LJ softball 1, Helix 14 (5 innings)

(Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

La Jolla's softball team enjoyed a good week last week, winning three games in three days in the annual Duds for Dudes tournament.

They were the first three wins for new Coach Andrea Denham's squad, after opening the season with six consecutive losses.

But on Wed., March 29, the Vikes were missing the right side of their infield, first baseman Emily Alvarez and second baseman Sara Tyrus, for a game at Helix. The whole house of cards came falling down in the second inning, when a talented Highlander team scored 10 runs.

The game was called on the 10-run mercy rule after La Jolla batted in the bottom of the fifth--a coin flip before the tournament game determined home team--with the score 14-1.

Viking shortstop Josie Sinkeldam was errorless in the field, handling a large number of grounders by the Highlanders to the left side of their hard-packed infield.

After starter Kyra Ferenczy went three innings, with former head coach Anthony Sarain sitting in with assistant coach Tracy Brown, with Denham absent, junior Flor Martinez tried her hand at pitching.

Martinez, who played in the infield prior to her pitching stint, didn't allow a run in her single inning of work but hurt her non-throwing shoulder and left the game after the fourth inning.

Ferenczy then resumed her place in the pitcher's circle to finish out the abbreviated contest.

Third baseman Linda Brown smashed a line drive over the left fielder's head in the bottom of the first, with the ball rolling all the way the fence. Sinkeldam, who got aboard via a hard-hit grounder to short, came all the way around from first on Brown's drive.

That was La Jolla's sole run.

Helix pitcher Kasey Castro, a freshman, went four innings, limited the Vikings to four hits, and struck out one while walking none. She faced only 15 batters to get the 12 outs, using 41 pitches, as she logged her third win in her third start.

LJ baseball and softball: Pitching in

By Ed Piper, Jr.

I got an answer I didn't expect when I asked Nick Ferenczy's father if his son liked pitching.

We were standing behind the backstop at Muirlands Middle School during La Jolla's 7-3 win over West Hills Tues., March 28. We had a perfect view of Nick, a right-hander, on the mound as he threw against Wolf Pack hitters, whom he stymied pretty effectively for five innings.

Replied William, "Better than his sister."

Wow. His sister is Kyra Ferenczy, who continues to blaze a trail, with pitch and bat, for the Viking softball team. She's now in her second year as La Jolla's sole pitcher when the game really counts.

Raising my eyes at this statement, I asked dad, "What position would she rather play?" "She'd rather be in the outfield."

Both Ferenczy youth are excellent hitters, as well as pitchers. Here I had formed a whole idea of Kyra, like her brother her team's leadoff batter, as this tornado of a pitcher toiling from the pitcher's circle. Which she is.

Meanwhile, her head is saying, I would rather be in the outfield.

Now that their dad mentioned this, I faintly remember someone saying last year, when Kyra first started playing at La Jolla, that Kyra played other positions but could pitch when her team needed that. Maybe Kyra herself told me that.

All of which was a great relief then to Anthony Sarain, the Vikings' coach at the time. His daughter, Katya, had graduated in June 2015, leaving the team without a viable pitcher.

So, this story is really about Kyra, not her brother. Both continue blistering the ball at the plate. Hopefully, neither one gets blisters from pitching, which would be an issue for any hurler.

This is a true act of doing something for the team: the fact that Kyra, who would prefer playing in the outfield, is willing to pitch almost every single inning for the La Jolla softball team.

By the way, Kyra is hitting .320 through seven games in the first slot in the order for the Vikings. She missed a couple of games at the start of the season while she and centerfielder Vanessa Shaffer were playing for the CIF Division 2 champion soccer team.

LJ baseball 7, West Hills 3

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Right-hander Nick Ferenczy scattered six hits in his five innings of work, upping his record to 4-1 on the young season in a 7-3 win by La Jolla over visiting West Hills Tues., March 28.

Ferenczy walked none and struck out four as he continued to show why he is a major mainstay of the Vikings' pitching staff. His ERA after the 77-pitch workout is a scintillating 1.40.

Meanwhile, batting leadoff for Coach Gary Frank's minions, Ferenczy cleared the bases with a bases-loaded triple to the alley in right-center in the bottom of the second, capping a six-run inning explosion against wobbly first-time Wolfpack starter Dylan Craft that basically decided the game.

Ferenczy, a senior, now carries a .357 batting average, second among regulars only to Zach Sehgal and Garrett Brown--the trio leading the team with 10 hits apiece--and Nick's eight runs scored rank number one on the squad.

The Vikings batted around in the fortuitous second, as West Hills experienced some of the angst La Jolla felt Friday in resorting to pitchers further down the depth chart due to the plethora of tournament games during pre-league. Craft, a righty, hit Noah Brown with a pitch with one out, then walked Christophe Naviaux and Blaise Gimber in short order before he was let down by an error on a grounder to short by Cooper McNally.

The West Hills hurler then gave up yet another free pass, this one to Nick Hammel, in a rare appearance at the plate and in the field, before Ferenczy clubbed his three-run blow into right.

Junior Sam Stewart came on in relief of Ferenczy in the sixth inning, regaining the control that had been lacking Friday in his first start of the season at Steele Canyon. He retired the side in order in his first of two innings, despite the misplay of Ferenczy on a foul popup to his second batter, the Wolfpack's Noah Quintana, that gave Quintana a second chance. Stewart got him to hit a harmless fly to Gimber in left.

LJ baseball: Pregame standoff

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Something this reporter had never seen before occurred just prior to La Jolla's tournament game at Steele Canyon Fri., March 24: a standoff between players remaining on the foul line after the playing of the National Anthem.

Once the recording of the "Star Spangled Banner" ended, Viking and Steele Canyon players and coaches doffing their caps out of respect, they replaced their caps. But the two teams' players remained along the painted foul lines, the Cougars along the first base line in front of the home dugout, La Jolla players on the third base line.

The two umpires looked a little befuddled as the Steele Canyon starters took their positions to start the top of the first inning, yet Cougar players not in the starting lineup and most or all of the Vikings not budging an inch. Steele Canyon starter Tyler Luban threw his eight warm-pitches, the players on the lines standing like tin soldiers a short distance away.

Third baseman Brandon Navarro was taking practice grounders from first baseman Trevor Dickey only feet away from the Viking "tin soldiers".
Spectators looked at each other, wondering what was going on. Coaches in the Viking dugout did the same.

The umpires approached the remaining players, imploring them to leave the field. Several from both sides peeled away, until finally only one player on each side remained on the foul lines.

Yered Teodosio, a reserve second baseman for the Vikings, steadfastly stayed in place in front of his team's dugout. The plate umpire walked to his Cougar counterpart on the opposite side and told him to clear the field. He reluctantly did so.

That left the triumphant Teodosio the only man standing. "It was a standoff," said the 5'4" junior, obviously pleased at his apparent moral victory. "Yeah, I was the last one."

Teodosio, retired to the dugout, switched to taking up his game duties keeping the team scorebook.

LJ baseball 5, Steele Canyon 11

Kyle and Dad play tag in the outfield

before game. (Photo by Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

With multiple games each week during pre-league tournaments, La Jolla has had to dip into its other arms on the mound.

"Pitching by committee," assistant coach Steve Booth called it before the Vikings' game at Steele Canyon Fri., March 24.

And not only was Booth talking about the team's pitchers. His five-year-old son, Kyle, was in tow for his first away game, and though he was well-behaved, dad was rightfully concerned that no foul ball hit his son during the game. So he constantly checked that Kyle had a batting helmet on and was behind a barrier while the ball was in play.

"Aidan (Suljic), 'Sea-bass' (Sebastian Partida), Blaise (Gimber), with Sam (Stewart) starting today," Booth ticked off the names of the "committee" for the game to come. Later, he added, "Dane (Hansen) also."

Meanwhile, the coach juggled keeping an eye on his son, who had never served as batboy, with his duties with Viking players during warm-ups and the game.

At its worst, pitching-by-committee descended into six walks in the bottom of the third inning divided among three hurlers, head coach Gary Frank pulling Stewart, in his first start, after loading the bases to start the inning. Then Frank saw enough of Hansen after only three batters, including two walks. He switched Hansen for Gimber at first base.

After giving up a sacrifice fly to Cougar Matt Brinkmeier to score Steele Canyon's fifth run, tying the game, Blaise then suffered an error at the hands of Hansen to reload the bases after inducing Trevor Dickey to hit a groundball.

Things only got worse, as La Jolla pitchers through the fifth inning gave up five more walks, a hit-by-pitch, and a wild pitch, as the hosts got used to circling the bases, collecting only three more hits  while scoring six more runs.

Unfortunately, on the offensive side for the Vikings the runs dried up after a soaring Garrett Brown home run down the left field line, a three-run shot, keyed a four-run second inning.

In that inning, after designated hitter Christophe Naviaux flied out, Gimber hit a fly that went off a diving Aaron Taylor's glove in right field. After Sola Hope struck out swinging on a pitch in the dirt, second baseman Noah Brown singled to left. That put runners on first and second.

Nick Ferenczy, who last pitched Tues., March 21, a strong six and two-thirds innings in a hard-luck loss at home to Montgomery, singled to right, driving in Gimber. That put two aboard for Brown's blast, which sailed high and over the fence, beyond the 292-foot sign down the line.

By the fourth inning, Kyle Booth found a new project to keep himself busy. He began collecting all the loose baseballs in the dugout, pitching them into the combination seat/bucket his dad provided for him.

Meanwhile, the game ball thrown by La Jolla pitchers was hitting the dirt, flying to the backstop, and going everywhere else but the strike zone, it seemed.

LJ baseball: It's spring time

Viking team members stretch down the left field

line before game at Valhalla.

(Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Gary Frank loves baseball. It has marked the cycle of the end of winter and the start of spring ever since the former La Jolla High second baseman was young.

"It's baseball season. There's not a lot that can be bad right now," was the reply of the 14-year head coach, second in service only to his assistant coach, Bob Allen, when asked his thoughts--even including "philosophy". Allen served as head coach of the Vikings for a single season in 1985, then from 1990 through 2003, when Frank took over for him.

Regarding his Vikings' 4-3 record to this early point in the 2017 season, the diminutive Frank--whose father, Howard, taught him to throw right-handed though he continued to bat from his natural left side--said, "We're just going through the normal early season stuff, trying to figure out who we are and what we have.

"How to be competitive and the best we can be," the long-time campus teacher added.

The two Nicks, both seniors, Hammel and Ferenczy, have been two of his most reliable pitchers so far. The red and black bats haven't woken up yet, still slumbering in the lingering March cold. Defense has been solid.

The team's eight seniors have provided leadership and continuity. "With two freshmen, one sophomore, and a couple of juniors who haven't been on varsity before, it's good to have a deep senior group to show these guys how we do things around here," said Frank, taping up his lineup on the visitors dugout wall and attending to other odds-and-ends before a game at Valhalla.

The traditionalist maintains a dress code that requires his players to wear the stirrup socks that he wore in his playing days at La Jolla and in the minor leagues.

In contrast, Valhalla players, in the other dugout at the Vikings' tournament game Thurs., March 23, sported no stirrups, long pants stretching down nearly to their spiked shoes, and plain socks peeking through.

He has also voiced his preference in the past for traditional rivalries, instead of the present realigning that places priority on recent performance over school enrollment.

"The guys voted (catcher) Garrett (Brown) and (first baseman) Dane (Hansen) as captains," related Frank. He reiterated that the captains had been chosen by their teammates.

"Our pitchers are doing pretty well, and our defense is keeping us in games. Our offense is struggling, but we're ready for that breakout game."

Regarding Hammel, the number-one starter, "He has been doing well. He's transitioning well from basketball. We're working on his stamina, because he hadn't been throwing much during basketball season."

"We're working on his pitches, trying to get them to midseason form."

About the other Nick, Ferenczy, Frank said, "He has been pitching really well. Tuesday (March 21) against Montgomery at home, he threw 6 2/3 innings, though it ended in a tough-luck loss."

Ferenczy's strengths: "He can throw his fastball, curveball, and changeup for strikes. He keeps batters off balance. He's just a competitor."

Hansen started on the mound the first two weeks of the season. "It's a different role for him," analyzed Frank. "He hadn't pitched a lot in his life. I think he tried to do too much. We'll try to give him some work out of the bullpen this week and next week just to get him into the game.

"When he's got it on, he's got a good fastball and curveball."

His hitting has maintained through the new experience of starting on the mound and taking his lumps. "He's doing well," said his coach. "He sets such a high standard for himself."

The bespectacled senior is presently developing a changeup on the mound.

Newbies include Cooper McNally, a freshman who bats left playing right field and second base, Blaise Gimber, a left-handed sophomore playing left field and first base, and pitching, junior Alex Monell, and Sola Hope.

"Sola plays football, too. He has been getting a lot of time in the outfield. He cracked the starting lineup in the third game of the season against Westview," said the coach, who announces football during the fall.

Noah Brown, a freshman infielder, moved up from the junior varsity for his first game on the varsity Thurs., March 23. The starting shortstop on JV's, Frank inserted him at second base, moving Ferenczy from second to third. Brown got a hit in his first at-bat.

Frank is trying to help the batting order generate more offense.

LJ baseball: Kerplunk

The ball Vike shortstop Zach Sehgal

hit for a three-run homer in the

seventh. (Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

A teammate retrieved the baseball that senior Zach Sehgal ripped for a game-tying three-run home run in the top of the seventh inning Thurs., March 23, at Valhalla.

The Vikings went on to win the game in the eighth, so the ball was significant.

Sehgal was moving around the visitors dugout getting ready to go back out on the field when someone presented him with the ball. At first, he hesitated to take it. Then he said, "Yeah, okay, I'll keep it."

He walked over to the aluminum bench, lined with players' gloves, hats, water containers, energy bars, and whatever else the troupe from La Jolla had brought with them to this East County outpost. He placed the ball on the bench.

After the four-bagger, the former Mission Bay player was batting .400. That's why he's hitting in the third spot in the lineup.

In a way, Sehgal's home run ball represented an answer to Head Coach Gary Frank's exhortatory question earlier when La Jolla went down 4-1 on a Valhalla home run: Are we gonna fight? Is anyone going to fight back?

He had discussed before the game the struggles the offense has been experiencing through a ho-hum, 4-3 start to the season. This extra-inning win, though come-from-behind, maintained the Vikings' pattern thus far of winning a game, then losing a game.

"Our defense has been keeping us in games," the coach had said.

This time, some key hits played a role in the final outcome.

LJ baseball: Good sign

Two tiny eggs in a nest at the end of the

visitors dugout at Valhalla.

(Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

There was a discovery when the Vikings walked into the visitors dugout before their game at Valhalla Thurs., March 23.

Someone spotted what seemed to be a bird's nest currently in operation, though the owner was absent. It was located atop the cinder block wall that forms the end of the dugout.

Inside were two tiny eggs, unharmed, sitting in the back of the next.

To the mother bird's credit, though she was AWOL, the nest was built high up where no cat could reach it. One wonders how this nest got built with Valhalla's baseball team practicing on the field.

Anyway, someone said something about the intact nest with eggs being a good sign for the La Jolla baseball team this day.

Head coach Gary Frank recounted last year's encounter at Valhalla, a debacle which started well, then unraveled courtesy of an error. Riley O'Sullivan, latest heir in a professional-baseball-playing family, hit a long home run to bury the Vikings on that fateful day about 365 days before.

O'Sullivan, then only a freshman, came back Thursday to hit another long home run, this one beyond the 361-foot sign in left field. The tall sophomore put the Norsemen up 4-1 in the third, and occasioned some Domesday comments in the birded dugout.

But good things were to come for the visitors, and the eggs remained untouched and apparently healthy through the extra-inning conclusion.

LJ baseball 6, Valhalla 5

Home-run hitter Zach Sehgal

before the game.

(Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

La Jolla senior Nick Ferenczy stroked a two-out single into centerfield in the eighth inning, driving in late-sub Christophe Naviaux as the winning run in a 6-5 come-from-behind win at Valhalla High Thurs., March 23. The game was part of the annual Bill Dickens Tournament that the Vikings participate in.

The big blow that set up Ferenczy's winning hit in the top of the eighth was set up by a three-run homer that shortstop Zach Sehgal hit over the fence in straight-away left field the inning before to tie the game at 5. Sehgal had a one-two count. "(It was) right there, low and inside," said the 6'2" senior, of the pitch from the Norsemen's Cole Howard.

The Vikings had been rolling along on an afternoon that cleared up with a slight breeze behind starter Nick Hammel, who threw 51 pitches during his four innings and seemed to have Valhalla tamed through the first eight outs.

Coach Gary Frank's squad also felt good about touching up Norsemen starter Casey O'Sullivan, an SDSU commit, for a run in the opening frame on Dane Hansen's single bringing in Sehgal.

But then in the bottom of the third, O'Sullivan's younger brother, big Riley O'Sullivan, who hit a long homer off La Jolla last year, bombed his own three-run shot beyond the 361-foot sign in the bottom of the third, and suddenly Coach Gary Frank's squad was looking up from a 4-1 score.

The Vikings added a second run in the top of the fifth, Ferenczy again being the one to drive in sophomore Noah Brown, playing his first varsity game and getting a hit in his first at-bat back in the second.

In the decisive eighth, with the score tied 5-5, Blaise Gimber laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Naviaux to second after he reached base on a grounder bobbled by second baseman Cameron Zamudio. Christophe advanced to third on a passed ball called a strike by the plate umpire, and came home on Ferenczy's single.

LJ b golf: Update and prospectus

Viking varsity golf team members

dissemble before the camera.

(Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

"Tucker (Jacobs), a junior, and Harrison Ahern, a sophomore, have improved a lot from last year," says La Jolla golf coach Aaron Quesnell. "They are the reason we are where we are."

"Where we are" means being in the mix in CIF later this spring, according to the veteran coach, who has seen teams go well into CIF play.

The big change in landscape for the Vikings this season, to describe things in a golf metaphor, came because five seniors graduated from the 2016 squad. Five freshmen have replaced them.

La Jolla, employing older and younger team members, defeated league rival St. Augustine handily Wed., March 22, 193 to 207. That was with senior Kevin Wan, the Vikings' number two, missing.

"Tucker's scoring better, so he's more around the greens. He hits the ball far," says Quesnell, "although (senior) Youssef (Guezzale) probably hits the ball the farthest."

"Tucker had been giving away silly shots, but he has reeled it in."

"Harrison has the biggest improvement we've seen over the year. He has a beautiful swing. When he's focused..."

"He has great potential," says the coach, "when he has focus and doesn't get frazzled."

Aidan Johnson, a freshman, has been playing well.

The roster also includes freshmen Sam MacDorman and Jack Hangartner, as well as junior Will Hartford, who hasn't played yet this year.

LJ b golf: Remley

By Ed Piper, Jr.

James Remley was one of the 30 or so underclassmen who accepted Coach Ryan Lindenblatt's invitation last fall to try wrestling for the first time and benefit from the physical training and the camaraderie that would result.

"I think my favorite part is the exercise," said Remley, a two-sport enthusiast who is playing on the La Jolla High golf team this spring. "Going to practice everyday and giving it my best." He wrestled at 106 pounds.

Remley, shorter than his teammates on Coach Aaron Quesnell's golf squad, said he often plays with the coach in the foursome that follows the six team members playing competitively in that day's match. The golf match Wed., March 22, was against St. Augustine at Riverwalk Friars. The freshman walked the course, but didn't play officially.

But a reporter heard his story about going out for wrestling last fall, and wanted to hear more. "It was really fun," said the amiable young man. "I won two matches (of 20). But it was fun. I had a lot of friends in wrestling, too."

He reserved compliments for Lindenblatt, who he doesn't even have for class. "Coach Lindenblatt talked to me at lunch. I don't know how he knew me. I think my friends who have him in class told him I was interested. He said it would really help the team if I went out.

"He's a really good coach. It was impressive how he handled all that: his classes, coaching duties. He's also in the military reserve."

Remley was part of a swell of young athletes who went out for wrestling for the first time at La Jolla this year, bringing new energy and setting the program up for growth and potential next year. A coach in another school's program heard the story of the 30 new recruits, and at the City Conference Championships hosted by La Jolla in early February talked about the good things that growth means for LJHS wrestling.

LJ b golf: Riverwalk

La Jolla head coach Aaron Quesnell goes over

the day's numbers with his team after a win

over St. Augustine on the Riverwalk Friars course.

(Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Youssef Guezzale, one of La Jolla's captains, was feeling good. He had just medaled, with a 36 against St. Augustine on the Riverwalk Friars golf course.

"Today was good," he said, while his partner for the day, freshman Nolan Ward, lingered nearby. "I hit it pretty well. Iron shots were good. Putting was decent. It could have been a lot better.

"Fixing things with my swing is making things better," the junior added.

In the final result, Coach Aaron Quesnell's squad bettered the Saints, 193 to 207, under skies that stayed rain-free after a deluge the night and morning before.

Senior Kevin Wan, the other captain, was missing, visiting a college in China, where Quesnell says he may attend. That may have made the match a little closer, as the red-headed Ward, wearing braces, moved up for the match to the number two behind Guezzale. Tucker Jacobs, a junior, took the third spot, while Harrison "Larry" Ahern, a sophomore, played number four.

Jacobs also medaled, carding a 36 in tandem with Guezzale.

It's going to take a special run by the Vikings to take the Western League title. The league, unlike the configurations in other sports, which have been realigned according to schools' recent performance, maintains the same teams as in the past.

"We will have to beat Scripps Ranch twice, and Cathedral Catholic once," said Quesnell, in his fifth year as head coach.

Part of setting up La Jolla's predicament was this: "We lost our first match to Coronado. We shouldn't have."

So, "We have a chance, but it will be a tough road," allowed the coach.

LJ FB: First workout

Viking quarterbacks Kenny Hayden

(foreground) and Carsten Fehlan

(back right) work out on La Jolla

field. (Photos Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Tyler Roach held the first field workout since his formal introduction as the new head football coach at La Jolla High, running quarterbacks Kenny Hayden and Carsten Fehlan through passing drills to receivers Monday afternoon, March 20, on the football field as the track team worked out around them.

"Nothing formal or mandatory. Just a few of the guys throwing and catching a bit," said Roach, who formerly was Offensive Coordinator at La Jolla from 2013 to 2015.

He had help from Collin Rugg, former Viking star quarterback who is transferring to a college in Southern California yet to be determined, and Trey Enloe, a former Viking football player who suffered a concussion over two years ago.

The receivers included Johnathan O'Neal, a returner from the 2016 team, and Zachary Garcia, a junior running back who was on the varsity this past year.

Roach's schedule lists the start of Spring Football as May 22, continuing over a three-week period to June 9.

Collin Rugg (black shirt, right) helps new

Viking head coach Tyler Roach in

informal field workout.

Luke and the glove

By Ed Piper, Jr.

My grandson Luke got a baseball glove from his father, so yesterday we were hitting the ball off his plastic tee and using the glove to catch the ball.

Which brings redemption to my long-ago sadness over having my brand-new Rawlings Gold Glove, given to me for my 15th birthday, stolen during a high school playoff game.

It was the glove of my dreams. My brother Steve and I played baseball throughout our childhoods, he beginning at age 7, me at age 8, and through high school.

Camarillo High, our alma mater, was playing a home CIF playoff game against visiting Santa Fe Springs. There were what we called then some "hood"-looking kids, rough kids, who came to our fairly small, protected community from the greater L.A. area for the game.

As we weren't unused to doing, after my own junior varsity baseball practice, I went outside school, placed my school binder with glove on top of it on the hood of our family car, which my older brother was allowed to drive to school that day. I went back in the fence to watch the rest of the playoff game.

My brother wasn't playing, because he was the back-up first baseman behind Randy Elliott, the local superstar who batted .300 on home runs alone. Randy was soon was to be the Padres' number-one pick in the amateur draft. He didn't pan out, though he did remain in the majors with the A's for a few years.

Anyway, when the game was over and some of the "hoods" had been cruising around outside the school, my Gold Glove, which I had only had a few weeks, was gone. I was heart-broken.

Of course, looking at it from this vantage point, the prevention looks pretty obvious: why was I leaving my brand new glove, which probably cost $40 or so, a ton of money at that time, outside in an open place like that, considering all the activity that was going on?

I don't remember much discussion in the family about the stolen glove. I knew as soon as it was gone that it wasn't coming back and that my parents weren't going to fork over the large amount of money required to get a new Rawlings glove.

So I moved on. What I got was a Wilson glove, much less spectacular in value and style, through Blue Chip stamps. I am not kidding. My mom was a collector of the stamps, and we found a glove in the Blue Chip catalog, or however you picked items for Blue Chip stamps (given with your purchase at the grocery store).

That's what I used. The next season, I was moved from shortstop to first base, so I was loaned a first baseman's glove by the school, and I now took my brother's place on the bench as he moved into the lineup as the starting first baseman his senior year--my junior year. I didn't need the Wilson fielder's glove.

I remember giving my Wilson glove, obtained with Blue Chip stamps, to Dave Rogers after I quit
American Legion baseball to pursue my dreams in basketball.

My grandson Luke doesn't know any of this.

WBC: Through his eyes

The Puerto Rican team celebrates with fans

after 6-5 win over U.S. March 17.

(Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

If you're sick of reading about the World Baseball Classic and want to read about La Jolla High sports, don't read this entry.

My eyes for the Puerto Rican team in the WBC Friday night, March 17 (St. Patrick's Day, which isn't celebrated in Latin cultures), was a young man, Jonathan, about 30, who drove from his home in Phoenix during the day to attend the weekend games at Petco Park.

Speaking limited but adequate English, Jonathan gave me a sense, feel, enjoyment for someone else's passion for baseball and his favorite players.

One thing he told me, during our game-long conversation initiated by me and in which we saved seats for each other while the other went to the bathroom or concessions stand, was that U.S. starting pitcher Marcus Stroman's mother implored him to play for her native Puerto Rican team.

I thought that was a fantastic story, and insight into the mixed loyalties that baseball players--and humans--experience. Ms. Stroman's wish didn't get granted, because her son told her it was his dream to play for the U.S. team in the Classic, he having been born in New York.

Stroman, being paid back for his disobedience to his mother's request, started the game by giving up six straight singles to the first six Boricua (nickname for Puerto Rican) hitters, allowing four runs. The U.S. never came back from that disastrous start.

I told Jonathan during the course of the nine-inning game that I saw Roberto Clemente, a legendary player from Puerto Rico, play in person at Dodger Stadium when the Pirates played the Dodgers when I was a kid. He seemed pretty impressed by that.

We kept our exchanges in English, though I speak Spanish, because he indicated he wanted to continue that way, which is a basic thing in these cross-cultural encounters. At one point he struggled to indicate a certain Puerto Rican often played designated hitter, so I asked, "What is it in Spanish?" and he answered, bateador designado. That was the only foray we took into espanol, other than some words or phrases that came up randomly.

A point of enjoyment for me was that I celebrated both Puerto Rican and U.S. players' accomplishments, so I think he could see I wasn't merely for one side or anti-Puerto Rican in my rooting. I did yell when a U.S. player did something significant. It made it more fun, instead of being neutral and getting bored.

Jonathan knows baseball, so that heightened our exchanges. When Brandon Crawford drove in runs in the ninth inning that brought the U.S. within a run of Puerto Rico, Jonathan called it right then: third baseman Carlos Correa clearly tagged out Crawford before he made it to third, though the umpire's call was safe. Replays showed Crawford should have been called out.

WBC notes

Mariners superstar Robinson Cano steps in

during Dominican Republic's 6-3 loss to

Team USA Sat., March 18.

(Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

I attended World Baseball Classic games at Petco Park Friday and Saturday evenings, March 17-18. Here are some notes:

--One thing I noticed in the two games is that people who buy tickets in the nosebleed seats (like me) often are not in those seats--instead, they are walking on the main level and standing at the handy stand-up counters eating and drinking.

Most of the other seats were filled: Friday's attendance, when Puerto Rico edged the U.S., 6-5, was announced as 32,000 and change. (The stadium holds 43,000.)

I never did go to my seats either night. They're high and distant, too far to venture to. I walked, chatted with other baseball fans, bought food, wandered some more, sometimes settling at one spot.

--Petco Park won't see this many people again soon, other than for Opening Day, which is a big, festive occasion that baseball fans go to even if the home product is lousy (the Padres are rated to be the worst team in the majors, considering the minor league/prospect lineup they're sending out there). 

Sorry to Padres fans, but your franchise has done so many things to you, I feel for you. I arrived in 
San Diego in 1993, when the "Fire Sale" was going on, the Padres jettisoning all their stars under the Gang of Four new ownership (Tom Werner et al). That was only a sign of things past and future.

--At the risk of sounding like a broken record, if you've read my blog, the WBC games were a slice of heaven for me. There was a combination of exciting baseball, loud Latin energy with the Puerto Rican (Friday night) and Dominican (Saturday night) fans pounding drums, blowing whistles, raising the roof. From my background of living and teaching in Mexico City, I really enjoy this aspect of Latin culture.

Also, local fans chanting "U-S-A" didn't sit back quietly. They were vociferous at multiple points during the games, in which, though the Gringos lost Friday to the hot Puerto Ricans, the norteamericanos qualified for the semifinals tomorrow night (Tues., March 21) by defeating the Dominican Republic Saturday night, 6-3.

The Life of Writing

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Here, writing at 8:12 a.m. on a Monday morning, I missed writing over the busy weekend.

I have settled into kind of a sweet pattern of being able to write while substitute-teaching on many weekdays, which I'm doing now at that surfside haven called San Dieguito Academy.

Over the weekend, I attended World Baseball Classic games Friday and Saturday nights at Petco Park, then church Sunday, then babysitting our grandchildren with my wife Dianna. In short, I never sat down to write, whether by choice, the amount of activity, or whatever.

Now, sitting again in a classroom first thing on a Monday morning, my time is structured: I have to be with the class, though the students are all working independently on a--guess what?--writing assignment (Catcher in the Rye, which, as an English teacher, I never assigned). I'm inside. I have access to a computer. Voila.

Plus with most schools going to a block schedule, an hour and a half up to almost two hours per period, a lot of time yawns before me.

If my duties allow--in other words, if I'm not teaching an active lesson, which in high school as a sub I usually don't do--and if the class is under control, often I can pen a few "palabras" on my blog.

I have a backlog, too: two WBC games, assorted interviews with La Jolla High athletes, etc.

It's good to be back at the keyboard.

LJ g sand VB: Turn the Paige

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Paige Kaufman, a seasoned junior, and Maya Gessner, a freshman, had never played together. Yet they vanquished their foes on Our Lady of Peace 22-20, 21-15, Thurs., March 16, figuring out all the communication issues, signals, and court coverage.

"It went really well," said Kaufman, reclining next to one of the volleyball courts at Coronado Street in South Mission Beach, her playing mission for the day accomplished. "She (Maya) really stepped up. She really played well."

First lesson the junior knows: Give plaudits to your younger partner.

Asked what her own strengths are, the tall junior who played in the number-three pair, watching teammates play in a different match, said, "Defense. Playing well defensively and trying not to let anything drop."

A graphic turn of phrase, the latter, since if the ball drops, that means it hits the sand--dead ball, point lost.

New head coach Kelly Drobeck, she of the Cathedral Catholic background, was on the other side of the stretched cords serving as court boundaries, busily observing another pair as the Vikings competed against OLP. This was the third week of the SDVBA season. La Jolla won in its first two weeks.

Kaufman has been in Drobeck's program for a while. She played club volleyball under the veteran, future-Hall-of-Fame coach. The teen now only plays sand volleyball, and says she isn't going for a college scholarship in the sport.

"If it comes along, that's fine. But I'm not shooting for it at this point."

She's got the normal responsibilities of a high school upperclassperson, with homework, family responsibilities, and so forth. Dad Pete comes along and asks if she's ready to take a ride home, since he's her ride.

"I parked 10 blocks away," he says, commiserating with a visitor who likewise struggled to find a parking spot in any one of the narrow alleys that dot Mission Beach. The street parking along Mission Beach Blvd. was completely filled outside the myriad of beach residences along the strip.

The looming issue for Kaufman family: what's for dinner. Dad Pete says he has to come up with a plan, and it is already begging 5:00, the trip up the hill to La Jolla through commuter-time traffic yet to happen.

"You'll have to grill up some more salmon for Paige," the visitor says, attempting to inject some humor right after interviewing the high school student and learning her proclivity for the pink fish. Dessert sounds easier: She says doesn't really have a treat that stands out. But she does remember as a child going to Mr. Frosti's.

As far as her coach, Kaufman explained, "She breaks everything (in practice) into every aspect. We start with passing, then transition to hitting... Then she combines everything and we play a game. She lets us play a lot, which really helps.

"In club, she'd have us focus on one skill and get that down. Then go on to another skill.

"She (Drobeck) really knows the technical aspects (of volleyball).

Probed how her coach sets her up mentally, the junior said, "She's never negative. She always helps you through it. It's always constructive criticism, so she always makes you want to play for her."

Kaufman contrasted sand with court volleyball: "(In sand) it's only you and your partner. In high school (court) volleyball, you have your coaches all the time. In beach volleyball, you have to figure it out." She seemed to welcome the freedom this affords.

LJ FB: Oxy in the future?

By Ed Piper, Jr.


At the reception for the new head football coach at La Jolla High Mon., March 13, Tyler Roach said that Collin Rugg, his former Viking quarterback in 2013-2014, had been by school Monday and "helped with the quarterbacks".


Roach was later asked if he knew the La Jolla High graduate's plans for next year. Roach responded: "I think for football it would be Occidental (College). Non football would be UCLA or SDSU from what I'm hearing."


Rugg, who set the CIF San Diego Section record for passing touchdowns in a season with 46 while at La Jolla, left William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, outside of Kansas City, after the Fall 2016 season and returned home in San Diego. He was attending Jewell on a full-ride Division 1 football scholarship through his first and second seasons in college.


The 2015 La Jolla High graduate is presently enrolled in online college courses while he applies to universities in Southern California.


Collin indicated last week that he was considering options for his future that include football as well as ones that don't.


According to the William Jewell College football website, the 6'3" passing virtuoso redshirted his first year in college, as his eligibility status for the 2016 football season was listed as redshirt freshman. This would mean he has three years of playing eligibility remaining.







Rugg was third on the depth chart at quarterback this past season for the Cardinals, who suffered through a 1-9 season. He only played substantially in two games, going 6 for 14 in passing in each of the two games, with three interceptions in the latter game.


He could probably see the writing on the wall, with both quarterbacks ahead of him--both of whom redshirted, as well--likely returning next year: Brad Strauss, the number one, a redshirt junior, with 1,489 yards passing, and Jared Hobby, the number two, a redshirt sophomore, with 745 yards.


If he had stayed at Jewell, it's very possible that he would have waited two more years to play regularly only his senior year, his fifth year in college.