It was a season of learning, and various levels of success and
struggle for the Sobrato High fall sports programs. The school
’s first-ever sports season included varsity and JV field
hockey, and frosh-soph football and girls volleyball, along with a
few runners competing in cross-country.
It was a season of learning, and various levels of success and struggle for the Sobrato High fall sports programs.
The school’s first-ever sports season included varsity and JV field hockey, and frosh-soph football and girls volleyball, along with a few runners competing in cross-country.
There was no water polo, girls tennis or girls golf.
Following are the final results for the Bulldogs’ fall sports teams:
Football
Coach Jeff Patterson led his team to a 7-3 record against freshmen teams this fall, including wins over visiting (and previously unbeaten) Hollister-San Benito (37-7) and at Alameda (27-20).
“I’m very happy with the way the season went,” Patterson said. “We never got blown out of any game. We were very competitive.”
Sobrato was led by freshman quarterback Adam Perez, who tossed 10 TDs with no interceptions behind a talented offensive line, freshman running back Steven Gutierrez, sophomore linebacker Itzcally Valencia, sophomore linebacker/fullback Juvenal Rodriguez and freshman linebacker Adrian Alcantara.
Sobrato will move up to varsity and join the Tri-County Athletic League next season.
“It’s definitely going to be more of a challenge,” Patterson said.
Girls volleyball
There was little question that the highlight of the season for the Lady Bulldogs volleyball team was finishing second in the Silver Bracket of the North Salinas Tournament.
The girls volleyball team also earned the first victory in school history, beating Santa Teresa.
Overall, the team compiled a 6-9 record in head-to-head competition (not counting tournament play).
“I think for this being our first season, we exceeded my expectations,” Coach Marni Kutok said. “We had a lot of players who had never played before.”
Top players included freshman setter Nicole Simoneau, freshman outside hitter Janie Aylard and freshman middle blocker Cheyenne Hambey. Hambey and freshman Nicole Brewer both earned Kutok’s Coach’s Award at the end of the season.
The girls volleyball team will also join the varsity ranks in the TCAL next season.
Field hockey
Despite going winless in its first season while playing against varsity opponents in the highly competitive Blossom Valley Athletic League, the Sobrato field hockey players made huge leaps forward in their play this fall, according to Coach Carmen Villegas.
“It was a year of learning – how to hold the stick and the rules,” Villegas said. “It was an eye-opening experience to build a team with players who had never played field hockey before against seniors who had been playing the game for years. But the girls were focused on staying positive and learning.”
Because Sobrato wanted to join the BVAL right away, the Bulldogs were forced to field a varsity squad according to league rules. That meant a lot of lopsided scores early in the season, but many of those early blowouts got much closer as the season progressed, Villegas said. Even opposing coaches and players began giving the team pointers, she said.
By season’s end, Sobrato (0-13 overall) had earned enough respect from its opponents to place freshman Alejandra Cervantes on the all-league second team, while goalie Naomi Macias was named Freshman of the Year.
The Lady Bulldogs started out witha grand total of one player at the first practice, but by the end of the season had enough players (32 total) to field a JV team that ended up 2-10-1 overall (sixth in the league).
JV player Alena Lawson earned first team all-league honors for Sobrato.
Field hockey will continue varsity play in the BVAL next season.
