By Shad Powers, The Desert Sun
May 5, 2010 - Most of us who played high school sports have that one special memory.
For me it was scoring 15 points in a basketball game for Alma High School against hated rival St. Johns. For TV's Al Bundy it was when he scored four touchdowns for Polk High.
As we get older, those memories grow fonder and often more impressive — like the time I scored 25 points against St. Johns.
Well last Friday one of those moments happened for Indio High School softball player Cerila Zamarripa. No matter what she goes on to do in her life, she'll remember her moment at La Quinta High School and she'll remember the name Bryana Walker. Here's the back story for those not following the valley's high school softball scene.
La Quinta is an outstanding team, currently ranked No. 2 in its division, led by Walker, a senior flame-thrower who is a dominating force on the mound. How dominating you ask?
Well, in her first 10 Desert Valley League games, she allowed zero runs and pitched five no-hitters. La Quinta as a team hadn't allowed a run in 16 games, outscoring its opponents 143-0 during that stretch, including two shutouts of a very good Indio squad (3-0 and 4-0).
Put simply, Walker and her super-charged fastball were untouchable.
After two games and five innings of not much success against Walker, Zamarripa's moment came Friday night in the sixth inning.
With the game still tied 0-0, Indio's Desiree Chavez scratched out an infield single with two outs.
Zamarripa stepped to the plate. Walker unleashed the pitch.
“I saw it coming and it was a fastball,” Zamarripa said. “It was a great feeling just hitting the ball.”
She hit it all right. When she made contact, an audible gasp came from the 400 or so in attendance, not used to hearing a Walker pitch met so soundly.
She sent the ball flying toward the gap in left-centerfield. It one-hopped the wall. Chavez raced around to score. Indio had scored a run off Walker.
That's right. La Quinta yielded a run.
It was the first time since March 3. That's 59 days, 16 games, 117 innings and 353 outs with no runs scored. The streak was over.
Behind the stellar pitching of freshman Heather Morales, Indio not only scored a run, but won the game 1-0.
La Quinta is still all but certain to win the DVL regular season title and Indio is on pace to make the playoffs. Both teams are talented enough to make a deep run.
The senior Walker's amazing high school softball career will come to an end in the coming weeks. She is going to attend Princeton, so softball is clearly not her only area of expertise.
The sophomore Zamarripa has plenty more high school softball games in her future.
But no matter how many league titles and home runs and playoff victories she racks up, it's unlikely she'll ever forget her sixth-inning regular season at-bat against Bryana Walker on April 30, 2010.
And just like me with my 35-point outburst against St. Johns, Zamarripa can tell her grandkids about the time she got an incredible RBI double off of a future Olympian who had pitched 50 consecutive no-hitters.
Aren't memories grand.
Shad Powers is the assistant sports editor for The Desert Sun. He can be reached at (760) 778-4627 or at shad.powers@thedesertsun.com.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Sedona Red Rock News - School Sports Produce Better Citizens
May 5, 2010 - In today’s world, money shortages and cutbacks have become more than just water-cooler talk between co-workers.
Teachers, administrators, educators and others have either lost their jobs, or been cut back to help balance the system again due to the silly funding our great state of Arizona gets for schools. No wonder we rank near the bottom in education.
One of the things on the chopping block in schools besides physical education classes, music, art and theater are sports programs.
Although nothing has come to fruition within the athletic departments around the state, or in the Verde Valley for that matter, the need to cut costs always rears its ugly head at athletic programs within our schools.
Let me assure you, however, this would be a bad move on Arizona’s local school boards and city councils.
According to a study done by the National Federation of State High School Associations, there are hundreds of case studies, research papers and documents pointing to a most important fact: Athletics and other forms of school activities are desperately needed.
Generally, to summarize the full extent of the research, students are generally more successful in school if involved in athletics.
Students with the highest classroom attendance are athletes and most have a better grade point average than their peers who don’t participate in sports at all.
Coaches hold their student-athletes accountable for all of the above and more — a higher standard one might say.
Students participating in athletics seem to be more socially involved in other programs besides the normal 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. class time at school. Also, those students who seem to be constantly in trouble with one, the school, or two, the law, or both, aren’t usually participating in athletics.
Now, it’s obvious those who watch the news on television or read it in the newspaper or online see troubled professional athletes’ faces posted all the time for their bad behavior. Sports are held at a higher profile usually, making it instant news.
Are you shaking your head yet?
Research conducted by Skip Dane of Hardiness Research in Casper, Wyo., revealed the following about participation in high school sports:
One, by a 2-to-1 ratio, boys who participate in sports do better in school, do not drop out and have a better chance to get through college. Two, the ratio for girls who participate in sports and do well in school is 3-to-1. Three, about 92 percent of sports participants do not use drugs. Four, school athletes are more self-assured. Five, sports participants take average and above-average classes. Six, sports participants receive above-average grades and perform above average on skills tests. Seven, student-athletes appear to have more parental involvement than other students.
If parents are more involved, it becomes harder for kids to do things they shouldn’t be doing.
A study of 75 Fortune 500 companies, done by the Colorado High School Activities Association, reveals 95 percent of corporate executives at the executive vice president level participated in sports during high school.
Nothing is ever black and white, but according to
S. Dinitz and B.A. Pfau-Vicent in “Self-Concept and Juvenile Delinquency,” a lack of participation in school activities, or sports for that matter, can be associated with a greater likelihood of involvement in delinquent behavior for high school students.
Mmm.
In the end, one can decide what they think about all of these studies, research and hours upon hours of testing that may mean nothing to the average person walking down the street. The fact remains that athletic programs in today’s schools mean a lot to many individuals.
I, for one, am one of those individuals. If it wasn’t for my high school coaches pushing me to do my best, pushing to get me involved in other people’s lives — if it wasn’t for sports, or basketball for that matter, which led me to college, which in turn led to a degree in journalism and a career in sports, writing and coaching, then I don’t know where I would be. That’s the truth.
Let me be case study number infinity.
In fact, making the point that athletics is important in schools may even bother some people, or upset them that such a study was done in the first place. Well, I bet those naysayers weren’t involved in athletics.
Teachers, administrators, educators and others have either lost their jobs, or been cut back to help balance the system again due to the silly funding our great state of Arizona gets for schools. No wonder we rank near the bottom in education.
One of the things on the chopping block in schools besides physical education classes, music, art and theater are sports programs.
Although nothing has come to fruition within the athletic departments around the state, or in the Verde Valley for that matter, the need to cut costs always rears its ugly head at athletic programs within our schools.
Let me assure you, however, this would be a bad move on Arizona’s local school boards and city councils.
According to a study done by the National Federation of State High School Associations, there are hundreds of case studies, research papers and documents pointing to a most important fact: Athletics and other forms of school activities are desperately needed.
Generally, to summarize the full extent of the research, students are generally more successful in school if involved in athletics.
Students with the highest classroom attendance are athletes and most have a better grade point average than their peers who don’t participate in sports at all.
Coaches hold their student-athletes accountable for all of the above and more — a higher standard one might say.
Students participating in athletics seem to be more socially involved in other programs besides the normal 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. class time at school. Also, those students who seem to be constantly in trouble with one, the school, or two, the law, or both, aren’t usually participating in athletics.
Now, it’s obvious those who watch the news on television or read it in the newspaper or online see troubled professional athletes’ faces posted all the time for their bad behavior. Sports are held at a higher profile usually, making it instant news.
Are you shaking your head yet?
Research conducted by Skip Dane of Hardiness Research in Casper, Wyo., revealed the following about participation in high school sports:
One, by a 2-to-1 ratio, boys who participate in sports do better in school, do not drop out and have a better chance to get through college. Two, the ratio for girls who participate in sports and do well in school is 3-to-1. Three, about 92 percent of sports participants do not use drugs. Four, school athletes are more self-assured. Five, sports participants take average and above-average classes. Six, sports participants receive above-average grades and perform above average on skills tests. Seven, student-athletes appear to have more parental involvement than other students.
If parents are more involved, it becomes harder for kids to do things they shouldn’t be doing.
A study of 75 Fortune 500 companies, done by the Colorado High School Activities Association, reveals 95 percent of corporate executives at the executive vice president level participated in sports during high school.
Nothing is ever black and white, but according to
S. Dinitz and B.A. Pfau-Vicent in “Self-Concept and Juvenile Delinquency,” a lack of participation in school activities, or sports for that matter, can be associated with a greater likelihood of involvement in delinquent behavior for high school students.
Mmm.
In the end, one can decide what they think about all of these studies, research and hours upon hours of testing that may mean nothing to the average person walking down the street. The fact remains that athletic programs in today’s schools mean a lot to many individuals.
I, for one, am one of those individuals. If it wasn’t for my high school coaches pushing me to do my best, pushing to get me involved in other people’s lives — if it wasn’t for sports, or basketball for that matter, which led me to college, which in turn led to a degree in journalism and a career in sports, writing and coaching, then I don’t know where I would be. That’s the truth.
Let me be case study number infinity.
In fact, making the point that athletics is important in schools may even bother some people, or upset them that such a study was done in the first place. Well, I bet those naysayers weren’t involved in athletics.
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