By Yosemite High School Athletic Director Rusty Oetinger —
To catch readers up with what’s been happening lately, the first note is that I’ve been out of school quite a bit with my Sports Marketing class and the athletic director conference in San Diego.
To give you a little information regarding the Sports Marketing class. We recently spent the evening working with the Fresno State promotion department as part of the production crew for their game against Sacramento State. The kids were thrust into jobs that varied from working in the booth to throwing t-shirts in the stands. It was a great time and the kids learned a lot about producing a game.
We then headed to Chuckchansi Park and checked out their Making The Grade promotion. This promotion focused on kids making healthy choices with food and education. It was an exciting day and the class and their teacher ended up being interviewed on the Jumbotron in center field.
After all of that business I headed to San Diego for the state Athletic Directors Conference. The three things I focused on while there were scheduling, medical registration and score boards.
In regards to scheduling I learned about ways to get information out to parents, staff and athletes in a more efficient manner. Medical registration and keeping track of athletes is a daunting task and I learned about an online program that can help with managing that information.
Finally, I did some research on ways that we can refurbish the scoreboards at both softball fields and the JV Baseball field for about one third of the cost to replace them. Needless to say, it was a productive trip.
Meanwhile, our athletic teams have been doing well this spring.
The Boys Varsity Baseball team has swept Sierra so far in their two meetings, beaten Washington Union, and then lost in a close game to Liberty. Kerman and Chowchilla continue to be tough opponents for us.
The Boys Tennis team repeated as League Champs, defeating Washington Union to defend their title. This next week the boys will try to qualify individually for the next level of competition.
The Boys Golf team also clinched their League Championship, by winning in a resounding manner at Pheasant Run Golf Course on Wednesday, Apr. 20. Spencer Uzzell was also the league MVP. The boys will play next week in the championship game that will lead up to the Area Championship, which will be held at Pheasant Run.
The Boys Swim team is off to a great start, winning all of their matches except a close loss to perrenial powerhouse Kingsburg. The girls swim team has also been doing well by finishing second in many of their meets.
The Girls Track team has continued to dominate in league. They have won all of their league competitions thus far. The boys have also done well, finishing a close second at each of the meets this year.
The Softball team continues to improve, but has a very tough schedule. As well as playing Kerman and Chowchilla, which are challenging every year, they played Liberty — ranked 7th in the Central Valley. They lost a close game to Sierra, but coach Dave thinks they have a really good chance of winning the next game vs. the Chieftans.
That’s it for now. I will send my next update as the teams get close to playoffs.
A couple of quick notes: sports physicals will be Thursday, May 26 and the Yosemite Youth Sports camp will be the week following school getting out. Their will be more announcements on the Yosemite Facebook and Athletics pages.
