MIGUEL MELENDEZ COLUMN

This column appeared on page 3B of the Star-News sports section on Friday, April 24

They say that behind a good man stands a great woman.

For many of us, it’s our mother.

After all, who are we without them?

The last couple of weeks have been particularly tough on Pasadena High School boys basketball coach Tim Tucker. He, along with former Blair boys basketball coach Gamal Smalley, helped put together the first-ever Rio/Pac All-Star Basketball Game, to be played Saturday at Pasadena High.

The game will benefit Steven Adams, the Pasadena junior forward who in February underwent 10 hours of brain surgery to remove a mass behind his right eye that put pressure on the brain, causing double vision and headaches.

The mass was not found to be cancerous, but not many can count themselves as lucky.
In helping organize the event, Tucker is constantly reminded of the ordeal he went through the week of Thanksgiving last year. As a result, he’s hoping this game becomes something bigger than area high school fans watching two well-known leagues compete against one another.

Adams spent nearly two months at Children’s Hospital recovering from surgery. He started school Monday, walking and talking — simple acts that surprised many, including Tucker.

“There’s a lot of stories out there where kids won’t play again,” he said.

“To see Steven walk is crazy for me, because if you saw him when it first happened … I didn’t think he’d ever be able to do this again. We’re blessed.”

Proceeds from the event, co-organized by the Rev. Coy Turentine from Deliverance Tabernacle Church in Pasadena, will help pay for Adams’ hospital bills and months of rehab that lie ahead.

Adams’ cause, however, snowballed into something bigger.
Continue reading “Melendez: Pasadena’s Tim Tucker takes cancer to task” »

Here’s what I wanna know: Where was Aaron Kappe when the boys basketball team needed him? I posed that question to the 6-foot-7 senior after the game. His response: He said it just wasn’t his sport and played club volleyball instead. OK, I understand that. But it’s still hard to overlook what would have been of the Rams’ basketball season if they had Kappe clogging up the middle, dunking here and there and making some crazy blocks. *gasp* The Temple City boys volleyball team jumped to a 2-0 lead and had to overcome a frantic attack by San Marino to dispatch the Titans in a five-set, 25-20, 25-20, 20-25, 26-28, 15-12 victory in Rio Hondo League action Thursday afternoon in front of a boisterous crowd at Temple City High. The Rams stayed on course with the win and in Gabrielino’s rear view mirror. The Eagles (16-2, 4-0) are on a 10-game winning streak. They’ll take on La Canada (Tuesday) and San Marino (Thursday) before visiting Temple City on Cinco de Mayo. If Temple City is to topple Gabrielino they’ll have to limit its silly mistakes like missing serves and working on their passes. By the way, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Our very own award-winning Star-News staff photographer Keith Birmingham is the best in the business. If you look at the picture above it’s the back side of Temple City’s Kappe. The picture below is what it looks like on the other side with San Marino’s Charles Liao, Phillip Cheung and Sean Su trying to get the block. Click here to check out his photo gallery from Thursday’s match.

It’s an easy question that’s probably going to get very complex answers. But, really, is there lack of good pitching in the West San Gabriel Valley or, for that matter, the entire San Gabriel Valley? That’s the question I’ve been posed by an anonymous blogger who e-mailed last week. But after watching Arcadia’s Bryce Rutherford and most recently San Marino’s Andrew Sloan (above) I’m convinced that there is NO lack of good pitching in the WSGV. Who would even make that argument? Playing travel ball year round, can that affect our high school pitchers in the long run? Should curve balls be allowed in Little League? Is there a lack of good pitching coaches at our area high schools? I’m not saying that’s the problem, just throwing darts on the board here. (I didn’t mention Maranatha’s Dylan Covey or Monrovia’s Richard Kilbury because I haven’t seen them pitch) I’ve been told that as a reporter it’s been unfair for me to see “the pitching and play in general is horrid all around” but I’m not quite sure. I’ve had fun covering baseball this year. Granted, it’s the first full season of high school baseball I’ve covered in my eight years as a sportswriter, but fun nonetheless. Coming to mind is the Temple City-San Marino game early in the season; Glendora’s win over Arcadia in the Apache Invitational (no offense, Apaches), just to name a few. At the very least, this topic makes for a good discussion among you baseball honchos. Enlighten me….

Click here to check out and buy photos from Wednesday’s game shot by Star-News staff photographer Keith Birmingham. People, he’s the best in the biz.

Senior Andrew Sloan pitched four strong innings, allowed two runs on only two hits and struck out four batters to lead San Marino to a 10-2 win over a baffled Monrovia on Wednesday afternoon in Rio Hondo League action. San Marino jumped to an early 3-0 lead in the first after Dylan Bensinger’s line drive down the third base line was good for a double, driving in Jonathan Merhaut. Kevin Gute’s double cleared the bases to score Michael Thompson and Bensinger to make it, 3-0. Bensinger finished the day going 2 for 3 with a double and three RBIs. The Wildcats got on track in the second when Justin De La Nuez scored on Robert Nakamura’s RBI single to right field. With the bases loaded, Richard Kilbury’s RBI single brought Chris Calver home to make it, 3-2. Kilbury’s ball got a lucky bounce that got away from first baseman Joe Forgatch, allowing the run to score. But that’s as close as the Wildcats would get, leaving the bases loaded in the second after Sloan’s shaky start to the inning. He walked three batters but still got out of the jam and a 1-run lead. This was Monrovia’s first game back after a 20-plus day hiatus from the Rio Hondo League. They were the last team in the league to go on spring break and played in a tournament the week they went on break while the rest of the league returned for league action. Wildcats co-head coach Brad Blackmore didn’t see the end of the game. He was tossed in the sixth inning by infield umpire Walter Brown after a lengthy and heated protest. San Marino loaded the bases and scored five runs to take a 10-2 lead. Nothing went right for Monrovia in the sixth. After Forgatch singled, Tarik El-abour came to the plate and showed bunt. Aaron Murphee’s pitch appeared to have make contact with the bat but the umpire signaled El-abour to head to first. Blackmore protested the call and was tossed. San Marino loaded the bases on Stevie Yortsos’s bunt and Merhaut singled in Thomas Lopez who was pinch-running for Forgatch. Things unraveled after that. El-obour scored after Thompson walked, Gute’s single to left drove home Yortsos and Merhaut to make it, 9-2, and Chandler Caldwell’s single up the middle scored Thompson for the game’s final run. Interesting game. Afterwards, Monrovia co-head coach Dave Moore said he wasn’t sure when the team would be coming into the game focused or not focused. He said the Wildcats wanted to tie the game with every swing. “But that’s not our ball game. That was our biggest problem,” Moore said. The Rio Hondo League is not going to be won in the next week or so and it could come down to the final game of the season. This much we know, the Titans can hang. By the way, there was someone at the game making weird analogies, especially late in the game, talking about hotels, Park Ave., letting the ice cream melt, pepperoni’s and HomeTown Buffet. I had no idea what any of that meant but I sure was in the mood for some all-you-can eat pizza at Shakey’s after the game with a side of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Gamal Smalley confirmed moments ago he has resigned as Blair’s boys basketball coach. “We had a parting of the ways last week,” he said. “We had a mutual agreement with (Blair) principal Rich Boccia to seek an opportunity somewhere else.” Smalley spent two seasons coaching the Vikings and a year and a half as the school’s athletic director. Smalley requested a meeting with Boccia at the end of the season and was granted a meeting last week. “We sat down and he informed me that he decided to move in a different direction,” Smalley said. “It was understandable. He told me he’s doing a lot of reorganization within the school and athletic departments.” Boccia did not return a message seeking comment. Smalley tookver a Vikings program that went 0-10 in league the previous season and had won just two games the year before. “I was really happy with what we were able to do there,” Smalley said. “It was a gigantic task.” Smalley suggested that the school needed to find a full-time person on staff to make it work. “You have to have people on campus but in that particular (post) they need someone full-time that’s there,” he said. Blair went 13-10 this season and missed the playoffs after a fourth-place finish in the Rio Hondo League.