2006-07 YEAR IN REVIEW:A changed landscape

The 2006-07 prep athletic year had a new look to it for the local high schools.

The creation of new leagues and the moving of some schools from one league to another changed the landscape of competition. For the first time in three years, no local team won a CIF Southern Section championship— although one came awfully close.

Here are some of the main prep highlights turned in by local teams during the school year, as reported to the Independent:

September-December, 2006The big news was the reshuffling and new creation of leagues as the high school athletic year got under way.

Huntington Beach, a long-standing member of the Sunset League, was moved to the Sea View League. Newport Harbor took the Oilers’ place in the Sunset, but the league still retained longtime members Edison and Marina.

Ocean View remained in the Golden West League, although the league did do some tweaking by adding newcomer Segerstrom while subtracting Estancia and Costa Mesa.

For the second straight year, Edison claimed at least a portion of the Sunset League football championship. The Chargers shared the title with Esperanza and despite losing several key players to graduation the previous June, won 11 games and reached the CIF Pac-5 Division title game.

The Chargers fell, 30-20, to Orange Lutheran at the Home Depot Center on Dec. 2. A week later, Orange Lutheran won the Division II state championship, as the CIF held a state bowl championship series for the first time in 79 years.

“It was really a great year,” Edison Coach Dave White said. “The kids really played to their potential.”

Also in December, Marina’s boys’ basketball team shot its way into the state record book. The Vikings broke a 12-year-old state record by connecting on 28 three-point baskets during a 117-97 victory against Barstow at the Hesperia Tournament.

The old record for three-point baskets in a game was 24, set in 1994 by Santa Maria Valley Christian.

During the record-setting night, Troy Lewis delivered on 12 three-pointers to set a new Marina single-game record, and Mike Kinoshita tied the previous mark with nine. James Lambert had set the previous record of nine during a game in 2001.

January-June, 2007Picking up where it left off at the end of 2006, the Marina boys’ basketball team continued its assault from three-point range and went national: the Vikings established both the prep state and national single-season records for threes. They hit 437 shots from behind the arc and easily obliterated the previous state (303) and national (382) marks.

Marina set the national record during a 105-101 home-court victory over Edison on Feb. 2.

“It was unbelievable,” Marina Coach Roger Holmes said of a record-setting season that saw the Vikings use a new offensive scheme called, “The System.” “We shattered state records, 28 threes in a single game, old record, 24. We made 437 threes. Old state record was 303. Old national record, 382. Those are some amazing numbers that could only be had with the total commitment of the team.

“We were in Sports Illustrated twice and had a season wrap-up story on SI.com. We were on Fox Sports Net High School Spotlight and on a Laker Pre-Game show. It was incredible.”

Edison senior Garrett Drucker posted a 6-0 record over a two-day period in Bakersfield to pin down the 135-pound weight class championship at the CIF State Wrestling Tournament in March. Chargers Coach Luis Renteria said it is believed that the state title is a first for an Edison wrestler in school history.

“In my mind, I had no doubt that he could do it,” Renteria said. “Garrett just works really hard and wrestles very well. Winning at state just depends on who shows up ready to go.”

During the season, Drucker won an individual CIF title and placed third at the CIF Masters meet.

Ocean View laid claim to both titles in the Golden West League boys’ and girls’ basketball races. The boys’ team was one step away from playing for a CIF title at the Honda Center in Anaheim but dropped a 71-68 heartbreaker to host Norco in a semifinal game.

Huntington Beach’s girls’ basketball team earned a share of the Sea View League title in its first year in the league. The Oilers, who finished 21-6, enjoyed what Coach Russell McClurg said was the program’s best season in 16 years.

Edison’s baseball team earned a share of the Sunset League title with Los Alamitos. A young Marina softball team, meanwhile, finished runner-up to Los Alamitos in the Sunset standings and then went on to the CIF quarterfinals, where the Vikings gave Valencia of Valencia all it could handle before succumbing, 1-0. Valencia was the top-ranked team in several national prep polls. The game marked Marina’s first trip to the quarterfinal round in eight years, Coach Shelly Luth said.

At the CIF Southern Section Swimming Masters Meet at Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach on May 15, Edison set meet records in the 200-yard medley relay and girls’ 100-yard backstroke. The Chargers foursome of freshman Cindy Tran, juniors Jessie Knight and Yasi Jahanshahi and senior Kiersten Colesen set the 200-medley record, and Tran won the 100 backstroke.

Edison also garnered another team title at the meet, winning the girls’ 400-free relay with a team of Jahanshahi, sophomore Monique Wilson, Colesen and Tran.

Chargers Coach Crystal Whitmore said during the course of the season, Tran established new school, Sunset League and Masters Meet marks in the 100-back. The 200-medley relay team also set new school, league and Masters Meet marks. The 400-free relay broke the previous school record by five seconds, a mark that had stood at Edison since 1991.

“It was very exciting to see the girls continue to improve and beat the teams that beat us in the final league meet,” Whitmore said. “Then, to place third at CIF was a real high point. Finally, at Masters, we won two relays. It was a great ending to an amazing season.”

A trio of local athletes made their way to Sacramento the first weekend in June for the CIF State Track and Field finals. Edison’s Meghan Foley, a sophomore, ran to a seventh-place finish in the girls’ 800-meters. Huntington Beach senior Chrissy Van Doornum came up with a personal best mark and finished 11th overall in the girls’ pole vault and Hillary Hayes, another Edison sophomore, qualified in the girls’ 1,600-meters.

Foley had set a new Edison record in the 800-meters at the CIF Maters meet on May 26 at Cerritos College, Chargers Coach Chris Shield said.

The state meet capped a big year for Hayes, who in October finished in fourth place in the Sweepstakes Races at the 40th annual Orange County Championships cross-country event at Irvine Park. Also in track and field, Huntington Beach’s boys’ team posted its first winning season in 18 years.

Edison’s Hunter White, a multi-sport athlete, was named the Sunset League male athlete of the year for 2006-07. White, who will attend and play at Boise State beginning in the fall, was a key figure in Edison’s march to the CIF Pac-5 football championship in December.