SBVC's Diaz and COD's Holt are Men's AOTW recipients
The Pacific Coast Athletic Conference has selected San Bernardino Valley soccer player Lance Diaz and College of the Desert football player Austin Holt as Men's Athletes of the Week for Sept. 11-17.
Diaz, a freshman forward from W.A. Carter High School in Rialto, had a big week as the Wolverines jumped out to a 2-0 start to the PCAC season.
He assisted Fred Zaragoza on the winning goal in a 5-4 victory over San Diego City College, finishing the game with a goal and an assist. Later in the week, Diaz began the scoring with an unassisted goal in the fourth minute after pouncing on a loose ball that was bouncing around the penalty area to ignite the Wolverines to a 5-1 win over Cuyamaca.
Holt, a 6-foot-3,228-pound sophomore linebacker out of Palatka (Florida) High School, recorded nine tackles (seven solo), including a sack for 10 yards and three tackles for loss for 29 yards as COD turned back West Los Angeles 24-15.
He also forced a fumble and recovered a fumble for the Roadrunners.
HONORABLE MENTION
Jeremiah Henderson (San Diego Mesa Football), a 6-foot-4, 240-pound sophomore quarterback from Booker High School in Sarasota, Florida, connected with Artie Henry on a 97-yard pass play for the first score of the game to ignite the Olympians to a 35-0 rout of Compton College. He threw three touchdown passes and also rushed for 24 yards in leading the way as the Olympians remained unbeaten on the season at 3-0.
Artie Henry (San Diego Mesa Football), a 6-foot-1, 180-pound sophomore wide receiver and former high school teammate of Henderson's at Booker High, caught two passes from Henderson, good for 97 and 8 yards, in the victory over the Tartars.
Armando Garcia (Southwestern Soccer), a freshman forward from Bonita Vista High School, scored the Jaguars' first and third goals in a 4-0 victory over Imperial Valley. Southwestern also defeated College of the Desert 2-0 and is tied with San Bernardino Valley for first place in the PCAC with a 2-0 record after the first two conference games.
Henry Smith (San Diego Mesa Water Polo), a sophomore utility player out of La Jolla High School, contributed 18 goals, four assists and two steals for the Olympians in four games at the Nyquist Tournament hosted by West Valley College in Saratoga. Smith had 10 goals and an assist in a 19-11 victory over Las Positas. He came back with five goals, an assist and a steal in a 17-7 win over Santa Rosa. And he had three goals, an assist and a steal in a 16-10 loss Diablo Valley. He also had an assist in an 18-6 loss to the host team, West Valley.
Michael Ramirez (San Bernardino Valley Cross Country), a freshman from Grand Terrace High School (Grand Terrace, CA) ran to a seventh-place finish out of 305 runners at the Southern California Community College Preview meet at Central Park in Santa Clarita. Ramirez ran the 4.0-mile course in 21:38.2 seconds. Ramirez led the Wolverines to a fourth-place finish in back of Mt. SAC, Glendale and Riverside City College in a field of 27 teams.