Redwood Wins WYL Trophy…Again

By: Krissy Hetherington

After an exciting year of sports, Redwood came out on top with the highest accumulated score and brought home the 2018-2019 West Yosemite League Trophy. This year makes it Redwood’s 9th title in a row. For the seniors, in their 4 years, there’s been a total of 87 league championships. 22 every year with the exception of Girls Wrestling in the 2016-2017 year. Out of those 87 WYL Championships, Redwood has won 61 putting them at a 71% winning percentage. The scores every year have been determined based on league record and head to head competitions. Each place received a certain amount of points that were added up at the end of the whole season.

The final totals were as follows:

School	Fall	Winter	Spring	Totals	Place
Redwood	44.0	25.5	47.0	117.5	1st
El Diamante	29.0	13.0	30.0	72.0	3rd
Golden West	27.0	21.5	27.5	76.00	2nd
Hanford	23.0	20.0	19.0	62.0	6th
Lemoore	20.0	25.5	22.0	67.5	4th
Mt. Whitney	25.0	16.5	22.5	64.0	5th

Clearly, Redwood swept the tables clean after winning every single season total and overall it accumulated to a defeat of every other team in the league by 41.5 points.

On behalf of a winning program, it all starts with great coaches and traditions and Mr. Sozinho shared his positive remarks: “We’ve made a strong effort to make sure all teams are valued. All student athletes are looked upon for their importance and efforts and the athletic department tries to support every team equally. All teams and coaches have put in time and strong effort every single day. It’s always nice to see one athlete talk to another about league and their current standings…it shows they want to see how each other are doing and are concerned about the success of the program. This breeds competition that just continues to build every year.”

Redwood has continued to dominate all-around in the Central Valley and even tend to go far into playoffs and post-season as well. Within WYL, Redwood won a total of 15 out of 22 League Championships through Fall, Winter, and Spring.

Starting in the Fall, Redwood won Boys Water polo, Girls Water polo, Boys Cross Country, Girls Cross Country. WYL titles and Valley Champions this season included Girls Golf and Girls Tennis. This is also tennis’ consecutive year winning league uncontested.

Moving into Winter, the only two teams that came out with WYL titles were Girls Soccer and Girls Wrestling. This makes it the 7th consecutive year for Vieira and the girls soccer team.

Finally, in the Spring, Redwood finished strong winning 7 out of 8 total league championships. These include, Boys and Girls Swim, Boys and Girls Track, boys Tennis, Boys Golf, and Baseball. Each team worked hard from pre-season training and workouts all the way through post season playoffs, Area competitions and eventually Valley. Boys Track came out on top to win Redwood’s first Central Section DII Valley Championship.

Clearly, Redwood has a reputation for building strong teams in values and morals and together grow towards their goals. But what makes a team so successful? Sozinho answered, “The team has to have a willingness to work hard… both coaches and players. They must have a passion for what they do and find value in what they’re doing. Look for opportunities not excuses. Student athletes that are involved in academics and extra-curriculars have a lot on their plate and it amazes me how they’re able to handle everything. It takes support from families and coaches and somehow our athletes pull it off. That’s why we’re successful. We have student athletes who care and just continue and want to get better.”