Shadowlands

Looking back, 5 years ago this week.

UC Irvine water polo coach Ted Newland, who is 68 years old at the

time, uses a wheelchair to get around, but still coaches. On advice he

receives from an orthopedic surgeon he meets at the 1995 University

Games, Newland, a Costa Mesa resident, uses the wheelchair to prevent

knee surgery. Newland is seen most days doing wheelies on the UCI pool

deck. “I figure if you’re in a wheelchair you might as well have a good

time. Newland says. “Whatever you do, you got to have fun -- but don’t

give me any crap. I can still get out of this chair and kick your

(butt).”

Costa Mesa resident Rance Brown is hired as an assistant to UCLA head

coach Stella Sampras, the sister of tour pro phenom Pete Sampras. They

take over for the legendary Bill Zamia, who resigns after 16 years as the

Bruins’ women’s coach. Brown, who is 38 at the time, spends the previous

13 years as a teaching pro at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel and Tennis

Club. He’s the hitting coach of former UCLA and local standout Keri

Phebus. “It’s a situation you dream for -- working for a class

organization like UCLA,” Brown says. “I feel very blessed in that

regard.”

Two local stars, Alexandra McGoodwin and Anne Yelsey, turn in dazzling

performances on the junior tennis circuit. The 11-year-old McGoodwin goes

unbeaten, while Yelsey, who will be 11 later in the month, loses only one

match to help the Pacific Zone team win the National 12s in the USA

Challenge Cup in Boca Raton, Fla.

The Orange Coast College women’s water polo program will not make its

debut as previously planned. Only five women sign up for the team,

prompting an announcement by Athletic Director Barry Wallace that the

program will be put on hold one more year. Today the OCC women’s water

polo program is one of the most successful in Southern California.

Looking back, 10 years ago this week.

Daily Pilot Sports reveals its Big Team, featuring the elite football

players of the Newport-Mesa School District, 1965-1990. The Pilot’s

All-Modern Times football team includes three teams. Among the first-team

players are Newport Harbor High quarterback Shane Foley from 1985 and

Corona del Mar tight end Jeff Thomason (a current NFL pro with the

Philadelphia Eagles). Estancia’s Jeff Graham quarterbacks the second team

and Newport Harbor’s Steve Bukich is the signal caller for the third

team.

After only a month of getting acquainted, Chip McKibben and Doug

Burden of the U.S. National Rowing Team are making strokes of champions.

McKibben of Balboa Island and Burden of Middletown, R.I. reach the double

sculls final at the 1991 World Championships in Vienna, Austria, along

the 2,000-meter New Danube course. McKibben misses qualifying for the

U.S. single sculls boat by three-tenths of a second in the trials, but is

given a new lease on life when U.S. Rowing Coach Igor Grinko invites him

to try out for the double sculls boat. “This is a relatively short time

for a boat to be together, so to make it to the finals of the World

Championships after only one month, we were very pleased,” says McKibben,

a three-time national team member and a product of Corona del Mar High

(1983 graduate) and Orange Coast College.

The Newport Harbor Lions’ under-12 boys team comes up just shy in the

11th annual Mission Viejo Invitational Soccer Tournament. Needing a

three-goal victory to advance to the final, the Lions lose, 4-1, to the

two-time defending champion Upland Celtics. The Celtics go on to break

the Canyon Breakaway, 1-0, to claim the tournament title again. Newport

Harbor forwards Dusty Hein and Brett Baker score a goal each to lead the

Lions to a 2-1 victory over Las Vegas in the first round. Goalkeeper

Garrett Govaars holds the Las Vegas Stars to just one goal.

-- compiled by Steve Virgen