiao
Football
The football team, with a 4-0 record in the El Camino division and an overall record of 6-2, has been smashing the competition this year, beating the Harker Eagles 42-20, the Los Altos Eagles 42-0 during Homecoming and the Cupertino Pioneers 36-6.
As of now, the football team’s main goal is to go undefeated in the El Camino division.
The team may make it to Central Coast Section (CCS) if it wins the next game. “Football is an ultimate team sport, which means everyone has to take responsibility if we are going to win,” wide receiver senior Kevin Sharp said.
For the future, the team plans on improving on all aspects, specifically defense. “If our defense can continue to improve, we should win the league,” assistant coach Mark Weisman said. The next game is away against Fremont on Nov. 9.
Girls’ Tennis
The girls’ tennis team nears the end of the season with an overall record of 13-8. On Oct. 29, the girls beat Homestead in a tiebreaker match, winning 4-2.
With this, the girls competed in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) last week and are going to compete in the CCS this week. At the SCVALs tournament, senior Alice Lee placed first in singles and Gunn placed third and fourth for doubles.
The team has overcome many obstacles, such as the departure of junior Jenny Yoon, who tore her meniscus two weeks ago. “It’s just too bad to lose a good player,” senior Devyani Bhadkamkar said.
Despite this, the girls are sticking together, with high hopes for winning CCS. “We are very close as a team and always support each other,” senior Ebba Nord said.
Girls’ Golf
The girls’ golf team is ending its first ever season on a high note as the undefeated champions (10-0) in the CCS tournament.
Coach Chris Redfield is delighted with the new team’s performance. “They’ve exceeded all my expectations of them,” he said. “I’m extremely proud of all their hard work.”
The team recently placed first in the Blossom Valley Athletics League finals and finished second in CCS. Based on their performace, junior captain Jayshree Sarathy has high hopes for the NorCal championships. “For NorCals, we hope to maintain our positive, confident attitude and play even better,” she said.
Looking ahead, the team aspires to continue their winning streak into next year. “We just have to keep on doing what we have been doing, stay focused, and have fun,” Sarathysaid.
Cross Country
The cross country team is off to a decent start this year in SCVAL but is feeling the hit of losing last year’s seniors. “We are in a rebuilding year right now,” sophomore David Lee-Heidenreich said. “We lost a lot of really good seniors that were on the team.”
With the loss of seniors, the team is working to improve. “We have been doing okay in meets,” Lee-Heidenreich said. “We are averaging about 10th out of 15th [at every meet].” Despite the performance this year, the team has high goals set for the future. “Next year we want to get into Central Coast Section,” Lee-Heidenreich said. Looking at the current standings, there is quite a lot of improvement to be made. “Right now we just need to work on our running speed,” Lee-Heidenreich said. “Once we get faster, we can succeed.”
Girls’ Water Polo
Girls’ water polo won the SCVAL De Anza league after beating Palo Alto 8-4 in their last league game. Head coach Mark Hernandez wants the team to advance to CCS as the number one seed and has tips for the girls to accomplish this. “Be creative and aggressive on offense and fly around on defense,” Hernandez said.
Junior Rachel Wong has one goal for CCS. “We want to go in with confidence and play for a chance to win it all,” Wong said. Junior Caroline Anderson believes the team can defend their league title. “As long as our team stays aggressive and keeps scoring we should win,” Anderson said.
The girls began with a first-round bye, but their second-round game is against the winner of game one, either the fourth or the fifth seed, which was not determined at press time.
Girls’ Volleyball
The girls’ volleyball team is looking to dominate during SCVAL playoffs with a 10-11 record under their belts.
Though the team has boasted several victories over top ranking teams, one game stands out in senior Lena Latour’s mind. “Our greatest accomplishment this season was defeating Mountain View,” she said. “They’re a strong team, but we came out on top.”
Head coach Kevin Hwang is simi-larly proud of the team’s performance. “The six seniors have set the example for everything I have tried to build over the past four years,” he said.
According to senior Nitika Johri, the team has one goal in mind during playoffs. “We’ve usually gotten to SCVAL quarterfinals in the past, and we’re just focused on getting through them this year,” Johri said.
Boys’ Water Polo
The boys’ water polo team continued fighting in every game, even with a slow start to the season. However, their journey is still on its way, even with a 10-8 loss against the Palo Alto Vikings. The boys ended the regular season with a 5-7 league record, placing them in fifth place. The boys still have a chance to qualify for CCS if they play well in the league tournament.
First year head coach Tim Kates had to deal with the difficulty of managing a team and leading it to the SCVAL De Anza league tournament. “The season has been a challenge for me as a new head coach,” Kates said. “We are headed in a very good direction.”
The team will be losing eight seniors after this season, but senior captain Harrison Waschura hopes the team will succeed in the future. “The program should continue to prosper in the coming years,” Waschura said.
