Shadowlands

Looking back, 5 years ago this week.

Chris Oeding, out of Corona del Mar High, following a three-stop

touring exhibition for the U.S. Olympic water polo team, earns a spot on

the 13-man final squad. “It was a stressful process,” Oeding says. “I

think it would be presumptuous for me to say I was secure.” For Oeding,

the then-interim head coach at Orange Coast College, it is his first

attempt at making the Olympic team. While at CdM, he earned 1988 CIF

Southern Section Player of the Year recognition for Coach John Vargas’s

Sea Kings.

Sam Manuel, Mr. Irrelevant XXI, accepts the Lowsman Trophy at a

banquet at the Hyatt Newporter durring Irrelevant Week. No one can tell

if it is actually Manuel, chosen 254th (and last) in the NFL draft by the

San Francisco 49ers, or his twin brother, Sean, who is also taken by the

49ers (239th overall). To help out, Sam Manuel and Sean Manuel, nicknamed

“Even More,” wear different colored suits. Sam is in black and Sean is in

a dark green. Yet, perhaps the best way to distinguish the two is that

Sam wears a $3,200 Rolex 700 watch that Mr. Irrelevant given to him at

the Arrival Party by a Barr Jewelers.

Corona del Mar High’s Nina Vaughan wins the Southern California Tennis

Association Junior Sectional Championships title. She wins a

back-and-forth battle against counterpuncher Katey Becker of Orange, 6-2,

4-6, 6-3, in the SCTA 16s championship match at Los Caballeros Sports

Village, where temperatures reach the 90s. Vaughan relies on a bit of

superstition because her greatest finish up until 1996 is reaching the

quarterfinals in the girls 12s in 1992. Before each tournament match, she

dresses in the same outfit, warms up with the same number of approach

shots and serves, and carries the same attitude to the court.

Looking back, 10 years ago this week.

Larry Wanke, the 334th and final player selected by the world champion

New York Giants in the National Football League Draft, is honored as Mr.

Irrelevant XVI. Aside from receiving the Lowsman Trophy, Wanke revels in

the festivities in Newport Beach. He plays golf, attends the Balboa Bay

Club Hall of Fame induction ceremony, endures the roasting at his

introduction dinner, and later makes like a Super Bowl MVP and goes to

Disneyland.

Newport Harbor High product Buffy Rabbitt is named GTE Academic

All-America by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Rabbitt is a five-time All-American in cross country and track and field

at UC Irvine. She wins the Big West Conference cross country title twice

and wins four conference track championships in her career. Rabbitt is

the first Anteater athlete to earn GTE Academic All-America honors since

baseball player Adam Ging was honored in 1985. She places fourth at the

NCAA cross country championships in Knoxville, Tenn. in her senior year.

The fourth-place finish is the best ever for a UCI female runner.

It is announced that former Newport Harbor High standouts, Skyler

Putman, Buffy Rabbitt and Brett Hansen-Dent, will participate in the 16th

annual World University Games in Sheffield, England. Putman will play

water polo, Hansen-Dent will play on the U.S. tennis team and Rabbitt

will compete in the 3,000-meter race. In addition, former Corona del Mar

and Newport Harbor high school water polo coach Ted Newland will coach

the U.S. team. Newland coaches at UCI and the trio of former Sailors’

also have competed collegiately as Anteaters.

-- compiled by Steve Virgen