Live Oak Girls Basketball Coach Mike Kiefer said he immediately noticed a freshman Amy Gunther and was impressed by her arrogance and her confidence she was ready to play varsity basketball.
A freshman Ryan Quadros was much the same way, though he wouldn’t call his belief he could play varsity football arrogance, just a belief he belonged.
“Not arrogance, but more of a confidence in myself. I think that helped,” Quadros said. “You always got to have confidence in your abilities. I did that and I think I met my goals here.”
Both Gunther and Quadros not only showed they belonged, they excelled.
They were captains of their respective teams.
They both helped lead their teams to league championships.
Now, after they both officially walked at graduation, their efforts were rewarded by being named Athletes of the Year.
“I think it was more overall Gemo and everyone realizing that it was not so much my talent and more the work I put in,” Quadros said.
Gunther started 100 consecutive games over her four years, was named to the First Team All League each of the four years, scored more than 1,000 points and made 120 3-pointers.
Quadros was third on the team in total tackles his freshman year. He followed that with a 138-tackle performance his sophomore year, 148 his junior year and 137 his senior year to lead the team in each of those years.
The titles
Quadros’ freshman year was a season lost for Live Oak.
Off the field issues led to the loss of some key players. After Live Oak started 5-0, the Acorns finished 1-4 the rest of the way to miss the playoffs and be denied a chance at a Santa Teresa title.
They didn’t miss the next two years.
Quadros led a group of sophomores who made an immediate impact on the squad, flying to a 7-0 league mark and a 9-1 regular season record.
The following year, Live Oak went 6-1 in Santa Teresa play, 7-3 overall and got moved up to the Mt. Hamilton Division.
“We definitely proved some people wrong that season,” Quadros said. “Everyone said, ‘they’re going to be small, they’re not going to be as good,’ because Trevor is gone. … But I think we worked better as a team.”
There Live Oak once again went 6-1 and sported a 9-1 mark overall, blowing out teams all the way through.
The Acorns outscored teams by an average of 34.1 points per game in the wins.
Quadros said the team sort of figured out how special it was going to be following the scrimmages.
“After that I was thinking we’re going to be alright,” Quadros said. “Every game we knew no matter how much we blew a team out, anything could happen each week. So we couldn’t let up.”
For Gunther, the girls basketball team had a special group ready to go her junior year, but injuries to key players squelched the opportunity to move on.
“Junior year was the year where everyone just learns how to play with each other,” Gunther said. “The next year is the year where we were going to go all out.”
But her senior year, the Acorns went 22-2 overall and 13-1 in league play, smashing teams all the way, outscoring teams by more than 20 points per game.
Freshman take over
Quadros said making the leap to the varsity squad in his first season in high school was made a little easier because his brother Kyle was already on the team.
“Him and Trevor (Bearden) also helped a lot because we train during the offseason. When I came here, I just settled in with them and I knew other people on the team. … I was comfortable when I got here.”
That helped Quadros know who he was going against and felt comfortable to make the leap.
“I knew that compared to people here that I had the size and the speed was there too, but it was just adjusting to the game,” Quadros said. “From playing midges to playing against juniors and seniors, that is what I had to adjust to.”
Gunther likewise knew other upperclassmen on the team, including Jocelyn Mendoza and others whom she played SCBA with. They were girls she looked up to and revered if not feared.
“I just remember looking up to Courtney (Thompson) one time when I was an eighth grader and she did this one screen where she knocked this girl flat on the floor. I thought she was scary and I happen to be her teammate the next year.”
Gunther said her first game went by so quickly that she hardly remembers it, not how many points she scored or many of the details.
But she does remember that her mom gave her some sage advice going into the game.
“My mom said to me just play your game. Just play defense, offense or what ever, just don’t forget how to play basketball,” Gunther said.
The game she does remember well, unsurprisingly, is her first game against Sobrato. There she described how the freshman went off in the game and eventually the bench was emptied to give the seniors a last chance to take on their rivals.
“I was sitting there thinking we did so well,” Gunther said.
Quadros was the same way, he doesn’t really remember many of the games.
He said there are plays that stick out, but there aren’t many full games he can completely recall.
“It was coming fast. I learned to slow it down play by play, but in general I don’t really remember the games,” Quadros said. “It just goes by too quick.”
And almost as quickly, they were the big dogs on campus and no longer had older players to look up to but were in fact the older players who were looked up to.
“When I was a senior on the court in the senior game, that’s when it really hit that I’m graduating. It went by so fast,” Gunther said.
Quadros said his first two years he got a chance to take it all in, but as he aged, the time to experience ended and all of a sudden it started to go by quickly.
“Junior and senior year definitely flew by. Freshman and sophomore year we had a little bit to take our time and enjoy things,” Quadros said. “Not that we didn’t enjoy junior and senior seasons, but they definitely flew by faster for me.”
Memorable moments
Live Oak started the season 9-0 before suffering its first loss.
Along the way, the Acorns took down some hefty teams, such as Hillsdale, who eventually went to the CCS semi finals.
“We ended up beating them by 1 and it was just a heartwarming situation. We ran to the bench like, ‘Oh my God, we won,” Gunther said.
Then the Acorns defeated the top teams in the Santa Teresa Division on their way to the team’s first league title in 19 years.
For Quadros, there was the league titles, but there was also beating Sobrato all four years he played for Live Oak, including the 65-0 game in his final El Toro Bowl.
But not all memories were positive but were nonetheless meaningful.
“I just remember sometimes not being able to catch a sweep and that got to me a little bit,” Quadros said. “I just remember in the offseason, I worked on my speed and my footwork. I just remember missing tackles or not being able to catch someone and I didn’t want to do that again.”
Gunther said the Branham CCS game her junior year will stick in her craw because of how it ended.
She fouled out of the game and it came down to the last shot.
“Grace (Smith) got the last ball. It rolled to her, she shot a 3 and she made it, but the other coach called a timeout but the girl didn’t have possession of the ball,” Gunther said. “It is always back and forth about what happened.”
Next week: Read about Sobrato’s Athletes of the Year.
