Athlete of the Year: Coaches' Thoughts

Our 2011 Athlete of the Year, Kevin Murphy, has had a lot of different coaches in his life.
In his senior year at VCHS, Murphy had five different coaches from five different varsity sports, and they all had plenty of good things to say about such a versatile, hard-working athlete.
Here are their thoughts:

Kyle Kline, varsity boys water polo coach:
I think Kevin is a great choice for Athlete of the Year. I only had the pleasure of coaching Kevin for one season. I have had many athletes show up senior year and decide they want to play water polo and I was skeptical when I heard about Kevin and his desire to join the team. He showed up with confidence and I really didn’t expect him to last more than one day.
Kevin proved me wrong and exceeded my expectations. He was definitely behind on experience and conditioning in the water but that didn’t discourage him one bit. He worked through the tough practices and absorbed as much as he could to try to catch up. This is definitely one of the most coachable athletes I have had and he put everything I tried to teach him to use. I would only have to tell Kevin something once, and I would see him working on whatever it was throughout the rest of practice and the whole season. Kevin is also a natural athlete. He is aggressive and gives 110% with everything he does.
Something else that really defined Kevin was his willingness to face a tough challenge. He never backed down from a tough swim set that would give seasoned swimmers a tough time. What really set him apart was his decision to take on one of the toughest positions in the pool as two meter defense. This position involves defending usually the biggest and strongest player on the opposing team. When I described this position Kevin’s eyes lit up. He knew this was his spot and he wanted to make sure he earned the starting position. He worked hard and earned the starting spot and again exceeded my expectations. This position does not usually get the stats that the offensive two meter player gets. It does not get nearly as much attention or glory as other positions. Kevin was not in it for those things. He was in it for the challenge and to help his team. He handled athletes that had many more years experience than him and did an excellent job.
What makes Kevin a successful athlete is a combination of things. His work ethic is exceptional. He is confident but not over confident. He faces challenges head on and with an enthusiasm that I don’t often see. He is a positive role model for younger athletes and a team leader. He leads by example but is outspoken when necessary. He is extremely coachable and has a great attitude. All of these things are beneficial to a team. He made a huge contribution to my team this season and I can only imagine the water polo player he would have been with a few more years experience.
I am sure Kevin will apply these characteristics in the future and it is these that will ensure success in anything he chooses to pursue.
Kevin’s senior year stats: nine goals, 16 assists, 31 steals, and four blocks.
Thanks for giving recognition to a great athlete, student, and individual!

Clay Clifford, varsity wrestling coach:
Kevin was a three-year varsity letterman for wrestling and was a contributor to our second place finish at the San Diego CIF Division IV Championships. Kevin is good-natured and was a pleasure to have on the wrestling team. He made many sacrifices for the team when called upon, and always gave his best effort. I expect that Kevin will one day be a very good coach, hopefully in the sport of wrestling.

Rick Darland, varsity boys golf coach:
Kevin is a great kid and a team leader, and I had a lot of fun coaching him this season. To be able to do that many things that well shows you what kind of an athlete and what kind of a person he is.
Because of the nature of golf, you can’t just pick up your sticks after taking all winter off, but somehow Kevin showed up this spring and was better than he was last year. He progressed further than I thought he would this year.
He’s a well-rounded person who enjoys life, and he knows what it takes to be successful in whatever he wants to do.

Rob Gilster, varsity football coach:
He played football all four years, and he was thinking about just doing water polo his senior year, but he was such a strong long snapper that we found a way to make it work out for him to do both this year. He’s a really good long snapper, and I’m sure he could have helped us out at some other positions on the football field, but he was really passionate about water polo. He was able to get in some practice time and work with Davey [Last, the football team’s kicker] on his own. And he was able to get to all our games on time, even though he had other games on the same day.
He was also one of my ASB students this year, so I got to work closely with him on a lot of school activities. He’s a great kid, a hard worker, and very dependable. You know he’s going to get the job done.
He’s very responsible, and as a student and as a player, same thing. I know he had a lot of other responsibilities in his life, but he’s committed to doing what he needs to do to be a good teammate, a good student and a good person.
I think the balance and time management that he’s learned through sports and ASB in high school are important skills he will carry with him. That’s what so much of life is—we don’t always get to focus on just one thing, we have to be able to handle a lot at a time, and Kevin is definitely prepared to do that.
And he was good, too. He’s a great athlete.

Laura McCaulley, varsity swim coach:
Kevin did really well this year for the swim team. He fit in well with the boys and helped us out a lot, especially in the relays. He went to league for the 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relays and got better throughout the year.
His experience with the water polo team helped him be successful because he was already training really hard. During the swim season, he would come to the morning workout because he had golf in the afternoon, so he had a lot of long days.
But it paid off because he did such a great job in the league finals, where he placed in both the relay events as well as the 200 freestyle.
He’s a really hard worker, and that’s only going to help him with whatever he does in life. His work ethic is unreal!

2011 Roadrunner Athlete of the Year: Kevin Murphy

To see more photos of Kevin Murphy, click here to visit the gallery on Facebook.

By: Dan Kidder

They say that a jack of all trades is the master of none.
But Kevin Murphy is the rare kind of athlete who defies simple sayings.
Murphy, like the Jim Thorpes and Bo Jacksons before him, was never content with the challenge of just one athletic endeavor.
He grew up playing Little League baseball, Boys & Girls Club basketball, Pop Warner football and youth soccer. He tried his hand at motocross for a while (“Just for fun,” he says).
His older sister, Erin, ran cross country in high school and earned a scholarship to UNLV. Since the middle school didn’t offer very many sports at the time, Murphy decided to follow in his sister’s footsteps and joined the cross-country team. He continued playing flag football and basketball while waiting for his chance to show his stuff at the next level—high school.
His freshman season, Murphy played football, basketball and golf, a sport he picked up on a whim and ended up playing at the varsity levels all four years of high school.
“We became members of the country club,” he says. “And I totally fell in love with golf.”
In his sophomore season, he once again played football and golf, but switched to wrestling in the winter season.
“I loved playing basketball,” he says. “I grew up playing with Beau [Reilly], Stehly [Reden] and AJ [Broomell] on a lot of travel teams. But I wanted to try something a little different. One of my favorite sports to watch is MMA [Mixed Martial Arts], and I’ve always wanted to try to get into that. But in wrestling, you work so hard, especially with the guys around you, it’s like a brotherhood of wrestlers.”
Murphy’s sports schedule remained unchanged for his junior year, but things really picked up for him this year.
In his senior year, he played football and water polo in the fall season, wrestling in the winter season and both swimming and golf in the spring.
“My buddy Ian Macfarlane said I should come swim with him because it’s a great workout,” Murphy says. “It totally changes your body. I used to lift weights to bulk up for football, but swimming really leaned me out while keeping me really strong.”
Not only does Murphy play so many different sports, he plays such unique positions that usually require specific skills beyond the pick-it-up-as-I-go-along mentality.
Growing up, he played middle infield and pitcher on the baseball diamond, as well as point guard in basketball.
Although he grew up playing different positions in football, by the time he got to the varsity level, Murphy was so good as a long snapper that he was able to work out his own practice schedule that allowed him to play both water polo and football this season. He worked out with the special teams unit on Thursdays and found time with kicker David Last to keep his game at the highest level.
On the water polo team, Murphy quickly carved out a spot at two-meter defense, despite his relative inexperience.
“I’ve played so many sports, and water polo is a combination of so many sports, it just came to me,” Murphy says. “I played against the other team’s best offender. I like playing defense, and if the team needs something, I’m willing to do whatever.”
He wrestled somewhere in the 140-pound range, posted a golf index of four (which basically calculates how many strokes above par a player is, on average), and swam the 100 freestyle, the 200 freestyle and the 100 backstroke for the swim team this year.
“I love the camaraderie with my teammates,” Murphy says. “I love winning, and for me, there’s nothing like trying to be the best you can. I was never the quarterback, never scored the most goals, never was the biggest guy on the field, but I always want to work hard and try as many different things as I can.”
To try so many different sports takes a unique approach, and Murphy says that each sport he has played carries its own mentality.
“It’s different for each person,” he says. “For example, a football player isn’t as methodical as a golfer. Before he gets to the first tee, a golfer knows where he wants to put the ball and he has a plan for that hole. A football player walks on the field and he has all his coaches worrying about the bigger picture. He just has to go out and make a play.
“In wrestling, it’s just you against one other guy,” he adds. “You don’t really need the whole team to do your job—it’s a team sport, but so much is placed on the individual. It’s all about self-motivation. In water polo, it’s a lot of work and a lot of swimming, but that sense of brotherhood is big. You work so hard with these other guys that you really appreciate each other. And in swimming, it’s a pretty small group but it’s really tight-knit. It takes a lot of work to do swimming, but it pays off when you start to see your times drop. The coaches were great—they know they work us hard, but we know it’s for our benefit.”
Murphy didn’t earn any scholarships for his play on the field, and even though he will always enjoy playing sports for fun, he doesn’t have any plans to pursue college athletics.
“My sister’s boyfriend is a division one football player—he’s six-two, runs a four-six forty and he plays free safety,” Murphy says. “I love playing sports, but I know I can’t reach that kind of level. To play college sports, you have to be so naturally gifted. I look at Stehly [Reden] and that’s the kind of natural athlete you have to be. But even if I’m not playing, I still love working my body to the point where it feels like it’s breaking down and exceeding my goals. We’ll see where life takes me, and what God’s plan is for me.”
Murphy’s father, Sean, was a Navy pilot, his grandfather was a Blue Angel, and his uncle is an F-4 pilot, and Murphy says that he would love to join the ranks of his fellow naval aviators. But he also says his faith plays a central role in his life, and that he’s willing to pursue other directions as well. As a core team member at St. Stephen’s church, Murphy says he wants to honor God’s plan for his life.
“I definitely have an interest in the military, but I want to go where God leads,” he says. “You don’t know where God’s going to take you, but if you love Him and serve Him, wherever He takes you will be wherever you’re supposed to be. For me, if that’s the Navy, then that’s great. But I’m open to whatever.”
Wherever he goes next, Murphy says that he will never forget the years he spent playing sports with his friends here in Valley Center.
“There are so many great memories,” he says. “Like rushing back from a water polo game at Poway to make it to our home football game—I walked in with no shirt on, my pads in my hands and my eyes still watering from the pool, but I made it in time. And I’ll always remember winning league with the golf team this year—we came through a lot. All the practices, working hard and messing around with the guys, those are the things I’ll remember.”
Kevin Patrick Murphy grew up in Valley Center with his family—his father, Sean, a retired Navy pilot who works for Computer Protection Technology; his mother, Colleen, an aide for the Valley Center/Pauma Unified School District; and his siblings, Erin, John and Bridget.
Befitting his Irish heritage—his grandmother is from Ireland—Murphy is a fan of the Boston Red Sox, the Boston Celtics, and Notre Dame football. He and his father are planning a trip to Dublin, Ireland, to see Notre Dame play against Navy next year. He also likes Duke basketball and has been following the emerging career of PGA golfer Rory McElroy, lamenting that “I was a Tiger Woods fan, but…you can’t really do that anymore.”
When he’s not playing sports, Murphy says he’s working, working out, participating in church activities or sleeping.
After his high school athletics experience, Murphy has some encouragement for young athletes.
“To all the little guys out there, don’t ever stop working hard,” he says. “You may not be a stud, but you mean just as much. A team is a well-oiled machine, and it needs every part to work. So never give up, and don’t be afraid to go out and try a new sport. You never know if you’ll like it, so even if it’s hard, keep pushing through.”

15 candidates for 2011 Roadrunner Athlete of the Year

Great athletes make sports fun to watch.
They turn average contests into you-totally-should-have-been-there events. They make your head spin with a combination of speed, strength and grace that can’t be fully appreciated in a Sportscenter highlight. Basically, they turn a UFL game into an NFL game.
And while we may not get to see the likes of Adrian Peterson, Albert Pujols, David Villa, Dirk Nowitzki or Steven Stamkos here in Valley Center, we have a bevy of athletic talent that makes a Jaguar game anything but average.
This year, I had the privilege of covering Valley Center High School sports from fall to spring, from football to baseball, and everything in between. I must admit right up front that I know I didn’t get to see that much of some of our local teams and athletes, but hopefully we’ll get to hear those stories from you (more on that in a little bit).
Accordingly, I made a list through the various seasons that I titled, simply, “Favorite players to watch 2011.”
I whittled the list down to 15 athletes (not an easy task) that I thought were deserving of another mention because of the way they played on the field. In the coming week, I’ll be choosing one of these 15 athletes as the first-ever Roadrunner Athlete of the Year. The winner will get a full interview in an upcoming issue, and the criteria for winning are mainly athletic, although some other factors, such as attitude and leadership. Basically, I’m going to choose the athlete who I think best represented the Jaguars on the field. I am, however, always open to suggestion, so if you have a strong opinion about one or more of the athletes below, write to me this week at sports@valleycenter.com and tell me why I should choose your athlete.
Just to be clear, this list is based entirely on my experience as a sports fan, primarily, and is in no way intended to rank the included athletes or exclude any other athletes deserving of recognition. This is just the list of a sports fan who wanted to share some thoughts about the outstanding sports he saw this year, and recognize the athletes who helped make it such a fantastic year.
So, in no particular order, here are the candidates for Athlete of the Year:

Travis Bernard—football
Plays like: Barry Sanders
Also a little bit like: Lionel Messi
It had to be hard to follow a great player like Stanton Upson, but Bernard stepped up to the challenge in a big way. The always-shifty Bernard left VC fans gasping at the lightning-quick change of direction, the where-did-he-go cutbacks and the thrill of knowing that the Jaguars were never more than a play away from scoring a touchdown, no matter where they were on the field.
The speed and agility were what made him a great athlete, but to me, the drive and determination are what set him apart as one of the truly phenomenal athletes I’ve ever gotten to see in person. He’s got a chance to see significant playing time at Northern Colorado this fall, and I have a feeling we’ll be hearing more from him before the season’s over.

David Last—football
Plays like: Ronnie Lott
And a little like: George Blanda
In football, the kicker is usually the spry little fellow prancing about on the sideline of the stadium, fiddling with some stick-and-net contraption and trying not to look bored until he’s suddenly called upon to do something productive.
David Last is not your usual kicker.
Not only did he boot a school-record 51-yard field goal against Escondido this year and send nearly every kickoff out the back of the endzone, he was a dominant defensive player at cornerback and a handy weapon as a receiver on offense.
I had the most fun watching him play defense. Of the dozens of big hits I saw from the sidelines this year, at least ten to 15 of them belonged to Last. Teams didn’t like throwing the ball his way because they knew that, at best, they’d get a completion and an immediate stop. He was rarely out of position, he was fearless in pursuing (and often flattening) the ball-carrier, and he only seemed to get better as the game wore on.

Kevin Murphy—football, water polo, wrestling, swimming, golf
Plays like: Jim Thorpe
And a little like: Babe Didrikson Zaharias
Some athletes are gifted in such specific ways that they're fun to watch--but only when they're doing that one thing they're good at.
Murphy doesn't have to worry too much about that--he's got 11 varsity letters from his four years at VCHS, and he capped off his senior year by playing five sports in three seasons. Five. He started with football and water polo, then (in what must have seemed like a break, going to just one sport after playing two) he joined the wrestling team for the winter season before going out with a bang in golf and swimming in the spring season.
Now, anybody can show up to practice and be on a sports team--just look at half of the Padres' roster this year (seriously--who are these guys?).
But it's another thing altogether to actually be good.
Murphy was the long snapper on the football team, a position that is not for the faint of heart (just for fun, go out in your back yard with a football, then bend over and try to heave the ball between your legs to another person 20 yards away while simultaneously whipping your head back up so you don't get railroaded by a humongous person trying to knock you flat on your back). In the same season, he was also one of the key offensive weapons on the boys water polo team. On the wrestling team, he was a mainstay in the 140-150 range, and helped the Jaguars win the Valley League title. He was also one of the top contributors on the golf team while balancing his time with the swim team.
Each of those things requires a specific skill that would take a long time for anyone to master. And here Murphy was, mixing it up on the varsity level in five completely different sports. Even if he had just played water polo and golf, those two alone astonish me. Then add wrestling...it boggles the mind.

Kelly Hagadorn—field hockey, soccer, lacrosse
Plays like: Alexander Ovechkin, only on turf
And a little like: Ed Reed
There are athletes who impress with skill, and there are athletes who impress with determination. There are also athletes who impress with skill and determination.
Then there are athletes who scare the bejeezus out of you.
If you follow the NFL, you probably know who Ed Reed is. He plays safety for the Baltimore Ravens, and underneath that black helmet, his bushy black beard and his silent scowl could make a running back’s blood go cold (for video evidence, search YouTube for “Ed Reed decleated Knowshon Moreno big hit forced fumble” and get ready to send the kids out of the room).
Hagadorn plays with the same quiet intensity that has made me think, more than once, that I’m glad I don’t play field hockey. Or soccer. Or lacrosse. Or Powder Puff football.
What separates her from the thugs that sports can sometimes breed is the fact that she can back up her swagger with incredible skill. She was the focal point of the offense for the VCHS field hockey team that went deep into the CIF playoffs, and she was a rock on defense for the girls soccer team and the girls lacrosse team.
She was a leader. When she walked onto the field, the rest of the team knew they had a really good chance to win, because they knew she was going to be the one of the best players on the field, no matter what it took.

Melina & Vanessa Heredia—volleyball, soccer, lacrosse
Play like: Charlie Davies, only there’s two of him
And a little like: Deion Sanders, minus the showing off
I hate to put them together—I’m sure that, as twin sisters, it’s happened pretty much all their lives thus far—but it really is impossible to talk about the athletic prowess of one without mentioning the other.
As freshmen, they both played significant time on three varsity teams this season. My first glimpse of these dynamos was in volleyball, where they both showed incredible athleticism around the net and a willingness to learn from the upperclassmen around them.
In soccer, they flashed some of the eye-popping speed that quickly caught the attention of the other team (and the fans).
But it wasn’t until lacrosse season that I fully understood what I was seeing. Both of them have the capability of changing the momentum of a game in the blink of an eye, and they dropped plenty of jaws both in the crowd and on the opposing sideline.
By the end of the season, I learned to sit up a little straighter and watch just a little more closely whenever one of the Heredia sisters got the ball, no matter where they were on the field. A handful of times, I watched as one of the two of them would collect the ball behind their own net, jog with the defender for about 30 yards, then turn on the jets and absolutely blow past one, two, even three defenders before slamming the ball into the net.
Can’t wait to see what they do for an encore in their sophomore seasons.

A.J. Broomell—basketball
Plays like: A young Jason Kidd
And a little like: A young John Stockton, minus the short shorts
Of all the sports I used to follow closely as a kid, basketball is one in which I’ve slowly lost interest, mainly due to the look-at-me preening of the typical NBA star.
But even I couldn’t help but look forward to VCHS basketball games, because players like Broomell only come around so often.
Watching Broomell in each Jaguars game was a study in how to morph your game to match the weakness of your opponent. On a team that ran its offense through center Stehly Reden—with good reason—Broomell was so much more than just a John Stockton to Reden’s Karl Malone.
Broomell proved time and time again that he could carry the team when they needed him, just as adroitly as he found ways to make his teammates better. They say that you can tell how good a basketball player is by the job he does when he doesn’t have the ball, and Broomell passed this test with flying colors.
Whether he scored 20 points or only five, Broomell built a reputation as a smart, clutch player who got the best out of those around him.

James Siva—basketball
Plays like: Spud Webb
And a little like: Kevin Bacon in The Air Up There
He wasn’t the biggest player on the court—not by a long shot. But the players you love to have on your team are the ones who practice hard, play hard and refuse to accept losing as an option.
Siva led the Jaguars in scoring a few times, but mostly he provided the energy and determination that was infectious.
I think the perfect stamp of Siva’s impact on the team this season came in the first round of the CIF playoffs at Santana (click here to watch the video). The Sultans held a one-point lead and had the ball with under a minute left in the game. The Jaguars double-teamed the opposing center, who forced up an off-balance shot that ricocheted off the rim and bounced off Reden’s hands before Siva swooped in to grab the ball at the baseline. After faking a pass, Siva darted up the floor, past four surprised Sultans jogging back on defense, and slipped a perfect bounce pass to Beau Reilly, who banked in the easy layup that gave the Jags a one-point lead.
And Siva wasn’t done. On defense with under 20 seconds left, the Jaguars forced Santana to try a contested three-pointer that missed the mark. As the big men slammed into each other going after the rebound, Siva once again weaved through the traffic, stuck his hand out and tipped the ball away from one of the Sultans. He stayed with the ball, scooped it up and was fouled with under a second remaining, all but sealing the win for VC.

Miriam Zabinsky—girls basketball
Plays like: Magic Johnson
And a little like: Julie Connor from the Saturday morning classic Hang Time.
It’s great when a player plays his or her position well, but when they play multiple positions at a high level, you know you’re watching something special.
Zabinsky showed her versatility in nearly every basketball game this season, from running the offense as a point guard to taking outside shots as a shooting guard to crashing the boards and posting up her defender like a power forward. She’s obviously talented; a casual observer can see that almost immediately. But her focus and intensity put her on another level, and her toughness only serves to shine a brighter spotlight on her skills.

Eddie Alba—soccer
Plays like: Wayne Rooney
And a little like: The Italian kids in the Will Ferrell movie Kicking and Screaming.
Alba is another one of those athletes who isn’t very big and probably isn’t the fastest guy on the field. But his quickness, especially with the ball at his feet, is explosive, and he impressed me more than once with his field vision. I’m not a soccer expert, but I can distinctly recall a handful of times during the boys soccer games when Alba would get the ball and it looked like there was nothing there, but he would find a seam with a pass, or make one extra move and get off a shot when it looked completely closed down.
He was never one to jaw with opponents, or flop to the ground at the slightest whisper of contact (as is the unfortunate case for some soccer players in the world). I remember Alba getting a hard red card at the end of the game against Orange Glen, a penalty that results in ejection. The crowd was understandably upset; the game had been increasingly rough-and-tumble throughout the second half, and Orange Glen had come close to causing some serious injuries with reckless challenges. Alba made an aggressive challenge and caught some of the opposing player’s foot as he slid for the ball, but compared to what had been going on without so much as a whistle, the play seemed harmless.
Alba didn’t complain, didn’t mouth off to the ref or whine about it. He definitely looked surprised, and stood on the field for a while as if in disbelief, but ultimately, he accepted the unjust punishment in a close game that the Jaguars eventually lost without taking his frustration out on the ref, his coaches or his teammates.

Hannah Sanders—girls soccer
Plays like: Shannon Boxx
And a little like: Keira Knightley in Bend It Like Beckham.
The VCHS girls soccer team was fun to watch this season. They had a lot of talented players, especially on offense, and they had a lot of confidence heading into the season.
Sanders was the key cog in the middle, handling the ball often and with more than once with jaw-dropping skill. She always seemed to have another gear to shift into when she got the ball, and she made a lot of defenders look foolish. And for being a willowy blonde, she wasn’t afraid of contact, either.
It was a lot of fun watching how in sync she was with forward Sam Koch, and how often they seemed to know exactly where to go when the other one had the ball.

Dylan Smith—football, wrestling
Plays like: The Ultimate Warrior
And a little like: “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan
Defensive tackles are usually the fattest guys a football team can dig up without resorting to pillaging sumo arenas (although that always seems to happen in every football comedy movie).
Smith is built a little more like a wide receiver—a big receiver, but still, not exactly earth-mover-esque.
But his motor doesn’t seem to have a brake pedal, because he just never quits.
As impressed as I was with him in football, I was doubly so when wrestling season rolled around. He had a way of pacing around the ring, staring down his opponent before the handshake, then launching himself across the mat when the whistle blew to start the match. He showed how tough he is, but I marveled at his quickness, especially when getting at his opponent’s feet.

Dan Henderson—basketball, baseball
Plays like: Tom Glavine
And a little like: Eddie Harris from Major League
Nice guys finish last, as the old saying goes.
They don’t get much nicer than Dan Henderson, and you don’t have to go far to find somebody who will adamantly agree.
What makes him a great athlete to watch is his approach to the game, no matter what that game might be. He does the little things right—he hustles, he pays attention, he’s not afraid to ask questions, and he is never at a loss when it comes to an encouraging thing to say to his teammates (and, on occasion, his opponents).
On a personal level, I had a great time watching him play because he is exactly what I tried to be when I was a high school athlete. I also played baseball, and I also tried my best to be the guy who was first to practice, last to leave, first to hop up for the stray foul balls, first to high five the guy who just struck out, and always ready when the coach needed me.
But I can’t in any way claim to have done it as well or as thoroughly as Dan Henderson, who not only accomplished all these things, but showed time and time again that he’s also a really good ballplayer. He started the baseball season as an afterthought when it came to the pitching rotation, but by the end, the coaches were counting on him in some tight spots as the team tried to stay alive in the battle for the league title.
When he wasn’t pitching, he was still in the lineup and played third base, which wasn’t the spot they had him in at the beginning of the year. He still picked it up as the season went along, and became a solid defender at a tough position.

Anna Luna—softball
Plays like: Cat Osterman
And a little like: If Randy Johnson pitched underhand
When it comes to softball in Valley Center, you only need to talk to two people: Bob & Pat Tousley, who have been a part of the youth softball program and the high school softball program in various forms for the past… Let’s just say there aren’t many people who can remember that far back anymore.
So when Pat Tousley told me that she saw a photo of Anna Luna pitching and added, “That’s exactly how we teach the kids to pitch,” I knew the Lady Jaguars were going to have a good season.
The above comparisons aside, Luna reminds me quite a bit of Orel Hershiser, the former Dodgers pitcher who earned the nickname “Bulldog” for his gutsy pitching performances in the late 80s and early 90s.
Luna has the same lanky build that Hershiser always had, and the same tenacity in the pitcher’s circle. A change in high school softball regulations moved the pitcher back three feet this year, and early in the season, the difference was clear. Offenses had just a little more time to pick up the pitch, and hitters were finding ways to exploit the mistakes that pitchers used to be able to cover up.
The Lady Jaguars were no different—they had a tremendous offensive year and advanced to the quarterfinals of the CIF playoffs. Luna’s pitching was a huge part of that run, especially late in the regular season. She found herself in some tight spots more than once, but she quickly gained a reputation for cranking up the intensity and pitching her best when it counted.

Garrett Fiehler—boys lacrosse
Plays like: Sidney Crosby
And a little like: Peyton Hillis
It’s easy to see why so many VCHS football players ended up on the boys lacrosse team this season. It’s a very different game than what the girls play, right down to the different lines on the field.
Fiehler was the third running back on the varsity football team that went undefeated until they lost a heartbreaker in the CIF championship game at Qualcomm Stadium. Travis Bernard was the starter and Michael Rodriguez was the primary backup, but Fiehler showed more than enough evidence in his limited action to indicate that he’s going to be the starting running back next season.
The same mentality he played with in football translated easily to lacrosse, and it was easy to see that he’s been playing lacrosse for a long time. Where some players were still struggling to get used to the mechanics of running and keeping the ball in the cage at the end of the stick, Fiehler fairly glided around the field with that same powerful stride he showed in football.
As a midfielder, the offense ran through him, and his quick first step led to more goals this season than I can count. He never shied away from contact; more often than not, he was the one initiating a hit, even when he had the ball. I can still see in my mind’s eye the opening night game against Temecula, when Fiehler barreled into an oncoming offensive player in one of the fiercest collisions I’ve ever seen.
(Quick aside: the hardest sports hit I’ve ever seen in person came courtesy of James Johnson, Valley Center’s phenom wide receiver who graduated in 2009. In a home game against Orange Glen in ’09, the Jaguars were on offense, and Tyler Bernard dropped off a pass in the flat to the tight end, I think it was Jeremy Dozier. Johnson had gone on a deep corner route, but turned around to come back and block once the ball was caught. One of the Orange Glen corners was trying to chase Dozier down when Johnson completely blindsided him with a totally legal, but absolutely bone-rattling hit, shoulder to chest. It happened about seven yards directly in front of me, and I can distinctly remember hearing all the air get forcibly pancaked out of the kid.)

John Turori—rugby
Plays like: Adrian Peterson
And a little like: If Troy Polamalu played both offense and defense
Honestly, the Adrian Peterson comparison is the closest thing I can come up with to accurately explaining how Turori plays. NFL commentators gush about how Peterson runs “with violence” and how he is a nightmare to try to tackle in the open field.
Turori runs with the same ferocity, and all the more so because he’s doing it in a game without pads. His legs never stop churning, no matter how many defenders he has draped on his back, ankles, or wherever they can try to get a hold of him. And he knows how to use his strength, squeezing his broad frame into the tiniest crack of an opening between defenders to keep them off balance and allow him to gain those precious extra yards.
And he’s smart, too. He’s not just plowing through the nearest defender because he can, he is active away from the ball, feeling out the weak spots in the defense and carefully positioning himself to maximize his efforts once the ball does come his way. And he usually doesn’t have to wait long—the ball finds him in a hurry, another mark of a truly gifted athlete playing at an elite level.
— — —
There you go, 15 athletes who made this year in sports so much fun for me to watch. I had more, but there’s only so much room, and only so many amusing comparisons to movie and/or TV athletes I can think of.
But if there’s anyone I left out, or anyone you think deserves a mention, write to me at sports@valleycenter.com and I’ll add them to consideration.
You can also visit the Roadrunner's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/valleycenter to share your thoughts about your choice for 2011 Athlete of the Year.

The Secret Lives Of Professional Athletes

You never expect to hear news like what we heard on Saturday about Steve McNair.

A 36-year-old retired professional athlete found dead of multiple gunshot wounds in his home. A pro bowl quarterback who eluded so many defenders, cut down in what is still very much the prime of his life. So tragic.

But as more and more details come to light, we're starting to see the dark side of professional sports, and even more so, the dark side of life.

McNair was found dead in an apartment in downtown Nashville next to the body of a 20-year-old woman who had been described initially as a "friend." McNair's wife Mechelle and their four sons were at the family home in Mississippi when the bodies were discovered. More and more reports are coming out now that call Saleh Kazemi, the woman found next to McNair, his girlfriend. Given that McNair was shot four times, and that Kazemi had only one gunshot wound to the head (and was found with a pistol underneath her), it seems pretty obvious what happened. None of these details make the situation any less tragic, but one of the side effects is that we're having to take an honest look at the lives of our superstar athletes.

Pro athletes are human. They eat, they sleep, they go to the bathroom, they watch Sportscenter in the morning, they wonder why Twilight is such a big deal...just like the rest of us. But unlike most of us, pro athletes get paid gobs of money for doing what they do, and unfortunately, an excess of money often allows for behavior that is also quite excessive. Most of it is fairly harmless -- despite what the tree-huggers want to tell us, it's not such a bad thing to have a garage full of Hummers and Range Rovers. Whatever our interests are, if we had the money to pursue them to an excessive degree, there aren't a whole lot of us who wouldn't.

And that carries over into the one area where we all -- without exception -- struggle: sex.

It's everywhere. From Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers to Viagra ads on race cars, we can't get away from it, no matter what our age or position in life. We live in a culture inundated with sex.

And you know what? Not very many of us seem to mind it that much.

I know there are groups out there trying to "protect" the children, or to "clean up" our various forms of entertainment. But if we're honest with ourselves, we're only worried about things like that because we know how exciting and captivating sex is and can be. Underneath all of that posturing and political correctness, I think the reality is that we're inundated with sex in our culture because it's what's on our minds the most.

And in some ways, we need it to be. For one thing, in the proper context, sex is a wonderful gift that is very necessary for a healthy marriage. And it is the biological means of progressing our species. Then, of course, it is also rumored to be something of a thrilling experience, if we're to believe all those rock and roll songs.

But the negative side is that too much focus on something so powerful can lead to its use in the wrong context. In the specific case of pro athletes, with their excess in money and the inherent attractiveness of being young, successful and in great shape, it's probably really, really easy for them to get sex whenever they want it. Honestly, it seems easy enough for them to get it even if they don't particularly want it.

I remember going to the New York Mets play at PNC Park in Pittsburgh a few years ago. We had a good group of guys, one of whom brought his young son, so we made sure to go down early enough to see batting practice. Because we were among the few early-arrivers, we were able to go down right by the field to watch the players up close. Most of the fans there were crowded around the dugout areas to maybe get an autograph or a baseball...or something. Among the gathered spectators were some women, who looked curiously out of place amidst the mostly male fans wearing some sort of team gear. These ladies were young...kind of?...and wearing what I would classify as "clubbing" attire. Their attention perked up as the players started heading for the dugout en route to the clubhouse before the game started. And for some reason, of all the players they picked out, they locked in on -- I'm pretty sure it was this guy -- Shane Spencer, a career backup outfielder. They weren't very subtle in handing him what appeared to be a cocktail napkin with their hotel information, and they didn't hang around to see any further reaction.

All of that to say, if Shane Spencer gets a chick's digits in Pittsburgh, imagine what a guy like Steve McNair would have run into wherever he went. McNair was a genuinely nice guy, and reports say that he met Kazemi at a Dave & Buster's restaurant where she worked. I'm sure that before all this, McNair had been propositioned in every way imaginable in every place he'd traveled. Rock stars have groupies, and a lot of them are gross, hairy old dudes who look more at home in a biker bar than on a stage. So it's not hard to imagine that pro athletes, who generally maintain a higher level of fitness and hygiene, would have just as much female attention.

Despite this, there are many athletes who maintain their integrity in their marriages, and the more we look at this subject, the more respect I have for them. And just because McNair stumbled in this one area where so many are prone to weakness doesn't make him a bad person or unworthy of our admiration on the football field.

It is a shame that this is the world we live in. And for every soccer mom who complains about professional athletes not being good role models, I'm sure this is just another bullet in the clip of another attack on the integrity of sports.

But the truth of the matter is that athletes shouldn't be role models. They are because a lot of kids don't have anyone better to look up to, but that's not the fault of the athlete. If parents can't effectively explain the difference between admiration and idolization, then they deserve to have children who do stupid things like take steroids.

Hopefully though, we won't lose sight of the tragic fact that even those athletes who best fit into this persona of role model are going to fall prey to the human condition of imperfection.

So we mourn the passing of an outstanding athlete, a wonderful humanitarian, and an imperfect human being. May we appreciate what he did on the field and learn from the mistakes we now know he made off of it.