HALF THE FACTS ALL THE TIME,
ALL THE FACTS HALF THE TIME
Vol . 9, Issue 16 · July 23, 2007
And a good Monday morning to you,
We received emails this week from former readers who didn't know we were now available on-line, but glad to find us. If you know someone who might be interested in our on-line effort -- friends, former teammates, grandparents, etc. -- don't be afraid to forward this to them. Or just
send us their email address and we'll put them on our ever-growing subscriber list (now nearing 5,000).A group of St. Hedwig dads have organized a golf tournament to honor long-time Hedwig school figure John Russell and raise money for school facilities. A link to the tourney flyer is here (be patient, the web server is having "issues" as of this morning).
New Long Beach state basketball coach Dan Monson is buying a home in Rossmoor. I wonder how long it will take for every local school PTA to ask him for 49er tickets for their various silent auction fundraisers. The 49ers officially open their Monson Era basketball season with a home game against BYU on November 10.
Speaking of fundraising, two new local Italian eateries -- DeLucia's (located in the old Sub slot) and Santa Fe Importers (in the old Togo take-out) -- hadn't even officially opened when they were asked to donate gift certificates and food to local school shindigs. (Wow! Local booster club and PTA moms have to be quick to beat out all the other schools around here.)
Let's see, checking out the free plug dept... Girls Volleyball Boosters are having their camp for grades 3-8 August 6-10. Check here for info or call Coach Dave Huber at (760) 218-2095. There is also a high school Boys LaCrosse camp at Laurel School tonight thru Thursday night 6:30 to 8:30. I'm sure you can sign up on the spot.
Champions Quest · 10712 Reagan Street · Los Alamitos, CA 90720
The Los Alamitos High American Legion baseball team downed Lakewood 8-0 Thursday night to capture the District 19 tournament and earn a berth in the Legion's state tournament in August.Beau Wright pitched seven shutout innings and struck out 16 to help the Griffins rally from a 5-2 loss to Lakewood earlier in the day. Because they had won the winners bracket in the double elimination tournament, the Griffins had two shots to win the title on Thursday and they needed both of them.
Travis Garrett (right), David Compton and Mickey Lorenzini each drove in two runs for Los Alamitos which went 4-1 in the tournament, and now advances to the state tournament in Yountville Aug. 4-7. The Region 8 playoffs are Aug. 16-20 in Kerns, Utah, and the World Series will be played Aug. 24-28 in Barthesville, Okla.
The Griffins won the winners bracket on Tuesday when Kirk Singer's two-out single in the bottom of the eighth scored Mickey Lorenzini and gave Los Alamitos a 3-2 win over Paramount. Lakewood earned a shot at Los Al by downing Paramount 2-0 on Wednesday.
Los Al opened the tournament with a dominating 11-0 win over La Habra on Saturday afternoon and a 12-2 win over Narbonne on Sunday. Against La Habra, Kyle Simon scattered six hits over four shutout innings while Kenny Uyetake went 2 for 3 with two RBI and David Compton added a pair of RBI.
Surviving the heat of lovely Lancaster, the Los Al girls softball 14&Under all-star team qualified for the national tournament, and is now hosting a series of fund-raising events to help defray costs for a trip to the ASA Western Nation finals in Stockton July 31 - August 5th.
The first two fundraisers took place at Baja Fresh last Friday and a car wash on Sunday from 8am to 12 noon. Other fundraisers will take place at the Starting Gate and via a raffle. More details are available at the league website -
www.lagsl.org.The locals opened the state tournament in 100+ temperatures at 9:45am but against the defending national champs Bonita Valley squad which dispatched the Los Al-iens to the losers bracket with a 5-0 loss.
Los Al rallied to down Poway 4-1, then faced Chino in an afternoon match that saw the thermometer flashing at 112 degrees. Trailing 2-1 going into the last inning, the locals rallied for five runs and a 6-2 win. They followed this up with a 9-0 mercy win over Santee.
Forced to play an 8am game on Sunday morning, the locals defeated Downey 3-1, with the win qualifying the team for the Nationals. In the ensuing game, the Los Al 14s fell to Escondido 8-2.Members of the team include Alyssa Ampudia, Alexa Coffing, Cassy Coleman, Sara Hutter, Stephanie Luhmann, Morgan McGee, Paige Mullins, Lacey Nilsen, Ally Raphael, Reanna Rennie, Daniele Schugg, Kayti Sutherland, and Gabby Thury. Head coach is Bob Mullins, assisted by Gene Schugg, Pat McGee, and Chris Coffing.
The LAYB Mustang all-star team has amassed an 8-0 record so far in sanctioned all-star play. Behind the strong pitching of Nick Valdez and Taylor Franzman and the hitting of catcher Elijah Skipps (6 HRs in official all-star play), the local 'Stangs went 3-0 in district play, 4-0 in Section action and won their first game at the regional tournament at Whittier's York Field, downing LaJolla 9-7 on Thursday night.
The LAYB boys played LaCosta on Saturday at 1pm. If they win the Whittier Region they immediately jump into the Zone Tournament action in Chino.Other members of the team are William Abbatine, Garrett Brockel, Chase Broersma, Josh Dozier, Travis Dozier, Brandon Dunn, Caid Fernandez, Brent Lilley, Nolan Seawright, Nick Springer, and Paul Zambrano. The coaches are David Seawright, Mark Broersma, and Chris Dozier
The Shetland all-stars (right) also won a sectional championship, and the Pinto all-stars made it as far as region play in Moreno Valley.
The Los Al 14A squad lost to Cypress 8-4 Sunday in the losers bracket of the District tournament at the LAYB fields. LAYB beat Placentia 5-3 on Saturday. Full Results of that tournament are available at www.layb.org.
10554 Humbolt St (off Cerritos bet. Los Al Blvd & Bloomfield) · (562) 598-CAGE (2243)
Some local youth volleyball players almost won the big trophies at the national junior Olympic championships held earlier this month but came up just short.
On the boys side, Rossmoor's Greg Kroneberger Kroneberger made the all-tournament team. (LAHS '07, shown right - click for larger photo) and his Palisades club team reached the 18 Open (the primo group) finals, but came up short to HP Orange Gateway in the championship match.
In the 17s club division, Highline (with Griffin seniors-to-be Dewey Thomasson, Matt Markel and Kyle McElderry) reached the finals of the club division before falling to Borcinquen of Puerto Rico. McElderry, an outside hitter, made the all-tournament team.
In the girls brackets (held in Minneapolis July 2-6), LB Mizuno (with Rossmoor's Bethany Keissner, LAHS '07) came in 2nd place. TCA 3rd Degree (Geena Urango, Rossmoor/LAHS '07, and Kelly Holford - Long Beach, LAHS '09) fell in the semi-finals. Urango was named to the all-tournament team.
In international play, his US teammates struggled but UC Irvine-bound Kevin Carroll (Rossmoor/LAHS '07) saw increasing playing time at the FIVB Mens Junior World Championships held July 7-16 in Morocco. Carroll, one of three high schoolers on the roster, had to watch a lot of the early pool play action, which saw the US down Egypt and Russia, before dropping three straight - to Brazil, Slovenia, and Argentina. Their 2-3 record consigned them to the 5th thru 8th place bracket. After a loss to Bulgaria, the USA downed Cub to gain seventh place.
Former Los Al and Arizona State softball standout Kristin Farber will be tying the knot this fall - to Pittsburgh Pirate centerfielder Chris Duffy.
The pair met when both attended Arizona State. Farber was a 2-time all-conference centerfielder (she is still ASU's all-time leader in stolen bases) and then was drafted by Denver of the proposed women's pro softball league. Duffy currently has plenty time to help out with the wedding plans as a severe ankle sprain put him on the disabled list at least through the end of this month.
Kristin's wedding party includes former LAGSL, Los Al and ASU teammate Phelan Wright, ex-Griffin soccer standout and assistant coach Kaelie Kentner (now married to former Griffin and Loyola Marymount baseball player Chad Lindholm), Sara DeCoudres (now Carenchi) and Valerie Harris.
The couple will be married on October 27 at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Pasadena with the reception being held at the Ritz-Carlton Pasadena, and have already bought a home in Glendale Arizona. Kristin's parents, John and Annette, still live in Rossmoor.)
Farber was scheduled to get some practice as a baseball wife by participating in the Pirates Wives "Take Me Out to the Ball Gown" charity auction party/fashion show/ on August 2, but Duffy's injury and rehab in Florida have put a crimp in those plans.
For those who can never get enough all thing Griffin, Wright, a three-time All-America at ASU, played one year of pro softball, but has apparently hung up her cleats - and is back in Rossmoor after having just graduated from the Fashion Institute.
Rancho Los Alamitos - 6400 Bixby Hill Rd, Long Beach, CA 90815 · (562) 431-3541
And now for our regularly scheduled Jon Bornstein news - the former Griffin was voted onto the first team MLS all-star team and had a nice words written about him in this OC Register article which should also boost business for Bon Jour Bagels.
UC Santa Cruz standout Jeremy Abrams has been playing for the semi-pro Santa Cruz County Breakers put in a header goal to give the Breakers a 1-1 tie with the El Paso Indios on June 23.
The Big West defending champion LB State 49 Women's Soccer team formally announced its 2007 schedule which features five non-conference opponents who made the NCAA Tournament.
The Beach travels to North Carolina to play ACC powers Wake Forest (16-6-1) and Clemson (10-8-5, Elite 8 in 2006), and will also play against USC (11-5-5), Utah (16-4-1) and BYU (13-3-3).
Long Beach has been 26-10-4 in its past two seasons, but has not been invited to the NCAA Tournament - due, the coaching staff thinks, to the perception that they play a light schedule. Success with this schedule should answer those critics.
The 49ers have also struggled near season's end due to a lack of depth, but another banner recruiting year should help resolve that. Soccer Buzz ranked their recruits as the 27th best class in the nation.Click here for a season prospectus.
One in 10 collegiate female athletes will blow out their knee this year. But a new report (published in the Journal of Sports Medicine in April 2007) shows that there may be ways for girls and women to avoid it.
Check out the NY Times version of it or go to the
source.Here's a 2006 Times report on the amazing improvements in treating ACL injuries - including repairing a meniscus by implanting knee cartilage.
The Weiner Nationals took place a few weeks ago at Los Al Race Track and while the winning weiner was Sally a dashing doxie from Orange, much of the local support was on Zoey, a first-time racer owned by Los Al High student Christina Kaplan and her mom Lisa. Unfortunately, in her heat, Zoey was "boxed in"by an errant Doxie coming out of the gate, but despite the trouble, made up enough ground to almost take second. Zoey is pictured above with Lisa and another local entrant, "Louie," owned by 2005 LAHS grad Joya Grieco.
The event was watched by neraly 8,000 persons and raised over $20,000 for the Seal Beach Animal Shelter, including 5 grand donated by race track owner Ed Allred.
Los Al Unified approves district goals - OC Register.
The Los Alamitos Unified school board on Monday adopted a list of district goals for the coming school year. ...Orange Slices: Independence day - OC Register, CA - Jul 2, 2007 -- For special-needs children graduating from Los Alamitos High, a program has given them the confidence to take the next step. Gleefully blowing kisses ...
Call Local Sports (562) 431-7001 or click ad for rates
Residents are invited to celebrate the Los Alamitos Area Chamber of Commerce's 60th anniversary with an open house 11 am ...
BIZ PROFILE: Super Suppers brings families back the dinner table -- OCRegister, CA - Jul 5, 2007
Diane was design director and general manager for West Coast Artwear, located in Los Alamitos, for 12 years. How long did it take you to get from idea to ...The Shops at Rossmoor (formerly the Rossmoor Center) are quickly lining up all their new stores, including Circuit City and Sprouts natural food store.
Other shops which had previously signed leases are:
Winestyles
Peet's Coffee & Tear
Pei Wei to bring Taste of Asia to Shops at Rossmoor
Mel's Ready to Move into Parasol Building
Chico's
The Rossmoor Community Service District Directors unanimously voted on July 12th to file an application seeking a formal vote of residents to determine the unincorporated area's future.
The directors action came after the receipt of a community petition of 2,373 residents asking that the matter of incorporation be put to a vote. Laws require that one-quarter of a community's registered voters sign such a petition. Rossmoor currently has 7,312 registered voters. 25% of that would be 1,828, but volunteers wanted to get a much higher number of signers to assure it would have more than enough after the validation process.
But rather than spending an estimated $8,000 to certify that the signatures were valid, the RCSD Board decided it would be cheaper and more efficient to formally apply to the Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) via the resolution process.
A mail-in
survey conducted by the Rossmoor Homeowners Association last year, showed that residents who participated narrowly favored incorporation (27%) over annexing with either Los Alamitos (19%) or Seal Beach (24%). But barely one fourth of the community actually responded to that survey -- and Rossmoor consistently has a very high rate of voter participation during elections, so the feelings of at least half of the probable electorate is still a looming question mark.Incorporation drama is not new to Rossmoor. Attempts were made in 1957, 1960, 1961, 1968, 1978 and 1979 - with formal votes actually happening in 1960 and 1961. In addition both Los Alamitos and Seal Beach have initiated annexation conversations and attempts on more than one occasion. Seal Beach successfully annexed that part of Rossmoor occupied by the Rossmoor Business Center (now the Shops at Rossmoor) and a number of apartment and condo buildings in the early 1960s. Los Al's attempt to annex the Rossmoor Village shopping center was overturned by LAFCO in 1978.
The 1960 and 1961 efforts failed after cityhood opponents claimed incorporation would result in higher taxes. Ironically, soon after the 1961 election, Rossmoor was hit with the highest tax increase of all communities in west Orange County.
Rossmoor group inching toward incorporation vote - OC Register, CA - Jun 20, 2007
LOS ALAMITOS
Los Al council affirms support for LATV - OC Register, CA -Jul 19, 2007 -- The Los Al City Council on Monday night reaffirmed its support for the city's embattled cable television station, LATV-3, ...First summer concert draws 700 -- OC Register, CA - Jul 12, 2007 -- About 700 locals turned out to see the Rolling Stones tribute band Jumping Jack Flash on Sunday night in Laurel Park ...
California National Guard Aircraft on Stand-By to Fight Wildfires - Salem-News.Com, OR - Jul 6, 2007
Two of the five aircraft are currently on stand-by at Mather Air Field, the Stockton Flight Facility has two, and Los Alamitos Joint Force will provide one ...Realty office collecting DVDS for troops - OC Register, CA - Jul 6, 2007 -- Keller Williams Realty in Los Alamitos has set up a DVD drop box for donated DVDs to be sent to US troops serving overseas...
Rolling Stones look-alikes to perform - OC Register, CA - Jul 6, 2007 -- Rolling Stones tribute band Jumping Jack Flash will perform Sunday in Laurel Park to kick off the Los Alamitos summer concert series. ...
Los Al passes $12.5 million city budget - OC Register, CA - Jul 5, 2007 -- A divided City Council narrowly approved the city's budget for the next fiscal year, which began July 1...
SEAL BEACH
Seal Beach to weigh Bluebell Park upgrade - OC Register, CA -
Seal Beach resident takes top PR honorsJul 20, 2007 -- The Seal Beach City Council on Monday will consider awarding a $169400 construction contract to renovate Bluebell Park...
OC Register, CA -Jul 12, 2007 - Seal Beach resident Marissa Manley was part of an Orange County Transportation Authority publicity team that captured 10 awards last month from ...
See you on the fields, the courts,
Sincerely,
Larry & Nancy Strawther
Big Kahuna & Boss Kahuna, Local Sports
Email: localsports@earthlink.netPhone: (562) 431-7001Fax: (562) 431-7001
This email was sent to r-cprettyman@earthlink.net, by localsports@earthlink.net
