Tag Archives: Diablo Valley College

California College Lacrosse: Diablo Valley College Is California’s Most Successful Community College Lacrosse Program And Captured The West Coast Lacrosse League Division II Title In 2010

Posted on September 26, 2010 | Leave a comment

The Vikings lacrosse team, believed to be the state’s only community college team in the sport, is a third-year program few know about.

Still, DVC matched up favorably with the big boys last year, including routing San Jose State 15-2, avenging a 15-6 setback the year before. The Vikings also won the West Coast Lacrosse League Division II title.

Diablo Valley College lacrosse team captain Chris Morrissey got some thought-provoking news the other day. DVC middie Juan Buenrostro will celebrate his 21st birthday on Monday — the very day the Vikings open their Fall Ball club season against visiting San Jose State at 7:15 p.m.

“That’s kind of cool,” Morrissey, a Clayton Valley High graduate, said. “I didn’t know that. We’ll have to win that game for him then we’ll celebrate afterward.”

Maybe they can start by saying Feliz Cumpleanos (“Happy birthday” in Spanish). It turns out that Buenrostro is a bilingual birthday boy with a back story. In July he represented Team Mexico in the Lacrosse World Championships in Manchester, England. He even scored in Mexico’s 10-9 loss to North Korea. The United States beat Canada 12-10 in the championship match.

A Livermore resident who was born in Walnut Creek, Buenrostro said he has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Mexico, where his parents were born. The former Granada High player has an infectious personality, in addition to his rapid pace on the field.

“Juan is a very sociable guy,” Morrissey said. “He brings a lot of speed to the team, and when he’s around everybody sort of smiles. He’s small (5-foot-7, 150 pounds), but his smile is like a 200-pound guy’s smile. He’s a funny guy, a cool guy.”

Buenrostro is also a scrappy guy. Morrissey said in every practice Buenrostro will peel himself off the ground after taking contact from a bigger guy and then quickly rev up again. The Vikings lacrosse team, believed to be the state’s only community college team in the sport, is a third-year program few know about.

Still, DVC matched up favorably with the big boys last year, including routing San Jose State 15-2, avenging a 15-6 setback the year before. The Vikings also won the West Coast Lacrosse League Division II title.

The Vikings spent Saturday at Gregory Gardens Elementary School doing chores as part of the Pleasant Hill Community Service Day.

DVC players are excited about their experienced new coach, Jon Skinner, a northern Virginia native — a region where lacrosse is the second most popular sport behind football, according to Skinner. The coach has been impressed with the Vikings’ desire and willingness to improve.

Three former DVC stars, Alex Starr, Gavin Cook and Laki Sotiropulos, transferred to Saint Mary’s last spring, a fact that adds significance to the DVC-Gaels showdown on Oct. 9 in Moraga.

Top defenders are Morrissey and San Ramon Valley graduates Alex Warner and Evan Birdsall. Goalies John Honea (Foothill), a former Marine who will start against San Jose State, and Mike Schleicher (San Ramon Valley), are also excellent. Marshall Bowden (Las Lomas) is a top scoring threat.

Buenrostro, who works weekends for his dad Juan Sr.’s landscaping business in the Tri-Valley, has contributed to lacrosse’s vitality by coaching the Livermore Phantoms youth team, also helping out with Granada junior varsity boys squad.

When he was a Matadors freshman, a classmate convinced him to give the sport a shot.

“After doing it I naturally fell in love with it,” he said.

For more:  http://www.insidebayarea.com/sports/ci_16174745

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Colleges, Recruiting, Websites

Tagged , , ,

Western College Lacrosse: California’s Diablo Valley College Men’s Lacrosse Program Started In Fall 2008 As A P.E. Class And Played Cal, Stanford And Sonoma State In Impressive First Season

Posted on November 9, 2009 | Leave a comment

Diablo Valley College lacrosseAS PHYSICAL EDUCATION classes go, Diablo Valley College’s “Lacrosse 101″ is hard to top.

Consider that 45 students — 44 men and a lone female — take the class and comprise a club team that in its year-and-a-half existence already has faced off against such university squads as Cal, Stanford, Notre Dame de Namur-Belmont, Sonoma State and Chico State.

A year ago, the ambitious Vikings even upended Division II power UC Santa Cruz 11-10.

“I’m essentially an adjunct professor at Diablo Valley College running a lacrosse program through a P.E. class,” co-head coach Jeffrey Smith said. “And it’s the best P.E. class you could ever have.”

Without any other local junior college squads to face, DVC is taking its lumps against the big boys. The Vikings had lost five straight heading into the weekend.

But consider the big picture: After each game, the opposing coach is encouraged to make a presentation to DVC’s players, explaining to them what it takes to compete at a four-year program. Seven DVC players intend to transfer to Division I programs.

Team adviser Terry Armstrong, dean of counseling and student support services at DVC, admittedly knew only a “teeny bit” about lacrosse when he helped form the club last year. Now he enthusiastically endorses it.

Popularized on the East Coast, lacrosse is a back-and-forth sport in which players advance a hard rubber ball about the size of baseball toward a goal using a stick — the crosse.  

Smith, who coaches DVC along with Jackson Riker, said the bigger guys play defense and tote the 6-foot-long poles; that the runners play midfield; and that the football/basketball types are the attack men, or goal-scorers.

Smith, who has coached at Cal and Saint Mary’s College and is a full-time teacher at Alhambra High, is a little like a master chef who’s cooking up something pretty special in Pleasant Hill.

The Vikings, who played respectably in a 10-4 loss to visiting Sonoma State on Wednesday, are led by De La Salle High graduate Laki Sotiropolous, a dominant defender who transferred from Syracuse after being the last man cut from the powerful squad, Armstrong said.

DVC also has a female backup goalie, Dahlia Singer (Miramonte), behind starter Mike Schleicher (San Ramon Valley). The team captains are Sotiropolous, attack man Marshall Bowden (Las Lomas), the team’s leading scorer, and midfielders Sam Nep and Alex Starr, both out of Acalanes.

Singer relishes the challenge and the camaraderie of training and competing around so much testosterone.

“It’s a lot of fun, actually,” she said. “They’re like my brothers.”

Singer has seen playing time against Cal and Chico State, and Smith raves about her hand-eye coordination and courage facing shots as fast as 90 mph.

“You have to have a lot of guts (to play goalie),” Smith said. “I wouldn’t step in there.”

Lacrosse is generally a spring sport, but by competing in the fall, DVC players don’t burn a year of eligibility, Armstrong said.

Why is DVC so good, so soon? It’s located in a lacrosse hotbed. According to Smith, nine of the state’s top 20 high school boys programs are within a 24-mile area of DVC, among them San Ramon Valley, Acalanes, Miramonte and De La Salle.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/sports/ci_13739461

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Colleges, Recruiting

Tagged , ,