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Brake in the Action
by Keith Brake
First Braves' Open was a success
June 30, 2008
About a week before the first Braves' Open best shot golf tournament, football coach Ryan Van Veen was a little nervous. Not many foursomes had signed up.
But, not to worry. Montezuma has become more of a last-minute town as it has morphed into a commuter town. A total of 20 teams played in the Saturday, June 28 fund-raising event.
Van Veen said about $3,000 was raised for the football program. He said a goal is to get enough money in the account to that no charge will have to be made for Montezuma's football camp next year.
The event drew a big crowd of players, workers and spectators to Montezuma Country Club.
The team of Todd and Sheryl Freeborn and Doug and Mindy Johnston won the event. "They donated their winnings back to the football program," Van Veen said. "Nine of the 20 teams won cash or prizes and most donated their winnings back. We hadn't expected that," the coach said.
Parents and players helped with the work details and food and some players and coaches even played golf, too.
"We had nine hole sponsors and I only had to ask nine potential sponsors," Van Veen said. "They all said, 'yes."
"People who have played in other best ball events made some great suggestions, so we hope to do this again," Van Veen said. "We had perfect weather for it, too."
Van Veen said another fund-raising event he started a year ago, a night at The Apple Basket, will be done again, later this year. "We're trying to do all of our fund-raising in one or two nights," with different kinds of events," he said.
Baseball team has posted some numbers
You wouldn't think a pitcher who has posted a 1.82 earned run average with 87 strikeouts in 50 innings of work would be saddled with a 2-6 won-loss record.
But, that's the case for Andy Cox, the 6-3, 215-pound senior righthander for the Montezuma Braves. Andy has given up jut 45 hits and 15 walks in those 50 innings of work. He can burn in his two-seam fastball at almost 90 miles and hour and when he's spotting it well, he can get people out with breaking balls, too.
The problem is that it's a very young Montezuma baseball team, and it hasn't provided any of its pitchers with consistent run support.
The Braves entered the week with a 5-18 record.
Cox has done his share the plate. He has a .444 batting average. The second-highest average is .288, by D.J. Sutfin. Cox has driven in 16 runs, scored 19, has seven doubles, five homers and a triple. His on base percentage is .589 and his slugging percentage is a whopping .889.
Logan Johnston has a 2-1 pitching record. He has a sweeping curve ball and has struck out 41 batters in 26 innings.
Colin Watts has 28 strikeouts in 20 innings and freshman Garrett Ogan has a 2.42 earned run average in nine innings.
Defensively, freshman catcher Kirk Salnave has a .966 average, having made just six errors in 178 total chances.
Bravettes have gotten better
I think the consensus is that Montezuma's junior varsity softball team has shown steady improvement. The most immediate thing that meets the eye is the improved team movement on defense.
Last year's jayvee team won two games and the varsity didn't win any. This year, with no varsity squad, the jayvees started the week with four wins and have lost three one-run decisions. I think a strong argument could be made that they're better than last year's varsity.
The team has played what I think is a souped-up jayvee schedule. Not every school in the SICL has enough girls out to field separate varsity and jayvee teams. There have been at least two full varsity teams mixed in. Some nights, the Bravettes go against varsity players who are learning new positions, but they still bring their varsity-level bats with them!
And, because these schools have idle varsity teams the night they play Montezuma, in some cases the Bravettes are looking at the number two varsity pitcher, rather than a jayvee pitcher.
It has all added up to plenty of opportunities for improvement. And the Bravettes will need to get better yet during the off-season so that they can handle a varsity schedule next summer.
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