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Yes, it has been awhile since we last published,
but why dwell on it -- there is too much sports
action to catch up on.
For Griffins sports teams,
it is deuces wild as three teams are currently ranked
No. 2 in Orange County -- boys basketball, girls
water polo, and girls soccer. In addition
wrestling is No. 6.
The girls soccer team has a big
game against Esperanza at Laurel Field at 3pm today.
Griffin-Aztecs battles are almost always nail-biters
-- Los Al won their first meeting in overtime.
The Sunset League title is once again part of the
stakes.
Congratulations to Maddy Caddell for
winning Queen of Courts -- prevailing over a strong
field of outstanding Griffin female athletes.
One of the things that momentarily
sidetracked us from our Local Sports duties was
that we contracted with a publisher to write a history
of Los Alamitos and Rossmoor. Yes, as hard
as it may be for some of you to believe it, some
significant history has happened around here --
some of the players were among the most powerful
and influential individuals in the region and the
country. A major challenge in compiling a
local history is the scarcity of photographs depicting
this community pre-1970. If you have any pictures
that might help tell the Los Alamitos & Rossmoor
story -- even of old landmarks like the Fox Theater
in the Rossmoor Center, Thriftimart, Lew Webb's
Aero Motors, or even the immortal Sugar Shack --
please contact us. We're even interested in
early Rossmoor (later Los Al) Little League photos,
national champion youth sports teams (like the '83
LAYB Broncos) or even national champion cheer teams.
FREE
PLUGS DEPARTMENT: The Los Al
water polo club is hosting their WinterFest
2009 Water Polo Tournament at the JFTB pool
and others as well this weekend. Last
year's 2008 event had over 3,300 players
from 75 clubs, 282 teams, and 85 referees
participated at 22 local pools! For
further information go to www.WinterFestWaterPolo.com.
Kathy Orr (The La Palma Travel Store
owner who has helped Taste for Los Al in
the past by arranging for some trips we
auctioned off) is hosting a Honeymoon
Travel Show at the Seal Beach Yacht
Club this Friday. (714) 821-3002.
The Los Al Band's Drumline
Corps is hosting a cow chip bingo
fundraiser on Feb. 28, 2009. Tickets on
sale now until Feb. 14, 2009.
They have a blog with details. (www.lahscowchipbingo.blogspot.com)...
Los Al Pop Warner wants to go all out to
put on a first rate cheer and song program
this year. If interested, call Rob
Blank at (562) 743-7657.
In the Hold the Date category: Two
golf tournaments are coming up on the fundraising
calendar. The Los Al Boys football
boosters are hosting their annual tournament
and silent auction at Old Ranch in late
March this year. Details should be
available on web site fairly soon.
Also, the Los Al Chamber of Commerce is
holding their annual golf tournament at
Old Ranch as well -- on April 20th. The
Chamber is letting the Los Al track boosters
host the silent auction and all monies from
that will go to the team's all-weather track
fund.
On
to the good stuff...
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Champions Quest · 10712 Reagan Street · Los Alamitos,
CA 90720 |
LAHS GIRLS SOCCER: Girls soccer hosts Esperanza
in Senior Day match-up
The Girls Soccer team, which has now won 12 straight
games, finishes up their regular season home schedule
with a big match against No. 4 ranked Esperanza
today at Laurel School. Game time is 3pm.
The Griffins take a 7-0 league mark
into the contest and can clinch a tie for the program's
fifth Sunset league title in six years and 12th
league championship (Empire and Sunset Leagues)
overall.
The Griffins rallied for three
late goals to down Newport Harbor 3-1 last Thursday
and downed Fountain Valley 2-0 yesterday. Senior
Lauren Ingram (left) and freshman Callie Taylor
each scored goals in both games.
Taylor, who is tied with junior
Ariana Carillo for the team lead in scoring with
14 points, missed the first meeting with Esperanza
while nursing a hamstring injury.
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LAHS GIRLS WATER POLO: Liquid Griffins improve
to 18-2 mark; take on Aztecs at JFTB
The Los Al Girls water polo team ran its record
to 18-2 with an unexpectedly tough 7-4
non-league win over No. 10 Rosary last Friday.
A couple weeks ago, the young Griffin
squad came very close to winning the prestigious
(and tough) Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions,
but fell 6-4
to Dos Pueblos in the championship game.
The aqua Grifs will try to extend their
Sunset league to 4-0 when they host Esperanza tomorrow
night at the JFTB pool at 6pm.
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LAHS BOYS BASKETBALL: Los Al off to best start
in school history, 21-1 and 6-0 in league
Not to be outdone the Boys Basketball
team is off to a 21-1 record, its best start in
school history.
The Griffins extended their league
record to 6-0 with an easy 71-36 win over Newport
Harbor last Friday night. Last Monday they
dispatched Marina 73-66 and two weeks ago the Griffins
posted an impressive 58-57 non-league comeback win
over Etiwanda, with senior captain Nathan Berger
(shown right) turning in some clutch plays in both
contests.
Los Al plays on the road at Esperanza
and Fountain valley this week, then take on Servite
Saturday morning at the Mater Dei Nike Classic.
The Griffins are currently ranked
No. 6 in CIF Division I-AA which features some incredibly
tough competition with Mater Dei, Centennial, ML
King of Riverside to name a few of the very tough
teams.
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OTHER LAHS WINTER SPORTS: Wrestling to host
Sunset League championships this Saturday; Boys
soccer ties, falls out of first place
The Los Al wrestling
squad, currently ranked No. 6 in the OC, will host
the Sunset League championships this weekend and
the CIF Division I Tournament the following weekend.
The Griffin matmen lost a tough
dual-meet league showdown
to Fountain Valley on Jan. 21 and are looking
to assuage that loss this Saturday. Three
Griffins are ranked among the tops in the county
per the latest OC Varsity rankings: Anthony
Leonard (No. 5, 103 pound division); Nick Periera
(No. 2, 145); and Edwin Bang (No. 3, 189).
Although the wrestling team does a poor job of publicizing
their matches and results, this team deserves support.
The league finals begin at 10am.
The
Boys soccer team played Newport Harbor to
a 0-0 tie last Friday and fell out of first place,
but the Griffins can still win the league by winning
their last three matches -- which includes road
matches at Esperanza and first place Fountain Valley
on Wednesday and Friday. The Griffins are
currently 4-2-1 in league play.
The Girls
basketball team (2-4 league/ 8-13 overall)
will host their Senior Night for its players in
a battle against Esperanza tonight at 7pm at the
Los Al gym.
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LAHS
FALL SPORT HONORS WRAP-UP: Griffins galore earn
all-county, all CIF honors
All
of the Fall Sports post-season teams have been announced
now and once again, Griffins did very well in the
honors department.
BOYS WATER POLO:
Seniors Michael
Delaney, Austin
Trinkle and Forrest
Watkins earned first team all-CIF honors
and a fourth Griffin, sophomore Joe
Feretti, made third team.
GIRLS VOLLEYBALL:
University of Washington-bound Kelly
Holford made first team all-CIF and sophomore
Jane Croson
made second team. The Press-Telegram
named Croson its player of the year and somehow
screwed things up to put Holford on its second team.
FOOTBALL:
Center Ryan Derry
earned All OC and Press-Telegram Dream Team first
team honors and was a National Football Foundation
Scholar-Athlete selection; junior receiver Paul
Richardson also earned 1st team All-OC honors
and 2nd team Dream Team honors; senior receiver
Darryl Jenkins
made 2nd team all-CIF, and quarterback Clark
Evans was the Sunset League's Most valuable
Player.
GIRLS GOLF:
Natalie Prystaloski,
the Sunset League individual champion earned honorable
mention Dream team honors.
RECRUITING:
12 Griffin athletes commit to colleges
It got overlooked in the process but a gaggle of
Griffin seniors have been making athletic commitments
to colleges. Here is a sampling of where some
current Griffin will be playing college sports in
the future:
- Francie
Crowell (womens lacrosse, Notre Dame)
- Kelly
Holford (womens volleyball, Washington)
- Katrina
Metoyer (softball, Western Kentucky)
- Brittany
and Channelle Spalding (softball, Tennessee
Tech)
- Beau
Wright (baseball, UC Irvine)
-
Alex Cours (women's crew, Stanford)
-
Meguire Broersma (women's crew, UCLA)
-
Katie Peterson (women's soccer, Long Beach State)
- Jessa
Yukihiro (women's soccer, Southern Utah)
- Clark
Evans (football, Colorado)
- Paul
Richardson (junior, football, UCLA)
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OTHER LAHS STUFF: Caddell named 2009 Queen
of Courts
Griffin senior Madeline
Caddell was named the 2009 Queen of Courts
at halftime of the Grffins win over Newport Harbor
last Friday night.
Caddell, a runner on the Griffin track team, will
attend Virginia Tech next year.
For the first time, every member of the court was
a member of a Griffin girls athletic team, with
at least four of the girls having earned athletic
scholarships.
Francine Crowell,
an all-county lacrosse player, will play that sport
at Notre Dame next season. Kelly
Holford, an all county and all-CIF volleyball
player has committed to play at highly-ranked University
of Washington.
Katrina Metoyer
will play softball at Western Kentucky, and Jessa
Yukihiro, a captain on the Grififn soccer
team, will play at Southern Utah next fall.
Bethley Honma
plays on the Lady Griffins basketball team.
4
Griffin musicians named to All SoCal Jazz Band
In other Los Al HS news - four Griffin music
students were named to the to the 2009 S.C.S.B.O.A.,
All Star Jazz band which honors the top 20 jazz
band students in Southern California: Aaron
Blumenthal (tenor sax), Ryan
Butcher (baritone sax), Eddie
Emery (trombone), and Andrea
Chattler (vibraphone). The group will
perform at Disneyland, February 14th and at Citrus
College, February 15th.
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 10554
Humbolt St (off Cerritos bet. Los Al Blvd &
Bloomfield) · (562)
598-CAGE (2243)
CLICK AD FOR
LATEST WINTER HOURS AND OFFERS!
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LAHS ALUMNI BASKETBALL:
Fields and Jones making big contributions to Stanford,
NAU
Landry
Fields (LAHS '06) is the leading rebounder for
Stanford (6.6 rpg) and has been averaging
over 11 points for the Cardinals who lost a pair
to USC and UCLA this past weekend.
Cameron
Jones (LAHS '07) has turned into quite an offensive
force for Northern Arizona, averaging over
12 points a game, includinmg 25 against Northern
Colorado. He was interviewed
on the NAU website.
Kyle
Brucculeri (LAHS '05) came off the bench
to score 13 points and help UC
Davis down UC santa Barbara 89-75 on January
22.
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YOUTH SOCCER: Beach GU13 goes undefeated
en route to Silver West title
The Beach Futbol Club GU95 (Under 13) girls team
-- with many players from the Los Al-Rossmoor-Seal
Beach area -- won the Coast Soccer League Silver
West championship with a record of 13-0-1.
In League Cup action
Beach advanced to the round of 16.
Locals on the team are Lisa
Fast, Ashley Sholmire (Seal Beach), Allie Emmons
(Los Alamitos), Lauren Iris, Jane Megorden, Kelly
Peterson, Mallory Strawther and Sydney Woods (Rossmoor),
Alex Bachman, Katie Ha (Cypress).
Other Beach teams that also won
league championships this season were the GU10
team (Bronze West), GU12 (Silver Elite North),
BU14 (Bronze Omega) and the GU19 team which won
Silver Elite South. The last team includes
locals Callie Aaker, Delaney Kennedy and Denay
Roche.
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MISCELLANEOUS
STUFF: School bond issue floats first funds
-- Should Los Al use the facilities portion to build
a football stadium? We say no.
The school bond issue passed in November,
and the first phase of the bond was successfully
floated a few weeks ago, and among its early funding
it makes nearly one million dollars available on
a matching funds basis for activity facility improvements.
Some have suggested it might be time for the District
to finally put a football stadium at the high school
campus. This may surprise many, but we think that's
a real bad idea. Check out my reasons right
here and offer your own two cents via our poll.
Taste
for Los Al distributes over $150,000 to LAHS school
booster clubs
Taste for Los Al
wrap-up. Los Al HS Booster Clubs alone
made over $150,000 from this year's Taste for Los
Al. In late November we distributed $77,000
from Taste ticket revenues to Booster clubs (see
photo left of club reps and/or coaches). This
was on top of the money the clubs made at the event
from their silent auction, gear sales and sponsorship
revenues.
All told, the event (including the booster shares)
raised around $270,000 before expenses, and netted
around $225,000.
OUR Los Al has recently
given money for softball field improvements, paid
for some architectural surveying of the entire campus,
and offered funds to the soccer and lacrosse programs
for field improvements. The majority of the
funds have gone into an account for an all-weather
track at the high school. |
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LOS ALAMITOS REC DEPARTMENT
Online
Scores & Results
The
city of Los Alamitos Rec Department is now posting
rec league standings and stats on line. Check
out these for adult slo-pitch
softball, adult
soccer, and adult
basketball. |
Shameless sales
pitch for advertisers
 Call
Local Sports (562) 431-7001 or click ad for rates |
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That's all for this issue.
See you on the fields (or the
courts, the pitch, etc.)
Sincerely,
Larry & Nancy
Strawther
Big Kahuna
& Boss Kahuna, Local Sports
Phone: (562) 431-7001
Fax: (562) 431-7001
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