Players of the Year selected after special season for Merced County high school sports
Baseball
Bo Valladao, Atwater High
Bo Valladao grew up around Atwater High School. His father Bob Valladao was the Falcons head football coach for nine seasons.
Bo grew up on the Falcons sideline and played football and baseball during his four years of high school.
So helping lead the Atwater baseball team to its first Central California Conference championship since 1987 this past spring was a special moment for Valladao.
“It was a great night,” Valladao said. “I had a lot of fun this season playing with my teammates. Winning CCC at the end was a great way to end it.”
Valladao was named the CCC Most Valuable Player after the Falcons senior went 9-2 on the mound with a 2.05 ERA. He struck out 102 batters in just over 61 innings pitched. Valladao also hit .463 at the plate with two home runs and he finished 19th in the state and fifth in the Sac-Joaquin Section with 40 RBIs.
Valladao is the Merced Sun-Star Baseball Player of the Year.
“Playing at Atwater, I knew most of the fans in the stands,” Valladao said. “I always wanted to play football and baseball at Atwater. Coach Pimentel was a family friend. I knew I wanted to play for him.”
Playing night games at Memorial Ballpark will be what he misses the most about playing at Atwater.
“The atmosphere is just different during night games,” Valladao said. “I think that’s what sets us a part from other schools. Merced plays some night games. We played every Friday night game under the lights. It’s a different vibe. I think we only lost one home game all year and that was against Manteca.”
Valladao was the winning pitcher in the final game of the season when the Falcons defeated El Capitan to earn a share of the CCC championship with the Gauchos and Buhach Colony.
Valladao said his hitting coach Jonathan Boyett and his pitching coach Ryan Sanchez helped him excel in both areas.
“I had great coaches and they helped me with my approach when I was hitting and pitching,” Valladao said. “It was definitely more of a challenge when I had to hit when I was pitching because pitching took up more of my focus, but I had some good games.”
Tennis
Erol Ayik, Merced High
After losing in the finals of the Central California Conference singles finals as a junior, Merced High’s Erol Ayik was motivated to win his senior year.
“I dedicated too many hours of my summer and free time because I didn’t want to lose again,” Ayik said. “It motivated me to quit all my other sports and focus on tennis.”
Ayik didn’t compete in cross country or basketball his senior year.
All his work paid off as Ayik went 18-0 in CCC singles matches, winning the CCC singles championship. He finished the season with a 20-1 record and helped lead the Bears to a third consecutive CCC team championship.
Ayik is the Merced Sun-Star Boys Tennis Player of the Year.
“I think this season was the most rewarding experience of my life,” Ayik said. “I can look back at this season with no regrets. I decided to devote my body and all my time to this sport and I gave everything I had.”
Ayik gave up golf during last summer. He gave up hanging out with friends plenty of times so he could drive to Fresno to work out with his coach.
“I chose to perfect my craft,” Ayik said.
Ayik is headed to UC Berkeley where he’ll major in data science.
“I’m going to miss the team environment,” Ayik said. “Not everyone in high school is an established player. Watching players who are picking up the racket for the first time as freshmen improve and playing alongside you as seniors is rewarding. Winning three straight championships shows how dedicated we were.”
Volleyball
Max Phong
Max Phong grew up watching his father play volleyball at the park in Merced. At about 8 years old, Max started playing defense in the games with his dad.
Phong fell in love with volleyball at a young age.
As a junior in high school, he’s still playing and playing well. Phong helped lead the Merced to an undefeated run through the Central California Conference and a league championship. He was named the CCC Most Valuable Player.
Phong is the Merced Sun-Star Boys Volleyball Player of the Year.
“This season we went further in the playoffs than we ever had and that was sentimental for us,” Phong said. “Being named MVP mean a lot to me. It shows me I can be a college player. I want to go somewhere.”
Merced coach Joel Garcia says Phong has great court vision and has emerged as a leader on the team the past two years, leading the Bears to back-to-back CCC championships.
“I started playing volleyball at a young age, I played in middle school,” Phong said. “I’ve always taken a leadership role. I’ve learned how to pick people up when they need it and help bring spirits back up.”
Phong says he’s always looked up to his dad and that’s why he started playing volleyball. He says he loves playing the sport.
“I love how it gets so intense during the rallies,” he said.
Phong split time at setter and outside hitter for the Bears, but says he loves setting.
“I love watching the ball get killed,” Phong said. “It feels good to set someone up with an assist.”
Fortunately for Merced and Garcia, Phong has another year to play at Merced. The Bears should once again be the favorites in the CCC again next year.
Track
Leonardo Cebrero
Atwater High School junior Leonardo Cebrero already has his main goal set for next season. The Falcons track star wants to make it to the CIF State Track & Field Meet.
Cebrero came close this season, finishing fifth in the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Meet in the 300 hurdles with a time of 39.95 seconds.
“Every day I’m going to be out there practicing,” Cebrero said. “I’m trying to get better every day. I’m hoping to get to the state meet next year.”
After a stellar season Cebrero is the Merced Sun-Star Boys Track Athlete of the Year.
“I was extremely happy with what I accomplished this season,” Cebrero said. “I felt all the hard work I put in actually paid off this year.”
Cebrero worked hard the past couple years, but with the COVID-19 pandemic the past couple years saw many track meets canceled and seasons shortened so it was tough not seeing the results pay off.
Cebrero was able to see his improvements this season.
His time in the 300-meter hurdles at the Masters finals was his personal best. He set a person best time in the 400 with 51.28 seconds at the Central California Conference Championship Meet. He also set a PR in the triple jump of 39 feet, 11.5 inches at the same CCC championship meet.
“To be honest, I didn’t expect my times to drop so much this year,” Cebrero said. “I liked seeing it. It motivates me to work harder.”
Cebrero says his favorite event is the 4 x 400 relay, because he likes competing with his teammates. However, he also enjoys the 400 and 300 hurdles as well.
“I like them because they are not all just based off athleticism,” he said. “There’s a lot of technique too. In the 400 you have to know when to conserve energy and when to go. I like the hurdles because you have to go over the hurdles as efficiently as possible to save time.”
Cebrero hopes his performance in track will lead to competing in college.
“My biggest hope is to get a scholarship for track or basketball,” Cebrero said. “I want to continue running as a college athlete.”
Golf
Chase Bird
Buhach Colony High School senior Chase Bird didn’t start golfing until he was a sophomore.
“During COVID hardly anything was opened so me and a couple buddies just started playing golf,” Bird said. “I found a love for it and started playing every day.”
Two years later, Bird finished as the top scoring golfer in the Central California Conference. Bird is the Merced Sun-Star Boys Golfer of the Year.
“I was very happy with what I accomplished,” Bird said. “I didn’t start golfing until I was a sophomore so I was glad to see all the hard work pay off.”
Once Bird started playing golf, he quit playing baseball to focus on his new sport.
His senior year was his best season, earning CCC Most Valuable Player honors and finishing second at the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III Championship.
Bird worked hard to improve his game year after year.
“I would say my biggest improvement was my consistency,” he said. “This year I didn’t have those big blow up holes. I kept the bad days to a minimum. I also worked a lot on my putting.”
Bird said he enjoyed watching his game evolve.
“I had a lot of fun golfing with my teammates,” Bird said. “Golf takes a lot of practice to get good so when you do see your scores going down it’s awesome. It’s really rewarding to see.”
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Swimming
Rob Carpenter
El Capitan High School junior Rob Carpenter was one of the top swimmers in the Sac-Joaquin Section this season. The Gauchos star finished second in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events at the Sac-Joaquin Section Championships.
Carpenter then got to compete against the top swimmers in California at the State Meet.
Carpenter is the Merced Sun-Star Boys Swimmer of the Year.
“It was a good season,” Carpenter said. “I did well at sections, made it to the state meet. I had two bad swims at state, but I think it was a good experience. Making it to state this year will hopefully help my senior year go a lot smoother.”
Carpenter won Central California Conference championships in the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.68 seconds and the 200 individual medley with at time of 1 minute, 55.82 seconds.
Carpenter then finished second in the 50 and 100 freestyle events at the Sac-Joaquin Section Championships with times of 20.93 seconds and 46.63 seconds, respectively.
“Coming into the finals I was seeded No. 1 in both events so I was little disappointed to get second,” Carpenter said. “But first and second are kind of the same because both qualified for state.”
Carpenter was still happy to finish second in two events in a section that includes almost 180 schools.
“It means a lot,” he said. “I competed against a lot of people. I started swimming at a young age so I had an early start, but I enjoy racing against that many people at the top level.”
Carpenter has set big goals for himself next year.
“I want to finish in the top eight at state,” Carpenter said. “Hopefully I can drop my 50 time to 20 seconds and my 100 time to the low 44 seconds.”
The 2022 honors selections were made by the Merced Sun-Star’s sports department.
All-Area Honors
Baseball
Cooper Lantz, Buhach Colony
Andrew Bakken, El Capitan
Jacob Reyes, El Capitan
Logan Baptista, Buhach Colony
Cole Hazel, Atwater
Isac Mandujano, Dos Palos
Landon LaPlante, Buhach Colony
Mitchell Hunter, El Capitan
Xavier Cardenas, Atwater
Kadyn Fillebrown, Buhach Colony
Spencer Lanz, Buhach Colony
Koen Heupel, Golden Valley
Jacob Ogilby, Mariposa
Derek Von Allman, Dos Palos
Aaron Martinez, Le Grand
Logan Mooneyham, Stone Ridge Christian
Volleyball
Christian Her, El Capitan
David Lee Hernandez, El Capitan
Felix Chang, Buhach Colony
Marcus Moua, El Capitan
Sartaj Dhillon, Livingston
Mateo Tangaan, Golden Valley
Julius Burelson, Merced
Richard Chang, Merced
Tennis
Nikhil Parikh, El Capitan
Daniel Chen, Merced
Carter Haugen, Merced
Jacob Friedman, Merced
Zon Moua, Merced
Track
Derek Taylor, Hilmar
Ezekiel Meza, Golden Valley
Jamarcus Phillips, Golden Valley
Azim Muldrow, Atwater
Colton Dukes, Atwater
Joey Costa, Pacheco
Delbert Davis, Golden Valley
Cristian Castro Merced
Jabari Phillips, Golden Valley
Raul Guitron, El Capitan
Luis Mincey, Golden Valley
Mark Carreiro, Los Banos
Julian Zamora, Livingston
Swimming
Carter Smoot, Merced
Easton Hamm, Merced
Jake Parker, El Capitan
Jordan Garcia, El Capitan
Jacob Sotelo, Buhach Colony
Trevor Knapp, Atwater
James Savage, Los Banos
John Paul Vanderpoel, Los Banos
Braxton Belerique, Hilmar
Golf
Preston Castleton, Golden Valley
Ricky Sullivan, Atwater
Braden Castleton, Golden Valley
Isaac Sheu, El Capitan
Jayraj Kahlon, Golden Valley
Ty Salvador, Hilmar
