HOW PCC SPORTS OWNED THE PANDEMIC
By Kevin Seavers
Despite the many challenges of COVID, including financial stress for student athletes and a lack of fan support, two PCC sports teams won championships in 2021.
PCC sophomore Camila Sanchez-Tellez backpedaled from the net once she realized that Mt. San Antonio College kept the ball from hitting the gym floor. The Lancers volleyball team needed to serve up a little trickeration to keep Mt. San Antonio on their toes in the second leg of the SCC Championship game. Her teammate Bia Silva faked the pass to Paulina Lopez, and as it drifted backwards into Sanchez-Tellez’s realm, she leapt into the air, eye level with the top of the net, and cocked her hand back, almost grabbing her own ponytail. She drove the ball with enough force that the speed of the ball left defenders gasping for air once it reached the floor.
Simultaneously, down the hallway, through the double doors, the PCC football team was battling Grossmont College for a play-in bowl game. If they were able to come up with the victory, they would be rewarded with their first bowl game in 20 years.
The Griffins were down 10–0 late into the second quarter but were just outside the red zone. PCC linebacker and SCFA Defensive Player of the Year Lucio Rodriguez came in unblocked on 3rd down and took the Griffins out of field goal range. With one option left, the Griffin quarterback kept his eyes off his favorite target, only looking left before the ball was snapped. Everyone on the sideline started to wonder if the play was going to Perry Steele who finished the game with 8 receptions for 116 yards and a touchdown. At the snap, there was immediate pressure by PCCs Michelangelo Loretto, but the Grossmont quarterback scurried forward out of the pocket. That was the moment that Steele’s black and blonde dreadlocks finally stopped bouncing. It was Rodriguez again who made the play of the night, devastating Grossmonts plan to get in the end zone.
This wasn’t the first time that PCC had two successful sports teams during the same year. According to Robert Lewis, PCC Sports Information Specialist, the 2002–2003 Fall and Spring sports had three South Coast Champions. The women’s basketball team, women’s badminton, and the women’s swimming and diving team all won their conferences. There were simultaneous conference championships again in 2017 when the baseball team won its conference and the badminton team won its first ever state title. But the thing that sets this season apart is the fact that the women’s volleyball team went on a 18 game winning streak, earned the number two regional seed, and the men’s football team won a share of the conference and won the Southern California Bowl championship while managing the protocols and obstacles of an ever changing pandemic that some professional teams have yet to manage. The resiliency and focus that these student-athletes showed in two completely different gender sports with different skill sets while being successful is what makes this season special.
Not only were student-athletes expected to wear masks in practice and through early games and eventually get vaccinated towards the end of the fall season, but the volleyball team who finished the season 26–2 started practicing before the vaccine was available for their age group. One small community spread could have forced the Lancers to quarantine and forfeit games, ruining their almost perfect season. Saku Yoshioka of the volleyball team was nervous after the team had an early false alarm.
“It was definitely very scary,” Yoshioka said. “What if we can’t play anymore and our season is ruined because of it. Luckily that wasn’t the case.”
Yoshioka had come back to PCC even though she had been accepted to her dream school, UCLA. She had a hard time pulling herself away from her passion. Without a volleyball scholarship, she wanted to play her favorite sport one last time. A setback like a COVID-19 scare would have been a major disappointment.
For some like Sanchez-Tellez, it was their first semester on PCCs grounds even though she had spent the previous year taking classes online. Sports is the one environment that requires communication, bonding, and sometimes knowing your teammates better than they know themselves. Sanchez-Tellez had a very unique experience of meeting her teammates for the first time.
“It was kind of weird because, again, we only knew [each other] from the eyes up,” Sanchez-Tellez said. “During water breaks we’d all be social distancing and you’d see someone pull down their mask and think, ‘oh that’s that what [my teammates] they look like.’”
For others like sophomore outside hitter Nalani Young, she was happy to get out of the house.
“They told us that we were going online for classes, so then I was just stuck at home. It just all happened so fast. I had a very hard time. I wasn’t myself. I totally lost track of who I was. I was stuck in my room with my own thoughts and it was very hard, very very hard.”
Young became the first PCC student-athlete to be selected as an All-American of the American Volleyball Coaches Association. She was also selected to the All-State team and national third team. While averaging 2.54 kills per game, there is literally nothing that she can’t do in the gym.
This wasn’t the first time that an athlete in 2021 had mentioned their mental health as a concern. In the midst of the pandemic, two 24-year-old superstar athletes at the top of their games cited their mental health as the sole reason that they needed to take a break from their respective sport. 4-time grand slam singles champion Naomi Osaka and 4-time gold medalist Simone Biles walked away from the national spotlight in the midst of the Olympics and the French Open. Other athletes such as Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt have advocated for more mental health awareness for athletes. The pandemic made some athletes like starting offensive lineman Chris Cordova question whether or not they should quit their passion altogether.
“When we heard that school is going to be a straight online school, that you could not come on campus, and football season was canceled,” Cordova said. “I thought, ‘you know what, that’s it.’ I’m going to drop everything I’m doing and just start working. That’s what I had to do because financially, my family was in a struggle. So, I had to start working and I thought I’d never be able to play the game again.”
Adjustments had to be made in order to preserve the Lancers fall season. The equipment staff purchased new cleaning tools that would disinfect COVID-19. Dana Stoddard, a full time equipment attendant, spoke about some of the differences between this year and previous years.
“Let’s say that they were in the weight room,” Stoddard said. “It would be cleaned at the end of every day. Somebody would go in there, it would not be the equipment room. It would be facilities who would go in and clean the weight room at the end of every day. What happened was, we moved all of our classes onto the field. Everything was done outside and they gave us a list of the apparatuses they’d like to use. Dumbbells, barbells, plyo boxes, whatever it might be. When class finished. Let’s say it was a softball team that used X, Y, and Z equipment. We cleaned everything. We had a special disinfectant that was purchased by Pasadena City College through the CARES Act money and was a two-step process. A cleaning and then a disinfecting that we did between each class usage.”
Many athletes said that the protocols that PCC implemented lessened their anxiety about playing sports at PCC. The athletics department also went to the lengths of purchasing sports specific cleaning and disinfecting solutions, so that they could clean the helmets, shoulder pads, and other equipment. Even though their anxiety was lessened by the protocols, every student-athlete remembered the rapid tests that were given before game days or after the weekends, including Young from the volleyball team.
“We were tested three times a week,” Young said. “Definitely every Monday because its after the weekend. And then we would test Wednesday before game days because Wednesdays and Fridays are game days, so we would test Wednesday before game day and Friday before our game.”
PCCs football team faced an additional obstacle on top of COVID-19 and the new protocols. Head coach Robert Tucker was in his first year at PCC. What followed Tucker was a reputation for quick turnarounds at the community college level. In 2019, PCC went 6–4 under former interim coach Steven Mojarro and now assistant coach. At the time, it was their first winning season since 2008. But Tucker went out of his way to compliment the student-athletes and the previous staff for the success of the 9–2 record of the 2021 season.
“It’s accredited to coach Mojarro and the staff that has been here,” Tucker said. “The culture that has been carried on. There are really good kids in this program that have good character about them. And when you bring out those core values, you instill them, and repeat them everyday, you know you kind of get what you see.”
Every student-athlete was critical to PCCs successful football season, but each coach was just as important. Modern teams such as the Golden State Warriors, New England Patriots, and Los Angeles Dodgers have proven that if you get the smartest minds in a room, you can become successful. That doesn’t mean that veteran players didn’t have doubts about the new incoming coaches, but it didn’t dissuade them from reaching their full potential. Many met coach Tucker for the first time at a July meeting.
“Everybody was just iffy about him because he was a new coach coming to PCC,” starting linebacker Michelangelo Loretto said. “With Mojarro stepping down, it was just weird to have someone new run the program and him to bring on new coaches into this program. For me personally, I put all my trust in him, and by doing that it led us to a bowl game.”
Starting cornerback Kaydon Spens had similar feelings about the change of direction.
“It was definitely different,” Spens said. “It caught everybody by surprise, knowing that there was such a short time between the season starting and when he got hired.”
Coach Tucker was officially hired June 21. The Lancers first scrimmage was scheduled August 21, even though that game was eventually canceled. That means that Tucker had 62 days to get to Pasadena, hire a new staff, implement his style of play, and get buy-in from the student-athletes. With no scrimmages, the brand new Lancers would have to wait until Sep. 4 against Cerritos to see what they had.
That game may have been their worst the entire season. The new Lancers looked discombobulated. If this was what Tucker had brought to PCC, it was going to be a long season. They lost the game 22–10 and starting quarterback Kade Wentz went 14–27 for 115 yards and 2 interceptions.
“I think it opened our eyes and let us know this is where we’re at and this is what we need to work on,” Spens said. “I also feel like it brought our confidence up, playing against them. They’re a national division team. We’re American. That first week, I want to say that every game was a blowout besides our game. It was a cross division game, so I know there were teams losing by 80. When we came and brought that, everybody was shocked.”
Even though they lost their first game, their spirits remained high. Tucker led them through two winning streaks of four and five games after their first loss. The last obstacle remaining in the way of the football or volleyball team were the fans. No spectators were allowed on campus to watch any of the fall sports games. That means that motivation had to come from within. It also meant that parents and fans had to become surreptitious.
The football parents and fans started to watch the games from Parking Lot №4 on campus. It was adjacent to the length of the football field. Other than the marching band, it was their only audience. But the volleyball team wasn’t so lucky. They played in the Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium, so there was no secret access point. Both teams had access to view the games online, but the coverage was erratic. From time to time, the web site would go down or the sound wasn’t working. There were times where the broadcasters weren’t paying attention and were caught up having personal conversations.
“In the beginning we didn’t get to have fans here and that sucked a little bit,” All-American Nalani Young. “I feel like a lot of people play better when there’s a crowd, especially me. Because you feel that need to represent. Other than that, halfway through the season we were able to get fans, so all we really had to do was be careful of who we hung out with outside school and get tested every week.”
PCC posted on their social media site Oct. 18 that they would allow fans and spectators to visit Robinson Stadium and Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium as long as they wore a mask and completed a health survey. Some of PCCs opponents had fans since the beginning of the season. Most of the student-athletes felt that PCC was the last school to get back to normal. For a lot of the sophomores, this will be the last time their parents get to see them play a sport that they love.
In the end, the student-athletes at PCC did not allow any of the distractions of living in Los Angeles to deter them. They didn’t have to forfeit any games or quarantine a single player. The only question that remains is, can they do it again?
