Quite a decade for sports at the VTH
Who are some of the top prep athletes from the last decade from the area? Matt O’Donnell gives his take.
When I arrived at the Vallejo Times-Herald in August of 2009, the newspaper was full of designers, a photographer for the daytime and another for the evening, reporters for specific beats and editors who dealt with specific tasks.
When I look around the news room on a Friday evening in December, I see no one. Editors, reporters and our photographer have left for the day. Ditto for the advertising manager and other front-office staff. Design is performed at the company’s hub in Chico. They are around if I want to send an instant message in the Google drive I suppose.
In “Almost Famous” the character of Lester Bangs says to inspiring journalist William Miller “You got here just in time for the death rattle.”
Despite the staff reductions and the death rattle of community journalism, it’s been one heck of a decade covering local sports here.
Here are a few of my favorite athletes and moments:
Best football player?
This is a tough one so I’ll rank them according to their school.
For American Canyon, it’s Jomon Dotson, who rushed for 2,000 yards without even breaking a sweat. Chris Seisay and Andrew Rapacon were excellent skill position players, too, and for linemen, how can you leave
out Lucas Gramlick?
For Benicia, it’s Austin Carr who now dresses in the same locker room as Drew Brees. Carr was one of the most affable and bright kids to talk to after a game as well. Wide receivers Chris Mamon and Cory Fisher were superb pass catchers (in the 200910 school year) and Ryan Bohnet was one of a slew of talented QBs for the Panthers over the last decade.
For Bethel, DeAundray Taylor is an easy choice. Taylor delivered some of the most bone-crushing hits from his linebacker spot that head coach once called it “DeAundray time!” from the press box. Taylor was part of a 11-2 Jaguars team that beat Elk Grove and Jesuit in the section playoffs. Rodney Cook and K’lan Anderson, of course, had something to say about that team being so good too. In other years, Bethel had excellent athletes like Malachi Dawson, Chad Miller and Jacob Sharp.
For St. Patrick-St. Vincent, you have to look at the Bruins from 2016 and 2017 first since they both Though those teams were talented across the board, wide receiver/defensive back Marquel Johnson, running back Marshel Martin and quarterback/ defensive back Akil Edwards are the first three names to come to mind. Earlier in the decade, running back Naji Patrick and others were fun to watch as well.
For Vallejo, the first name that I think about is Evan Austrie. It was a tough decade for the Redhawks and Apaches as far as wins and losses but Austrie was a standout on offense finished up his senior year at UNLV where he was one of the Rebels’ leaders in tackles. When it comes to Vallejo, the program always seems to have outstanding linemen and Jason Dickson and Lyman Faoliu were no exception.
Best female athlete of the decade?
The most dominant female athlete has to be Benicia High’s McKenna Gregory, who always looked like she was a college player competing against high school athletes. She’s at Michigan State now and the Spartans are lucky to have her.
The Benicia softball program has produced a number of college-level athletes over the last decade too. If Gregory never stepped foot on the Benicia campus, maybe the pick would be someone like Grace French or Other players who come to mind are three-sport star Michelle Li, whose senior year was cut short by injury; Paige Reed and Tameiya Sadler with St. Pat’s who both won female athlete of the year nods from the Times-Herald or a handful of talented wrestlers like Alyssa
Wong (Bethel), Ricki Liang (Bethel and Benicia) and Shelly Avelino (Benicia). And don’t forget exSt. Pat’s standouts Ashley Moore and Rechel Carter, who both delivered a section basketball title for Vallejo in 2009-10.
Saddest moment of the decade
Speaking of that section title for the thenApaches, it was a pleasure to work with head coach Jim Capoot that season. Capoot always made me feel welcome, win or lose.
After his team won a last-second thriller in the section semifinals, Capoot asked me if I wanted to have a beer with him.
My response: “Uh, Jim. I have to write my story.”
His response: “Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Sorry.”
In 2011, there was a report on the scanner that a Vallejo police officer was shot and killed during a pursuit of a robbery suspect. Former Times-Herald photographer Mike Jory heard that it might have been Capoot. Sadly, it was.
I never had that beer with Jim but I still think about him all the time.