The Bluffer - Red Bluff, CA
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/629697
Joseph Mills Sports Editor Sports Page 7 January 22, 2016 Brianna Zotea Staff Writer Sound Off/Hanne Dittner and Brianna Zotea Mrs. McDermott(Teacher) "No y medio." Journee Privette((11) "Yes I agree with Jacob, plus the Raiders." Mr. K Penner (Teacher) "Isn't it always on a Sunday?" Tye Clement (10) "Yes, because everybody is watching it." Jacob Samuelson (12) "Duh, except when the Seahawks play." Alexis Zamora (9)" "Yes, people celebate it and take it seriously." Should Super Bowl Sunday be a National Holiday? Hanne Dittner Staff Writer Bluffer/ Joe Mills partan ound S off Skyler Drew Staff Writer Var s it y Gi r l s B a s k e tb a l l l o o k s to s t ay he althy throug hout the w hol e s e as on The Red Bluff High School Varsity Girls basketball team has started off their season on a rocky, with a record of 6-9 and a 0-3 record in league (as of 1/19). Despite being plagued by injuries throughout the season and fielding a young team, they put together a strong showing at the Holiday Classic, where they won two of their three games and tied for the first overall spot. During the Holiday Classic, Senior Katie Gallagher earned an All-Attitude award, which recognizes a member on each team who demonstrates sportsmanship throughout the tournament. When asked about how it felt to receive this recognition, she said, "It was a great experience, after playing all four years in high school and three years on varsity it's a big honor to receive this my senior year." After the Holiday Classic, the team went on to a minor skid, losing the first three games of 2016 before beating Lassen by a score of 60-51. When asked about how she felt the year was going, Marissa Mills, a junior, said, "It's been a challenging season with injuries and because of those we've had to make a few adjustments as a team. We're also a young team, but everyone has stepped up their game to be competitive. One of our biggest strengths is our team chemistry, we all work really well together and everyone is always pushing each other to improve." Junior Julia Brandt, a team captain, also complimented their team's chemistry, saying, "Obviously it's a big advantage that most of us have been playing either with or against each other for the majority of our career's." A fellow team Captain, junior prevention has caused a decrease in the time available for conditioning. Red Bluff continues their season with a league game Tuesday January 26th against Chico, with tip-off commencing at 7:30. Allison Drury said, "We need to work towards putting an entire game together and competing all four quarters." This trouble completing games is caused by conditioning, according to Mills, who said that due an emphasis on injury Allison Drury, junior, dribbles against Enterprise on January 19, when the Varsity girls suffered a loss, but continue in their season. This year's JV girls soccer team coached by Rich Mehling has started off with a winning streak. With new and returning players, they have managed to win four games and have only lost one. Marlee Meadows, a freshman believes that they need to cooperate better but she's ok with what they have accomplished so far. She also commented that all of the girls are always motivating one another. According to Freshman Megan Thompson, a freshman who has scored four goals this year, the team seems to be improving slowly but surely with all of their hard work and dedication. Thompson is just one of several players on the team this year who has played soccer together since middle school. When asking how their season is going so far, Freshman Jazmine JV Girls Soccer's experience leads to a winning start to this season Antolin replied with "Our team is not awful but I wish we worked better as team. We have grown a lot as a team, but we still have our weak spots." Jazmine also added that she is excited to see her team's results at the end of the season. Grace Davison, who's a sophomore, has been playing soccer for eleven years, mentioned that the team is playing alright, and it shocked her how many more games they have won compared to the games they have lost. But, she wishes to personally have a total of twenty goals when the end of the season comes around. Their season ends February 10th at Enterprise. The Red Bluff High school JV girls soccer team started 2016 with an away game playing against West Valley. It was a successful win with the score of 2-1. The rest of their season includes games against Shasta High, Chico, Foothill, Pleasant Valley, and Enterprise. They face Shasta tonight at home with the game starting at 4:00. Varsity girls soccer works to improve their chemistry The Red Bluff High School Varsity Girls Soccer team has started their season off on a strong footing, with few losses to date on their record. When asked what the biggest contributing factor towards their success this year was, senior Alyssa Shank, who has been playing soccer for 6 years on the offensive side of the field, complimented the defense, saying, "The defense is really strong and they've done a great job at getting the ball back up to us (the offense)." Even though their team has been playing well, senior Christina Zumwalt, who has been playing soccer for 13 years now, says there is still room for improvement, as she explained, "We need to work on trusting each other more, like the offense needs to have faith in the defense that they'll get the ball back up to us and the defense needs to trust that we'll go back and help them cover when they're driving, but we're working on it in practice and we've improved since the beginning of the season." Besides just working on Chemistry in practice, Shank also said, "We've been working on chemistry a lot throughout the season, not just at practices but also through events such as team breakfasts or sleepovers where the entire team gets together and allows us to know each other better and more importantly trust each other more." One of the reasons for this lack of chemistry towards the beginning of the season was a group of new players moving up onto the team, as Zumwalt said, "We started the season off a little rocky because we had a bunch of new players after losing most of last years team, but we're getting better at playing together as a group which is what's important." As the team continues to practice on working together and trusting each other Zumalt expects them to win more games by wider margins. Shank agreed and said, "The team needs to work together a bit more and we'll be a great team because we have all of the pieces in place, but we're getting better about playing and trusting each other to be there." They play the Shasta High School Wolves tonight at home, with the game starting at 6:00. Red Bluff High School's wrestling team anticipates a strong performance led by their strength in numbers Wrestling at Red Bluff high school is a winter sport. There are about 63 students on the team. The wrestling season started in November. The first wrestling match was on December second. The next match is on January the 23rd in Eureka against other teams competing in the North Coast Classic. Throughout the wrestling season, the team tracvels around quite a bit, ensuring that there are different people to wrestle and they organize by weight class. According to some of the wrestlers this season is going pretty well, including Brindin Hethcoat, who says "I am doing pretty good for my first year on the team" indicating that the season is going well for him. Others are also liking the way the season is going such as Marco Ortiz. He states "Out of my three years of doing wrestling this is my best season yet. Gains all day," he says that he is proud of his season this year. When called in and asked about how the season is going, Bernice Chavez replied that "Only real women wrestle with boys." Bernice also provided the information to me that this year was their biggest turn out for how many kids were to show up to be on the team. The last match of the season will be on March fifth in Bakersfield. This is an event of two days and happens to be the championship matches. So good luck to all the wrestlers and hope the rest of the season continues to be as good as it seems. Joseph Mills Sports Editor The Red Bluff High School Fresh- men Basketball team has gotten off to a good start. With a record of the 4-8 overall and 2-1 in league, the team has an optimistic outlook on the upcoming season. When asked about the overall team goal for the season, freshman Mario Martinez responded with "[Our goal is] to win at least half of our league games." Martinez has been playing since as long as he can remember and is cur- rently playing the position of a guard. To accomplish their team goal, they must work on the essentials such as boxing out, ball handling, and re- bounding. When talking to several of the play- ers, they all expressed that their team was a very closely knit group and the each teammate pulled their own weight. When asked about individual goals, Kaden Cantrell, freshman, stat- ed "My goal is to get better for Junior Varsity, and Varsity by becoming bet- ter at ball handling and defense." The team's greatest weakness is their stamina and lack of effort, ac- cording to several team members. On the other hand, the Freshman Basketball team's greatest strength is their ability to attack the basket and their aggressiveness on the defensive end. When asked how the team coop- erated with each other, Tanner Gantenbein, freshman, re- sponded with "I believe that our team cooperates well with one another and everyone is extremely supportive of each other." By their last game, the team expects to be the best they have ever been. Meaning that with each game, the team will play better and better. Coach Button, a former Red Bluff High School player himself, will lead the team in their next game Tuesday, January 26th at Chico. The game starts at 4:30 and is followed by J.V. at 6:00 and Varsity at 7:30. facebook.com/rbwildoak New coach leads frosh boys hoping for many victories