EL SEGUNDO HERALD December 1, 2016 Page 5 Eagle Basketball Preview By Gregg McMullin With the fall sports in the books, it’s time to turn our attention to the winter sports- -specifically the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams. Both teams reached the CIF Southern Section playoffs last season, but each was senior-heavy and lost plenty of talent to graduation. Though both teams will have revamped starting lineups, they will look to have another successful run to the postseason. The boys’ team will not only have a new starting lineup, but also a new coach going forward. Jason Ito stepped down after guiding the Eagles for three seasons and he’s turning he program over to former Eagle standout David March. March graduated in 1996 and played for Eagle coaching legend Rick Sabosky. March has plenty of experience. He got his start coaching the lower levels at El Segundo from 1997-2001 and then accepted the assistant varsity coaching position at St. Monica High School for four years while he was also a math teacher. March returned to El Segundo to assist Sabosky. His talents led him to an assistant coaching position at Cal State Dominguez Hills from 2006-08. In 2008, he was an associate head coach at Harbor College and then an assistant coach there from 2012-2016. When the opportunity to return to his alma mater surfaced, he jumped at it and went through the process that led to his hire. El Segundo High School Athletic Director Steve Shevlin, said March had a great reputation and was the perfect fit for the Eagles’ program. El Segundo’s style of play will be one that feeds off strength, quickness and the ability to shoot from beyond the three-point line. The Eagles also play a trapping defense to get their opponents to make turnovers. The team will not possess a lot of size and will have just two players over 6-3. Justin Ostler at 6-4 is a three-year player and will be counted on for his high basketball IQ, athleticism and leadership. He has a nice shooting touch, but it’s his knack for rebounding that will be most important. The other key is Haamid Brooks Jr., who at 6-4 gives the Eagles an inside presence with his long arms and jumping ability. Brooks is just coming back to the team after helping the football squad to an outstanding 10-2 record. Two sophomores return and both are expected to be impact players. Mike Lynch was a starter as a freshman and helped the Eagles return to the postseason last year. With a year of experience and the vast improvements he has made over the summer, Lynch could be one of the top sophomores in the area. His shooting range has expanded and his defense has really improved. The other sophomore is Miles Jones, who will play guard and could be the playmaker for the offense. Jones has great ball-handling and passing skills that should help the offense get into a rhythm. His quickness on defense should rattle opposing teams. The Eagles play in an openly competitive Ocean League where they’ll face Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Lawndale, Hawthorne and Culver City. The Ocean League is so tight that there is no clear-cut favorite. The Eagles begin their season Friday night at home against South Torrance at 7:30 p.m. The girls’ basketball team had an incredible run a season ago when it went 17-12 overall and reached the CIF-Southern Section 4AA quarterfinals. The Lady Eagles fell to Duarte 38-36 in a game that they had an opportunity to win near the end. Duarte went on to play for the CIF title, but lost a close one to St. Paul 45-44 on a last-second shot. This season, Coach Randy Kiehm has his work cut out for him. Gone are Paige Endo, Quinn Adams, Ani Finau, Hannah Nonoguchi, Morgan Gee and Melissa Euyoque who all graduated. In fact the Eagles have just one returning starter, but she’s as good as any junior around. Makaela Bordieri leads a young team hoping to make some heads turn. With her high skill level high and leadership abilities, she will captain the Eagles this Dodgers Rack up Regular Season Awards By Adam Serrao The Los Angeles Dodgers may not have won the World Series last year, but they have certainly done their part to rack up regular season awards for the 2016 Major League Baseball campaign. Naturally, a championship would likely trump any award available to players and coaches alike, but garnering honors for a job well done certainly sends the message that the team is headed in the right direction. That’s the exact message sent two weeks ago when both Corey Seager and Dave Roberts took home the National League Rookie of the Year and National League Manager of the Year Awards respectively. While both awards handed out do not necessarily mean that the Dodgers are championship-worthy just yet, they are a clear indication that the team is certainly headed in the right direction. Seager got the celebration started two weeks ago when he was named National League Rookie of the Year. Teammate Kenta Maeda and Washington Nationals centerfielder Trea Turner were also in the mix for the award, but as it turns out, neither of the other players even had a chance. The first round draft pick of the Dodgers in 2012 was the unanimous winner of the award, receiving the maximum of 150 points in the NL vote (Turner 42, Maeda 37). “It’s obviously awesome to win it in general, but to bring it back to L.A.--it hasn’t been there for a while, and they’re known as an organization for winning all those Rookie of the Years with Tommy Lasorda and all them,” Seager explained. The 22-year-old finished the season with a .308 batting average, 26 home runs and 72 RBIs, while scoring 105 runs and coming through with the second-most hits in the National League at 193. Seager, who was also in the running for league MVP, was one of the main reasons the Dodgers won their fourth consecutive NL West title. Another huge reason was Dodgers rookie manager Roberts. Roberts beat out the Nationals Dusty Baker and the long-considered favorite to win the award, Joe Maddon of the Chicago Cubs, to claim the National League Manager of the Year Award in his first season at the helm in Los Angeles. “I think the focus of the day-to-day and not getting even ahead to tomorrow or the next day made it a lot easier,” Roberts explained. “I think that at any point of the season, if I would have stepped back and looked at the expectation or the injuries, it would have felt daunting--but it never really felt that way, even in late June when we were eight games back.” After taking over for Don Mattingly, Roberts guided the team to their fourth consecutive NL West title with a record of 91-71. It’s the first time in franchise history that the Dodgers have reached the playoffs four years in a row. Roberts had his share of daunting tasks to overcome, headlined by a massive amount of injuries. The team began the season with 10 players on the disabled list and finished it with a total of 28 players that missed time throughout the year. It was the most players any team had put on the DL in the last 30 years. Despite all of the injuries, however, the Dodgers and Roberts persevered and actually got better as the season continued. With the award, Roberts became just the second Dodger rookie manager to lead the team into the postseason since Lasorda accomplished the feat in 1977. He’s also just the sixth rookie manager to ever win the award. Roberts and Seager weren’t the only ones taking home honors. In a less publicized move, Kenley Jansen won the Trevor Hoffman NL Reliever of the Year Award. Jansen finished the season with 47 saves, four behind the Mets Jeurys Familia, but still beat him out for the award. Jansen finished the year with a 3-2 record and a 1.83 ERA. Also, in his last year behind the microphone, Dodgers announcer and icon Vin Scully received a very prestigious award from the President of the United States. The Hall of Fame baseball broadcaster who officially retired this past October received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama. The award is the country’s highest civilian honor, awarded to individuals who make significant cultural or security contributions to the United States or international contributions in the areas of culture or world peace. “I’m just an old baseball announcer,” Scully said when learning of his award. “Well, gosh, I am rather overwhelmed and humbled.” There’s no doubt that Scully has made a generous contribution to the culture of baseball and America, and has maybe even brought his share of peace to all of our homes as well. The Dodgers narrowly missed out on a shot at this year’s World Series by losing to the Cubs in seven games, but perhaps have come away with the next best thing. In a season full of grit, determination and perseverance, Corey Seager, Dave Roberts, Kenley Jansen and most of all, Vin Scully have come to define what the Dodgers are truly all about. The awards garnered by those standout individuals over the past season not only characterize the team’s recent success, but also suggest that the Boys in Blue are on pace for even more of it. Look for even more success and maybe even a much coveted World Series championship, if things should go as planned, coming from the Dodgers in the very near future. – Asixlion@earthlink.net Visit us online: www.heraldpublications.com 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 See Eagles, page 7
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