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A lot is happening in the next couple weeks, but what else is new around here?
At Los Al lacrosse, track and swimming are wrapping up their regular seasons and getting ready for the post-season. Softball starts second round league play this week.
VOTE FOR STACEY NELSON: As always Los Al alums are making a good showing in college sports, but we really want to point out Stacey Nelson (LAHS '05) who has:
1) led Florida to another SEC regular season Softball Championship and a 47-3 record;
2) has a 30-3 record of her own;
3) received an invite to try out for the US National Softball team;
Click here to vote for her (you can do it once a day, up thru May 7).
GRIFFIN ALUMNI NEWSLETTER: We have also just sent out a new Los Al alumni newsletter. Lots of news on Los Al alums, and the announcement that nominations for the 2nd Hall of Fame class are now open. 10 former Griffins will be honored -- six alums, three faculty/staff and one community member. If you're a Griffin alum and didn't get one -- here's the link. Also our Griffin alum site on facebook -- Los Al Griffin -- now has almost 2,000 alums signed on.
LATV: We have been very involved with discussions on what to do with LATV3. Rather than bore you with the details up here, I put it at the bottom so I could bore you down there. Bottom line, LATV can be more interesting, provide more coverage of local events (LAHS and youth sports and non-sports) and work more with the school district for video training (which, after all, is the third largest U.S. industry and a major local employer). It should also have a website so locals outside Los Al and grandparents and alums back East etc. could watch Los Al events. It can also be set up to provide significant fund-raising opportunities for other nonprofits and organizations. So mosey down to the bottom and read the longer, more boring version.
FREE PLUGS DEPARTMENT: In an attempt to make this easier to read, the free plugs department is listed further below. But as a sneak preview, they include: On to the good stuff...
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LAHS SOFTBALL: Griffins try to bounce back from consecutive league losses, host NH today
The Los Al girls softball team takes a 4-2 record and a lot of concern into today's game against Newport Harbor, after consecutive league losses to Marina and Edison.
Griffin pitchers, who had been steady all season, gave up 11 hits in Tuesday's 9-3 loss to Edison and allowed 10 runs in last weeks loss to
Marina.
They hope the pitching -- and the bats which went somewhat silent in the losses -- will bounce back in today's game against Newport Harbor.
The Griffins currently have a 3-2 record, tying them Esperanza and Edison for second place. Marina, which beat Los Al 10-2 last week, is 5-0.
Los Al, currently ranked No. 9 in OC and No. 7 in CIF-Division I, is on the road next week against Esperanza (No. 4, OC, not ranked CIF) and Fountain Valley then close out at home against Edison and Marina. .
The Griffins, are 18-7 overall.
Coming into this week, they were led offensively by senior Brittney Spalding (.423, 3 HR, 16 RBI) and her sister Channelle (.381, 2 HR, 12 RBI). Also hitting the ball well for Los Al are Starla Coffee (.359), Lacey Nilsen (.324), and Katrina Metoyer (.297).
On the mound, sophomore Mandy Sugita is 10-3, with a 2.16 ERA. Taryn Devich is 4-3.
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Quest · 10712
Reagan Street
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Alamitos, CA
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LACROSSE: Boys, Girls atop OC rankings; 5 Griffins selected for East Coast showcase
The Girls lacrosse team, ranked No. 1 in Orange County, finishes up their regular season this week with three matches. They take on Sage Hill tomorrow then finish up Sunset League play against Newport Harbor Thursday afternoon at Laurel School. They close out their season against Tesoro on Saturday.
We think they are 12-0 but since they're so excited about they're winning ways, they've forgotten to send us some recent information. Here's their record at maxpreps and the OC Varsity.
In addition, five lady Griffins Los Alamitos High School were selected
to participate at the Women's Divisional National Lacrosse Tournament
in Baltimore, Maryland over Memorial Day weekend. The girls selected
are (pictured right, l-r) Amiya Moretta, Tracy Paulson.
Kristin Robbins (alternate), Ashley Actkinson, and Shaina Denny.
The tournament, an elite showcase, will be attended by more than 100 college lacrosse coaches scouting for players. Players from sixty five schools attended the 5-hour tryout in San Diego.
 The Boys Lacrosse team is not doing too shabby itself. They're sporting a 16-1 record and are No. 2 in Orange County.
The team is led by Senior Captains C.J. Jacobs, Nolan
Smith and Kenny Smith. All are returning First team All-Sunset league
players.
The Griffin boys also close out their season against Tesoro this week -- but on Thursday.
Click here or the photo to see a larger image.
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LAHS TRACK AND FIELD: Griffin soph Culver third at OC meet; Fessenden 5th, 9th in sprints
Los Al sophomore Carissa Culver captured a third place finish in the Girls Pole Vault to pace a good Griffin showing at the OC Championships this past Saturday at Trabuco Hills HS.
Griffin senior sprinter Danielle Fessenden finished fifth in the 400 meters (58.24) and ninth in the 200 meters (25.96) at .
Freshman Emily Woodworth was fourth in the 1600 meter (rated) race. Her time of 5:26.61 was the second best time of the day for a freshman.
The Varsity Girls 4x400 relay team finished in sixth place with a time of 4:02.45
On the Boys side, Junior David Kim took third in the Varsity pole vault. clearing 14-6, while Josh Caiquio finished first in the Frosh-Soph triple jump with a leap of 42-00.50.
The tracksters start getting real serious next week when the Sunset League Prelmiinaries and Finals will be held.
LAHS SWIMMING: Boys, Girls teams both looking strong
LAHS FOOTBALL: Barnes vs. Barnes at OC All-Star Game
Los Al football coach John Barnes wanted to retire as an all-star coach with a 4-0 record, but when the organizers of the Orange County North-South game offered John and his son Brian the two head coaching spots in the game, the elder Barnes agreed to put his perfect record on the line because "it's for a good cause."
The game takes place July 10 at Orange Coast College. The North squad will have four Los Al players on its roster: quarterback Clark Evans, receiver Darryl Jenkins and linemen Ryan Derry and Kevin Rowlands.
The younger Barnes took his Tesoro team to the CIF championship game and was named the CIF and OC Coach of the Year.
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ALUMNI SOFTBALL: Nelson throws another no-hitter, receives Team USA invite; is third in fan voting for Lowe's Senior Class award.
Former Griffin Stacey Nelson (LAHS '05) who doesn't need much help on the field could use it at the ballot box.
On the field, Nelson threw another no-hitter on Sunday, downing Arkansas 6-0, and giving the top-ranked Florida Gators a 25-1 final record in the SEC standings, and has been invited to try out for the US National softball team.
Off the field, the Rossmoor native is one of the finalists for the Lowe's Senior Class award and her teammates former Griffin teammates and fans are lobbying hard to rock the vote before the ballots box closes. For a list of her accomplishments, here is her ballot bio and you can click here to get to the actual voting page. (You can vote online or by text once a day. Voting concludes on May 7)
Meanwhile, back on the field, Nelson (30-3, 0.40 ERA) also moved up in the record
books with her victories this weekend, which moved her into eighth place on the NCAA career wins list
with 125 career victories.
The Gators end the regular season with a Saturday doubleheader and a
single game Sunday against visiting Longwood before heading to
Knoxville for the SEC Tournament May 7-9.
 Natalie Mickelson's solo home run to lead off the sixth inning lifted Azusa Pacific to a 4-3 victory over Biola University and allowed APU to live for another day at the GSAC's first ever postseason tournament , but unfortunately, APU fell 3-2 in ten innings to No. 1 ranked Cal Baptist this past Wednesday.
Mickelson (LAHS '04) also hit a 3-run bomb in APU's regular-season finale 3-0 victory over Point Loma Nazarene last Saturday. She ended up leading the team in hitting, batting .304 and collecting seven homeruns and 32 RBIs.
Mickelson, concluded her career with 29 home runs and 109 RBIs, and now after 17 years of LAGSL, travelball, LAHS and APU, her parents Kevin and denise will be wondering what to do with all their spare time. Fortunately, some of the planning for Natalie's wedding to former Griffin Joshua Jones will take up some of the slack. (And them grandparents at T-ball is right around the corner.)
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 OTHER ALUMNI SOFTBALL NEWS
ALUMNI BASEBALL: Simon turns in strong outing for Arizona against Stanford
Kyle Simon (LAHS '08) pitched seven strong innings, allowing six hits, in a very strong outing against Stanford, but unfortunately his Arizona Wildcats suffered a 3-1 loss this past Saturday. The 'Cats, however, won two of the three-game series.
ALUMNI WATER POLO: Miller earns Big West Co-Freshman of the Year honors at UC Davis
 Former Griffin Kaylee Miller (LAHS '08), now playing water polo for UC Davis, was named the Big West Conference Co-Freshman of the Year and also earned Honorable Mention on the all-conference squad which was announced earlier this week.
Miller came on very strong towards the end of the season, scoring two hat tricks and helping them get the No. 2 seed at the first Big West Water Polo Tournament, and receiving the spotlight treatment at the Aggie website. The Aggies finished third at the tournament this past weekend, and closed out their season with a 23-10 record. Miller had two goals in the third place win over Cal State Northridge.
FOOTBALL: Linehan earns pre-season A-A pick
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YOUTH SOCCER: AYSO BU123 Patriots claim Area E title, 3rd place at Section 11 Tourney
 The local AYSO BU12 Patriots, which took first place at the Area E soccer
playoffs earlier this year, came away with a third place trophy at the Section 11 League tournament which concluded March 1. The Patriots, coached by Terry Aaker, finished second in their pool, and then downed Chula Visto 4-0 to claim the third place trophy. (Click to see bigger picture)
The Patriots were the only regular season league champ to win an Area E title, but two Region 159 all-stars teams also won championships -- the Girls U10 (cpoached by Ted deGracia) and the Boys Under 14 (coached by Nina DiMatteo).
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YOUTH VOLLEYBALL: Four locals headed to JO's national championships in Miami
The Surf City Girls 15's Volleyball team, which includes Rossmoor
locals Jillian Kovacevich, Katie Klein and Alijah
Gunzales, and Seal Beach resident Nicki Yost,
qualified April 26 in Reno, NV, for the Junior Olympics Volleyball National Championship
in the 15's Open Division, the top division for the age group. This years Girls JO's will be held June 26-July 5 in Miami, Florida. The Open Division, is comprised of the top 24 club
teams in the U.S. |
LOS ALAMITOS REC DEPARTMENT
Online Scores & Results
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FOOD: Quinns Bakery opens in Los Al
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FREE PLUGS DEPARTMENT: LAHS PTSA Fundraiser at Spaghettini's; AYSO, FNL begin Fall 2009 signups
 LOS AL HS PTSA FUNDRAISER AT SPAGHETTINI'S: The Griffin PTSA is doing something different this year, and taking over Spaghettini's this Sunday -- and offering an evening (5-8pm) of fun, music, friends, food and hors d'oeuvres & silent auction, all amidst amidst good friends.
The evening benefits improvements to the Los Al campus and staff needs. Silent Auction items include: Principal for a Day, Block of Lockers, Parking Spaces, Special Recognition for your Student on
School Marquee, Our Special Wishing Tree, and much more!
Spaghettini's Restaurant. For questions or reservations, or if you're having reservations about your questions, contact Christine Finie
email: cmfinie@aol.com
And if you go, remind the Spaghettini folks that we shure wouldn;t mind having them back at the Taste for Los Al next Oct. 17.
AYSO FALL 2009 signups. The biggest of all the local youth leagues (almost 2,000 strong) is already underway.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS FLAG FOOTBALL: signups for the fall season begin May 1 and will be online only . Click here to sign up (but only after May 1).
LAHS GRAD NIGHT: Workshops for the 2009 Grad Night ("Passport to Paradise") are workers are wanted. NO TALENT is required. Workshops
are held every Thursday and Friday morning from 9:00-12:00 noon. Future
Saturday workshop dates TBA. Check out the Grad Night website for more details. |
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Shameless sales pitch for advertisers
 Call Local Sports (562) 431-7001 or click ad for rates |
COMMUNITY: Business as usual... things happen, people complain. Things don't happen, people complain even more
Compared to recent weeks, it's actually been a fairly calm month in terms of local community news. Oh sure, we have the occasional recall threats, and accusations of criminal conduct, and fights to the last french-tipped nail at our local beauty pageants, but this is America, this is what we do best. Anyway, here's a linkish-overview to what's been happening in our little corner of the world.
LOS ALAMITOS
- Let's Fix Los Al - I'm not sure this blog (an admirable effort by Dave Emerson) is actually helping fix things in Los Al, but it certainly provides links to good information -- like the plans for the 405/605 freeway improvements, good info -- as well as a forum for Los Al-iens to vent. But sometimes the posters need to take a deep breath and chill... although things seemed to have calmed down a but lately.
SEAL BEACH- Estimated 20,000 flock to Seal Beach Car Show
ROSSMOOR
Okay, here is what passes for big news in Rossmoor these days. First, and I mention this only because I just looked at the tape broadcasts of the RCSD meetings (which probably says something about the state of my social life). But what's with the articifially added "film look" on the tape broadcasts of the RCSD meetings? It not only looks like a bad soap opera production, but added to the stark brown background behind our esteemed representatives, and the harsh, way too intense lighting, and the meetings look like it's a low-budget version of a futuristic Star Chamber proceeding. (Okay, I just wanted to show off that I still remember something from high school history). And finally, the Miss Rossmoor Pageant controversy as broken by the crack investigative reporters at The Sun. It seems there was far more action going on behind the scenes than general niceness when the Rossmor Homeowners Association announced that the pageant would get a third princess. At least, enough action that resulted in the pageant director being removed by the RHA Board of Directors. Well, as much as we enjoy gossip, we'll just tell you that the story involves intrigue, passion, ambition, behind the scenes manipulations, small-town power struggles, and a battle of egos -- just the sort of stuff that every beauty pageant can only dream about.
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LATV: The best days may be ahead
By LARRY STRAWTHER
Wanna-be Small-town television bigwig
We have been very involved
with the recent discussions on the future of LATV3 -- the local public access
station in Los Alamitos and Rossmoor. Some of what has been printed is accurate, so in the wish to correct that, we offer our own fuller version of exactly what's happening.
For the record, prior to the last two months, we have not been involved with the operation of LATV at all, other than being asked to announce the high school basketball games -- mainly I think because I could pronounce players names like Mogilevsky. I also helped organize some coverage of the Rossmoor 50th celebration but then the station went through reorganization and... well, we won't go there.
But I did spend over 25 years in real television, beginning as a runner on the Merv Griffin Show, working on other talk, variety, game, and reality shows, as well as being a writer and later Exec Producer on three Top 10 situation comedies shows with million dollar budgets. I've also created and produced a popular show on a cable network and even a reality show that had virtually no budget. So I know enough about all aspects of real television to make me dangerous.
Re: LATV, we recently made some suggestions
and proposals, all with the goal of providing more coverage of local
events (including non-sports)
and more cooperation with the school district. This last should be done if for no other reason than the fact that audio-video
production is the third largest industry in the United States, is the
nation's leading export industry and obviously one of the leading
employers in Southern California.
A key part of our plan would be a companion website which could do three big things:
1) Provide "on-demand" viewing of archived events (city council meetings, past football games, even classics like the 10-part History of Los Alamitos series, or past OCHSA shows at Los Al HS.);
2) Provide live
coverage of a Los Al HS event (a game, a choir concert, the Faculty Talent show or even an awards night or graduation), or a youth activity -- a
Friday Nights Lights or LAGSL championship games, or even a St.
Hedwig's flag football, volleyball or lip synch night.
3) Make that coverage available to those people
in Los Al and Rossmoor who currently get satellite TV but not LATV3, as well as to LAHS
parents, fans, friends and alumni who live outside Los Alamitos and
Rossmoor -- across the country or even overseas.
As an experiment, we worked with Vootage.com for a live internet broadcast of the CIF Girls Soccer Championship game -- on their website as well as GoLosAl.com and the CIF website as well.
Between the three sites, close to a thousand people viewed the events
live. Among the viewers were parents who were back East at a college
Parents weekend event but watched a younger daughter play that same night in the CIF
Championship soccer game. The next day we broadcast all four NJB championship games, and among the viewers of the Division I game were some grandparents in Florida who called right after the game to tell their grandson they had watched him win the game on the internet broadcast. Our experiment worked great and we want to do this with more youth sports and
high school events.
There's still many details to work out, but we are optimistic that the Los Al City Council might give us a chance. We have proposed a totally new nonprofit which would contract with the city to operate the station. Our Board members have a proven successful history with other local nonprofits, are good businessmen on their own, are reasonable, and they are all "do-ers." They look at where you want to go, and figure out how to get there.
Equally important, all but one have had minimal previous connection to LATV (and thus carry little political baggage). We think this will let us get the new station off and running on a clean slate. Four are from Los Alamitos and three are from Rossmoor. They have connections and friendships with many activities in this community - sports, a variety of schools, some arts groups, charitable organizations and churches.
We think one of the keys to making this work is the station has to be run like a business. The city would contract with the new non-profit corporation for its services, like it does with an outside company to re-pave the streets, or to trim the trees. The city's liability is minimized via the new corporation's insurance and idemnification. But for this to happen, the new corporation has to be absolutely independent. Once the city council makes even one suggestion on who should be on the Board, or assists in the incorporation of the new nonprofit, that nonprofit becomes an agency of the city and is thus not only bound by the Brown Act (making the operation of the station more cumbersome), but the city makes itself liable for anything to do with LATV.
The city would be protected via insurance, standard legal ability to see the pertinent financials, and the right not to renew the contract. Anyway, we don't want to bore you with the details.
Ironically, we've found that none of the biggest challenges re: LATV is that people have such low expectations of it. They see that continually running bulletin board and they have trouble picturing what it can be. Trust me, that station can be so much more to this community.
Suffice it to say, we are hopeful the council will agree with us and next time we talk about this, we will have good news to report to you soon.
Okay, now that we've jinxed that deal it's time to move on. |
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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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