September 2010 Archives

The 41st annual Henry Stuart South Bay Water Polo Tournament opens Friday at the El Segundo Plunge and Mira Costa High.
The 16-team tournament includes some intriguing first-round matchups, including Chadwick vs. Crescenta Valley, Mira Costa vs. Torrance and Peninsula vs. San Marino.
The first round and quarterfinals take place on Friday, with the semifinal, third-place and championship games taking place on Saturday at El Segundo. Semifinal games are slated to take place at 10:40 a.m. and 11:45 a.m.. The third-place game is scheduled for 5:35 p.m. and the championship game is set for 7 p.m.
Mira Costa won the tournament last year, defeating Crescenta Valley, 10-6, in the final. The Mustangs appear to have a good chance to repeat as tournament champions.

SOUTH BAY TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Friday at El Segundo Plunge: El Segundo vs. Beverly Hills, 3 p.m.; Brentwood vs. West Torrance, 3:50 p.m.; Chadwick vs. Crescenta Valley, 4:40 p.m.; Peninsula vs. San Marino, 5:30 p.m. Winners advance to second round at El Segundo at 6:20 and 7:10 p.m.
Friday at Mira Costa High: Mira Costa vs. Torrance, 3 p.m.; South Pasadena vs. Redondo, 3:50 p.m.; Santa Monica vs. Culver City, 4:40 p.m.; Westlake vs. Mira Costa "B," 5:30 p.m. Winners move to second round at Mira Costa at 6:20 and 7:10 p.m.
Saturday at El Segundo: Semifinals at 10:40 a.m. and 11:45 a.m.; Third-place game at 5:35 p.m.; Final at 7 p.m.

The defending NCAA champion USC boys water polo team is off to another stellar start this season, and local players are leading the charge for Troy.
USC is 11-0 and has won  the NorCal Tournament at Cal and the Lancer Invitational in Riverside.
Contributing to USC's success has been former Mira Costa star Matt Burton, who has 19 goals in the team's first 11 games; and former Palos Verdes High standout Connor Virjee, who has seven goals.
Former Loyola star Nikola Vavic, who resides in Rancho Palos Verdes and is the son of USC head coach Jovan Vavic, had 20 goals in the team's first 11 games.
Last year's CIF Division IV Player of the Year Paul Mitre and Riley Burke of Palos Verdes High also are on the roster for USC.

Former South Torrance High football player Greg Mahin, 19, turned heads at the recent U.S. Powerlifting Federation's Southern California Powerlifting Championship held at Los Alamitos Military base.
Mahin took first place in the deadlift competition in the junior-men 18-19 age group. Mahin's lift was 562.17 pounds (255 kg). He was selected the Junior Men's "Weightlifter of the Meet" for his efforts.
Mahin started weightlifting in 2007, when he was a member of the South football team. He attends El Camino College and works at Quality Seafood in Redondo Beach, but still finds time to train approximately three hours a day at the Powerhouse Gym in Torrance.

PowerBar is giving students a chance to recognize a coach for their efforts through the school and the community.

Check out the PowerBar Coach of the Year contest. Players have until Sept. 29 to nominate a coach and win a little something for themselves. The winning coach will receive a $5,000 donation to his or her school's athletic department and athletes will have two opportunities to win $250.

A frenzied week, no doubt.

Mira Costa averted an 0-3 start with an inspired 7-6 win at Narbonne. San Pedro rebounded from last week's 33-point loss to Palos Verdes with a quality overtime win over North Torrance. Serra, Palos Verdes, El Segundo, Chadwick and Culver City remain unbeaten. And Banning still hasn't scored a single point yet on the season. Here's the week 3 scores:

Week 3 scores
Serra 48, Peninsula 7
Bishop Montgomery 48, Laguna Beach 18
Mira Costa 7, Narbonne 6
San Pedro 31, North Torrance 28, OT
Inglewood 55, Los Angeles 0
Culver City 21, Redondo 17
San Fernando 26, Banning 0
South East 21, Gardena 6
Palos Verdes 29, South Torrance 17
El Segundo 36, West Torrance 10
St. Bernard 43, Lawndale 36
Torrance 37, Hawthorne 13
Locke 14, Westchester 0
Chadwick 20, Kern Valley 7
Lakewood 14, Leuzinger 0
Norwalk 44, Morningside 14
Lucerne Valley 45, Animo 6

The Chadwick girls volleyball team hadn't beaten Prep League powerhouse Mayfield in a while when it finally broke through on Thursday night -- and with a sweep no less. Host Chadwick's 28-26, 25-12, 25-22 win may announce a shift of power in the Prep League. Going into the match, Mayfield was ranked first in CIF Southern Section's Division III-AA and Chadwick third. Those rankings will most likely change next week.
Mayfield has won three straight CIF titles.
"It was great for the girls to get the win and know they can take on anyone in the division," Chadwick coach Mike Cass said.
And the keys to the breakthrough win for Chadwick?
"We minimized our errors and stayed more composed than in other matches," Cass said. "It's dawning on them that they are a good team. If they just go out and play hard the right things will happen."
Abbe Holtz had 11 kills, Zoe Hamilton had nine kils, Lizzie Yates had 27 digs, Corinne Hemmersbach had 17 assists and 12 digs and Sarah Lucinti had eight assists and five aces to help Chadwick's cause.

   There still may be some of you out there wondering why the Friday night (or Thursday or Saturday night) prep football scores aren't posted live here on the blog as they were a year ago.

   Well, the reason is this ... over the summer, the tech folks created an even better resource for you on the Web site and an iPhone App as well. 

   From the main daily breeze home page, go to the sports label and choose prep-jc results/schedule from pull-down menu choices.  The pull-down menu will take you to a screen where you simply pick the week you want to view and you will get the entire week's schedule (or results if it's a past week) for South Bay Area football teams.  When results begin pouring in on a Friday night, this schedule becomes the page you want to visit to view results (some of the game scores often get updated each quarter from the reporters in the field).

   As for the iPhone App? Well, it provides even more content at the tip of your fingers ...

   It has: 
   -- the weekly schedule with driving directions to the stadiums 
   -- scores posted Friday nights as games end 
   -- high-resolution photo galleries from our staff photographers
   -- our stories optimized for reading on iphones or ipads

To download the new app, go to dailybreeze.com/apps

   We hope one or both of these is of use to many of you and that you enjoy the remainder of the season.  Thanks for your interest.

A local Torrance travel baseball team has been honored by the California Golden Spikes Baseball Club (a non-profit youth baseball organization) with an invitation to compete in August of 2011 in an international tournament in Cooperstown, N.Y., home of the non other but the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The tournament is for players up to 12 years of age. The team will stay together in bunk houses with 100 teams from across the U.S. and Canada. The Torrance players will have a chance to make friends, trade team pins, be inducted into the Youth Baseball Hall of Fame and visit the pro baseball Hall of Fame.
In representing the California Golden Spikes, they are continuing a tradition of teams attending Cooperstown for the last 10 years. The team has won or placed second in 13 of 14 tournaments it has participated in. But they do need funds, so belly up to El Pasa Cantina in Torrance on Thursday, Sept. 23 from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and 25 percent of all purchases will go to the team (except for alcohol). Or if you are interested in donating money to the team in another way, e-mail Yvette at yvette@ljcmasonry.com. The team consists of head coach Mike Hennessy, coaches Ted Martizia, Larry Johnson and Tom Frew and players Jack Colette, Nathan Critchett, Matt Diederich, JT Frew, Matt Hennessy, Joey Johnson, Ruben Markham, Travis Martizia, Jared Natisin, Brandon Smith and Konnor Smith.

The El Segundo boys water polo team seems to be in good hands with first-year coach Jordan Watson, a former Palos Verdes High and Pepperdine University standout. El Segundo took 21st place out of 64 teams in the Riverside Poly Tournament, which boasts very good competition.
"We have a pretty young team, so it was a great weekend, everyone improved," Watson said.
Watson inherited a CIF Southern Section Division V championship team, but only a couple starters remain from that squad in 2-meter man Jackson Hogoboom and goalkeeper Chris Cordobes.
"People say you can build a team around a 2-meter man and a goalie," Watson said. "And Jackson brings a lot of energy, he's passionate about the game."
El Segundo (4-2) was moved up to Division III this season.
"We have something to prove in the new division," Watson said. "I'm excited about the season."

Overall, a rough week for the Marine League. Not only did the South Bay's five local Marine League teams go 0-5, they were outscored, 211-50.

Chin up, City. There will be other days.

And with the exception of El Segundo's 45-38 double-overtime victory over Bishop Montgomery, there were no other real surprises.

Without further ado, here are the scores:

Thursday
Serra 35, Mira Costa 13
West Torrance 28, Torrance 14
Redondo 28, Millikan 7
Harvard-Westlake 42, Leuzinger 8

Friday
Palos Verdes 49, San Pedro 16
Long Beach Poly 23, Narbonne 20
Santa Margarita 56, Carson 14
St. John Bosco 37, Gardena 0
Crenshaw  46, Banning 0
L.A. Jordan 19, Westchester 18
El Segundo 45, Bishop Montgomery 38, 2 OT
North Torrance 40, Long Beach Cabrillo 6
South Torrance 41, California Military Institute 0
Morningside 14, Lawndale 0
Culver City 41, Peninsula 14
Beckman 49, Hawthorne 0
Aquinas 27, Mary Star 24
Valley Christian/Cerritos 49, St. Bernard 14
Inglewood 28, Monte Vista 0
8-MAN: Rolling Hills Prep 55, Avalon 22
8-MAN: Southlands Christian 12, Pacific Lutheran 6