Athletes of the Week - Anthony and Brooklin

I am still going to write up the championship stories for widget volleyball, and varsity baseball, so these write ups will be focused mostly on the individuals, not the teams.

Widget volleyball played their tournaments on Saturday at St Therese. All games were loser out, but our two teams both won their first two games, and squared off against each other in the finals. Brooklin's team won again, and she led the way again. Brooklin gets to as many balls as I've seen a widget get to. She consistently ranges all over the floor, and can get the ball in from anywhere. If a ball is hit right at her, she can always put it on the back line, where the other team will be lucky to get it back at all, and if they do, we will still be in good position to win the point. She booms overhand serves, and we are looking forward to her becoming a full time member of the JV team next year.

Varsity baseball also won the championship this season, and Anthony led the way for us in the tournament. We got a first round bye in the tournament, and then we got a rematch with St Mary's in the semis (they beat us during the regular season). Tony started and went 2 2/3, and then we brought in Anthony to close. He went 2 1/3, allowing one hit, no runs, and striking out 4. His biggest contributions came at the plate though. Last year, Anthony smashed a homer to left center at St Mary's in the championship game, and this year, in his first plate appearance at St Mary's since that game, he hit a ball to just about the same spot. That gave us a 2-0 lead, and we would make it 3-0, before they would come back and take a 4-3 lead. In the third, Tony and Rolando were on base, and Anthony destroyed a ball to dead left, almost hitting the right fielder in the JV game on the adjacent field. This gave us the lead back 6-4, and after St Mary's again tied it, we scored the final and decisive two runs in the fifth to win it 8-6. Anthony walked, stole second and scored the 8th run.

We brought Anthony back in the championship game, and he went complete. We won 13-8, and Anthony threw seven innings and 125 pitches. Although he allowed 8 runs, only 2 were earned, and Anthony struck out 13, including two in the seventh. Anthony singled, walked twice, scored three runs, and stole four bases. On the season, he hit two homers, scored 14 runs, stole 13 bases, and finished with a slash line of .424/.709/.929. I'm very lucky and happy to have coached Anthony for two seasons and we wish him well next year and for his career at Lakewood.

Athlete of the Week - Britney

I'm writing this up a little late, and I will also get to the write ups for widget volleyball and baseball soon, but our athlete of the week for the last week of the volleyball regular season is Britney. Britney is a 4th grader who has played two years of widget volleyball now, and has steadily improved through those years. She works very hard, and never complains at all. Her great attitude has not gone unnoticed by her coaches. Coach Matt was sick for the final Friday of the regular season, so Coach Adkins chose Britney for this week. Coach Adkins has watched some of our JV volleyball games this year, and she compared Britney to Alyssa Acosta for her ability to dig balls and really attack them on defense. This is high praise and well deserved. Congratulations to Britney.

Athletes of the Week - Brooklin and Thomas

Brooklin has won Athlete of the Week several times over the last two years, but this week, she definitely deserved it again. We split up our widget teams equally this year, but they still came into last Friday’s matchup against each other both undefeated. This certainly bodes well for the future of Raider volleyball. On Friday, team 1 was too much for team 2, and Brooklin was a big reason why. She bombs overhand serves from the back line, digs very well, moves very well, and even hits some overhand balls after sets (an extreme rarity for a 4^th grader). In addition to her great performances this year at the widget level, Brooklin has been called up to help the JV team, and she played very well in our close loss to Fatima last week. JV plays their first tournament game this Friday, and Brook (along with Madi) will play for the JV team before hustling over to St Therese to play the widget game as well.

Our baseball team had a tough start to the week last week. We played undefeated All Souls without Tony, and with Anthony unable to pitch yet. Rolando and Omar tried to keep us in it on the mound, but our defense was the worst its been all year. All Souls scored 15 runs and only 1 was earned. We came back the next day, and Rolando and Omar again had to do all the pitching against St Mary’s. We led 11-3, before seeing our defense again collapse. We ended up losing 12-11. We finally put it together last Friday night though, beating a solid St John Baptist team under the lights in the cold in Longmont, 12-6. In all 3 games, Thomas hit well. Thomas started the year hitting cleanup for us, but he struggled early, and was moved down in the order. He has steadily improved through the season though, and last week he went 3-6, with 2 walks, 4 runs, 4 driven in, 3 stolen bases, and a blasted double to clear the bases and really break things open at SJB. Thomas has played first, short, and third for us this year, and his defensive versatility has been a much needed asset. 

Athletes of the Week - Sonya and Rolando

St Rose JV volleyball came into the week after spring break with a record of 4-2. We had two home games the first week back against Good Shepherd and St Thomas More. We beat Good Shepherd 2-1, and we beat STM 2-1, coming back after losing the first set. The JV team has good balance with 4 or 5 girls who can lead at any given time, and this week’s leader was Sonya. Sonya comes to every practice, works hard, and always has a smile on her face. She consistently gets her serve over, bumps well, and occasionally gets  a good hit in coach Gonzalez’s three hit system. She also has started hitting an overhand serve, and she has had good early success with it. Sonya served 5 points in the first set against Good Shepherd including the winner, she served 7 in a row in the second set, and she served 6 more in the finale. Sonya played well against STM as well, and along with Alyssa and Eva, will add some needed depth to next year’s varsity team.

Our baseball team entered the week after spring break with a record of 3-2. We were scheduled to play the first Monday back, but unfortunately, St Catherine’s didn’t show up, so we got a forfeit win. We then had to play undefeated St Anne’s and St Vincent de Paul, who was in third place at the time we played them. Tony and Anthony were both out both games, and it was up to everyone else to pick up the slack. We lost 5-4 to St Anne’s, and we lost 10-9 to SVDP. We were in both games all the way, and should have beaten SVDP, but we battled well in both games, and we are well positioned for the tournament. I try not to give Athlete of the Week to the same person twice in the same season, but in this case, there’s no way to give it to anyone but Rolando. Rolando threw a complete game against St Anne’s, throwing 96 pitches. He held them to 5 runs, their second lowest run total of the season. Rolando walked 2 and struck out 13 in 6 innings. At the plate, walked, tripled, and reached on an error. He scored our first run of the game in the fifth starting our comeback. Against SVDP, Rolando again reached base every time up. He walked in the first, and singled his next three times up. Rolando scored 2 runs, and stole 5 bases. He currently leads the team in plate appearances, hits, triples, homers, hit by pitch, runs, stolen bases, batting average, on base percentage, and slugging. 

Expeditionary Learning Night

Check out our video from our first Expeditionary Learning Night!
https://vimeo.com/41176502

Pictures from the event are available on our Facebook page.

St. Rose of Lima Catholic Academy Facebook

Thank you to all of the people that made this possible.  The future looks bright for St. Rose of Lima Catholic Academy.

Athlete of the Week - Gabby

This year’s JV volleyball team has a good mix of 5^th and 6^th graders. We have eight total players, and five of them are 5^th graders. Eva, Alyssa A, and Sonya make up a very good (albeit small) group of 6^th grade leaders, but we also get good contributions from the 5^th graders, and one of them leads the way. Gabby has played a lot of volleyball in her life. She plays for St Rose and she plays club volleyball. I have always known that Gabby is good, but in the past, I’ve seen her hold herself back a little bit. In a JV game and a varsity game against St Mary’s on 4/4, I finally saw her full ability. Gabby has a very good overhand serve. She digs as well as anyone in the school. She can set. She also hits well. Once she starts jumping on her hits, watch out. In the first JV game against St Mary’s, Gabby served 8 of our 25 points, and set the tone for a convincing match win to move our JV record to 4-2 on the season.

We didn’t have any baseball games this week, so there is no male Athlete of the Week. 

Athletes of the Week - Yoselyn and Rafael

Last year’s varsity volleyball team was led by a big group of 8^th graders, who had played together throughout their time at St Rose. We got to the championship game of our tournament last year, and had a great overall year. We were hoping to smoothly replace those girls, but so far, the year has been somewhat difficult. Going into our game against St Vincent de Paul on 3/29, we still hadn’t gotten a win. One player really turned things around, and we got a good home win over St Vincent. Yoselyn Roman served 11 consecutive points in the first game, and she served 8 of our 25 points in the second game, both wins, to secure the match. Yoselyn has embraced a leadership role as the most experienced 8^th grader on this year’s team. She hits a very hard and flat serve, that opposing teams find very hard to return. She also is our main setter, and is a vocal leader on the floor. Our varsity still has 3 games left before the tournament, and with Yoselyn leading the way, hopefully things will turn for the better.

Our baseball team has only been partially healthy and eligible this year, but when it all comes together, we can be a force, just like we were last year. There is only one varsity baseball division this year, so we have to play all of the top teams, and historically, St Thomas More is the best athletic school in Denver. We beat them 5-1 on their field on 3/30. It was St Rose’s first win over STM’s division 1 team in any sport in the two years that I’ve been here. Tony threw another great game for us, moving his record to 3-1 on the season. We got good offensive production from Tony, Anthony, Alexis, and Omar, but the hitting star of the day was undoubtedly Rafael. I’ve known since early last season that Rafael had real hitting talent, but it had only shown in spurts before the STM game. Rafael came up in the top of the second with Omar on third and two outs. He crushed the second pitch he saw over the center fielder’s head, and chugged around the bases, scoring without a throw even being made on him. This gave us a 3-1 lead at the time. Rafael came up again to lead off the sixth. He didn’t wait around at all, lacing the first pitch he saw to right. It was a line drive that was right at the right fielder. The right fielder fielded it on a hop, but if it wasn’t right at him, Rafael would have had at least a triple, and maybe another homer. It was great to get Rafael on track offensively, and hopefully, it was a precursor for the rest of the season.