Today is Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Today is Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Dave Barth, ‘05 is the track team’s new sprinting coach. Barth wants to help athletes improve upon their own marks and beat the personal records they set last year.
“If people run faster and jump farther or higher than they did last year, then I feel that my coaching has paid off,” Barth said.
He was a member of the track team five years ago when the team won the SCVAL championship. Barth hopes to continue that legacy of winning at the school.
“I know we are capable of winning meets on both the boys and the girls side, but since it is my first year coaching I do not have a sense of how fast the competition is,” Barth said. “All I can do is get the sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers physically and mentally prepared for upcoming races.”
This season, senior Eric Safai will have competed in 12 varsity sports without doubling 2 sports in 1 season. Eric participated in varsity cross country, soccer and track all four years, all while maintaining a 4.0 GPA.
“All three of these sports are very running-intensive,” Eric said. “So this combination of sports made sense.”
Eric accredits his strong focus on time management, which has allowed him to compete at this level for so many years.
Early on, Eric did not envision that he would play this many sports and simply joined cross country and track in order to stay in good shape for soccer season. However, he excelled in both and found himself pursuing all three sports all four years.
“I’ve enjoyed my time with the LAHS athletics program,” Eric said. “I’ve had top-notch coaches, made great friends and have had a great time.”
Although girls and boys soccer did not make CCS, all winter sports overall were strong. Boys soccer had a league record of 5-4- 3 and did not make it to CCS.
Boys basketball went 17-9, made it to CCS quarterfinals and then lost to Palo Alto. Girls basketball had a record of 9-3 and made the first round of CCS.
“This basketball season was the best one in a long time,” senior Katherine Portelli said. “We finished second in league, and we did very well in terms of playing as a team and keeping our consistency.”
Wrestling sent senior Doug Tomlinson, sophomore Todd Grimm, junior Max Wiederholt and senior Joey Buckley to CCS. Joey placed fifth and Doug placed sixth in their respective weight classes.
