The rookie wall is a common obstacle for first-year athletes.
Nobody's immune, not even newly-crowned NBA Rookie of the Year Kevin Durant of the Seattle SuperSonics, who took more than his share of lumps in his first NBA campaign.
Wenatchee freshman goalkeeper Angel Guerra began his high school soccer career with 254 scoreless minutes in net before finally ceding a goal against Richland on April 10.
Guerra will make his postseason debut on Saturday night when the Panthers face Davis in the second round of the Columbia Basin League 4A Division tournament at the Apple Bowl.
Guerra won the starting job over Noe Luna in the opening weeks of the season and has been the unquestioned Panther netminder ever since.
He has exceptional instincts and athletic gifts, but there are still some caveats about how a first-year player in such an important position will handle the amped-up intensity of the postseason.
"I think he's going to do just fine," Wenatchee head coach Dennis Tronson said of Guerra. "There have been a few bumps in the road and he's made some freshman mistakes but we've either moved on from those or survived them."
The Panthers' regular-season finale was an example of the latter, as Wenatchee rallied from a 4-2 deficit to beat Eisenhower 5-4 in double overtime to clinch second place in the CBL.
"I saw him pull himself out of it in the last 15 minutes of regulation and overtime against Eisenhower," Tronson said. "He showed a lot more confidence than he had against Pasco just a week earlier."
The defending state champion Bulldogs scored four goals on Guerra on April 19, a match in which Tronson thinks Guerra lost some confidence.
"The seniors on the team have done a great job in communicating Angel's value to him," Tronson said. "He knows now that he doesn't have to prove anything or be all-world all the time. He wasn't great against Ike but he didn't have to be."
Tronson said earlier this season that he feels Guerra has the tools to be the best goalkeeper he's ever coached.
"His natural instincts and reaction are off the charts," Tronson said. "He has extremely quick hands and anticipates very well. I watch when he makes a save that's just a reaction — hands going out, foot going out — and I realize that you try to train people to do that stuff but you really can't."
On track for districts
Just two weeks away from the CBL 4A district meet, the Wenatchee track squads are gearing up for the postseason.
The Panthers had great success at the state championships last season, when Kristen Ballinger took home first place in the 400 and 800 meters.
With Ballinger graduated and running at Amherst, two high jumpers and a thrower are among the Panthers' best chances to take home hardware in 2008.
Garrett Smith has cleared 6 feet, 4 inches on two occasions in the high jump and Spencer Straight has leapt 6-2 once. Straight and Anthony DiTommaso are among the league's best in the javelin as well.
Sophomore Becky Duhamel currently holds the 14th best shot put throw among all Class 4A competitors and is also among the leaders in the discus.
"She has a real chance of advancing pretty far," Wenatchee head coach Bob Bullis said. "She's for real."
Bullis said that Duhamel is a natural athlete, with a background that includes volleyball, basketball and figure skating.
"Becky has a great understanding of kinesiology and how her body works," Bullis said. "She's a quick learner and she's progressing very well," he said.
Bullis added that his boys 4x100-meter relay team — consisting of Chaese Sewell, Ryan Harmon, Kyle Kuntz, Smith and possibly Jacob Sealby — are sleepers to place at the state meet at Edgar Brown Stadium in Pasco on May 23-24.
