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A lot has been happening around here, so to get this
latest issue out I really needed a quiet place without
distractions to concentrate. Fortunately, the
polling booths were open today. (I don't think it is
humanly possible to be quieter and still alive than
it was in there today.)
Anyway, I hope everyone cast their
vote. And speaking of votes (and good segues)
we hope you will take the time to partake in our vote
(or more accurately, our SURVEY ON LATV3,
the local public access TV channel, which we
think can be... well, a lot better.
While many (including us)
have opined on what they think people would like to
see on LATV, the truth is nobody really knows for sure
what people want. Hence, our survey
to help us get a better handle on these answers.
This is not just for residents of
Los Alamitos and Rossmoor because with a website and
other technological advances, LATV can be available
to all.
So whatever your wishes for
LATV -- more sports, less sports, more arts, more local
history, more school-related programming, more wacky
government meetings, less government meetings, more
local news, etc. -- or even if you think it's fine just
the way it is -- please take a few minutes to take
the survey.
Word is out that Friday Night Lights flag
football had 1,200 youths sign up to play and that league
execs had to shut off the online registration after
just three days.
We also heard that the Los Al HS
PTSA Fund-raiser at Spaghettini's was a big success,
raising over $13,000 dollars for PTSA activities at
Los Al HS.
We have a story down below on Los Al freshman
A.J. Herrera who has qualified for the International
water skiiing championships. Champions Quest will
be holding a fund raiser for him in June to help him
defray expenses. We'll have more on that in the
coming weeks.
Elsewhere, on the high school front,
the Griffin track and swimming squads are wrapping up
their CIF meets while softball is just about to begin
their playoffs. And a bevy of alumni started NCAA
softball action but only one is left -- guess who?
A
QUICK FREE PLUG
-- The Shops at Rossmoor is working with the
local libraries and school district to promote
a One Book, One Community campaign. The
book is "Three Cups of Tea," Greg Mortenson's
book about his adventure to climb K-2 in Pakistan/Afghanistan
and after a mountain climbing disaster ends
up building schools over there, which takes
him to heights he never imagined.
The Grand Launch of the program begins Friday,
May 29 with special speaker Bonita Chamberlin.
Proceeds from the event will going to Pennies
for Peace. Talk starts at 7pm. Refreshments
will be served. RSVP at 562.430.0211 or
at the links below:
On to the
good stuff...
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 Champions
Quest · 10712
Reagan Street
· Los
Alamitos, CA
90720 |
LACROSSE: Girls capture US Lacrosse-Southern Section championship; run record to 19-0
 After jumping out to a big first half lead, the Los Al girls lacrosse team rolled to a 17-11 victory over Cate of Carpinteria in the U.S.
Lacrosse-Southern Section championship at Mira Costa High last Friday night.
It
is the first Southern California title for the Griffins, who on Tuesday
won their first county title after losing in two previous seasons in
the finals.
Los Alamitos (19-0) had a balanced scoring attack led by Francie Crowell, who had six goals, and Shaina Denny, who scored three, while Ashley Actkinson and Lindsey Schmidt Beck added two goals each for Los Alamitos.
Crowell, a senior, will play at Notre Dame next season, and is the first Californian to ever sign a National Letter of Intent to play there.
The Lady Griffins qualified for the Section title match by downing Foothill 15-10 last Tuesday at Irvine High to claim the school's first ever OC Championship.
In the county semi-final match Los Al rallied to defeat El Toro 12-9 on Saturday, May 9.
On the Boys Lacrosse side, the Griffins fell to Foothill 14-12 in the Orange County semi-finals, allowing the top-seeded Knights to jump out to an early 4-1 lead which the Griffins could never overcome.
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LAHS SOFTBALL: 2-1 loss to Edison drops Griffins from first to third; open CIF playoffs at Simi Valley on Thursday
After coming up just short of a Sunset League championship, the Los Al Griffins softball team will have a chance to mend the hurt when they begin CIF playoff action on Thursday at Simi Valley.
Simi, the #2 team in the Marmonte league, comes into the playoffs with a 19-8 over all record. Los Al enters the playoffs with a 22-8 mark.
Should the Griffins win, they would play the winner of the #5 seed Corona Santiago-Oxnard game. Santiago was second the strong Big-8 League)
After spending two days tied atop the Sunset League, Los Al fell 2-1 to Edison last Thursday in the league finale, and dropped down to third place with a 7-3 mark. Edison and Marina tied for first with an 8-2 mark.
Los Al had won four games in a row to climb back into the race, and after finding itself down 4-0 against Marina last Tuesday, rallied to win that game 7-6 to set up the three-way logjam atop the league standings.
Brittney Spalding and Rebecca Gottfried each went 2 for 3 with a double and two RBIs to lead Los Alamitos' 12-hit attack. The win set up the finale against Edison with a title on the line.
Although Los Al jumped on top in the first inning on a misplayed ball in left field, Edison's Allyson Hecht kept the Griffins batters at bay the rest of the way. Edison tied the game in the sixth and pushed across the game-winner in the seventh to secure a share of the league title. The Chargers then won a coin flip to receive the league's #1 berth.
In JV softball news, the Griffin JVs completed a fine tournament showing this season by captured first place at the Savanna JV Softball
Tournament. third place at the Westminister JV Tournament and taking home another first place trophy at the end-of-the-season Foothill JV Softball Tournament.
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LAHS SWIMMING: Girls 7th, Boys 8th in CIF Div-I finals; Merrill, Czaus lead Griffins to Masters
 Los Al juniors Kaley Dodson (shown left) who was second in the Girls 50 free, and 8th in the 100 backstroke, and Alex Merrill (third in the 100 freestyle and fifth in the 50 freestyle) paced a strong showing by Griffin swimmers at the CIF Division I finals on May 15.
Merrill will lead a gaggle of Griffins into today's CIF Masters meet at Belmont Plaza pool. The Masters competition pits qualifiers from all six CIF divisions. (The sectional finals are based on school size and strength of league.) The meet begins with the diving at noon and swimming at 5 p.m.
Dodson will forego the meet to concentrate on her training for the U.S. Jr. National Water Polo Team, as she readies for a tournament in Davis this weekend.
Besides Merrill, other top Griffin hopefuls at the Masters meet include sophomore diver Syndey Czaus (fifth in the girls 1-meter platform), senior Jeremy Smith, (200 medley and 500 free), and the Los Alamitos boys relay teams qualified for the 200
and 400 free (Merril, Joe Ferretti, Smith, Forrest Watkins). The girls also qualified in the 200 freestyle relay (Dodson, Rachel Fattal, Dari Watkins, Jessica Dunn) and the 400 free (Dodson, Marilyn Gray, Watkins and Fattal) but like Dodson, as a group they chose to forgo the master meet.
Overall, the Griffin girls finished seventh at the CIF Division I meet with 100 points while the Boys were 8th with 111.
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LAHS TRACK AND FIELD: Griffin vaulters Culver and Kim clear CIF prelims, advance to finals
 Los Al pole vaulters Carissa Culver and Andrew Kim are both tied for first place after the CIF Division I preliminary competition last weekend.
Culver, a sophomore who finished first in the Sunset League Girls Pole Vault Finals the week before, qualified for this weekend's Division Finals at Cerritos College with a day's best 11-2.
Kim, a junior who was second in the Boys Varsity Sunset league vault finals, was one of seven vaulters who cleared 14-6 in the prelims.
Over the past season, Griffin female track & field members have made some serious dents in the school record books.
Junior Danielle Fessenden set a new school record in the 400 meters with a time of
57.32, and anchored a 4x400 relay team (
Lauren Yamada, Cheyenne Perez, Danielle Fessenden, Alicia Keyworth, shown above left)
which set a new school record of 3:58.08. It was the second time this year the girls had broken the mark..
Senior Brianna Dixion set a new triple jump record of
36-2.
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LAHS FOOTBALL: Los Al receiver Richardson transfers to South Bay football power Serra HS
All-County wide receiver and UCLA commit Paul Richardson has left the Sunset League school and enrolled at Serra, a smaller private school in Gardena, which just happens to have a very strong football program.
Richardson's dad told reporters that the move was "bittersweet" but dictated solely by the family's move to Hawthorne, a comment greeted with, shall we say skepticism, by a large number of Griffin football followers. And while others may do so, we would never suggest -- at least openly -- that the graduation of Los Al quarterback Clark Evans, with no seemingly equivalent replacement in sight, had anything to do with Richardson's reason to transfer.
At Serra, Richardson will join the team's new quarterback, Conner Preston, a transfer from Palisades High (where he threw for over 2,000 yards in his first full season as a sophomore starter this season). and receivers Robert Woods and George Palmer. All three receivers have scholarship offers from top NCAA Divison I programs.
Richardson is committed to UCLA.
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ALUMNI BASEBALL:Chapman advances to fifth straight NCAA Division III College World Series
 Chapman University (with former Griffins Ryan Prechtl, Joe Lehman and Eric Robbins) will advance to the NCAA Division III College World Series for the fifth straight year after downing George Fox University 7-4 in the "if necessary" second game of the West Region championships in Linfield Oregon last Sunday. Chapman (30-15) will now travel to Appleton, Wisconsin to compete in the
eight-team tournament set to begin this Friday. Chapman, which finished fifth in last year's tournament, make
their sixth appearance in seven years under head coach Tom
Tereschuk. Ryan Prechtl (LAHS '06), who had three hits on the day last Sunday, was named to the all-tournament team. Kirk Singer (LAHS '08) capped a Long Beach State comeback win.
Kyle Simon (LAHS '08) pitched a
solid 5 2/3 innings, but didn't get a decision as his Arizona teammates rallied to down Washington 10-7 last Saturday. Simon scattered seven hits while allowing just three
runs before leaving the game with the Wildcats trailing 3-2. Arizona which is now 27-24 on the season, concludes its regular season home schedule on Wednesday as it hosts
No. 3 Arizona State in a non-conference game. |
ALUMNI SOFTBALL: Nelson, Cahn rack up post-season awards, lead teams into NCAA tournament action.
Three former Los Al girls softball players were awarded NCAA post-season honors while four led their teams into the opening round of NCAA Tournament action last weekend.
Most prominent were former Griffin pitchers Stacey Nelson (LAHS '05) and Anna Cahn (LAHS '07) and Dartmouth freshman Molly Khalil (LAHS '08) who were all named to Regional All-America teams announced last week by the NCAA and the Fast Pitch Coaches Association.
Nelson, whose Florida Gators were awarded the #1 seed in the whole NCAA tournament, was also named the SEC Pitcher of the Year and had a nice write-up about her and mom Karolyn at the Gators Senior Day festivities. Nelson, who was invited to try out for the US National softball team later this summer, now has 130 career NCAA victories, tying her for seventh place all-time. She has a chance of tying for sixth place. Former Griffin Carrie Dolan (LAHS '93) is tied for 38th with 103 wins.
The Gators advanced to the NCAA Regional Finals by downing Texas A&M 7-1. In order to move onto the Women's College World Series, a team must win two games. Saturday's game will be broadcast on ESPN. The Sunday games will be on ESPN2 and ESPN360.com
 Left-handed Anna Cahn (shown left, LAHS '07) was named the Big West Conference Pitcher of the Year. Cahn had her 13-game winning streak snapped against Nevada in last Friday's opening round action at Stanford, but then Cahn tossed a two-hitter as Cal Poly bounced back to defeat Portland State 5-0 and register its first-ever NCAA tournament win. SLO then downed Nevada 6-1 to earn a spot in the regional final against Stanford, where unfortunately SLO fell to the Cardinal.
Khalil, a first team All-Ivy League selection in addition to being an All-Region choice, played in 45 games and batted. 309 in league
contests
along with a team-best 20 RBIs in Ivy play and helped lead the big Green to the Ivy league championship game.
Jordan Wheeler and #12 Northwestern dropped their first two games and were quickly eliminated from the tournament.
Meghan Mawn and the University of Miami also scored their program's first-ever NCAA tournament win, downing Cleveland 5-4 in a losers bracket game Saturday. Mawn got the assist on the final out. She then hit a solo home run in the losers bracket final against Notre Dame, but the Redhawks fell to Notre Dame 5-3. Notre Dame third baseman Heather Johnson (Mater Dei '07, from Los Alamitos) had two hits for the Irish.
She's not technically a local alumni, but Brittany Weil, daughter of Griffin softball coch Rob Weil, became the University of Iowa's all-time career leader in strikeouts two weeks ago. Unfortunately, Iowa was elminated at the Atlanta regionals last weekend, with Weil ending her career as one of the most decorated pitchers to ever wear a Hawkeye uniform. She holds school
records for career strikeouts (1,084), single-season strikeouts (340),
career games pitched (183) and career complete games (110). She is also
tied for the most wins in school history with 99.
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Los Al HS Alumni Newsletter #3 is out; Hall of Fame nominations to close at end of this week.
The third edition of our Los Al alumni newsletter was sent out last month and can be seen here. 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 2,200 alums
signed on. (Note:You have to be logged on to facebook for the main link to work -- although it's possible some old school photos may be seen here.)
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CLUB SOCCER: Yukihiro and Slammers claim U18 Premier title; AYSO BU123 Patriots claim Area E title, 3rd place at Section 11 Tourney
Although their Los Al Griffins came up a game short of a CIF championship, a coupe Griffins were able to claim a club title for the trophy case.
Senior Jessa Yukihiro and her U18 Slammers captured the CalSouth National Cup title, downing the Eagles 1-0 a few weeks ago. The Slammers keeper stopped a PK in the last seconds of the match to preserve the win.
The Slammers now advance to the Regional IV Championships which take place in Lancaster during June -- the same week as Los Al HS graduation. Also playing in that tournament will be the SoCal Blues U18 team (with Griffins Katie Peterson and Ari Carillo). The Blues qualified by winning the Regional League season during the fall.
Griffin freshman Taylor Vargo helped lead her X-treme Breakaway squad to the Cal-South U14 championship. They defeated the SoCal Blues-Rennie 1-0 in the title game.
Griffin junior Shannon Ward and the U17 legends came close, falling to Real SoCal in the U17 semi-finals. Real SoCal then went on to win the title.
Wrapping up our Winter Sports honors report, Katie Peterson was named the Press-Telegram's Dream team Player of the Year. She was also named to the OC Register's All-County first team squad and was the CIF defensive Player of the Year.
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LOS ALAMITOS REC DEPARTMENT
Online Scores & Results
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LOCAL YOUTH: Los Al freshman, A.J. Herrera, qualifies for world water ski championships
 It looks to be a very busy summer for local youth water skiier A.J.
Herrera, who has been selected as the top seeded American Junior Boy
skier and will represent the United States at the Water Ski Racing
World Championships, to be held in Belgium in mid July 2009.
As a warm-up for that challenge, Herrera will try to repeat as Junior
Boys champ in the annual Long Beach-to-Catalina ski race which takes
place July 12th. Two days later he leaves for Belgium and the World
Championships.
This past year, Herrera, a freshman at Los Al HS, played football, was
the Champions' Quest feature athlete in their last newsletter, and made
the Principal's Honor Roll last semester.
More information on a fund to help defray some expenses incurred by Herrera and other US team members, can be viewed here. |
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LAHS NON-SPORTS: LAHS Choir groups to perform last shows of school year in June
 The last chance to see the award-winning Los Al HS Choirs perform this year will be at their annual POPS concert held June 11, 12, & 13 at
7pm at the LAHS performing Arts center. The performance will cap an incredible year for the choral groups which have won or placed in
various competitions from Newhall to San
Diego.
The groups, all under the guiding hand of first year director David Moellenkamp, who inherited an incredibly successful program from longtime director Randi Carp and took it to even higher level of success -- consist of Axcent (Women's Beginning/Intermediate), Xtreme (Men's Beginning/Intermediate), Soundtrax (Women's Advanced) and ...SoundFx (Mixed Advance Show
Choir). Collectively, the groups captured four 3rd-place finishes, seven second-place trophies, and finished first four times. Among the students who won individual awards were Zenna Hodge and Erica Williams ("Best Female Performance"), Kylie
Brow, Kyle Ahlstrom & Jessica Byrd ("Best
Soloist"). Soundtrax and SoundFx both won
first place at the FAME National competition, giving
SoundFx Grand Champion Status.
Moellenkamp has been ably assisted by Eddy Clement, Assistant Music Director and Accompanist, Heather Hoppus-Werner,
Choreographer, not to mention the the long volunteer hours by the Booster Club and it's Board.
The "POPS" concert will be held at the Los Alamitos High School
Performing Arts Center. Tickets for the POPS concert on June 11, 12, & 13 are $10 each and can be ordered at www.Lahschoir.com or email D'arcy Kine. For questions
please contact D'arcy Kine between 9am and 9pm at
714-904-5558. |
Shameless sales pitch for advertisers
 Call Local Sports (562) 431-7001 or click ad for rates |
COMMUNITY: It's still all quiet on the western front... too quiet
Compared to recent weeks, it's actually been a fairly calm month around here. Their were even a couple unanimous votes at the Los Al City Council meeting. The new Los Al city manager Jeff Stewart is already probably thinking this job is going to be a breeze. (That's just what some want him to think...)
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 provides links to good information -- and provides a forum for Los Al-iens to vent.
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That's all for this issue.
See you on the fields (or the courts, the pitch, --or maybe even the television studio :)
Sincerely,
Larry & Nancy Strawther
Big Kahuna & Boss Kahuna, Local Sports
Phone: (562) 431-7001
Fax: (562) 431-7001
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