Save for wrestling, the fall season is now over at Cerritos and there is a certain something missing. There's something that doesn't seem quite right, an emptiness about the close of the season that leaves us all scratching our heads and wondering what happened. That something that's missing, of course, is a state championship.
Maybe we have become spoiled here at Cerritos, or maybe the expectations placed on our athletes are unrealistic. Regardless, the fact that the athletic teams came away from the playoffs empty-handed leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
To make matters worse, compare this year's failures (if you can call having every team making it to the playoffs a failure) to the success of last year. At this time a year ago, Cerritos athletics laid claim to two state titles (women's water polo and men's soccer) and a national championship (women's soccer). This year, women's water polo was bounced from the regional tournament in the second round, the women's soccer team also lost in the second round of the playoffs, and the men's soccer team went one game further and was knocked out in the third round.
Here at Cerritos, we're used to winning. Just making it to the playoffs is not good enough. Ask any Lakers fan whether he is content with the team making it to the playoffs and losing. Odds are, he'll dismissively give excuses for why a championship was not won before declaring the season a failure. The same is true for the sports teams at Cerritos College. One look at the sorrow and disbelief on the bench after the men's soccer team was enough for anyone to see that anything short of a title is just not good enough.
Despite the aforementioned disappointments, there were some bright spots this fall. The volleyball team finished third in the conference and went to the playoffs for the first time since 2006. The men's water polo team advanced to the regional playoff tournament and the cross country teams both went to the state championship meet. There, the men finished 10th and the women 16th.
Football ended the season with mixed emotions. They started the season 8-0 and finished the regular season 9-1. They entered the playoffs as the number 3 seed after missing out on the playoffs in 2008. However, in the first round of the playoffs the team was handed a convincing loss by Palomar College.
Next fall, when hopes and expectations are once again high for stacks of hardware to be brought back to Norwalk, remember what this moment feels like. Keep in mind what it feels like for teams that were supposed to win championships and were knocked out early, because the athletes returning next year sure will. Hopefully, those feelings will serve as motivation to bring Cerritos athletics back to prominence.
