The Pipeline

Sunday, April 12, 2026

LJ track: Chiara wins mile at Arcadia

By Ed Piper

This outlet has not made frequent mention of Viking runner Chiara Dailey during her record-breaking four years at LJHS or taken many photos of her, but this time is different.

Dailey, the oldest of several running siblings to grace the Gene Edwards Stadium track, won the mile at the Arcadia Invitational in greater Los Angeles Sat., April 11. Her time was 4:41.12. She has gained more and more prominence on campus and on the cross country and track teams for the Vikings as her profile has increased nationally.

Her performances have led to regular coverage in local legacy media, including the San Diego Union-Tribune, making reporting of her exploits here seem almost superfluous. I/we still give Chiara plaudits for all her successful times.

Her bright red hair makes her easy to spot. Out of the chute three years ago, in her freshman year, Dailey began dominating local races during the Spring track season.

No discredit to them, but Kirra Fisk (now running as a sophomore in college at UC Davis) and Daphne Mayer (running last year as a freshman at Rice)--both two years ahead of Chiara--suddenly had a teammate and classmate who left them in the dust in the middle and long distances. Both graduated two years ago after outstanding four-year Viking careers.

LJ sports: Wrestler, golfer from the 60's

By Ed Piper

"Gene Edwards dressed as 'The Destroyer'" from professional wrestling, says Tom Hauser, who wrestled beginning as a 103-pounder in the seventh grade for the legendary La Jolla High coach and namesake of the campus football stadium. Edwards retired in 1990 and soon after died of a heart attack.

The LJHS alumnus, who was part of the last class to go through the junior high grades and senior high on the same campus (sixth grade was not yet part of junior high), is a window into something about Edwards that no one else has mentioned in this writer's pursuit to convey some of what sports and the campus were like in the earlier years at La Jolla.

"(Edwards) coached both the football and wrestling teams, and so if you played football, you were pretty much going to be on the wrestling team as well," says the local resident, whose two daughters also graduated from La Jolla High after playing soccer and softball. "He used the other football players kind of as fodder to fill in the weight classes on the wrestling team." Houser never competed in the Holtville Rotary Tournament, which began in 1964.

"Wrestling was not yet in its heyday on campus," the former Viking wrestler/golfer said.

"We (Hauser and a group with him) built the softball field" that sits on the western edge of campus. Before that, the Vikings "played at La Jolla Elementary" and other locations, lacking a permanent home.

Tom was too small to play football for Edwards, but he did wrestle for a few years, starting in junior high. He also played golf once he got to the high school grades.

Asked if he ever saw a track athlete get hit by a baseball, since both teams shared facilities on the football field until the 1990's, Hauser couldn't really say.

Hauser attended the 100th anniversary parade for the school at a football game in 2022. He knows Rick Eveleth, who starred in baseball and basketball in the 1960's and went on to serve as a teacher and coach on campus until his retirement.

At least one of his and his wife's grandchildren attend La Jolla Country Day and play volleyball.

Hauser knows Tom House, a former major league pitcher and pitching coach who coaches athletes in biomechanics and has a connection with the LJHS baseball program. "A Tom House story is, he told my daughters whatever softball equipment they needed, he would get," he says. House delivered on his promise at no charge.

Friday, April 10, 2026

LJ b VB: Visit to Makawao

A proud rooster, a common sight on Maui,

holds court with his brood in the lot

in front of the Makawao Public Library.

Makawao is the offbeat OB-type town

on the island.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

Two days ago (April 8), we took a jaunt to Makawao, the "Ocean Beach" of Maui, tucked into the foothills of Haleakala volcanic crater in the central part of the island. Makawao, which bills itself as the "historic" and "cowboy" town of Maui, is the site of La Jolla coach Dave Jones' volleyball jaunts with the team to Seabury Hall, a private school that plays the Vikings on their Hawaii trips.

Makawao is a trippy 60's type of locale, much like OB, with a whiff of affluence underlying it. We walked by the Makawao Public Library (the only place with books that we found in our short stay on two of the Hawaiian islands), where a rooster watches over his sizeable brood in the parking lot and environs. Chickens are a common site in Maui--we saw them in the Safeway parking lot, strutting at our resort location, just about everywhere we went on the island.

Rodeo General Store, on the main drag in the small town, features POG slushies (passion fruit-orange-guava) alongside Dr. Pepper slushies. In the back, a "No Venison Today" post-it was displayed on the door of a small refrigerator, where on good days customers can pick up deer meat, according to a male employee I talked to back there.

Tourist rental cars line up in front of the

Rodeo General Store on the way through

Makawao, as Kona storm #3 threatens

Wednesday morning, April 8. Two previous

storms had left flooding, mud, and fallen trees.

We had a delicious early lunch at Polli's Mexican Restaurant, on the corner of the road coming into the Makawao from down below and the main drag, which is populated with trendy women's clothing stores, therapy offerings, and skin care vendors. The current edition of the Mexican cafe offers a good chile relleno (which I ordered) and a fish taco with unbreaded fish (my wife had it). Our server said her "previous boss" was Polli, known for her excellent recipes of Mexican favorites.

Leaving after our visit, the main street was packed bumper-to-bumper at 11:45 a.m. with maybe 50 cars, all tourists like us (rental cars with no mud splashed up on the sides the giveaway), waiting to move. It was the same when we arrived on the other principal road, because work crews were replacing the paved road--blocking one entire lane, causing flagmen to be busy with long waits between which lane got to go forward.

Unintentionally as far as the La Jolla High connection, we had planned the visit to the town after seeing signs on the way up to Haleakala crater, a long two-hour drive from Ka'anapali, on the west side of Maui. We thought we'd give it a try, having a last day on the island free with nothing planned. The OB vibes were unmistakable, with the slightly-worn, hippie-ish flavor hard to miss. To get supplies sent to Makawao, you have to travel a long way from Oahu, where most goods are shipped from the mainland to Honolulu, then on to the other islands.

A beautiful lily graces one of the planters

along the two main roads in the "OB"-type

town, a tourist destination for mainlanders

making a day visit from their hotels

in western Maui.

Monday, March 30, 2026

LJ b golf: Stars shine

By Ed Piper

In their third Western League dual match Tues., March 24, this one against St. Augustine at Riverwalk, the Vikings' steel-nerve guys continued their cool, under-pressure play.

Eugenio Cardoso Martinez, the freshman who has led the way all season with a 5.46 differential, shot a 42 to co-lead Coach Christie Quinn's sextet with junior Quinn Daniels against the talented Saints.

It was Eugenio's sixth time in 12 outings either leading or co-leading his teammates in low score. That's quite a start to a high school golfer's prep career. Plus the former Queretaro, Mexico resident had never competed State-side in interscholastic play before this season.

Santiago Cardoso Martinez, his older brother, also shined with a 44, the same score as sophomore Kellen McGrath and senior Harry Park.

Sunday, March 29, 2026

LJ Spring sports: Cardoso Martinez and Martin star in two-sport performances

By Ed Piper

Santiago "Santi" Cardoso Martinez and Charlie Martin stand out in being listed on the rosters of two different sports during this Spring's CIF schedule.

Santi, a top golfer from Queretaro, Mexico, who began play for Coach Christie Quinn's team this Spring, is also listed on the Vikings' varsity lacrosse roster as a junior defender.

In different sports entirely, Martin, who busted his left hand and thumb in football last fall, batted lead-off for Gary Frank's varsity baseball team in a recent game. Then, Sat., March 28, he ran a leg in the boys 4x100-meter relay at the 45th Mt. Carmel Sundevil Track Invitational alongside fellow senior Leed Smool, Cristian Prince, and Peyton Gustafson.

Two years ago, Seigo Lavinsky and a teammate pulled off a similar dual performance, playing for the golf team and also being on the varsity lacrosse team.

LJ baseball: Vikes win 3 of 4

Lefty Charlie Smith, with his high leg kick,

is carrying a 2-1 record with a 2.42 ERA.

The sophomore leads the Vikings with

a very efficient 26 innings pitched so far.

Smith is shown here starting at San Dieguito

Academy March 11.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

As of this writing (March 29), the Vikings have won three of their last four games, producing runs in big bursts for the first time this season after a dry start: 17 runs in beating West Hills March 18, and eight more in an 8-1 clocking of Santana March 23, both in the GMC Tournament in away games.

The recent run has partially righted the Viking ship at 4-6. Hunter Durfee (five RBI's) and Oliver Obler (3) led the attack in the big win over the Wolfpack.

In the Sultan swatting, the "Z" man, senior Zoran Shepanski, contributed three RBI while five other hitters drove in runs in a team-wide effort at the plate.

What has to give Head Coach Gary Frank some satisfaction is that after playing out one-third of the season (29 games scheduled through the regular season), and half of the pre-league slate, five different team members have bunches of four, five, or six RBI's for the season:

--Catcher Carter Strauss and sophomore Durfee have six apiece;

--Senior leaders Obler and "Z" stand at five each;

--and Harper Lane, the leading hitter by average last year as a junior, has four RBI's.

In addition, in a bright sign that things have turned offensively for La Jolla, four mostly-full-time batters are carrying averages of .300 or above: Obler tops out at .429, while third baseman Joseph Crudo is carrying a healthy .370 mark.

Charlie Martin, who ran in a four-man relay at the 45th Sundevil Invitational at Mt. Carmel High Sat., March 28, is hitting .320--sometimes in the leadoff spot--while Shepanski comes in at an even .300.

Strauss, the catcher, has by far the most plate appearances, as he hits regularly in the leadoff spot, with 42. He has walked 12 times to lead the team, the only player in double figures and the only one above seven bases-on-balls.