LJ sports: 'Dream job'

Joe Cavaiola (rear left) and Aaron Quesnell (back to

the camera) catch up on their respective commutes

to Viking sports events at the LJ-Christian

girls basketball playoff game Wed., Feb. 26.

By Ed Piper

The two were like kids in a candy store.

Aaron Quesnell and Joe Cavaiola, LJHS Athletic Director and Associate Principal in Charge of Athletics, respectively, came into the Poway High gym during the Vikings' boys basketball playoff Tues., Feb. 18, and began bubbling about La Jolla's other CIF games.

"The girls' soccer team went to penalty kicks and lost," Quesnell, the likeable, calm-demeanored member of the Vikings' traveling Odd Couple, shared with a reporter near the entrance at the bottom of the stands.

"They played well. It was unlucky," he continued. You hear that term a lot in high school sports: "unlucky". "It was at Parker."

Then Quesnell, formerly the Vikings' girls and boys golf coach, still a classroom teacher for one period on campus, shared about the boys' soccer team's 3-1 win at home earlier in the afternoon at home, which his conversation partner had attended part of before driving to Poway.

Cavaiola, amiably taking in the pair's third athletic contest of the young evening, was sitting nearby. The girls' basketball team played the next night, Wednesday, in the first round of the D2 playoffs, so no new news to report on that.

The two colleagues as school administrators hold enviable jobs for the sports enthusiast: During playoffs, they have several events to be present at, including girls' water polo during the winter season in addition to all the other sports.

Maybe the parent contact in the office and via phone isn't always positive (speaking as a former classroom teacher), but the sports part is cool.

"Living the dream."

Plus, the next day, the Vikings' highly-visible and often-present pair of athletic supervisors got to wake up and start the cycle again (following a day at school doing whatever tasks they have to do there).

LJ baseball: 31st Alumni Game 2/22

Photos by Ed Piper and Gary Frank

LJ alumnus Kyle Zimmer strides

in his pitching delivery as he takes

a turn on the mound during the

Alumni Game.

The Eveleths throw out first balls: (from left)

Ty, principal at Del Norte HS; his mother

Vicki and father Rick, both Coaching Legends

in the Breitbard Hall of Fame.

Kyle Zimmer, the former major

leaguer, showed off his stuff in

the 31st edition of the event.

He was hitting rockets

to left during batting practice.

The sun was out, and the weather was great

as Spring neared. What a great time for

baseball. (But they didn't play two,

as Ernie Banks used to say they should have.)

Senior Abel Delgadillo threw

the second inning for the varsity,

who won, 9-4, in 11 innings

so that all the alumni could

get in the game.

One of the younger fans worked on her

hitting on the turf in the bullpen

on the visitors' side.

Assistant coach Koa Scott, relaxed and

smiling, enjoyed a taco early in the game.

He was told he couldn't pitch for the

alumni. He wasn't under contract.

(Just kidding.)

Head coach Gary Frank (right) was relaxed

in coaching third base. It gave him the

opportunity to jaw with friends

in the visitors' dugout.

Future Viking athlete

Former Viking player and coach Noah

Strohl leads off first base after driving

a hard-hit single just inside the line

into left field to lead off the game.

Senior Ryan Kestler holds down first.

Vicki Eveleth holds her ceremonial first pitch

ball after the opening. She hesitated to throw

it with her son and husband: "Rick was

instructing me, one, two, three..." (demonstrating

rocking back and forth to throw). She finally

threw the ball after the other two

had completed their tosses.

Vicki and Rick Eveleth. "I reminded Rick

that I got in (to the Breitbard Hall of Fame)

before he did," she said, chuckling.

LJ wrestling: Pace keeping positive

The "Noah Constrictor", calm

right before his bout at

Masters Fri., Feb. 21.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

It was now 11:30 a.m.--a packed house in the new Ryan Center next to Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon watching six matches at a time--and La Jolla 120-pounder Noah Pace had already been up for six and a half hours, since he got out of bed at 5 a.m. (Wrestling requires endurance just to get to the meet.)

Pace, a junior who has been league champion two straight years coming into this season of going to the Masters elite CIF event, had a first-round bye and had been sitting in the stands alongside teammates for quite a while. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

Finally down in the entry line for bouts about to happen, he was calmly pacing, talking with a reporter. What is your approach?

"Do what I do. Don't react to the other wrestler."

In other words, have a plan of attack, and activate it. Don't wait for his opponent to dictate what's going to happen.

Always amiable, often smiling, Noah was asked how he keeps things positive throughout the week. I meant in the big picture of life, but he took it more focused on this particular activity.

"I'm only going to be wrestling for another two to six years," he replied calmly on the exterior, insides gearing up for his bout against Isaac Navarro of Vista. "Make the most of it."

Earlier, I told him we needed to come up with a new identity for him. As a freshman, it was mild-mannered Clark Kent. (He wears thick-rimmed black glasses, and as a ninth-grader he looked like a nice little boy.) Then, having changed his hairstyle and filled out quite a bit, earlier this year it was the "Noah Constrictor" (play on boa constrictor) (which is stitched into the back of his letterman's jacket, which he was wearing a lot this morning to keep warm in the stands).

Any suggestions?

LJ wrestling @ Masters 2/21

Photos by Ed Piper

LJ's Noah Pace (120, left) lost a nail-biter in his

first match, leading 5-1 in closing minutes

before Vista's Isaac Navarro (right) scored three

points to close to 5-4, then had a near fall

for four points to win 8-5.

Liam Kressin (144, top) narrowly lost 12-10

to William French (bottom) of Mt. Carmel

in his first bout after trailing 10-5.

Viking captain Matisse Pickett

(125, right) lost to purple-haired

Chloe Pearce (left) of Rancho

Bernardo in her first match

before a packed house

at Christian High, 15-3.

Jayden Williams (165, left) of La Jolla got

slammed to the mat on his head in the first

period of his first bout, then was trailing 15-2

to Trajan Smith (right) of Palo Verde

before being pinned in 2:32.

LJ b soccer 0, Canyon Hills 1 - CIF D4 2nd round

Photos by Ed Piper

The backbreaker--Nolen "Abdul" Abdullah (20)

of Canyon Hills heads a shot with 5:20 left

in the game toward the goal and in for a 1-0 win.

LJ b wrestling: Fitzmaurice qualifies as Masters alternate

LJ's Patrick Fitzmaurice (top) attacks 150-pound

opponent Abraham Carrillo of Crawford

in the second period to take a commanding

12-2 lead. (Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

Patrick Fitzmaurice, a La Jolla 150-pounder, qualified as an alternate to the CIF Masters meet this Friday, Feb. 21, by winning in an unusual "playoff" at Helix High Wed., Feb. 19.

Fitzmaurice built a big lead over Abraham Carrillo of Crawford with repeated takedowns and near falls to win, 18-3.

"We've never had a situation like this before," said Mar Vista girls head coach Ed Delos Reyes, in which wrestlers had to follow up the CIF Division 4 meet last Sat., Feb. 15, with more matches before the Masters meet.

"We had one with the girls a few years ago," said Sergio Delos Reyes, the Mariners' boys head coach and Ed Delos Reyes' father. "But that was only one match."

At the Division 4 finals, which the Delos Reyes' hosted at their school, the 150-pound consolation bracket didn't have time to play out. Four wrestlers were then forced to show up for Wednesday's bout-off to decide which two would go directly into Masters as the third- and fourth-place finishers in the weight division, and who would go as an alternate. One of the four competitors would be eliminated entirely.

In the first match, beginning shortly after 6 p.m. in a single-mat workout room next to the pool on the Helix campus in La Mesa, Mar Vista's Aaron Marcial pinned Carrillo in 3:58.

Originally, the winner of that match was going to vie for third place against Brandon Scharer of Christian. But after Marcial's win and during the 30-minute wait until the next bout--with a timer running--it was decided that Aaron would go to Masters as the third-place finisher, and Scharer in fourth place, since both were already going to qualify for Friday's meet. They took photos and left.

What remained was Fitzmaurice's bout with the loser of the initial match, Carrillo. Whoever lost was going to see their season ended definitively.

Fitzmaurice (behind referee) has his hand

raised after downing Carrillo (right), 18-3.

Patrick, jogging back and forth across the workout room during warmups, and "shadow-wrestling" to be ready, started out well. In the one-minute, shortened consolation first period--which is the normal time for a first period in the consolation bracket--he recorded a takedown and led, 3-1.

In the second period, which by now was transpiring at 6:40 p.m. in the evening, with a small group of coaches and teammates of the Crawford entrant cheering him on in the team room, Carrillo struggled again in his second bout of the evening and went down 12-2 by the end of the round. Fitzmaurice had a reverse right out of the down position he started the period in for a 5-1 lead, then he recorded a near fall for four points and further built up his lead.

By then, the only question was whether Patrick would be able to take a fall (pin) against his foe.

With both wrestlers breathing heavily and audibly to start the third period, Patrick shot for another takedown, and after Carrillo's escape, he took him down again to finish 18-3.

LJ b BB 42, Poway 56 - CIF D2 first round

Photos by Ed Piper

Carson Diehl (far left) reaches in for

a foul to knock the ball away.