Chowchilla’s Stewart named MVP
Last year, Chowchilla High star Anthony Stewart shared the North Sequoia League MVP with Liberty running back Wade Wallce.
This season, Stewart has the honor to himself.
The NSL coaches selected the Redskins senior as the conference MVP after Stewart rushed for 671 yards and 10 touchdowns in five league games.
If that wasn’t enough, Stewart went on to add 307 rushing yards and two touchdowns in playoff wins over a pair of NSL opponents, Kerman and Washington Union.
“It means a lot,” Stewart said. “There’s a lot of good players in our league.”
Chowchilla coach Alex Pittz felt Stewart earned the honor.
“It’s definitely well-deserved,” Pittz said. “He led the league in rushing and we played him all year at cornerback. He didn’t have big interception numbers because nobody really threw at him.”
Kerman quarterback Sean Chambers and Washington Union quarterback Ashanti Ross were named Offensive Players of the Year.
Washington Union’s Noah Beukers was selected as the Defensive Player of the Year and Panthers teammate Asanti Wormley was picked as Lineman of the Year.
Chowchilla sophomore Damon Perry picked up the final major award as the Underclassman of the Year.
“We brought him up at the beginning of the year and we really didn’t know where we wanted to play him,” Pittz said. “We started him out at strong safety as a backup, but he was only really playing special teams. During the Immanuel loss, we played him defensive end and he played well. After that loss we shuffled things around and put him at middle linebacker and we felt that was the turning point for our defense.”
The Redskins also had three players named to the all-NSL first team, including Stewart, who was named to the first team offense and defense.
Joining Stewart was offensive lineman Gary Nieuwkoop and linebacker Ronnie Reyes.
Chowchilla’s Dylan Rees, Gabe Sanchez, Danny Chavez, Perry and Joesph Faafiti were all named to the second team.
ABC Tournament on tap
The Ninth Annual Atwater-Buhach Colony boys basketball tournament tips off on Thursday at both schools.
The field is trimmed to just six teams this year after two teams backed out late.
“It kind of put us in a bind,” Thunder coach John Bliss. “So we’re going to do a six-team round robin with some tie-breakers to determine the champion.”
Bliss believes Roosevelt (1-0) and El Capitan (4-2) are the favorites coming into the tourney. The two teams will square off in the tournament opener at 6:30 p.m. at Buhach Colony. The Thunder (1-2) will host Livingston (3-2) at 8 p.m.
Atwater (2-3) will host Escalon (1-1) at the Nest at 7 p.m.
Roosevelt will travel to Atwater on Friday for the 7 p.m. game. On Friday at Buhach Colony, Escalon will play Livingston at 5:30 p.m. and El Capitan will play BC at 7 p.m.
On Saturday, Livingston plays at Atwater at 1:30 p.m. Escalon plays El Capitan at noon at Buhach Colony and Roosevelt plays the Thunder at 1:30 p.m.
Overall record will be the first tie-breaker to determine the tournament champion. If two or more teams are tied, it will go to points against and points scored if needed.
CCC vs WAC All-Star Soccer Game
Following the success of the CCC vs WAC All-Star Softball Game from last spring, the two leagues have put together a CCC vs. WAC Senior Boys Soccer Challenge for Saturday at Atwater High.
Kickoff is scheduled for noon. Admission is free.
The CCC team will be coached by Atwater’s Jimmy Brewer and Pitman’s Cesar Mercado. The WAC squad will be coached by Livingston’s Jesus Vega and Art Pulido.
The CCC team will be represented locally by Eduardo Cebrero (Atwater), Alex Rios (Atwater), Ivan Rios (Atwater), Brandon Alvarez (Atwater), Luis Lopez (Atwater), Victor Govea (Golden Valley), Sergio Valencia (Golden Valley), Jesus Cervantes (Golden Valley), Alfredo Arroyo (Golden Valley), Alfred Flores (Merced), Adrian Lomeli (Merced), Wilmer Pena (Merced), Saad Sohail (Merced), Leo Del Torro (Buhach Colony), Angel Hernandez (Buhach Colony) and Alan Acasio (Buhach Colony).
The WAC team will be represented locally by Juan Delgado (El Capitan), Juan Chavez (El Capitan), Alex Suarez (El Capitan), Andres Gonzalez (El Capitan), Chris Gonzalez (Livingston), Marcus Valencia (Livingston), Luis Cervantes (Livingston), Ricardo Garcia (Livingston), Diego Arroyo (Livingston), Rudy Garcia (Los Banos), Eric Preciado (Los Banos), Eric Martinez (Los Banos), Beker Zaza (Los Banos), Jesus Hijar (Los Banos), Leo Orozco (Pacheco), Alexis Flores (Pacheco), Armando Sandoval (Pacheco), Juan Vengegas (Pacheco) and Miguel Ortez (Pacheco.
This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 7:56 PM with the headline "Chowchilla’s Stewart named MVP."