Shadowlands

Looking back, 5 years ago this week.

Ninety-seven days of mere hopelessness comes to an abrupt end for the

Munroe family when their daughter April, who had been in a coma since a

car accident in early May, wakes up from her deep slumber. “She still has

a long way to go, but she’s awake now,” says April’s father, Dave Munroe,

in a telephone interview during visiting hours, from the Central

California Rehabilitation Hospital in Modesto. April Munroe, who plays

catcher for the softball team at Southern California University (which is

now Vanguard University), suffers two cracked ribs and a broken hip along

with head trauma in a head-on collision. But after her awakening she

begins the road to recovery.

Matt Johner, an Estancia High product, sizzles in his college football

debut as starting quarterback of the University of Kansas. Johner, a

redshirt junior, leads the Jayhawks to a 35-10 victory over Ball State.

He plays through the middle of the third quarter, completing 14 of 20

passes for 147 yards and no interceptions, including a 32-yard touchdown

pass to wide receiver Andre Carter in the first quarter. “I had been

looking forward to my first game for a while,” Johner says. “I really

wasn’t nervous though. I only had a few butterflies, and after the first

couple of passes, they all go away.”

Looking back, 10 years ago this week.

Jeff Graham, hero of the New York/New Jersey Knights in the World

League of American Football and a former Estancia High quarterback, is

signed by the San Diego Chargers and designated to their developmental

squad. Chargers general manager Bobby Beathard, the GM of the Redskins in

1989 when Washington drafts Graham in the fourth round out of Long Beach

State, calls Graham and asks him to sign with San Diego. The 6-foot-4,

200-pound Graham, who guides the Knights to the World League playoffs in

the spring, has bone chips removed from both elbows a week after the WLAF

season. “But they’re healed now,” Graham says. “I’m a fast healer. When

there’s a job in the NFL, you become a fast healer.” Graham travels with

the Chargers to Pittsburgh for the opening regular season game against

the Steelers.

Number 13 is anything but unlucky for the women’s Offshore Canoe Club

of Newport Beach, which fortifies its supremacy in the sport of

long-distance canoe racing. “From the very first stroke the boat felt

strong,” says crew member Leslie Davis after the nine-woman crew captures

the 13th Annual Outrigger Canoe Championship, a race the Newport team has

never lost since it started in 1979. Offshore completes the 28-mile race

from Newport to Catalina in 5 hours, 16 minutes and 22 seconds -- more

than six minutes ahead of second-place Santa Barbara, but well off its

own course record of 4 hours, 43 minutes, set two years previous. “This

is not easy, it’s very complicated. We just make it look easy,” says

Billy Whitford, Offshore’s coach throughout its undefeated reign and

current Executive Director at the Newport Aquatics Center.

-- compiled by Steve Virgen