Vannoy inks full
ride
to Highlands
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--posted 5/03/07
By Dennis McCall
Special to the Midway
Driller
For the past two years, Taft College volleyball standout Sarah Vannoy has been shuttling back and forth between her hometown of Las Vegas, Nev., and her second home in Taft.
For the next two years, she will be shuttling between Las Vegas and, well, Las Vegas.
The sophomore middle blocker, who will receive her Associate in Arts degree in business from TC in two weeks, has accepted a full ride scholarship to New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, N.M.
Ill be going from one Las Vegas to another Las Vegas, but the one in New Mexico is a much smaller town, she said. I prefer smaller towns.
Las Vegas, N.M. is a little larger than Taft with a population of 18,000.
New Mexico Highlands Univ. has an enrollment of 3,500 so it has twice the enrollment of TC.
Vannoy said her experience in Taft has been positive.
Ive enjoyed it here. Ive changed a lot. It has been a really good experience for me. The teachers are really nice. If you need help with your studies, you can get one-on-one help from them.
Vannoy is happy with her choice of Highlands, and Cougar coach Kanoe Bandy agrees.
I think its a great fit for her, she said. Their coach called me and said she was No. 1 on his priority list. He was the only coach trying to recruit her that actually came and saw her play.
Highlands is coached by Tom Duke, a three-time All-American at USC, a member of the U.S. national team from1990-94, and a standout on the pro beach tour from 1992-98.
Highlands is an NCAA Division II program. The Cowgirls compete in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
Vannoy was an All-Central Valley Conference middle blocker at TC and also was an outside hitter. At NMH she will be used exclusively as a middle blocker, she said.
The town is secluded and the school is small enough to meet all of her needs, Bandy said. That is very appealing to her. You can tell she is very comfortable with her decision.
Ex-TC coach joins sports agency
 Tony Thompson, left, and Chuck Hensley look over Strike Ones prospect list before hitting the road to visit and counsel a high school player who, they believe, has the potential to sign a major league baseball contract. |
--posted 2/15/07 Tony Thompsons interest in baseball has been limited since he stepped down three years ago as head coach at Taft College to focus on his battle with throat cancer.
But his involvement with the sport he loves has been rekindled.
Hes taken on another job with a sports agency and will be inducted into the California Community College Coachs Hall of Fame in May.
Being named to the Hall of Fame was a very pleasant surprise, he said.
Thompson coached the Cougars for 17 years, first as an assistant and then as head coach from 1988-2005. When he was stricken with throat cancer he stepped down as head coach to concentrate on treatment and a full recovery.
Thompson, who is a full-time counselor at TC specializing in advising athletes, has signed on with fledgling sports agency Strike One founded by former San Francisco Giants pitcher Chuck Hensley Jr.
One of the functions that I will serve is as an education liaison, he said. There are clients that want to continue their formal education after they start playing pro ball, and I will provide them with assistance with that.
I will serve Strike One in that capacity because it is what I do here. I will just be drawing on my expertise. Im familiar with college requirements and know how to get ink touch with the right people to get answers. College scholastic plans are a part of what ball clubs can offer in a contract. Its very common.
Thompson also will be evaluating talent.
In fact, thats what first interested Hensley in Thompson.
My reason for adding Tony is his ability to evaluate high school talent, Hensley said. Hes one of the best Ive some across in my 25 years of evaluating talent. About 100 percent of the time when he told me he had a good player, her had a good player.
And, he has the knowledge of what it takes on the education aspect. It makes my company better having someone like Tony. He has that respect from the baseball community in general and knowledge about the educational aspect.
One of the players Thompson recommended earned Hensley Major League baseballs Scout of the Year award in 1997.
On Thompsons recommendation, Hensley signed Cougar pitcher Aaron Hee to a contract with the New York Mets.
It was a longshot.
Each year, Major League clubs draft 1,500 players. Hee was the 1,496th player taken that year, but proved to be a diamond in the rough.
Hee played seven seasons in the Mets organization, making it to the clubs AAA team.
Hensley was a 10th round draft pick after graduating from Tulare Union High School in 1977, but instead accepted a scholarship to Cal where he played three years before being drafted and signed by the Detroit Tigers.
He played 10 years in pro ball, including two stints in the Major Leagues with the Giants.
He founded Strike One Sports LLC in August of 2005 after spending five years with the Giants and 10 years with the Mets as a talent scout.
Its been crazy since, he said. I was fortunate to be a player and then a scout for 25 years and through that developed a lot of good relationships with clubs. For the last year and a half Ive been able to acquire some of the top players in the country.
Ive been where they are about to go. Its nice to have someone to talk to who has been there.
Thompson isnt leaving his job at TC, where he is an academic adviser for athletes and teaches health education courses.
My work for Strike One will be outside my work at the college, he said. It will be on weekends and time when my contract does not require me to be on campus. I have no plans to go anywhere until it is time to retire from Taft College.
He will be inducted into the Hall of Fame at a banquet May 26 in Fresno where the final four will gather for the state championships.
Shannon Boxx Coming to Taft College
--posted 8/4/06 Come out and join United States Women's Soccer National Team Star and Olympic Gold Medalist SHANNON BOXX as she helps celebrate the inaugural 2006 Taft College Women's Soccer Team. The FREE event will be held on Thursday, August 31, 2006 at the Martin Memorial Stadium on the Taft Union High School campus at 701 7th Street from 5:30-8:30 pm. You'll have a chance to see soccer skill demonstrations and hear from U.S. National Soccer Olympian Shannon Boxx and members of TC Lady Cougars Soccer Program. Shannon Boxx will also be available for autographs. For more information, please contact Coach Myisha Delaney at 661.763.7832.
Cougar women sign letters of intent
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--posted 5/17/06 Three Taft college women athletes have signed letters of intent to continue their collegiate sports careers.
Volleyball players Kaena Apana and Paepaetele Poasa will move on to East Tennessee State University and the University of Alaska at Anchorage respectively.
All-American softball player Pikake Nutter-Gaudet will keep her talents in Kern County by transferring to California State University Bakersfield.
All three are from Hawaii.
Apana was an all-American, all-state and all-conference last fall as an outside hitter for Kanoe Bandys volleyball team.
Poasa, a middle blocker, made the All-Central Valley Conference team two years in a row.
Nutter-Gaudet was an All-American catcher last year, but this season had to become a pitcher as well. Still, she made the all-state team as a utility player. She also was all-state and all-conference in volleyball.
For the volleyball players, it will mean a major adjustment from a small town community college to bigger cities and a higher level of competition.
East Tennessee is an NCAA Division I school while Anchorage is Division II.
For Poasa, though, the change will require a shopping trip.
Ill have to buy a whole new wardrobe, she said.
Anchorage gets snowlots of it.
Ill have to adapt from the heat to the cold. It will be a challenge.
Poasa has been at TC for years, and fears homesickness. She redshirted her freshman year when she came down with Valley fever after making the transition from Hawaii.
Im definitely going to miss Taft a lot, she said.
She plans to spend the summer at home and return to Taft Aug. 1 to go through the training regimen with the Cougars.
Apana and Poasa were members of the 2004 Cougar team that finished fourth in the state.
Apana said she is nervous about making the leap to Division I.
Im a little apprehensive because it is such a big step, she said. I think the school is a good fit for me. Im comfortable with my decision.
East Tennessee is in Johnson City, Tenn., population 60,000, about an hour and a half from Knoxville.
The Lady Buccaneers were 18-14 last season.
Both players are receiving full-ride scholarships.
Coach Kanoe Bandy is pleased with their decision, but she hates to see them go because Apana and Poasa have meant so much to the program and her family.
Its going to be hard to let them go, she said. We will miss them a lot. They both were very special to my sister.
Bandy sister, Kealii Pearl, was her assistant coach. She lost a year-long battle with cancer last fall.
Bandy applauded their choice.
They both made decisions based on the right thingsthe things that are important to them. For example, going to a smaller college was important for Pae. She got some looks from Division I schools, but she felt comfortable with Anchorage.
Nutter-Gaudet will move to Cal State Bakersfield at a time when the Roadrunners are moving up to Division I.
Its exciting, but Im kind of nervous, she said.
The Roadrunners hosted and won the regional tournament last weekend and will travel across country for the Elite Eight tournament in Virginia.
Nutter-Gaudet made the switch from behind the plat to the pitchers circle because the Cougars found themselves without any experienced pitchers.
She had very little experience, but stepped up to help the team.
She had a great career here, said head coach Don Bandy. She was successful on the field, but we also are proud of her because shes done very well in the classroom as well.
He applauded her sacrifice.
She put a lot of pressure on herself to improve as a pitcher. It was a tough season for her, but she did a good job.
Nutter-Gaudet also had to sacrifice her offense.
Last season she was one of the top hitters in the state, hitting .426 with 12 homeruns, three triples, 10 doubles and 56 runs batted in. She was named the Diamond Catcher of the Year.
This season her batting average dipped to .382. She hit seven homers.
She was often intentionally walkedonce with the bases loaded.
Because she didnt see a lot of good pitches, she sometimes swung at bad ones, Bandy said.
As a pitcher she allowed the fewest hits (5.46) per game in the conference.
For now, Nutter-Gaudet is anxious to return the focus to her specialty.
What I need to do when I get back home is work hard on my catching skills, she said.
TC starting womens soccer program
--posted 5/8/06 Taft College is adding womens soccer to its collegiate sports program, and has hired a coach with local experience and an impressive playing background.
The new sport will debut next fall.
Myisha Delaney, who for the past three years has served as assistant coach for the Cougar mens team in the fall and head girls varsity coach at Taft High in the winter, is stepping up to create a new program.
It is going to be challenging, she said. It is going to be tough to attract players to a new program, but I think I will be able to put together a team that will compete.
The new program has been accepted into the Central Valley Conference where the other teams are fielded by College of the Sequoias, Fresno City College, Modesto J.C., and West Hills College.
We still need about four more non-conference games to complete the schedule, she said.
Our hope is to carry 23-25 on the roster. Well need at least 20. It will be tough competing with Bakersfield College for players, but I think we have a lot to offer.
She said she plans to set high standards and push her players to success both on the field and in the classroom.
The program is aimed toward those student athletes who want to succeed at the college level both scholastically and athletically. We dont want them for two years, but to get them to go on. My personal goal is to help them earn a scholarship to a university.
Athletic director Kanoe Bandy said the college has been considering a womens soccer program for the last three years.
Pairing it with the mens program is a logical choice, she said. We wanted to make sure we could support it without taking money from other sports. Facilities is a key consideration, and we have a good working agreement with Taft High School to share their facilities.
Delaney, who was an All-American player in junior college and at Cal State University Dominguez Hills, said she plans to tap into Kern Countys large talent pool.
Soccer is a very big sport in Kern County, she said. I have some contacts with the Sunday leagues.
Bandy agrees.
We hope to be able to attract Kern County athletes to Taft. There is so much soccer being played in Kern County. Taft High has good soccer players and they have few places to go. This gives the local players an opportunity to participate that they wouldnt otherwise have.
Delaney coached at both Los Alamitos and Long Beach Wilson high schools where she won league championships and earned playoff berths.
She then coached at Long Beach City College where she helped the Vikings earn two state championships and a No. 1 national ranking.
As a player and team captain, Delaney helped guide LBCC to its first state championship and a No. 2 national ranking. She was team, conference and state playoff most valuable player.
She then transferred to Dominguez Hills where she was captain of the team, MVP, the schools female athlete of the year, and an All-American nominee.
Delaney currently plays semi-pro soccer for the Southern California Ajax where she competes with some of the top players in the world.
She has played with and against players like Brandi Chastain, Shannon Boxx, Abby Wambach, and Shannon MacMillan.
She hopes to tap into those alliances to stage local soccer clinics.
TC athletes perform in classroom too
--posted 3/28/06 Taft Colleges fall athletes performed well on the field and court.
All three teamsvolleyball, soccer and womens basketballmade it to the state playoffs. The volleyball team won a third straight Central Valley Conference championship.
And, more importantly for athletic director Kanoe Bandy, 18 of the 40 fall athletes earned Academic All-Conference honors with their performance in the classroom.
Nine volleyball players, five from the mens soccer team and four from the womens basketball team won honors.
To qualify, students must have earned a grade point average of at least 3.0 (B) in at least 12 academic units. Physical education units are not counted toward the overall grade average.
That is an outstanding achievement, she said. We stress academics first and athletics second, so it shows our athletes understand the importance of doing well in the classroom.
Bandy was particularly proud of her volleyball team. Nine of her 13 players made the honor roll by earning B averages or higher.
That is an awesome accomplishment because of the adversity they endured, she said, referring to the loss of beloved assistant coach LeiI Pearl who lost a year-battle with cancer in the middle of the season.
The team also lost its best playerKaena Apanato a knee injury late in the season.
I am so proud of this team, she said. They fought through so much adversity and still managed to win a conference championship and go to the playoffs. But the thing that is more important is that they did so well in the classroom.
The team recorded an overall grade point average of 3.17.
Along with that, there were no dropped units, no failed units, and no withdrawals.
The nine volleyball players on the Academic All-Conference team included Apana, Brittany Evans, Christi-Ann Haia, Sachi Mamizuka, Maua Manuma, Taylor Miller, Krista Nelson, Rayna Scudder and Sarah Van Noy.
Other team members included Pikake Nutter-Gaudet, Paepaetele Poasa, Lisa Sotelo, and Jennifer Tucker.
Bandy said the team also is being nominated for All-State honors.
Womens basketball players on the Academic All-Conference team included Kilioe Aliifua, Ashley Jenkins, Nicole Lehner and Anna Valdez. Lehner earned straight As.
The mens soccer team was represented by Javier Astorga, Hermengildo (Eli) Baza, Ty Magdos, Omar Rodriguez, and John Trussel.
All 18 also earned recognition on the colleges fall semester honor roll.
Eight members of the Cougar baseball and softball teams also made the fall list.