About Clay Fowler

Clay Fowler is a Dallas native, graduated from the University of Texas and joined the Southern California News Group in 2006.

2013 All-Valley Boys Golf team: Damien’s Tsujimoto goes out on top

Brandon Damien Golf POY
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Brandon Tsujimoto, Damien, Senior
Story By Staff Writer Keith Lair
Brandon Tsujimoto started the 2013 golf season strong and finished just as strongly.

The senior helped the Spartans to the season-opening Riverside Poly tournament championship. He had Damien’s co-low score of the event. He had the Spartans’ low scores in other tournaments and helped Damien to an undefeated team season and the Sierra League title.

He was fourth in the Father Joe Barry Masters tournament at Ancil Hoffman Golf Course. The Spartans finished fourth in the two-day tournament. He was 16th in the three-day Champions Invitational at the Golf Club at Terra Lago. He was also low medalist in six league matches.

He seemed to play his absolute best golf when it counted the most. That would be the postseason.

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2013 All-Area Tennis Team: Alta Loma’s Brown keeps advancing the ball

Victor Brown Alta Loma Tennis POYPLAYER OF THE YEAR: Victor Brown, Alta Loma, Jr.
Victor Brown’s season was difficult to measure in sets — he didn’t lose one in Baseline League play. The Alta Loma junior lost just two games en route to his third consecutive league championship.

Don’t be surprised if he improves on that number next season.

Brown’s game is clearly developing each season, evidenced by his trip to the CIF-SS Individual final this year.
As a freshman he reached the round of 16. His sophomore season ended with a 7-5, 7-6 loss in the quarterfinals — he still laments not having capitalized on a set point in the first — to eventual CIF champion Gage Brymer, who will play at UCLA in the fall.

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2013 All-Valley Girls Track Team: High jumper proves she’s real McCoy

BS00-GIRLSTRACKMCCOY-01-TRCATHLETE OF THE YEAR: Rachel McCoy, Miller, Senior
Story by Pete Marshall, Staff Writer
It’s hard to fathom that at the beginning of the season, she was quitting track and field. By the end, she was winning state and hoping to compete in track in college.

“I always knew I could do it (win state),” Miller senior Rachel McCoy said. “But it’s always surprising when I actually do it.”

Such was the journey this season for McCoy. The senior, who has signed with Long Island University to play basketball, won state in the high jump as a sophomore with a solid, but unspectacular jump of 5 feet, 8 inches. That gave her an ego problem.

“I got this attitude that I can do anything,” she said. “This should be run my way. It was immature to think that.”

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2013 All-Valley Boys track team: Etiwanda’s Parish reaches new heights

forsaleTRACK ATHLETE OF THE YEAR: Miles Parish, Etiwanda
It’s a good thing Miles Parish is 6-foot-5.

He needed every inch of his towering frame to win the CIF State championship in the 400 meters.

“My coach told me before the race that it was going to be so close I would have to lean at the finish,” Parish said. “I didn’t know for sure I won until the announcer said it.”

At that very moment, it all become worth it. All the excruciating ladders, the weight lifting, the monotonous training.

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Kaiser pitcher chooses San Diego State over Washington, Hawaii, Long Island

Ryan Mota Kaiser MugKaiser’s Ryan Mota verbally committed to San Diego State on Tuesday, according to Kaiser baseball coach Mike Spinuzzi. The 6-foot-3 pitcher, who will be a senior next season, chose the Aztecs over offers from Washington, Hawaii and Long Island University.

As a junior Mota went 9-2 with a 2.05 earned-run average for the Sunkist League champions. He pitched three complete games, had 56 strikeouts and 16 walks in 58 innings. Mota, who also played first base, hit .354 with 28 RBIs and 23 runs scored in 28 games in helping Kaiser to a 25-5 overall record and the No. 2 seed in the Division 4 playoffs last season.

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Free agent Collison looking for NBA team where he can put down roots

For the first time in his NBA career, Darren Collison returned home to Southern California this summer in complete control of his own destiny.

Traded twice during his four seasons in the league, the Etiwanda High School graduate is a free agent following his lone season with the Dallas Mavericks.

The color of his uniform next season isn’t the only uncertainty for Collison, who is hosting his third annual summer camp Monday through Friday at Etiwanda. After stepping in for an injured Chris Paul his rookie season in New Orleans, Collison was a starting point guard until a late-season injury in Indiana last year. He came off the bench for the Pacers in last season’s playoffs and started 47 of 81 games this year after he was traded to the Mavericks in the offseason.

“There’s a lot of possibilities out there,” Collison said. “I think some teams see me as a starter and some see me as a bench player. I don’t really care. I just want to win an NBA championship.”

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2013 All-Valley softball team: Chino’s Viramontes can add POY to resume

Miranda Viramontes POY
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Miranda Viramontes, Chino, Jr., Pitcher
Miranda Viramontes may have produced the same end result as last season, but rest assured, the path was entirely different.

It is a testament to the pitcher’s talent that she led her team through a playoff gauntlet to a CIF championship as an inexperienced sophomore in 2012. It was practically unfair for opponents this season.

Having not just a year under her belt, but a run through the playoffs chock-full of tense one-run games, Viramontes’ postseason performance in 2013 was off the charts. In the playoffs alone, the junior pitched a no-hitter and three one-hitters, one of which netted a 4-0 win over Lakewood in the CIF-SS Division 2 championship game on June 1.

The lone playoff game Viramontes allowed more than one hit was a nine-inning 2-1 victory.

“I don’t think this season could have ended up any better,” Viramontes said. “With my record and my numbers and where we ended up as a team, it was just unbelievable.”

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2013 All-Valley baseball team: Kaiser’s Mathewson named Player of the Year

Chris Mathewson Kaiser POY

Do these look like the offensive numbers of a player who projects as a pitcher when he graduates high school? A .455 batting average, 41 RBIs, three home runs and 28 runs scored in 28 games.

Only when they’re sitting next to these: 9-0 record, 0.95 ERA, six complete games, 114 strikeouts and 12 walks in 73 2/3 innings.

All of Kaiser junior Chris Mathewson’s talents were on display while leading the Cats to a Sunkist League championship and the No. 2 seed in the CIF-SS Division 4 playoffs. The Long Beach State-committed pitcher will only spoil the Inland Valley for one more year before becoming a full-time pitcher.

“His future is as a pitcher because he’s that good as a pitcher,” Kaiser coach Mike Spinuzzi said. “He throws 91, 92 (mph) consistently. When he’s playing outfield, he’ll eftortlessly throw the ball to home on the fly all the way from the fence. Even though I tell him not to.”

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Video violates rule, disqualifies Los Osos long jumper at national meet

Kira Moreland Los OsosKira Moreland’s track season came to an unceremonious end on Saturday. Coming off a runner-up finish at the state track meet, the Los Osos senior posted the best mark at Saturday’s Great Southwest Classic in New Mexico on her first jump. Unfortunately, it was her last.

The Arizona State-bound Moreland (pictured above) was disqualified following her initial leap of 20 feet, 1/4 inch because her coach was taking video of Moreland, which is allowed in California but not in New Mexico. Without warning, a disqualification was issued to the senior whose season-best jump of 20 feet, 7 inches ranks her third in the country. A jump of 19 feet, 9 3/4 inches won Saturday’s meet, but it wasn’t first place that interested Moreland as much as her intentions to set a personal best of 21 feet.

“It was pretty devastating,” Moreland said. “It wasn’t about the (first-place) medal, it was more about not having the opportunity to keep jumping. He was pretty rude about it. He just came up to me and told me I was disqualified. It wasn’t like I did anything that disrupted or distracted any of the other jumpers. He could have just asked my coach to stop and let me continue, but I don’t think he wanted me to win.”

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All-CIF baseball, softball teams: Chino softball adds to CIF title plaque

Miranda Viramontes was destined for awards beyond the CIF-SS championship plaque she hoisted on June 1. The only playoff game that wasn’t a no-hitter or a one-hitter for the Chino pitcher was a 2-1 semifinal win. The junior’s shutout in the title game awarded Chino its second consecutive CIF championship to which Viramontes added a CIF-SS Division 2 Player of the Year award today. Chino coach Mike Smith was awarded Coach of the year in Division 2 after a 29-2 season that was unquestionably the best in school history.

To view all-CIF teams for baseball and softball, click the link below.

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