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It was a good week for the Foothill High girls’ volleyball team as the Falcons swept their two East Bay Athletic League games and advanced to the Gold Bracket of the loaded Oak Ridge tournament over the weekend.
The week started with a 25-19, 25-16, 25-11 win over Amador Valley. The highlights came from Kait Vogel (18 service points, 16 digs, 8 kills), Ilayda Caglar (14 kills, 7 digs), Sewa Adesuyi-fasuyi (5 kills, 3 blocks) and Makenzie Bulaon (21 assists, 8 digs).
That was followed by a 25-13, 26-24, 25-19 win over Livermore. This time the highlights came from Olivia So (14 digs, 6 service points), Shreya Patel (13 assists, 9 service points), Emily Evans (4 kills, 2 blocks) and Addie Boeschenstein (4 kills, 1 block).
In the Oak Ridge tournament, the Falcons beat Tracy (2-0) and Woodcreek (2-0). The Falcons lost to eventual-champion Folsom (2-0) and St. Mary’s (2-1).
Highlights came from Vogel (42 digs, 25 kills), So (43 digs, 20 service points), Caglar (25 kills, 23 digs) and Sahej Toor (11 kills, 4 blocks).
Announcer antics and rough refereeing
The Dons scored in the final seconds of the game to get a huge 13-12 win over the Wolves.
The win has Amador on top of the EBAL, while San Ramon Valley regrouped to throttle Foothill to end the week.
Watching the highlights, it was a thrilling ending for the two best teams in the area – but some of the reports I got from the game were a bit unsettling.
These were comments from both fan bases, which means the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
The game was described as physical and chippy. I know players from both teams, and they are competitive every time they step on an athletic event. The one thing I did not hear from either group of fans was that there were dirty or cheap shots, which was good to hear.
According to both sides, the officiating left a lot to be desired. I would say this is what I heard about lacrosse several years back and I have the same answer now as I did back then.
Flag football is growing faster than there are qualified officials. Over time the officiating will catch up with the sport, but right now you are faced with accepting the calls that are made. It’s either that or face not having enough officials to cover all the games.
It’s straight math.
There are few things given in athletics, but fan bases not being happy with the officiating is one of them. It really doesn’t matter how qualified an official is in any given sport; people are always going to complain.
What makes it worse is when gas is thrown on the fire. Such was the case with the Amador public address announcer questioning the calls over the PA system.
Ultimately the Amador announcer was shut down by officials, but the damage had been done.
I understand that the majority of announcers are volunteers, but there are some basic guidelines that must be followed.
I have been a PA announcer for over 30 years and before I ever started it was made perfectly clear: you cannot be biased.
You can certainly approach a game by being more enthusiastic for the home team, but you must be fair to both teams. And never, ever editorialize with your comments. I think a good rule of thumb to follow is to treat the visiting team with the level of respect you want your team to have when they are on the road.
The most important thing to me was how many parents of visiting teams sought me out and thanked me for how I announced the game.
Support your team, but give credit to the visitors as well.
Foothill hires baseball coach
The Falcons have hired Pleasanton resident Erik Gunnar David as the new head coach for Foothill baseball.
David is a graduate of Amador Valley, where he played baseball. He went on to play at Ohlone, Western Oregon and Holy Names. He was most recently an assistant coach at Bishop O’Dowd.
Amador girls’ basketball coach needed
There is an opening for the girls’ varsity basketball coach for the upcoming season. Interested candidates can contact Amador Valley principal Malcom Norrington for more information.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
