Time Out with Tyler Rustice (2016 Vintage High senior)

Vince D’Adamo: What have you enjoyed most about competing in athletics throughout your life?

Tyler Rustice: I have most enjoyed the relationships with teammates and opponents while competing in athletics. Also,  I have deeply enjoyed the competitive spirits that are seen while participating.

D’Adamo: What are your plans after high school?

Rustice: I plan on either attending the Santa Rosa Junior College to play baseball or go to a Junior College in San Diego.

D’Adamo: What might you choose as a major? What intrigues you about going that direction?

Rustice: I plan on going into sports medicine due to the fact that I love sports and have always been intrigued by medicine and science.

D’Adamo: What has been your favorite class here at Vintage High?

Rustice: My favorite class at Vintage high was Rich Anderson’s English class my Junior year.

D’Adamo: Within your family who have been the most influential people?

Rustice: The most influential people in my family are my mother, father, and my cousins, James and John.

D’Adamo: Name a historical figure, dead or alive, in or out of sports, that you would most like to meet.

Rustice:  would love to meet Brandon Crawford or Joe Panik.

Time machine: 2006 high school boys basketball: RVC at Calistoga

Sometimes you remember a game more so because of the energy of the home crowd than you do the performance of the host team on the court. The Calistoga High (CA) boys basketball team’s 71-61 win over the Rincon Valley Christian (Santa Rosa) Eagles would qualify as such.

While the Wildcats put on a strong display, the energy that the home crowd brought that night was a sight to behold. Every moment big and small was cheered, from a made Calistoga 3-point bucket to winning hustle plays.  

Setting the stage: Calistoga High athletics once epitomized the small-town where the community bled Green & White en masse. For whatever reason, and it’s hard to pinpoint when or how -- goodness knows everyone has their theories, things gradually changed as more local families sent their kids to schools outside the community, including but not limited to Cardinal Newman, Rincon Valley Christian, Healdsburg, Maria Carrillo and Upvalley neighbor St. Helena. Throughout the recent past, Wildcat athletics has seen a level of apathy. Translation, fans with passing interest turn out for a winner but not for mediocrity.

On January 31, 2006, Calistoga faced Rincon Valley Christian, which was an annual thorn in the Wildcats’ rearend, in boys basketball. The rivalry is one-sided. I do not know the exact numbers but RVC has had the upper hand far more often than not, at least in the recent past, but also because some aforementioned Calistoga families have sent their kids to RVC. All of that is another discussion for another time with a lot of conjecture.

As far as on the court, it was generally assumed that before the 2005-2006 campaign was underway, Calistoga and RVC would be on a collision course to fight it out for the North Central League II South title like two dogs going after one bone. The Wildcats were seeking their first league title in boys basketball since the 1992-1993 campaign.  

Thumbnail sketch of the game: Calistoga took its first significant step toward winning its first league championship in 13 years with a deceptively close 71-61 win over RVC behind a near capacity crowd that brought a lot of emotion.

The Wildcats raced to an early lead and fended off the Eagles by hitting crucial free throws and keeping their poise. Donnie McMahon led Calistoga with 25 points and seven rebounds. Jasper Eisenberg added 15 points while Elliot Ticen chipped in 13 points and six boards. Alex Nunez compiled six of the team’s 13 steals.

Andrew Davis led the Eagles with 27 points and 16 rebounds before fouling out of the contest. Lucas Hlebaros added 11 points and 12 boards.

The Wildcats led 32-14 late in the second quarter but allowed RVC to chip the lead to 43-38 at the end of three periods.

As the old saying goes in boxing, “styles make fights.” While the ‘05-’06 Wildcats were more disciplined in the halfcourt offense than years past, they still thrived mostly on getting easy buckets in transition with a pressing defense being the vehicle. The Eagles ran when they had numbers but prefered to dissect you with a disciplined offense with ball movement being the key.

If anything, Calistoga took too many shots early in the shot clock with its big lead when milking the clock would have been more prudent. The Wildcats, however, kept their poise for the most part.

Ticen started the fourth period with a putback bucket and Donnie McMahon hit crucial shots to keep the Eagles at bay in the fourth quarter.

Calistoga’s free-throw shooting was also a key note to victory as the Wildcats hit 17-of-25 for the game but it was enough to keep RVC from making a serious dent in the lead.

What it meant: RVC would win the next two matchups, 64-49 and 61-52 on its gym. The former came in the Castleberry Tournament in which the top four teams in the NCL II South qualify. The format is similar in principle to a college basketball conference tournament.

Because the two teams split the regular season meetings, both clubs were 9-1 in NCL II South, meaning each won a share of the league title. Calistoga needed a narrow 65-64 win at lowly Geyserville in order to preserve its share of the title.  

Neither club made a serious dent in the CIF North Coast Section Div. V playoffs. Calistoga earned the No. 10 seed, falling 70-63 at No. 7 Berean Christian (Walnut Creek). RVC earned the No. 6 seed, beating No. 11 University (San Francisco) 69-57 before falling to No. 3 seeded Cloverdale 67-55.  

McMahon and Davis wound up as co-MVP of the NCL II South. McMahon averaged 20 points, seven rebounds, seven steals and seven assists per game. Donnie McMahon, whose father Jack is the Wildcats' head coach, scored over 1,250 points in his three-year varsity career. Donnie McMahon's numbers could have been even gaudier but he frequently sat out the fourth quarter and part of the third of the Wildcats' blowout wins.

As for the aforementioned Jan. 31 game, the Eagles would finish the season stronger than Calistoga but without that performance coupled with an assist of the home crowd, winning a share of the league title doesn’t happen.

Time machine: 1999 boys basketball playoffs: St. Helena at Patterson

Some performances and groups of athletes, you simply never forget. The 1999 St. Helena High graduating class, particularly the male student-athletes, is one that those in the Northern part of Napa Valley, CA, have not forgotten. The class was headlined by the likes of Cliff Little, Adam Beattie and Logan Songer to name a few.

Songer scored 27 points to lead No. 10 seeded St. Helena to a 63-55 come-from-behind win over the No. 7 seeded Patterson Tigers in the first round of the CIF Sac Joaquin Section Div. IV boys basketball playoffs on the road. The Saints finished the contest scoring the last 16 points.

Setting the stage: Little and Beattie headlined a group that went 9-2 in football, reaching the playoffs for the first time since 1978. After much success from the 1950s to 1970s, the Saints had some lean years in football in the 1980s and part of the 1990s. That twosome plus Songer led the Saints to a 20-10 season in boys basketball to go along with the first and only postseason win under head coach Ray Particelli in 16 years (two stints).

The term chemistry gets thrown around too freely but this group of Saints had exactly that quality. That is the beauty of growing up in a small community, where kids grow up together on and off the field from as early as preschool.

I remember going to the Saints’ practice two days before the game, without batting an eye, Particelli looked at me and said, “St. Helena by eight.” Though getting there was a journey, he turned out to be right.

The Saints had another opponent -- the flubug. Three Saints players were saddled with the flu over the preceding weekend. Though the game would be played on Thursday, the team also had a three-hour bus-ride to Patterson. St. Helena had just five healthy players at practice on the preceding Monday. Particelli, however, believed that given this team’s competitive makeup, if they were close to full-strength, he liked their chances.

Thumbnail sketch of the game: Less than four minutes remained and the Saints trailed 55-49 and closed the game by scoring 14 unanswered points. Songer, who was 6-foot-6, started his high school career as a guard before his body sprouted into being a forward-center that had perimeter shooting ability. He started the rally with back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the game at 55-55.

Moments later, Little had a chance to give St. Helena the lead at the free throw line but missed both attempts. Songer rebounded the second miss but did not convert the initial putback. Songer, however, corralled his own missed putback and scored to give St. Helena a 57-55 lead. With 55 seconds left, a Little to Eric Deis layup made it 59-55 in favor of St. Helena.

What also stands out about Songer’s heroics is that he was one of the Saints saddled with the flu. He missed badly on two 3-pointers in the third quarter and appeared winded before helping his team off the deck.

Patterson led 28-26 at halftime before starting the third period on a 10-2 run to take a 38-28 lead. I remember Particelli calling time out and lighting into his team. From there, St. Helena went to their bread and butter -- Songer and Little. The latter complimented Songer’s aforementioned efforts with a double-double (15 points, 11 rebounds).

The Saints also had supporting cast contributions that loomed large such as Adam Beattie (three points, nine rebounds) and Deis (five points, six rebounds).

What it meant: In the long run very little. The Saints lost two nights later to Christian Brothers (Sacramento), which defeated Colfax for the SJS Div. IV championship. After the season, Particelli’s 14-year tenure came to an end. In the state of California, off-campus coaches (which Particelli was) are required to re-apply for their job every year. If an on-campus employee applies, he or she is given first priority. Athletic director Tom Hoppe, who was a physical education teacher, applied for the job and received it.

The Saints would compete in the SJS for one more season before rejoining the North Coast Section. Hoppe coached the team for two stints (1999-2007). Particelli coached again from 2007-2009. Hoppe coached again from 2009-2014. Joe Densberger has been the coach ever since.

St. Helena has not won a playoff game since that night and has had only pockets of success: 14-13 under Particelli in 2007-2008, 20-7 in 2010-11 and 19-8 in 2011-2012. The last two came under Hoppe. The ‘10-11 season included a North Central League I title, first league crown since 1986. Those are the lone plus .500 seasons since 1998-1999.

Time Out with Katelyn Butcher (2015 Calistiga High graduate)

Vince D’Adamo: What have you enjoyed most about competing in athletics throughout your life?

Katelyn Butcher: What I have enjoyed about competing in athletics is the people I am surrounded by, including both players and coaches. I have also been playing on most of the same teams as my younger sister, and have been coached by my mother. I believe it has brought us all much closer. Playing sports has also opened doors for me by giving me opportunities I would have never been able to take advantage of, such as softball and volleyball camps and clinics at big and small colleges.

D’Adamo: Now that you have had a taste of being outside of Calistoga, how much do you believe the experience has changed your life?

Butcher: Leaving the small town life has really opened my eyes to how lucky I was to grow up in a place like Calistoga. Living on your own in a big city is pretty scary if you don't know what you’re getting into. Staying in a small place I believe makes you a more conscious person about your surroundings and your own behavior. Being involved in a community like Calistoga has given me and many others the chance to gain experience that youth living in the city would typically not be able be involved with. I also have learned that I like small towns and hope to move to one soon.

D’Adamo: What is your major and where do you plan to go after Ohlone College?

Butcher: My major is business and that will soon change, to what I don't quite know. After I finish this semester at Ohlone, I will be packing up to go to Maui, Hawaii to finish school. I do not plan on playing sports for the school directly, but I do hope to be on both a club softball and volleyball team.

D’Adamo: What has the athletics/academics balance been like in college versus high school?

Butcher: In college sports and athletics are very intertwined. Although my official volleyball season is over, we have practice every other day, and study hall once a week, sometimes more. A decent GPA is required to be on the team, and even a higher GPA to play in competitions. After double practices, and coaching the team is still expected to spend extra time studying and put hours in at the tutoring center.

D’Adamo: Within your family who have been the most influential people?

Butcher: The most influential person in my family has been my mother. She is always there to not only teach me, but cheer me on. She has taught me not only how to play the game, but how to strive and be a good person with good morals when doing it. It was always hard having my mom as a coach, but she always pushed my to and passed my limits because she knew I could handle it.

D’Adamo: Name a historical figure, dead or alive, in or out of sports, that you would most like to meet. What would intrigue you about meeting him or her?

Butcher: If I could meet any person I think it would be Jenny Finch, softball pitcher for the USA Olympic gold team. I would love to meet someone with so much drive and passion for a sport. I have had experience with pitching and it ain't easy! I could listen to her talk for hours about her path to get to where she is as a talented, successful mother.

Time Out with Jim Weiler (NASCAR driver)

Vince D’Adamo: What type of cars do you currently race and which kind have you raced in the past?

Jim Weiler: Currently I race part-time in the NASCAR K&N West Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Inex Legends cars. I also make the occasional appearance to the local indoor Kart track. In the past, I’ve raced street stocks, modifieds,  sprints, midgets, Mazda Miatas, stock cars and Karts both on asphalt and dirt.

D’Adamo: When did you first take an interest in racing?

Weiler: I first took an interest in racing when I was 10 yrs old. My parents took me to Petaluma Speedway the local dirt track to watch the races and I’ve been hooked ever since. I was and still am fascinated by the looks of the race cars, the colors, the smells, the noise the excitement.  It really grabbed all of the senses.

D’Adamo: What do you do professionally?

Weiler: I consider myself a professional race car driver because I have made it to the highest levels in NASCAR. Unfortunately it hasn’t been consistent enough to pay the bills so to pay the bills I work for Comcast Cable Company.

D’Adamo: Between your personal and professional life, how much time do you have to devote to racing?

Weiler: As passionate as I am about racing it has really become both my personal and professional life.

The only way I am able to make this possible is to have a great support system in my family and friends. If you are a true racer, racing is your life. Long hours are spent working on the cars, looking for sponsors and most importantly spending time with the fans. To make it all work you have to surround yourself with people that share the passion of racing.

D’Adamo: In most any sport, you hear the term "relationship." How vital is that relationship between yourself and your pit crew?

Weiler: It’s extremely vital. There are some people that feel racing is not a sport. Its very much a team sport as it takes an entire team to create success out on the race track. It’s similar to football where there are 11 players on the field and each player has a job. There is an important relationship between coach and quarterback to lead the team to victory. Racing is no different. Each member of the pit crew has a job to help the team reach success. There is an important relationship between driver and crew chief that will lead the team to victory. In both cases if one part of the team underperforms, it can affect the entire team’s performance.

D’Adamo: While those with shallow knowledge of racing only think of speed, how much is involved in terms of strategy?

Weiler: I think there are three parts to success in auto racing, speed as you have mentioned, luck and strategy.

In professional racing, teams have a strategist that is responsible to compose a strategy that will give the best possible result. Teams have race day strategy meetings to ensure the entire team is on the same page with what strategy will be used to acquire the best possible outcome. There are factors such as luck, driver skill, and championship points implications that can help form a strategy for the team. Long and short term goals are another factor. Some teams will have a more aggressive strategy focusing entirely on the win while other teams take a more conservative approach and focus more on points or preservation of equipment. All the best strategy plans can be thrown out the window and changed when weather, human error and other factors come into play.

D’Adamo: Within your family, who have been the most influential people?

Weiler: The most influential person within my family has been my daughter Victoria. Her love,

encouragement and support has really helped me keep going when I was at my lowest points and wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue racing. She is my biggest cheerleader and no matter how I finished in a particular race, she is always proud of me. It makes everything OK and helps me move forward with not only my racing goals but life goals.

D’Adamo: Name a historical figure, dead or alive, in or out of sports you would most like to meet. What would intrigue you about meeting him or her?

Weiler: Alan Kulwicki former NASCAR champion who lost his life in a plane crash in April of 1993. I have always rooted for the underdog and Alan was just that. He was an underdog that rose up and beat the odds winning a NASCAR championship with a underfunded small team. The intrigue is how he was able to pull off such an amazing feat when nobody ever thought he could do it. I would want to know what makes a man like that tick. How he was able to overcome insurmountable odds to be a champion and how he was able to focus on his dream being one of the largest underdogs in the field. I would want to know all this to apply them to my own racing career and life.

Remembering Lori Nuss

Sometimes you get news that for the life of you does not make sense, nor is it fair. We are often told that life is not fair.

Though we tell ourselves to overcome any obstacle we encounter, well, it’s true, sometimes life is not fair.

I was scrolling through my Facebook page last Sunday morning and I see a picture of Lori Nuss shared by her sister-in-law, Holly Nuss. I never met Holly but got to know Lori well. Since I am Facebook friends with Lori, any picture that has her tagged will show up on my news feed. The picture contained information that Lori died on Sunday. I felt heartbroken the rest of the day and remain so today. Her obituary was released in the Napa Valley Register on Friday. Causes of death were not revealed but that’s immaterial. I get that we have no choice when our time comes but 59 is way too soon to be gone. In fact, I remember posting a Happy Birthday message on her Facebook page no more than a few days earlier.

In my ten years as a sports reporter in the Northern part of Napa Valley, CA, for the St. Helena Star and Weekly Calistogan, I had a chance to get to know many families. I miss that part of the job more so than covering games. Being a sports reporter in a small town lends itself to developing relationships. That dynamic can be a plus or a minus. The plus side is that those relationships can often result in friendships. Though I am no longer in the newspaper industry, I have kept in touch with many people from that time in my life.

The relationships in small towns can also be claustrophobic, so much so that while it is necessary to establish good relationships with parents, sometimes you have to keep them at arm’s length. However, when you meet one you have a great relationship with, you treat them like gold. In my world, Lori was gold.

I arrived on the Upvalley beat to cover St. Helena and Calistoga in January 2004. The Nuss family was one of the first ones I met as both of their sons wrestled for St. Helena High. Tim graduated in 2004 followed by Tyler in 2007. Tim qualified for the CIF State Meet during his senior year. Both of her sons were part of the glory years of Saints wrestling, during which time the team won 10 league titles in 11 years and a CIF North Coast Section Class A title in 2006 under former head coach Herschel Sandler.

High school wrestling tournaments are often all day affairs, mostly on Saturday, with a lot of down-time between matches. During that down-time were many conversations with kids, coaches, fellow media members and parents. Lori and Brian Nuss along with John and Lisa Montelli, whose son Tony graduated with Tyler in 2007 and was also a Saints wrestler, were regulars who showed up to meets near and far to support their sons. I had so many conversations with all four that I consider them friends. It did not qualify as a friendship as far as getting together socially because after all, we have our family lives. It was the type of friendship that when you see each other, there is an instant bond.

The Nuss family owned and operated a small family-owned winery, Vinoce Vineyards. After their sons graduated, I only saw them sporadically but when I did, the conversations were just like old times.

What I remember most about Lori’s personality was that she a perfect mix of New Jersey spit fire and sassiness along with a loving heart. Translation, she could cuss like a sailor and love like a saint.

Lori, though I’m in no hurry to get where you are going, I know we’ll meet again someday.

Garagiola was a true one of a kind

Do you ever have those days where you feel part of your childhood has left you?

I know I speak for many in my age group (do the math, I’m 43) or much older but that feeling reared its head when I got home from work on Wednesday to log online. I check my Facebook page and in the “trending” category is the death of legendary Major League Baseball broadcaster Joe Garagiola, who died at 90 years old.

At first glance, we should all be so blessed to live until 90. Look up the term “baseball lifer” in the dictionary and you may as well plant a picture of Garagiola right next to the words. You would have to look long and hard to find one that defined the term more than Garagiola. Heck, anyone that grows up down the street from Yogi Berra. The ironic backdrop to that story was that Garagiola was rated as the better prospect than Berra even though Berra wound up having a Hall of Fame career. To that, Garagiola quipped: “Not only was I not the best catcher in the Major Leagues, I wasn’t even the best catcher on my street.”

The St. Louis native played nine mostly nondescript seasons as a Major Leaguer for four different teams (St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Chicago Cubs and New York Giants). He was also well known outside of baseball for having been one of the regular panelists on The Today Show for many years and for his numerous appearances on game shows both as a host and panelist.

Though he was a ham and egger as a player, Garagiola’s impact as a broadcaster was undeniable.

After his career as a player ended, Garagiola turned to broadcasting in 1962. Most people associate him with his time as an NBC color commentator, most notably with Tony Kubek and Vin Scully. Garagiola later spent 22 years as a color commentator for the California Angels and later the Arizona Diamondbacks before retiring in 2013.

In my opinion, several others probably share it as well, Scully and Garagiola are the best baseball broadcasting tandem ever. That tandem was to network baseball broadcasts what Pat Summerall and John Madden were to the NFL. I know they did not have staying power like Madden and Summerall but their chemistry was similar.

I don’t remember the first game I watched that Garagiola broadcast but the first thing that appealed to me was that he had an Italian last name and his name was “Joe.” It reminded me of my dad, the one and only Joe D’Adamo.

Garagiola defined what a baseball broadcaster was. With sports like basketball or football, you expect broadcasters to carry themselves with some emotion. Baseball, however, is slower paced with more down time between pitches. In that format, you need to be a story-teller.

Having received my college degree in broadcasting before going into writing, I discovered that you can’t broadcast baseball the same way as you do football. Garagiola fit the baseball broadcasting mold like a hand in a glove. He had the perfect story-telling mentality for baseball broadcasts. Even if you had no connection as a fan with the ones that were subject to his stories, his folksy demeanor lured you into the story. If you were looking for someone to rattle off stats, Garagiola was not your guy but his story-telling approach was second-to-none.

Scully recently commented about how Garagiola’s preparation for broadcasts were second-to-none. I find that to be a very telling trait because sometimes you get a former player that becomes a broadcaster and they think they know it all but Garagiola took the opposite approach.

Garagiola came up as a broadcaster in a different culture, when broadcasters were the reporter of the story rather than the creator. Today’s broadcast climate has its share of shrill voices that think louder is better.

Garagiola was more than just a legendary broadcaster. He made his mark in other forms of media as well. He also wrote three different books: “Baseball is a Funny Game,” “It’s Anybody’s Ballgame” and “Just Play Ball.”

He also made his mark by supporting the presidential candidacy of Gerald Ford. As much of a lightning rod as politics is today, that would get people up in arms today. In addition, Garagiola was an advocate against chewing smokeless tobacco. He picked up that habit as a player but quit cold turkey in the mid-1950s.

Whether as a broadcaster or human being, I can honestly say there will never be another Joe Garagiola.

He’s probably enjoying a game right now at a ballpark in the sky.