Prediction comes to fruition

Kyle McGeary might have made a bold prediction earlier in the year, but he had the talent and drive to back up his claim.

McGeary, who graduated from Dwyer Middle School in Huntington Beach in June, won the boys’ individual title ? as he had told a fellow surfer that he would ? at the National Scholastic Surfing Assn. Middle School Championships last month at Salt Creek in Dana Point.

“I told Shaun Ward I could win it,” McGeary said in reference to a conversation he had early in the 2005-06 school year with Ward, a successful local surfer who was the first Dwyer student to win an individual NSSA middle school championship in 1997. “I was happy that I was able to back it up.”

But once the competition weekend got underway in late June, McGeary said the talent-laden field of competitors had him second-guessing his prediction.

“I didn’t think I was going to win it,” he said. “There were a lot of standouts out there, and I didn’t think I had a chance.”

McGeary, who will enter Huntington Beach in the fall, is the fifth Dwyer student to win a middle school individual national title.

After Ward captured the first in ‘97, Chris Fowler followed Ward by winning back-to-back titles in ’98 and ’99 and Ian Ekberg and Alex Guillette preceded McGeary to the title.

Dwyer athletes have won six individual titles in the 11-year history of the middle school championships.

In addition, the school has won four team national titles.hbi.13-spsurfer-CPhotoInfoDQ1SRK9720060713j29g9hncKENT TREPTOW / INDEPENDENT(LA)Kyle McGeary, 14, recently won the NSSA middle school boys’ individual title as an eighth-grader at Dwyer Middle School.