They didn't say much.

One, in fact, couldn't say anything at all at the Northern Santa Barbara County Athletic Roundtable's gathering at Giavanni's Pizza Monday because he couldn't be there.

Their NSBCART's Male and Female Athletes of the week's accomplishments the week before spoke much for them, though.

Senior Chris Rivera hit .667 last week as he helped Righetti's baseball team square its record at 2-2 with two wins. Sophomore Maddie Mastrup swam automatic qualifying times for the CIF Southern Section Preliminary Swimming Meet with wins in the 200 and 500 freestyles. She helped St. Joseph defeat Santa Maria in a Los Padres League meet last Friday.

Rivera and Mastrup earned the NSBCART's Male and Female Athlete of the Week award respectively.

Rivera could not attend the Roundtable's meeting Monday. Mastrup said, “I'd like to thank our coaching staff and my teammates, and I hope we have a good season.”

Hancock College, along with Cabrillo, Lompoc, Pioneer Valley, Righetti, St. Joseph, Santa Maria, Santa Ynez and Valley Christian Academy High Schools were represented at the gathering.

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Lompoc

Lompoc High School Athletic Director Jesse Davis was the first speaker up.

“The pre-season is over, league games are about to start and this is an exciting time of year,” he said. “Teams start saying, ‘OK, we need this one to have a chance to make the playoffs,' or, ‘We need this one to stay in the hunt for the league championship.'”

Davis introduced tennis player Anthony Yang and swimmer Robert Macias.

“Anthony is part of our No. 1 doubles team (along with Kyle Thumm) that's unbeaten in league matches,” said Davis. The Braves are 2-0 in the young LPL campaign.

Davis said, “Robert has made big time improvements, and he won his first two (LPL) butterfly races.”

Lompoc's athletic director then spoke about the school's baseball team. “We're young,” Davis said. “We're 1-6, but we have been in some close games.

“And there are some games in which we didn't play very well.”

Davis introduced Dalton Rouleau from the Braves' baseball team.

“Dalton is a team captain,” Davis said. “He used to be one of our young players. Now he's a junior, and he's being looked to as a team leader.” Rouleau was hitting .333 going into last weekend.

Hancock College

Hancock Director of Tennis Operations Dave Dantzler, women's tennis coach Ginny Barnett and assistant baseball coach Dennis Machado spoke next.

Dantzler spoke first. He introduced the doubles tandem of Tony Lee and Corey Hayes.

“They were down 7-2 in the number one doubles match against Ventura last week, and they came back to win 9-7,” Dantzler said.

Barnett said, “We have a very young group of players. It's frustrating that we don't have many wins, because our players can see their improvement every week.

“Then they get out there, don't get the wins and it's frustrating for them. Every team in our conference is very solid.” The Bulldogs compete in the Western State Conference.

Barnett introduced team members Maty Martinez and Elysha McLain.

“Maty is a freshman who played for me at Santa Maria High School,” the coach said. “She plays No. 3 singles and No. 1 doubles. Her fundamentals are very solid, but it's a completely different ballgame going from high school tennis to college.”

Barnett said, “Elysha is our lone returning starter, and she's doing very well. She took the defending conference champion from Ventura to three sets.”

Machado introduced Hancock regulars Dane McLaughlin and David Harman.

“We have the Hancock Spring Classic coming up,” Machado noted. The Bulldogs play Merced at 1 p.m. today at Hancock's John Osborne Field in the teams' first tournament game.

Cabrillo

Baseball coach Jon Osborne introduced team members Shane Gallimore, Ryan McGinty, Tyson Ramsden, Brian Engler and David Fraats.

Osborne said he was looking forward to his team's 4 p.m. home game against Santa Ynez today, both teams' LPL opener.

“Way back in 2006, Santa Ynez just beat us. Last year, Danny Duffy and Spencer Angel dueled, and the game went 12 innings.” Duffy was Cabrillo's ace last year. The Kansas City Royals drafted him.

Osborne said, “Santa Ynez is 5-3. They have four guys who have hit home runs. Chase Yost has hit four, and Skyler Ellis has hit three.”

Pioneer Valley

Alex Martinez, Pioneer Valley's first-year coach, spoke about his team.

“We're 0-3, but this is the first varsity team we've had,” he said. “We're getting some things squared away.” Martinez introduced team members Michael Marquez and Richie Batella.

Mike Glenn introduced Colter Souza and Joe Perez from his 3-1 Pioneer Valley baseball team. The Panthers open their PAC-7 League season at 4:30 p.m. today at Righetti.

Swimming coach Bob Nelson introduced Shyla Motley from his girls squad and Zac Toomay from his boys team.

Nelson said, “Shyla has already qualified for the CIF meet in two events, and she made the Masters meet last year.”

The coach said, “We have 70 kids in the program this year, and that's nice to see. Zac is a freshman. He's one of our newcomers.”

Righetti

Boys swimming team member Eric Tucker introduced teammates Alex Johnson and Vincent Martel.

“We're 3-2 in our meets,” Tucker said. “We've been swimming two workouts, and five-to-six miles, a day. Hopefully that will get us ready to swim good times at the league finals.”

Righetti coach Jim Cartwright introduced team members Vincent Rodriguez, Michael Talamontez and Ben Payne.

Before that he said, “It's really nice that the Roundtable does this.”

Cartwright said, “We've won one match this year. We're working on our singles.” He said Payne and Talamontez have been a successful doubles team.

St. Joseph

The Knights brought the biggest contingent.

St. Joseph coach John Osborne made some light-hearted quips about his team's struggles - the Knights are 0-5. Then he grew more serious as he introduced team members Matt Hartin, Jacob Cano and Chase Sanders.

Osborne said, “It's good to see Chase back.” Sanders' non-Hodgkins Lymphoma is in remission, and he has played football, basketball and baseball this school year.

Osborne is banking on veterans Hartin, a pitcher-outfielder, and Cano, a third baseman.

Swimming coach Jennifer Best introduced boys team members Jeremiah Palmerston and Krishan Bhatt, and girls team members Malory Ensor, Molly Connolly, Erica Brannon and Maddie Mastrup.

“We don't have big teams in terms of numbers, but the numbers are going up,” said Best. “We're looking forward to our school having a guys water polo team in the fall.”

Best said Connolly is a freshman who “is a coach's dream. She'll swim any event, including the butterfly which is a very difficult event. Ask any swimmer, and most will tell you they don't want to swim the butterfly.”

Patrick Ortiz's boys tennis team is 3-0 in the PAC-7 League and 8-0 overall. “Our league winning streak, last year included, is 13 straight,” he said. “Our key wins have been over Arroyo Grande, and Santa Ynez in league.”

Ortiz introduced singles players Jake Eszes, Joseph Fischer-Ortiz (Patrick's son) and Rafael Ferreira. They are all 9-0 in league play. Between them, they've lost 16 league games - an average of about half a game per set.

“Jake Eszes is one of the top singles players in the area,” Ortiz said. “Joseph is a three-time All-League player for us.

“With our number three singles player, we at last have our own foreign exchange student. Rafael Ferreira is from Brazil. He's made the greatest impact, allowing us to move other singles players into doubles to make us a well-balanced team.”

Santa Maria

Athletic director Ralph Baldiviez introduced three Santa Maria baseball players - Robert Rodriguez, Joseph Beltran and Jay Regalado.

“We're 1-5,” he said. “But we only have three returning seniors. We're just going to keep playing hard, keep practicing hard and be competitive in the league.”

Saints swimming coach Jamie McGray introduced boys team members Joey Garcia and Nestor Nunez, along with Julia Budde fom the girls team.

McGray said, “Joey is the spirit of the team - he's a leader. Nestor is the team leader in time improvement.”

The coach said, “Julia is overshadowed by some of our faster swimmers, but she is a coach's dream. She'll swim any event.”

Santa Maria coach Rod Garcia introduced Jonathan Lazaro, Steve Rodriguez and Daniel Borcherding from the boys tennis team.

“Daniel is having a very good year,” Garcia said. “He's only lost five times.”

Santa Ynez

Baseball coach David Bisbee introduced girls swim team member Jenna Bebernes, who swims the 50 freestyle and 200 individual medley. He also introduced Ellis and Yost, and said the Pirates are looking forward to starting league play.

Valley Christian Academy

VCA Athletic Director and baseball coach Pete Fortier introduced two of his squad members, Drew Schettler and Michael Calderon.

He also told the Roundtable of some relief for his small-in-numbers squad. “We had two more kids come out this week.”

March 18, 2008