Year in review: Sports highlights from 2009

It has been a busy year for sports in the South County. As 2009 comes to a close and 2010 arrives, a brief re-cap of the year in sports is in order.

New Tech students have the opportunity to participate in cross- country, golf, and tennis, but not wrestling, swimming, or track after a May decision by the Anderson Union High School District board to allow the charter school to develop a sports program.

This decision by the board came after they voted to not allow New Tech students to participate in athletics at Anderson and West Valley high schools because they felt it could move a sport into a higher division because the number of students from Anderson and West Valley taking part in the sport would be skewed.

Another big story that came to pass at the beginning of '09, was Rachel Jones making the Pacheco School baseball team, After a board decision, Jones and her parents were informed that she couldn't play baseball because a comparable girls sport - softball - is offered.

After Mary Ruggles (Jones' mother) fought the decision and gained support from the community, the Shasta Athletic League reversed their decision on March 20 and allowed Jones to play baseball.

Derek Nichols, then a senior at Anderson High School, competed in the boys' discus final at the CIF state track and field championships in June.

He started seventh and finished in the same position with a throw of 166 feet, 11 inches. He was the highest finishing Northern Section athlete at this year's state meet.

In July Ray Tufts, a former Anderson High School graduate and Happy Valley resident, was given the opportunity to help train the U.S.A. hockey team for the 2010 Winter Olympic games in Vancouver, B.C.

Tufts has been the head trainer for the San Jose Sharks hockey team for the past 13 year. Brian Burke, the Team U.S.A. general manager, called and asked for permission from the Shark's general manager to have Tufts help train the U.S.A. hockey team because Tufts would need to miss two weeks in July in order to attend an Olympic Committee. He was granted permission and will be apart of the Team U.S.A. hockey team.

Ryan Parke, 15, a sophomore at West Valley High School competed in the California Junior Olympics at the end of July. This is Parke's second year participating in the Junior Olympics.

He swam the 200-meter freestyle, 400-meter freestyle, 100-meter butterfly, 100-meter backstroke and the 200-meter individual medley events. According to Randy Petters, Parke's coach, he finished within the top 9-16 swimmers in each of his events.

Parke has goals of participating in the 2012 Olympic Trials, if he doesn't make the U.S.A. swim team at that point, he will try again in 2016.

While the high school football season was underway, so was the West Valley Junior Eagles Pop Warner football season. The Division I Midget team went undefeated in both the regular season and the play-offs, giving them a 12-0 record, which according to the team's coaches, has never been done before.

The Junior Eagle Midget's traveled down to River Valley, outside of Sacramento, to take on the Falcons for the North State Championship. In the final seconds of the Nov. 14 game, Austin Clark intercepted a pass thrown by the Falcon's quarterback to clench the game for the Eagles, 16-14.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Alyssa Banwarth and her family traveled to Riesa, Germany so the 11-year old girl could compete on the U.S.A. dance team. She finished fifth out of 39 dancers in her age group.

The United World Games U.S.A girls' soccer team will have members of the Redding Misfits and AC United teams representing the country at the event.

According to Mark Starr, coach of the U.S.A. team, he feels he has an advantage by using local talent and having them practice together as a team, instead of using the best players from around the country who train alone and not with a team.

Cottonwood resident and rodeo roping heeler Justin Davis, 22, made it to the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) in Las Vegas after competing in 70 rodeos to qualify.

He and his NFR roping partner Blaine Linaweaver moved from 15th to 7th place each taking home a $24,000 prize.