CALLING THE SHOTS:

Perhaps it was fitting, or at least symbolic, that an earthquake hit the Southland Tuesday morning. At the Daily Pilot we had our own shake-up: Publisher Tom Johnson announced his resignation and there were layoffs (see story on A1).

While it appears more devastating than a 5.4 quake, we are standing strong, moving forward, albeit with the help from the community.

For so many years, the Daily Pilot, most definitely its sports section included, has provided the best in community coverage of the Newport-Mesa area.

Now we’re asking for your help.

When you become aware of a local athlete’s accomplishments let us know. Or, better yet, if you feel inspired to write about it, visit wwwdailypilot.com/sports to submit your own article on the “Your Sports” link. You can also submit photos there.

Sometimes, you’ll even see the story show up in print.

It’s a bit of an improvisation in these shaky times in the newspaper business, but it’s also a great way to get the community involved.

It’s even an alternative from picking up the phone to voice your opinion about the lack of coverage.

You will always be heard.

You thought you weren’t? Now you can make sure of it.

In the meantime, we will continue to do our jobs to deliver the best in local sports and news.

More than likely, you’ll see changes over the next month, heading into the 2008-09 school year.

It’s a different year, that’s for sure.

But I’m not worried. I’ve seen this community respond before and I remain confident in my staff.

There’s proof I can depend on the people of the Newport-Mesa area.

Recently we provided reports from the U.S. Youth Soccer National Championships in North Little Rock, Ark.

Three teams from the Newport Beach-based Slammers Futbol Club competed in the tournament, as well as few other local players from the So Cal Blues of San Juan Capistrano.

We thought we had it all covered.

But there was another big tournament going on this past weekend. Today, along came some help from Cindy Barnard via e-mail.

She let us know that five local players of the Wolfpack girls’ team finished 2-1 in the under-15 U.S. Club Soccer National Championships and just missed out on the title game. Kaylee O’Connor, Hayley Raguse and Paige Sigband of Corona del Mar High played for the Wolfpack, as did Beth Bernard and Natalie Swift of Newport Harbor.

The quintet helped the Wolfpack win their regional tournament last month in San Bernardino. The team lost its first game of the national tournament last week in Virginia, but battled back to win its next two games.

The help came at a great time. It now seems like there will never be a bad time, especially next month as we prepare for the upcoming school year and the high school football season.

With the prep football season, there will be our annual section that highlights all our local teams, Newport Harbor, Corona del Mar, Estancia, Costa Mesa and Sage Hill School.

As for colleges, we won’t stop any of our coverage. Orange Coast College, Vanguard University and UC Irvine will still be showing up in our section.

Yours truly will need to roll up his sleeves for sure.

Youth sports might take a hit, but that’s where we depend on the community the most. I can’t count how many times I’ve received a phone call or an e-mail telling us about a big local game, or a friendly reminder of what took place at a recent event. And, that goes for all sports, not just youth.

In fact, that’s how we found out about Zoila Gomez, the Costa Mesa High product who qualified for the Beijing Olympics as an alternate in the women’s marathon.

In a few weeks, we’ll be publishing news, feature stories and results about our local athletes competing in China. That might be considered the calm before the storm, but the chaos won’t take place if we receive your help.

STEVE VIRGEN may be reached at (714) 966-4616 or by e-mail at steve.virgen@latimes.com.