Page 4 January 23, 2014 Joe’s Sports Hawthorne Gets Stifled by Beverly Hills, Inglewood By Joe Snyder Hawthorne High’s boys’ basketball team showed its inexperience in lopsided Ocean League losses to Beverly Hills and Inglewood last week. The Cougars, who are 5-9 overall and 0-2 in Ocean play, started on January 15 at home where the Normans crushed them 65-24. Last Friday at Inglewood, Hawthorne showed better offense but the Sentinels outscored the Cougars 90-66. Against the Normans (11-7, 2-0), Hawthorne shot a miserable 11 percent from the floor and converted on just seven total field goals, including five three-point baskets and only two two-pointers. Leading 25-13 at halftime, Beverly Hills, which is one of the top contenders for the league title, stepped things up by outscoring Hawthorne 40-11 in the second half. The Cougars failed to score more than seven points in any of the quarters. Hawthorne failed to get any player to score in double figures as its two leading scorers were Markell Gray and Brian Ross with six points apiece. Ronan Massana led the Normans with 14 points. At Inglewood on Friday, the Sentinels, who improved to 9-9 overall and 1-1 in league, jumped all over the Cougars with a 34-8 first quarter lead and 52-24 by halftime. Hawthorne managed to outscore Inglewood 42-38 in the second half as Sentinel head coach Patrick Roy used mostly reserves. Da’Rae Elliott led the Sents with 28 points, followed by Terrell Gomez with 18. Corey Dollarhide added 14 points. Ricky Bryant sparked the Cougars with 24 points. Patrick Washington chipped in 15 points. Despite Hawthorne’s dismal season, Bryant is leading the team averaging 18.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, 7.8 assists and 1.3 steals per game. On January 15 at Santa Monica between two Ocean powers who are being faced with mostly rebuilding, Inglewood fell to the Vikings 52-40. Gomez led the Sentinels with 12 points. After visiting Morningside on Wednesday, Hawthorne will host Culver City in a league game Friday at 7:30 p.m. The Sents hosted Culver City on Wednesday and will visit Beverly Hills in what should be a key Ocean match Friday at 7:30 p.m. LAWNDALE ROLLS OVER EL SEGUNDO Lawndale High’s boys’ basketball team routed El Segundo 80-41 in the Pioneer League opener on January 15 at Lawndale. The Cardinals, who are 12-7 overall and 2-0 in the Pioneer League, proved dominant throughout the game against the Eagles. They led 37-20 at halftime and continued to pour it on in the second half. Roderick Jones led Lawndale with 18 points, followed by Chimeze Metu with 11 and R’Lando Beckles with 10. El Segundo has been adjusting to a coaching change. After head mentor Craig Gash resigned abruptly a few weeks ago, the Eagles are now head-coached by Rick Sabosky, who led El Segundo from the 1980s to 2010. The Eagles managed to give a very good Mira Costa team, which is 15-3 overall and 1-1 in the Bay League after a 64-44 loss at California state ranked (fifth) Redondo last Friday, a battle before falling 53-50. At Lawndale last Friday, the Cardinals won handily over Centennial High from Compton 58-41. Lawndale outscored the Apaches in each of the four quarters. Metu led the Cardinals with 15 points. Beckles and Jones chipped in 12 and 10 points respectively. After visiting North Torrance, which has a 15-4 overall record and is 1-0 in league, on Wednesday, Lawndale hosts South Torrance in another Pioneer contest Friday at 7:30 p.m. The Cardinals then visit Torrance next Wednesday at the same time. MORNINGSIDE STARTS SLOWLY IN OCEAN Morningside High’s boys’ basketball team is 0-2 in the Ocean League after losses to Culver City and Beverly Hills last week. At Culver on Januaryt 15, the Monarchs fell to the Centaurs 77-57. At Morningside last Friday, the Monarchs lost to Beverly Hills 69-60. Keying Morningside against Culver was Dakari King with 19 points. James Brown contributed 17 points and 16 rebounds. The Centaurs were led by Chris Edwards with a game-high 21 points. Against the Normans the Monarchs tried to hang in there, but Beverly Hills proved a little too much for them. King led Morningside with 18 points. LEUZINGER FALLS AT P.V. Leuzinger High’s boys’ basketball team lost its Bay League opener to host Palos Verdes High 55-48 on January 16. It was Palos Verdes’ first Bay League boys’ basketball victory in three years and it ended a 22-game league losing streak that dated back to the 2010-11 season. Last Friday, the Olympians were faced with a rare basketball postponement at Rolling Hills Estates Peninsula due to poor air quality caused by the Colby Fire that ravaged the Glendora/Azusa area with its smoke flowing into the South Bay. Rescheduling of the game is still yet to be determined. Leuzinger, which is 6-11 overall and 0-1 in league, hosted Mira Costa on Tuesday and will be at home against West Torrance for another Bay game Friday at 7:30 p.m. The Olympians then visit powerful Redondo, which is 14-3 overall and 2-0 in league as well as one of the top teams in Southern California, next Tuesday at the same time. • One Man’s Opinion Another Man’s Opinion By Gerry Chong The sun still shone brightly on that bucolic little knoll and the shade tree that kept Rip propped upright during his six-year nap. With a yawn and with his stomach growling, he stretched and moved around to be sure his muscles and joints still worked, since six years is a long time. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he headed down to the village to get a bite to eat and get an update on this wonderful land of exceptionalism called America. There he encountered his old friend Jack and inquired, “How goes our ship of state?” “Not well,” replied Jack. “The Wall Street Journal released its annual poll of countries enjoying the greatest economic freedom, and we have fallen to 12th in the world! Incredibly, we have more taxes and regulations than even Estonia, Chile and Mauritius!” “Well, we need to protect the lambs from the wolves,” said Rip, “but haven’t those protections raised our standard of living”? “No, Rip, we are no longer the wealthiest nation in the world,” reported Jack. “Bloomberg News reports the Legatum Institute now ranks the U.S. 22nd in world prosperity. We have higher unemployment, lower savings, and lower tech exports than 21 other countries.” “Well,” said Rip, “given all our shortcomings surely we’re gaining ground, aren’t we”? “’Fraid not, Rip,” said Jack. “Our educational system is a bust too. The U.S. reported that among 23 nations, we now rank only 21st in mathematics and are tied for 15th in literacy. By both measurements, we are below international standards.” “So we’re not rich, we’re not free, and we’re not educated. What does that mean to life in America”? asked Rip. “Sadly,” said Jack, “there are more people receiving government benefits than there are people working. The Census Bureau says there are 151 million receiving benefits, but only 101.7 million people working full time. The Wall Street Journal concurred, reporting in October that there are now 90.6 million non-institutionalized people over the age of 16 who do not work at all.” Frowning, Jack asked, “Besides texting, what do they do with their time? The New York Times two weeks ago reported that at the end of 2006, 63.4 percent of adults had jobs, but while you slept, Rip, the number had fallen to 58.6 percent. Of the jobs created during the Obama Administration, 77 percent were merely parttime so the average family income has fallen. “Now poorer, struggling families depend on government largesse. On January 14, for instance, the White House admitted that 79 percent of those who have signed up for Obamacare require government subsidies to afford insurance premiums that in many cases have doubled since the healthcare law became effective. The White House didn’t mention the explosion of annual deductibles, so pity the other 21 percent who do not receive “free money.” A tearful Rip concluded, “We’re not rich, we’re not free, we’re not educated and we’re poorer than at any time in the last 50 years. Since political leadership brought us to this place, I’ll take a 50-year nap and see if new leadership can restore this once-exceptional country.” • Fair Solution to an Affordable Care Act Problem By Cristian Vasquez Part of being an efficient elected official is having the ability to reach across the political aisle in order to better serve voters, regardless of party affiliation. Today I am doing something similar, but as a writer. As someone who has been in favor of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act and has wanted to see it succeed, I have been disappointed at many of the problems that have been encountered with the new health care law. One of those problems, which is completely unacceptable, is that many Americans who had health coverage prior to the Affordable Care Act lost that coverage when the law took effect. Last week Assemblyman and senior member of the Assembly Committee on Health Dan Logue--a Republican from Northern California--introduced Assembly Bill 1507 in an effort to solve the problem. AB 1507 will allow Californians who had their health plans canceled as a result of the Affordable Care Act to reclaim those plans at least through December of this year. Back in November, the Covered California Board unanimously voted that any health plans that covered Californians that did not measure up to federal health care guidelines had to be relinquished. I am not sure who is on this board nor why they decided that this was a good idea, but that body struck out with this decision. The purpose of the Affordable Care Act is to create the market options necessary to provide health coverage to as many people as possible who are not covered. So it makes absolutely no sense to strip people who currently have health insurance coverage because they don’t meet the guidelines set by the federal government. That logic simply does not register with my simple mind. To be honest, it is embarrassing that a law meant to provide health coverage ends up stripping coverage away from people who were responsible and fortunate enough to afford their own health insurance. Furthermore, we all heard the promise that people who were already covered and liked their doctors would be allowed to keep what they had in place. I understand that sometimes the things that we plan for don’t turn out as we expected. So if the plan was to allow people with health coverage to maintain that insurance and it turns out that such a move would not be possible, at the very least these people should be given a reasonable grace period to find an appropriate solution. To automatically cancel or terminate the existing health coverage of people is simply wrong and goes against the intended goals of the Affordable Care Act. Assemblyman Logue is proposing a logical solution to a problem that was created by lawmakers and for which people should not have to suffer. I hope that the State Assembly can get behind Assemblyman Logue’s bill and pass it so that the State Senate can do the same. If these Democratic lawmakers really believe in health coverage for all, then this is the right thing to do. • “Bloomberg News reports the Legatum Institute now ranks the U.S. 22nd in world prosperity. We have higher unemployment, lower savings, and lower tech exports than 21 other countries.” “To automatically cancel or terminate the existing health coverage of people is simply wrong and goes against the intended goals of the Affordable Care Act.”
Lawndale 01_23_14
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