Sports

For Oilers, and Richmond, a night of pride in defeat

Forty-five minutes after the North Coast Section quarterfinal playoff game ended, and they had lost, the boys from the Richmond High School soccer team came out of their locker room and walked back toward the field. Still wearing their jerseys, under their red team jackets, they looked like they might be trying to play another match. Instead, the players slowly trickled to the center of the field and waited for their other teammates to catch up. Family and friends, who…

Lady Eagles fight back, lose semi-final game against Salesain

Tears came early for the Kennedy Lady Eagles Thursday night. As teammates practiced free throw shooting during halftime, senior shooting guard Susan Valiphone sat on the bench and kept to herself. Down only three points with two quarters to go, tears trickled down her cheeks. On paper Kennedy and Salesian looked like a good boxing match. Both teams were nearly 20 games over .500. But in person the Lady Eagles looked like a high school team, and Salesian, with their…

Lady Eagles win first tournament game in more than 10 years

Eleven-and-zero. That’s the Kennedy Lady Eagles home record this year. And if they win three more home games this week they’ll call themselves Tri-County League champs. After the final buzzer sounded on Tuesday night, and the song “Another One Bites The Dust” boomed over the loud speaker, the number two-seeded Lady Eagles huddled together at midcourt with fans to celebrate their 73-68 tournament victory over six-seeded St. Patrick/St. Vincent Lady Bruins of Vallejo. According to Lady Eagles head coach Rae…

Richmond boys’ soccer takes on Dougherty Valley in first round of NCS playoffs

The Richmond High School boys’ soccer team will open its North Coast Section playoffs tonight when they play host to Dougherty Valley High School at 7:00 p.m. Richmond, which owns a 15-4-5 record on the season, was rewarded for its strong play this year when the seeding for the Division 1 bracket was announced last Sunday. Although the Oilers lost 2-0 to St. Mary’s High School in the Tri-County Athletic League playoffs championship match last Saturday, the Oilers still received…

Kettlebell Sport Classic draws competitors from around the globe

On Saturday, 39 competitors from around the world competed at Richmond’s Ice Chamber to see who could lift cannonball-like weights over their heads the most times in the Bay Area’s first-ever Kettlebell Sport Classic. For 12-year-old Rylee Reeves, lifting a 22-pound weight over her head 94 times with her right arm, and 85 times with her left arm wasn’t a problem. The trick was doing it nonstop for 10 minutes. “It really didn’t get hard until the third minute,” said…

Winless and in the playoffs, a look back at the Richmond Oilers girls’ soccer season

At halftime of the Richmond High School girls’ soccer team’s regular season finale against St. Joseph-Notre Dame High School, the conversation between the Richmond High coach and players was not focused on the game. The Oilers had lost all 19 of their games so far in the season, in what had been a challenging and frustrating year. Unlike earlier matches, when the Oilers were down by scores of 4 or 6 to nothing, the game with the Pilots was tied…

Hercules stuns Richmond in overtime

If anyone that wears their heart on their sleeve it’s Richmond Oilers head basketball coach Rob Collins. And on Wednesday night there was no doubt the unease he felt as his team lost in overtime on Senior Night to the Hercules Titans 51-49. As the final buzzer sounded, and after both team shook hands at mid-court, Collins took his team to the locker room and quickly shut the door. The loss was the Oilers second in a row, and with…

Richmond Oilers defeat Berkeley High 3-2 in meeting of top soccer teams

Nine days after losing to De La Salle, the Richmond High School boys’ soccer team had another chance to take on a top soccer team in the area. This time, against Berkeley High School, the Oilers pulled out a 3-2 win. Monday night’s meeting with the Yellow Jackets was the Oilers’ final home game of the 2012-13 regular season, in which five of this year’s seniors were honored before the game began, and it came against a rival opponent that…