By: Dan Kidder
Any competitive athlete will tell you that the reason they
compete is not for the statistics, not for the accolades, and not to get their
name in the record books.
They just want to help their team win.
Perhaps that’s what makes elite athletes so special—that the
drive and determination to reach the pinnacle of one’s sport seems
counter-suited to the selflessness and sacrifice it takes to truly be part of a
team. And yet, these athletes embody the true team-first spirit that elevates
the gifted athlete from the me-first mire of the spoiled diva to the postered
pedestal of the hero adorning a child’s bedroom wall.
Valley Center’s
athletes have gained renown across the county, the state, and even the nation.
In competition, the Jaguars have earned the reputation for outstanding team
play, for leadership, and for perseverance.
This year’s crop of Jaguar athletes was no exception, and in
some ways, proved these accolades true with an even more emphatic fashion than
in the past.
So it is with no further ado and in the order of sports
season that we present to you the nominees for 2012 Roadrunner Athlete of the
Year.
* * *
Michael McInerny
Football
McInerny made an immediate impact as a wide receiver in his
junior year, but probably not the one he expected.
He missed the team’s season opener at San Pasqual, which the
Jaguars lost, 28–7. The next week, in the desert at Imperial, he made five
receptions for 136 yards and a touchdown, and the Jags never looked back. Valley
Center went on to win all 12 of the
remaining games on the schedule, including the CIF Division IV title game
against Santana, in which he grabbed six passes for 146 yards and a touchdown.
McInerny was instrumental in each win as he hauled in 59
passes for 1,255 yards and nine touchdowns on the season, by far the leading
receiver in the North County.
And to top it all off, he was also the team’s kicker, which made all those
extra points after a long touchdown just a little bit more exciting.
Mitchell Rush
Water Polo, Basketball, Volleyball
Rush performed well in each of the three sports he played,
but especially so in water polo and volleyball. The six-foot-five, 185 pound
junior stood head and shoulders above the rest of the Jaguars in both sports,
as he led both teams in most, if not all, of the key statistical categories.
In water polo, Rush was named the team’s Most Valuable
Player (MVP) and earned All Valley League first team honors. He scored 65 goals
and had 28 assists, with 27 steals, 18 exclusions earned, two penalty shots
earned and one block. His coach, Kyle Kline, noted the winning combination of
Rush’s great attitude and fantastic work ethic that drove him throughout the
season.
In volleyball, Rush racked up 289 kills, 53 aces, 37 blocks,
79 digs and one assist playing the role of intimidator on the court. It didn’t
take long into the season for opposing teams to learn to fear his spike, and
when the Jaguars were in a tight spot, Rush was usually the man to deliver with
a big play.
Lauren Gilster
Volleyball, Basketball, Track & Field
One of Valley Center’s
“Twin Towers”
on the basketball court, the six-foot-two Gilster was just as impressive
crashing the net in volleyball or hurling the shot put or discus for the track
and field team in the spring. I was even tempted to include her performance in
the Powderpuff football game because of a couple of outstanding receptions she
made from the tight end spot, a position rarely used in the Powderpuff game but
seemed perfectly suited to her Antonio Gates-ian set of physical skills.
Gilster’s unique combination of size and skill made her a
blocking dynamo in volleyball, the focal point of the inside game in
basketball, and a record-setting hurler in track. Her cool, calm demeanor
belied a fierce competitiveness that came out in the form of sheer domination
when she “flipped the switch” that all great athletes have.
She totaled 194 kills, 27 aces, 71 blocks, 41 digs and seven
assists for a Lady Jaguar volleyball team that made it to the CIF Division III
semifinals.
In basketball, she averaged 14.9 points and 7.3 rebounds per
game on a team loaded with star-quality players. And for the track team,
Gilster was the Valley League champion and the third place CIF finisher in both
the shot put and discus. She set new school records in both events and this season
was named the Valley League Field Athlete of the Year for the second time.
Remy Littrell
Tennis
Littrell comes from a tennis family—her father, Mark, is the
tennis pro at Pala Mesa Tennis Club and her sister Mardi played at VCHS before
she went on to play at Palomar College.
But the younger Littrell sister made a name for herself this
season with a very impressive 37–8 match record, beating the number one varsity
singles players from much larger high schools such as Vista,
Ranch Buena Vista and San Pasqual High School.
She also reached the finals in the Valley League Tournament,
where she was named to the All Valley League singles team, and advanced to play
in the CIF Singles Tournament.
The VCHS varsity tennis coach, Chip Cullison, was so
impressed with her outstanding season that he compiled her stats and sent me
text message after text message to make sure I found a spot for her story in
the paper (which I did in the February 1 edition). Persistence pays off, and in
the end, Littrell’s stats speak for themselves.
Miriam Zabinsky
Volleyball, Basketball, Track & Field
Sporting one of the best nicknames I’ve heard thrown around
the VCHS campus (they call her “Mir-Cat”) and a fierce determination, Zabinsky
was very good in volleyball and track, but was beyond exceptional on the
basketball court.
In her fourth year on the varsity team, she scored her
1,000th point for the Lady Jaguars in January and finished the year with an
average of 14.6 points, 2.6 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game.
Zabinsky drew comparisons with Magic Johnson for her ability to play any
position on the court and do so exceedingly well.
More often than not, she was leading the Lady Jags on the
fast break, which they ran with pinpoint precision to the shock and dismay of
many an opponent. And as the old saying goes that big players make big plays
when the team needs them most, Zabinsky consistently displayed that sense of
when the team needed her to step up. Watching from the stands, I got to the
point where I could see the look on her face when she decided that enough was
enough, and she was going to take the ball to the hoop no matter what was in
front of her. And there weren’t very many opponents who could do anything about
it when she made that decision.
Manny Boyle
Wrestling
Boyle’s domination this season can’t be summed up in a list
of his accomplishments.
That list is pretty amazing, though, as he won match after
match on his way to the league title, the CIF title and a spot in the state
meet at 126 pounds.
The thing about the diminutive senior is that he never
looked like the domination he was inflicting on his opponents was all that
difficult.
I think the kids call it “swag” these days, which I imagine
is a shortened version of “swagger,” which is impossible to get unless you
straight up earn it. When you think of the great athletes who let their
performance do the talking, you know what “swag” is, and Boyle has it by the
bucketful.
I especially enjoyed the Jaguars’ dual meet against Temecula
Valley, in which Boyle slung his
opponent up on his shoulders and stood there in the middle of the mat, taking
in the proceedings like a man on a stroll through the park—while holding
another person on his shoulders.
James Siva
Basketball
While the fall season seemed to be dominated by the giants
of VCHS sports, the winter season was the time for the little guys to shine.
They don’t come much more overlooked than Siva, a five-foot-five
senior who I inadvertently left out of the team’s winter sports preview in our
quarterly magazine—a fact that James kindly brought to my attention via
Facebook, which allowed me to include his name in the preview that ran in the
newspaper.
Maybe the accidental snub lit a fire under Siva (I like to
think so; it makes it seem like I helped), or, more likely, the fire he already
had from his junior season carried over into a phenomenal senior year.
Siva was named team captain and wore the title with pride,
leading the Jaguars with 16 points per game, three assists per game and two
drawn charges per game. The Jags won the league title with 22 wins, a new
school record for the boys basketball program.
Siva’s leadership and toughness characterized the Jaguars
this season. Despite the fact that he was usually the shortest guy on the
court, he never backed down from a challenge and his defensive assignment was
often the other team’s best player. Siva’s creativity with the ball on offense
helped his teammates exploit the weaknesses of the opposing defense, a
creativity that stood out all the more considering that the team lacked a true
center.
I may have left him off of the pre-season list, but after
watching him play this season, I won’t make the mistake of leaving him off of
this one.
Maddy Daugherty
Water Polo
When I interviewed Daugherty earlier this year, it didn’t
take long to figure out that she’s the type of person who puts one hundred
percent of herself into anything she does.
It’s not at all surprising, then, to find out that she led
the Lady Jaguars’ water polo team—a team that featured a deep pool of talent
and earned the No. 5 seed in the CIF Division III playoffs, no less—in every
statistical category but one.
In her team’s 25 games this season, Daugherty scored 116
goals (that’s an average of more than 4.6 goals per game, by the way) and added
47 assists, 90 steals, eight blocks, 44 penalty shots earned, 37 exclusions
earned and four sprints won. She was the team’s MVP, the Valley League Player
of the Year and she earned honorable mention for the All-CIF Division III team.
Hannah Sanders
Soccer
The more I watch soccer, the more I’ve begun to see how
important it is to have a player that can control the tempo of the game
The great midfield players in the world—Landon Donovan,
Xavi, Wesley Sneijder, and the like—have the ability to impose a pace of their choosing
on the players around them. With a heart-stopping hesitation move or a
whoops-where’d-he-go first step past a defender, they can change the game
dramatically.
Sanders plays the game at her speed, not anyone else’s. She seldom
loses the ball, and much more often takes it away from an unwitting attacker,
having picked up 87 steals this season. She dictates the flow of the game like
a maestro conducting a symphony.
And she’s not bad on the finish, either, scoring eight goals
on the year and adding 16 assists for a total of 28 points this season.
Joseph Mozon
Soccer
If the smooth midfield play of Hannah Sanders were to be
compared to a symphony orchestra, the electrifying play of Joe Monzon would
probably sound a little bit like punk rock.
Monzon attacked defenses with a speed and quickness that
often surprised and baffled the opposition. His first step was lightning fast,
and his creativity opened space time after time in situations that looked to be
headed nowhere.
His efforts helped the Jaguars to an unprecedented level of
success this season, as they won nine games and earned their first ever home
playoff game as the No. 4 seed in the CIF Division IV playoffs. Monzon scored
eight goals and added two assists and 37 steals in an outstanding junior season.
Sidney Reilly
Volleyball, Basketball, Track & Field
If you've lived in Valley
Center for any amount of time, you
probably know a Reilly when you see one. For one thing, if you see them around
town, it’s a pretty good chance that they’re either coming from or headed to
some kind of athletic event or practice. And if they’re coming from one,
there’s a really good chance that their team just won.
Sidney is no
different, and in some ways, she might even be the best of the bunch.
She showed her versatility throughout the year, working as
both a blocker and an inside hitter for the volleyball team, then filling the
indistinct role of a shooting guard/small forward for the basketball team with quickness
and agility that often left her defender flat-footed.
But she saved the best performance for last, breaking record
after record on the track and racking up the accolades along the way.
Reilly won four (four!) individual league championships this
season, taking the title in the 100 hurdles, the 300 hurdles, the long jump and
as part of the 400 relay team. It’s hard enough to win one event, but to win
the title in such different events would be like trying to build a house, a helicopter
and an air conditioner with the same tools and materials.
She then went on to the CIF meet, where she finished second
in both the hurdles races, third in the long jump and fifth in the 400 relay.
Along the way, Reilly set new school records in the two
hurdles races and was named the Valley League Track Athlete of the Year for the
second consecutive year.
And to top it all off, she quarterbacked the class of 2012
to a convincing win in the annual Powderpuff football game, rushing for the
game-winning touchdown and adding a quarterback sack on defense.
Even coming from a family full of athletes, it’s hard to
imagine that any other Reilly has accomplished so much in so many different
sports.
Ronnie Bourguignon
Track & Field
It probably takes more time to type his last name that it
does for him to run 100 meters, but that might even be true if his last name
was “Smith.”
Bourguignon (that took 17 seconds!) led a Valley
Center track team that broke record
after record throughout the season, and set a new standard for future Jaguar
sprinters.
Like Reilly, Bourguignon won four league titles this season,
as he took both the 100 and the 200 and was part of winning teams in the 400
relay and 1,600 relay.
He then went on to win the CIF Division II crown in the 100
and finished second in the 200, which qualified him for both events in the
state meet, making him the first Valley
Center athlete to qualify for two
events at state.
He set new school records in the 100, 200 and 1,600 relay
and was named the Valley League Track Athlete of the Year for the second
consecutive year.
It’s a good thing I took the time to learn how to spell his
last name, because his performance this season ensured that it’s going to be a
name we’ll remember for a long, long time.
MaKayla Markey
Swimming
Valley Center
athletes enjoyed an unprecedented level of success this season, but none more
so than Markey.
The junior swimmer didn’t just set a new record to cap off
her phenomenal season—she broke six levels of records in a single swim.
At the CIF Division II finals in May, Markey won the 50
freestyle with a time of 23.3 seconds, just seven tenths of a second off of the
national high school record for the event. With the blistering swim, Markey
earned an All-American qualification and set a new CIF San Diego Section record
for all divisions. The record also stands as the new mark for Division II, for
the CIF championship meet, for Valley
Center High School,
and it beat Markey’s previous best time by more than a full second.
Her win in the 100 freestyle in 50.79 seconds was also good
for an All-American qualifying time.
Markey consistently improved on her personal best times
throughout the season leading up to the record-obliterating performance.
And considering that she’s only been swimming competitively
for two years, I don’t think we can put the record books away just yet.
Paul Calac
Golf
Sometimes it can be a difficult task to get a high school
kid to sit still and pay attention. I’m more than ten years removed from high
school and I still have trouble hey look this pen is weird I should buy a boat!
OK, where was I? Oh right, focus. So much of what we can
measure about the success of an athlete comes from their physical abilities
that we can often overlook the mental aspects of competition.
It’s impossible to do so when talking about Calac, a gifted
athlete who pushed his game to the absolute pinnacle with extraordinary work
ethic and focus.
Ron Darland, the VCHS varsity golf coach, called Calac “The
best golfer I’ve ever coached by far.” Darland spoke at length about Calac’s
intensity, attention to detail, and ability to harness his skills in
pressure-packed situations.
Calac won the Valley League Tournament for the second
consecutive year and went on to finish in the top ten in the CIF tournament. He
even made it into the field in the regional tournament in Pasadena, where he
shot four-under par over the first four holes, then got into some trouble
before bouncing back to finish three-under over the final three holes.
“He’s going to be the standard by which all other Valley
Center golfers will be judged,”
Darland said.
Alex Scoles
Softball
If you follow the NFL, you may have noticed that the
so-called “Dream Team” of the Philadelphia Eagles turned out to be more like a
nightmare. The Eagles signed a bunch of big name free agents and boasted a
star-studded lineup, then went a mediocre 8–8 and missed the playoffs.
Ask any fan and they’ll tell you what the team was
missing—character. Specifically, the kinds of players who exude selflessness,
never give up, foster team chemistry and find ways to make everyone around them
better.
That’s exactly what Scoles brought to the Lady Jaguars this
season. She was the leadoff hitter and set the tone with her ability to do
whatever she needed to do to get on base. On defense, she played all over the
field—second base, centerfield, pitcher, third base—and kept making plays. In
the dugout, she kept her teammates focused on the task at hand. She hustled on
every ground ball, never gave up on a play, and looked like she was having a
great time all the while.
And in the end, her stats were pretty good, too. She batted
.445 with 49 hits, including five doubles, four triples and a home run, with 50
runs scored and 14 RBIs.
John Watkins
Football, Baseball
A thoughtful, quiet young man, Watkins projects a steady,
calming vibe wherever he goes.
He was the backup quarterback and one of a talented group of
wide receivers for the football team, where he played well when called upon.
But his most significant impact came on the baseball
diamond, where he emerged as the Jaguars’ top pitcher. His focus and tenacity
on the mound earned him a 6–2 record in his eight starts, and in his two relief
appearances, he managed to pick up a save. He pitched three complete games, one
of which was a shutout, and posted a solid 2.23 earned run average in 53.1
innings pitched. He allowed a total of 53 hits and only 15 walks, while
striking out 25 batters.
He never put up flashy numbers, but his consistency kept the
Jaguars in every game on their way through to the fourth round of the CIF
Division IV playoffs. The steady calm he exuded helped him get out of tough jam
after tough jam, and he earned the reputation for shutting down a rally before
it could really take off.
Honorable Mention
JD Frankovich (football), Martin Cunningham (football),
Laura Glennie (volleyball), Dan Henderson (cross-country/baseball), Kaylee
Hudson (cross-country/track), Kaley Prudham (golf/soccer), Liz Loera (field
hockey/soccer), Luke Marshall (water polo/swimming), Kevin Noguez (soccer), Jose
“Nacho” Pais (soccer), Vinessa Perryman (basketball/track), Elsie Emanuel
(water polo), Emma Sloman (softball), Savanna Fiehler (lacrosse), Garrett
Fiehler (football/lacrosse), Marc Outwater (lacrosse), Ryan Stribley (tennis).
* * *
There are your nominees for the 2012 Roadrunner Athlete of
the Year, and if I may say so, it’s going to be a difficult job coming up with
a winner out of so many deserving candidates.
If you would like to support one of these athletes, or if
you have an athlete that you felt was undeservingly left off of this list,
please write to me at sports@valleycenter.com
this week to share your thoughts.