EL SEGUNDO HERALD March 14, 2019 Page 3
School Spotlight
ESUSD Sports
El Segundo Eagles Softball and
Baseball Preview
Story and Photos by Gregg McMullin
With the El Segundo High School softball
and baseball teams dodging raindrops to start
the season, it has been a challenge to show
off how good they’ll be. The softball team is
off to a 4-3 start and is ranked seventh in the
first CIF Southern Section Division 4 polls.
The baseball team has started off 3-4, with all
three wins coming in extra innings.
Softball Team Looks to Defend
Ocean League Title
The Eagles are the defending Ocean League
champions and return 11 players including
seven starters from last year. The Eagles are
solid throughout the lineup, though they’ll
miss Monique Benjamin (.427; 1.24 ERA),
Kat Kakuske (.383 and eight doubles) and
Rosalind Williams (.327 and 13 runs scored)
who all graduated. Returning will be a formidable
lineup that returns five hitters that had
a batting average of .368 or better, including
one of the top hitters in the South Bay who
hit .492.
Head coach Megan McCann is in her third
year and is upbeat as the season gets underway.
She should be excited about a team that is
young, but filled with experience with plenty
of senior leadership. She says the team is looking
forward to competing for and defending
their Ocean League title and going deeper in
the playoffs.
Last season the Eagles weren’t expected to
win 17 games, let alone win the program’s
first league title in years. Then they defied all
odds and defeated the top-seeded team in the
playoffs. El Segundo’s Cinderella season came
to an end in the quarterfinals. This season the
Eagles are highly regarded and have been given
the respect they deserve. They are gearing up
for a season to top their 17 wins from a year
ago and go further in the postseason. They have
the balance, depth, pitching and certainly one
of the best hitting lineups in the South Bay.
Leading the Eagles will be a core of seniors
that will challenge opposing team’s pitching
staffs. Adri Hebert is one of the top third
basemen in the area besides being one of the
team’s captains. When you consider she led
the last season’s team in hitting (.492), home
runs (5) and triples (5) you can see why she’s
a threat in each at-bat. In the first seven games
to start this season, Hebert hasn’t missed a
beat and is hitting .500 with four stolen bases
while also providing flawless defense.
Audrey Butler is the other captain who leads
by example. She could be one of the better
outfielders in the South Bay and is another
tough out. She hit .387 as a junior and is off to
a fast start this season. Four-year starter Kaili
Reitano will be counted on to do a little of
everything. She hit .438 as a junior, was one
of the top pitchers and filled in as a middle
infielder. Those roles haven’t changed and she
will be counted on for her offensive power.
Julia Chavez is a three-year starter who has
supplied the power in the lineup. She led her
team in home runs and RBIs as a sophomore
and junior and is hitting .412 with nine RBIs
in the first seven games this year. The other
senior is Kaela Little, a two-year starter who
anchors the outfield with her speed in centerfield.
A key four-year starter, Gaby Benjamin, will
miss an undermined amount of time after injuring
Cameron Dornblaser gives the Eagles depth on the mound.
The El Segundo Herald congratulates the
Winningest Business
of Our Annual Best of the Best
The Jewelry Source
See Sports, page 6
ES School Board Does
Double Duty Tuesday Night
By Duane Plank
The members of the El Segundo School
Board have had a busy two weeks recently as
they worked towards seamlessly implementing
the Long-Range Facilities Master Plan in the
wake of local voters passing a $92 million
school bond ask last November. On the evening
after the last regularly scheduled meeting, held
on Feb. 26, the Board quickly reconvened to
meet for more than 2 ½ hours for a budget
study session that included reviewing the current
US economic outlook, current California
economy, state funding that impacts all school
districts, and also Governor Gavin Newsom’s
initial budget proposal and how El Segundo
Unified School District is directly impacted by
fiscal decisions and allocations that emanate
from Sacramento. The members also reviewed
what appears to be a stable enrollment rate in
District schools, as they await the Governor’s
“May revise” to his initial budget numbers
crunched this past January.
On Tuesday evening the Board not only
held the regularly scheduled open meeting,
commencing at 7 p.m., but also gathered at
5 p.m. to get an update on the implementation
of District special education initiatives
and programs. They also looked at funding
options to “meet the needs of our students,”
said Superintendent Dr. Melissa Moore, and
offer a continuum of services” that reflect the
needs of special education students.” Of the 5
p.m. meeting, Moore said, “We are trying to
build Board awareness, because, frankly, there
are challenges.”
The members next quickly heard special
presentations from Student Representative to
the Board Matthew Trivasat, and El Segundo
Education Foundation CEO Carol Pirsztuk.
Pirsztuk thanked SKECHERS for its support
of local education, which garnered the District
a hefty $116,000 check that will go towards
funding the physical education programs at
Center Street and Richmond Street Elementary
schools.
Next on the agenda were a couple of recognition
presentations, helmed by El Segundo
High School Principal Dr. Melissa Gooden.
Engineering students who participated in a recent
engineering games contest at Raytheon were
feted for their exploits, as were the members
of the boys high school varsity soccer team
that again steamrolled their way to not only a
CIF divisional crown, but for the second year
in a row captured the coveted regional championship
with a hard-fought victory against
West Torrance.
Recognized for their first-place standing in
the Raytheon Math Challenge, in which 30
schools participated, were Luke Calimilim,
James Lim, and Trevor Loe, who were singled
out for their “achievement, critical engineering
skills, and teamwork.” Speaking of teamwork,
more than two dozen of the abovementioned
soccer players received recognition as did
Coach Andrew Kelley and his staff.
Gooden congratulated both the recognized
scholars and the athletes, emailing prior to the
meeting that “the accomplishments of both
groups are truly amazing,” and noting the
soccer team’s “spectacular season. The hard
work and dedication paid off with another
CIF Championship.”
Kelley spoke briefly, deflecting the praise for
the exploits of his squad to the team members
and handing out certificates of commendation
to the players who were able to attend Tuesday’s
meeting.
Middle School Acting Principal Ali Rabiei,
bolstered by Acting Assistant Principal Sarah
Davlantis, was the next presenter and detailed
a new bell schedule program at the campus.
Rabiei noted that it aims to grant more uninterrupted
instructional time, garner greater
student learning, decrease student homework
load, and aid depth in instruction and learning.
This is the second time in the past two years
that the bell schedule at the middle school has
been reconfigured to support student learning
and engagement. As currently structured, the
2019/20 bell schedule will feature a Monday
that will include eight short learning periods,
and then morph into a Tuesday-Friday schedule
with four longer periods of instruction that,
said Moore, would hopefully allow teachers
to “dig deeper” into the subject matter and
provide more engaging activities for the students.
Rabiei said the whole idea of revising
the bell schedule is formulated with the thought
of “what’s best for kids.”
Chief Business Official Kimberlie Linz
detailed the Education Code-mandated second
interim report to the Board regarding the state
of District finances for the 2018/19 school year
and the next two years. There are three possible
certifications that can be filed, from positive
to a negative. El Segundo Unified will file a
positive certification, which means the District
is on track to meet its financial obligations for
the remainder of 2018/19 and the next two
school years. Moore mentioned prior to the
meeting that not all California school districts
are able to post a positive certification, citing
layoffs and other budget considerations as
mitigating factors in the certification process.
See ESUSD, page 11