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Photo by VYPE Media's Bradley Collier.
Year In Review: Top VYPE San Antonio Winter Sports Athletes
It's been a hectic, but successful 2019-2020 high school athletic year. While we have a break in the action, let's highlight the top VYPE San Antonio area athletes from the winter sports season (basketball, soccer, swimming and wrestling). For fall's top 10, click here.
No. 1: First-team all-state senior and 2020 Texas A&M signee Sahara Jones averaged 23 points, 8.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.5 steals in San Antonio Veterans Memorial's second UIL girls basketball state runner-up finish in three years.
No. 2: Sophomore Connor Foote earned three medals at the UIL 5A state swim meet, including first-place finishes in the 100 yard freestyle and 200 yard medley relay and a runner-up result in the 100 yard backstroke, in leading Alamo Heights to a bronze team medal.
No. 3: New Braunfels senior George Marsh won the UIL 6A 285-pound state boys wrestling championship.
No. 4: Cibolo Steele junior Traeh Haynes earned the UIL 6A 215-pound state girls wrestling title.
No. 5: First-team all-state senior Journee Phillips averaged 17.6 points and 6.3 rebounds in leading San Antonio Wagner boys basketball to its third state final four appearance in the past four years.
No. 6: Cibolo Steele senior and Texas A&M signee Evelyn Bruner earned a bronze medal in the 200 yard freestyle and a fourth-place finish in the 100 yard freestyle at the UIL 6A girls state swim meet.
No. 7: San Antonio Madison senior Jackson Kennedy impressed in his runner-up finish in the 100 yard backstroke and eighth-place result in the 200 yard freestyle at the UIL 6A boys state swim meet.
No. 8: Junior Patricio Parra Ramon recorded 133 points in leading San Antonio TMI Episcopal to its third TAPPS boys soccer state championship in the past four seasons.
No. 9: 2020 Nebraska signee Audra Clark finished Medina Valley's 20-4-1 girls soccer regular season with 98 points.
No. 10: 2020 UCLA signee Jillian Martinez contributed 87 points in San Antonio Madison's 21-1 girls soccer regular season.
For more sports coverage, follow Thomas (@Texan8thGen) and VYPE (@VYPESATX) on Twitter.
Looking to get more involved? Check out ShopVYPE for fresh gear that supports local schools and the VYPE U Ambassador Program. To sign up for the VYPE U Program, apply at VYPEU.com.
Image by VYPE Media's Bradley Collier.
Washington Wins Race For 2021 Vista Ridge Hooper Marotte
If you've followed Austin area high school girls basketball since 2017, you are very familiar with Cedar Park Vista Ridge star A.J. Marotte. Fans and recruiting experts could only guess where the three-time first-team all-state talent would commit to for college basketball and the day that she would make the announcement. If you predicted the University of Washington on March 31st, 2020, you are awarded a ding, ding, ding. She wrote in a tweet on Tuesday morning that she would continue her basketball career there after her 2021 high school graduation.
"I've been talking to UW for a little less then a year," Marotte said in an interview with VYPE. "They first saw me when I was playing in Spain with one of their [2020] signees, Jayda Noble. [Head] coach Jody Wynn explained to me that she takes her time really evaluating the character of the girls she recruits, not just their skills on the court. So, she said it takes a while for them to offer, but they eventually offered around the beginning of this year."
Marotte knows her current school, Vista Ridge High School, is over 2,100 miles away from the university in Seattle, so she planned a campus visit. Unfortunately, like a lot of things over the last three weeks, it got cancelled because of COVID-19, which is also known as Coronavirus. She decided to go ahead and commit to the basketball program because she has important connections there.
"It is pretty far from Texas, but I didn't want distance to dictate my decision," she said. "UW's staff is just amazing. They recently came for a home visit and I got to sit down and chat with coach[es] Jody and Derek Wynn and I just loved them. They are amazing people, as are the assistants, Paul [Reed] and Michelle [Augustavo-Fisher]. And I just love the culture and environment they've created at Washington, with the girls they recruit and what not. Also playing in a Power Five conference was a goal of mine and, although I had offers from many other P5 schools, UW was just the perfect fit for me."
Marotte's recruiting resume includes 10 Division I offers, but she couldn't pass up the women's basketball program at Washington.
"I am very excited to get out to Seattle and experience the city and my soon to be home," she said. "Washington just fit everything I wanted in a school. Amazing coaches, [it] recruited great girls [and] had a playing style I knew I could fit into."
An out-of-state move may be on the horizon for Marotte, but she is currently preparing for another extravagant season in Texas and Cedar Park. She wants to add to her very accomplished high school career during the 2020-2021 school year and move her high school team closer to two goals it just fell short of in the 2019-2020 campaign: advancing to the UIL 6A state final four and winning a state title.
"Cedar Park is on the up and coming," she said. "There's definitely a lot of people who still sleep on girls here. I'm very thankful I got to play for Vista Ridge. I remember being in middle school [and] dreaming about wearing one of those red and black jerseys. My coaches at Vista have taught me so much, not just on the court. They've taught me how to be mentally strong through adversity and we have definitely faced a lot of adversity in my time there so far. They've taught me things I will remember throughout the rest of my career and I'm so thankful I get to play at Vista Ridge and be a Ranger."
For more sports coverage, follow Thomas (@Texan8thGen) and VYPE (@VYPEATX) on Twitter.
Looking to get more involved? Check out ShopVYPE for fresh gear that supports local schools and the VYPE U Ambassador Program. To sign up for the VYPE U Program, apply at VYPEU.com.