A sizzling start for USF’s Bouyea
Palma grad leads Dons in scoring
What an auspicious opening to Jamaree Bouyea’s senior season for the University of San Francisco men’s basketball team.
The 6-foot-2 Palma prodigy opened the campaign by leading the Dons in scoring in the team’s first four games, including a 19-point, six assist effort in a stunning 61- 60 win over No. 4 Virginia.
Bouyea, who developed his talents playing for Seaside’s Finest, had 21 points in the team’s win over Towson State and is averaging 17.6 points a game on the young season.
He also leads the Dons in field goal percentage (50.8), minutes played (33.6), steals (9) and assists (4.6).
Last season Bouyea set career highs in every statistical category for the Dons, starting all 34 games, averaging 12.2 points a game. He set career highs in steals, blocks, assists, rebounds and minutes played as a junior, shooting 49.2 percent from the field.
A two-time Herald Player of the Year in basketball, Bouyea led the
Dons in assists (3.5) last year and was third in the West Coast Conference in steals (1.5).
Bouyea lifted Palma to a spot in the State Division IV basketball title game in 2016.
Laporte commits to play basketball at Chico State
Three-sport standout Makenzi Laporte has chosen a sport and a college campus to continue her athletic career.
The Salinas High senior has verbally committed to play basketball in 2021 for Chico State, which plays in the California Collegiate Athletic Association.
An undersized power forward who can drop shots from the perimeter, 5-foot-10 Laporte was the Gabilan Division tri-Player of the Year last season, leading the team in points and rebounds, earning Herald All-County honors for the second straight year.
Laporte compiled 24 double-doubles last season, averaging 19.2 points and 12.3 rebounds a night.
Laporte will likely move to a wing position at Chico State, which was 18-11 last year. She will also get one homecoming game a year, as the Wildcats play in the same conference as CSUMB.
An all-leaguer in golf last fall, Laporte started as a sophomore on the softball team in 2019, and in lacrosse last spring as a junior before the pandemic shut down sports.
Twin brothers complete collegiate football careers at Hastings
Twin brothers Robert
and Richard Hernandez finished up their senior seasons for the Hasting College football team.
The two former Palma defensive standouts spent four seasons playing for the NAIA Nebraska-based college.
Robert Hernandez completed the fall with 15 tackles in nine games as a defensive lineman, including three tackles for losses.
For his career at Hastings, the 6-foot-2, 260-pounder compiled 56 tackles, 34 solos and a sack.
Injuries limited his brother Richard, who played in just two games this season, recording a pair of tackles as an inside linebacker.
Harper finding time on the hardwood at Cardinal Stritch
Former Salinas High and Monterey Peninsula College shooting guard Tim Harper is finding time on the court for Cardinal Stritch University, averaging 15 minutes a game.
Harper, who dropped in just under 10 points a night last season for MPC, is averaging 3.0 points a game
in the preseason for the Wolf Pack.
The 6-foot-2 junior is pulling down 2.1 rebounds and doling out 1.5 assists a night for Cardinal Stritch, which is in Milwaukee.
Regarded as a defensive demon at Salinas, Harper was named to the Gabilan Division all-defensive team as a senior in 2017.
Powerful debut for King City’s Flores in Venezuela
No live pitching since the pandemic struck in March. No problem for Marc
Flores, who homered in his debut for the Navegantes del Magallanes of the Liga Venezuela Winter League.
The 6-5 left-handed swinging Flores, who also homered Thursday, is coming off a career season in 2019 playing in the Mexican League, hitting .318 with 32 homers and 103 runs batted in.
Showing discipline at the plate in Mexico’s highest-ranking league, Flores walked 88 times last year, compiling a .459 on-base percentage.
Drafted in the 30th round by the Chicago
White Sox out of Hawaii in 2014, the 28-year-old was an all-state first baseman at Hartnell College.
Flores was a three-sport standout at King City, earning all-league honors in football, basketball and baseball.
Varley to retire as Laguna Seca track rental coordinator
WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Track Rental Coordinator Judy Varley has spent the past 25 years overseeing events on the world-renown track. She is retiring at the end of the year.
“She will be greatly missed by her associates and track renters,” said WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca President and General Manager John Narigi in a prepared statement.
Varley oversaw over 200 events during her tenure, which began in 1995 as a desk receptionist with the Sports Car Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula.