Sports

For the first time in school history, a girls’ golf team is teeing off.

A growing number of requests to the school last year resulted in the team being formed. Eight students said they’d play, two more than the minimum player requirement for high school golf, and the team became official.

The swim caps have been dawned and the nets have been placed, as the girls’ varsity water polo team starts its season this month. All of the players are prepared for a challenging and rewarding season, but there is one problem.

Alison Norris, senior co-captain along with senior Kaylee Pettingill, is one of the key players on this team and will have to play through the season with an arm injury.

Boys’ water polo has had a new coach every year for the past four years, and this year is no exception. Swim coach Christian Bonner is filling the position, so the team will have to adjust, once again, to new strategies.

After making the semi-finals in CCS last year, field hockey is ready to hit off a successful season this year under Coach Amber Wilson. The team traveled to several tournaments in the spring and continued practice throughout the summer.

Unfortunately, only weeks into the school year, several players have already been sidelined with injuries. Seniors Ashley Charette and Laura Ruddy and juniors Jessica Liscom and Diana Douglass are among those injured, and others have been out for periods of time with injuries and sickness.

Saratoga High has finally added lacrosse to its spring sports roster, five years after the creation of the highly successful West Valley Redhawks Lacrosse club.

The process started around this time last year when several members of the Redhawks management, as well as Wes Koenig, a lacrosse supporter responsible for the lacrosse programs in Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz, approached former athletic director Ian McKenzie and assistant prinicipal Joe Bosco.

After a winning football season last year that ended with a heart-breaking loss to Live Oak in the CCS semifinals, the Falcons are looking to repeat last year’s success. However, this year the Falcons are almost a completely different team with a new head coach, new offensive formation, new uniforms, new starters and a new league.

After a winning football season last year that ended with a heart-breaking loss to Live Oak in the CCS semifinals, the Falcons are looking to repeat last year’s success. However, this year the Falcons are almost a completely different team with a new head coach, new offensive formation, new uniforms, new starters and a new league.

Along with welcoming new students this year, students can also welcome many new changes made to the campus.

One change is the gym lobby that was completed around the end of the school year. Besides the new, bigger glass front, the administration has added a trophy cabinet, improved the concession stand and redone all the bathrooms inside.

When previous athletic director Ian Mackenzie left the school last spring, assistant principal Joe Bosco didn’t have to look far for a replacement. State Requirements teacher Peter Jordan was reluctant at first when asked to take the position of athletic director but decided to go for it.

Said Jordan, “It was a challenge and an opportunity to try something new and I almost never turn that down.”

In spite of a strong start in the first quarter, the Falcons were shut out 30-0 in their Sept. 7 season opener against the Menlo Atherton Bears. Six turnovers ultimately led to the Falcon’s defeat.
“We told our players that this early in the season, the team with the least turnovers will win the game,” said coach Tim Lugo, the new varsity head coach from Evergreen Valley High School.