A remarkable tale of grit and determination, the legacy of a beloved coach
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, June 26. I’m Carol Cormaci bringing you this week’s TimesOC newsletter with a look at some of the latest local news and events.
Tim “TJ” Hicks, who loved coaching in Orange County’s Matt Leinart Flag Football league, passed away at the age of 56 last November. He had been on the field, coaching a girls team at the Jack Hammett Sports Complex in Costa Mesa when he suffered a heart attack; he died shortly thereafter.
It was tough on his family, the kids he’d mentored and the extended community who knew Hicks. A GoFundMe was set up to help out his wife, Cindy Irvin, and their two sons as the holiday season approached.
Along with whatever else they may have taken from their time with the late, beloved coach, he clearly imbued his teams with grit. I learned this in a moving feature story my colleague Matt Szabo filed the other day about Hicks’ eighth-grade boys’ flag football team who decided to keep going without their mentor and with remarkable results.
“A couple of older brothers stood on the sidelines that season, but the kids essentially coached themselves. They used familiar plays like Red 1 and Blue 3, plays that Hicks used to call their bread and butter,” according to the story.
They were cohesive, as they’d been together for a long time. Hicks had coached several of the team’s members since first grade.
“We had a chip on our shoulder,” Connor Strader, a member of the Costa Mesa Steelers, told the reporter. “We had to prove ourselves.”
And so they did. They won the winter league title. They won the spring league title too.
“Then they captured their first and only Orange County Super Bowl title on May 31, finishing up five straight games at Orange County Great Park with a 40-25 championship game win over the Irvine Saints,” Szabo reported.
“When they came over to give them the 4-foot trophy, making them the No. 1 team in Orange County, they explained that their coach wasn’t with them anymore and they won it for him,” team mom Kerry Suh said to Szabo. “It’s just one of those, ‘Oh, my God, this could have been a movie’ [moments].”
Frank Albers, a representative of the Matt Leinart program and the man who set up the fundraiser for the family, told the reporter that Hicks would have wanted the kids to carry on.
“The most tragic thing happens, and they find a way to come together, persevere and win it all,” Albers said. “It’s a pretty cool story.”
Kerry Suh believes not only would Hicks have been supportive of their efforts but that he just may have had a hand in their victory at the O.C. Super Bowl last month.
“He coached them from heaven,” she said.
MORE NEWS
• Longtime charter school leader Stefan Bean of Garden Grove was named last week Orange County’s superintendent of schools by the O.C. Board of Education. Bean will replace Al Mirajes, who announced in April he would retire June 30. Bean tried to unseat Mirajes in a June 2022 election and was endorsed in that campaign by four of the board’s five current trustees. “Despite backing from the openly pro-charter school Board of Education, trustees maintain Bean’s appointment as superintendent was conducted in a fair and transparent manner over the course of a May 22 special meeting, during which six candidates were publicly interviewed, and regular meetings on June 5 and 18, at which endorsements and comments were taken from the public,” my colleague Sara Cardine writes in her news story about Bean’s appointment.
• Santa Ana’s main public library closed Thursday in advance of a $34-million rehabilitation and upgrading project, according to this TimesOC story. While the extensive work gets underway hours have been extended at the Newhope branch at 122 N. Newhope, but next winter that library will be closed for its own upgrades, a project estimated at $6.8 million. “City officials hope to open a new branch location within the Delhi Community Center by early 2025,” Gabriel San Román reports in the story. “Later that same year, Jerome Park will host an innovative outdoor library with nearly 400 self-serve books and movies.”
• Did you know that seniors comprise 16% of Orange County’s population and that the breakdown is 60% white, 22% Asian American and 13% Latino? San Román looked at for TimesOC the recently released 2024 Report on Aging in Orange County, prepared annually by the Orange County Aging Services Collaboration. Among the report’s key findings of a survey taken from January into April is that 43% of the county’s seniors reported being worried about the rising cost of housing here. Although many older adults reported being in good health, there is a “pronounced disparity” among those who acknowledged having multiple health issues, particularly among American Indian, Alaska Native, Latino and Black populations.
PUBLIC SAFETY & COURTS
• After listening to witnesses at a preliminary hearing Thursday, Superior Court Judge Eleanor Hunter ruled there was probable cause to believe that O.C. Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson murdered his wife by shooting a Glock handgun at her one night last summer after they bickered over money at dinner, The Times reports. Ferguson remains free on $1-million bail with GPS and alcohol monitoring restrictions. Hunter heard the case in Los Angeles due to the conflicts posed by Ferguson’s ties to the bench in Orange County.
• A 37-year-old Monrovia man posing as a food delivery driver was arrested last week on suspicion of committing a string of residential burglaries in Irvine, police said. Marcus Allen Corner was taken into custody in connection with the crimes, which took place at the west end of the city, Irvine police said in a social media post.
• The cause of a brush fire that broke out early Sunday afternoon in Costa Mesa’s Fairview Park remained under investigation as of Tuesday. The blaze burned 8.4 acres. Two men suffered minor injuries and residents on nearby Swan Drive were advised to evacuate for several hours.
• Police are seeking other possible victims of the owner of a Laguna Beach auto body shop who is alleged to have stolen multiple cars from his customers. James Michael Ross, 59, was booked into jail on Friday, two days after police received a report from a customer who said Ross stole his vehicle.
• Not buying the defense attorney’s suggestion that her sister was the true murderer, jurors on Friday convicted Cynthia Roberta Strange, 70, of first-degree murder for killing their 92-year-old mother, Ruth Strange, on Sept. 4, 2018, at the older woman’s Huntington Beach home. She is scheduled to be sentenced July 12.
• Two men, one 19 years old and the other 20, were arrested last week for allegedly impersonating U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to steal money from Latino residents, according to the Anaheim Police Department.
• A 12-year-old boy who became stricken with a medical emergency Saturday at Wild Rivers water park in Irvine died at a hospital. “It does not appear the incident is water-related,” the Irvine Police Department posted on X.
• Surfside Beach in Seal Beach was closed Saturday due to a shark sighting but was reopened Sunday morning, authorities said. No attacks were reported.
SPORTS
• In April the New York Jets selected Alabama safety Jaylen Key with the final pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, No. 257. This distinction comes with the coveted Mr. Irrelevant title, which makes him the honored guest this week in Newport Beach, where he is being feted in a tradition dating back to 1976. Last night, a banquet was held at the Cannery Restaurant in his honor. Key is the second Alabama player to be celebrated as Mr. Irrelevant.
• The U.S. Olympic men’s water polo team will boast three coastal Orange County athletes, Luca Cupido, Chase Dodd and his younger brother, Ryder Dodd, it was announced last week and reported in the Daily Pilot. The Dodds are the first set of brothers to make the U.S. men’s water polo Olympic team since Peter and Jeff Campbell in 1988.
• Shortstop Zach Neto is “proving to be the king of the Angels’ infield, and the team’s future,” according to L.A Times sportswriter Bill Shaikin, who wrote this commentary piece. “Neto this season has become the second shortstop in franchise history to hit 10 home runs before the All-Star break, joining Jim Fregosi, who did it in 1970,” Shaikin writes. “With his next stolen base, Neto would become the first Angels infielder with 10 homers and 10 stolen bases before the break since All-Star third baseman Troy Glaus, in 2000.”
LIFE & LEISURE
• Let’s hear a round of applause for Petey the Surf Dog, a 5-year-old Westie who emerged Friday as a champion surfer. The winsome terrier was competing in the small dog category at the Purina Purina Pro Plan Incredible Dog Challenge and Surf Dog Competition in his hometown, Huntington Beach. Petey’s had plenty of practice; trainer Kay DeLoach said she put him on a surfboard before his first birthday.
• South Coast Repertory will perform “The Old Man and the Old Moon” when it returns to Mission San Juan Capistrano for a final season in late July as part of its Outside SCR program. The outdoor performances for the repertory began in 2021 when the pandemic prevented indoor gatherings, according to this TimesOC story by Sarah Mosqueda on the summer program.
• The Waymakers Huntington Beach Youth Shelter gives runaway, homeless, abused and at-risk youth, ages 11 to 17, a free place to stay for up to three weeks in a home-like setting. But donations and grants have waned, and the 12-bed shelter is running $200,000 in the red. So, this month the nonprofit started a “Change for Change” campaign wherein jars to collect customers’ loose change are set up at businesses around Huntington Beach. The drive will run until the shelter holds its 18th anniversary celebration on July 18. To learn more about the shelter and its endeavors, I invite you to read this news feature by Matt Sazbo.
CALENDAR THIS
• The 76th annual Lions Club Fish Fry & Carnival will be held this weekend in Costa Mesa’s Lions Park, 570 W. 18th St. There will be a beer and wine garden, live music, carnival rides, booths and yes, an abundance of fried fish. Funds raised at the event go toward local schools and organizations. Admission is free; fish dinners are $15 each. Hours are 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. Organizers note parking is limited and advise that if you can’t walk to the park you might want to consider getting to the park by Uber or Lyft.
•The American Coast Theater presents the murder mystery “An Inspector Calls” at Vanguard University’s Lyceum Theater, with shows running through June 30. Vanguard University is located at 55 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa. General admission is $16 to $20. For more, or to purchase tickets, visit ACTCtickets.com or contact theatresw@vanguard.edu or (714) 668-6145, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• A transfer production from North Coast Repertory Theatre of Lerner & Lowe’s “Camelot” opens this week at Laguna Playhouse. Opening night is Sunday, July 28 at 5:30 p.m. and performances will run through Sunday, Aug. 11. Tickets range from $55 to $94 and can be purchased online at lagunaplayhouse.com or by calling (949) 497-2787. Laguna Playhouse is located at 606 Laguna Canyon Drive.
Until next Wednesday,
Carol
KEEP IN TOUCH
I appreciate your help in making this the best newsletter it can be. Please send news tips, your memory of life in O.C. (photos welcome!) or comments to carol.cormaci@latimes.com.
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