Andrew Hill penalized for leaving game early
Andrew Hill girls basketball coach Joanne Winterstein pulled her team off the court during a league game last week at James Lick and left the gym, visibly upset at the officials, according to the opposing coach.
Wednesday, the Blossom Valley Athletic League handed out the punishment.
Hill will be ineligible for the Central Coast Section playoffs if it qualifies and must play the rematch against James Lick on the road, not at home as originally scheduled.
The ruling was made after a review of the league’s constitution, which calls for the penalties if a team forfeits a league game without permission. The ruling cannot be appealed.
Winterstein said player safety was behind her decision to leave. In a letter emailed to this publication Wednesday night, the coach said three of her nine players were injured in the game — one with concussion, another with a bruised throat and a third with a separated shoulder.
“The main issue was the lack of officiating,” she said. “I understand that injuries happen during the game, because basketball is a contact sport. However, the severity of the injuries and the lack of integrity by the officials that continued to let the injuries occur was the precipice of walking out. If I would have stayed and finished the game, and one more athlete had gotten seriously injured, I would forever blame myself because I could have stopped it.”
Lick led 56-25 in the third quarter when the game abruptly ended.
Lick led 56-25 in the third quarter when the game abruptly ended.
“Both teams were a little physical, but nothing malicious or dirty or nothing like that,” Lick coach Kyle McIntyre said last week. “Still helping each other up. The refs never had to come in and be like, ‘Players. Players. Separate.’ None of that. The foul count was 13-13 at halftime.”
Before the ruling, Hill needed a .500 record in league to qualify for the playoffs. It did not win a nonleague game.
Remembering Kim
Ramir Nuestro calls it building a “new normal” life without his beloved daughter, Kimberly, a former Homestead High basketball player who collapsed on the sideline during an American Athletic Union game last spring from a rare heart arrhythmia and later died.
Over the holidays, the family traveled to New York City for a vacation, a getaway in which Ramir said they spent time in the snow.
But memories of Kimberly, a vibrant teenager who loved basketball and the Warriors, went along with them.
“Sometimes you kind of feel that she’s there,” Ramir said.
The Homestead basketball community continues to remember Kimberly, who would have been a junior this school year.
Last week, the team honored her memory with a “Kim Night” ceremony at its game.
The varsity team includes Kimberly’s younger sister, Makayla, a sophomore who is just getting healthy enough to play after suffering a bad ankle injury at the start of the season.
“It’s really hard for me to watch sometimes,” Ramir said. “But what can you do? There’s no choice. I have three more (children). Me and my wife are trying to build a new normal again.”
Ramir, in a text Saturday, described the night as “sad but thankful for the people who love Kim. We miss her.”