Community School athletes in fall sports piled scrumptious Limelight Room desserts on their plates Tuesday and heard coaches trumpet their accomplishments during the recently completed 2005 seasons.
The annual fall sports banquet at Sun Valley honored those in boys' and girls' soccer, swimming, cross country and volleyball. Presiding at the podium was athletic director John Remington. Award winners are:
Boys' soccer
Always one of the highlights of the Cutthroat fall banquet is the speech given by boys' soccer head coach Richard Whitelaw, who finds a way to touch all the bases with wonderful humor and panache.
Whitelaw apologized to the audience for not being able to relate some of the more colorful comments along the bench during the soccer season, but he and coach emeritus Bob Brock presented several important awards.
Team captains this season were Wes Flanigan and Kevin Wade, and vice captain was Ryon Campbell. Campbell will be one of the 2006 captains, to be joined by another player to be named at a later date.
Most Improved was senior Tyler Chandler, who filled in admirably at goalkeeper after Regan O'Reilly went down to injury snapping his string of 29 consecutive starts in the net.
Tournament Most Valuable Player was sophomore Travis Stone (14 goals), who has scored 21 goals in 33 starts over his first two Cutthroat seasons.
Top goal scorer was senior Wes Flanigan (18 goals), who scored in 13 of 20 games and amassed a total of 21 goals over two campaigns. Flanigan also had "Goal of the Year," the overtime stunner that beat Bliss for the Fourth District 3A championship.
Senior defender Kevin Wade earned the Bob Brock Most Inspirational Award. The Factor Award, a coaches' award named after Justin Russell, was given to the only Cutthroat player to play every minute this fall, senior Ross Campbell.
Voted by the players, the Team Most Valuable Player was sweeper Ryon Campbell.
First-year boys' junior varsity coach Jason Lynch said the young Cutthroats will be a team to be reckoned with in the future. The JVs consisting of six sophomores and eight freshmen played four games.
"Goal of the Year" was by Lucas Vorsteveld.
Girls' soccer
Head coach Kelly Feldman and assistant coach Carolina Stevens teamed up to describe all the achievements of the 2005 Cutthroats, which included another district tournament championship and a fifth straight trip to the state tourney.
Feldman described the season as "an adventure," and said she was pleased with the record turnout of 29 players. It was a well-balanced bunch, with 16 of the 29 players scoring goals for the varsity. At state the Cutthroats captured fourth place.
Leading scorer was junior Sara Berman (8 goals), and the team captains were seniors Devyn Parnes and Caitlin Enright. Each of the captains spoke to the audience about the year. In addition to a varsity record of 9-8, the junior varsity was 3-2 this fall.
Most Improved was sophomore Emily Eshman. Most Inspirational was Devyn Parnes. Most Valuable Player was Caitlin Enright. And the Coaches' Award was presented to sophomore Hannah Hennessy.
Team captains for 2006 are Sara Berman and Krista Detwiler.
Swimming, cross country
Remington read a letter from swim team coach Brian Gallagher that outlined the accomplishments of swimmers Amanda Harris, Anja Sundali, Rachael Becker, Rian Ervin, Sarah Adicoff and Taylor Straley.
Harris and Sundali are seniors. Becker, Ervin and Adicoff are juniors. Straley is a Cutthroat sophomore. The six girls competed on the SV5B swimming team and fall team champion Wood River High School.
Cross country co-coach Abi Holt congratulated the Cutthroat boys' team—first boys' team in school annals to qualify for state cross country—and she singled out the effort of Mali Noyes, the junior who placed third in the State 2A girls' footrace.
Volleyball
Team members and head coach Reamy Goodwin spoke about the Cutthroats, who ended up winning seven matches with an extremely young team in the fall of 2005. Captain was junior Rachael Becker.
Most Inspirational was freshman Courtney Hamilton. Most Improved was middle blocker Caroline Fairchild, a sophomore. "Rookie of the Year" was freshman Sarah Jane Slater. And the Most Valuable Player was sophomore Amaya Ingram.
