LJ b soccer 4, UC 0

Senior James Penner (19) returns to the Vike lineup after

a long respite to help spearhead a big win over UC.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

On a cold night on a surface that is scheduled to be torn from its moorings in less than two months, La Jolla touched up visiting UC for an early goal by Noah Shen, then after a respite the Vikings piled on with three goals within 16 minutes in the second half to blast the Centurions, 4-0, Thurs., Feb. 5.

"Mercurial," one observer called the Viking boys' big shutout win after a reverse by the same margin in their previous game at Point Loma.

Players and coaches were light-hearted and pleased going into halftime with a 1-nil lead. Assistant coach Victor Zendejas admonished players, "Let's not get overconfident."

But the cockiness led within minutes to the first of two scores by Andrew Estrella to put La Jolla up 2-0. That goal came in about the 48th minute (6:27 p.m. after a 5:30 start).

Then, at 6:42 p.m., Estrella stood straight out 10 yards in front of the net on a rebounding ball that arched high in the air. When it came down, he clobbered it to the left of Christian Lathrop, UC's goalkeeper, and the rout was on.

Unofficially, Estrella, a sophomore, leads La Jolla with six goals this season.

The fourth goal, by Jared Roberts in garbage time, came a minute later. By then, Zendejas and head coach Marcos Gonzales were conferring on who else to substitute in, as virtually the entire roster saw action in the victory.

Ole Cassidy (22), Viking student from

Norway, played a notable game against

the Centurions.

"We played as a complete team for the first time and our chemistry showed in how we dominated every part of the game," said James Penner. "Everyone stepped up big and played well. It was a great team effort and I hope it (is) a sign of how the second half of the season will go."

The Vikings didn't make the finish easy for themselves or goalkeeper Alexei Sebald, facing numerous near-misses in attempts on their goal by UC in waning minutes.

There is the phenomenon in soccer in which one team, after scoring a goal or more, suddenly plays with all the confidence of winners, while at the same time the opposing team loses all its gas and becomes extremely vulnerable to another score.

This is what happened between the second and third goals by LJHS. Nothing changed physically, except increased epinephrine shooting into Viking players' veins. It was all psychological. The Vikings went on the attack, and the Centurions became more porous and their defense more of a sieve. It didn't require a single substitution to effect the change.

You can't quite see the mental aspect as clearly in some other sports as in soccer. Maybe lacrosse is comparable in sudden changes of what we call momentum. But lacrosse also can change from one minute to the next in which team has the upper hand, the psychological advantage. In soccer, the flow of one team lasts for a longer period of time, and the shift isn't as quick.

In both sports the ball is put right back into play after a team's goal. This is where the follow-up attack can be mounted to try to score another goal quickly on the heels of the first one.

One athlete has talked about his team's two-minute rule, in which they try to exploit the other team's vulnerability right after a goal by adding another one. There is a window of opportunity, and if a team waits, it is probably lost.


Copyright 2015 Ed Piper

LJ BB: Stats vs. Scripps Ranch

Vikes' Eddie Parker (right)

surveys options while being

guarded by the leaping

Josh Fish (32) of Scripps.

(Photo by Ed Piper)



In addition to Ladd Castellano's 14 points, postman Alex Pitrofsky had nine points while fellow post Mark Rawdin bucketed seven in a 55-38 loss at Scripps Ranch Tues., Feb. 3.

In all, six Vikings scored against the Falcons.

Castellano also had a team-high seven rebounds in 30 minutes of play. Rawdin grabbed five rebounds in only 10 minutes of play, Alex Pitrofsky three in limited minutes.

La Jolla High has a Western League bye Fri., Feb. 6. The Vikings play in the Coaches vs. Cancer benefit Sat., Feb. 7, in a game at Montgomery High in San Ysidro against Otay Ranch.


Copyright 2015 Ed Piper

LJ BB: Ladd Castellano, model of consistency

Senior Ladd Castellano (12) guards Kristopher

Wixted (22) of Scripps Ranch, while teammate

Mark Rawdin (far right) defends inside.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

Ladd Castellano got his usual 14 points against Scripps Ranch Feb. 3, even though the Vikings basketball team lost. The senior guard had four field goals and was six-of-eight on free throws.

Number 12 also scored 14 points in a bad loss to Lincoln Fri., Jan. 30. In fact, he has scored that many or more points in eight of La Jolla's games this year.

That is what Ladd does. He scores points consistently. What's more, he does it by attacking the basket.

"I thought that I did (attack the basket)," he answered when asked if he felt he was being aggressive after the discouraging loss at Scripps Ranch.

He's not a point guard, and he knows that. The Vikings know that. In Reed Farley's absence, Coach Paul Baranowski has gone a lot with Gaynor Blackmon in that role. He even plugged Zach Duffy into that slot for a game or two.

Castellano hit a high of 30 points in a dominating non-league 89-58 win over Bonita Vista Jan. 3 to start out the new year.

When Ladd burst onto the scene, it was the start of his junior season and he seemingly appeared out of nowhere to cash in key points for the varsity. He attributed his effectiveness partially to participation on a non-school club team, which is the way Farley grew up his skills beginning in the sixth grade.

Castellano moves the ball on

offense against Falcons'

Carsten Denherder (2).



Club and travel squads, apart from school teams, are a newer generation in many youth sports. In an older generation, AAU teams were not a factor. Playing youth baseball was common, with formal Little League as well as Bronco League/Pony League available for young players.

The newer era with the prominence of non-school sports teams was signaled by the drafting of baseball player Justin Hayward by the Atlanta Braves. Other major league teams had missed on the lefty bat cracker, because they had only sought to scout him during high school games, whereas the majority of his at-bats came in non-school competition.

Castellano has benefitted from the same emphasis. He'll acknowledge, though, that the school coaching he receives from Baranowski is critical in his development as well.

Especially during his junior year, Ladd had a father-son relationship with his school coach that included struggles over the young man "learning his role", in Baranowski's words. That task is a priority in Baranowski's system, in which "playing for the other" is emphasized over "playing for oneself".

Highlights statistically for the two-guard (shooting guard) this season have included 11-for-17 in 28 minutes against Bonita Vista. Castellano has played all 32 minutes in three games this year, against Morse, Cathedral Catholic, and the Lincoln game at home.

He dished out a season-high six assists to teammates against Morse, when he also had three steals. He also had six assists in a home win against Scripps Ranch in the first round of Western League play.

Ten rebounds came in losses to Santa Fe Christian and Morse in December tournament play.

Finally, Castellano has had three games in which he hit three three-pointers.

Ladd felt sheepish after his playful push of Farley after Farley's impressive two-hand slam dunk near the end of a win at rival Bishop's Jan. 16 led to Reed spraining his ankle. Asked about the celebratory push of his teammate the day after the game, he answered via Facebook, "I mean Ed there is no way I knew it was going to happen you know?

"I mean now that I look back on it, it was definitely a dumb thing but, it was one of those things that when you were in the moment you're not thinking cause I was just going wild on reeds dunk."

C'est la vie (That's life), as my mother used to say.


Copyright 2015 Ed Piper

LJ BB 38, Scripps Ranch 55

Gaynor Blackmon (3) defends against a Scripps

pass while Tony Coan tries to get out from

under in action Feb. 3.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

There is no joy in Mudville, as La Jolla's boys basketball team dropped its fifth straight loss, 55-38, Tues., Feb. 3, to a Scripps Ranch team that the Vikings had beaten in the first round of Western League play. Each of those losses have come after leading scorer Reed Farley went down with a sprained ankle at the end of a 53-52 win at Bishop's Jan. 16.

La Jolla trailed by only two at halftime at Scripps, 24-22. But as has become the familiar script in the last quintet of games, the Vikings did not have the go-power to stay with their opponents in the late going or the ability to overcome a lead with defensive stops and offensive scores.

Coach Paul Baranowski held a long postgame team meeting in the visitors room just off the court in the Scripps Ranch gym. When players emerged, senior guard Ladd Castellano voiced some of the Mudville frustration when he said, "We were (only) down by two at halftime. Our mindset is holding back, that we're not going to win."

The 6'2" two-guard said, "More people need to jump in and attack. I feel like people are holding back because Reed is injured."

Faces were grim in the team room, as La Jolla has watched its once-sparkling won-lost record, which at its heights stood at 10-4, plummet to 11-10 overall, 2-6 in the Western League. The Vikings players showed up before knowing they could very well be in the game--even against tough opponents--and know they had a good chance to win.

But now there is no joy in Mudville, as the mighty Casey has struck out. Lately you don't see the anticipation, the expectation of winning a few of these. LJHS has been competitive, but not strong enough to give its opponents a real scare.

The Vikings, in the latest installment, went down early, 16-8, in the first quarter as Falcon lefty guard Dhru Patel began to light them up with threes. Castellano had an acrobatic drive down the lane, banking the ball off the backboard as he contorted his body sideways against two defenders to score, trailing 6-4.

Morgan Albers sank two free throws, but Fish connected on a long-range missile. Guard Gaynor Blackmon, handling Farley's point guard duties, scored at 16-13 but couldn't convert the free throw for a three-point play.

Big man Mark Rawdin, who continues to show moves at the lower boxes, scored with his back to the basket on the left side and La Jolla was only down 16-15. The first quarter ended with the locals leading, 19-18.

The Vikings took the lead for their one and only time, other than Castellano's first basket of the game, at 20-19 to start the second quarter when Rawdin grabbed Ladd's blocked shot in the air and lobbed it in from close range.

As Castellano said later, the Vikings played "horribly" in the first and third quarters, falling to Patel's southpaw jumpers to 33-22, then 36-23, at which time Baranowski called an abrupt timeout.

The coach juggled several players, benching big men Rawdin and Alex Pitrofsky for much of the second half and inserting sub Johannes Osypka and guard Tony Coan. Eddie Parker came in off the bench.

Unfortunately, all La Jolla could do was swap baskets with Scripps Ranch down the stretch when the red and black needed a stop. The lead in the fourth quarter, only eight at 43-35, increased to 11 at 49-38 and ballooned to the final margin of 17 points, 55-38.

The Vikings, formerly looking to be in the hunt after beating Scripps Ranch and Lincoln at the start of league play, though a cut below St. Augustine, are now looking up at Mission Bay, Cathedral Catholic--which upset the Saints in their first-round rivalry game a week ago--UC, and even the Falcons with only four Western League games left to go before the CIF playoffs. One observer pointed out that the lower the Vikes drop, the tougher their first-round playoff opponent will be.

"We just lost it towards the fourth quarter," said Rawdin after the postgame meeting. Asked why, he responded, "We stopped playing hard."

Guard Daniel Hemming got a rare minute of play at the end, and said, "It felt good, but losing never feels good. We're on kind of a losing streak. Hopefully, it will pick back up."


Copyright 2015 Ed Piper

LJ wrestling: Update

Early action against the Saints. La Jolla wrestler on left.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

First-year head coach Kellen Delaney says he's learning the administrative side of coaching wrestling, while continuing his technical work with his staff of coaches and wrestlers on the La Jolla grappling squad.

In previous seasons, including the 2012-13 Western League championship season in which the Vikings sent several wrestlers through the City Conference and CIF Section levels of competition, Delaney served as one of the assistant coaches, along with his friend and roommate Ryan Lennard.

Lennard has gone on to pursue his passion besides wrestling, which is strength and conditioning, as the coach in that area on the La Jolla High campus. So he's pretty occupied with that, though cognizant of what's going on in what is now Delaney's wrestling program.

"We don't have any varsity wrestlers," Delaney confided at the Vikings' dual meet at St. Augustine Jan. 21. "They're all newcomers."

In other words, against other teams, wrestlers are put into the varsity lineup of weight classes to carry on dual meets. But as far as skill level and experience, even the boys put on the varsity are novices and just learning their craft. Others compete as the junior varsity.

La Jolla is rebuilding the program after the number of experienced wrestlers dropped a year ago. The great thing is that every one of the wrestlers who showed up on the St. Augustine campus two weeks ago for the Vikings got to wrestle in the dual meet, either at the varsity level or on the JV's. That is what high school sports are for--to learn and grow. Why can't it be an incubator for kids to learn new skills?

Head coach Kellen Delaney (R) and assistant use body

English to communicate moves to their wrestler.

Action was on St. Augustine High campus.



I had never attended a pre-meet weigh-in before. Each wrestler, in turn, for each team had to stand on the electronic scale and have his present weight recorded. If he didn't meet the maximum weight for a weight class, he had to "wrestle up" at the next weight class.

Coach Walter Fairley, who is assisting Delaney and who formerly was an assistant principal at La Jolla High until he retired two years ago, explained a fact about CIF rules on weight. At that point in the season, a wrestler got two pounds allowance for growth--I think the initials on the weight recorder's clipboard were "GW" for "growth weight". That's kind of cool. There's nothing like that in the sports I played eons ago, basketball and baseball.

Delaney is the right kind of guy for the coaching position temperament-wise. While personable, he is calm, steady, though highly motivated during matches, which can be seen in his intense shouting of instructions to the wrestler grappling at the time. Fairley and the other coaches present themselves in the same way. Great models for our young people.

There is another aspect to the wrestling culture, which I began to learn about during Timmy Cundiff's years, his graduating in 2013. Timmy and his family are friends of our family. You can see this brotherhood, family atmosphere. Not macho. Connected. The guys hang around one another. They are humble, even if they're really good at what they do on the mat. They look out for one another.

In this respect, I really like the practice before each wrestler's match in which the whole team gathers around him, lays on hands, and shouts his name in unison to send him into competition. It's a visible sign of unity as well as support for the individual. Very cool.

Kellen Delaney says that by next year, with a year of experience, there will be wrestlers on the team at both the varsity and JV levels. It keeps building. Stay tuned.


Copyright 2015 Ed Piper

LJ b soccer: Update

Viking defender Will Curtis (leaping in black

uniform) contests for ball in 4-0 loss at

Point Loma Jan. 29. (Photos by Ed Piper)

Continuity is the name of the game if you're going to build consistency in a program.

Look at La Jolla's boys soccer team. There is plenty of talent: The super sophs, Daniel Estrella and Lukas Keeling, are two of only four Vikings who have scored a goal this season.

James Penner, another offense-enhanced player, has been out quite a bit thus far, first with club team obligations, then shortly after with injuries.

On the other side of the ball, on defense, La Jolla also has plenty of juice. It's not for lack of talent.

By the way, Lukas had a hat trick (three goals) within five minutes at the start of LJHS's game against Mount Miguel to close out pool play in the Coronado Invitational in December. Coach Marco Gonzales pulled him out of the game immediately, to give others a chance at some of the scoring opportunities.

The Vikings played two Open Division teams in their first two games in the Coronado tournament, Hilltop and Poway. They played them close. The games were 2-1 and the like. I know that soccer doesn't have high scores like basketball, where you can just flip the ball up and it might go in. But these were well-played games.

I think, one, the Vikings brought talent, and two, they wanted to play well for Gonzales, their new coach.

Forward Daniel Estrella speeds ball toward attacking zone

with agile ball skills versus the Pointers.

Now, with Gonzales having to shepherd the JV's in place of another coach, varsity assistant Victor Zendejas has been piloting the varsity during the last several games. The players respond to him, they respect him, and he is vocal in a positive way on the sidelines during games, shouting encouragement as well as technical advice.

That's part of the rub: Zendejas, following Gonzales, through no fault of their own or the players', following last year's one-year coach and gone, following two coaches that preceded them in the couple of years before that. There hasn't been one coach over a period years since I started covering the team almost a decade ago.

The kids are all right. They just need continuity, which is my original statement. You see Estrella, Ole (pronounced like the Spanish "Ole" at bullfights) Cassidy, an import from Norway, Keeling, goalkeepers Alexei Sebald and Eric Vela, and the others respond well to their coaches. Many or most of these players have played youth soccer and club soccer. They're at a relatively high level of proficiency in ball skills, knowledge of strategy, and soccer I.Q., which is in vogue language these days.

All you need to add is water, and they grow. The water is having the same coach more than one year in a row. I hope Gonzales and Zendejas can return next year. It would be so good for the program. Zendejas, a fiery pepperpot, older than Gonzales who can act as a kind of colleague and mentor, joined the varsity coaching staff after the season began.

I see La Jolla playing other teams, who have a comparable level of talent. They are competitive. With the same structure in place over a period of time, the cream will continue rising to the top. I'm not saying the Vikings will be in the Open Division playoffs next year if Gonzales and Zendejas return. But it will be a move in the right direction.

By the way, it's a pleasure to cover the present La Jolla program, writing and taking photographs. The players use appropriate language, are respectful, and accept the leadership of the coaches. It's good to see these future leaders in our society headed in the right direction. Without this, what would be the point of high school sports--to prepare players for college, then for the pros? I don't think so. As a high school teacher, I am big on cultivating the whole person--student, athlete, and citizen. Citizen-athlete. How's that for a term?


Copyright 2015 Ed Piper

LJ g BB 37, Lincoln 26

Jenna Harmeyer (R) and Rebecca

Saul (behind) gang up on Lincoln

ballhandler in big win.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

Right before La Jolla basketball fans' eyes, girls like Abby Hoffman and Rebecca Saul are blossoming in their confidence and skills on the court. Propelled by these fireplugs and the persistence of veteran captain Jenna Harmeyer, the Vikings won a major moral victory, 37-26, over visiting Lincoln Fri., Jan. 30.

La Jolla employed a harassing full-court press later in the game, which caused fits for the harried Hornets. The red and black also deployed a withering man-to-man defense, which forced Lincoln to cough up numerous turnovers and yield breakaways by the host team.

LJHS led 31-20 with five minutes left in the third quarter. Despite the fact neither team could hardly buy a bucket at times during the low-scoring affair, the Vikings scratched and clawed and crept ahead each time Lincoln counter-attacked.

The full-court pressure, which was especially effective in subduing the inexperienced Lincoln ballhandlers, was applied by Harmeyer, Saul, who is only a freshman, Ward, and others for key stretches. Kate Miller is showing an increasing poise and comfort level in games. Sara Tajran was seen applying good, hard man defense on the guards she covered.

Tall Satori Roberson grabbed key rebounds and even exhibited some ballhandling skills taking the ball down court. Hoffman, in particular, showed new abilities to bring the ball down the floor, taking some of the pressure off Harmeyer, who continued her intensity and verve.

Vikings' Sara Tajran (white uniform) on the

attack in La Jolla's smothering defense

against the Hornets.

A social highlight after the game was Carter Simington's standing in the gym as basketball players returned following their post-game meeting. He held a sign saying, "Jenna ASB?", asking Harmeyer to go to the ASB Ball Feb. 7. Jenna, of course, was one of the last team members to come out. She smiled as she saw the sign and Simington. Thankfully, her answer was yes, as friends took photos of the couple and a reporter videotaped the interaction.

Carter, a fellow track team athlete with Harmeyer, described before Harmeyer appeared the screw placed in his leg to repair damage near the end of the football season last fall. He had to sit out CIF playoff action as a result. He will be aware of his leg at the ASB Ball as he dances on the repaired leg, which he said he can feel from the effects of the injury and subsequent surgery.

He was understandably nervous before the senior guard came out of the tunnel and read his placard entreaty, likely more nervous than he was before any football game the past season. Jenna didn't appear surprised. Someone said she had a heads-up on what was waiting for her inside the gym.


Copyright 2015 Ed Piper