February 2009 Archives

Former Banning football coach Ed Lalau is returning to South Bay.

Gardena High announced Wednesday that Lalau will become the school's next football coach.

Lalau takes over for longtime coach Marshall Jones, who steppped down in November. Jones had a 59-65-1 record in 10 seasons, but was 2-18 in the last two years.

But Lalau had to get initial clearance from two important people in his life: his wife Nina and 4-year-old daughter Sia.

"They're my bosses, and they gave me the green light," Lalau said. "And to get an opportunity like this at such a great community and a great school. I never thought this job would open up because Marshall had done such a great job all these years."

Principal Kevin Kennedy said Lalau will be formally introduced to the team today during a special assembly at the school.

"Ed's a take-charge kind of guy," Kennedy said. "We felt he fit the criteria we were looking for: someone to instill values in the student athlete, someone with a winning attitude right away, someone with an outstanding offensive and defensive package and someone very organized.

"We're looking forward to Ed taking the reigns and for a new era in Gardena football."

Kennedy said Lalau was one of 21 candidates who applied for the job. The initial applicant pool was narrowed to 12, and each of those 12 had interviews. Then Gardena chose five candidates to interview again.

Lalau narrowly beat Locke coach Wayne Crawford.

"It was a very tough decision," Kennedy said.

Lalau has been a proven winner, claiming the 1999 L.A. City Section Invitational title and the 2000 City Championship title at Banning.

Lalau returned to Banning in mid-season as a co-coach in 2005 and helped salvage what appeared to be a lost season when Coach Randy Block was forced out after two games.

Lalau said he is looking forward to competing in the Marine League again, particularly against Banning legend Chris Ferragamo, who Lalau played for in high school in the mid-1980s.

"I'm excited to be back, especially in the Marine League. They have some great coaches and staffs in the Marine League. It doesn't get any better than that," Lalau said.

PHOTO: Goalkeeper Chanell Crawford and the San Pedro girls soccer team found itself tangled in controversy, but the junior varsity players helped deliver a 5-0 first-round win.

With San Pedro facing a dire situation in girls soccer, Coach Gerhard Weber turned to his junior varsity players.

And they delivered in a big way.

Second-seeded San Pedro used a JV-laden team and still posted a 5-0 home win over No. 31 Huntington Park on Wednesday in the first round of the L.A. City Section Championships, advancing to play the Birmingham-Manual Arts winner on Friday in the second round.

San Pedro (14-2-1) was forced to play without most of its varsity players as a result from a brawl with Narbonne in the regular-season finale. The referee in the match assessed a red card to essentially every player on both teams after a fight broke out in the final minute.

The fallout cost Narbonne a chance to compete in the first round as school officials elected to forfeit a first-round game at Fremont.

San Pedro was fortunate that it was missing four players in its game against Narbonne -- goalkeeper and captain Chanell Crawford, Dominique Ma and Keyse MacKenzie were at a Youth and Government Conference in Sacramento and Reana Burich was sick and was not at the game. They were allowed to play Wednesday.

Ma scored two goals, and Crawford made six saves for her ninth shutout.

But junior varsity players Danette Lopez, Tatiana Padovan and Jaqueline Anaya also scored goals to provide an unxpected lift.

"This game is for whoever has been a JV player," Weber said. "They're unheralded, but in this case, they're heroes. They had a chance to take on a varsity team and dismantled them. They won the game for the varsitys of the world."

San Pedro only found out Tuesday that it would be without most of its varsity squad.

Weber tracked down his junior varsity captain, and they used a phone tree approach to ask the junior varsity players to help the varsity get through the first round.

"I've always claimed that San Pedro's JV team could beat some other varsity teams," Weber said. "Looking at some comparable results, our JV team is at about the same level as Carson, which finished fourth in our league.

"I know the JV players don't always feel respected or validated in their skills, but I am eternally grateful to them."

San Pedro is expected to welcome back its varsity players for Friday's match.

It appears Ed Lalau is returning to South Bay football.

The former Banning coach has been hired to take over at Gardena, sources told the Daily Breeze on Wednesday.

Lalau takes over for longtime coach Marshall Jones, who decided to step down from the post in November. Jones had a 59-65-1 record in 10 seasons, but was just 2-18 in the last two years. 

Lalau has been a proven winner, claiming the 1999 L.A. City Section Invitational title and the 2000 City Championship title at Banning.

Lalau returned to Banning in mid-season in 2005 and helped salvage what appeared to be a lost season when Coach Randy Block was forced out after two games.

More to come on this developing story.

Check out this Associated Press story from Albany, N.Y. Could the CIF Southern Section and L.A. City Section decide to follow suit?

Here's a new play call courtesy of the recession: shorter seasons for high school athletes.

The group that oversees public high school athletics in New York state recently
approved shaved-down schedules next school year as a cost-cutting measure, the
latest to take the step nationwide.

Cuts vary by sport in New York: Baseball teams that play 24 regular-season games
will go to 20, football teams will go from 10 games to 9 or 8, depending on regional
officials.

The New York State Public High School Athletic Association says the shorter
schedules allow schools to cut budgets without cutting programs. Critics -- including
coaches and kids -- claim the new policy unfairly targets student athletes.

Narbonne football players Josh Moten (University of Colorado), Byron Moore (USC) and Tim Tucker (University of Washington) celebrate signing their national letters-of-intent with assistant coach Robert Gill.

Below is a list of the 19 South Bay high school football players who signed with a college on Wednesday:

Jordan Capellino, LB, Palos Verdes, Yale

Anthony Carpenter, SS, Serra, Washington State

Mark Clampitt, OL, West Torrance, Idaho State

Robert Daily, OL, Palos Verdes, Claremont-McKenna

Shaquelle Evans, WR, Inglewood, Notre Dame

Chris Hill, DB, Carson, San Jose State

Khalid Jones, DE/DT, Morningside, UC Davis
James Klein, TE/DE, Palos Verdes, Harvard

Kevin MacNaughton, WR, Palos Verdes, Chapman

Byron Moore, DB/WR, Narbonne, USC

Josh Moten, QB, Narbonne, Colorado

Jonathan Perkins, DB, Gardena, UC Davis

Morrell Presley, TE, Carson, UCLA

Hanipale Suega, LB, Banning, Northern State

Tim Tucker, LB, Narbonne, Washington

Sione Tuihalamaka, OL, Serra, Arizona

Gabriel Umoh, RB, Morningside, Cal Poly-SLO

Dijon Washington, SS, Leuzinger, Nebraska

Carl Winston, RB, Serra, Washington State

It wasn't just a big day for local high school football teams. El Camino and Harbor also had a high number of transfers to institutions of higher learning. The following is our latest list:

Dejarrius Adams, WR, El Camino (Killian High, Miami), Memphis

David Batts, SS, El Camino (Lynwood), Washington

Will Bullock, WR, El Camino (Mira Costa High), New Mexico State

Chris De Mares, OL, El Camino (Southwest Miami Senior High, Miami), Florida International

Alex DeGiacomo, FS, El Camino, (Westminster). UNLV

Sean Enesi, OL, El Camino (Carson), Utah State

Dequin Evans, DE, Harbor (Dominguez), Kentucky

Tim High, DL, El Camino (Narbonne), Louisville

William Hollis, DE, El Camino (Hamilton), Central Missouri

Malik James, CB, El Camino (Fremont), Cincinnati

Frankie Jones, WR, Harbor (Gardena), Charleston Southern

Daniel Mafoe, OT, El Camino (Carson), Washington

Chris Matthews, WR, Harbor (Dorsey), Kentucky

Monroe Ross, WR, West L.A. (Leuzinger), New Mexico Highlands

Monte Taylor, DL, El Camino (Washington High, L.A. Southwest College), Cincinnati

Phil Tonga, DT/DE, Harbor (North Torrance), Akron

Andrew Trudnowski, QB, Harbor (Palos Verdes), Charleston Southern

Kamaloni Vainikolo, DE, El Camino (Maui High, Hawaii), Utah State

James Vickers, OT, Harbor (Torrance), Colorado Pueblo

Jon Vickers, OG, Harbor (Torrance), Colorado Pueblo

Isaac Williams, RB, El Camino (Locke), Memphis

Reuben Willis, LB, El Camino (Mayfair), Utah State

Arman Wright, DL, West L.A. (St. Bernard), Miles College

Bobby Young, OL, El Camino (Westchester), Texas Southern

Remember the athletic Dominique Blackman, a quarterback who transferred from Gardena to Carson and helped lead the Colts to the L.A. City title game as a senior?

Last time we checked, he was at the University of Washington.

But now Blackman has returned to the South Bay to Harbor College, giving the Seahawks an intriguing option at quarterback.

"It's official," Peabody said.

Harbor offensive coordinator Brett Peabody said Blackman was asked by new Washington coach Steve Sarkisian to switch from quarterback to tight end. Blackman decided he wanted a transfer, Peabody said.

So Blackman is now at Harbor, having used up only one semester of eligibility. The mobile left-handed quarterback gives Harbor an entirely different look.

Maybe this is the year Harbor rises again in football.

Narbonne defensive back/receiver Byron Moore lined three caps in front of him as a room full of people and television cameras anxiously awaited his decision early Wednesday morning.

USC, Notre Dame and Colorado were on the table.

Moore, flanked by family and friends, turned to his longtime coach Robert Gill and asked him to choose for him.

Gill took the Colorado cap, but shook his head no.

Then he took the Notre Dame cap, looked at it and tossed it aside.

Finally Gill gave Moore the USC cap, which Moore donned for the cameras amid an excited applause.

It was a perfect fit.

"It was a long process,, but I sat down with my family. It was a hard decision, you know, but I felt the most comfortable at USC," said Moore, who withdrew his verbal commitment to USC two weeks ago to explore his other options. "I wanted to stay at home in front of my family and friends. And USC fought for me until the end."

The 7 a.m. news conference -- which included 2008 Daily Breeze Player of the Year Robert Woods of Serra (a Pop Warner teammate of Moore) -- also featured Narbonne teammates Josh Moten and Tim Tucker choosing their schools.

Moten, the Narbonne quarterback, chose Colorado after initially committing to Washington despite a last-minute pitch by new coach Steve Sarkisian.

Tucker, a linebacker, stayed with his decision to play for Washington.

Moore, Moten and Tucker signed their national letters-of-intent at the same time.

"This is the best part of all, to finish this on ESPN with my friends and family," Moore said.

When Ryan Silver took over the Rolling Hills Prep boys basketball program this season, the stack was already stacked against the Huskies.

Kenny Greene had transferred to Mira Costa. Ronnie Stevens, who played in Rolling Hills Prep's summer program, enrolled at Orange Lutheran before eventually transferring to Serra. And the Huskies were reeling from the graduations of Kanoa Defries and Bobby Phillips.

Silver stepped in. He convinced football standouts Andrew Frisina and Jacob Sereno to come out for the basketball team. He had to talk Race Munger into joining the team.

Slowly but surely, Rolling Hills Prep built momentum.

Finally, with its 39-27 Harbor League victory over Animo, the Huskies clinched at least third place and a playoff berth, the program's second straight after a four-year drought.

And it was particularly satisfying for Silver, who is in his first head coaching position.

"It's exciting. This is my first year as a varsity head coach, and it's been an absolute dream of mine," Silver said.

Silver has had coaching stints at Malibu, Newport Harbor, El Segundo (under Coach Rick Sabosky who Silver calls a "great human being and mentor") Lawndale (under Coach Alex Acosta, who Silver calls "a great basketball coach" and now at Rolling Hills Prep.

Silver said he receives "unbelievable support" from Athletic Director Brian Knigin, the school's former basketball coach.

"We've had a good run so far," Silver said. "We turned it around, and the kids haev worked their rear ends off."

Former Palos Verdes football coach Pat Fresch has been hired as the offensive coordinator at South Torrance, joining Coach Josh Waybright's staff.

Fresch, fired Dec. 15 after seven seasons of building Palos Verdes' program from scratch, said he had eight other offers to join coaching staffs in the South Bay. He added that he didn't apply for any head coaching vacancies.

"I was very flattered by the offers - it was nice to be wanted," Fresch said. "I'm very happy to be calling the offense and not dealing with the headache of head coaching, given the circumstances."

Fresch said he always has had a camaraderie with Waybright and liked the fact that South is just five minutes from his Rancho Palos Verdes home.

Fresch also liked the idea of staying with his two Palos Verdes coaches - line coach Dave Porter and tight end/defensive ends coach Chris Miller - who will join him at South.

Both coaches helped Fresch compile a 27-35-1 record over six seasons at Palos Verdes, including an 8-3 campaign a year ago that included an improbable Bay League title,

"Waybright was like, 'Hey, I need your help,' and I was like, 'Sure.' It was a good fit," Fresch said.

Tell your family, friends, athletic directors and most importantly your coaches or scorekeepers.

The Daily Breeze has finally figured out its phone situation. The new number to call in your prep scores is 310-543-6177.

The switchboard at 310-540-5511 should still get you through to our offices as well. Just add a 6 in front of any extension, so ext. 487 becomes 6487. 

If you need to reach Tony Ciniglio, please call 310-540-5511, ext. 6486. For Dave Thorpe, please call 310-540-5511, ext. 6349. And for Sports Editor Todd Bailey, please call 310-540-5511, ext. 6432. And the email sports@dailybreeze.com is always a great way to get in contact with us.

Thanks for your continued patience.