By Samuel Lam, Staff Writer
The school year has started, ushering in the exciting season of fall sports. With the graduating class of amazing athletes leaving, many wonder how these teams will fare as they start up their competitions. Among these many astounding fall teams at Mills, this article will spotlight the Cross Country and Water Polo teams.
Coming off an amazing season with the Men’s Varsity Cross Country team coming closer to qualifying for the state meet than anyone had ever had, many on the team wondered what direction the team would take. Considering half the Varsity team, consisting of Jason Habash, Lokesh Kumar, and Aaron Chin, had graduated the previous year, many people will have to step up and fill their shoes. According to an interview with Lawrence Cappel, the current coach of the Cross-Country team, last year’s team was probably the best team Mills has seen in recent history.
Despite the pressure of filling in the shoes of the amazing season of the previous year, the team had an excellent start to its 2022 season. 38 athletes represented Mills at the Lowell Invitational at Golden Gate Park on Saturday, September 10th, with various athletes breaking their personal records at this course. Among these athletes were three stellar freshmen, Kaden Ren (9), Kevin Ren (9), and Ethan Cabrera (9), who all took home medals from this event. These freshmen also ran alongside Gabriel Solano (12), Samuel Lam (12), Remi Palomo (12), and Kyle Chan (12), putting up remarkable performances in the first PAL (Peninsula Athletic League) Meet at Half Moon Bay High School. Each of the freshmen put up remarkable performances and times with the top 5 runners of Mills finishing within an amazing slim margin of 30 seconds.
With another interview with Coach Cappel, he expressed his excitement about the girls teams. “This is the first time in five years that we have both a Frosh/Soph and Varsity Team.” Looking back on the performances of the Saturday meet (Lowell Invitational) and the Wednesday meet (PAL #1), Coach Cappel has hinted at the legitimate chance of taking Mill’s Girls Varsity Team to the Central Coast Championships (CCS) alongside our Varsity Boys and looks forward to an amazing if not a better season than any previous one.
Yet another sport that has started off their season and has needed to recover from the loss of alumni is Water Polo. Mill’s has always been seen as an underdog within their league and grouping. This year is not any different with the loss of amazing graduates and players. With a lot of freshmen wishing to make their debut in highschool Water Polo, many incoming seniors and juniors have commented on their need to step up. Especially considering there are less players who qualify for the varsity spots. However, there seems to be some hope.
One player on the girls Water Polo team comments that she thinks that the team has lots of potential for this season. “I think our team chemistry is really good. We communicate very well with each other and I think we have a very strong group.” All the recent games have set them in perspective with the rest of their competition and details the work that they must do in order to improve.
When interviewing another Water Polo member, they detailed their aspirations and goals for the upcoming season. “With a new season comes new opportunities.” With an amazing mindset, they gave this quote of inspiration, “It is early in the season, now is the time to make mistakes and to learn from them and improve.” As much as Water Polo is a team sport, each must improve to bolster the team spirit and performance as a whole. As such, the Water Polo team’s goal as a whole has always been to not only improve as a team but to improve as individuals as well.
We cheer on both of these amazing and spectacular teams as they continue through their seasons. Many of these stellar student athletes dedicate themselves to these sports towards the goal of improving their craft while juggling schoolwork and other extracurriculars. We applaud them as well as other athletes of various sports on their dedication and determination to see these sports through. Go Mills!
