Jayden Panattoni and His Love for Boxing

By: Danniel Ramirez

Jayden Panattoni’s love for boxing started with his brother and his boxing matches. “I went to my older brother’s boxing matches and tournaments as a child and just really enjoyed it and wanted to try and get into it.” Watching his brother’s matches made him want to give it a try himself.

Jayden has said, “I’ve been boxing for six to seven years now.” What about boxing is appealing to Jayden? “The most appealing thing about boxing to me,” Jayden said, “is it’s a great way to improve coordination, balance, and my overall fitness levels.”

Just like any other sport, there are penalties. As Jayden said, “There are penalties such as hitting below the belt, hitting behind an opponent’s head,” which Jayden said, “is also known as rabbit punching.” He also said that, “Kidney punches are also illegal in most matches.”

In boxing, you need a lot of training to master it, because otherwise, going into a boxing fight with no training is an easy way to get knocked out. How do you win a boxing match? Jayden tells us to win a boxing match, “You need at least two judges to score the bout in favor of the same boxer.” Another way you could win is “if you knock out your opponent.” Jayden has said that when he goes off all his matches, he wins 70% of them and has knocked someone out once during the finals of a tournament.

In boxing, there can be hard moves that people learn so that they can use them in the ring, but Jayden doesn’t have any moves that were the hardest to learn, he said, “Learning to coordinate my entire body and mind at a level to attack someone who is capable of doing the same thing,” to him, “is the most difficult part of learning to box for me.”

Jayden’s passion for boxing will continue to go on, as he has one big goal: “My biggest goal in boxing is to get signed into the UFC,” Jayden said. He also hopes to go professional and, he adds, “I’m going to try my hardest to do so.”  So, he is going to keep trying his hardest to reach these goals he has set for himself and get signed into the UFC and go professional.

Hailey Voorhees has taken Center Stage 

By: Nicholas Anselmo

If you’ve ever witnessed the electrifying energy of a high school stunt competition, you might have caught a glimpse of Hailey Voorhees in action. Picture her calm, collected, determined, and ready to take on the challenge with her team. It’s not just a sport; it’s a display of athleticism, teamwork, and unwavering dedication.

For those who don’t know what stunt is or haven’t heard of it before, it is a competitive sport that’s made up of routines that can be performed individually or together as they play against other teams. For Voorhees, the journey into the world of Stunt began as a casual exploration. “I got into stunt by trying a club team for fun,” Voorhees said. “I really liked the competitive and team aspect of the sport and ended up following it to high school,” Voorhees said.

As a back spot on the varsity team, Voorhees plays a crucial role in ensuring the safety and success of her teammates during routines. “Each partner stunt consists of four people, a flyer, two bases, and a back spot,” Voorhees said. It’s a position that requires physical strength, precision, and trust among teammates.

There are eighteen routines in high school, and Voorhees has immersed herself in the active world of stunt. “This season I was in nine routines,” Voorhees mentions with a hint of pride. Each routine, from thirty seconds to one minute and thirty seconds, is meticulously crafted with set skills that must be executed flawlessly.

Voorhees reflects on her stunt matches painting us a picture of how the stunt matches are played. “Stunt is played almost like a basketball game,” Voorhees says. “It has four quarters, two-minute quarter changes, and an eight-minute halftime. Each quarter is different, and there’s a unique thrill in each one.” Voorhees said.

2, 4, 6, 8 Caitlyn!

By: Ella Tuso

Caitlyn Shrader and two other girls throw a girl flying into the air and catch her with ease. This is Shrader’s favorite stunt. It is called a Basket. This is one of the exhilarating parts of cheerleading.

Royal High School has a great cheer and stunt team. The Royal High School Stunt team were league champions last year. Shrader said, “It’s honestly one of the most rewarding feelings that a person can feel.” The team practices daily and works on various stunts.

What does a practice look like? Shrader said, “We stretch out our bodies first, then we go into whatever we should be working on that day, whether it’s routines or stunts.”

Cheer and stunt have their challenges, and when asked if cheer/stunt was hard or challenging at times, Shrader responded, “It can be at times, since you’re holding a whole person in the air, but you get used to it and gain strength, which makes it easier.”

Cheers and stunts take up a lot of time from the student’s lives and needs commitment. What things does one need to prioritize? “You need to prioritize your physical health,” Shrader said, “Both in and out of practice since your body is working so much and there’s a lot of things that can happen during practice.” How much time do you need to put into cheerleading? Shrader said, “My practices for cheerleading are from 3-5 p.m. and on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and on game days you have to arrive at the game at least 30 minutes to an hour beforehand and games last for 1 hour to 2 ½.” How do you fit cheerleading into your busy schedule? Shrader said, “I never work cheerleading into my schedule, I always work my schedule into cheerleading.”

Cheer and stunt are very mental. But, is cheer as mentally exhausting as it is physical? “Yes!” Shrader said, “You need to be mentally prepared for drama and the stress from the amount of routines you need to memorize and perform with a lot of people watching.” What’s the biggest stress factor when performing? Shrader said, “Messing up is definitely the biggest stressor for me, since there are so many people watching.” What goes through your mind when you’re performing? Shrader replies with, “Counts and what my next movement is”

Cheer and stunt comes with a lot of hard work and dedication. Shrader, like many athletes in this sport, put countless hours and effort into each game or performance. Despite all of the hours and hours of hard work, there are rewarding and fun moments. Shrader said that her favorite aspect of cheerleading is, “to be a part of the school spirit in some way.” Cheer and stunt athletes are hard workers and deserve more reconsideration.

RHS Football: Cameron Mesa’s Football Outlook 

By: Lauren Lacy

Cameron Mesa has his eye on a touchdown and all the work, emotions, and dedication that go into that. Mesa is a strong student-athlete who has his mind focused on all the right things. Mesa said dedication is key and working hard will make you successful.  He loves all the aspects of football, especially the friendships and life lessons he has learned along the way.

Some may be wondering, Mesa, why football? He grew up playing and had a strong passion from the very beginning. When he was seven he started with tackle right off the bat. Next, he played some flag football. Later on, his love for football led him to continue into high school ball.

Throughout Mesa’s career, he has had different opinions and changes in his positioning on the field. In past seasons Mesa was a receiver. As time passed he realized there were many receivers on the team and decided to switch it up. He is currently a cornerback. If he wasn’t a cornerback he wishes to be a receiver.

Injuries are “his least favorite thing about the sport.” Mesa broke his finger during the sophomore year of his JV season. Mentally this injury affected him. He said, “It makes me mad that I’m not out there with my team and instead I’m sitting on the sideline not playing.”  Mesa also goes more in-depth on another question we are all thinking about. How bad can a tackle injure you? He explained it depends on how you land, but it’s always painful on impact. This hurts just thinking about it. Mesa is one tough football player!

Playing in college is on any serious athlete’s mind. Let’s see what Mesa has to say. “If I got an offer for football I would take it otherwise I might move on.” Mesa’s love for football shows through his work ethic, dedication, and hard work he gives to this sport. He also said, “Who wouldn’t want to play college football?” He has a passion for football and wants to keep going with his big dreams of playing in later stages of life.

If you are not a football player you may be wondering what some of the specifics of Mesa’s football career are. So what about dieting? He chooses to stay away from sweets like ice cream and candy and stick to protein to build muscle. In regards to practicing Mesa trains fifteen hours a week to maintain his skills. Sports take free time for athletes. it takes up about four hours of his daily free time. He also trains even when there is no practice to teach himself discipline. Mesa’s stats are not as good as in past seasons because of his recent injuries. His grit for his sport will keep him in a good position for his dreams and future seasons to come.

On the nonphysical side of Mesa’s career, he states that life lessons and friendships are most important. Some of his favorite memories in his career have been the lessons of discipline and working to get better have taught him much about football and life too. The friendships and bonds that football has shown him since he was seven are irreplaceable. It seems that Mesa’s outlook on football is not only about scoring touchdowns and tackling but more so about the wonderful things football has taught and shown him through the years.

Connor’s Swim to the Top
By: Sabina Ledferd

He kicks the cool water and lines up his focus with the target. The round ball soars through the air like a rocket. His arm shoots out and intercepts its path before it hits the net. The arm belongs to none other than water polo player, Connor Pagels.

If you’re someone who doesn’t know a lot about water polo, you are definitely not alone. “I would say it is a little bit popular, not many people know about it,” said Pagels. There are fourteen players in the pool at one time, six field players and one goalkeeper per team. The main job of the “field” players is to throw the water polo ball into the opposing team’s net, and the goalkeeper stays in their own team’s net to defend. Pagels explains it as, “Kind of soccer, football, and some other sports mixed together.”

Pagels’ position for his team is the brave goalkeeper. He said, “I have been a varsity goalie ever since freshman year.” He also explained, “My job is to protect the cage from the water polo ball entering and having the opposing team get a point.” If he had the option to be a field player instead of a goalkeeper, he would stay being the head of the defense

Training for water polo is strenuous and takes a lot of determination. He explains that an average practice includes bleachers, running, and wall sits with weights. The team practices every single day, putting in the work to succeed. His game warm-up is slightly different from the rest of the players’. He does lots of treading in the water, forwards, backwards, and even side to side. He also treads across the entire pool to get his legs all warmed up for the tense game.

The backstory of Pagels even starting to play was that his uncle used to play water polo in high school and introduced it to him. The part he loves the most is being able to hang out with his teammates and make more new friends through the sport. His best memory from water polo was the 2023-2024 CIF finals at Mount St. Antonio College. The CIF game and the games leading up to it were very difficult, and the opposing teams gave all their effort to try and beat the Royal squad. Pagels reflected on his past games, “Our season last year went amazing, we went overall 28-5, and made it to the CIF finals, and sadly lost.”

Water polo also comes with lots of challenges and can cause struggles for its players. During the game, Pagels has to constantly tread the water when there is danger towards his cage, and that can become very fatiguing on his legs. He also plays with the risk of getting a fast-moving ball to his face. A big struggle he deals with is balancing his school work and water polo. When he isn’t training for polo, he is working on homework and studying, but this becomes difficult when the team has weight training early in the mornings. Starting up in the sport was not easy. “When I first started playing, I had no idea what I was doing,” he said. You have to learn every part of the game before you even begin fully playing.

Looking out into the future, Pagels’ main goal for water polo is to make it to the CIF finals again, but to come out with the win. There is the possibility for players to get water polo scholarships for college, but Pagels isn’t even sure if he wants to continue playing after high school. He’s enjoying his time playing his sport in his high school years, but it’s not a priority of his to take water polo even farther.

Sabina Ledferd Loves the Challenge

By: Trevor Truitt

Who’s not letting any goals past? Is it Ronaldo? Messi? Kylian Mbappé? No, it’s Sabina Ledferd, Royal’s next legend.

You might be thinking what team is she on? “Well,” Ledferd said, “When I first began playing soccer in an actual league, I played on a recreational team in the Simi Youth Soccer League. Then freshman year I was on the frosh/soph team, but now as a sophomore I’m on the JV team. I also play for a club, I play with the premier team, Ventura County.” She said, “I have basically been playing soccer for all my life, well, for as long as I can remember.”

Even though she is on the JV team, she is still really good at soccer. However, the positions she plays are a little odd. Ledferd said that, “I play kind of ‘opposite positions’.” That sounds a little confusing, but what she really means is, “When I’m playing with my club team, (which is most of the time) I’m a goalkeeper. But on a completely different note, for Royal I play as a forward or outside midfielder.” Ledferd said that, “For most of my life I had always played on the field, mostly in center midfielder, but around four years ago I made the switch to being a goalkeeper. I still love playing on the field and so I take advantage of that for school soccer, giving myself a good balance between staying in the net and being up top.” A real ball player, playing all the positions!

You might be wondering, is girls soccer like boys soccer? Is it physical? What’s it like on the field while you’re playing? Are the players aggressive? Ledferd said, “On the field, soccer is a whole new atmosphere. Depending on what type of tempo the game is running at, the mood changes. Practice games or small tournaments are very lighthearted and in those games I try to focus more on having fun and enjoying myself and my sport. Other times, you’ll get caught up in a very tense and aggressive game where everyone’s riled up and full of energy.” In those games, she said that, “It’s straight adrenaline at that point. People are no longer asking for the ball, they are demanding it. Every single play becomes so important and everybody’s intensity rises to the maximum. You feel as if winning that game is the most important thing in the world at that moment and you put in everything you have to push through.”

Ledferd is a very impressive soccer player. She plays for club and school, plays all around the field, and she has been playing for all her life; however, with all of that soccer, she had to get good from a lot of practice. With her playing for all her life, it raises the question, “Do you ever feel like quitting?” “There have definitely been moments,” said Sabina, “where I’ve thought that it would be best to stop playing. I’ve run into times where I feel lonely on the teams and don’t have that one teammate that I really have a connection with, but I’ve turned to the mindset that I can have a good relationship with everyone and just continue working on myself instead of tying to another player. More so in my past there were issues where I wouldn’t even be able to leave the house because of anxiety so I did end up taking a step back for that one recovery year. I still run into occasional difficulties because I feel the stress of the sport and think it might be too much but I eventually pull myself together and keep working.”

Ledferd really loves the sport. She’s been playing for as long as she can remember, but what if she were to stop playing? How would she feel? “If I didn’t get to play soccer anymore,” said Ledferd, “I would feel like I’ve lost part of my purpose. Soccer has become such a large part of my life. I have two-hour practices three to four times a week and games on the weekend out in places like Irvine, Temecula, Anaheim, San Bernardino, Bakersfield, and more. It takes up so much of my time that if I didn’t do that anymore, I would have an abundance of time that I wouldn’t know what to do with. I find pride in being able to call myself an athlete, so losing that part of me would make me feel like I’ve lost a little part of my worth.”

It seems like soccer has been embedded into Ledferd’s life, so where is she going to go with it? “For me personally,” she said, “it’s not a need to go and play in the big leagues or even just in college. I play at a level where I do get scouted by college coaches, and if I do end up getting an offer to play at one of their schools then I would definitely consider it. When I was younger of course I thought playing professionally would be the dream, but now I understand the stress and life of the big players and I’d rather live a private life with my family without soccer.”