Culver City continues to offer the best of high school sports

Culver City senior sprinter Kayla Barnes looks for the tape as she outruns the field during the Centaurs' track and field win over West Torrance last Thursday at Culver City.

 

Culver City high school continues to give the Culver City high school sports fans some of the best and most competitive sports programs in Southern California. Teams from the high school have won CIF championships in football, girls’ volleyball, girls’ water polo, and girls’ basketball the past few years.

Now the girls’ soccer team has an opportunity to win a State Championship if they can win three games in the State Regional Division 3 tournament that started last Tuesday. The Centaurs had to travel to Tulare, California to face top-seeded Mission Oak last Tuesday. This is the first time in Culver City high school history that girls’ soccer has reached the State Playoffs.

If they win that game, they will play a second-round game against the winner of Oak Hills and San Diego on Thursday. Mission Oak is 20-5-4 and Culver City went into last Tuesday’s game with a record of 15-7-4. If the Lady Centaurs make it to the championship game it will be played on Saturday, March 2.  Contact the school to find out if they advanced.

In other Culver City sports, the girls and boys track and field teams will compete in the Culver City Invitational Classic at Culver City high school at 10 a.m. on Saturday.  Over 20 schools will compete in the Invitational meet. “We are looking forward having a very competitive meet,” said Culver City head coach Jahmal Wright this week.

The boys’ volleyball has started the season 0-3. They play at Beverly Hills on Thursday at 3:15 p.m., and they travel to Santa Monica on Tuesday at 3:15 p.m.

The baseball team is 4-1 and they host Hamilton Friday, at 3 p.m. They play Brentwood School on Tuesday at home at 3:15 p.m. and they travel to Lakewood Mayfair high school on Friday, March 8, at 3 p.m.

The Centaur baseball team will rely on young players and senior captain Mason Le.  Le is the quarterback of the team from his shortstop position. “I try to be a team leader,’ said Le after their 4-2 win over Torrance last Saturday. “I look at major league players and I see how they carry themselves and how they play.”

Le continued to say, “You are not always going to have a good day so you have to stay positive on every play and every at-bat. Our pitchers work hard but they are young.”

Centaur head baseball coach, Rick Prieto wants his team to play team baseball. “Baseball is a kind of sport when you can be an individual but more importantly a team effort is what can get a team better prepared to play in ball games.”

Prieto wants has players to play Culver City baseball.  “We try to make our players understand that going up there and trying to jack the ball versus executing and putting the ball in play and moving a runner over is what’s going to help us win ball games,” said Prieto. “We just want everyone to buy in. It’s all about team effort. If you swing for the fence in our line up I will find somebody else because that’s not our philosophy we have here.”

Against Torrance, last Saturday the Centaurs did not hit the ball well. They scored runs on Torrance errors. “I think our offense will get better,” said Prieto. “We have three freshmen in our lineup. Our young players have been facing pitching at the lower level and now they are facing high school pitchers, but I think by the time we get into league play we will be ready to go.”