Streaks want city trophy

After a solid season in 2006, Steinmetz is looking to make some noise in the city's toughest conference.

"We definitely want to win the Red North," Silver Streaks head coach Renato Roldan said. "But we had everybody graduate last year except our shortstop, leftfielder, first baseman and right fielder."

Last year Steinmetz beat eventual city champion Lane Tech three out of four times. The Silver Streaks also beat runner-up Walter Payton three out of four times.

With the graduation of his top pitcher, Roldan will look to right fielder Alvin Jimenez to step up and take over the throwing duties.

"It's very tough, just because you can't just throw the ball like in gym class," Roldan said. "You need to be able to spin it, hide your pitch and jam hitters."

Other key contributors will be left fielder Nino Ortiz, shortstop Willie Alvarez and first baseman DeAndre Berry.

"(Alvarez) is going to be my best player," Roldan said. "He's also our starting baseball shortstop. He's a three year starter. He knows how to field the position and he's the best hitter we've got."

Roldan, who is 33 and in his eighth year as the Silver Streaks' 16-inch softball coach, has had the opportunity to watch the game grow since he played as a youngster.

"I grew up on Belmont and Sheffield and there's no baseball field around there," Roldan said. "Everyone I knew in that area played softball all day long. We had concrete and you couldn't play baseball.

While the fall offers more popular sports like football and boys soccer, Roldan has not had any trouble fielding a team.

"We average between 15-20 kids on the team every year. It's not really that hard to get them out. We get a lot of baseball players on the team every year and we have a few guys who strictly play softball."