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Last issue we messed up the link to the golf tournament honoring long-time Hedwig school figure John Russell.  (Proceeds will go to improve the sports facilities over there in Celtic-ville.) Anyway, let's try it again --a link to the tourney flyer is here. 

Okay, enough of my verbose ramblings. Let's get to the good stuff.

The LAGSL 12 and under A (aka "red") all-star team completed its almost perfectly imperfect run by reaching the championship finals in four of the six tournaments it entered, including a runner-up finish at the NSA Nationals held in Stockton in mid July.

The 12U A team reached the the championship game in three the Tournaments, losing to PYL, WAGS and Bonita Valley (all of which advanced to Nationals).

After their fourth place finish at the ASA Districts, the local Reds were invited to the NSA State tournament (comprised of rec ball all star teams and travel ball teams) where they fell in the semi-finals, but still advanced to the NSA Western World Series in Stockton, reaching the championship before falling to the Tracy Mystique.  

At the national finals, the Los Al team won its pool and then lost a tough 4-3 game in an international tie breaker to Tracy Mystique in the quarters. It bounced back with 2 straight wins to make it to the final day. They won the losers bracket to set up a re-match with Tracy Mystique. They beat Tracy in an international tie breaker 6-5, setting up the "what if" game. Tracy came out on top 4-2 (3 games with 2 tie breakers, decided by a total of 4 runs!).

The team finished the week 7-2 (the season with 4 championship final appearances and 2 semi final appearances) and a runner up finish at the Western World Series!!!

The team consisted of Marisa Swank, M.K. Trotter, Alex Finie, Jess Mosbaugh, Erica Crissman, Keaton Otake, Katelyn Morello, Lexi Rountree, Megan Carroll, Alyssa Lilley, Jamie Holcomb, Kori Meacham and Kelsey Neipris.    

The team was coached by Tim Swank, assisted by Mike Trotter, Bob Mosbaugh, Tim Lilley and Bill Crissman.

Seal Beach water polo standout Adam Wright (Wilson, UCLA '00) helped lead the US mens team to a gold medal at the Pan Am games in Rio de Janeiro and secure a berth in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Also clinching a berth in Beijing were the US women, who won a Pan Am gold medal of their own and were helped out by goalie Jamie Hipp, who's been living in Seal Beach the last four years, and claiming squatters rights at the Mahe early bird sushi special.  Splitting time in the goal, Hipp, a four-time All-American and also a three-time national champion at UCLA (2000, 2001 and 2003), played in three games in Rio while registering the highest save percentage of any goalkeeper in the tournament at 70.4 percent (19 saves on 27 shots). 

The US women, who won the Worlds Championship earlier this year, also clinched a Olympics berth with their Pan Am win.

Hipp will be officially moving from Seal Beach to Costa Mesa later this month after she and Matt Komer (Rossmoor, LAHS '98, UCLA '02, all-American in VB) tie the knot.

The Irvine Strikers Girls U15 squad (with Los Al sophomore April Cross - College Park West) captured the US Club Soccer Association Super Group national championship in Burlington, North Carolina, with a 2-0 victory over the Albion Soccer Club of Northern California.

The Strikers outscored their opponents 12-1 in three pool play matches and the championship game.  The Boys U12 Irvoine team also claimed a national title.

California teams dominated the National Cup VI Finals, claiming eight of the 18 national championships awarded, with four of the title games pitting California sides against each other.  The Irvine Strikers won a pair of all-California tilts as the club won the Super Group U12 Boys title with a 5-1 defeat of Portuguese Athletic Club Tigres and the Super Group U15 Girls championship with a 2-0 blanking of Albion SC. 

The US Club Soccer national tournament is a newer competition, not to be confused with the older, more established US Youth Soccer national championships which took place last week in Frisco, Texas.  Southern California teams (CalSouth) captured three of the 12 titles,with seven teams reaching the championship game.

Surf Cup, the granddaddy or at least grand poobah of club soccer college showcase tournaments, finished up this weekend in San Diego with at least two locals bringing home some gold-painted championship trophies. Annie Wethe (Rossmoor, a senior-to-be at LAHS this year) scored a goal  as Wolfpack Blue downed Mustang Fury 2-1 to win the Girls U19 gold bracket.   Infinity's U19 squad (with Griffins Katie Suits and Melanie Green) suffered death by goals allowed and failed to advance to the bracket rounds.  In the GU17 Gold bracket SoCal Blues (with Rossmoor's Greer Wilk, another Griffin senior) also scored in the championship match as her Blues defeated the Eagles 2-1.

With 28 teams in each age group and 10 boys and 10 girls groups, Surf Cup brings over 10,000 players to its two weekends of play.  Figuring that the players alone bring at least $200 in revenue between lodging, snacks, meals and shopping, you have to figure each Surf Cup is worth at least $2 million in revenue to the San Diego area before you even start to count the parents.

Locals playing fall sports at college are already heading back to campus week to begin training for their fall sports seasons.  Football players began the trek last week, starting their five-day "acclimation" period on Friday, with full contact practices starting next week.

Among those heading out will be Los Al all-CIF-er Ken Borg (shown right with his mom, Carolyn, at the  OC All-star game a few weeks ago) who will be playing for Fresno State this fall, joining former Los Al kicker Dustin Abrams there.  Other Griffins playing college football are Jimmy Barnes and Eric Linehan (Weber State), Chad Manis (Utah), Steve Clark,  (Utah State), Dan Rowlands, Toby Turpin (Washington State), John Hale (UCLA), Antoine Cason (Arizona), Jeremy Childs, Orlando Scandrick, Cameron Filkins (Boise State), D.J. Dykes (Colorado), Mike Aguayo (Texas El Paso) Cortes Rice (Illinois State).  Former Griffin QB Ross Hill is transferring from D-3 power Linfield in environmentally friendly Oregon to SMU in the cowboy country of Texas.

Fourteen Los Al Girls will be playing Div I soccer this fall.  Niccole Grimaldi (7^th ranked Oklahoma State), Hayley Bolt, Julie Megorden (Long Beach State), Rocky Hearst (Evansville), Jamie Alvis (Illinois), Erin Bay, Bo Medina, Casey Bay (Pepperdine), Megan Strawther (Virginia Tech), Mandy Trojan (Sacramento State), Lauren Bennett (Arizona), Taylor Cole (Cal Poly SLO), Ginger Sossaman (Boise State), and Tori Rocke (Northern Arizona).  Allie Radner, who earned a scholarship to North Dakota State will be sidelined this season as she recovers from surgery to repair an ACL.  In addition Jana Lynn Mora will be playing for Biola.

The UCLA mens soccer squad (with Rossmoor sophomore Danny Suits) is listed as the No. 1 team in the pre-season polls.  Other Griffins playing mens soccer  are Ryan Gay (Cal State Bakersfield), Jordan Rover (Cal State Dominguez Hills), Kyle Parton (UC San Diego), Sammy Montemer (Westmont). Jeremy Abrams (UC Santa Cruz).

Lots of locals will filling a collegiate volleyball rosters this fall as well.  Among the mex-Griffins strutting their spandex shorts on the courts are Rachael Moss (Duke), Emilie Stewart (Fordham), Kara Uhl (UOP), Geena Urango (USC), Katie Rowe (MIT), Bethany Keissner (Cal), Riley Cropper and Alex Filkins (UC Irvine), Katelyn Burke (Colgate), Ashley Tarutis (Notre Dame).  Nikki Osuna heads for Seattle Pacific.  

Among non-Griffins playing NCAA volleyball, sisters Nicole and Dana Vargas, of Seal Beach and St. Joseph HS, will be playing for Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara.

Other Griffins playing fall collegiate sports are water poloists Scott Davidson (UCLA) Clayton Snyder (Pepperdine), Colin Gasper (Chapman) and cross country runners Garrett McAllister (Hawaii-Manoa), Justin Thibault (Chapman),

That's 55 known species of athletes accounted for and I know there are more out there.  If you know some, let me know.

The Los Alamitos Water Polo Club Girls 14&U team captured first place at the United States Club Championships held in Walnut Creek on July 6-8.

Cory Dodson was named the tournament MVP.

The USCC is comprised of the top 12 water polo club teams in California, in the 14 & UNDER division. Teams from Davis to San Diego traveled to Northern California to claim rights to be the #1 14 & UNDER age group club team in 2007.

Players on the team are Marley Delaney, Erika Beebe, Cory Dodson, Rachel Fattal,Adi Gosselin, Stephanie Mutafyan, Chris Baker, Dari Watkins, Coach Braham, Savanna Smith, MeganZehmer

Larger photo with identifications can be seen here.

Bill Gekler, new president of the Rossmoor Homeowners Association asked me to pass on the following about the Repainting of curb numbers, to wit: 

Repainting of curb numbers in Rossmoor began July 23 using a licensed contractor. The painting is at NO cost to homeowners. It is paid for by the Rossmoor Homeowners Association as another community improvement project using money raised by the monthly paperdrive.  The RHA provides the curb numbers to ensure that emergency responders are able to quickly find the correct house when called.  The numbers are also part of the RHA's Neighborhood Watch and Disaster Preparedness activities. 

OC Register article on topic

Going 'green' at home - OC Register, CA -Jul 24, 2007 - These days, it's not uncommon to flip a house - buy a property, renovate it and quickly sell it - but Drew and Carolyn are finding an environmentally correct way to do it.And since there's no such thing as too much publicity when you're trying to sell a house, here's a Long Beach Press-Telegram piece on the house as well.

For those who want to see a fact sheet relating to Rossmoor becoming its own city, here's one available at Rossmoorcity.org

SHENANDOAH LIVES! - District Weekly, CA -Jul 25, 2007
I believed I had lost Shenandoah forever until a couple of weeks ago when someone told me the place lived . . . in Los Alamitos...

Now this is real-time world clock and then some.

Have dirty windows on your car.   Here's a different way to view them.

And for those of you who always wanted to study the physical nature and characeristics of bubbles in beer... have at it.