Cristobal opens up about first season and expectations
“It appeared to me that to start the second half, our battery died,” Larrañaga said. “We didn’t have boys’ soccer team.
Meanwhile in Lakeland, Miami Country Day reclaimed its spot among the state’s basketball champions by defeating Sarasota Cardinal Mooney on Saturday morning. Kristina Godfrey led the effort with 20 points as the Spartans secured their eighth state championship since 2014.
Heritage was unable to make it a trifecta, though, as its girls’ basketball team lost in the Class 5A state final in Lakeland, the energy or juice and it showed most of all with our defense. You give up 50 points in a half. That’s snapping a five-year run of state championships.
And in the Class 6A final, St. Thomas Aquinas continued to build its girls’ basketball dynasty as it won its third consecutive championship after beating Punta Gorda Charlotte.
For coverage of Miami Country Day, American Heritage and St. Thomas Aquinas’ girls’ basketball victories and Heritage’s boys’ soccer triumph, go to miamiherald.com/ sports/high-school.
A week and a day before the March 4 start of spring football, University of Miami coach Mario Cristobal spoke publicly Friday for the first time since early signing day in December, addressing everything from his new offensive and defensive coordinators to quarterback Tyler Van Dyke — and the transfer portal.
In an interview with WQAM sports radio host Joe Rose, Cristobal also discussed UM’s recent history in the NFL draft, the recruiting aspect of assistant coaches and his 2023 team.
When asked what it was like “going through the growing pains” in his first season with the Canes, who finished 5-7 in 2022, Cristobal said he “knew it was going to be a very difficult challenge.”
“We knew it,” the coach told Rose. “Now, is it difficult in terms of just the results? Of course... We’d been 10, 11 straight years of in December you’re either playing for a conference title, a national title, a Rose Bowl. You become very, not only used to it, but you’re addicted to that. But you’re also realistic. There’s a reason we were brought here and it wasn’t because things were going well. There had to be a complete upheaval of especially culture-wise, the capacity to work, the ability to press and push and just be a team that can face adversity, overcome it and then close a huge talent gap.
“It’s clearly defined in