| Shown above: Allie Ross, Kate Piatti, Alexis Dasca, Lea Mitani, Margarita cruz | Shown above: Kate Piatti, Lea Mitani, Priscilla Ziegler, Jordin Peurrung, Rachel Keane, Kamren Hamilton, Margarita Cruz |
Add Comment  “Depending on the day of the week we have five to seven players,” said Coach Jan Migaki of the boys’ tennis team. The amount of players needed to be able to win a match is nine. Kevin Nguyen, a member of the team, said, “I think [there are few players] because of a lack of advertisement and I also think tennis isn't that much of a popular sport.” The majority of the sports have ways of advertising for themselves around the school. Football has a green arch they use next to their sign-up table at the May sports fair. Clubs and classes like journalism and Business Academy inform students of their curriculum and ask people to join. Boys Tennis, on the other hand, do not formally recruit or advertise. -------------------------------Read Also: Of Budgets, Bells, and ASB by Joey Nguyen, Hayley Petersen, Collette Rhoads, and Kasey Baldwin--------------------------- Coach Migaki of the tennis teams said, “We don’t focus to recruit members, but we should.” ASB and members of the team put a poster or two on the walls when a match is coming up. “I haven’t seen any banners for the tennis team,” said Johnny Huynh, senior. In previous years, the tennis team has had all of their spots filled regardless of the amount of advertising. Some students left because they held priorities in other places. “I wanted to be in a sport but I couldn’t. I had a lot of academic stuff I had to do first so sports came second,” said Nguyen. Some people don’t want to play tennis because their passion is somewhere else. Johnny said, “I wanted to join basketball because I’m used to it and I enjoy it more.” ---------------------------------------------Read Also: CMHS Boys Tennis vs Crean Lutheran High School by Emily Timmons-----------------------------------------------  Students know that the tennis team exists. Huynh said, “Yeah I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never seen them actually—just heard about them.” Although the tennis team is short the amount of players they need, they continue to play in the matches. Migaki said, “We still play our matches but we have to default some spots”. These are all singles matches since they don’t have enough for doubles. Nguyen said, “When I was a freshman and I saw tennis one day. I really wanted to try it, so I tried it and really fell in love with it. I saw it in the athletic sheet where it says which sports are in what season.”
The golf team is particularly small, but the students who occupy it are friendly and very out going. It may seem like golf is an easy sport, but it's not. It requires some strength, accuracy, rhythm, and mental stability; it's not as easy as it looks. Plus, it must be a pain walking out on the golf course with a heavy bag on your back walking on grass and up hills over and over. Despite, I would recommend you give it a try! You might actually like it, and the team is welcoming to anyone who wants to join.
 Last week, The Habit sponsored a fundraiser for Costa Mesa High School’s boys’ volleyball program. Nancy Perlin, mother of volleyball player Lisa Perlin, organized the event. Customers showed their support by simply bringing in a flyer passed out by volleyball players, and then making their order. Volleyball, like other sports, has a difficult time in raising money to run its own program due to the fact that “pay-to-play” fees are illegal for public schools. The law was made when the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had sued California in 2010 on the grounds that children attending public schools deserve a free education. This not only includes academic courses, but extra curricular activities as well. Prior to the law, the fees were used on what fundraisers pay for now. ------------------Read Also: To be a Coach By McKenna Patton ---------------------  “Each program, boys and girls, needs uniforms, equipment, fees for tournaments, coaches, awards, and team bonding whether it be retreats or dinners,” says Debbie Krohnfeldt, a member of the Volleyball Booster Club. On one hand, students are able to participate in sports they want to play regardless of financial burden. However, a glaring “$3,000 per season per program” remains unaccounted for. The CMHS volleyball program will receive approximately 20% of the total sales made from orders that came with flyers. The amount fundraised is yet to be determined. Krohnfeldt remains optimistic nonetheless: “The place looked pretty busy and the players would hand flyers to customers as they came in. I think posting on Facebook and having both boys and girls participating helped.”
 The banquets come every year for each sport during which the team comes together to eat, hang out and get awards—well, sort of. Most of the awards given do not say, “Most Improved” or “MVP,” they say “Participation.” After a long season of killing myself over a sport, the last thing I would want to see is that I got an award for participation. The biggest problem with these types of awards is that I know I participated. I was there. I don’t need to be reminded that everything I did up to that point was only worth a nothing award. You might as well not give me anything. Another thing, in my sports in particular cross country and track, you don’t have to try out for the team. For this reason, you get a lot of people who either don’t show up or don’t participate when they do. When they end up showing up to the banquet or getting their “award” later, it’s the same as yours. ------------------------------------------------------Read Also: The Lady Mustangs Serve it up old School By Alan Aguirre-------------------------------------------------  So basically, it tells me that I’m on the same level as someone who doesn’t show up? That makes me feel great. Also, I get more satisfaction after hearing my coach tell me that I’m doing a good job and to keep going rather than getting a piece of paper that’s supposed to be telling me the same thing. Some people enjoy pieces of paper with encouragement or awards, but I prefer words instead. I don’t feel so bad about not getting an award while others do. Sometimes, you don’t have the knack for something or you didn’t have a good season this time around, but that’s okay. I just don’t need it written anywhere besides where my race times are. I’m not saying that coaches mean to make you feel bad—I bet they do it to make athletes feel better—but it just makes it worse than it would have been. We should avoid the “participation award” and just not give arbitrary awards. Sure, it feels bad to know you weren’t awarded, but it’s way better than having it on a piece of paper that you’re nothing special.
 Shoes. We all need them. We all use them. What would we do without them? All of us walk every day, even if we just walk from home to school and from school back home. We tend to buy and wear shoes that are both comfortable and fit our style. Sports shoes; almost every sport uses specific shoes and they are all different. Well according to all players the need of sports shoes consists of the demands of that sport. For say, track and field, the practice shoes are slightly different than the actual race shoes. According to Brett Bermudez and other track members, Dakota Alford, "both shoes are comfortable, since the sport is based on a lot of footwork, but race shoes consist of spikes." Brett also mentioned that for sprinting he prefers Nike over any other brand, while for distance he prefers Saucony. The spikes help the runner keep a better form and help prevent them from tripping. The type of race also has an effect on the type of spikes used on the runner’s shoes.  Soccer and baseball also have a sort of spike (cleats) in order to sustain them from slipping when they're running and to up their performance level on the playing field. Salvador and his brother, Julio said that, "the quality of their cleats really helps them while they're playing and that the different colors and styles are pretty sweet!" They went on to explain how the different colors and styles can help show team spirit and just show a little about your personal style as well. Christian Sandoval, stated, "I mean the company name isn't really 'too' important, but if you see a professional soccer player wearing a specific type of Adidas and you admire the way they play; you'll probably prefer those shoes to other ones." ------------Read Also: Boys Polo wins Little Pickle Tourney by Quan Nguyen-------------- In football, Mauricio Orellana mentioned, “If I want a specific type of shoe and color and I usually buy Nike, but this one time the shoe I want is a different brand, then I'm going to purchase the other brand. I feel like if the player isn't comfortable with the shoes they wear, they won't perform to their best level."  So over time shoes have gone further into simply their purpose but also to express the players feel for the game. In volleyball, Romario Orellana and Ziad both agreed, "It's like car brands or clothing brands, the better the brand and shoe; the more 'respect' people will give you. We don't really know how to put it in words, but we guess that people should choose their shoes based on comfort and the specific sports' excercise first followed by color or brand." What about a sport such as swimming? Well swimmers use fins while practicing, in order to help them with their leg work and overall stroke. It helps the swimmer and makes him/her feel faster in the water. They are only used in practice because they aren't allowed in an actual race but it really leaves an impact on the legs and helps a lot. So overall shoes are necessary in almost every sport and they can really help a lot. So, the type of ball (if used) isn't the only thing that differentiates one sport from another but also the shoes. They help the player, the team, and it allows them to have something comfortable to wear while also showing bright colors to show their style or school spirit.
 Leslie Diaz, crossed the finish line with a throbbing foot. She finished her mile notably, after a recent foot surgery. Many would say that with the recent surgery, it would be hard to perform an A game, yet Leslie managed to medal in discus and shot put. Earl Engman Relays kicked off the team to an impressive start, The CMHS Track and Field Team brought home 30 medals, this past Saturday. Earl Engman Relays has always been the first meet for the CMHS Track Athletes. It gives the athletes an opportunity to race as a team, rather then as an individual. You could see and feel the pressure everywhere as athletes, were afraid of dropping the baton or disappointing their team members. Many were impressive, but Dakota Alford, distance runner, shocked everyone on the team, when he ran a 23 second 200 meters. That was faster then the top sprinter for boys. --------------------------------------------------Read Also: Rounding that Track for the Last Time by Brett Bermudez-------------------------------------------------------  Other honorary athletes were Jennifer Daley who managed to dodge a girl, who ran into her lane while racing the 4 x 100. This obstacle didn’t stop her and her team from medaling and placing 4th overall. The boys 4 x 100 came in 3rd place. The boys 4 x 800 and the girl’s sprint medley both placed in the top 4. This year’s team has a very great outlook, there were many early season personal records and the team had over 50 CMHS athletes at the meet. There are more athletes on this team then seen in a while for CMHS.
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