Posts by mfukuhara:
- Senior Jake Neptune sets the team up for a winning season.
Varsity soccer strives to excel despite injuries
May 2nd, 2012Granite Bay High School varsity soccer coach Mark Broers hopes to be the first to make history.
“I haven’t heard of any team that has ever won (the section championship) twice in a row,” Broers said.
Last season, the team managed to win the section title with a league record of 6-3-1 and 15-4-2 overall, but this season the team has suffered injuries early on and has had to readjust its strategy.
“We’ve tried a hodgepodge of different tactics,” Broers said. “It’s been game by game (change) based on personnel and what I know about them.”
Since the beginning, defense has been one of the team’s strengths, so Broers’ focus has been primarily on motivating the offense to score more goals because more reliance upon the defense in the first few games has led to more ties than wins or losses.
“Ties are alright,” Broers said. “They keep you going, but wins really set you apart.”
This being the reality, Broers has struggled with the choice to become more of a risk taker.
“(Not wanting to tie) makes it tough,” Broers said. “Do you gamble and go for the wins sometimes or play it safe and let the draw happen?”
With an increasingly competitive environment facing the team, Broers has decided to take the risk and focus on the offense.
“What I’m trying to do is get them to shoot the ball and score because they are so good at passing and moving they miss (scoring) opportunities,” Broers said.
With improvements to the offense, sophomore mid-fielder Makenzie Brito also believes the team can achieve a second consecutive title.
“We’re in a rough spot, and we’re trying to pull through,” Brito said. “We do need to score a lot more; the defense can only help out so much. As offensive players, we need to get one in the net.”
As a mid-fielder, Brito has been given the responsibility of moving the ball up and down the field, carrying it from the defense to the offense. It’s one of the most physically intensive positions on the field.
“It’s a lot of hard work, and I get tired, but I know even though we’re missing all these people, I’m helping our team pull through (the loss of players),” Brito said.
In addition, Brito feels more responsibility based on years of experience.
“I feel like I have to prove myself a lot more because I’m playing with 18-year-olds and I’m only 15-years-old,” Brito said. “It’s more of a motivation for me to play my hardest and do my best.”
Brito isn’t the only one to feel responsible for supporting the team. All players take the season seriously and show their passion for the team by caring for other players.
“When one gets hurt or fouled during a game, like when Amy (Schlehofer) went down (at the Davis game), we all played for her in that moment like a family,” Brito said.
Schlehofer is a senior varsity player who recently returned to the field after spraining her wrist five weeks ago and feels the team’s second consecutive title will be the result of a combination of Broer’s coaching talent and team unity.
“It’s taping up before a game, putting on our cleats and warming up,” Schlehofer said. “Before the game, we all get in a huddle and everyone says a little something that gets everyone excited, so that alone gets everyone in the mindset for the game.”
Both players believe Broer’s efforts will ultimately lead to another section title as long as both team and coach adjust to game play and any potential future injuries.
“Broers stepped up big time being head coach after Roberts left,” Schlehofer said. “He’s done a good job managing all the girls and knowing… how to deal with so many injuries this year. It’s a huge mishap, but he’s done well and we love him.”
Tournament could foreshadow season
March 27th, 2012
Last year’s Granite Bay High School boys’ varsity volleyball team was primarily made up of juniors who managed to pull off a 9-1 league record, but they didn’t make it to the section finals.
This year, the same juniors are now seniors with another year of experience and show potential as they begin their season learning from last season’s mistakes.
“This is a good group of guys that get along and all generally like each other which is one of our strengths this year,” varsity coach Bruce Honberger said.
Honberger sees this year’s team as deep and experienced, having also coached them last year when the team lost the crucial game that would have led the team into the section finals.
Nine seniors now make up a large portion of the team and seven of them start, adding to the elevated level of skills seen this year compared to last year when there were primarily juniors.
This early in the season, Honberger bases the team’s potential on the recent tournament it attended in San Diego where GBHS competed against some of the top 30 teams in the country, including Dos Pueblos High School, which was ranked 21 in the nation last year.
“We didn’t do as well as we hoped to, but we learned a lot,” Honberger said. “We were very close, but we lost some very close games, so hopefully we’ll learn from that, and that will bode well for us later in the season.”
Overall, the team came away from the San Diego tournament with a tournament record of 2-4, but the score doesn’t reflect the difficulty of play associated with the Southern California teams and one team that came from Hawaii.
“We play teams from Fresno and San Jose, so we can play the best competition we can find, and usually that helps us become better at the end of the day,” Honberger said.
Senior Alex Naki was one of the greatest threats to the highly competitive teams.
“We run a very fast offense and we run some plays that other teams don’t
do,” Honberger said. “Particularly, the one hitter, Alex Naki, jumps off of one foot and comes faster than what other teams are usually expecting.”
Naki, who joined the team last year for the first time as a junior, acknowledges his unique talent as one of the key components of the team’s offense.
“For some reason, me jumping off of one foot meant I was six inches higher,” Naki said. “So we based some plays off me kind of like a sweep where I run in, jump off one foot and spike the ball from really high.”
In the San Diego tournament, plays involving Naki were used a number of times, but Honberger pointed out that the reason why jumping off one foot is rare is because the amount of stress put on one leg could greatly impact the player’s ability to stay in the game.
At a practice the following week Naki wore a knee brace.
“It’s bothering me a bit,” Naki said. “It really hasn’t bothered me before but I tweaked it a little bit before during the Clovis West tournament. But it’s fine, just needs a little support.”
With Naki’s talent contributing to power plays, other seniors also play a major role in producing kills like returning player Matt Austin, who believes a fundamental focus is what makes the team stronger, especially toward the end of the season.
“The number one thing we need to worry about is playing our game and focusing every single night, because last year we lost focus and got caught up with ourselves,” Austin said. “We thought we were better than we were and ended up losing in the first round of playoffs.”
He also sees a difference in personalities on the team from last year and believes this element will better the season focus.
“Last year there was a little bit of tension on the team because there were four seniors and two were active on the court,” Austin said. “So the rest were juniors seen by the seniors as taking up playing time.”
However, this season Austin and the team of seniors don’t see playing time as an issue because all of them are mostly friends.
“A lot of my close friends are on this team, and we’ve gone through a lot over the past year from (losing in the playoffs) to now as volleyball players,” Austin said. “I think we’re a lot more connected, and the camaraderie is a lot greater this year.”
This team support can be closely seen by Austin’s respect for senior setter Jake Neptune.
“What contributes to any number of kills we get on this team is our setter Jake Neptune,” Austin said. “He’s hands down the best setter in Sacramento; questionably I think the best in Northern California. He gets us perfect balls to hit and makes our jobs a lot easier.”
Neptune contributes his success to what he sees as more efficient hitters compared to last season when, in his opinion, the team had more risk takers, but there’s still a codependence upon each other as a team.
“It goes both ways,” Neptune said. “Sometimes I have some bad sets, and my hitters have to back me up, and sometimes I’ll have some good sets, and my hitters have to put it away.”
While the season seems to be headed in the right direction, based on last year’s final record the playoffs are still unpredictable. The only factor the team has control over is depending on each other’s strengths.
“You always have to do your job while others do their’s,” Neptune said. “You have to trust in that.”
Two-sport athlete fighting past injury
March 12th, 2012
John Cooley; Senior football player and wrestler is fighting through a shoulder injury to be able to play.
They knew participating in the wrestling season would not be an easy feat, but maybe they could fight through their weakness like their teammate John Cooley did during football season.
Cooley, who is also a wrestler at Granite Bay High School, was injured last summer during wrestling camp while facing off with a friend.
“We were going through moves and he trapped my arm so I couldn’t protect my fall and I landed on my arm,” Cooley said.
At the time Cooley, didn’t think anything drastic had happened to his shoulder and continued to fight through the pain. But after what he estimates to be a 6 month period of time, he started to feel as though something needed to be done.
“The whole time I realized there was a weird clicking every time I rotated (my shoulder) and that’s when I knew something was wrong,” Cooley said.
As football season approached, he was examined by his doctor, who said everything was fine, but Cooley wasn’t convinced.
“We got it checked out by another doctor and he gave me an MRI, an X-ray and a CT scan, all in one day,” Cooley said. “(The doctor) said there was a crack in my rotator cuff and I shouldn’t play football.”
However, Cooley was determined to play football this last fall and nothing could get in his way of achieving that goal, despite the possibility of not having the opportunity to wrestle in the winter.
“I didn’t listen to him and decided to play football and (my shoulder) was getting worse and worse,” Cooley said.
Senior wrestler and football player Ian Mook recognized Cooley’s determination to play in the fall football season and also saw the toll it took on him as the season progressed.
“I remember going to practice and seeing him holding his shoulder…Going into playoffs it was really bothering him and after one of the semi-final games, where he made a number of tackles, he was just holding his shoulder and I thought he wasn’t going to come back,” Mook said. “That’s how bad it was.”
Robert Cooley, John Cooley’s father and co-head coach of the wrestling team remembers the day when John was first faced with the decision to get surgery.
“When he found out how severe his injury was, his choices were: get the surgery now and probably not play football and probably not wrestle, or to play football and make it as long as he could,” Robert Cooley said.
After the football season, John Cooley felt confident he could make it through wrestling season, but the repercussions of his earlier decision to play football had finally got the better of his shoulder.
“A week after the season ended his surgeon said ‘It’s time’ and we’re thinking ‘No it’s not’ because…he made it through football,” Cooley said. “But the reality was we were fooling ourselves.”
Cooley remembers the day they scheduled the surgery, a day he knew was coming but hoped would stay far off passed the end of wrestling season.
“We left the doctor’s office when he said this is the day you’re getting surgery,” Robert said. “We both went out into the car and just sat there looking at each other, and he said ‘Dad, I think I can probably wrestle. I think I should try’ and I said ‘Well, we can try, but I don’t think that’s a good idea’.”
Cooley decided to move forward with the surgery, but the temptation to take the risk and play in the coming wrestling season followed them all the way up until the day of surgery.
The consequences of his earlier decision to play while injured were physically apparent, leaving Cooley with an estimated recovery time of six months without any sports, including six weeks in a sling and the remaining time spent rehabilitating his shoulder.
This year’s wrestling co-head coach Mike Trout understood Cooley’s decision to play through the pain during the fall and doesn’t feel Cooley made the wrong decision given the circumstances.
“He made the decision to miss only one sport,” Trout said. “Having the opportunity to play for the section championship and play on the team is huge and a once in a lifetime deal. I really think he made the best decision by waiting until after the football season was over.”
As a result, the wrestling team this year is without Cooley’s talent on the mats, but he continues to be a central role model to the team.
“If I was in his shoes, I would be sad as heck with his shoulder, but he’s been to most of the practices and most of our duals and tournaments, so it’s nice to see him there,” Senior Adam Wagner said. “It’s kind of a morale boost to see him there and know he supports us.”
Robert Cooley sees the potential as a coach and father for his son.
“I have a huge love for my son,” Cooley said. “He’s everything to me and he’ll be back next year, he’ll be bigger and stronger.”
iPhone app of the month: Pintrest
March 4th, 2012
Think of it as a place where technologists and naturalists go for inspiration, or anyone else for that matter.
The app “Pinterest” isn’t centered on any one particular idea but encompasses many ideas and tastes into a single application everyone can enjoy.
If it’s a Friday night and a date is coming over for dinner and a movie, for most guys, the word “plan” doesn’t come up until it’s too late.
Luckily, dinner ideas aren’t too hard to come by on Pinterest and can be found under the “food and drinks” category; finding a recipe that she will like should be within a few scrolls down the page.
Or, maybe it’s a couple of hours before the final rough sketch is due in advanced art and no inspiration is coming to mind, leaving little choice but to hunt for creative wisdom elsewhere.
Under the “art” or “photography” categories lie endless images from abstract paintings to simple modern designs.
Anyone can find what they need and often discover ideas they’ve never imagined.
Under the “geek” category, hidden far below the pictures of Xbox and PlayStation shaped birthday cakes lay pictures of an “iPallet Table,” essentially a high-end wooden coffee table where between the glass and the wood surfaces rests an iPad.
The app itself is relatively new, but the concept is similar to social networking sites that allow users to upload and comment on ideas.
This aspect of the site makes ideas easily accessible with a simplified format featuring pictures as dominant art, rather than simply tabs that create order in a whirl of ideas.
Most of the time the showroom-like format doesn’t distract from the overall content of the site, but from time to time the links to ideas can become overwhelming to those who aren’t using the site for a purpose.
This experience is much like walking into a grocery store without a list and picking from the shelves while walking the aisles.
Without the simplified format, the site would be nothing more than a vision waiting to be found among the millions of interests people share.
YouTube video of the month: Epic Meal Time
March 3rd, 2012
A banana split without the banana is nothing unusual for Epic Meal Time, a show completely dedicated to culinary creativity and bacon.
Every episode begins with a grocery run where the Sauce Boss and crew buy as much meat as they can get their hands on – mostly bacon – in order to make their monstrosities.
This time, it’s a meat ice cream party with special guest Kyle Myers, a renowned YouTube gun enthusiast from the YouTube channel FPSRussia.
The madness begins by laying out bacon strips, bacon strips and more bacon strips to form the letters “EMT,” which stand for Epic Meal Time. Then, the team begins to candy the bacon in brown sugar and syrup and calls it “smart” to do so.
Next, they move onto the ground beef, which will later take the form of what would traditionally be the ice cream on the ice cream cone.
To cook all the meat, the team uses a commercial oven with more than 10 burners, all fired up at once, in order to satisfy their impatience and need to always make things bigger than what is expected.
As they wait, “Muscles-Glasses,” one of the team members, chugs a drink centered on raw meat and bacon grease to prove that the show isn’t for the weak stomached or health conscious.
Once the meat is done, it’s drizzled with caramel, chocolate, marshmallows and finished off with half a gallon of vanilla ice cream. Then it’s layered with whipped cream, an extra layer of meat and topped with sprinkles.
At this point, the total fat for the meal is equivalent to 1,677 grams, and the calories are climbing at 24,500, but the construction continues.
The banana split is the first all-meat dish to be constructed with a base layer of marshmallows and bacon forming the foundation for the three meat ice cream balls and sausages. The sausages are substituted for bananas because the bananas have no business at a meat ice cream party.
The last step is placing the remaining meat ice cream balls on top of the ice cream cones, thus completing the meal at a grand total of 3,155 grams of fat and 43,830 calories. However, the party is not over. Someone has to take on the food challenge.
The Russian special guest chooses his most natural eating utensil, a gun, to consume the meatballs and sausages. Everyone else digs in with their bare hands, creating a scene of savagery.
Granite Bay Grizzlies Defeat Pleasant Grove Eagles 30-24 in D1 Championship
December 3rd, 2011Granite Bay Grizzlies defeated the Pleasant Grove Eagles 30—24 at the San Joaquin Division 1 Section Championship football game at the Sacramento State Hornets stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Granite Bay (12-2) won its fourth section title since 1999, but its first in Division One. Read the rest of this entry “
GBHS students take part in Santa’s Helpers
December 17th, 2010Countless hours and a number of students were dedicated to making the lives of K-6th graders at Citrus Heights Elementary School joyous this holiday season by visiting the campus and spend ing time with children.
The effort on behalf of the high school students was the product of the peer help ing class’ Santa’s Helpers program which was started at Granite Bay High School shortly after the school’s establishment in 1996. Read the rest of this entry “
Granite Bay High School seniors get ready to compete for the title of Mr. Grizzly and plan on raising money in the process
November 12th, 2010
Gazette photo/ MAGGIE LOUIS
Fun and philanthropy are combining again this year at the Granite Bay High School Mr. Grizzly event, a rollicking pageant that has 11 senior boys competing against each other and that directs its proceeds to addressing a societal problem. Read the rest of this entry “
Teachers join together after school to cycle
November 10th, 2010
MCT Campus wire service
For teachers at GBHS, 2:35 signifies the start of the second half of their work day, involving grading papers and preparing lesson plans. It can often last long into the night leaving them little time to pursue their own interests. Read the rest of this entry “
No child left behind or every child left behind?
October 12th, 2010Laws are written for purpose whether they govern the nation as a whole or address individual issues of minorities, but sometimes the very laws that can help one group can limit another.
Granite Bay High School has been in what is commonly referred to as “program improvement” for the 3rd year which has the district and therefore GBHS undergoing some unpopular training sessions. Read the rest of this entry “
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