2011 in sports: Local hoops in transition
From one year to the next, everything changed in Davis basketball.
At UC Davis, the 2011-12 season was unveiled with two new coaches.
Jennifer Gross, a former Aggie standout player and trusted assistant to longtime coach Sandy Simpson, replaced UCD’s all-time-winningest women’s coach after Simpson retired in March.
But Simpson took his charges out on another high note — the Aggies won the Big West Conference tourney and went to their first-ever Division I Big Dance. Seeded 16th, the locals lost 86-59 in the first round at No. 1 Stanford.
Now, Gross has this year’s squad revved up for Saturday’s conference opener against Cal State Fullerton. The Aggies are 8-4 and coming off a tournament title at the Rainbow Wahine Shootout in Hawaii.
Meanwhile, the UCD men went big — big name, that is.
Former Sacramento King and Bradley University coach Jim Les was named last May to replace Gary Stewart, who stepped down after a 10-20 season.
Les’ Aggies are off to a slow start — 1-12 — but they did draw more than 4,400 fans for a recent Stanford game at The Pavilion. The young squad that includes three sons of former NBA players can only get better.
At Davis High, turmoil brought in the new year as former girls coach Jeff Christian (in his sixth year with the Blue Devils) was replaced by district officials in a flap over dealing with team matters. As ugly as that situation was, the DHS girls didn’t let it slow them down on the court.
Blue Devil athletic director Dennis Foster took over as coach and Davis finished 21-7 overall, 10-0 in Delta Valley Conference, and qualified for the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs. DHS suffered a first-round loss to Pleasant Grove.
In the offseason, the school hired former junior varsity coach Karen Foster to run the program. Her Lady Blue Devils are 6-6 thus far.
And while there was no coaching change in the boys program, there was a philosophy adjustment.
Coach Dan Gonzalez’s Devils are 7-5 and running like the wind. Averaging more than 84 points a game, Davis is the top-scoring high school team in California, according to MaxPreps.com.
The difference from last year’s pedestrian 10-16 campaign? DHS has installed former University of Redlands coach Gary Smith’s run-and-gun, full-court-press system. Smith also is assisting Gonzalez on the bench.
2. DHS soccer teams win titles
From the season-opening tournament win at St. Mary’s in Stockton through the nail-biting, 1-0 Sac-Joaquin Section championship win over St. Francis, DHS girls soccer fans knew their team was something special.
When co-captain Courtney Jimenez blasted home the game’s only goal — late in the second half — coach Allen Carlson’s Blue Devils had capped a 25-1-1 march through the best soccer schools the region had to offer.
Carlson retired at season’s end after winning four section crowns in 14 seasons, and was recently replaced by local club coach Sara Stone.
Not to be outdone, this past fall, the DHS boys made an inspired, late-season run to eventually vanquish Jesuit, 7-5, in a shootout for another Blue Devil section title.
Back-to-back tie games against Granite Bay and the Marauders — each nationally ranked at the time — halfway through the year seemed to put the locals into overdrive.
Regulation goals from Matt Austin and Tom Nolan set up Davis’ penalty-kick heroics in the title contest.
3. UCD athletics going in a new direction
With the retirement of athletics director Greg Warzecka and the announcement that football coach Bob Biggs will step down after next season, the UCD athletics department is doing a thorough self-analysis and working to figure out its plans for the future.
Following Warzecka’s decision to retire after 17 years as the Aggie AD, Chancellor Linda Katehi ordered an audit of the athletics department — performed by consultant Cedric Dempsey, former executive director of the NCAA — and formed an advisory committee to recommend the type of athletics director UCD should hire. The committee hosted several town hall meetings that allowed public comment on the options for the future of Aggie athletics.
A few days after the conclusion of the football season — the final campaign as a member of the Great West Conference, since it was announced that the Aggies will join the Big Sky in 2012 — it became clear that finding a new head gridiron coach also would be necessary.
For Biggs, UCD’s 4-7 record in 2011 was disappointing.
He has always been a winner, as an Aggie QB in the 1970s, as an assistant under the legendary Jim Sochor, and as UCD’s head coach, where he is the second-winningest mentor in program history.
Weighing his options carefully after 2011 ended with a 23-19 win over Sacramento State in the Causeway Classic, Biggs announced that the Aggies’ first year in the Big Sky, and his 20th at the helm, would be his last.
By not stepping down immediately, Biggs gives the campus time to find a well-chosen replacement and his young squad a chance to rebuilding a winning attitude. It’s no secret the staff and players would like to send Biggs out the winner he’s always been.
4. Devils rock the track world
It was as dramatic a track season as any high school has seen.
Distance runners Trevor Halsted and Sophie Meads provided heart-stopping performances at the Sac-Joaquin Masters meet last spring and the brilliant Ian Rock’s double win in the pole vault and long jump spurred DHS to its first-ever boys track and field championship.
Halsted, who led a 1-through-4 Blue Devil finish in the 3,200-meter race at the section meet, came back to win the Masters with teammate Brian De La Mora taking second.
Meads came from nowhere to handily capture the Masters girls 3,200 — as a freshman.
But it was Rock and Halsted who had state-meet performances to remember.
Rock went 16-02 in the pole vault, erasing his own school mark and becoming California champion, while Halsted — in finishing third — erased the 39-year-old Devil 3,200 mark of Steve Martin’s. Halsted ran 8:51.96.
Rock will compete in the decathlon for Duke University this spring while Halsted is running at UC Davis.
5. Bicycling remains king
The cycling résumé of Davis is long.
From being the first community in America to get serious about giving bicyclists a fighting chance (back in the 1960s with bike paths and greenbelts) to bringing Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong Challenge to Davis last summer, our community continues to be America’s Bicycle Capital.
The U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame and the Davis Bike Club have now partnered with the Livestrong organization and that event returns in June. The Hall presented another successful induction ceremony two months ago and continues to host important biking events throughout the year.
6. DHS girls water polo three-peats
Early in the 2011 season, coach Doug Wright felt that despite winning the past two girls water polo section titles, DHS wasn’t the favorite to three-peat because of its youth.
Wright was more than happy to be proved wrong as the Blue Devils defeated rival St. Francis, 8-5, in the Sac-Joaquin championship contest. Davis was led all season by section Most Valuable Player Rachel Johnson and Hailey Wright, Zoe Malot, goalie Haley Cameron and Colby Stapleton, each of whom earned all-section honors.
7. DHS boys tennis captures third straight crown
In another of the many Sac-Joaquin Section title matchups in 2011 between a Blue Devil squad and Jesuit or St. Francis, the DHS boys beat the Marauders in boys tennis to win their third consecutive CIF championship.
Using their exceptional depth, the Devils got singles victories from Andrew Dumit, Robert Lipman and Russell Richardson and a doubles sweep in a 6-3 win to grab the title.
8. Aggies invade NCAA championships
Five UCD athletes as well as the Aggie women’s golf team qualified for NCAA championship competitions in 2011.
On the track, UCD’s Thomas Phillips (13th) and Alex Wilright (15th) each placed well in the 400 hurdles at the NCAA meet. Jonathan Peterson represented the Aggies in the cross country championships for the second straight year, taking 71st, and UCD’s Liliana Alvarez ended her freshman season by competing at the NCAA finals in the 100 (23rd) and 200 (41st) breaststroke.
Another Aggie freshman, Matt Hansen, reached the NCAA golf finals as an individual, while the entire UCD women’s team did the same, finishing 20th.
9. DHS flatlanders win fourth prep skiing title
In winning its fourth state championship in four years, the Blue Devil ski team showed that the amazing run probably will continue after 2011. Between the DHS boys and girls, 13 skiers qualified for the season-ending event — and only one, Zane Lopez, was a senior.
In addition, the Devil girls snowboarding team finished third in California.
10. Jalil Anibaba plays in the MLS
DHS graduate Jalil Anibaba was drafted ninth overall by the Chicago Fire in the Major League Soccer’s SuperDraft, and his performance this season justified his high selection.
The 2007 California High School Player of the Year was a key cog in Chicago’s defense all season, capping the successful campaign by scoring twice in the Fire’s finale to earn the MLS’ Player of the Week award.
Honorable mention
* DHS graduate Nick Watney, spent most of the PGA Tour season among the leaders in FedEx Cup points for the second consecutive year and has established himself as one of the top few American players on tour. Last March, he won the WGC-Cadillac Championship, then took first place at the AT&T National in July.
* The Davis High cheerleaders won first place at the United Spirit Association Regional Cheer Competition contested last January at Deer Valley High. The squad took top honors at the regional event for the first time in program history.
* Former Aggie Daniel Descalso was a utility godsend for the world champion St. Louis Cardinals. Descalso came off the bench in five of the seven World Series games and was a key contributor in the Cardinals’ historic Game 6 comeback victory.
* 2011 was another big year for the DHS cross country squad and coach Bill Gregg. After being honored as one of the 10 most inspirational prep distance coaches in the nation last July, Gregg saw his Blue Devil boys squad earn its second straight trip to the CIF state meet. The boys were joined by DHS girls representative Sophie Meads.
* In August, U.S. District Court Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. ruled that UC Davis did not discriminate against three women who were cut from its men’s wrestling team in 2001, yet it failed to be in compliance with Title IX at that time. Damrell said that during the period the three women were attending the school, UCD eliminated 60 intercollegiate sports opportunities for women.
* Former Blue Devil Jake Allen is part of a Stanford 200 freestyle relay team that set an American record with its NCAA title-winning swim of 1:15.26 in March.
Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=121007
View this story on page B1
Posted by Bruce Gallaudet
on Dec 29 2011.
Last Login: Tue 22 May 2012 11:46:20 PM PDT
Filed under Aggies, Blue Devils, Pro Sports, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
