Many of the coaches’ reports at Monday’s Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table press luncheon shared a common theme.
UCSB women’s basketball assistant Natalie Jarrett might have put it best by repeating head coach Carlene Mitchell’s motto for the year.
“It’s not where you start it’s where you finish.”
For the handful of basketball and soccer teams (plus one wrestling), seasons are just getting underway and there are a lot of games to be played.
The Gauchos are 2-5 but Jarrett said don’t let the record fool you.
“We made our schedule very challenging this year,” Jarrett said.
The high school coaches were giving reports after having seen their teams play games for the first time last week.
Santa Barbara High boys basketball went 3-0 to start its season. Emilio Gonzalez and Jack Baker were there with head coach David Bregante.
“We’ve got a lot of room for growth,” Bregante said. “A lot of the things we’re not doing well I think we will. I’m looking forward to the season.”
The Dons girls team is also 3-0 and coming off a tournament championship won on Saturday in Lompoc. Female Athlete of the Week Ivette Gil scored 20 points and pulled down 11 rebounds in the championship game.
If Dave Odell knows one thing about his San Marcos team so far, it’s that they are tough.
Uriel Jurtado suffered a bad cut on the head in the third quarter of a game against Westlake. Odell, a former college player at Westmont, said he’d never seen so much blood on the court.
Luckily an assistant coach for Westlake is a plastic surgeon and stitched up Hurtado at his nearby operating room. Hurtado came back the next night to score 21 points and finished as the Royals’ all-tournament selection.
“Westlake’s full-service, they’ll beat you by 30 and then fix your wounds,” Odell said.
“We appreciated that.”
Jeff Burich’s Bishop Diego girls basketball team took its lumps in a season-opening tournament but played some extremely tough competition. The Cardinals stay close to home this week while hosting their Birdcage Classic.
Johnny Ward’s Warriors, off to a 1-0 start, host their tournament next week. With Ward on Monday were players Ian Craddock and Marcus Hutchinson.
Josue Figueroa reported on his Santa Barbara High wrestling team that began its season last week at the Ventura Novice Tournament. Isael Hernandez came away with a title for the Dons.
For UCSB men’s basketball assistant David Campbell, Saturday’s overtime win at Santa Clara was a big positive for this year’s group of youngsters, led by Male Athlete of the Week Alan Williams.
The Gauchos were down by four with 12 seconds remaining and Santa Clara had the ball. UCSB found a way to win. Williams finished with career highs of 29 points and 17 rebounds in UCSB’s best win of the season so far.
After losing their first two games, the Gauchos have won three of their last four and travel to San Diego State this week.
SBCC assistant basketball coach Randy Moharram likes his team’s potential despite a 2-4 start.
“I think we’re going to do some damage once conference comes around,” Moharram said.
SBCC also hosts its own tournament this week. In other SBCC basketball news, Sports Information Director Dave Loveton reported that the women’s team (7-2) is off to the best start in head coach Sandrine Krul’s tenure at SBCC.
STUDENT-ATHLETES PRESENT
Jack Baker, Santa Barbara Basketball
Emilio Gonzalez, Santa Barbara Basketball
Jelan Hutton, Santa Barbara Soccer
Peter Gamboa, Santa Barbara Soccer
Marcus Hutchinson, Carpinteria Basketball
Ian Craddock, Carpinteria Basketball
Greer Shull, Bishop Diego Basketball
Charlie Fling, Bishop Diego Basketball
Victor Saldana, Carpinteria Soccer
Genaro Hurtado, Carpinteria Soccer
Obed Soto, Santa Barbara High Wrestling
Isael Hernandez, Santa Barbara High Wrestling
Robert Cid, SBCC Basketball
Michael Hansen, SBCC Basketball
Ian Douglas, San Marcos Basketball
Juriel Hurtado, San Marcos Basketball
Michaila Miller, Santa Barbara High Basketball
Ivette Gil, Santa Barbara High Basketball
Madison Carlentine, Santa Barbara High Basketball
Alyssa Cosio, Santa Barbara High Basketball
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