August 4, 2016 Page 5 Fall Sports Revisited Story and Photos by Gregg McMullin With the 2016-17 school year just a month away it means fall sports will be upon us before you know it. This is the time of the year that the athletes playing sports, who will be playing in the fall, are working out in between texting friends, looking for Pokémon and enjoying summer vacations. Lets journey back to last season’s fall schedules and reminisce the ups and downs of our athletes and their teams. The football team went 8-2 and didn’t make the playoffs. The girls’ volleyball squad had a great campaign by finishing second in the Ocean League. The boy’s water polo team had a magnificent season by winning a school record 26 games The girls’ cross country team toppled Santa Monica to win the Ocean League title and eventually qualified for the CIF finals. and advancing deep in the playoffs. Both cross-country teams did extremely well and advanced to the CIF finals meet. The football team’s success over the past several seasons has put opposing teams on edge. When the Eagles ran the table to start the season at 7-0, most thought that a third consecutive league title was possible. Injuries to key players derailed those plans, the Joe Doucette gets off a pass in the CIF semi-final match against Righetti. Eagles wound up losing two of their final league games and fell to 3-2 in league play and were left out of the playoffs. With three year starting quarterback Lars Nootbaar having moved on to play baseball at USC, it was finally time to turn the team over to senior Jason Kehl. Kehl, the twoyear backup to Nootbaar and the school’s Valedictorian, was the natural choice because of his keen athleticism and high football IQ. The results and his immediate impact on the team and his teammates were as if the changing of the guard were seamless. Kehl’s leadership in the first game was evident guiding the Eagles up and down the field against Leuzinger in their 34-14 win over the Olympians. In that game, the Eagles would discover that they not only had a passing game they were famous for but a talented junior running back would have the start to an amazing season. Taz Tauaese rushed for 131 yards on 18 carries and scored three touchdowns. The football team was developing their own swagger and ignoring the past and is putting their opponents on notice of how good they can be. That intimidation was evident with the team’s resounding 62-6 win over a hapless Cantwell Sacred Heart Cardinals. As fans were still filing into Hazletine Field the rout was on. Before the large partisan Eagle faithful had barely time to sit down Kehl found Tauaese open for a 21-yard touchdown pass. The Eagles got the ball back near midfield after a poor 22-yard punt by Cantwell’s Christian Valenzuela’s. Kehl then led the Eagles on six play drive that was capped by Tauaese’s 8-yard touchdown run to make it 14-0. The Eagles went on to a 41-0 halftime lead and with the running clock in place in the second half, the Eagles easily won. The Eagles upped their record to 3-0 when Tauaese rushed for 323 yards and five touchdowns in the Eagle’s 42-30 win over host Bishop Montgomery. Not since Scippio Stubbs in the 90s and Chris Atmore, who rushed for 318 and 383 yards in back-to-back games in 2005, had an Eagles running back rushed for 300 yards or more in a game. In week four Kehl had a hand in four touchdowns and the defense made three interceptions and eight sacks in a 41-7 win over Torrance. In week five the Eagles finished off their non-league football schedule with a convincing second half 28-13 comeback win over a South Torrance team that had come into the game 4-0. The Eagles walloped Beverly Hills 35-7 to open Ocean League play. Tauaese rushed just nine times but scored three touchdowns and Ashton Salts had 101 receiving yards in Farewell, Old Friend By Adam Serrao There is no one person who has left their mark on the world of sports quite like Vincent Edward Scully. Many people know Scully as simply the voice of Los Angeles’ own Dodgers. Who can fault anyone for recognizing him for that? He’s been the voice of the Dodgers for a miraculous 67 years now. As one of the most iconic voices in sports history, Scully has called a variety of games in his life from the NFL, to The Masters, to what we know him best for, of course, Major League Baseball. It never really mattered what sport he was calling. Scully could have put his voice over a telecast of watching grass grow and we all would have been fixated by him and followed along as he told the story of each and every blade of grass, making them all look as majestic as ever as they reached up, high into the sky. Now at the age of 88, the 67-year broadcasting career of the legend, Vin Scully himself, is in its final chapter. Baseball will certainly never sound the same, but Scully is at peace with his decision to finally walk away from the game of baseball and move on into the next chapter of his life. Bill Buckner, Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, Kirk Gibson, Sandy Koufax and now Clayton Kershaw. The list of names could go on and on but the one and only person who both transcends those names and was there to see them all was Vin Scully. When you listen to the voice of Vin Scully, you feel transported. As if into another time, another decade, or another place, Scully has the golden pipes that make you miss your father, grandfather or any relative from a time past because when they were around, so too, was Vin. With his microphone gleaming in the springtime sun, Scully not only has a way of making the game come alive, but also has a way of making his mark on our lives. The voice who has had such an impact on all of us will now finally walk away from the game to spend a little bit more time making an impact on his own life, for a change. Vin Scully was born in the fall of 1927 in the Bronx, just a few weeks after the New York Yankees swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series. Perhaps that alone speaks to his own unquestionable love for the game of baseball. Scully graduated from Fordham in 1949 with a degree in Radio and quickly began his career in baseball broadcasting. It wasn’t long before he became the voice of the Dodgers at just the age of 22, began describing the actions of some of baseball’s greatest players to ever play the game better than just about anyone around at the time could. The rest was history. “His calls are so embedded in our brains, they will live forever,” said Charlie Steiner, a broadcaster himself for going on 48 years now. “We are all reporters in the booth running real fast,” Steiner continued, “He’s a poet that glides.” That poet was calling more than just Dodger games by the 1980’s. Scully not only found himself calling the World Series, but also interviewed presidents like Ronald Regan in the booth, called the 1981 NFC championship game where Joe Montana completed “the Catch” to Dwight Clark, and translated a myriad of many, many more memories that almost cannot be capsulated by one article cataloging them. “God has been so good to allow me to do what I have always wanted to do,” Scully explained to the ESPN network of his career. “Giving it to me at such an early age and then allowing me to do it for 67 years.” Scully could go on to call the game for many years to come if he wanted to, but just like many Hall of Fame players before him have decided to do, he has decided that it is the right time for him to finally hang his cleats and his microphone up on the wall. “I started to think I’m not quite as sharp as I used to be. Maybe I’m the outfielder getting a later jump than he used to. I’ll be 89, thank God I feel fine, but even so, by that time you’ll say, ‘Well, wait a minute, I’ve done all this stuff, but how much do I have left? How much time do I have to smell the roses.’ So, I’ve decided that this is the time.” A 67 year career calling the actions of virtually all of baseballs greats certainly affords Scully a little time to himself. As the fans who have benefited from his talent, expertise and joyous nature, we are certainly grateful for all that he has done. Scully will walk away from his career grateful, too. The game has given him a lot, but perhaps not as much as he has given back to the game. Scully won’t feel sad about leaving, though. “When Opening Day comes I’m sure I won’t be here and I don’t know if I’ll even watch it on television, but I’ll force myself to think not, ‘Oh poor me, I’m not there’. No, it should be, ‘Hey, do you realize that you’ve been there for 67 Opening Day’s?’ and that’s the way to do it I think.” Whatever way Scully chooses to do it, he’ll do it his way, as he’s done his whole career. A career that has impacted lives, built fans and caught the ear or millions along the way. “Maybe on the final day of my final broadcast I’ll somehow come up with the magic words that you deserve. As for now, I have only two magic words. ‘Thank You’. Thank you, Vin Scully, for making us all fall in love with the game of baseball. • See Fall Sports, page 6
MBSun_080416_FNL_lorez
To see the actual publication please follow the link above