Tigers Lauded At Awards Banquet

VISTA HERMOSA - - WP Tigers' head coach Mark Grimm had a few select words to describe each of the players on his championship team during the annual fall soccer banquet Monday night.

Aldair Escalante, the diminutive junior super dribbler, showed his leadership going up against opponents several heads higher for balls coming from the sky, Grimm said. "That's how you give it up for the team." Luis Torres can afford to reign in his emotions on the field a little more, but shouldn't lose that "chip on his shoulder" entirely because that same energy makes him stand up for his teammates and makes him fiercely loyal.

In the end, the same Torres who got five yellow cards for his edgy action on the field during the 2011 season, also got the WIAA sportsmanship award for his performance during the title game against the Providence Highlanders.

Escalante got the same award for his play during the semifinal game against St. George from Spokane.

But if it seemed as though Grimm was in awe of his star players, he made it clear every single Tiger was a key contributor to the success of the team on the way to Sumner, from winning-goal scorer Francisco Gonzalez down to the four team managers who prepared for the practices, made sure players had water and even did some laundry for the team: Karen Romero, Jackie Garcia, Ixel Sanchez and Veronica Escalante.

"There wasn't anyone who wasn't extremely important to our success," Grimm told the audience of parents, teachers and classmates at the banquet.

Each player called to the podium received a certificate of participation and a pen, a copy of the Times sporting the headline "WP Tigers Are State Champs," and a t-shirt announcing "State Is Our Goal."

Soon, the entire team was assembled around the state trophy with the names of 22 other teams that preceded the Tigers as champions.

Grimm said he had been nervous about the team's chances at the state finals after starter Kevin Ortega sustained a foot injury and he had to move around his lineup, subbing Abraham Sanchez for Ortega and Jose Paniagua for Sanchez.

"Jose moved in for Kevin and shut the big boys down," Grimm said. "It was very impressive." He called Sanchez' performance in the finals "outstanding."

Going down the team roster by grade, Grimm described Ernesto Balderas as a "freshman sensation," cited sophomore Emily Wilson for going above and beyond to stay on the practice schedule, complimented Alberto Sandoval on his ballhandling skills and remarked on Yesenia Escalante's improvement during the season.

Enrique Balderos brought a certain "toughness" to the team, Liz Xaudaro was always hungry for goals, while Gabe Escalante runs like a deer and made scoring opportunities, and Jesse Albarran started to catch on fire with goals in the latter part of the season.

Junior Lino Diaz was a veritable scoring machine until the teams the Tigers played discovered he was dangerous and tried to shut him down before he got near the goal, which in turn allowed the other WP forwards to light up the score board.

Grimm saved his last compliments for the three seniors, each of whom he said will be tough to replace.

Goalie Pedro Mendoza's saves won the team as many games as the goal-scoring strikers. The semi-final and final games were his best of the season, Grimm said.

He called Francisco Gonzalez "unstoppable" and "a highly skilled athlete" with strength, speed and excellence ballhandling skills. Kevin Ortega was the undisputed leader of the team, who worked the hardest in practice and whose "actions spoke louder than words (which were few)," Grimm said.

Varsity and team awards were scheduled to be announced at the WP combine awards celebration at Waitsburg High School on Wednesday.