Shadowlands

Looking back, 5 years ago this week.

Two Newport Harbor High athletes gain Daily Pilot Newport-Mesa

District Athlete of the Year honors. The Male Athlete of the Year is

Danny Pulido, who stars in basketball, baseball and football. He is also

the Sea View League’s Male Athlete of the Year, setting school career

records in receptions (140), receiving yards (2,103) and touchdown

catches in his three varsity seasons. He averages 13.5 points and nearly

seven rebounds per game in his senior season. He is a first-team

all-league and all-district selection in basketball and the third Sailor

to garner the top male honor in the five years the Pilot has awarded

District Athlete of the Year accolades.

Newport Harbor’s M.E. Clayton, who sparkled in track and field and

basketball, and is a three-time team Most Valuable Player in track and

field and two-time All-Newport-Mesa District basketball player, is named

the Pilot’s Female District Athlete of the Year. The long jumper, triple

jumper and hurdler, collects Sea View League medals, including three gold

and three CIF Southern Section medals as a four-season starter. Her

personal bests include a long jump of 17-5 3/4, a triple jump of 37-2 and

a 15.54 clocking in the hurdles. She finishes second in the triple jump,

third in the long jump and seventh in the 100-meter hurdles at the CIF

Division II Finals as a senior. She is a two-year starter on the

basketball team, averaging 12.4 points and 7.2 rebounds a game and

helping the Sailors reach the CIF II-AA Quarterfinals.

Ron Pfahler, president of the Newport Beach Tennis Club, announces he

is selling the club to David Kang and Julianne Ren, Newport Beach-based

international business people. The purchase price is undisclosed, but

real estate broker Diana Prosser says the price tag is more than the $1.4

million Ken Stuart paid two years previously to acquire the former John

Wayne Tennis Club (now the Palisades Tennis Club).

The NHBA Mustang All-Stars pound host Dana Point, 21-8, to advance to

the sectionals, the first NHBA team to do so. NHBA cranks out 22 hits and

steals 35 bases in the win. Taylor Young goes 4 for 4 with a two-run home

run, a walk and five runs while Patrick Keehan adds three hits, four RBIs

and six steals. Brien Flanagan goes 3 for 3 with two RBIs, four runs and

four steals.

The Newport Beach Little League All-Stars (ages 9-10) win two straight

games opening up play in the District 55 Division Tournament. They beat

San Clemente, 7-4, in the opener and down Mission Viejo South, 12-2, in

the second game. In the first inning of the Mission Viejo game, Brian

Bechelli and Tyler Lance each hit two-run doubles to spark a five-run

inning, while Mitch Folks and Andrew Beck combine to no-hit Mission

Viejo. Both Mission Viejo runs result from walks, wild pitches and an

error.

Looking back, 10 years ago this week:

Orange Coast College president and 29-year crew coach Dave Grant steps

down from his coaching position and is replaced by Jim Jorgensen. He

tells the team before it leaves for the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta

in Henley-On-Thames, England, where the team loses in the semifinals to

Trinity College of Dublin after powering to three straight victories.

Grant will remain as president. He started as a history teacher at OCC in

1963.

OCC finishes two-thirds of a length behind Trinity in the semifinals

of its ninth trip to Henley. The crew consists of of Peter Vescovi and

John Klein of Huntington Beach, James Russell and Erik Elward of Fountain

Valley, Arnold Huff of Orange, Darren Hill of Costa Mesa, Randall Scott

of Corona del Mar and Patrick Dorn of Tustin. The coxswain is Loni Snyder

of Long Beach.

John Altobelli is named Orange Coast College baseball coach, replacing

Mike Mayne, who stepped down as head coach the previous spring after 15

seasons at the helm. Altobelli is a former Newport Harbor High standout

and one of three finalists who interviewed for the position.CdM boys

water polo coach John Vargas is on his way to the Summer Olympics in

Barcelona, Spain, after being named to the team. The 155-pound diver

joined the U.S. national team in 1981.

CdM 15-year-old diving sensation Sandy Zubrin blitzes the field in the

platform diving, doubling for titles in the 16-18 age group championship

and the SeniorsDivision. The two recent wins add to Zubrin’s prior wins

in the 1-meter and 3-meters at the Southern California Invitational at

Heritage Park.

-- compiled by Bryce Alderton