Young team should fare well in ‘B’ league
MORGAN HILL — Though they graduated 11 players last summer, a fresh start might just what the Sobrato girls soccer team needs.
The Lady Bulldogs were begging for one midway through the 2008-09 campaign, after they lost offensive standouts Jennae Cambra and Janelle Cisneros to season-ending injuries. The team struggled mightly without them, finishing 1-14-4 overall and 1-11-2 in its first year in the Mount Hamilton Division.
“It wasn’t fun,” Cambra said at Tuesday’s practice in the Outdoor Sports Center. “Not being able to play; I really missed it. I wanted to help us win.”
Since then, the tables have turned. Sobrato moved down from the Blossom Valley Athletic League ‘A’ conference and now boasts a well-balanced mix of players that could make the Bulldogs a dark horse favorite to win the makeshift Santa Teresa Division.
“I think, after last year, there were a lot of issues with having 11 seniors,” Sobrato third-year head coach Paul Nishimatsu said. “This year, we have to make an identity for ourselves. Being a young team, I think we’ve got a pretty good start because of the class of freshmen and sophomores we have. We’re pretty much balanced across the board.”
The Bulldogs have welcomed the healthy return of Cambra and Cisneros, who will start at forward and center midfielder, respectively. Cambra, who tore an anterior cruciate ligament last fall, scored the team’s second-most goals (19) as a freshman in 2007-08, when Sobrato won the Santa Teresa championship.
“Those two, obviously, are going to be huge,” Nishimatsu said.
The Bulldogs’ other key veterans include midfielder Nika Burnett, defender Alyson Inouye and utility player Taylor Pencer — all juniors — plus sophomore goalkeeper Maggie Cropp.
“It’s weird to be switching from 11 seniors to being at the very bottom and switching leadership positions immediately,” Inouye said. “But we’re already coming together.”
Some of the names in the new batch of Bulldogs may sound familiar. Rebecca Inouye — Alyson’s sister — and Kate Van Keulen — sister of former Sobrato all-leauger Lindsay Van Keulen — have made the varsity team as freshman, same with Nishimatsu’s daughter, Lia, whose sister, Kayla, made the second-team all-league list in 2008-09.
“It’s like a whole new team,” senior Jazzmin Ramarez said.
The Bulldogs can showcase their progress next week, when they open the season against Willow Glen and rival Live Oak. Both have moved up to the Mount Hamilton.
“It doesn’t really matter who we play this year,” Cambra said. “We want to win some games.”
