Teams try to get jump on trend of ACL injuries in young female athletes

Story was a national Top-10 APSE selection for Explanatory Reporting in the Under 30,000 Circulation Division.

By Ryan Moses
Published Jan. 23, 2010 in the Santa Cruz Sentinel
Alex Price's story has become all too common in girls sports.
The Scotts Valley High senior entered this basketball season as a league MVP contender. A 5-foot-10 guard, Price was one of the most dangerous offensive players in the county last season, when she slashed and shot her way to a county-high 18.4 points per game. She was selected first team all-Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League and was considering taking her game to the college level after being contacted by several NCAA Division III schools.
Price started off strong with 21 points in the Falcons' season-opener against San Jose High Academy and 25 points against Stevenson to lead her team to wins in both games.
But in the third quarter of Scotts Valley's third game against North Salinas, disaster struck. Price went up for an uncontested layup, like she had done thousands of times since she starting playing basketball in the third grade. This time, though, she crumpled to the hardwood when she landed.
"I felt like I came down with my leg locked," Price said. "I heard and felt a pop, and it really hurt. I think I blacked out."
That pop was the infamous sound of the anterior cruciate ligament [ACL] rupturing in Price's right knee. It's a sound that signals a players' season is over.
An alarming number of young female athletes have experienced that pop. Now some Santa Cruz County teams are taking measures to stop the pop and keep female athletes on their feet.

Skydiving Column

By Ryan Moses
Published Feb. 19, 2010 in Santa Cruz Sentinel

I should have been on a relaxing romantic picnic or getting ready for a fancy dinner. Instead, this Valentine's Day I was sitting on the edge of a plane's side doorway with my feet dangling 13,000 feet above the patchwork farms surrounding Davis.
I was about to go skydiving -- easily one of the craziest, most amazing things I've ever done.
Somewhere below, my girlfriend was plummeting toward earth at 120 miles per hour. She had insisted on jumping first when we made plans to go skydiving five months ago.
"Anything for you on Valentine's Day, sweetheart," I told her.


Giants put on parade 52 years in the making

By Ryan Moses
Published Nov. 4, 2010 in Santa Cruz Sentinel
Take a rock festival, add a peace rally and multiply by a sports bar full of a million satisfied fans, and that's a rough description of the scene on the streets of San Francisco for the Giants' World Series championship ticker-tape parade and celebration ceremony Wednesday.
Gavin Newsom, San Francisco's soon-to-be former mayor, presented the team with the key to the city on the steps of City Hall and christened the Nov. 3 Giants Day -- also known as Call In Sick-apalooza throughout the Bay Area.
Giants fans flooded the city to watch their team finally hoist the trophy it had failed to win since moving to California in 1958. Some made the pilgrimage from out of state to attend a celebration 52 years in the making.
Read complete story here

Basketball columns

For the last three years, Ryan has been the lead basketball writer for the Santa Cruz Sentinel, covering 26 high school teams and six college teams in Santa Cruz County. In 2009, his weekly basketball columns were a Top-10 APSE selection for Column Writing in the Under 40,000 Circulation Division.
Here are some examples of his columns:

Watsonville wins first title in 37 years

Story was a national Top-10 APSE selection for Game Story in the Under 40,000 Circulation Division.

By Ryan Moses
Published Feb. 8, 2008 in the Santa Cruz Sentinel
As Watsonville senior forward Kraig Mitchell pulled a brace off his left ankle, assistant coach James Gomez asked him how it felt.
"To be a champion? It feels pretty good," Mitchell said.
That's something no member of the Wildcatz boys basketball has been able to say in 37 years.
Watsonville beat visiting North Monterey County 70-40 in front of a standing room-only crowd Friday night to clinch the Monterey Bay League title -- the first league title the team has won since 1971.
"It was exciting watching the clock run down knowing we were going to become champs," said senior guard Robert Carrancho, whose father Bobby Carrancho played guard on Watsonville's '71 team. "It felt great."
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