This Week in Athletics

December 10, 2021

For the first time in our 17-year program history, the Cate football team captured the CIF Division I 8-Man Championship! On November 19, the Rams took down perennial powerhouse Grace Brethren 50-30, behind seven touchdowns from senior Will Bouma and a strong all-around team effort, finishing the year 10-1. The team was recently recognized by the community at the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table.

The Cate girls cross country team finished their season on a high note with an 8th place finish in the Division 5 state meet in Fresno. The 2021 Harriers had the fastest Cate time ever on the rolling Woodward Park layout, 1:44:07, ten seconds faster than the 2019 squad. Senior Anna DiSorbo capped off the best career any female cross country runner has had at Cate with a 20th place finish in 19:21. 

With the fall officially in the books, it has been a great start to the winter season. The weather has cooled as the days have gotten shorter, and as we push toward the winter break, our teams have continued to work hard and fight competitively every day. 

The girls basketball team started the year by beating Thacher in a scrimmage. Regardless of the classification of the game, it’s always nice to beat your rival. From there the team headed to the Bishop Diego Tournament following the Fall Break where they went a respectable 1-2 after only having their full roster for two practices. Local high school Carpinteria was next on the schedule for the Rams, and they proved to be no match as the girls won in dominant fashion 33-19. Led by returners, senior Imani Oseso and junior Mary Foster, and a young core, it’s clear to see that when this team gets some more time to gel they will be a tough matchup for anyone on their schedule. 

Boys basketball has been busy to begin the season. After falling to Thacher shorthanded in the first game of the season, the team has come back from break fully loaded and looking like a team determined to prove themselves. A heavy senior group (Mason Oetgen, Tyler Tom, Matty Holmes, John Endres, Ethan Ligon, Jack Ludviksen, Xander Murray Osborn) is looking to make up for the year they lost, and they’re doing it by quickly turning a few early season losses into a win streak at the Nordhoff Tournament and continuing into the Fillmore Tournament, where they took the first game against the host team. This is a team capable of big things. 

On the fields, the girls soccer team has played to one loss and three draws so far in the early season. The Rams are led by a smaller group of seniors (Charlotte Weis, Rachel Ma, Francesca Castellarin, Olivia Dorion, Coco Le Roy) but a very experienced group at that. With a couple more games before the break, the team is looking to get into the win column before they head out and feels that will propel them into the second part of the season where the all important league games lie. 

Boys soccer has started the season on fire. They have won their first three games having outscored their opponents 14-6. All three games have been over rivals – Carpinteria, Thacher, and Dunn. The Rams will look to continue their win streak before they head into the break when they take on a strong Foothill Tech team next week. At the core of the team’s early season success is the senior leadership of Daniel Boateng, Kobby Nimako, Peter Wood, Ricky Valente, and Lukas Hendriks.

In the past five years, the pool has not been filled with as many girls on the water polo team as it has this year. The energy that is coming from the Emmett Horowitz Aquatic Center every day is amazing. After a couple of tough losses to begin the season, the girls picked up a big first win against Rio Mesa this week. They are a young, somewhat inexperienced squad that is learning quickly and the growing pains that were experienced early on seem to be fading. The group will look to get to .500 on the season in a game against Hueneme next week before the winter break. 

We hope to keep seeing many of you at games in the new year, but as always, you can find post game write-ups in the News section of the website.