Here’s our second part of our look back at local sports in 2009. Go to www.MyLocalNews.com for the complete list.


TRAVEL SOFTBALL TEAM
WINS NATIONAL TITLE


While Chula Vista’s baseball All-Stars got tons of ink and exposure after winning the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., a San Diego travel softball team that included residents from Rancho Bernardo and Rancho Penasquitos accomplished a similar feat largely under the radar.

In August, the Power Surge 36, a 12-under team, won the Amateur Softball Association’s 2009 Girls Softball National Fastpitch 12U Championship, which was held in Normal, Ill.

The team featured Rancho Bernardo residents Sara White and Tiana Miller, Erin Mario and Katie Schultz from Rancho Peñasquitos, and Kailey Hill from Ramona.

The team qualified for the national tourney after winning the ASA Southern California State Championship.

The Power Surge team scored 65 runs during the course of the tournament and gave up only seven runs.

The team won the national championship after defeating the Southern California Jynx twice in the double elimination tournament. The scores of the games, which took place Aug. 2, were 2-0 and 5-3.
In the final match, the Power Surge had to come from behind after trailing 1-0 and 2-1 in the early innings.

Contributing big to the team’s defense of the final innings was pitcher Sara White, an eighth-grader at Bernardo Heights Middle School, who was able to strike out the bench in both the seventh and the eighth innings.

“It was such a great feeling because we had been working so hard for it,” White said at the time. “It was like the icing on the cake of a good season.”

As the defending champion, the team has an automatic spot in next year’s national tournament. However, they will be competing in the 14-under division, said Coach Scott Berndes.
The Power Surge club is based out of Clairemont Mesa.


POWAY CROSS COUNTRY
DOMINATES COURSES


It was a great year for Poway’s boys cross country team, which went undefeated in league, was crowned the Palomar League’s best team and then went on to win the San Diego Section CIF team championship after a strong team effort at Morley Field in Balboa Park.

There was no secret to the Titans’ way: The team had a roster full of strong runners, which put Coach Dan Schaitel in the difficult position of having to cut his roster for the championship races.

In the section race, Poway’s top finisher was junior Alex Smith, who won a neck-and-neck contest against a runner from Bonita Vista to come in third place.

The CIF victory was the school’s 10th section title, the first since 1997, and took the Titans to the state meet, where Smith went on to finish in 16th place overall and broke a Poway High record for the course set in 1988 by Dean Cortez.



POWAY WRESTLING
WINS FOURTH STATE CROWN


When the Poway boys wrestling team won the 2009 CIF State Championship in March it was a surprising victory, even coach Wayne Branstetter, who has seen more than his share of winning moments.

“In my 37 years of coaching, that was one of my most satisfying wins ever,” Branstetter said recently.

At the start of the season, the county’s most storied wrestling program had only three returning varsity starters, and no wrestler at 215 pounds.

Then-seniors Henry Yorba (130 pounds) and Ian Daube (189) won state titles in their weight divisions while Conrad Snell (135) was a runner-up, giving the Titans a decisive victory with 40 points, well ahead of second-place finishers Buchanan and Selma high schools, which tied with 125 points each. Clovis High School came in fourth with 124 points.

Points were racked up by many Titan wrestlers, including then-freshman Josh Miranda, a third-string grappler who had to step into the 103-pound division at the last minute after the team’s starter failed to make weight. Miranda finished third at the masters meet in a dramatic come-from-behind win, qualifying for state.

Branstetter said the victory was even sweeter given the events that took place before the start of the season, when a group of coaches accused Branstetter’s program of recruiting and urged the California Interscholastic Federation, the body that oversees high school athletics, to investigate.

The CIF cleared Branstetter of wrongdoing.

“That was going from the lowest of the low to the highest of high,” Branstetter said. “It was a divine touch.”


RB FOOTBALL TURNS
THINGS AROUND

The Rancho Bernardo football team gave Bronco fans a great season, one that featured great thrills, including a dramatic homecoming victory against Carlsbad secured in the closing moments of the game when Coach Brad Elrod decided to go for a 2-point conversion instead of a game-tying field goal.

It wasn’t the only second-half win for the Broncos, who, for the most part, were able to come up with big plays when they counted, including during a 21-14 victory over Mt. Carmel to win the Rotary Bowl.

The Broncos got the job done with a full roster of running backs, which included juniors Tyler Gomogda and David Jones and senior Mike Techaira, as well as a strong defense and the leadership of junior quarterback Devin Saunders.

In the process, the Broncos went from a 2-8 season in 2008 to an 8-3 season.

Unfortunately, the Broncos also had an issue turning over the ball, something that came into focus with losses against Escondido, Vista and even Fallbrook, which stunned the team with a 7-6 upset win in the first round of the CIF section tournament.


NEW LEAGUES ANNOUNCED


Though the full effects of this decision will only be felt next fall, the North County conference’s decision to realign the leagues starting the following school year had some people cheering.

The conference, comprised of the principals from the area’s schools, voted 19-2 in favor of the new alignment in October.

More than anything, it did away with a two-year-old alignment that, in some cases, forced teams to travel longer, broke up rivalry matches and led to lower attendance at some prep sporting events.
Locally, that means that for most sports, all of the Poway Unified School District high schools (except for newcomer Del Norte) will be in the same league.

The conference’s Committee on League Alignment, which was headed by Poway High Principal Scott Fisher and included RB High Athletic Director Peggy Brose, made the proposal for the change.

It introduced two firsts for the conference, an expansion into four leagues (up from three) and marked the first time that there will be two groupings, one for football only and the other for all other sports.

In the football-only formation, one league will include Poway, Rancho Bernardo, Torrey Pines, Westview and Ramona. Another will consist of Del Norte, Mt. Carmel, Valley Center, San Marcos and Orange Glen.

In the “other sports” groupings, one league will consist of Poway, Rancho Bernardo, Westview, Mt. Carmel, Ramona and Torrey Pines. Another league will include Del Norte, Valley Center, Orange Glen, Canyon Crest, the San Dieguito Academy and Mission Vista.