As the new semester begins at Aliso Niguel High School, we anticipate another exceptional season for our winter teams.
The winter season has now started with each team playing its first couple of games. The winter sports teams include boys and girls soccer, basketball, wrestling, and girls water polo.
Each team is led by ambitious captains alongside their amazing coaches. These Captains are: Talan Chauncey (12). Ethan Sullivan (12), and Gavin Nobles (12) for boy’s soccer; Paige Balducci (10), Emily Trapp (11), and Alaina Villa (11) for girls soccer; Garrett Trayer (12), Charles Gass, and Mozamel “Mo” Hamid (12) for boys’ basketball; Khaisen Chen (12), Myles Sanchez (12), and Garen Keshishian (11) for boys’ wrestling; and Chloe Escobar (12) and Gabi Lueken (11) for girls water polo.
Soccer is one of the most popular sports played all around the world and Talan Chauncey and Paige Balducci are two of our fearless leaders for their teams.
Talan has been playing soccer for 13 years and all four years in high school. He has high hopes for his last season, hoping to make a good run for a CIF title.
They started their season off strong being undefeated in their preseason but lost a few during league. Talan’s main goal is to win a D1 CIF championship.
“I’ve built a great connection with my teammates at our school, and I will be a little sad when it’s all over,” comments Chauncey.
His goal after high school is to play soccer in college.
Paige Balducci is currently a sophomore at Aliso and is one of the captains of the girls soccer team. The team’s season has been going great so far with a score of 3-1.
She says that Aliso’s team atmosphere is amazing with all the coaches and players being supportive of each other.
“I think my next seasons at Aliso are going to be great and I’m super excited,” states Balducci.
Another amazing star for the competitive basketball team is Garrett Trayer. Garrett has been playing competitive basketball for 10 years and feels disappointed this will be his last.
Garrett and his team are aiming for a 20-win season which would only be the fifth in our school’s history. He feels the team has amazing chemistry on and off the court, being able to be competitive at the right times.
Although Garrett is an amazing basketball player, he is unsure whether or not to continue after high school.
Trayer says, “I am undecided whether I will play after high school. I have been considering just going away for four years and not playing basketball.”
Khaisen Chen (12) led the wrestling team throughout his last year. Khaisen has been wrestling for his entire high school career and has a record of 32-7 while also winning league.
His biggest motivator is the end of the season because if he doesn’t progress, he will have to stop competing. He and his team are very close and have bonded through their intense practices and long tournaments.
“I’m loving this season so far. I trained every day for a year and this is my last season so I’ve just been trying to have fun with the competition,” says Chen.
Khaisen plans to wrestle in college and his main goal is to place in state.
All of these athletes are amazing at what they do and we hope to see them continue their dominance. The Captains have a bright future ahead of them in both academics and athletics.
