Sports

January 25, 2003 - Sharks Game
by Rachel 1/25/2003

Imagine: You’re sitting in a 50-degree stadium with about 17, 000 other crazy people, watching 16 men chase a little piece of rubber around a huge ice rink. Where are you? You could only be one place, at a hockey game!

On Saturday, January 25 I was one of those crazy 17, 286 people at theSharks game at HP Pavilion in San Jose. The Sharks were playing Minnesota Wild, and it really was a game worth watching! Wild has been doing great so far this season, and the Sharks not so well, so when the Sharks won 4-1, it was special.:)

A little background about hockey: The are 16 people on the ice at one time: 5 players from each team, 2 goalies, and 4 officials. (This article really needs a visual, I’ll see if I can attach one. It’ll make this easier to understand.)

The job of the officials is basically like that of the referees in other sports. There are 2 linesman and 2 referees. They make sure nobody hurts anyone else too seriously, and be mean when they have to by giving players penalties (I’ll explain them later). The officials have to be able to skate extremely well, because they have to be where the puck is but not get run over by the players. That can get difficult.

The goalies: Evgeni Nabokov is the main goalie for the Sharks. He is the most amazing person I have ever seen in my entire life - all 15 years of it! I saw him in person after the game, and it’s amazing that he can do what he does, and so well! At the game against Minnesota Wild on Saturday, he stopped 32 out of 33 pucks shot at him! That’s a lot, and some of his saves were unbelievable. The other goalie didn’t do so great that night, as the Sharks won 4-1.

Of course, the actual "players" are the most essential part of any hockey game. They do all the legwork, get the puck to where they want it, score the goals. The positions the players are in depends on whether they are playing offense or defense.If the Sharks, for example, are on defense, they will have 3 men in front of the goal (the Defensemen) and 2 men in front of them to carry the puck the other way (the Left and Right Wing).

If the Sharks are on offense, they will have two each of the Left and Right Wings as well as a Center, who mostly makes passes, has a lot of the speed, and sets up the plays.A lot of this I really don’t know all that well, so feel free to correct me if you happen to be an avid hockey fan, in which case you probably know a lot more about it than I do.

In my opinion, however, hockey is the best sport in the entire universe. Where else can you scream your voice out, freeze your butt off, and meet tons of violent fans, while watching crazy guys in huge padding slam each other and a little piece of rubber around a huge ice rink? Hockey is, true to its motto, "The Coolest Game On Earth"!!

by (the very happy Sharks fan) Rachel (who got her Sharks T-shirt signed by Nabokov, Sturm, and Graves after Saturday’s game!!) : )

My First Summer with ABA
by Cody 8-2-02

One day my mom and her friend were passing through the old Fort Ord base on their way back from Monterey and happened to stumble on a plain old building with the letters ABA scrawled on the side. Upon further investigation, she found out it stood for Aldrete Baseball Academy and signed me up for a batting lesson later that week. She told me that ABA was founded by the Aldrete brothers, Mike and Rich, who made it to the major leagues when they were younger and wanted to give back to the community by establishing a place where kids could really get baseball year round.

After a few lessons, Rich asked me if I wanted to try out for the Junior Olympic team. I said "Sure," not knowing what it was and definitely not knowing what I was getting myself into. When I showed up for tryouts, I felt really out of place. It seemed like everyone had a friend or someone they knew there, everyone except me. When I looked around everyone had a baseball bag and everything you could possibly need to play baseball. All I had was my glove and a bat -- not to mention, my bat was too light for high school play and probably too light to use in any of their games. However, thanks to Coach Dozal from Anzar High, I knew most of the drills they had us do during the tryouts and my hitting was fairly good. I can say I wasn't the worst but I definitely wasn't the best! After a very long four hours, I was relieved to finally go home. Needless to say, I didn't make the Junior Olympic team but I did make the 16 and-under-team. Our team played in a Memorial Day weekend tournament and won two games which wasn't really great but was ok considering that some of the other teams had older more experienced players.

ABA has a summer program with skills practice Monday through Friday. The older kids playing on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and the younger kids on Tuesday and Thursday. I was also invited to play on a summer team along with my friends, Tyler and Matt. There were about eight games that we played in from San Jose to Aptos to Carmel. It was a lot like playing "sandlot ball" in that because it was summertime we never knew for sure who was going to show up but no matter what, everyone got a chance to be on the field and up at bat. That's one really cool thing about the Aldrete coaches, they make sure everyone gets a chance to play. We had to forfeit one game because we only had eight players but we played anyway using one of the other team's players and won! Overall, I learned some new things and got a lot of experience so I won't be as nervous next time I try out for a team. Best of all, I got to play baseball most of the summer!

Sports Books Available at the Aromas Library
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by Cody, Sports Editor