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. 

Athletes of the Week - Eva and Rolando

“Athlete of the Week” slipped at the end of basketball season, as I was just too busy to do it each week, but we are resuming now, and will pick a boy and a girl each week through the baseball and volleyball seasons. Students who would have been considered at the end of basketball season are Brooklin, Madi, Alexa, Diallo, Erika, Juan, Aaron, and Rolando.

The first spring season female athlete of the week is Eva. The JV team won their first two matches this year, and Eva was a big reason why. Eva has a booming overhand serve, and is a versatile all-around volleyball player. She digs well, but is also a setter for JV, and probably the best hitter on the team. At the JV level, when a player gets hot with her serve, she can sometimes win the majority of the points for an entire game. In the JV’s first home game of the year, a 2-1 win over St Francis, Eva put the team on her shoulders for long stretches of the game with her serve, running off multiple streaks of 7 or more points won. Eva is also on the varsity roster, and we look forward to very big things from her this year, and for two more years to come.

Last year’s St Rose baseball team had four players who have played baseball their entire lives, in Renato, Michael, Anthony, and Tony. At the beginning of the year, I thought of those players as the big four, but I was soon thinking of the big five. Rolando was fairly new to the sport, but he caught on very quickly, and ended up being a very sure-handed first baseman for us, as well as a big offensive performer out of the two hole in the lineup. As we start a new season, Rolando has improved, and has had a fantastic start to the season. After consecutive losses to start the season, we played St Pius on Saturday, in deep Aurora. Rolando got hit in his first plate appearance, and then stole second and third, before scoring on a wild pitch. He came up again in the fourth with Juan and Tony on base, and hit the first homer of the year for the Raiders. Hitting into a stiff win, Rolando still lifted a deep fly to left, that the left fielder couldn’t find. Rolando tore around the bases, and scored without a throw even being made on him. In addition, Rolando combined with Tony on a no-hitter, in only his second pitching appearance of his career, and first this year. In two innings of work, Rolando only faced seven batters, hitting one, and striking out the rest, including six in a row to end the game.

February SOTM and Honor Roll

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Athletes of the Week - Alexa and Alex

St Rose widget girls hung on to win a nail biter 10-9 over St Mary’s. The win evened our record on the season, at 3-3. We have good 4^th great leadership from Mia, Madi, and Brook, all of who have won athlete of the week already this year, but in this game, the star was Alexa. Alexa is a 3^rd grader, and she’s usually the smallest girl on the floor, but she has a huge heart, and huge determination, to go along with her quickness, and good athletic instincts. She scored the first two baskets in the game, and when you win 10-9, 4 points is obviously huge. She also played great defense, and was constantly encouraging all of her teammates, and being a positive force. Congratulations to the widget girls and to Alexa.

Our widget boys black team has played a tough schedule so far, and their record reflects that. Last week, however, they played St James, and we knew we had a good chance to get back in the win column. Black won 20-16, getting their second win of the season, and bringing their record to 2-4, with two games remaining in the regular season. Black is led by 4^th graders Stephan and Sergio, but they also get good contributions from third graders Jose and Alex. This week’s male athlete of the week is Alex. Alex is a three sport athlete, but basketball is probably only his third sport, after football and baseball. As the season goes on, he is learning that he can be quite a good basketball player. He is very good defensively, and this week, he finally broke out on the offensive end. Alex led the team with 13 points, probably surpassing his previous total for the whole season. Alex also has one of the best attitudes in the school, and along with Alexa, is a great example and model for St Rose.  

Athletes of the Week - Daizja and Aaron

Daizja has earned Athlete of the Week honors after leading her team to a solid win over a strong All Souls and a close overtime loss to St. Mary's. After a difficult December, the team came back from Christmas break ready to play and picked up a much needed home win against an All Souls team that had only lost one game. During this time, Daizja's leadership was very important for the success of the team. It has not just been from the amount of points she has scored, but in her ability to challenge her teammates to be the best. Mr. Moo is incredibly impressed with how Daizja has been helping him in talking to her teammates and pointing out areas to improve during the game. This has been a strong contributing factor in the team's success the past two games. Against a very strong St. Mary's team, Daizja led the charge making a great pass to Marla for the shot that sent the game into overtime. In overtime, with seven seconds left, Daizja shot a three that just barely missed. Even though she didn't make the shot, Daizja kept a positive attitude and demonstrated the leadership we have all come to expect from her.

St Rose varsity boys had a good team last year, but competing in the very tough (and tall) division 1, we only won 2 league games. We lost Emilio, our leading scorer, Ronnie and Evan, our posts, and Michael, the best pure athlete in the school last year. Going into this year, we returned 5 players but we don’t really have any posts, and the league is still very good (and tall). After a win over Notre Dame to open league this year, we had losses to St Mary’s and St John Baptist. We then beat SVDP and lost to Good Shepherd to put our record at 2-3 going into last week. On Thursday, we played probably our best game of the year in front of a packed home crowd, and beat All Souls 41-36. This brought our win total on the year to 3, which was already more than our total league win total from last year. Last Saturday, we played at St Anne’s, the defending champion from last year. People tend to exaggerate about things like height. No exaggeration however, St Anne’s had a 6’5 kid. They also had several kids around 5’11, and very talented guards and shooters. We were overmatched, and we dropped to 3-4 on the year, but during last week’s two games, our point guard really stood out. Aaron was our starting point last year, when we pulled him up from JV as a 6th grader. That experience, as well as the experience that he continues to gain playing on teams outside of school, has really paid off for Aaron. Aaron led us with 12 against All Souls, including 10 in the crucial second half, when we fought back from a 3 point halftime deficit. Aaron led us again in scoring against St Anne’s with 9 to run his season point total to 98 (he has since gone over the century mark for the season). Aaron is our primary ballhandler, best shooter, best passer, and a good intuitive defender. Aaron also has stepped into a leadership role, which isn’t easy as a 7th grader. He is well liked and respected by all his teammates, opponents, and certainly by his coaches. I am very lucky to be able to coach him.