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Noah Zamora, Manuel Calderon, Gilbert Zamora III, Isaiah Gudino, Ian Saldana, Serjio Gonzalez and Fabian Torres helped Ceres High’s boys tennis team improved to 3-3 in the Western Athletic Conference standings last week.

The fourth-place Bulldogs defeated the Grace Davis Spartans 6-3 on March 29 in Ceres.

“It’s right where I expected us to be,” said Coach Brandon Moring. “Guys are showing up to practice and working hard. They’re continuing to get better. That’s our focus.”

“It’s tough when you have guys that have never played before,” he added. “We don’t have a lot of experience. I’m trying to teach them the basic skills to be competitive. We got a good group. They want to win.”

Noah Zamora topped Tanner Gilbreath 7-5, 6-3 in No. 2 singles play.

Calderon topped Kaleb Santos 6-2, 6-0 in No. 3 singles play.

Gilbert Zamora III topped Tanner Bland 6-2, 6-3 in No. 4 singles play.

Gudino topped Chris Munoz 6-3, 6-2 in No. 5 singles play.

Saldana topped Jared Martinez 6-1, 6-0 in No. 6 singles play.

Gonzalez and Torres topped Colin Kimball and Wyles Mall 6-2, 6-1 in No. 1 doubles play.

Eduardo Ramirez lost 6-2, 6-4 to Diego Cardenas in No. 1 singles play.

Ceres High dropped its No. 2 and 3 doubles matches via forfeit.

“It was a good team victory,” Moring said. “We had some strong performances. All the guys played well.”

Ceres High didn’t field a boys tennis team last spring due to a lack of interest.

“If I can get guys interested in playing the sport, we’ll have numbers and be able to compete,” Moring said.

The Bulldogs will play three times this week.

Ceres High will travel to Modesto today to face Grace Davis and host Johansen on Thursday.

“The goal is to play better than we did last time,” Moring said. “We still got a lot of work to do.”

Hawks split

Central Valley’s boys tennis team secured a split in Central California Conference play last week.

The third-place Hawks improved to 7-3 in the CCC standings following Thursday’s 7-0 triumph over the Livingston Wolves.

Ruben Hernandez, Lourdvic Polanes, Willy Souksavath, Enrique Lepe, Jesus Hernandez, Aiden Sinlapaxay, Joaquin Pulido, Jose Alvarez and Kai Sivongxay contributed to Central Valley’s point total.

Ruben Hernandez prevailed, 6-0, 6-0, at No. 1 singles.

Polanes prevailed, 6-0, 6-1, at No. 2 singles.

Souksavath prevailed, 6-3, 6-3, at No. 3 singles.

Lepe prevailed, 6-0, 6-0, at No. 4 singles.

Jesus Hernandez prevailed, 6-1, 6-1, at No. 5 singles.

Sinlapaxay and Pulido prevailed, 6-2, 6-3, at No. 1 doubles.

Alvarez and Sivongxay prevailed, 6-1, 6-1, at No. 2 doubles.

Central Valley sustained a 6-3 loss while battling El Capitan on March 29 in Ceres.

Ruben Hernandez, Omar Lepe and Enrique Lepe contributed to the Hawks’ point total.

Ruben Hernandez prevailed, 2-6, 7-6, 6-4, at No. 1 singles.

Omar Lepe prevailed, 6-2, 6-4, at No. 2 singles.

Enrique Lepe prevailed, 6-4, 6-4, at No. 5 singles.

Polanes lost 6-2, 6-2 at No. 3 singles.

Souksavath lost 7-5, 7-5 at No. 4 singles.

Jesus Hernandez lost 6-2, 6-1 at No. 6 singles.

Sinlapaxay and Pulido lost 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 at No. 1 doubles.

Alvarez and Braulio Arellano lost 7-5, 3-6, 10-8 at No. 2 doubles.

Sivongxay and Dylan Chauhan lost 6-4, 6-1 at No. 3 doubles.

Central Valley’s boys volleyball team lost for the second time this season to Merced on Thursday.

The Hawks dropped to fourth place in the Central California Conference standings following their 25-17, 25-17, 25-11 loss to the first-place Bears in Central California Conference play.

Central Valley fell to 9-5 overall and 3-4 in league play.

“Merced has one of the better teams in the area,” Hawks’ said Coach Donald Dudley. “They do everything right. When you play a team like that, you have to minimize your errors.”

Central Valley suffered a 25-16, 25-13, 25-11 loss at Merced on March 8.

The Hawks showed marked improvement during the second meeting.

Central Valley challenged Merced in the first and second sets.

“We looked better as a team this time,” Dudley said. “We didn’t have any rotation errors. We improved our communication. We did a great job getting digs. We could have stolen a set if we received better.”

Yoshi Kumar had 12 digs, nine kills, two blocks, one ace and one assist in defeat.

Osvaldo Pelayo had six assists and five digs.

Gerardo Pentoja had six digs and one kill.

Guillermo Garibay had five digs, four assists, three kills and one ace.

Gage Mastropierro had four digs and one ace.

Bernardo Pulido had three assists, two digs and one kill.

Andrew Dong had two blocks.

“We passed the ball really well,” Dudley said. “But we couldn’t get the ball to our best player. They did a great job of identifying him (Yoshi) and serving away from him.”

Central Valley will face Buhach Colony and Patterson this week.

“This is the most important week for us,” Dudley said.

The Hawks are battling for the CCC’s fourth-and-final playoff spot.

Central Valley has never qualified for the postseason.

“Everyone has the same goal,” Dudley said. “We want to compete and have fun.”

Dawgs no longer winless

Ceres High’s boys volleyball team won one of its two league matches last week.

The Bulldogs snapped a seven-match losing streak with 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 29-27) road victory over the Los Banos Tigers on March 28.

Ceres High avenged a 3-1 loss.

Yair Munoz led the Bulldogs with 12 digs, 10 kills and three aces.

Ceres High lost 3-1 (20-25, 26-24, 26-24, 25-16) to Grace Davis on March 30 at Phil de la Porte Gymnasium.

The Bulldogs dropped to 2-10 on the season and 1-7 in the Western Athletic Conference standings.

High school athletic programs throughout the Sac-Joaquin Section had their seasons cut short in 2020-21 due to COVID-19 safety concerns.

Ceres High’s and Central Valley’s softball teams are looking forward to playing a full slate of games this spring.

“It will be awesome to get an actual full season in post COVID,” Hawks’ head coach Regina Selfridge said. “Last year was rough. We had girls playing multiple sports at the same time … You should have seen the practice game schedule I had to create and share with the girls. It had to be color coded for wrestling, volleyball, and softball. It was nuts.”

Added Bulldogs’ leader Mike Corsaut: “It’s been two years since we had a full season. I’m just glad we get to play. I’m excited to see what happens.”

Ceres High will look to continue its winning ways in 2022.

Central Valley is trying to establish a tradition of excellence.

“Ceres High is known for its softball program and how well it’s done in the past,” Corsaut said. “We want to carry that forward.”

“The goal as it is for every season is to do better than the previous season,” Selfridge said. “Along with that, we want the girls to grow as players not only in their defensive position and batting capabilities, but in their knowledge of the game.”

Ceres High has 15 players on its roster.

Alayna DeLaTorre (Sr.), Brooklyn Heffernan (Sr.), Celeste Leon (Sr.), Sehren Martinez (Jr.), Isabela Giraldes (So.) and Aryana Maldonado (So.) are returners.

Tatum George (Jr.), Natalie Gomes (Jr.), Kareli Hernandez (Jr.), Emma Johnson (Jr.), Antonia Solis (So.), Alizae Cole (Fr.), Ava Montesdeoca (Fr.), Nani Sagapolu (Fr.) and Maddie Schultz (Fr.) are newcomers.

Heffernan was voted Most Valuable Player of the Western Athletic Conference South Division as a junior. She posted a 10-0 record in league play with a 0.88 earned-run average, 118 strikeouts, seven complete games and one save. Heffernan batted .375 on the year with one home run, one triple, seven doubles, 17 RBIs, 22 runs and four stolen bases. She had on-base, slugging and on-base plus slugging percentages of .485, .589 and 1.074, respectively.

Giraldes and Martinez both earned first-team all-league honors.

Giraldes batted .606 with two triples, four doubles, 21 RBIs, 23 runs and six stolen bases.

Martinez batted .450 with seven doubles, 20 RBIs, 30 runs and 10 stolen bases.

Central Valley’s roster consists of 10 players.

Kylie Maines (Sr.), Julia Roton (Sr.), Soria Corona (Jr.), Janessa Godinez (Jr.), Micaela Martinez (Jr.), Victoria Lloyd (Jr.), Allie Peterman (Jr.), Priscilla Hamidat (So.) and Jannet Valencia (So.) are returners.

The Hawks have one newcomer in Destiny Herrera (Fr.).

Lloyd, Peterman and Godinez were selected to the WAC South First Team as sophomores.

Lloyd batted .595 from the plate with 12 RBIs and 10 runs.

Peterman batted .537 with one homer, one triple, six doubles, 20 RBIs and eight runs.

Godinez batted .436 with three doubles, eight RBIs and 19 runs.

Ceres High and Central Valley finished first and third, respectively, in the WAC South during the 2021 COVID-shortened season.

The Bulldogs and Hawks will compete in different leagues this year as the conferences they previously belonged to prior to temporary realignment reassembled.

Ceres High and Central Valley returned to the WAC and Central California Conference.

“We don’t care which league we play in,” Selfridge said. “We just want to play the sport we love.”

The Bulldogs and Hawks compiled 15-0 and 8-7 records, respectively, versus WAC South competition a year ago. Central Valley compiled a winning record in league play for the first time in program history.

Ceres High’s 2022 conference schedule features games against Beyer, Johansen, Grace Davis, Los Banos, Pacheco, Lathrop and Mountain House.

Central Valley will play Patterson, Atwater, Buhach Colony, Merced, Golden Valley and El Capitan during the CCC season.

The Bulldogs and Hawks will be vying for postseason berths.

Ceres High had a combined record of 28-1 while claiming league titles in 2021 and 2019.

“A successful season is one in which all the girls have improved their batting average from the beginning of the season and we have improved our defense,” Selfridge said. “Playoffs are always a possibility.”

“They can be as good as they want to be,” Corsaut stated. “It comes down to executing.”

Farmworkers and supporters on Thursday held a Ceres rally urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to support a state bill designed to increase voting options for farm laborers in union elections.

About 40 people rallied for the Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act, which supporters say continues the legacy of late labor leader Cesar Chavez.

Secili Perez Lopez, a Madera farmworker who harvests cherries, lettuce, peaches and tomatoes, waved a United Farm Workers flag on East Hatch Road near Highway 99. While the union has backed her up, Perez Lopez said farmworkers have told her their supervisors intimidated them during union elections.

“Thanks to (Cesar Chavez), we have a voice and a vote, but we still have a way to go,” Perez Lopez said. “There’s always improvement to do.”

The proposed state bill, AB 2183, would allow farmworkers to vote in union elections by mail. Farmworkers must currently vote at polling places, usually workplaces, designated by the Agriculture Labor Relations Board.

United Farm Workers and the UFW Foundation organized 13 rallies for the bill, including the one in Ceres, on Cesar Chavez Day. Instead of a day off, UFW Secretary Treasurer Armando Elenes said the holiday calls for continuing to improve the conditions of farmworkers. Elenes said he often hears of supervisors pressuring farmworkers to vote against unionization.

“The fear, the harassment they endure is terrible,” Elenes said. “This bill would give them more comfort to be able to vote for a union and select their representatives from the comfort of their own home. It’s just like we vote for (government officials) in our own homes.”

Elenes, who grew up in Hilmar and attended Modesto Junior College, referenced how Newsom vetoed a previous version of the bill in September. In his veto letter, Newsom said the bill included procedural issues regarding collecting and reviewing ballot cards. Assemblyman Mark Stone, D-Monterey Bay, introduced both the previous and current bills.

Farmworkers knocked on doors to urge people to vote against Newsom’s recall last year, so Merced resident Diane Mejia said the governor needs to support them. She joined the Ceres rally Thursday as a UFW supporter, noting her farmworker father marched with the union in the 1970s.

“It’s time that people realize that we put certain people in office and they need to support the people themselves,” Mejia said.

Sebastian Cervantes also came to the rally from Atwater to show solidarity and appreciation for farmworkers who feed society. Holding a sign saying “we feed you” and chanting “sí, se puede” as drivers honked, Cervantes said he hoped to raise awareness of Cesar Chavez’s work to organize the UFW. Other activists credited for creating the UFW include Dolores Huerta and Larry Itliong.

The UFW also started an online petition urging Newsom to sign the Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act.

“Farm workers will make it clear to CA’s Gov. Newsom that a living legacy to Cesar is not just proclamations and holidays,” the petition says. “It’s meeting with those most impacted when making public policy decisions. It’s taking decisive steps to make real change.”

The Jacobs Foundation today called on investors, edtech companies, and academia across the Middle East and around the world to deepen their collaboration and integrate more research in the development of new edtech products. The Foundation also urged edtech venture capital funds to make greater use of evidence in investment decision-making, as analysts predict that the edtech sector in the Middle East, currently worth around $4 billion, will grow to over $7 billion by 2027.[1] Globally, analysts predict that up to $150 billion of venture capital could be deployed in edtech by the end of this decade.[2]

The Jacobs Foundation made this call ahead of next month’s World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, where world leaders will convene under the theme, ‘Working together, restoring trust’. They will look at the role of public-private cooperation in rebuilding trust and shaping a more sustainable future. This comes after the pandemic disrupted learning for more than 1.5 billion students throughout the world.[3]

To further this drive, the Jacobs Foundation has committed CHF 40 million ($44 million) globally to foster greater cooperation between edtech investors, start-ups, and researchers. These key actors will convene in May this year at the Jacobs Foundation’s Unlocking the Impact of Edtech Conference in Germany, where they will discuss ways to make more and better use of evidence in edtech.

Last year, edtech start-ups around the world received a combined total of $20 billion in venture capital funding,[4] 40 times more investment than in 2010, and triple the pre-pandemic investment levels of 2019. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, in its Digital Education Outlook 2021, called for more evidence on how technology benefits learning, as well as clear criteria on how it should be assessed.[5] A study published earlier this year by the US non-profit Digital Promise found that products grounded in learning sciences research are more likely to continuously improve and match students’ and educators’ needs.

Fabio Segura and Simon Sommer, co-CEOs of the Jacobs Foundation, said:

“With dizzying amounts of investment pouring into the Middle Eastern edtech sector, we must not lose sight of what really matters: whether these new innovations truly benefit children’s learning.

“Today we are calling for a culture shift in edtech. The Middle Eastern investment and research communities should work together, and with partners around the world, to integrate more evidence in the development of edtech products. This will be a win-win for everyone. Investors will make better decisions, start-ups collaborating with researchers will improve their products, and students will have access to edtech that benefits their learning. There is not a moment to lose for students disrupted by Covid.”

To bridge the gap between learning science and edtech, the Jacobs Foundation has committed CHF 40 million ($44 million) to three interlinking initiatives around the world. It has launched the Learning Edtech Impact Funds (LEIF), deploying CHF 30 million ($33 million) through leading edtech venture capital funds that are committed to investing in projects backed by research. These partner venture capital funds include BrightEye Ventures, Educapital, Learn Capital, New Markets Venture Partners, Reach Capital, Rethink Education, Sparkmind.vc, Owl Ventures, and Kaizenvest.

The funds will work with the Jacobs Foundation’s newly launched edtech research centre at the University of California Irvine, Connecting the Edtech Research EcoSystem (CERES). CERES will collaborate with edtech companies and produce cutting-edge scientific research into how children learn through technology. The Jacobs Foundation has awarded CERES a five-year CHF 10 million ($11 million) grant to bring together experts in computer science, human computer interaction, education, and psychology.

To further support a large-scale shift towards evidenced based investment, the Jacobs Foundation will spearhead EdFIRST – a proposed alliance of leading foundations that will work together to encourage the use of evidence in edtech investment decisions. Fabio Segura and Simon Sommer added, “This alliance ultimately wants to strengthen the edtech ecosystem and support a large-scale shift towards evidence for impact in edtech to shape education policy globally by 2030 and beyond.”

Marie-Christine Levet and Litzie Maarek, Founding Partners of Educapital, said:

“At this historic juncture in education, we have an opportunity to shape technology’s impact on learning and schools. By combining our deep knowledge of the start-up ecosystem with researchers’ expertise in testing whether and how innovations truly benefit learning, we can ensure funding is directed towards innovations that will make a real difference in children’s learning.”

Dr. Gillian Hayes and Dr. Candice Odgers, co-Leads of Connecting the Edtech Research EcoSystem at the University of California Irvine, said:

“From AI to VR, edtech is an incredibly fast-growing field. We look forward to strengthening ties within the vibrant edtech ecosystem, in particular collaborating with investors and edtech companies to embed research into edtech development and evaluation. By working together, we will be able to truly capture edtech’s great promise.”

-Ends-

The Jacobs Foundation is active worldwide in promoting child and youth development and learning. The Foundation was founded in Zurich by entrepreneur Klaus J. Jacobs and his family in 1989. As part of its Strategy 2030, it has committed CHF 500 million to advance evidence-based ideas for learning, to support schools in offering quality education, and to transform education ecosystems around the world. https://jacobsfoundation.org/en/