The Aliso Niguel Surf Team is a hardworking group of male and female surfriders, who wake up before sunrise to do the sport they adore. Despite this, many students at Aliso aren’t aware of the existence of the surf team.
Grace James (11) says, ¨I didn’t realize that Aliso Niguel even had a surf team. I only realized it when we had a pep rally and the ASB sports committee was introducing the various sports for the fall season.¨
It’s understandable that surf wouldn’t get as much attention as football but having some students not acknowledge its presence is a bit appalling. Especially since the team has around 48 members- about 24 boys and 24 girls.
When asked about the attendance of surf matches, Coach Danny Werner says, “It’s usually boyfriends and girlfriends of the athletes, dedicated parents, early morning beach walkers, and coaches.”
Unfortunately, it is not easy to make the commitment to show up at 7 in the morning to watch two hours of surfing. However, as a school we still need to show our support by congratulating players on how well they have done this far in the season, making posters to show our school support, or making announcements about the team’s overall success during Wolverine+.
When asked about how well the team has done throughout the season and what needs improvement, Coach Werner says, “Everyone has been showing up to practices despite it being very early in the morning and their dedication to the sport was been amazing to watch- you can tell the athletes are actively trying to become the best they can be. As far as improvement goes we need to be better about our contest savviness.”
Contest savviness refers to when players on one team play more like individuals rather than one team as a whole. Even though they do compete individually, each player’s average scores are taken from the waves the players took then they are counted from a scale of 0.1 to 10.0 points. Then the team with the highest average score wins. With that being said, the team has to learn not to get frustrated about how they did or how their teammates did. Instead, they just need to focus on how to improve from a group standpoint.
To further convince someone that they should join surfing or support them, Coach Werner says, “Surfing is California’s state sport, so it’s been adapted and changed by the people of California and it’s a sport you can do for a lifetime. Also, the beaches here are breathtaking and it’s a true privilege to see them every day.”
Aliso’s next game is on Oct. 23 against the San Clemente Tritons, followed by a rescheduled game against their biggest rival the San Juan Hills Stallions.
