SPARTAN SPORTSfourteen corinthian14

As the winter sports season comes to a close Nagieb and Corey sum up the season and look ahead to spring.

Fact or FictionMichelle Davis will win the MVP award for the MMC.

The boy’s baseball team will win MMC. FACT

FICTION FACT

Jacob Hill will make it to the state wrestling meet.FACT

Corey: Michelle Davis is an under the radar player no one knows about in the MMC. The two players that stick out in the MMC are Jessica Rodriguez from Modesto and Jecssica Lejarzar from Enochs. Davis, to me, is the best forward in the league, putting up huge points against Lejarzar and Enochs with 21.

Corey: This team is loaded. Their pitching staff is full of talent, with Ryan Stice, Jake Sisco, and Michael Creamer. Their defense is led by their catcher Matt Coulter behind the plate and Jimmy Meyers out at shortstop. Their lineup is stacked and this mostly senior team will do great this year against rivals Beyer and Johansen.

Corey: Jacob Hill has shown great dominance in wrestling this year. After Wrestling Varsity for two years, he is ready to shine. He won most of his matches, including the MMC Tournament at Downey. He has a lot of momentum and has the athletic ability to go far this year.

Nagieb: Michelle Davis has been playing well this season, but Jessica Rodriguez of Modesto High has been playing better. Averaging 15.7 points a game, leading Modesto High to a chance at league, only losing one game out of the first five, she will receive MVP without a doubt. The last game of the season against Enochs will decide who wins MMC.

Nagieb: Coming off a 21-8 season last year, the varsity team has only gotten better. With many seniors returning, this squad will be one of the most experienced in the MMC. I think the experience plus their athletic ability will catapult them to the top of the MMC. They must beat Beyer who last year was 14-1 in MMC play.

FACT

Nagieb: Honestly not knowing much about wrestling I had to do some research and my conclusion is that Jacob Hill will make it to state. Jacob has been dominating all season with one of the best records on the team and the ability to beat anyone he wrestles.

FACT

Semi-pro basketball comes to town with the Modesto Bearcats

By NAGIEB MUSAIDCorinthian Staff

or nine years T.J. Walker Jr., brother to Davis basketball phoneme Ashley Walker, learned the game of basketball by playing one-on-

one with his dad. For the first fifteen years of his life he lost every match.

He won his first game against T.J. Sr. when he was sixteen; he hasn’t lost a game since.

This past July they have joined forces as owners and coaches of the Modesto Bearcats, a new semi-pro basketball team that competes in the ABA, league with 35 basketball teams scattered around the U.S.

The Modesto Bearcats are one of the most recent to join this very quickly rising league.

T.J. Walker is owner, coach, and player for the Bearcats.

“The ABA is like the minor league for basketball, it’s a place to help you get better and find a job somewhere else,” said T.J. Jr.

The Modesto Bearcats was originally owned by Saber Knott, but with off court and business problems T.J. bought the team by July of 2008.

“I came home from Europe, and I didn’t really want to go back,” said Walker Jr., “My friend told me about the Bearcats so I decided to check it out. I noticed that things weren’t doing great. By July me and my dad decided to get together to get this done. In a span of five days we decided what had to be done to keep this team in Modesto.”

During the switch of ownership the

F

Bearcats didn’t miss a beat. They continued to hold tryouts at

Modesto Christian High School throughout the summer.

“Tryouts were tough,” said forward Jamal Harris. “They tested you mentally and physically to see who could play

LOOKING FOR AN OPENING Forward Aaron Gentry fights to get past a defender. Gentry is a graduate of Riverbank High and one of several Bearcat players that played at a local high school.

Michael Barton/THE CORINTHIAN

basketball under pressure.” Harris is one of the main leaders on the

court for the Bearcats. He is also a main threat down low and

a great defender.Unlike Harris and most of the players,

Dawan Robinson didn’t officially tryout for the team.

T.J. knew him personally and had seen him play in college.

“I’m from New Orleans originally,” said Robinson. “T.J. saw me play, so he decided to give me a call me and I was on the team.”

The Bearcats home games are currently played at Salida Middle School.

They started off their season at home against the Salt Lake City Saints, which ended up in a loss.

After a slow start at 0-5 they enjoyed their first win against the Chico Rage by a score of 114-106 on January 18.

They are currently on a two game winning streak, the first time ever in the Bearcats history.

There are a few players on the Bearcats that hope to play either in the NBA or a European league.

These players are Bilal McIntyre, Kevin Young, and Jamal Harris. Young is the Bearcats leading scorer averaging 25.6 points a game.

“These players have the potential to be some of the best in the ABA,” said T.J. Jr.

The Bearcats plan on raising money to build a convention center in Modesto where they plan to play in the future.

The team plays on Sundays and Mondays at 7:30 at Sailda Middle School.

FIGHTER cont. from FRONT PAGE

Golden Gate Internationals Santa clara, CA 1st place Pacific Jewel Vancouver,Washington 1st place Battle of the champions El Paso, Texas 1st place

Top Finishes of the past yearfor Espinoza

Long Beach Internationals Long Beach,CA 1st place3rd Avalanche Invitational Layton,Utah 1st place Super Grands Sacramento, CA 3rd in world

impressive impacts on the karate world. She is holding her title as number one in the nation for the fourth year in a row. She won her first championship belt around the age of eleven and has been a black belt since the age of twelve. Espinoza is, as her dad puts it, a natural. The time she spends training and working hard at improving herself is reflected in the astounding accomplishments.

This year, she will be starting in the women’s division. Espinoza has some concern about having to work her way up, but is confident that she will pull through with the best of her abilities.

One day, Espinoza hopes to take first in the world. She trains three to four times a week at Dynamic Martial Arts in Modesto is where she has been going for ten years, since the age of six.

“I just like fighting…showing what I can do, meeting new people, I enjoy it,” said Espinoza.