SD Prep Sports: 2006-07 Parade of Champions

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2006-07 Metro Conference
Parade of Champions

Mesa League: The Year of the Mustang

Posted June 22, 2007
The success by sports teams at Otay Ranch High School this past season was unprecedented in the eastside school's short history. That the Mustangs were competing in their first year in the more competitive Mesa League made that success story even more spectacular.

Everyone wearing Otay Ranch colors — administrators, coaches, athletes, parents and teachers — must feel an enormous sense of pride with 11 league championship banners and one CIF championship banner to hang on the gymnasium wall.

Otay Ranch fielded teams in 23 sports this past season.

An inkling that the 2006-07 interscholastic season might be a banner year, so to speak, for the Mustangs started almost immediately with success on the field during the fall sports season.

Otay Ranch won outright possession or a share of two league titles during the fall campaign and scored a second-place finish in one more sport.

The Mustang girls tennis team, led by No. 1 singles player Rhea Escano, finished regular season play with an undefeated 16-0 record. Otay Ranch won its first league football championship by tying Eastlake and Chula Vista for first place in the Mesa League standings, with each team sharing a tri-championship with 4-1 league records.

The Mustangs captured their history-making first football playoff victory by defeating visiting Rancho Bernardo, 42-7, as quarterback Marcus Vasquez scored three rushing touchdowns and defensive back Edgar Valles made two interceptions in the opening round of the Division I San Diego Section post-season tournament.

Otay Ranch finished runner-up to league champion Bonita Vista in boys cross country, with Brandon Velasquez qualifying as an individual entry to the 2006 state finals.

The success of Otay Ranch sports teams on the field multiplied during both the ensuing winter and springs seasons with four and five titles, respectively.

During the winter sports season, the Mustangs won league championships in boys basketball, boys soccer, girls water polo (co-champions) and roller hockey (co-champions).

The boys soccer team earned further distinction as the school's first-ever San Diego Section champion after the top-seeded Mustangs defeated Granite Hills, 5-1, in the Division I title match. Anthony Rodriguez scored three goals in that game, finishing the season with 29 goals as the team's scoring leader.

Mesa League Player of the Year Domenic Cosentino keyed Otay Ranch's boys basketball team with a 19 point-per-game average in helping lead the Mustangs to a 9-1 league record and 19-8 overall finish. Otay Ranch drew the eighth seed in the Division I playoffs, defeating visiting Mission Hills, 72-56, before ending its season with a quarterfinal loss to eventual division champion Helix.

Cosentino finished his three-year career with 1,153 total points and three first team all-league selections.

The school's girls water polo team, buttressed by the play of Mesa League Player of the Year Roni Coffer, split a season-ending pair of games with Bonita Vista to settle as league co-champions.

Otay Ranch, braced by three goals from Matt Nafarette and two goals and one assist from Zach Johnson, defeated defending league champion La Jolla, 8-4, in the final game of regular season play to win a share of this season's Mesa League roller hockey title with Eastlake.

The Mustang girls soccer team played for the Mesa League championship in its final regular season game, dropping a 4-1 decision at Bonita Vista.

This past spring, Otay Ranch won outright possession of league titles in baseball; boys and girls track and field, boys volleyball and boys tennis.

The Mustangs dominated the competition in the Mesa League track and field championship meet with Ranee Woods (boys) and Britney Bennett (girls) earning distinction as Athletes of the Meet. Otay Ranch earned its share of respect by finishing regular season competition with the No. 2 ranking among section boys teams.

The Mustang boys volleyball team finished 10-0 in league play, drawing the No. 3 seeding in the Division I playoffs.

The reason for the bounty of league titles?

Otay Ranch aquatics coach Ernie Medina listed three primary reasons:

•Fourth-year athletes;

•Off-season training in every sport;

•Veteran coaching and training.

Medina placed much emphasis on the latter.

“Success can be attributed to coaches who are well-versed in their sport and mature in how they conduct training, not trying to take anything away from the coaches in other sports at other schools. We have veteran coaches like Gene Alim (football) and Ian Cumming (cross country and track and field) and myself (water polo and swimming) who are very experienced and who have been there before (winning championships).”

Medina, who serves as the girls water polo coach and girls swimming coach and an assistant with the boys aquatics teams, called the Mustangs' breakthrough league championship in girls water polo a major event for his program. That he attributed to the first class of athletes at the school who have gone from freshmen to seniors.

“It was huge for one thing to be competitive with a top quality program like Bonita Vista and to be competitive with the top teams in the county and to see the kids and the program develop from nothing,” Medina said. “We taught the kids how to swim, handle a water polo ball and learn the game. That was a very rewarding experience to be a part of that.”

Success was not limited solely to teams from Otay Ranch but to its eastside neighbors as well. Eastlake and Bonita Vista each followed with eight league championship titles between them.

Eastlake recorded league championship seasons in football (tri-champions), girls cross country, girls golf, girls basketball, roller hockey (co-champions), boys and girls swimming and boys lacrosse.

The Titan girls basketball team, keyed by Mesa League Player of the Year Cheyenne Curley-Payne, won this year's Division I championship title while the boys lacrosse team captured its third consecutive league title. The girls cross country team's league title was its first since the school's move to the Mesa League.

Bonita Vista sports teams captured league titles in girls volleyball, boys water polo, girls water polo (co-championship), girls field hockey (co-championship), girls soccer, wrestling, softball and boys golf.

The Barons' league title in boys water polo was the school's 20th consecutive since the Metro Conference re-funded the sport in 1987. After a one-year hiatus, Bonita Vista also returned to the top of the Mesa League standings in girls soccer — a sport the Barons had dominated since its inception in 1982 with at one time posting a national record for longest league winning streak.

When the Barons engineered a stunning comeback with pins in the last three matches to defeat visiting Eastlake, 37-34, BV wrestling coach Gabe Ruz was carried off the mat on the shoulders of his victorious team.

Chula Vista was the only westside school in the league to win a share of a league championship this past season, finishing as tri-champions in football.

South Bay League: Color the season green

With championships in 10 sports, plus an appearance in the San Diego Section boys golf championship tournament, Hilltop High School sports teams acquitted themselves well during the just completed 2006-07 interscholastic season. The Lancers capped their exceptionally strong showing with a runner-up finish in the San Diego Section Division II baseball championships.

The Mar Vista Mariners were not far behind with championship performances in seven sports, followed by Castle Park with four league titles. The Montgomery Aztecs earned co-championships in three sports in their move to the league. The Aztecs girls basketball team recorded a second-place finish in the San Diego Section Division II finals.

Boys Tennis
South Bay League Finals
Individual round/ singles results
May 16 at Southwest High School
Semifinals
•Fernando Sansores (Marian Catholic) defeated Marco Juarez (Hilltop)
•Jorge Molina (Marian Catholic) defeated Sean Ellerbrock (Hilltop)

Championship
•Fernando Sansores (Marian Catholic) defeated Jorge Molina (Marian Catholic)

South Bay League
Top Individuals
1. Fernando Sansores (Marian Catholic)
2. Jorge Molina (Marian Catholic)
3. Sean Ellerbrock (Hilltop)
4. Marco Juarez (Hilltop)

Boys Lacrosse
Metro Conference standings: Eastlake 9-1; Bonita Vista 8-2; Otay Ranch 7-3; Hilltop 4-6; Chula Vista 2-8; Montgomery 0-10