It was a real senior moment for these four Saratoga basketball players following the Falcons' 77-69 loss to Sacred Heart Cathedral in the CCS Division III playoffs. The four talented Saratoga seniors had just played their final game wearing the red and blue. The players included (l-r) C.K. Kaplan, Justin Zebb, Eric Lee and Mark Elfving.
Falcons finish impressive winter season
Follmar, Walter star on the mat for 'Toga
By Dick Sparrer
There were no championships for Saratoga teams in the recently completed winter sports season.
But the Falcons still had plenty of reason to smile over their successes in the wrestling, basketball and soccer campaign of 200-02.
Follmar, Walter star
As a team, Saratoga didn't have a great wrestling season. But a pair of individuals starred for the Falcons in the '01-02 campaign.
Senior Troy Follmar and freshman Brent Walter came through with outstanding performances in league and Central Coast Section competition, as well as in tournament action.
Follmar won a championship at 215 pounds and Walter was an impressive fourth at 189 pounds at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League finals under the direction of coaches Mark Murillo and Dan Frank.
Follmar starred for the Falcons at the league finals, beating Los Gatos standout Evan McDonald in the finals to clinch the title.
Walter finished fourth at the varsity finals, competing against mostly juniors and seniors in the tough weight class. During the year, he dominated the competition in junior varsity tournaments, winning titles at the Wildcat Invitational at Los Gatos, the Wilcox Frosh-Soph Charger Invitational and the San Lorenzo Invitational.
He moved up to the varsity for the SCVAL tournament and posted sudden-death overtime victories over wrestlers from Fremont and Palo Alto before losing to Richard Waters of Milpitas and Ben Reynolds of Cupertino to wind up fourth. Reynolds just finished eighth at the state meet held last weekend.
The fourth-place finish earned Walter a trip to the CCS tournament, where he won a pair of matches before losing a pair to face elimination.
Walter pinned Ben Lotogo of Monterey at 4:49 of the third round in his first bout at CCS; then he beat Waters of Milpitas to get a little revenge for the loss at league. Walter battled back from a 7-1 deficit to pull out an 11-10 win over Waters.
The Saratoga freshman lost to Los Gatos senior Chris Smith to fall into the consolation bracket, then lost 14-5 to Adrian Cabanban of Watsonville to fall out of the tourney.
Still, Walter was one of just a handful of freshmen in the tournament, and he was competing in a weight class dominated by upperclassmen.
Follmar placed fifth at the CCS tourney, winning six of eight matches--five of them by fall.
Follmar pinned John Readler of Bellarmine before losing 8-6 to Greenfield's Miguel Zavala a match later.
The Saratoga senior headed over to the consolation side and put together a string of four straight pins against Monta Vista's Brandon Reinhardt, Hillsdale's Kevin Clark, Serra's Zin Croon and Readler again in 1:33.
Follmar lost again to Zavala to slip into the fifth-place match against Brandon Hester of Silver Creek, and the Falcon won 9-4 to finish fifth.
Falcons Second
Both the boys and girls basketball teams finished second in the El Camino Division of the SCVAL and advanced to the CCS playoffs.
The boys posted a 7-5 mark to finish second to Homestead in the division, then split a pair of CCS playoff games to wrap up the year with a winning record at 15-14.
Saratoga opened CCS with a 60-55 win over Gunderson before losing 77-69 to Sacred Heart Cathedral.
Members of coach Mike Davey's Saratoga squad this winter were seniors C.K. Kaplan, Justin Zebb, Eric Lee and Mark Elfving; juniors Matt Ashburn, Frank Wallace, Greg Van Hoesen, Chris Barrett, Lawrence Hui and Aritoki Suzuki; and sophomore Jon Mitsunaga.
The Saratoga girls, meanwhile, opened the CCS Division III playoffs with a 56-52 win over Harbor, but the Falcons lost 60-29 to Santa Cruz last weekend.
The Falcons, who wrapped up a solid 16-9 season for head coach Bret Yeilding, will lose just two players to graduation: seniors Karen Woo and Natalie Zisko. There were only three juniors on the varsity squad--Sarah Yee, Judy Wang, Katie Levinson and Selen Erdal--giving the Falcons a solid corps of young returners that will include Diana Shih, Hannah Gladwell, Tiffany Tan, Victoria Liu, Jordan Henry, Kazue Makino, Bryte Nielsen and Julia Anderson.
The Falcons finished 11-3 in league play, good for a second-place finish in the El Camino Division of the SCVAL.
Girls make playoffs
The boys and girls soccer teams at Saratoga each had successful seasons, and the girls managed to earn a berth in the CCS Division III playoffs.
The Falcons lost 2-1 to Notre Dame-Salinas in the first round of the CCS playoffs to finish the year with an 8-8-5 record, but what a year it was.
Saratoga posted a 4-5-5 mark in the rugged De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. Saratoga won four of six games outside of league play prior to the CCS playoffs.
The Saratoga boys barely missed a playoff berth. The Falcons finished the year with an outstanding 12-5-3 record that included a 9-2-3 record in the El Camino Division of the SCVAL. Saratoga tied with Mountain View for the division championship, but the Spartans were given the postseason berth.
Members of the Saratoga boys co-championship soccer team, coached by Joe Guttadauro, included Alan Sung, A.J. Weitsman, Trevor Adams, Mark Weiner, Brad Seago, Derrick Wong, Ari Bencuya, Adam Judelson, Matt Weidert, Anthony Lin, Nolan Gaudreau, Maziar Hemati, Tim Chapman, Sam Quicke, Kenny Keast, Scott Elfving, Jason Mueller and Daniel Vajdic.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
