The girls varsity field hockey team practicing for their upcoming game. Photo by John Le.Girls Field Hockey
By Kaitlyn Ngo and John Le, Staff Writers
The Fountain Valley Girls Field Hockey team lead by Coach Renth has been working hard training and preparing for the upcoming season. The team has improved a lot and hopes to be victorious with their new and returning players. This year the Barons are set on the goal of taking Sunset League and continuing on to CIF.
“I’m really excited for this upcoming season. We have a strong core of returning players, along with competitive first year varsity players,” said Renth.
With the strong new and returning players, the team hopes to soar to success and achieve their goal of entering the Sunset League. The Varsity Captains, Cameron Pettus (‘17) and Sofia Rivera (‘17), are very nervous and excited about the upcoming season, with the team having high expectations.
The team is especially hoping to beat their rivals, Edison and Marina, this year.
“The last couple years I have been on varsity, we have come very close to beating Marina but could just never do it. This year, I hope and believe that we can beat them once and for all,” Rivera said.
“One specific team we are hoping to beat this year is Edison. They were last year’s Sunset League Champs and if we can beat them it would really set the pace for our season,” Renth said.
The team is determined to meet their goals of Sunset League Championships. They have been working on maintaining their strong defense and improving their offense as well as improving the overall communication of the team on the field.
“Working together and communication, sometimes you get so caught up in the game that you forget you are not alone,” Pettus said.
Armed with a strong defense and offense, the Barons are hoping to make this season count as is it the last for most of the returning individual players. The team is as strong as ever and hopes to be the new Sunset League Champions of the 2016-2017 season.
Boys and Girls Cross Country
by Tejas Chadha, Staff Writer, and Elise Tran, Staff Photographer
The Fountain Valley High School boys and girls cross country team are coming into the 2016 season as strong as ever despite setbacks during the summer.
With last years track season coming to a close, the boys faced many challenges with the resignation of the entire coaching staff. Boys team captain Amogha Dahal (‘17) gave some insight on the situation.
“Everyone was a little skeptical at first because our current coach, Jerry, had radically different ideas than what we were used to. But, after following his training for the whole summer, we see that his method really works,” said Dahal. “Everyone trusts him and he is doing the best that he can to help us reach our goals.”
In the face of adversity the team seems ready to compete and chemistry is stronger than ever.
“Team chemistry has been great, this is the first year we have combined the boys and the girls, it could be problematic but it’s not, I think it’s going really really well,” said Coach Palazzo.
Coach Palazzo has implemented a system of training that includes rigorous base training and regular tempo runs. The results have been evident in their training according to Girls Team captain Bridgette Guerra (‘17).
“This past summer we put in a lot of miles and hard work. Going into this upcoming season, our team is looking stronger than last year and I can see us moving toward state,” Guerra said.
Both the athletes and coaches are undeniably confident about the upcoming season and are set to be serious contenders to be league champs on all levels and perhaps even make a run for CIF.
Girls Tennis
by Anju Ito, Staff Writer & Calvin Tran, Staff Photographer
of FVHS, smiles towards the successful season that the team is going to have this year. Photo by Calvin Tran.
With their intense practices and freshly done tennis courts, the varsity girls tennis team is ready to have one of the best seasons that they’ve ever had in many years. Led by their coach, Harshul Patel and their three captains, Katie Ho (‘17), Clarissa Htay (‘17) and Stephani Hernandez (‘17), the coach and the team players are determined to win the Sunset League for the first time in twenty-five years.
“That’s the only goal the whole team had for the last several years,” said Coach Patel.
Although the past few weeks have been a little rough for the whole tennis team this year because of the repainting of the tennis courts, the team has made a great start to their season due to the unmeasurable amount of hard work and time that they have devoted inside the tennis courts.
“This is one of the best team we’ve gotten so far. Team is doing excellent. We had some situation with the tennis courts, so we haven’t been able to practice that much, but given the scenario I think this season is going to be great,” said Patel.
In order to create the great tennis team that Fountain Valley High School has, the varsity girls tennis team practices nearly every single day. With their practice agendas and the talented coach and players, the team is greatly improving every year.
“We practice every day from six period until four, four-thirty, and on Saturdays we’ll do an afternoon practice for two hours,” said Htay (‘17).
However, the captains hold some concerns, such as the new members that may not be quite ready for the upcoming season.
Katie Ho (‘17) practices after school as she rallies with her team. Photo by Calvin Tran.
“I feel like this year’s team is very good, though we have a few players that aren’t ready. But I feel that the more they practice, the more they’ll be ready for the season. This season, I feel like we’re going to do well,” said Ho (‘17).
Tennis ball after tennis ball, this year’s varsity girls tennis team will smash them all. These lady Barons trained hard for their season. Starting off the year fresh with their newly painted tennis courts, they can’t wait to practice and play. With their hard work, strong motivation and intense passion, these ladies won’t have any problem crushing the Sunset League.
Girls Golf
by Trevor Sonoda, Staff Writer
The girls’ varsity golf season is about to start in fall with Carter Keyser as coach, and varsity golf captains, Kat Foster (‘17) and Melissa Kittredge (‘17), to lead the team to CIF.
With an excellent start at 5-1, the team and Coach Keyser are very confident in the team’s ability this season to make CIF, which hasn’t been done by the team in four years.
In an interview, Keyser expressed his excitement for the team, and how he is looking forward to the year with this promising group of athletes.
“They really are very close, the camaraderie is very good,” Keyser said.
However, their biggest challenge will be playing away matches at private golf course like the match against Huntington Beach at Sea Cliff, and the match against Newport Harbor at Big Canyon.
Misty Le (‘20) is the newest addition to the team and has really changed the team for the better. Coach has also noticed a big improvement from Jessica Fonseca (‘19). It seems like Coach Keyser and co-team captain, Foster, are really excited and hopeful this season for the team.
“After the couple of matches that we’ve played, we’ve been doing really well, we have some really talented players this year, and I think this is definitely one of the better seasons that we’re going to have,” Foster said.
Girls Volleyball
By Benjamin Minch and Suzane Jlelati, Staff Writers
For this season for the girls varsity volleyball team, the head coaches are Rebecca Turose and Connor Olbright. The players this season will be captains Erin Finley (17’) #9 playing outside, and Amy Hinnant (17’) #77 playing opposite as well as Alex Brooks (18’) #1, Mia Lara (18’) #2, Kara Winthrope (17’) #3, Phoebe Minch (20’) #4, Serena Hom(20’) #12, Preslee Richelieu(17’) #13, Kitty Nguyen (17’) #18, Lexie Geltman (18’) #19, Britney Tran (17’) #20, Timre Tonti (17’) #21, Kennedy Hood (17’) #22, Rilyn Todd (17’) #33, Jenna Everson (18’) #36, Kennedy Hoeng (‘18) #38.
“We started off good in preseason and I expect us to win a few more games throughout the season. I think we are gonna do pretty well this season” said Phoebe Minch (20’) an outside hitter for the Barons.
The lady Barons have been practicing hard for this upcoming season and practice everyday for four hours so that they can make it into CIF and do well in league.
“We could always improve our serve receive passing and serving which will lead to us being able to run our plays and play our game” said coach Connor Olbright.
Girls volleyball has had a great start so far of their preseason, winning two out of the three games.
