Great pool, where do I sit?

The new aquatic center at Cerritos College is a fantastic addition to the campus and is the envy of many other aquatics programs. It has two pools, including a competition pool section 25 yards by 35 meters. This large pool is the same size as those used in conference, regional and state competitions.

The match between Cerritos and Long Beach was quite an event, with approximately 100 fans in attendance. Star center Natalie Peng proclaimed "this was the biggest turnout we've ever had." What a great chance for Cerritos to show off it's shiny new pool. The only problem was, instead of noticing how nice of a facility they were in, all the fans were concerned about was how hard it was to watch the game.

In the proposal for the facility, "the deck will have space for portable bleachers to accommodate 50 spectators along the west side of the pool and between the Competition pool and the Adaptive pool." In reality, that space was filled with about 60 chairs set up in three rows. For those that hoped to watch the game, but were not lucky enough to snag a front row seat, they were out of luck. Short of craning one's neck or standing up there was little chance of watching the rematch to last year's state championship.

Where are the bleachers? The day of the big game coincided with the dedication ceremony of the aquatics center. Yet, the center has no bleachers? If there are just a few good seats and no bleachers, then the center is not complete. Especially in a sport like water polo where the action is below the spectator, no matter how close the seat, stadium seating is required. There has to be bleachers available for everyone to have a view of the action.

It may not seem like a big deal, or maybe just not worth five paragraphs, but tell that to the couple of dozen people behind me complaining about not being able to see the game they drove to and paid parking to see. Imagine how much better it would be playing in front of a hundred HAPPY and (moderately) comfortable fans? Here's to hoping that those bleachers are there on Wednesday when Cerritos takes on Pasadena City College.

To Score or Not to Score?

There is no worse feeling than losing "a whole lot" to "a little." Or is there?

After watching a few different Cerritos teams play much weaker competition, a dilemma was posed inside my head. Each game that I watched was a blowout, no question about it. But, each team handled how it went about playing its game differently.

For example, when the women's soccer team (then ranked number 4 in the nation) went up against Compton (in its inaugural season), it never slowed down and kept playing as if the score were perpetually 0-0. The second string was brought in and continued to do the same. Then the third string. The lone striker for Compton was even man-marked throughout the second half, because that was something that needed to be practiced for the next game. The score ended 8-0 in favor of Cerritos, but after talking to the Compton coach, it was clear she was pretty happy with the results.

Now, that game is in comparison to last week's women's water polo match against LA Trade-Tech. After scoring easily on the first possession, Cerritos was hesitant to even take a shot throughout the rest of the game. Time after time, Cerritos players refused to take a shot on goal, even with an open net. Don't get me wrong, they scored plenty of times (final score 18-0). However, the opportunity to score was not only there at least a dozen more times, but most of the opportunities were begging to be taken. Yet Cerritos simply passed the ball around until the shot clock ran out and they were forced to dump the ball.

So here's the problem: what should a team do when it is playing against a team that simply cannot match up to it? Is it better sportsmanship and respectful to "go easy" on a team and not run up the score to avoid embarrassing them? Or is it just as embarrassing for a team to show it's dominance by NOT scoring? Should the leading team treat its opponent as they would any other team and try it's hardest? Or is running up the score a cardinal sin of sports?

These questions have come up recently at the high school level, with coaches being disciplined for allowing their team to run up the score. A girl's basketball coach in Texas was fired last year after his team beat another school 100-0, and the refused to apologize for doing so. Another girl's basketball in Florida was also fired after being accused of "running up the score" in an "embarrassing" 67-11 win. (The fact that all of the above mentioned examples is not purely coincidental, but a discussion about title IX will be saved for a later post.)

In both instances, the coaches defended their actions by claiming they did everything they possibly could to keep the score from going even higher. They stopped pressing, took out the starters, played a zone defense, stopped running fast breaks, and stopped taking three-pointers. In short, they did everything but stop shooting. So should they coaches have been fired? I don't know. Is what they did wrong or "embarrassing?" No.

The worst thing a team can do when facing a lesser opponent is to treat them as a such by intentionally not scoring. By doing so, it's sending the message that "you're not worth our effort, and we don't need to try against you." No one wants to play in a game where the other team is scoring every time it gets the ball, but it's even worse when they are intentionally NOT scoring when they get the ball. As long as a team has taken all the other practical steps to lower the odds of scoring (i.e., removing starters) it should continue to play the same amount of effort as any other game.

It's especially unfair to the players that spend most of the time on the bench waiting for the chance to get into a game to be told "make sure you take it easy." Some players have such limited opportunities to obtain game-experience, it's a crime not to let them take full advantage of the situation.

So, final score? Women's soccer's handling of the situation 67, women's water polo 11.



What do you think? Is is more unsportsmanlike for a team to keep scoring or to intentionally not score?

Keeping Stats*

What good is it to keep a record of statistics from a match if the stats are wrong? This is a question I've been wrestling with for the past few weeks now. Faulty statistics are especially troubling in sports when they involve records.

Last week, women's soccer player Nancy Gandarilla was credited with tying the school record for most assists in a game with 4. Gandarilla is a great player, and will likely break the record for most assists in a season. The current record is 18, set Corina Villegas last year. She has been credited with 15, with ten regular season games left to play.

This problem is that Gandarilla has been credited with at least two assists that she did not deserve. On Oct. 2, she was credited with the record-tying 4 assists against Pasadena. In that game she should have been credited with only three. On the fourth assist, she played a ball into the box that was first touched by not one, but two defenders before it found its way to Victoria Florez.

A few games earlier, on Sept. 18, she was credited for an assist that should have been given to Vanessa Monreal. Monreal crossed the ball early in the second half, and Miranda Madrid scored on the play. However, Gandarilla was given credit for making the pass and adding to her assist total.

That's at least two less assists that Gandarilla should have. If she ends up breaking the record for assists in a single season by one or even two assists, it will stand as official but undeserved. This is only one example of statistics gone wrong that has been witnessed first-hand. It may be the only two instances in which it's happened. Regardless, it calls into question the legitimacy of the records held by Cerritos athletes.

This problem is not limited to Cerritos. Just this last Friday, something as simple the number of fouls called against each team was incorrect in the final statistics. Now, something like what does and does not count as an assist in soccer or basketball, or whether a play should be counted as an error in baseball is something that is not obvious to the untrained eye. But, something like how many fouls were called in a game is easily recorded. So, what to do about the situation?

The answer is to have more than one set of eyes recording statistics for each game. Whether it be each team designating someone within its squad/staff to record statistics and then comparing the two, having two unaffiliated sets of eyes keep stats, or a combination of both, more than one person needs to be in charge of keeping statistics. Even if it comes down to an official and unofficial set of stats that are kept and then compared after the contest.

The reasoning for this, is that one person cannot be expected to be able to keep track of everything going on over the course of a fast-paced game. There are simply too many things going on at one time for one person to keep track of every statistic for the whole game. This is especially true if they are expected to keep track of stats for both teams. Different eyes, from different vantage points can help ensure that statistics are correct. It may not be a perfect solution, but it will help make things better and protect the legitimacy of all future records set by the great athletes of Cerritos College.