Usually, when people think of the most boring sport, the answer is golf. It was shocking to hear that there is a golf team at Metz. What’s even more shocking is that we’ve had a golf team for years. Even if it’s not one of the most popular sports, it’s a diamond in the rough.

The team has less than 10 people and they practice in the morning, before school in the basement. The season isn’t that busy or competitive. They played a total of two games and it’s been thoroughly described as fun. Consider this a breath of fresh air, a sport that eliminates stress, anger, and maybe some tears.

“Many people don’t seem interested in golf,”  junior Yencelyn Bucio said. “They think it would be boring, but if I could describe being on the team in three words it would be fun, exciting and  hard. I always had a good feeling hitting the ball, the farther it went the better. Since there are not a lot of people on the team it made us form a strong bond.”

The golf team seems to be looked over, but that isn’t a bad thing. It gives room for unity and just having fun. If you’re interested in joining the team next year, talk to Sgt. Davis. The Steinmetz golf team may just be the new Breakfast Club.

Angelina broke the record, which she had set last year, by a few seconds.

“…,” Coach Abel Pereyra said.

The girls varsity volleyball team started strong in the beginning of the season with five straight wins .

This year’s team played against difficult competition — Schurz, Ogden, Roosevelt and Juarez. Overall, both varsity and JV ended their seasons with an 8-8 record.

Coach Marie Chaparro said this year’s team has been one of the best she has coached in a long time. She believed the girls had the potential to be an amazing team when they play together.

The team started out with great leadership and communication with one another; however, the players would fall short in some games causing them a loss.

At times, the players struggled with believing in themselves, but with the constant support and assurance from their team captains, Joyce Alvarez and Raychel Vician, the team did not give up and played their very best til the end.

This year, we say goodbye to 10 seniors, six of whom are starters. Out of the 10, four girls have played all four years at steinmetz. The seniors include: Captain Joyce Alvarez (2 years), Captain Raychel Vician (4 years),  Erika Carrasco (4 years), Shaquita Holder (4 years), Sorahy Orozco (4 years), Millie Martinez (3 years), Lara Banez (3 years), Jaila Williams (2 years) , Jaliyah Mitchell (1 year), and Alyssa Delgado (1 year).

Coach Chaparro said next year’s girls moving onto varsity have big shoes to fill.

The Star interviewed Joyce Alvarez about the challenges she faced as captain. She said, “As captain it challenged me to be a good role model, someone my teammates can look up to, who doesn’t give up or complain, and makes sure my teammates are mentally and physically good.”

2018 varsity record

2-0 (W) – Steinmetz @ Foreman

2-1 (W) – Steinmetz @ Clemente

2-1 (W) – Steinmetz vs. Chicago Sullivan

2-0 (W) – Steinmetz @ Amundsen

2-0 (W) – Steinmetz vs. Juarez

2-1 (L) – Steinmetz vs. Prosser

2-0 (L) – Steinmetz @ Schurz

2-0 (L) – Steinmetz vs. Roosevelt

2-0 (W) – Steinmetz vs. Ogden International

2-0 (W) – Steinmetz vs. Clemente

2-0 (L) – Steinmetz @ Chicago Sullivan

2-0 (W) – Steinmetz vs. Amundsen

2-0 (L) – Steinmetz @ Juarez

2-0 (L) – Steinmetz vs. Schurz

2-1 (L) – Steinmetz @ Roosevelt

2-1 (L) – Steinmetz @ Ogden International

The only drawback of the season is that few witnessed the team’s prowess. Due to the field construction, every game was played away from home.

Coach Robin Russo named Rachael, freshman Jada Ayala and junior Raychel Vician as players of the game in April in the teams victories over Schurz, Clemente and Chicago Marshall. See Coach Russo’s description of their outstanding play, beneath the season record.

A complete story by Star reporter Tom Feazelle, including highlights of Senior Night, will published in our May-June print edition. 

Rachael Feazelle

Raychel Vician

Jada Ayala

13-1 (W)  @ North Grand, May 10

8-3 (W) @ Chicago Academy, May 8

11-1 (W) @ Westinghouse, May 7

15-2 (W) @ Payton College Prep, May 1

23-2 (W) @ Senn, April 30

10-4 (W) @ Lincoln Park, April 27

19-5 (W) @ Amundsen, April 26

25-5 (W) @ Schurz, April 24

15-0 (W) @ Clemente, April 12

15-3 (W)  Prosser, April 10

18-1 (W) -@ Chicago Marshall, April 5

11-4 (W) -@ Solorio, March 28

 #44 Rachael Feazelle was selected the player of the game in the team’s win over Clemente on April 12.

“Congratulations to senior Rachael Feazelle for pitching a beauty of a game,” Coach Russo said. “Rachael pitched a five inning no-hitter. She gave up only two walks with 13 strikeouts in this 15 – 0 complete game shutout. She also contributed to the game offensively by going 1 for 2 with a triple, two stolen bases and three walks.”

#57 Raychel Vician was selected player of the game in the team’s win over Chicago Marshall on April 5.

“Congratulations to Junior Raychel Vician,” Coach Russo said. “Raychel picked off runners attempting to steal second and third in this 18-1 victory. She also went 2-3 with a single and her first home run of the season, all with a swolen, bruised hand. Congrats, Raychel!”

#40 Jada Ayala was selected the player of the game in the team’s win over Schurz on April 24.

“Super special shoutout to freshman pitcher Jada Ayala who in her first ever pitching effort in a Streaks uniform, went five innings, pitched a three-hitter with four walks and eight strike outs,” Coach Russo said.”Jada also went four for five with 3 RBIs a double and a triple.”

(Select the thumbnail photo to enlarge.)

[See image gallery at steinmetzstar.com]

Hey, Streaks!

The boys soccer team had a very good season. They won four games and tied two.  Even though they lost five, this year they had a better season than last year.

There were many strong players on the team. Coach Nico Kotcherha told the Star about two of the best.

“Michael Macko was the leader,” Coach Kotcherha said. “He plays well and he is the heart and the soul of the team. Carlos Avila was one of our most effective forwards.”

At the end of the season the boys placed fourth in the division.  “It was a good season; the boys did an amazing job,” Coach Kotcherha said.

Michael and goalie Juan (Ignacio) Hernandez were given the awards of Most Valuable Player. Adrian Espino received Most Improved.

“I think this season was one of the best that I have played with this team,” sophomore Luis Sosa. “This team treats me like family and we all love each other. This season our record was 4-2-4 so we didn’t do that bad. Hopefully next year we can come stronger and have a better season. I have learned so much from this team, such as leadership, and now I’ve become the player that I am today.”

]]> http://steinmetzstar.com/wordpress/2017/12/varsity-soccer-improves/feed/ 3 http://steinmetzstar.com/wordpress/2017/12/coach-lefty-leads-silver-streaks-to-homecoming-win-against-foreman/ http://steinmetzstar.com/wordpress/2017/12/coach-lefty-leads-silver-streaks-to-homecoming-win-against-foreman/#comments Wed, 20 Dec 2017 02:52:21 +0000 http://steinmetzstar.com/wordpress/?p=6656 By Freddy Crittendon

There were very low expectations on this year’s Silver Streak football program. No pressure to make playoffs or achieve a winning record. In fact, many students and staff didn’t even believe we’d win a single game.

But the Streaks had a good season, continuing the tradition of Steinmetz football.

In the last 10 years, Steinmetz has had a record of 44-58. Our last playoff appearance was in 2012, the last conference championship in 2006.

Coach Tim McNulty resigned as head coach at the end of the 2016 season after 21 years of coaching. Attendance coordinator and alumnus Angel “Lefty” DeJesus took over the program as the new head coach. He had already been coaching basketball and baseball for Steinmetz at the Junior Varisty levels.

Team members say he brought a positive vibe to the team.

“Lefty is one of those types of people you need to be around,” JV captain Jeremiah Herrod said. “You need to be around him to understand his rhythm (of things).”

As a first year coach, despite the record, many felt like Lefty had huge success. His coaching is one of a kind. When we practice, it comes with a lot of heart. Heart plays a huge role when discussing the way Lefty runs things. Heart is the main thing to train, because despite all the talent and skill you have, heart makes players.

“Lefty is like the dad I never had,” senior Acole Anderson said. “He didn’t yell at me when I made a mistake; he only encouraged me to do better while bettering myself in the process.”

The swim team had a good season that went by really fast. The team swam in five meets and participated in conference.

Team members showed progress in their skills throughout the season. Starting from the summer, the swimmers went through intense practices, and at the first meet beginners performed as experienced swimmers.

It would not be possible to accomplish such progress without the help of Coach Susy Sullivan.

“She is a fun coach, but a serious one when she needs to be,” co-captain Karla Aguilar said. “Ms. Sullivan is always the one cheering the loudest for the team.”

Also, the manager of the team, Luis Huerta, and captains, Luz Herrera and Karla, did a great job leading the team and helping their teammates to improve themselves.

Sophomore Kat Fleischer made big progress and showed real dedication to the sport. She had a break for a month because of a physical injury, and after that she showed the results on the level of last year’s swimmers.

Swimming is hard and sometimes painful, but it makes you more organized, stronger and, most importantly, helps you understand real team spirit and cooperation.

Even when sitting on the bench, watching our teammates swim, we were cheering for them till we got out of breath, or even when a swimmer didn’t finish first, we would say “Good job!” because we knew she showed her best. That is all that matters.

There are many events at swim meets, including the medley relay, which has four different swimmers doing four different strokes – backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle. Also, one individual can do the same thing – four different strokes, but in different order – in event called IM individual medley relay. This is a tough event, and our captain Karla decided to take it on herself, and did good. Also, in conference the first year swimmer Liana Perez was swimming on the same speed as our captain in IM, which is an amazing result.

There are freestyle relay races in which four swimmers take turns after each other to sprint two lengths for the short relay and four lengths for long relay. Other event distances are from 500 yards freestyle to 25 yards. There are individual events for backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly as well.

The team beat Foreman in early October. Observers heard lots of cheering for both teams to finish their lengths in the pool. The girls motivated each other.

Senior Jennifer Gamboa said “athleticism was evident in the high endurance in all swimmers and the great formation and strong strokes taken by Luz, Karla and Kat. Almost all the swimmers possess a very strong dive and streamline.”

Jennifer saw “sportsmanship and focus” from all the Steinmetz swimmers when it came time to compete in their event.

“Luz showed remarkable determination in the meet against Foreman, as she swam a 25 and yet still managed to swim four  more lengths right after,” Jennifer said. “She showed her team how determined and strong you can be.”

Swim team, like all sports teams at Steinmetz, has great benefits and challenges.

“I made so many memories with Bluz (Luz), Weronika, Liana, etc.,” Karla said. “I hated it, though, because I would get so nervous before the meets. I’ll miss Ms. Sullivan yelling at us for not coming to morning practice. Swimming is great exercise. I would highly recommend it.”

]]> http://steinmetzstar.com/wordpress/2017/12/swimmers-show-strength-and-teamwork/feed/ 1 http://steinmetzstar.com/wordpress/2017/12/up-and-down-season-for-volleyball/ http://steinmetzstar.com/wordpress/2017/12/up-and-down-season-for-volleyball/#comments Tue, 19 Dec 2017 16:56:14 +0000 http://steinmetzstar.com/wordpress/?p=6618 By Erika Carrasco

The girls varsity volleyball team ended the season with a record of 6-8.

Coach Marie Chaparro said the season was up and down. The team wasn’t consistent, and the girls fell apart once they made mistakes because they wouldn’t believe in themselves.

Co-captain Joyce Alvarez said when team members were off, the rest of the players tried to cheer them up and got them to keep going.

Joyce talked about it being her first year of joining the team and how at first it was “intimidating,” but she felt proud that her previous years of playing volleyball paid off.

“All I wanted was to play and make friends and that’s what happened,” she said.

Coach Chaparro said she will miss the seniors, since most of them have been playing for three or four years on the team.

When asked about co-captain Lluviccia Gomez, Coach said “she has volleyball in her blood, girls want to be like her.”

Lluviccia is a good role model as well, always willing to help any girl who needs it.

“No doubt she helped me improve my skills,” Joyce said. “She is a great player.”

The team held its annual breast cancer fund raiser game on Nov. 1. The varsity played against volleyball alumni, who were joined by team managers Frank Cabrera and Abdulkabir Yahya. The alumni team won.