Gates shreds in pro VB

By Ed Piper

Madeleine Gates, a La Jolla High Class of 2016 grad, helped Dresden DSC win the league championship in German pro volleyball last year, as meanwhile she worked for an economic/policy "think-and-do" organization. The German league has 12 teams.

Gates, a 6'3" hitter/blocker who starred for the Vikings before playing her college career at UCLA, then Stanford as a grad student, completed two seasons as a vital cog for the Dresden team on the front line.

She returns to Europe, where pro volleyball opportunities are far beyond anything available in the States, and is now playing for RC Cannes, the pro team in Cannes, France.

What makes the situation more relational is the fact that Jenna Gray, the outstanding setter from Madeleine's Stanford team, has followed the same pro volleyball career path as Gates so far: the last two years at Dresden, this year at Cannes.

Madeleine, who earned a Master's degree in Statistics at Stanford (she completed it via distance learning during her two years for Dresden), is working virtually in a job employing her statistics skills.

Between Dresden and Cannes seasons, Gates has played for the USA Volleyball team in international tournaments in the Dominican Republic and Mexico. She has also been able to work at camps at Stanford and at Coast Volleyball locally.

She gets her athletic ability and her height from her mother, Amy Randel, and father, Michael Gates, a 6'7" giant who used to film the Vikings' matches. (Randel retains her name professionally.) Amy has been an invaluable resource for all of this information. Any errors are my fault.

LJ g golf: Photos - vs. OLP 9/27

Photos by Ed Piper

Sophomore Daria Tvrdisic, 15

Junior Malia Thacker, 16

Junior Kiana Thacker, 16

Junior Christie Kim, 16

Freshman Cooper Gilmore, 14

Freshman Maddie Quach, 14

Junior Nika Moradi, 16

Junior Ella Roman, 16

100th anniversary celebration this week

By Ed Piper

This is going to be a big week (Sept. 26-30) for La Jolla High's 100th anniversary celebration. Reading up on the history of the school, which opened in 1922, yesterday and musing on other incidents and anecdotes I have heard over my 18 years of covering Viking sports, I submit the following:

--The original school colors were green and white. Imagine now, if LJHS had retained those colors, should Lincoln, the Hornets being green and white, meet La Jolla in a sports contest--green versus green.

--No freshmen attended what started as La Jolla Junior High until 1990, the fall after baseball coach Gary Frank's graduation. (No connection implied) In Fall 1990, the first ninth-graders began attending to make LJHS a four-year high school.

--Jewel is the only celebrity, a pop singer, that I am aware of who attended Vikingville. I'm sure there are many others. I just don't know who they are/were.

--At one point in the Viking tennis program, boys from La Jolla High were playing tennis players from USC, if you can believe that. I have to get more info on that. I heard this years ago.

--Vickie Eveleth was and is a key member of the La Jolla High community. She and her husband Rick will serve as the grand marshals of the Homecoming Parade Friday night, Sept. 29, during halftime of the Vikings-San Diego Cavers football game.

Vickie served as a long-time coach on staff. I'm sure she would have many stories about the establishment and development of Viking girls sports once Title IX led to CIF sports beginning in 1972-1973.

--In the first yearbook for the school in Spring 1923, 14 sophomores were listed as students at the school. Things only grew from there.

LJ b water polo 18, Damien 7 - AFC Tourney semis - 9/24

Photos by Ed Piper

LJ FB: at Point Loma 9/23

Photos by Ed Piper

LJ FB: A street fight

Justin Scully (5) crosses the threshold in second-

half action.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

The Morse offense, behind quarterback Johnny Mosti, was doing a fine job. But moving down the field, with under a minute left in the second quarter, you knew La Jolla was facing more than the Tigers who were lined up against them.

Eight plays took less than 50 seconds. The clock was, shall we say, e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y slow in ticking off the seconds as Mosti dealt to top back Damarion Wright, big number 32, out of the backfield on first-and-10 way back on Morse's own 19-yard line.

Then, four plays later, to top receiver Jeremiah Barton, number 11, for a completion on second-and-10, way up on the Vikings' 30-yard line. As baseball's Dick Howser used to say, that's a long way to drive in a Buick.

The drive only died out because the game officials, trying to stay up with the pace when the clock was running, finally declared that a first down wasn't achieved on a third-and-10 pass by Mosti. An apparent TD reception was already in the air and being caught in the end zone by the time refs blew the play dead before it was supposed to have started. And time ran out...

If the Tigers had scored on that drive, it would have made the score 14-13, La Jolla leading, with a probable two-point attempt by Morse to follow. Morse doesn't use a kicker on PAT's normally.

When play resumed in the third quarter, the winds of momentum began blowing the Tigers' direction. Mosti ran a keeper across from one yard out with 10:41 left in the third, then sneaked over for the two-point conversion. 14-14, tie ballgame.

Three and a half minutes later, after a Viking pass from quarterback Jackson Diehl popped out of the receiver's hands on a key play, Coach Tracy McNair's crew scored again. Guess who? Johnny Mosti, not a big individual, but playing big, for 15 yards and a touchdown. Ouch. 20-14, home team now in the lead for the first time on the night.

It kind of went downhill for La Jolla from there.

The Vikings couldn't pick up the slack, and they certainly weren't up to facing the whole other side of the field, going down to an eventual 39-21 defeat.

Mosti ended up 15 for 26 passing for 183 yards and one TD. He also ran seven times for 37 yards and another TD. Damarion Wright carried 13 times for 157 yards and two touchdowns. Omar-Logan Ramirez, another back, added 50 yards on five carries.

Among the receivers, Diego Sesma actually went for many more yards than Barton, 72 on five receptions. Barton went 30 yards on five catches. Wright accumulated 53 yards on four catches. Ramirez went 38 yards on a pair of receptions.

For the Vikings, Diehl was 11 for 29 passing for 149 yards and two touchdowns, with two interceptions. He has a 102.2 quarterback rating for the season (five games).

Justin Scully rushed 19 times for 107 yards and a touchdown. He also caught four passes covering 30 yards. Matthieu Princen caught two passes for 47 yards and one TD. Hank Hansen had two receptions for 47 yards and a touchdown.

Colin Levinson had eight carries for 44 yards.

Viking QB Jackson Diehl aims an aerial toward

one of his receivers in the third quarter.

LJ FB: Morse 39, LJ 21 - 9/16

Viking QB Jackson Diehl (9) targets a streaking receiver

downfield, but the pass sailed out of bounds with

7:55 left in the game as La Jolla's chances

of coming back from a 26-21 deficit began

to dwindle. (Photos by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

Morse out-toughed La Jolla in a battle of 3-1 teams going in that seemed more like street ball as the night wore on, Fri., Sept. 15, at Morse High.

Johnny Mosti, a 5'10" senior quarterback, carried out the Tigers' game plan as he elevated with effective passes to receiver Jeremiah Barton and others, as well as handing off to some grinding running backs in the Morse tradition, including Damarion Wright, a 205-pounder.

Mosti did his own damage on the ground with scampers from the line of scrimmage against a Viking defense that struggled but could not hold in the end. The passing game was a new wrinkle Morse hasn't featured in recent years.

The Vikings (3-2), still in the game trailing 26-21 after Justin Scully's one-yard run into the end zone with 43.9 seconds on the clock near the end of the third quarter, could not muster a comeback and the energy they have shown in the last three weeks with wins over Scripps Ranch, El Capitan, and Del Norte.

The hosts bumped the advantage up to 32-21 on three consecutive runs by Wright with 4:02 remaining in the game, the last a 28-yard TD.

Then, Vike QB Jackson Diehl attempted eight straight passes, two complete to sophomore Hank Hansen for 13 yards on fourth-and-10 and Scully for five yards on third-and-10, before La Jolla turned the ball over on downs, and effectively the ball game.

The Viking defense did deny Morse a touchdown in the last minute of the first half. The clock appeared to be sluggish in ticking off seconds, as Mosti led the Tigers starting on their own 19-yard line down field. He had four completions on the unsuccessful drive, which just barely ran short as officials signaled no first down with 13.7 seconds left, allowing time to run out. Mosti actually completed a pass into the end zone, but it was annulled on a belated call.

The score at the time had La Jolla leading, 14-6.

Morse cheer team on final TD with seconds left,

39-21.

LJ g VB: 2-1 over Ramona - Pool play - LJ Coastal Classic - 9/16

Photos by Ed Piper

LJ FH: vs. Rancho Bernardo 9/17 - Canyon Hills Tourney

Photos by Ed Piper