EL SEGUNDO HERALD January 26, 2017 Page 5 Justin Ostler prepares to make a free throw against Lawndale. He finished with a team-high 10 points. Burkley & Brandlin LLP A T T O R N E Y S A T L A W Living Trusts/Wills, Probate, Employment Law, Personal Injury Trust and Estates Litigation, Business Litigation, Civil Litiga tion 310-540-6000 Lifetime El Segundo Residents *AV Rated (Highest) Martindale - Hubbell / **Certified Specialist Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law, State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization Brian R. Brandlin • Bruce R. Brandlin • Christopher P. Brandlin Like Us on Facebook Eagles Get in Win Column By Gregg McMullin The El Segundo High School basketball teams have had a rough go to start the Ocean League schedule. Neither the boys’ or girls’ teams had broken into the winning column going into the Lawndale and Hawthorne games. Though their losing streaks continued against Lawndale, both teams found solace in playing Hawthorne. The Lady Eagles had experienced close losses to Culver City and Beverly Hills, so wanting to get a win against Lawndale might have proven to be a tall order--and it wasn’t meant to be. El Segundo kept the game close in the first half, but got blown out in the second half of the 47-23 loss to the Cardinals. Great defense on both ends of the court led to a low-scoring first half. Reese Jones’ jumper tied the game at 9-9 and Makaela Bordieri blocked a last-second shot to preserve the tie going into the second quarter. Lawndale’s relentless pressure on defense helped stop the Lady Eagles’ offense. Still, El Segundo found itself down just 20-18 at halftime. Kailea Lee made a steal with seven seconds remaining in the second quarter and scored a layup at the buzzer to cut the deficit to two points after being down by as many as seven. In the second half, El Segundo’s turnovers doomed the team. The Lady Eagles were shut out in the third quarter and Lawndale went on a 21-0 run before El Segundo could manage to get on the scoreboard. Tatiana Taylor-Willis’ free throw quelled the lopsided run. El Segundo would score just five points in the fourth quarter. It’s always good to get a win after a team is on a losing streak. It didn’t matter that the Lady Eagles were facing a Hawthorne team that had an 11-game losing streak. El Segundo had a four-game skid of its own--but came out strong, stayed strong and finished with a 51-8 win over the Cougars. El Segundo’s defense was outstanding and Taylor-Willis controlled the game on both ends, collecting a total of 13 rebounds. She also led all scorers with 14 points. Though the Lady Eagles were in total control from the outset, team coach Randy Kiehm was still concerned with the poor shooting percentages, commenting, “We missed too many easy shots, but we’re young and they’ll work through it.” The Lady Eagles were on the road at Santa Monica last night and are at home Friday night against Culver City. Next week they are on the road at Beverly Hills on Wednesday and at league-leading Lawndale next Friday. All games start at 6 p.m. First-year head coach Dave March has had some ups and downs this season with his boys’ basketball team. The group has played with a relentless cause and improved weekly. It hasn’t always translated into wins, but the team gives a 100 percent effort even in a lopsided loss. The Eagles started out against Lawndale with a bang, but things went awry in the second half of their 61-46 loss to the Cardinals. The Eagles leaped out to a 6-0 lead and Justin Ostler’s 24-foot jumper gave El Segundo a 9-1 advantage. Lawndale then woke up and went on a 7-0 run to close out the first quarter. The Eagles had numerous opportunities to extend their lead, but couldn’t finish layups or easy open shots. In the second quarter, Ostler’s block helped set up a Jacob Franco runner and three-point play on the other end to cut the Eagles’ deficit to 23-21. That was as close as El Segundo would get the rest of the way. When it appeared Lawndale would run away with the game, the Eagles would manage to make a basket. Ben Peterson hit a long jumper from outside to keep the Eagles in the game and only trail 30-26. Ostler’s reverse layup off a Peterson pass cut the lead once again to 33- 30. From there on it was all Lawndale, which went on a 10-0 run. The Cardinals extended their lead to as many as 22 points before the Eagles would keep the game respectable. The Eagles traveled to Hawthorne to right the ship, so to speak, and came away with a relatively easy 47-36 win. It marked the second time this season the Eagles had defeated Hawthorne. The other victory was in the El Segundo Tournament in December. Hopefully the win would help the team with its confidence when it faced Santa Monica, the defending Ocean League and CIF champions, last night on the road. The Eagles host Culver Lightning Bolts Enter L.A. Area By Adam Serrao It may initially sound like it, but this isn’t about the nasty winter weather that has been raining down upon Los Angeles over the last few months. It is, however, about the city’s newest professional football team. That’s right, the Los Angeles Rams now have a new neighbor that will eventually become a roommate after the new, nearly $3 billion stadium is finished in Inglewood. Almost two weeks ago to the day, chairman Dean Spanos announced that the team formerly known as the San Diego Chargers will move to Los Angeles and become known as the Los Angeles Chargers. With the highly controversial decision, Spanos brought a second NFL team to the nation’s second-largest media market for the first time since 1994. It used to be the Rams and the Raiders who shared the Los Angeles area some 23 years ago. While the Raiders moved back to Oakland and seem to now be destined for Las Vegas, the Rams left for St. Louis only to come back and call Southern California home once again. Many people seem to forget, however, that it was the Chargers who were born in Los Angeles in 1960 only to move down the 5 freeway into San Diego the next year when Barron Hilton made it so. Hilton probably had no idea that the Chargers would ever be back in Los Angeles, but alas almost 60 years later the Bolts now boast a new beginning. There are two sides to every story and that remains true with the tale that led up to Spanos decreeing in statement that “today, we turn the page and begin an exciting new era as the Los Angeles Chargers.” The first side of the story is the one of which fans down in San Diego are currently most passionate. They can’t believe that the team the Spanos family bought in 1984 that gave the city of San Diego a unique identity, along with their trademark powder blue jerseys, has now abandoned them. The other side of the story, however, is the one told by Spanos himself--the chairman who has been fighting with San Diego city officials for almost 20 years now to get a new stadium only to be basically laughed at while any ideas of funding were quickly and consistently thrown out of the window. Once Spanos officially announced the team’s move, fans took to Chargers Park in San Diego to put their disappointment on display. Some set jerseys on fire while others threw banners to the floor as fans passionately found ways to react to the news that had ripped their football team away from San Diego. Even Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers, who has publicly been a proponent of the Chargers remaining in San Diego, had his say about the move. “I’m a little numb about it all,” he explained. “It hasn’t really settled in. I hope that when the dust does settle that the people that have been fans here for a long time can still watch a game on Sunday and go, ‘Hey, that’s our quarterback.’” While a great number of fans obviously were and will continue to remain sick about the move, Spanos had almost no other choice. Like with all things in sports, beyond the game being played, there is also a business to be run. That being said, Spanos had no other viable business decision but to move to Los Angeles once the other NFL owners and the City of San Diego denied him any additional help with funding. Spanos’ allotted time given by the league to make a decision had run out. The City of San Diego was giving Spanos absolutely no help and even a measure that would have taxed local hotels higher to help pay for a new stadium was shot down. Spanos was down to two decisions: Either move to Los Angeles to join the Rams, or be forced to indefinitely keep his business at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium, which opened in 1967. If you’ve ever been to Qualcomm Stadium, you can certainly see why Spanos chose to move. The venue is completely outdated and needs an entire top-to-bottom renovation. The arena is also consistently filled with fans of opposing teams and has even drawn the ire of current NFL players who may love the city but also feel like they might as well be playing at a high school venue. StubHub Center in Carson may not be much better for the time being. The Chargers’ new temporary home seats less than 30,000 people, so tickets will almost assuredly be at a premium as well. That’s not to mention the fact that the Chargers will still struggle to attract and maintain a home crowd to support their team. Once the new stadium is built in Inglewood, however, the Chargers will move into one of the nicest stadiums in the world and will see their value as an organization rise through the roof. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell put it perfectly when in a statement he said, “Relocation is painful for teams and communities. It is especially painful for fans, and the fans in San Diego have given the Chargers strong and loyal support for more than 50 years, which makes it even more disappointing that we could not solve the stadium issue. As difficult as the news is See Lightning Bolt, page 6 See Eagles, page 13
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