By Ed Piper
Things we learned during the Vikings' solid 5-2 non-league win at Serra Wed., April 4:
--Centerfielder Vanessa Shaffer can see the ball much better now wearing her glasses during games. The senior fielding specialist smashed a hard shot on one bounce to the right-centerfield wall. "Yeah, I can see much more clearly," said the friendly, outgoing player, who is an outstanding soccer goalie in her other life.
--Emily Alvarez, senior first baseman, likes photos. (Oops! We knew that already.)
--The Vikings, one game under .500 after their win over the Q's yesterday (at 5-6 overall), narrowly lost to the same team in a recent tournament game at home. According to Gary Sinkeldam, the Vikings' official scorer and statistician, La Jolla went down 10-3. Then the Vikes came back with five runs to trail narrowly at 10-8.
Time was beginning to be an issue, so the umpires asked Coach Andrea Denham if she wanted to continue the game. "Heck, yeah," was her response. The Vikings apparently only had time for part of their at-bat in the next home inning, and weren't able to plate two more runs to tie before the umpires called the game.
So, the recent win at Serra was that much sweeter.
--Jackie Farias, a freshman, continues to hold down third base. Kendall Dooley, another freshman, remains the second baseman, but she was sick and unable to play Wednesday.
Farias wears a protective face mask while playing the hot corner.
Abby Espinoza, freshman number three, was at second base. She, like Farias, donned a face mask in the infield. Arianna Monell, sister of Viking baseball star Alex Monell, patrolled right field. She got whacked in the face by a fly ball in a recent game, but seemed no worse for wear at Wednesday's game.
--Senior shortstop Josie Sinkeldam and junior pitcher Kyra Ferenczy, both headed for La Jolla High Hall of Fame status, continue to rip the cover off the ball.
Sinkeldam, destined for Cal State Dominguez Hills next year, is hitting .457 in the leadoff spot, with 16 hits in 35 at-bats, with 18 runs scored, 10 RBI's (despite batting first in the lineup), and 10 doubles. She was sure-handed in the field in the win over Serra, making several steady plays with strong throws.
Ferenczy, who would seem to have open options to play softball after high school in two years, is hitting .400 on 14 for 35, with three home runs and 14 RBI's from the third slot in the order.
Likewise, Kyra's fielding was crisp and top-notch in the game on several shots back to the pitching circle.
Sinkeldam, whose father was about to split a gusset during the game as the Vikes dipped from a 3-0 lead to holding only a 3-2 edge after four innings before adding two more runs to secure the win, has only struck out one time the entire season.
--The Q's had a not-large but vociferous student cheering section behind the backstop, which was good to see. The Vikings get parent support, but more students attending home games would be a bonus.
Thursday, April 5, 2018
Friday, March 30, 2018
LJ baseball: Lookin' ahead
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| The Vikings' Arman Sanchez-Mohit (R) moves to the first base line to field a bunt that goes foul. La Jolla's starting catcher got a stint on the mound at mid-game. (Photo by Ed Piper) |
At the Padres' season opener yesterday (March 29) against the Brewers, a gentleman nearby said at one point, "They (the Padres) are looking ahead to 2021."
With the Padres' young talent and commitment to developing through their own system, rather than buying high-priced stars in the free agent market like they tried three years ago--and found it utterly failed, with clubhouse chemistry poor and effort by some veterans lacking--manager Andy Green and the San Diego management are taking the long view. This is a position-by-position build.
I thought today how apropos this model is to Gary Frank's baseball program at La Jolla High: After an initial burst of three wins in their first four games in the Sweetwater Invitational, the very young Vikings hit a Lions Tournament week the past three days (actually Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday, March 26-28) that bumped and bruised them.
Such a thing is going to happen. But the hope-springs-eternal spirit that began the season at the beginning of the month with the 25th Annual Alumni Game lives on in the new arms and bats that are embodied among the two freshmen, five sophomores, and eight upperclassmen populating this year's roster.
I traveled a long way in a Buick, as Dick Howser used to say (and I don't even like the Yankees, which he managed), for Wednesday's final pool-play game in the Lions tourney at faraway Sage Creek.
This is a high school so new (completing its fifth year in existence) that they are just now putting the finishing touches on a humongous Performing Arts Center facing on the front parking lot. The baseball field is the furthest-most element on the whole campus, way back in the back, nestled against some hills. Really a nice view where I took a snapshot from across the way: the school and the ball field set out literally in the sage, at the end of Cannon Road. There is nothing beyond it. Enough tumbleweeds to knock over a car, I imagine, at the right time of year.
But these are no hicks. To enter the campus at 1:50 p.m. (for a 3 p.m. opening pitch), I had to type my name into a handy monitor at the front desk, then frame and click my own self-portrait to print out a visitor's pass. Quite the deal.
Well, lefty junior Blaise Gimber--who I'm coming back to for quotes; the guy is a veritable quote machine speaking in paragraphs!--got roughed up pretty bad in the first inning on his slow control stuff. Six runs in the bottom of the first. Some balls were thwacked pretty hard to the left- and centerfield fence.
Two runs came in when shortstop Cooper McNally, the new shortstop, wasn't able to cleanly glove a short pop behind second base. Score it as you will, a hit or an error. Cooper, asked before the game if he has been a shortstop for long: "I never played it before."
Not that I'm putting the sophomore down. He can play. And Gary Frank has definite ideas about where he wants to play certain people, according to their abilities and the team's needs. And the left-handed batter, filling the third slot in the lineup, can certainly hit. He is carrying a pretty good batting average right about now.
Too bad on the first inning, because Blaise went on to record good second and third innings before giving way to other hurlers.
And the host Bobcats didn't do much more the rest of the day. They only added one more run the remaining five stanzas.
Process. The Philadelphia 76'ers have made that a motto: The Process. The Padres are doing it. The Vikings have to do it, because they had so many openings on the team after last year's seniors graduated in June.
The players are young. Gary sees something in them. He's got Alex Monell and the other seniors to help "bring them up".
I like the human aspect of sports. The team is an incubator for learning. These guys have been exposed to Tom House, the professional pitching guru, who visited in February. They have their own resident pitching specialist, Jake Grosz. Bob Allen has seen a campaign or two--stand with his wife during a game. She will fill you in on what's going on. She knows her baseball.
It's trite, but this is truly a family. All coaches preach it. You have to have guys who care about one another and the team. Frank made a comment about Yered Teodosio: A guy who will take buses from his home on a non-school day all the way up to University City really wants it. The others see that. Commitment. These are good words. These are good values.
Living it now. And looking ahead. Both are part of the experience.
Thursday, March 29, 2018
LJ track: Byrne from Getty
By Ed Piper
Paul Byrne, La Jolla's head track coach, was on the phone from Gettysburg. "I'm in a hotel so it could be noisy," said the math teacher, submitting to an interview about this year's Vikings girls and boys track teams.
Later in the conversation, he revealed that he was in the historic town, where he is one of 12 teachers or teachers' spouses serving as chaperones on the "East Coast Experience" for 145 eighth-graders at Muirlands Middle School.
On Wed., March 28, the six-bus group, including "boys red bus" and "girls blue bus" lists, rolled into the Pennsylvania town, where the Civil War took a turn against the Confederacy despite heavy losses for the Union, after visiting Amish country in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Thursday's schedule was equally as hectic: a bus and walking tour of the battlefield, then on to Washington, D.C. to see several memorials and an opportunity "to take a photo of the White House through the fence". No slack time here. The teacher's motto: Keep 'em busy, and they won't get into trouble.
As I write this Thursday morning, the group is already activated for the day--three hours ahead of Pacific Time--facing visits tonight, after dinner, to the following memorials in D.C.: the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, and the Marine Corps War Memorial.
Whew. That sounds exhausting, just reading it.
Meanwhile, Byrne's track speedsters and jumpers are enjoying the Spring Break week off back here at home. Deyna Roberson Brookins, who coaches runners primarily, is running abbreviated or partial workouts at La Jolla High.
"It's a fun time," said Byrne, reflecting on the explosion of 175 student athletes receiving uniforms this season for the track team. That includes a humongous and talented freshman class.
That 175 number is up from 60 team members only four years ago, when Byrne took the head coaching position after a couple of years of turnover of head coaches that crippled the Vikings' continuity and the diminished the attractiveness of the program.
Now, as Brookins says, "There is a lot of excitement (around the track program). Even football players come out." One of Byrne's innovations is a middle school track meet, this year's taking place on cinco de mayo (May 5) (in Spanish, dates and months are not capitalized--you could win a grammar trivia contest with that).
Monday, March 26, 2018
Mac, cont.'
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| Coach John McMullen (R) with me at our lunch before the NCAA West Regional in L.A. |
John McMullen, my varsity basketball coach (see previous entry), knew his x's and o's, like any good technical coach, but he was also a motivator.
He was obviously intent on his coaching and going further, because after a handful of years at Camarillo High from about 1968 to 1976, he took an assistant coaching position at BYU, and then after a purge there due to some unfortunate seasons on to Santa Monica College, where he achieved state Hall of Fame-worthy status.
With me, "Mac" used fear. I have to put that in context. He wasn't a mean person. Like I said, he was intent in his coaching. He wasn't just rolling out the balls. As I experienced him as my coach my junior and senior years in high school, he didn't turn his intensity off and on. So, when you dealt with him, he was transmitting a seriousness toward basketball--like, let's work hard in practice, let's work to get better.
I have twice told him this recollection: After I scored 18 and 31 points, respectively, in two games, I think Channel Islands on Friday night, Oxnard on Saturday night, I read in the Oxnard Press-Courier (newspaper) the headline, "Piper Pots 31." My head couldn't handle that. I had never scored anywhere near that number of points in a game previously in my short basketball career.
By Monday, I had the figurative swelled head. I don't think I tried to get a swelled head. I just had never experienced success like this before.
So, in practice after school that afternoon, McMullen was explaining something to us out on the court. As he instructed, I was here-and-there with my attention, which was obvious to him as he looked at the assembled team in front of him. Getting perturbed at my inattention, he flicked the clipboard toward me.
I was in the second line of players, so the clipboard bumped into the teammate in front of me. That upset Mac (whom we would never address that way to his face) even more, so he was pretty irritated.
He wasn't abusive, he wasn't a screamer, he didn't use profanity. I've seen and heard all of this kind of stuff from coaches during my 14 years covering high school sports close-up in the San Diego area, since 2004. When I hefted my big cameras (which I have since sold due to back trouble), I was often feet away from some of these coaches--enabling me to see and hear every word they're saying, in some cases.
Coach McMullen, when I've recounted this anecdote to him both times, has responded in some surprise. I think I need to explain to him that I don't mean to portray the incident as being one where he was inappropriate or violent. Having been surprised with the anecdote in a friendly social setting, he probably hasn't been sure where I've been coming from.
Maybe it's not the best thing to toss a clipboard. He certainly wasn't trying to hurt anyone. And he wasn't out of control. I just think, with his command of the team and his seriousness, he saw my complete distractedness--and reacted.
I have told people before that I was more scared of McMullen than our opponents. What I mean by that is that I think, as the effective motivator that he was, my coach knew that I needed a little fire built under me. I was competitive, but I was also maybe too nice on the court, not wanting to foul or elbow. Well, honestly, rebounding under the basket, if you allow another player to take up extra space and push you aside, you're not going to be very effective.
During my senior year, I experienced a struggle between trying to be a good person in school and how that played out on the basketball court. I took Humanities, a new elective taught by Kay Senior. We explored what it has meant through history (classical Greece and Rome included) to live "the good life". I remember I had to make a collage representing some of the elements I identified with this.
I had Ms. Senior last period.
Then, minutes later, after changing into my basketball gear, I was out on the gym court being pushed to perform well by McMullen. It was tough to get in there and be aggressive earlier in my playing.
Later, after I had played through community college and tried out and not made the team at Chico State my junior year, thereby ending my organized basketball career, I found it much more natural to be aggressive under the boards, using my hands as needed, jockeying for rebounding position.
That resolution, which enabled me to be a pretty good defensive rebounder, came largely because Coach McMullen urged me to quit being so "nice" (meaning getting pushed around) and pointed the way toward occupying more space on the floor and keeping it.
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