Page 2 December 25, 2014 TORRANCE TRIBUNE Christmas Comes Early for Torrance High By Adam Serrao There weren’t any French Hens or Maids a- Milking in the building, but Christmas certainly came early for the athletes of Torrance High last Thursday night at the Torrance gymnasium. It was a rare chance to witness both the basketball team in action as they took on El Segundo in a non-conference game and the baseball team back on school grounds as they celebrated their first-ever section championship title. Justin Hino was one of the “Lords a-Leaping” for the Tartars basketball team, racking up 21 points on the night, leading Torrance to a 82- 43 victory over the Eagles. At halftime, it was the baseball team’s turn to take center stage. More than Five Golden Rings were handed out at the ceremony taking place at the break to the players that assisted the team in winning their championship back in June when they beat the South High Spartans by a score of 11-0 in the title game. The Tartars have had El Segundo’s number over the past few years, winning 15 of the last 22 games played between the two teams including last Thursday’s showdown at Torrance High. Head coach Paul Nitake knew now to take their recent success for granted, however, and had his team coming out on fire to start the game. By halftime, the Eagles, who had only won one game all season long leading into their matchup with the Tartars, found themselves in a huge hole. Nine Ladies Dancing on the sidelines cheered their best cheers as Torrance went into the break leading by 27 points. The Eagles, showing no signs of life on the night, gave the crowd ample opportunity to anticipate the baseball team’s ring ceremony at halftime. There were Drummers Drumming at the start of the second half, hoping for even more offense from their beloved Tartars that had been bringing it all night long. More offense is precisely what they got. Hino was like a Swan a-Swimming through shallow water as he came out and moved effortlessly through the El Segundo defense. Two 3-pointers and one four-point play later the Tartars and Hino had rallied off 10 more points to tack onto their lead. “This is our best game of the season,” coach Nitake said of his team. “Just playing together as a team on both ends. I’m really proud of them.” Not only did the Tartars bring it on the offensive side of the ball, they showed up defensively as well. 10 steals on the night got the Pipers Piping with excitement as Torrance was able to hold El Segundo to one of their lowest point outputs all season while almost doubling them up on the scoreboard. Hino, who could emerge as one of the Tartars best players this season, explained how he avoided becoming one of many Geese a Laying an egg and had the game of his lifetime. “I just felt it today. Without my teammates, I couldn’t do this. They got me open and I just had to knock them down.” He certainly had no trouble doing that, making his impact on the game as the leading scorer of the night. The victory was a good way for the Tartars to enter into what will be a little bit of a break for the team. Without another game until the day after Christmas, coach Nitake and his club can relax a bit now and relish in their best game of the season to date. “We feel like we’re making big strides, big improvements” he said. “A lot of good things defensively, and offensively just getting more chemistry.” The Tartars (4-6) are going to need that chemistry if they are going to want to stay on top of the Pioneer League this season and compete with the likes of South (3-5) and West (3-6) who aren’t too far behind in the race for first place. When Torrance’s baseball team took center court at halftime, the Calling Birds in the crowd let them hear it for a job well done and a victory in the CIF-Southern Section Division 4 championship game. When the rings were presented to the team, it was as if Turtle Doves flew up into the heavens. The smiles on the players’ faces as they accepted their rings said the whole story and the team was finally able to bask in their accomplishment. “It’s awesome. The whole accomplishment was awesome,” baseball coach Ollie Turner said of the experience. “I’m just glad they finally get to wear their rings and be proud of it for the rest of their lives.” The Tartars baseball team ended their season having won 16 games in a row, including two in a row over El Segundo, and the final over their rivals from South High. Their accomplishments will certainly look to be repeated once the baseball season gets underway once again this March. Until that time, it up to the boys of basketball to carry the torch and bring one home for the school. For now, however, the team will sit back and enjoy their winter holiday. A win over El Segundo, a baseball championship celebration and an evening full of cheering and fun for Torrance High. The only thing missing was the Partridge in a Pear Tree. • Burkley & Brandlin LLP NOW OPEN A T T O R N E Y S A T L AW Living Trusts/Wills, Probate, Employment Law, Personal Injury Trust and Estates Litigation, Business Litigation, Civil Litigation 310-540-6000 *AV Rated (Highest) Martindale - Hubbell / **Certified Specialist Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law, State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization MAXINE’S CAFÉ & GRILLE Appetizers, Salads, Burgers, Sandwiches, Pizzas. Made Fresh Daily! 50% OFF 2ND entree when you buy one full-price entree! 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GREAT CLOTHING INCLUDING DENIM, HATS, BAGS, SHOES AND MORE 1107 Van Ness Ave.Torrance, CA 90501 • 310.320-3207 LEE 101 USA, WOOLRICH, SAVE KHAKI, MINNETONKA MOCCASIN, PENNY, JAN SPORT, DULUTH, REYN SPOONER, TRETORN, BALL, BURTON, STANCE, RAINBOW SANDALS, FILSON, TEVA, NEW YORK HAT, PADDY WAX, RICHER & POORER, SCHOTT USA, STRATHTAY Open Mondays through Saturdays Noon to 6pm Drama in San Francisco By Adam Serrao Think back to the year of 2012. Just one year after head coach Jim Harbaugh left college football and the Stanford Cardinals to take over the San Francisco 49ers, he had the team in the Super Bowl. Harbaugh’s first year with the team was a success, too. Finishing the 2011 season with a 13-3 record put an end to an eight-year streak of consecutive non-winning seasons for San Francisco’s football team. The 49ers would lose in the NFC championship game that year to the New York Giants, who went on to win the Super Bowl, but the ascension up the ranks of NFL football was already well documented. Harbaugh and the 49ers would be a team to be reckoned with. Fast forward to this season. The castle that Harbaugh and starting quarterback Colin Kaepernick had built over the last two to three years seems to be crumbling down all around them. With word of Harbaugh’s demise at the helm of the red, white, and gold not greatly exaggerated, could the 49ers descend to mediocrity almost as fast as they climbed out of it? Sitting at 7-8 and in third place in the NFC West standings this year, the San Francisco 49ers have already been eliminated from the playoffs for the first time under coach Harbaugh. That’s not to say that just all of a sudden Harbaugh has devolved into a subpar coach, though the way he has been treated lately by 49ers brass may lead one to believe so. In his four seasons at the helm of San Francisco, Harbaugh has compiled a 42-18-1 record with three postseason appearances ranking him fourth in league in win percentage ranking over that period of time. Unless team general manager Trent Baalke just really doesn’t like ties, there’s no reason to believe that Harbaugh is suddenly just not a good football coach. Including his time at Stanford and his time at the 49ers, Harbaugh has done his job to rework the framework of football in the South Bay. A cumulative 63-24-1 record would suggest that he has simply just got a mind for football. So why all of the angst? Expectations have risen in San Francisco over the past few years and Harbaugh has quite frankly compiled a bunch of near-misses in that amount of time. With expectations so high, fans and the bosses upstairs have begun to clamor, loudly at that, for more than just an NFC championship trophy to be won. There have also been some rumors that the head coach has lost his locker room. With his hard-nosed, in-your-face style of coaching, certainly players can certainly be rubbed the wrong way. Combine that with Baalke’s incessant want of a Super Bowl trophy and there you have it. Harbaugh is undoubtedly on his way out. Don’t discount losses this season to the Oakland Raiders, Chicago Bears, and St.Louis Rams and things begin to become clearer. No coach has ever been to a conference championship game in three consecutive years like Harbaugh has, but lose to the Raiders? Something has to be wrong in that locker room. It may not be fair to call for Harbaugh’s head and send him packing to another team, whether it be college or the professional level. Those expectations that Baalke has built have been, of course, built because Harbaugh himself is the one who created them. He took the team out of the doldrums of the NFC West where they had resided for eight straight seasons and gave the South Bay hopes of championships that they hadn’t had since the Steve Young and Jerry Rice days. If Harbaugh hadn’t of taken over the team, Mike Singletary may still be pacing the sidelines, yelling at Vernon Davis to take his pads off and sit in the locker room for the remainder of the season. Davis may have already done just that without Singletary even telling him to do so. He, like much of the 49ers offense this season, has disappeared into a black hole of nothingness. A once feared club on the offensive side of the ball with the versatility of a young Colin Kaepernick and the toughness of a Frank Gore in the backfield has now been dwindled down to a team that gets outplayed and overmatched by the two-win Raiders. Certainly when the team hits rock bottom like that, some heads must certainly roll and changes must be made. “This is a divorce that a lot of us have seen coming since that surreal day at the combine that we learned that the Cleveland Browns and 49ers had talks about a potential trade for Jim Harbaugh,” said NFL Media’s Michael Silver. “It’s been individualized in the last year. Players have wondered if Jim Harbaugh is more about himself. The pistol offense has disappeared, where Colin Kaepernick was so successful. Why? Was that about credit, or was that about trying to win games. And you’ve got a coach clearly who is dissatisfied in bosses who aren’t going to the mat for him. Divorce is inevitable.” Whatever the answers to Silver’s questions are, we may never know. Silver certainly is right to state the premise that divorce is inevitable, however. Whether that means that See Drama, page 6 “Without another game until the day after Christmas, coach Nitake and his club can relax a bit now and relish in their best game of the season to date.”
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