2007-08 HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS YEAR IN REVIEW:

When the 2007-08 prep sports calendar opened the first week of September, athletic contests went onward as usual.

But as the hot, dry days of October began to unfold, winds of change changed the way the games were played.

Yet as the school year forged on, and by the time classes let out for summer this past week, the prep sports calendar concluded the way it had began — with plenty to celebrate.

Below are some of the key sports happenings that were reported to the Independent during the 2007-08 school year.

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September-December

The big story in the fall wasn’t a result of what took place in athletics.

Rather, it had to do with Mother Nature.

Fallout from the fires and windy conditions that ravaged Orange, San Diego and Los Angeles counties in mid-October affected outdoor athletic practices and events for more than a week. Some games were postponed or rescheduled while others were canceled altogether.

“Everything was geared down and all coaches and teams were to use caution,” Edison Athletic Director Bruce Belcher said.

When play did resume, Ocean View and Edison went on to earn CIF Southern Section playoff berths in football following successful regular season campaigns.

Edison (8-4) won the Sunset League title — the Chargers shared it with Esperanza — for a third straight year. The Chargers advanced to the second round of the Pac-5 Division playoffs, where they were eliminated by eventual finalist Orange Lutheran.

Ocean View returned to the postseason for the first time since 2001 by finishing in second place in the Golden West League. The Seahawks (7-4) lost, 55-7, in the first round of the Southeast Division playoffs to eventual-champion La Habra, which went undefeated.

“This is the first time in years that this school has been to the playoffs, and everybody was excited,” Ocean View Coach Dean Yoshiyama said. “It was great for the kids, the program and the community.”

In November, Edison’s girls’ cross-country team earned a spot in the CIF State Meet in Fresno, where it went on to a seventh-place finish in the Division II race. The Chargers secured a spot in the state meet by finishing in fifth place in the Division II team standings at the CIF Southern Section finals at Mount San Antonio College a week earlier. Running for the Chargers at both meets were juniors Hillary Hayes, Melisa Olgun and Meghan Foley, senior Kirsten Linden and sophomores Dana Jorgensen, Casandra Owen and Caroline Yin.

A year almost to the date after it set the state record for three-point baskets in a single game, Marina topped its own record by netting 29 three-pointers (one more than the previous mark) during a Dec. 15 win over Norwalk at the Beckman Tournament. The Vikings also set a new national record by attempting 97 three-point shots in the game.

Sophomore Brendan Holmes, son of Vikings Coach Roger Holmes, hit 13 three-pointers in the game to set a Marina single-game record. Junior guard Garrett James hit nine three-point shots and tallied 35 points, along with seven steals.

“We broke the record by creating a steady stream of turnovers and finding the open man,” Roger Holmes said. “We didn’t shoot all that well, but the guys did a great job of getting offensive rebounds and getting extra shots.”

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January-June

Huntington Beach senior guard Nick Becker became the Oilers’ boys’ basketball career scoring leader when he scored 16 points during a Jan. 25 win at Trabuco Hills. Becker surpassed the previous school mark that had been established in 1994 by nine-time NFL Pro Bowl tight end Tony Gonzalez of the Kansas City Chiefs.

When Edison’s Eric Ferraro sent an alley-oop pass to teammate Carl Eberts during a Jan. 30 game against Newport Harbor, he became the career assists leader for the boys’ basketball program. Another Charger, Kyle Boswell, set the single-season scoring record for the boys’ program earlier in the season.

Marina’s boys’ tennis team turned in the program’s best finish in more than 13 years. The Vikings (19-3) won their first Sunset League title during that span, reached the second round of the Division I playoffs, where they were eliminated by No. 2-seed Santa Barbara.

“I thought everybody did an outstanding job,” Marina Coach Bruce Beutler said of the season. “The kids were focused and played as a team. Everyone played very, very well.”

Three Edison athletes captured CIF Southern Section individual titles and set records in the process at the CIF Southern Section Division I swimming finals in May at Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

Junior Tom Shields broke his own Division I record in the 100-yard breaststroke and also won the 200-yard freestyle. Sophomore Cindy Tran swam to a new county record-time in winning the girls’ 100-yard backstroke and senior Yasi Jahanshahi won the girls’ 100-yard butterfly in a county-best time for the season.

Edison’s foursome of Tran, freshman Sarah Moss, Jahanshahi and junior Monique Wilson, won the girls’ 200-yard medley relay and the team of freshman Alli Gillespie, junior Kiersten Colesen, Jahanshahi and Tran won the 400-yard free relay. Both relay times at the meet were tops in the county. Edison’s girls’ team finished second in the team standings to Mission Viejo, which won its 16th straight CIF-SS title.

Several local athletes advanced to the CIF-SS track and field division finals in May at Mount San Antonio . Among the key finishes by local athletes in Division II, Huntington Beach junior Allison Koressel finished second in the girls’ pole vault at 11 feet 6, Edison’s Hillary Hayes was second in the girls’ 1,600 and was third in the 3,200, Edison’s Meghan Foley was second in the girls’ 800 and Edison senior Ryan Simioni finished third (15-0) in the boys’ pole vault. In Division I, Marina’s Leon Roach finished third in the boys’ pole vault at 14-6. In Division III, Ocean View’s Clarissa Holz finished seventh in the girls’ 300-meter hurdles.

Eric Snyder, a freshman left-handed hitter who was Edison’s lead-off batter, set the school’s single-season mark for hits when he came up with two during an April 25 Sunset League baseball game against Los Alamitos.

Rocky Ciarelli reached the 500-victory plateau on the volleyball court when the Huntington Beach boys’ team swept visiting Woodbridge in April.

“It just shows I’ve been around a long time,” said Ciarelli, who retired from the court after 24 years of a storied coaching career with the boys’ and girls’ programs at his alma mater. “Actually, it’s a pretty neat thing to accomplish.”

He coached the Edison boys’ varsity for three years before taking over at Huntington in 1985. At Huntington, he won three Southern Section championships (boys in 1993 and ‘94, girls in ‘96) and a girls’ state title in 1996. He co-coached the girls’ team with wife Cami from 1992-2001. Ciarelli’s final coaching duties took place May 29, when he led the North to victory against the South in the Dave Mohs Memorial Orange County All-Star match. The following week, his son, Tony, a senior outside hitter for the Oilers, was named All-CIF.

At the 90th annual CIF State Track and Field Championships on May 17, several locals turned in top finishes at Cerritos College in Norwalk. Edison’s Meghan Foley, Hillary Hayes and Ryan Simioni, along with Marina’s Leon Roach, all competed at the event. Foley finished third in the girls’ 800-meter race, Hayes finished eighth in the girls’ 1,600, Simioni — who the week prior had won the CIF Masters Meet title in the boys’ pole vault — finished sixth in the State finals and Roach’s run ended in the boys’ pole vault prelims.

“I was extremely happy with my race,” Foley said. “I stayed within my game plan. It came down to the final kick, and I kicked hard and came up with a good finish.”

Ocean View High senior Clarissa Holz was named the Female Athlete of the Year in the Golden West League for 2007-08. Holz participated in three sports at Ocean View — volleyball, basketball and track and field — and was a member of the varsity team in the three sports for all four years. She was first-team all-league in volleyball and basketball.

“She’s always been a terrific athlete and runner, someone who can do anything, do it tirelessly, too, and smile all the way through,” Ocean View basketball coach Jim Harris said.

On June 6, Edison catcher Kyle Higashioka and Huntington Beach pitcher Calvin Drummond were selected in the Major League Baseball First-year Player Draft. Higashioka was taken in the seventh round by the New York Yankees and Drummond in the 34th round by the Milwaukee Brewers.

No local prep team had won a CIF-SS title for the first eight-plus months of the school year until Ocean View did the honors on the softball field.

On the final day of May, the Seahawks capped a stellar 29-1 season by defeating Bishop Amat, 8-3, to capture the Division IV crown. A grand slam by Brandice Cutspec highlighted an eight-run sixth-inning that wiped out a 2-0 deficit and gave Ocean View its first title in the sport since the 1985 squad went 32-0.

“To be honest, I really thought I hit a pop up because I dropped my hands on my swing,” Cutspec said. “Then I heard loud cheering and began to notice my teammates jumping up and down and then I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I just hit a grand slam! I never thought I’d hit a home run in a CIF game, let alone a grand slam. I can’t describe the feeling, really, other than I’m just really happy.”

MIKE SCIACCA covers sports. He can be reached at (714) 966-4611 or by e-mail at [email protected].