The Week in Sports
February 14, 2018
Every team has the goal of reaching the postseason. Most people on the outside see this as a given; making the postseason means you are one step closer to the ultimate goal of winning a championship. For coaches and athletes, the opportunity for glory is just part of the joy of extending the season. Playing in the playoffs means you get just a little bit longer to be with your teammates. You get a few more practices, perhaps another post game meal, and at least one more chance to make some life-long memories with a group you’ve grown close to.
The two Cate sides that extended their season are both girls and boys basketball teams. For the girls, it came down to a hectic and frenzied final week of the regular season. With four games in five days, the Rams knew that to win at least three to have a shot to get in. After winning their first three handily, the team was confident going into the fourth contest. However, as every athlete knows, not every ending comes out of Hollywood and when the Rams fell in their final regular season contest, it put their playoff chances in a state of flux. As it turned out, lady luck loves blue and white, as the Rams were awarded an at large playoff bid and will take on the Valley Christian School in Santa Maria on Thursday, February 15. Cate has had several young contributors this season, but the senior leadership of Maisie Oswald ’18 , Kaliyah Dorsey ’18, and Laura Vences ’18 helped keep the Rams cool under pressure.
The boys basketball team will march into the playoffs thanks to a few big wins down the stretch. The Rams finished the season tied for second place with rival Thacher, but won the coin toss to represent the #2 position out of the Frontier League. The coin toss going Cate’s way means the Rams avoid having to play in a wild card play-in game, and instead jump into the 32-team tournament on Wednesday, February 14 at Nogales High School. Much like the girls team, the steady hand of the seniors has helped lead the way. Desmond Castillo ’18, Chris Bennett ’18, Andy McHarg ’18, Patrick Armstrong ’18, and Marko Pliso ’18 have led the team with great poise this season and will look to extended their time in a Cate basketball uniform for as long as possible.
The girls varsity soccer team wrapped up their campaign with a few tough losses. The Rams ran into some tired legs in the final week, as the condensed schedule caught up with the young Rams squad. Cate finished the season with a 5-4-4 record and will look to build on the lessons learned from this season. The program will say goodbye to five seniors: Sophie Johnson ’18, Mari Espinoza ’18, Julia Farner ’18, Isabela Montes de Oca ’18, and Emily Burns ’18.
The boys varsity soccer team also had to hang up their cleats for the season earlier than they wanted. The Rams had a hard time building momentum after the long layoff and playing in an ultra-competitive league didn’t help. Still though, the team had plenty to be proud of, as they were in just about every league contest this year and will return the bulk of the roster next winter. For Gavin Fansler ’18, Charlie Morris ’18, and Ben Jessup ’18, it marks the end of a Cate soccer career; their effort and leadership will no doubt have an impact on teams for years to come.
No team was impacted more by the truncated schedule than the squash team. Typically, the team will compete in several tournaments throughout the state, and sometimes beyond, during the winter. However, due to the time away, the Rams competed in just two tournaments. Most recently, a handful of the team went down to San Diego to compete in the SoCal High School Championships. The Rams were led by captain Ian MacFarlane ’18, who along with his brother Dylan ’20, Brandon Man ’20, Stefan Suh ’19, and Ryan Suh ’21, helped the Cate A team to a solid fifth-place finish. For the B team, Kate Bradley ’19, Mark Huerta ’20, Cooke Tarlton ’21, Abhi Bangaru ’21, and Alex Elrington ’21 paced Cate to a third-place finish in their league.
The Cate surf team had their season impacted strongly by the weather. With all of the runoff and debris in the ocean following the mudslides, the team ventured south to different surf spots in an effort to hang ten. The team made their biggest impact when they weren’t in the water. On those days, coach Peter Bonning and the team spent their afternoons cleaning up the beaches in an effort to improve our community, showing that the surf team lived by two mottos: Surf On and Servons.
