A sports reel of highlights

As the 2006 athletic year comes to a close, it’s time to take a look at the key highlights from the local sports scene.

Below is a recap of some of the main prep and major sporting happenings, as reported by the Independent.

JANUARY THROUGH JUNE

Five members of the Edison High’s Sunset League championship football team — Brian Shrock, Romney Fuga, Jimmy Flanagan, Davey Baldwin and Dominique Vinson — were named to the All-CIF-Southern Section Division I football team.

Several local athletes pinned down individual championships, as Nate Borden of Huntington Beach High; Michael Koehnlein, Shaun Lin and Ben Rivera of Marina; and Cesar Renteria, Nick Abraham, Brian Visnoski, Jake Pinkham and Fuga of Edison all won division titles at the Sunset League wrestling championships.

Edison’s wresting team won its second consecutive CIF Coastal Division championship.

At the Coastal Division championships, Pinkham and Fuga of Edison, and Lin and Ian Thorpe of Marina each won weight class titles. Pinkham also was named the Upper Weight MVP.

“Winning the title was due to a combination of things,” Edison Coach Luis Renteria said. “It was hard work and believing in each other, believing in the coaches. We knew these guys had it in them.”

Ocean View won both the boys’ and girls’ basketball titles in the Golden West League.

Edison claimed the boys’ championship, and Marina captured the girls’ crown in Sunset League basketball. It was the second straight league title for Marina’s girls.

Erin Barney of Marina and D.J. Butler of Ocean View were named to the 2005-06 Southern California Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Assn. Amateur Athletic Foundation’s girls’ Division IA and IIIAA teams, respectively.

T.J. Lipold of Edison was named to the boys’ Division IIAA team, and Brad Sweezy, Diego Delgado and Brandon Ishimoto of Ocean View were named to the boys’ Division IIIAA team. Only Butler and Ishimoto are playing in the 2006-07 season.

Kyle McAthy, Gray Bailey and Dirk Petersen of Huntington Beach High were named to the 2005-06 Southern California Soccer Coaches Assn. Division I boys’ team.

Edison High’s Tori Pena won the girls’ pole vault event at the CIF Masters Meet at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

As the first part of the 2006 athletic calendar neared an end in May, second-ranked Edison swept past No. 1 Redondo Union, 25-21, 27-25, 25-23, to win the CIF Southern Section Division I boys’ volleyball championship at Cypress College. It was the school’s first title in the sport.

“We played our best against the No. 1-ranked team,” Edison Coach Brian Boone said. “It’s such a satisfying feeling to play at the level we did when it counts the most.”

SUMMER

Leonard Armato, commissioner of the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals, stated that “summer is officially open” when the Cuervo Gold Crown Huntington Beach Open came to the pier in June.

History was played out before a crowd of 5,000 or more during the three-day event. In the men’s final, the team of Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers beat Brent Doble and Ryan Mariano to capture their third consecutive title of the current AVP season. In the women’s final, the world’s No. 1 team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh swept past Elaine Youngs and Rachel Wacholder to win the crown.

“You just witnessed history in the making,” Amato said after May-Treanor and Walsh cruised to victory. “They’re having an amazing run. It just keeps getting better and better here in Huntington Beach.”

May-Treanor made history by becoming the second player to join the women’s $1-million club in beach volleyball earnings.

“It’s a great accomplishment,” she said of her earnings. “Kerri got me to the million-dollar mark, and I want to get her there too.”

Armato revealed that the AVP may be forced to take down its nets and take its game elsewhere, though. Citing a loss in revenue, Armato said that the AVP can’t continue to hold events on Southern California beaches without charging admission, because the AVP is losing too much money.

If the AVP does hold court in Huntington, Manhattan or Hermosa beaches next year, then spectators will be charged to watch. The snag, though, he said, was that the state’s Coastal Commission said that practice cannot be allowed, as the public has the right to visit the beach free.

Armato said that the AVP is hoping to work things out with the Coastal Commission .

Local surfer Dodger Kremel grabbed headlines by winning the $10,000 O’Neill U.S. Open of Longboarding at the Huntington Beach Pier in late July.

Kremel became the first Surf City athlete to win a U.S. Open competition. He was carried on the shoulders of well-wishers up the beach following his triumph.

“I’ve never been carried off like that before,” Kremel said. “I was really tripping out. To see all of my best, best friends at the shore was so crazy.”

The event, part of the Bank of the West Beach Games, also included Rob Machado winning the U.S. Open of Surfing men’s title for the third time, Ben Dunn of Australia and Tory Meister of Hawaii tying for the Los Pro Junior lead — with Dunn claiming the title via a tiebreaker — Lee Ann Curren taking the Target Women’s Junior Pro and Sofia Mulanovich of Peru winning her first U.S. Open of Surfing women’s crown.

SEPTEMBER THROUGH DECEMBER

The big news was the reshuffling and new creation of leagues as the high school athletic year got under way for 2006-07.

Huntington Beach, a long-time member of the Sunset League, was moved to the Sea View League. Newport Harbor took the Oilers’ place in the Sunset, but the league still included long-standing local schools Edison and Marina.

Ocean View remained in the Golden West League, although the league did do some tweaking by adding newcomer Segerstrom while subtracting Estancia and Costa Mesa.

For the second straight year, Edison claimed at least a portion of the Sunset League football championship. The Chargers shared the title with Esperanza and despite losing several key players to graduation the previous June, won 11 games and reached the CIF Pac-5 Division title game.

The Chargers fell, 30-20, to Orange Lutheran at the Home Depot Center on Dec. 2. A week later, Orange Lutheran won the Division II state championship, as the CIF held a state bowl championship series for the first time in 79 years.

“It was really a great year,” Edison Coach Dave White said. “The kids really played to their potential.”

Also in December, Marina’s boys’ basketball team went into the state record book. The Vikings broke a 12-year-old state record by connecting on 28 three-point baskets during a 117-97 victory over Barstow at the Hesperia Tournament.

The old record for three-point baskets in a game was 24, set in 1994 by Santa Maria Valley Christian.

During the onslaught, Troy Lewis canned 12 three-pointers to set a new Marina single-game record and Mike Kinoshita tied the previous mark with nine. James Lambert had set the previous record of nine during a game in 2001.