LJ g soccer: McManus hired as new coach

Brian McManus (right), new Viking girls soccer

head coach, chats with long-time assistant

Kristin Jones in UCSD archive photo.

By Ed Piper

With the hiring of Coach Kelly Drobeck, who had won 13 CIF titles and 17 league titles in volleyball at Cathedral Catholic, at La Jolla High five years ago, LJHS Athletic Director Paula Conway did not shy away from hiring what might have been termed a controversial coach.

Brian McManus is Conway's latest crafty hire. McManus will pilot the Viking girls soccer team into the abbreviated 2021 season. The Scotsman, as will be remembered, was forced to resign at UCSD in 2018 over "Pizzagate" after 31 years coaching there.

On multiple occasions, athletes on the Triton women's team were given money after games to buy pizza. NCAA regulations, as archaic as they may be, prohibit providing food or board or other gifts to team members on on scholarship.

In any case, McManus's presence promises to keep the LJHS girls program at the high level it maintained under long-time Coach Kristin "Jonesy" Jones, who, oddly enough, was McManus's senior assistant coach and is now head coach at UCSD with his departure.

For years, Jonesy, as she is known, coached in both programs. The Vikings won the CIF title in 2017.

Drobeck has gone on to maintain the high level of performance of the LJHS girls volleyball program.

 Neither Drobeck nor McManus hung under a cloud of suspicion for their performances at their previous schools. Drobeck was forced out of Cathedral Catholic, the successor school to USDHS (USDHS was her alma mater), by a vocal group of parents who complained that Drobeck's workouts were too demanding.

LJ b soccer: Tryouts

By Ed Piper

"(Midfielder Jake) Penner is going to play for us this year," said Victor Zendejas, sixth-year assistant coach for La Jolla High's boys soccer team.

Penner, a senior, has played in the elite U.S. Development program through most of his high school career. This season, with COVID conditions throwing all three seasons' schedules out of whack, CIF has declared that athletes may play for club and school teams in the same year, but for 2020-2021 only.

But Zendejas, whose son Adrian plays goalkeeper for Minnesota FC in the MSL, said the rule change isn't the reason Penner is going to suit up for the Vikings instead.

"He said that (the U.S. Development team) is going a different direction," so Penner prefers to play for his high school team instead.

"We just had tryouts. We're going to have a strong team," said the assistant coach.

With the various sports' seasons overlapping this spring due to the mishmash the COVID situation has led to for their schedules, some athletes may face the difficult choice of choosing one sport over another or playing for both teams simultaneously.

For example, Devin Bale, a capable defender, also kicks and punts and has played receiver for the championship Viking football team. It would be difficult for him to double up on practice and game duties for both the soccer and football teams. The soccer team has games scheduled from March 19-May 6, with two games against Bishop's directly conflicting with Friday football games on March 19 and April 9. 

Most of the soccer team's nine games are scheduled on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6 p.m. Football has five games on successive Fridays starting at 7 p.m.

Jessica Penner, Jake Penner's older sister, played for La Jolla High's girls soccer team, graduating in 2017.

2021 LJHS Boys Soccer Schedule

Date                        Opponent                Location                Time             Comment

Fri., 3/19                 Bishop's                  Home                     5:30 pm       Season opener

Fri., 4/9                   Bishop's                  Away                      4:30 pm

Tues., 4/13              Clairemont              Home                     6 pm            Eastern League opener

Thurs., 4/15            Crawford                 Away                      6 pm

Tues., 4/20              Serra                       Home                      6 pm

Thurs., 4/22            Kearny                    Home                      6 pm

Sat., 5/1                  Clairemont              Away                       10 am

Tues., 5/4               Crawford                 Home                       6 pm

Thurs., 5/6             Serra                        Away                        6 pm

LJ xc: Fisk on a burn

Kyra Fisk, at team practice

Fri., March 5.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

Freshman Kyra Fisk continued her amazing record of starting high school without having lost a cross country race as La Jolla's girls cross country team narrowly edged High Tech High San Diego, 26-33, at Morley Field Thurs., March 4.

Fisk has just been a ninth-grade phenom the past month, as she beat her nearest competitors by a minute, then a half minute, and the latest by 2.75 seconds in successive meets against Eastern League opponents.

Asked Friday, March 5, at team practice how she continues to outrun foes, the diminutive Fisk--well under five feet tall--responded, "I don't know." Way too modest, way too good right now.

Obviously uncomfortable with being singled out amidst her teammates, Kyra pointed out fellow freshman Daphne Mayer, standing nearby. Mayer has piled up a similar record to start her initial high school season, running only a short distance back from Fisk as the two have helped lead the LJHS girls to a 3-0 record in the Eastern League.

Cross country meets are scored by what place each of a school's five top runners finish in. In the case of Fisk and Mayer and their mostly older teammates in the most recent race, the LJ girls placed 1-4-6-7-8, totaling 26 points for a seven-point margin over the Storm, as High Tech High San Diego is known.

Daphne Mayer, who placed

fourth against the Storm

in La Jolla's third meet.

LJ FH 1, Patrick Henry 0

Viking defenders Charlotte Gayner (6) and Stella

Wineman (right, partially obscured) put the pressure

on a Patrick Henry defender in the first quarter

Friday in Edwards Stadium.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

Following a first half in which neither team was able to score, Coach Amanda Combs Warford's Vikings pushed through a goal in the second half to defeat visiting Patrick Henry, 1-0, in the two schools' first match of the season Fri., March 5.

At halftime, Combs Warfords talked to her team about relaxing and continuing to play a relentless style that would eventually yield a goal.

Her husband and assistant coach, Tucker Warford, told the assembled girls during the mid-game break, "The difference between the two teams is they're just trying to score a goal, whereas you have all this information in your brains and you're trying to process it. Just play the way you know how," and things will be fine.

Both coaches were prescient in predicting a breakthrough second half, as La Jolla successfully grinded through the 15-minute third and 15-minute fourth period to win their initial Western League contest in 2021, their first competition in over 14 months.

Both teams played with a mask rule, in which Combs Warford explained to her players that they had to wear face covering for COVID throughout the game. However, she told them, "If you have a run and you need to get some extra air (to recover), just pull the mask up a little, take some breaths, and put it right back in place."

LJ tennis: Rosters released

By Ed Piper

Viking head coach Darice Carnaje released her new girls and boys varsity tennis rosters. The Western League and other leagues will use a hybrid format this season which pits coed (girl/boy) doubles teams against each other during matches between schools.

The coed format, which follows female singles and doubles and male singles and doubles during the match, is going into effect for this season only in an attempt to decrease COVID exposure for the athletes.

The Vikings' season opener March 3 was rained out. La Jolla hosts Torrey Pines Mon., March 8 at 3:15 p.m. in what will turn out to be the actual season opener.

The March 3 match, against La Jolla Country Day, was rescheduled to March 19.

La Jolla High Girls 2021 Varsity Roster

Seniors: Blythe Broido, Jenna Carioscia, Jorie MacDonald, Alexa Yachanin. Juniors: Karis Bauman, Emily Fisher, Maya Haskall, Emma Puri, Clare Sandell. Sophomores: Cristina Alapi, Alice Bilinsky, Natalie Bilinsky, Tatum Buffington, Aura Rosen. Freshmen: Karine Kulidjon, Alina Stephan, Caprice Westwood.

La Jolla High Boys 2021 Varsity Roster

Seniors: Theo Couris, Carson Kellogg, David Llewellyn-Smith, Tyler Simpson. Juniors: Jagger Bisharat, Lucas Cowling, Sam Haswell, Jack Kearney, Marc Kuo, Dylan Lancaster, Charlie Lansky, Carlos Nemeh, Manny Ramirez, Frankie Soltero. Sophomores: Olen Dobak, Nikki Zemlijic. Freshman: Nelson Alapi.

LJ softball: Reintroducing the Viking players

By Ed Piper

Violet Nightingale

Junior

Pitcher

Gigi Smith

Sophomore

2b/1b

Emily Fisher

Junior

2b

Presley Cooper

Sophomore

Right field

Cameron Cromwell

Junior

Left field

Jackie Farias

Senior

Catcher

Kelsey DeFalco

Senior

Infield

Ciana Delgadillo

(left, talking to Emmy Cardenas)

Junior

Amalia Leith-Garcia

Junior

Emmy Cardenas

Sophomore

Pitcher

Linda Medina

Senior

3b/OF

Note: These photos were taken last season, before COVID shut the season down, at games versus Parker and Morse. Several players graduated last year; several are returning. It is some of the returners we present on this page, until we can take current photos of team members.

LJ softball: 'We have a very strong team this year'

Righthander Emmy Cardenas warms up

at Parker last season before COVID

shut things down.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

"We have a very strong team this year," says Coach Andrea Denham of her La Jolla softballers.

"We have been able to start conditioning last week."

The fourth-year coach, steadying the ship when her predecessor left, walked into a gold mine when standout pitcher Emmy Cardenas chose to matriculate at LJHS as a freshman last year.

Cardenas, whose dad is her personal coach/catcher in practice, had a two-homer game in her short time in a Viking uniform as a freshman before COVID shut down the season March 12, 2020.

The entire program experienced a lift, as the team now had a regular pitcher--whereas in 2019 practically every member of the roster threw some innings just to help the La Jollans get through games.

From a season in which many games were called after five innings and the mercy rule invoked due to lopsided games, now the field off Rushville became a center of hope and promise before the coronavirus shut things down permanently in the late winter last season.

Denham faces a 22-game schedule, with opening day Sat., March 20, against Serra on the La Jolla field. Beside Cardenas, a 5'8" sophomore righthander, the Vikings also can send out junior Violet Nightingale to pitch. That gives the local team options it just didn't have two years ago.

Senior co-captain Linda Medina returns at third base. The other co-captain and veteran as well, fellow senior Jackie Farias--"Little Mom" how she takes care of her teammates--can go out at shortstop or catch.

Sophomore Gigi Smith is back at shortstop/second base. Some of the other positions are not as set defensively, but the outfield will see returners Cameron Cromwell, a junior, and Presley Cooper, a sophomore, as well as others.

Central League play, which should feature the young Vikings as a new and growing factor, begins Wed., May 5, with a game at Kearny. The league is made up of Crawford, Lincoln, Morse, and Hoover, in addition to the Vikes and Comets.

It should be quite a ride this year. 2021 should be a good show, and an exciting season as it unfolds as COVID becomes less and less a factor.

Third baseman Linda Medina, now a senior

captain, stretches before last year's game

at Parker Feb. 25 before the season

was shut down.