By John Arnold and Noah Buchanan As the football season is kicking off, the St. Anthony’s football program has gotten a lot of recognition for the players on the team. The main reason for that is because our new transfer students have added depth to the team which is primarily made up of returning sophomores. The recent win over Wilson, was the team's first win of the season. This win opens the team to even greater heights. This year, “We’re a real young team, as young as I’ve coached,” said head coach Raul Lara. “We’re probably going to start 12-15 sophomores this year, and we only have five or six seniors in the program. The good thing is this young group can be pretty good, but they’re going to have to go through their lumps and growing pains.” This win over Wilson can be a start for the team and encourage them to win and keep winning. Speaking of the team, Coach stated that he has high expectations for his young talent and also for a rare senior, Alexander Cobbs, who promises to be an absolute monster this year for the Saints. 562.org believes that Cobbs, a 6-4, 215-pound defensive end/tight end, is a rare athlete for the Del Rey League . Speaking of the players, a transfer named Ben Burns who is going into his Junior year, played against Wilson. He started by switching with starting QB Adrian Perez. He had a big impact on the Saints’ offense, throwing a touchdown pass to Remy Doering for a 28-yard touchdown. This game revealed a promising future for Burns and the St. Anthony football team. However, the arrival of Burns on the team also means that others will lose playing time. Burns’ impact as the quarterback in the Wilson game puts him and Adrian Perez in competition for the starting job. Burns has an advantage in physical size as well as seniority, though Coach Lara seems to be very invested in developing Perez to be a cornerstone player for the team. There is no doubt that Coach Lara will have a tough decision to make between the two players, but the Saints are sure to be in a good position to compete and win with whoever is named as their starting quarterback.
Along with the addition of Burns, the football program has added new players from different sports to their roster. These new players include Tyler Gingras, Luis Gil, Ethan Lee and Matthew Gath from the baseball team, as well as Zahid Ponce from the swim team. These new additions are mainly Juniors and Seniors who have been at SA and want to play football in addition to their primary sport. These players were perhaps inspired to join football after noticing the team’s success from last season or for the simple fun of it. Either way, the new players will have a good experience seeing what it is like to play a new sport and being part of a group of athletes hungry to win. As the football program continues to grow with transfers from other schools, athletes from other sports and a significant number of freshmen, the team's future looks brighter and brighter as they grow closer to becoming champions of their league and potentially making a run in the playoffs. Coach Lara has quite the roster to handle this year, but he believes that with discipline and practice, they can become a dominant team feared by the other schools of Long Beach.
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By: Kyle Shisbey & John Arnold The Clark Field renovations project, which broke ground on November 4, 2021, has made immense progress on finishing the field. Throughout 2021 and 2022, St. Anthony High School has been building a new 21st Century Athletic Field Complex at Clark Field. This long-awaited major renovation project is nearing its completion thanks to a generous $6 million donation from Shea Family Charities as well as gifts received from alumni, current school families, and the saints community. Lloyd Sports & Engineering and Slater Builders, both local firms which are experienced in the development of high school athletic fields, have been the two major contributors through their architecture and building services. The project is estimated at $11.6 million and includes a modern turf football field which doubles as a soccer field as well as a six-lane regulation track, bleacher seating, and facilities accommodating girls and boys athletic programs. “We hoped by Christmas because city delays caused a setback from November.” says St. Anthony’s Director of Advancements, Mrs. Furlow, when asked a specific date on when the field would be finished. She concluded with “We are looking at a mid-February early march opening. If we can move that up we will. Early 2023 is our official response.” Located on the north end of Long Beach, the 9.6 acre property was originally gifted to St. Anthony Parish in 1945 by The Montana Land Company. It has been the primary athletic field for all of St. Anthony’s sports programs, except for basketball, volleyball and e-sports, ever since. Soon after its opening, the new “St. Anthony’s Memorial Field” hosted the high school’s first CIF Championship Team in 1948. It has been in use for high school athletics and a variety of other school activities ever since. 2023 may even be the first year when seniors at St. Anthony’s could possibly graduate at Clark Field as Mrs. Furlow states, “We are even considering having graduation down there.” For more than seven decades, the Saints have called this field home, either visiting as students and athletes or returning as alumni to relive precious high school memories and create new ones. Field renovation planning has been in the works since 2011 when the first task force was formed to find a path forward to revitalize the property. In November, 2018, St. Anthony High School developed funds to support the project by launching the Building Our Future Campaign. Throughout 2019 and early 2020, St. Anthony was able to raise over $4.3 million to support the project. This recent gift of $6 million from Shea Family Charities completed Phase One of the fundraising. This major gift is the largest single donation the high school has received since its early years in the 1940s. The Building Our Future Campaign will continue fundraising in order to complete Phase One and launch Phase Two of the property renovation, accommodating both baseball and softball programs on the northern portion of the field. An estimated $4 million is required to complete this second phase and the entire project. More information about this project and St. Anthony High School is available on the school’s website, www.LongBeachSaints.org.
By Alexander Cobbs & Jake Swan St. Anthony High School Football and Wilson High School Football have had a history rivalry for over 40 years. Coach Lara continued this rivalry after Coach Mario Morales, who had revived the rivalry, left the school. Coach Lara won the 7th Street Trophy in 2021 with his new team in his first season with Saint Anthony and is looking forward to keeping his streak alive. The odds may be stacked against the Saints with the team being so young compared to last year. Will the young saints be able to maintain their new coaches undefeated record and beat the Bruins back to back…? The rivalry first began in 1980 when these two teams played against each other four times in one season in which Wilson went 3-1. Recently they picked back up this rivalry in 2014 when Wilson coach Mario Morales moved to Saint Anthony and sparked the rivalry back up with Mark Ziegenhagen. Coach Morales loved the rivalry saying “The trophy is fun, it gives the kids a little something extra to get excited about,”. “The Battle for 7th Street”, formerly named “The Mario Bowl”, created a trophy for the winning team to keep. The trophy is a pedestal in which two street signs sit atop with the words “Battle for 7th Street”, with “Long Beach, CA '' written underneath and having both teams' logos posted on the top sign Both St. Anthony and Wilson are looking for their first win of the season with Saint Anthony being ranked 197 and Wilson being ranked 265 in the southern section. St. Anthony is 0-3 losing to San Pedro, Dominguez, and Mayfair high school while Wilson is 0-2 losing to Redondo Union and Huntington Beach High School. Even though it may look bad for both teams, Saint Anthony last year after losing their first three games went on a winning streak to make it to a CIF Championship proving it was way too early in the season to count them out. Last year Saint Anthony, under the new management of head coach Raul Lara, was able to defeat Wilson with a 23-13 victory. The Saints defense was not messing around that game, holding the Bruins to a total of four yards from 23 carries led by seniors Eric Suluai and Anakin Aupiu. Saint Anthony dominated in the air with star receiver Kweku Claybrook having 3 receptions for 99 yards and two touchdowns. Claybrook after the game said “We were tired of losing, and we lost to Wilson our freshman year and wanted the trophy back. We stepped it up.” It is certain Wilson has their eyes set on getting the trophy back from the Saints. With Saint Anthony looking for their first back to back wins in the series and Wilson wanting revenge for last year, this game is sure to be one for the ages!
By Gabrielle Born On August 18th, the San Pedro football team beat the Saint Anthony Football team 33-14. On August 25, the Saint Anthony Football team lost against Mayfair with a final score of 49:6. On September 2, Varsity Football had a game against Dominguez at Compton College. They lost with a resulting score of 28-15. The Girls Golf Team is undefeated with an astonishing record of 4-0. On August 22nd, Girl’s Golf won against Providence 230-284. On August 24th, Saint Anthony beat Whitney at the Lakewood Country Club. “...Varsity has won every match so far” claims Audrey Mantong, a sophomore who is on the JV team. The Golf Team has started off the season strong and is looking forward to winning CIF and the League Championship title once more. On August 23rd, The Saint Anthony Girl’s Volleyball team beat Cabrillo 3-0. Two days later, the team beat St. Paul 25-15. On September 1, both Varsity and Junior Varsity Girls Volleyball defeated Bellflower at Errion Gym.
The Cross Country team ran the Southern California Cross Country Opener Invitational at Long Beach State University on Saturday. Unfortunately, Saint Anthony did not do well at the invitational. Most of their runners finished last in their races. Overall, Cross Country is trying to get better. Girl’s Volleyball is doing great. Football is making a huge effort in their season. Girl’s Golf is doing fantastic in its season. Based on how well the teams are doing now, each will likely either get better towards the end of the season or continue to be as good as they are now. |
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September 2023
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