My Journey

Student Journalism Portfolio

Hello,

My Name is Cristian Sandoval and I am sports writer for Cypress Chronicle school news. I am a big soccer and basketball fan and I enjoy to write. Outside of school I like to workout, hangout with my family and play soccer.

Getting to this point in my education took a while. I always knew that I wanted to pursue a career that had something to do with sports and that’s when I decided to try journalism and focus on sports writing and ended up loving it. My goal is to transfer to a four year school and become a sideline reporter for soccer games.

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Recent Work

Wrong Timing for the World Cup

The 2022 Fifa World Cup is set to take the stage on Nov. 20th, but how well in shape will the players be participating in this tournament?

In 2010, Qatar, was selected by Fifa to host the 2022 World Cup and despite being awarded to be the host, changes to the start of the World Cup had to be made. The World Cup is played every four years, and has always been played during the months of June and July but due to the intense summer heat that Qatar goes through during June and July. Fifa was forced to switch the start of the tournament to the month of November.

This decision received negative reviews in the soccer world due to the simple fact that the biggest soccer tournament in history has now been incorporated during the middle of domestic seasons all over world.

Many domestic leagues had to adjust their schedule. Starting in late August, teams have been playing at least three games per week, putting a serious amount of pressure on the body of these athletes.

Over the last month, several important key role players that take part of their international team, have been announcing that due to severe injuries that they have suffered before and during the middle of season, will not take part in this year's 2022 Fifa World Cup.

The French national team, they will be missing two of their high profile midfielders that played an important role in France winning that 2018 World Cup, Paul Pogba and. Pogba has been out of action following a knee surgery in August and was not able to recover in time. France will also be missing their machine in the midfield, Kante who covers the central midfield like no other, suffered a hamstring injury in the beginning of the season and was not able to make the final squad for France.

Although Les Blues will not be having their veteran players, new blood has arisen during this season in the likes of Real Madrid midfielders Aurelien Tchouameni and Eduardo Camavinga who will look to showcase their talents in the biggest stage.

Germany have also made adjustments to their selections of forwards as Timo Werner and Marco Reus have also been affected with injuries. On Nov. 2, Werner tore his ankle ligament in a champions league match against Shakhtar Donetsk. The German forward played an important role in Germany’s World Cup qualifiers as he participated in eight of Germany’s ten matches, scoring five goals and having one assist.

Borussia Dortmunds’ forward Rues, back luck continues as he will miss another big tournament. Reus has missed the 2014 World Cup, in which Germany won, the 2016 and 2020 UEFA Euro and will not take part of this year's World Cup due to an ankle ligament injury suffered in the middle of October. Reus participated in four matches in the World Cup qualifiers, scoring two goals and three assists.

Despite players being injured, it hasn't stopped international teams from including them to be a part of their squad to participate in the World Cup. Bayern Munich striker Sadio Mane suffered an injury last week, just 13 before the start of the World Cup, but despite his injury, Senegal still included the forward in the final list of players to participate in the tournament.

Another case is Uruguayan defender Ronald Araujo, who picked up a thigh injury and underwent surgery in September, has also been included in Uruguays’ final list.

Mexico has their own share of dilemma, as their star striker Raul Jimenez, has an ongoing groin injury that has kept him out of action over the last month yet has been called up to represent the Mexican National team in this years’ World Cup.

FIFA needs to look after these athletes' wellbeing before deciding to add a tournament mid-season.The athletes still have to report back to their clubs after the tournament finishes as they will have to resume their domestic season in late December. The last thing a club needs is having their star player returning even more injured than when they left, jeopardizing their season.

This year’s World Cup schedule has definitely taken a toll on these soccer players. Those who have been called up to participate in soccer’s biggest tournament of the year despite being injured are taking a huge risk. How well in shape these soccer players will be when they return to their clubs will be the big question.

Active Off-Season for Soccer Coach

Kian Aimnloo, Coach Cristian Rus, and Alfonso Montano pictured signing to four-year schools. Photo by Brett Franchino

The men’s soccer team has begun preparations for the fall season under head coach Cristian Rus.

The Chargers finished last season in third place in the Orange Empire Conference with a record of 9-7-5. The team was able to make the playoffs but was knocked out in the first round of the SoCal Regionals against Mt. San Antonio.

During this offseason, the Chargers train twice a week, but sessions aren’t as intense as in the fall during the season, Said Coach Rus

“We train Tuesdays and Thursdays. Those are all the returns coming in and some guys that are interested in our program trying out, so we signed them up in our Tuesday and Thursday class. We train from 1 o’clock to 4 o’clock and we have about 15 in the class. So it’s a small number compared to the fall season, where we have almost 30 guys in there,” said Head Coach Cristian Rus.

The last half of the season was very fierce for the Hornets, as their chances of making the playoffs were very slim, but were able to defeat Fullerton College on the last day of the season. With a series of defeats from other schools, the Hornets locked their spot into the SoCal Regionals.

“It’s not as intense as in the fall just because we want to focus on school more. Fall season has been long, draining, physically, mentally for them. So we have some guys out with injuries recovering. We had two spring games. Those were good games for us, just to kind of get some guys more exposure,” said Rus.

Coach Rus’s offseason has made him more occupied since he will have to assemble his defense and midfield. This comes as two key players from his team last season, Kian Aminloo and Alfonso Montano, have just signed with four-years schools.

“We just had two of our guys moving on to four-year schools. Our center back is moving to San Marcos and center mid, leading scorer, is moving to Concordia University. Those are both division II. We have one of our center mids talking right now to Cal State L.A.,” said Rus.

Filling in those gaps in the central midfield and in the back is going to be a difficult task that awaits coach Rus and his coaching staff.

“Those are hard positions. Defensively we were very good last year. We had the least goals against us in the season… we have some defenders coming in. Those are the main positions we are looking to fill in right now,” said Rus.

Recruiting players to come into the soccer program is another quest during the off-season for coach Rus. It’s not just about focusing on soccer but on school work, being honest with the athlete, and letting them know what the Cypress College program represents.

“We are looking for a lot of recruits. So we bring in recruits from different high schools, clubs and we tell them this is the best program in junior college in the area and we prepare them for four-year schools.

Rus said that one of the main goals is to transfer his student athletes to four-year schools. Being honest with them is an important point when speaking to them. But at the same time, it’s up to them whether or not they put in the work and perform well on the field.

“We train hard. We do well in our classes. Our program did well in the classes last year. We had a 3.01 GPA. We tell them that soccer is important, but also school. So we want to tell them this is the right environment for them to grow as a soccer player but also as student-athletes,” said Rus

As the off-season continues and the fall season approaches, Coach Rus expects his players to keep growing and realize the amount of work and effort it takes to win, be better student-athletes, and hopefully reach the goal of winning the conference and having a chance of playing for the championship.

“Continue to grow. More game understanding for them. In this environment, we teach them how to win games, how to perform, how to train.. The goal is to win the conference and play for the championship. Hopefully, this will be the year to do it,” said Rus.

Road to Redemption for Women’s Soccer

Cypress Women’s Soccer Team Celebrating after scoring a goal.

This year’s women's soccer team has a tough road ahead of them as they look to redeem last year’s season finale.

Cypress were able to reach the CCCAA State Championship against Hartnell College, in which the Chargers were looking to be crowned champions for the first time since 2004, but the team under Cypress Head Coach Erick Hurtarte fell short from their goal as they were defeated by the Panthers 3-0.

“It’s always disappointing to make it there and not obviously get the result you want but hopefully that is the fuel and the fire that we’re using this year to try to get back there again this year,” said Cypress Head Coach Erik Hurtarte.

After suffering a devastating loss in the State Championship game, the message from Hurtarte to his team this season was very clear.

“The little taste of being there last year should motivate you to want to come back and obviously to get the job done. Understand how hard we worked to get there last year and the motivation to win it now, it’s in front of them and using that experience is definitely going to help them,” said Hurtarte.

The Chargers currently sit in third place of the Orange Empire Conference behind Saddleback College (11-1-2), and Santiago Canyon College (11-1-1) with a record of 8-2-2.

Despite trailing in the OEC standings, that didn’t stop the Chargers from making headlines this season. The Chargers were able to reach the No.1 ranking spot in CCCSIA Women’s Soccer Ranking, but for Hurtarte reaching top status is secondary to what he hopes to make out of his team.

“It’s not just about the soccer cause at the end of the day these student athletes that we have, we want them to be successful people in life, and we want them to graduate, we want them to move on. We want them to go and get their degree,” said Hurtarte. “We win a state title, we win a conference championship that’s all extra gravy for us. Our main focus is developing successful people and academically, physically, and mentally getting them ready for what’s to come later in life.”

The Chargers have been very successful when playing at home and the last time the Chargers suffered a defeat in their home turf was during the 2018 season. In 12 games, the Chargers have been able to score 30 goals so far and have only conceded 10.

“They are very talented, obviously they are learning to be mentally tougher. They are learning how to win, how to be successful, and I think the biggest task for them is knowing that every time we step on the field everybody wants to play and beat Cypress,” said Hurtarte.

There is no I in team for Hurtarte, and he couldn’t be more grateful for the help he has gotten from his staff this season to help him get the team in tremendous form.

“The staff has been really helpful. We have a lot of experience within our staff… We have Josh Brooks who came in this year for goalkeeper’s. He's a very experienced, very knowledgeable, stand up quality coach. Then we have a couple of volunteers that are not here full-time but they do their part to help us succeed. You're only as good as your staff. Whenever I succeed it’s not just me, it’s all of us,” said Hurtarte.

With the season halfway through its point, Hurtarte has described this season as pretty successful and hopes to complete the task of winning a State Championship.

“We want to win everything. That’s always the goal…Take one game at a time and if at the end of the year I’m sitting here and we are State champs, then we did what we had to. Pretty proud of the programs and girls”.

Young Roster Equals Challenge For Men’s Basketball

This year’s Cypress men’s basketball team is full of new faces. The 13 man roster, coached by Andrew Alhadeff, has a total of ten freshmen additions to the team and three sophomores. It hasn’t been an easy task for coach Alhadeff to assemble a new team, and have it all come together, especially at the JC level.

“Freshmen are always tough at our level because JC sometimes is looked down upon as a lesser style of basketball or lesser athletic level of basketball but it’s not. Community College basketball is very good,” said Cypress Head Coach Andrew Alhadeff.

The Chargers sit in sixth place of the Orange Empire Conference with a record of 15-10, falling short of their goal to finish on top of the OEC.

“We obviously want to win the OEC, which is the toughest conference in the state. Obviously we fell short of that goal this season,” said Alhadeff

Cypress has done an adequate job of taking advantage of home-court games as the Chargers have a record of 6-3 when playing at home, but things haven’t gone their way when playing on the road. The Chargers have struggled more when visiting teams coming up with six wins and seven losses. The majority of losses suffered by the Chargers this season against Conference rivals, range between two to five points.

“We’ve screwed up down the stretch. We’ve lost a lot of close games… and guys being confident in themselves, confident in their teammates,” said Alhadeff.

Even though it has been an up and down season for the Chargers, having to connect with his team and trying to change his coaching ways is something that Alhadeff has taken away from this season. Coach Alhadeff feels he hasn’t done a great job when it comes to coaching his team this season and will look to improve his methods for the following season.

“I am connecting to them. Doing things like meeting with them individually, talking about life. This group has taken a while for them to trust me and for me to trust them. That’s what I’ve taken away. I need to do a better job in teaching and coaching. I don’t think I’ve done a great job this year. It all starts with me. I got to look in the mirror. I got to do better… and grow as a coach so I hope to do that during this offseason,” said Alhadeff

With three games left in the season, coach Alhadeff has described this season for everybody as a challenge due to leadership among his players and because of the amount of time the adjustment period has taken.

“Challenging because we are young. Challenging because at times it has taken us longer to learn things… challenging that in our team has very little leadership. We have a bunch of nice guys but we don’t have anybody that’s willing to call each other out. So that’s been a challenge,” said Alhadeff.

Even though it hasn’t been the season that coach Alhadeff had hoped for, he believes that a year from now things will be a little different, as most of his freshmen players will return with more experience, which will help them down the stretch.

“I see them a lot more confident. We’ve screwed up down the stretch. We’ve lost a lot of close games… and guys being confident in themselves, just the experiences are invaluable. So I think we are going to be more confident and be stronger. We are going to be more mature. I think we’ll grow defensively,” said Alhadeff.

142,000 Raised in Annual Foundation Event

Cypress College celebrated the 47th Annual Americana Awards on Saturday, March 26 at Disneyland Hotel.

After having last year's event online due to Covid-19 restrictions, the Americana Awards were back to celebrate and honor their communities’ Citizens of the Year.

“This is a great event. This is the Cypress College Foundation largest fundraiser of the year. It’s become a tradition, and this is our 47th year. So the Foundation is focused on helping students achieve and be their best. We help to finance their needs with scholarships and funds for books.

Sometimes for living expenses and other needs. So they can focus on being their best and doing well in school and becoming future citizens of the year,” said the President of the Board of the Directors Ken Vecchiarelli.

The event kicked off with a silent auction. As guests checked into the event, they were given a set of stickers that they would have to use for the silent auction along with a bid paddle for the live auction.

The silent auction items were spread into three rooms that were filled with donated items that included signed jerseys from different athletes from the past and present, signed record albums from artists, wine bottles, gift baskets and tickets to the Lakers, Clippers, and Anaheim Ducks game.

The ceremony began with the Master of Ceremonies Phil Hulett who introduced the Cypress College Foundation scholarship recipient award to Cypress College student Mireya Alt.

“I know when you get that announcement that you are a recipient it just changes everything. I feel like God surprises me every second. Like this feels like a dream to me and so I really just live in the moment,” said Cypress College Foundation Scholarship recipient Mireya Alt.

After giving the first award of the night, another important part of the night took place, which was the go fund a need in which people and groups generously began to donate their money. All of the donations made during the live auction will help out Cypress College students with programs such as scholarships, emergency assistance, and programmatic efforts. The auction started from the highest bid which was $10,000 and would make its way down to the lowest bid of $100.

The go fund a need started strong as the first bidder donated $5,000 to get things underway. Donations made their way up to $21,100 and when it looked like things were going to stay put, a group donated $5,000 and in the end, $26,100 was raised in the go fund a need. Mireya Alt couldn’t believe the gratitude of the donors at the Americana Awards.

“I’m just happy for the students that are going to receive it. I know it was a blessing to me and it changed my life and my children's life. And the donors, just watching them do their thing, I’m blown away. I’d never thought I’d see it in person, it’s amazing. There are people that do so much for the community.

They run their own businesses… the fact that they come here to help more than they already do outside of the Gala, it’s amazing. I was just thinking how could people have a heart for people they don’t even know, it just surprised me. It was really nice to see people with big hearts in action. The numbers kept going up and I was just like those are some kind people,” said Alt.

The live auction finished off with a couple of grand prizes that included a lunch for 10 people with the President of Cypress College JoAnna Schilling that was sold for $1,000, a Los Angeles Rams preseason package that sold for $2,500, an African Safari package that was sold for $4,500 and vacation trips. These included Mexico and Kauai that were sold for a combined grand total of $8,750.

In the last part of the event, eight different recipients, from the cities of Anaheim, Buena Park, Cypress, Garden Grove, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, and Stanton, each representing a city that Cypress College serves, were awarded with a Citizens of the Year award and a medal for their contributions and hard work they put into making their city a better place to live in.

“ It’s a great time to get together… a great opportunity to celebrate the success of each of the communities and to pay back and thank and support the students,” said Vecchiarelli.

Opinion: Lakers Tank Season

To say the Lakers season has been unsuccessful is an understatement. With three games left in the season, the Lakers are currently sitting in 11th place of the Western Conference with a record of 31-48.

This will be the second time the Lakers will miss the playoffs since LeBron James’ arrival to L.A. in 2018. According to the Las Vegas oddsmakers, the Los Angeles Lakers were selected as the odd favorites to win the 2022 NBA championship ahead of teams like the Brooklyn Nets, Milwaukee Bucks, Golden State Warriors, and Phoenix Suns.

During the offseason, the Lakers acquired All-Star guard Russell Westbrook from the Washington Wizards. This choice received mixed reactions all over the basketball world, as many viewed Westbrooks’ style of playing would not fit in with LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

The Lakers would go on to sign veteran players Dwight Howard and Rajon Rondo, who were part of the 2020 championship run with the Lakers, Carmelo Anthony, and Trevor Ariza all of who are future Hall of Famers and near the end of their basketball careers. On paper, this Lakers team looked to be unbeatable and not to be messed with.

But the Lakers season didn’t start as the purple and gold would hope for and things didn’t get any better. LeBron James suffered an injury at the beginning of the season that kept him out for eight games in which the Lakers went 3-5 and were sitting with a record of 10-10 in the first 20 games of the season.

It was very visible early on in the season that the Westbrook trade really wasn’t going to work out. Turnovers were a clear issue with Westbrook as he leads the NBA in turnover this season. His selection of shots during the game didn’t help out either, and everyone began to question if Westbrook should even be the starting point guard for the Lakers and instead come out from the bench.

Another problem the Lakers have dealt with this season is Anthony Davis’ injuries throughout the whole season. The power-forward has only played 40 games this season. Davis went down with an MCL Sprain injury in December and missed 17 games. Davis was able to come back in late January but suffered a mid-foot sprain in mid-February that kept him sidelined until the beginning of April just as the Lakers were fighting to be in the play-in tournament.

Before the All-Star break in February, the Lakers were in a good position to be part of the play-in tournament with a record of 27-31. After the All-Star, break the Lakers completely collapsed. The Lakers have only managed to win four games and have lost 17 giving them the second-worst record since the All-Star break.

The Lakers experienced a similar situation back in the 2012-13 season when the Lakers acquired All-Star center Dwight Howard and two-time MVP, Steve Nash, to play alongside Kobe Bryant. The Lakers struggled all season long and were in jeopardy of missing the playoffs but eventually secured the seven-seed spot that put them in the Playoffs. Unfortunately with three games left in the season, Kobe Bryant tore his achilles in a game versus the Warriors, and the Lakers were eventually eliminated in the first round of the playoffs against the San Antonio Spurs.

The Lakers weren’t able to secure a spot for the play-in tournament and have completely wasted LeBron James’ year 19 in the league. This team was badly assembled from the beginning. The majority of this team was signed under one-year deals and most of them won’t be returning to play next season.

The Lakers have nothing to look forward to in the draft for next season as they have no access to 1st round picks until the year 2026. Coach Frank Vogel will most likely not be returning as the head coach of the Los Angeles and the Lakers will have to completely shake up their roster for next season.

Cypress defeats Fullerton college in hopes of securing a last minute playoff spot

Cypress captain Nomar Ibarra attempts to give a long through ball to his teammates up in the front

Cypress defeats Fullerton college in the last game of the season.

The chargers finished in third place of the Orange Empire Conference with a record of 9-6-5 and with this win the Cypress keep their playoffs hopes alive and aspire to secure a last minute spot.

Fullerton college started game by gaining possession of the ball and immediately took control of the game and in the fifth minute of the game the hornets could’ve gone up in the scoreboard but their goal was disallowed by an offside call by the referee preventing Fullerton college from going up in the scoreboard.

Cypress had their first opportunity of the game in the 12th minute of the game after sophomore forward Gustavo Oleta outside the box shot went over the crossbar keeping the game scoreless.

As the clock ran through the 28th minute mark freshmen forward Nima Ahmari had a big chance for the hornets after an inside the box header but was denied by freshmen goalkeeper Alex Felix after an extraordinary one handed save.

Felix had a very productive game having nine saves and keeping a clean sheet for the chargers.

Before the end of the first half freshmen defender Cal Richards had a solo run through the left side making his way passed a hornet defender and made his way to the inside of the box where sophomore goalkeeper Andres Ramirez was required to come out of is box leaving his goal opened and forced Richards to his shot but was saved by sophomore midfielder Pablo Salazar before crossing the goal line keeping the game 0-0 going into halftime.

“A tough first half, we struggled… we’re just sitting to deep… we’re just not pressing and giving to much space,” said Cypress Head Coach Cristan Rus.

Cypress defender Cal Richards looks to pass the ball to his teammates before being pressured by the hornets forward Jose Luis Ruelas Jr.

The second of half became a different story has Cypress began to put more pressure on the hornets defense and made it more difficult for Fullerton to come out playing with the ball from their goal line and keep possession like they did in the first half.

“The second half we kind of change some things around… we put them under pressure a little bit… It kind of forced them to play longer balls,” said Rus.

In the 65th minute of the game Cypress came very close to going up in the game when freshmen defender Carlos Daniel Nava tried to put the ball over the goalkeeper’s head but Ramirez was quick to react and deflect Nava’s shot.

Just two minutes later in the 67th minute of the game Cypress was awarded a penalty kick after the referee detected a hand ball inside the box against Fullerton.

The player in charge of the taking the penalty kick for Cypress was the chargers captain sophomore midfielder Nomar Ibarra who calmly put the ball behind the net scoring his seventh goal of the season putting Cypress up on the scoreboard 1-0.

From there Fullerton went on the offensive and began to play the long ball game and began to put pressure on the chargers defense.

Things took a turn for Cypress in the 85th minute of the game when freshmen defender RJ Caroll was given a red card for bring down Fullerton’s forward as the last man.

The chargers were forced to defend with 10 men during the last minutes of the game and were able to hang on and come out victorious.