On June 19, Walton sat helplessly as the Golden State Warriors, the team he has served as an assistant coach the last two seasons, lost in historic fashion to the Cleveland Cavaliers in game seven of the NBA Finals.

The next day he spent driving from the Bay Area to Southern California to assume his new job as the Lakers head coach. June 21 was meet the media day and June 23 is the NBA Draft.

Oh, and Walton’s wife, Bre, is expected to deliver their second child, also June 23.

Surprisingly, Walton didn’t seem overwhelmed by it all while talking to media members on his first full day as coach of the Lakers.

He preferred not to look back at the Lakers’ last two seasons, the two worst in franchise history.

“What I can affect is what’s going to happen next year and the year after that,” he said. “And we’re going to put, you know, our stamp on the culture that we want.”

Walton, who won two titles during a nine-year career with the Lakers, said he envisions a franchise that will be exciting for both the players and fans alike.

“Our players are going to like coming to practice every day,” he said. “We’re going to play a brand of basketball that the L.A. fans will appreciate. We’re going to compete. All of these things going forward with my vision of how we’re going to do things is what I can control.

“I don’t know how that’ll be different from the previous two years because I wasn’t in here for those years.”

Walton’s hiring was announced on April 29, but it was agreed that he would remain as an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors until they completed their season. The Warriors season ended with a 93-89 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 7 of the NBA Finals June 19, becoming the first team in history to blow a 3-1 lead in the finals.

The Lakers had a franchise-worst 17-65 record in the 2015-16 season and have missed the playoffs for three consecutive seasons for the first time in franchise history.

Walton spent two seasons as an assistant coach with Golden State. He had a 39-4 record as the Warriors interim coach to begin the 2015-16 season when Steve Kerr was unable to coach because of back problems, including a 24-0 start, the best in NBA history.

Walton is the son of Basketball Hall of Fame member Bill Walton, who starred at UCLA in the early 1970s before winning titles with the Portland Trail Blazers and the Boston Celtics during a 13-year NBA career that was plagued by injuries.

Now a television analyst, Bill Walton is known for having an opinion on everything and recently said he advised his son not to take the Lakers job.

The son was able to joke about that at his press conference.

“I love my father,” he said. “Sometimes he has great advice, sometimes he doesn’t.

“I’m sure you’ll see him in the hallways wearing Lakers shirts that are too small for him and chanting ‘Lakers’ and all sorts of other things that we’ve come to love about him.”

Walton began thinking about a coaching career before he retired as an NBA player. During the 2011 NBA lockout, he served as an assistant coach at the University of Memphis under coach Josh Pastner, who was a teammate of Walton’s at the University of Arizona.

At Arizona, Walton played under Lute Olson, one of the top college basketball coaches of the last 40 years. With the Lakers, he played under Phil Jackson, just like his boss at Golden State, Steve Kerr.

That’s a pretty good coaching pedigree.

Walton said he likes the youth of the Lakers and compared guards D’Angelo Russell and Jordan Clarkson and forward Julius Randle to the Warriors top three players, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.

He also acknowledged that the Lakers needed more than those three players, but still insisted the Lakers could compete for the playoffs next season in the Western Conference.

Russell, who butted heads with former coach Byron Scott throughout his rookie season, was shooting three pointers while Walton met with the press June 21.

“A lot of us are coming out of college and just really want to be able to play and have fun,” Russell said. “[Walton] just mentioned having fun and being able to run as much as possible. So I think that’s what we need.”

The Lakers also need to sign a couple of veteran free agents that the young players, including the second pick in the draft, can learn from.

Kevin Durant would be a wonderful addition, but there are other free agents out there that the Lakers can start building around.

And following the Mike Brown, Mike D’Antoni and Byron Scott coaching eras, there is nowhere to go but up for the Lakers.

“He’s one of the brightest young coaching minds in the game and we feel fortunate that he’ll be leading the on-court future of our team,” general manager Mitch Kupchak said in announcing Walton’s hiring in April.

Let’s hope Kupchak got it right this time.

Dodger relief pitcher Kenley Jansen broke the franchise record for most saves in a career when he notched his 162 save June 20. The record of 161 was set by Eric Gagne between 2001 and 2004. (Courtesy photo)

FINALLY HEATING UP: With summer finally here and the temperatures rising accordingly, the Dodgers are finally showing some life.

After a 3-2 win June 21 sparked by an eighth inning, three-run homer by Yasmani Grandal, the Dodgers have their first five-game winning streak of the season.

The offense still isn’t clicking on all cylinders and Japanese rookie Kenta Maeda seems to be the only starter other than Clayton Kershaw capable of going more than six innings per outing, but the Dodgers are finally playing well enough to worry the Giants, who still lead in the National League West by five and half games.

First-year manager seems to have finally found a rotation in the bullpen that works, with Dodger relief pitchers now the third best unit in the major leagues. Who thought that would happen in April.

Kenley Jansen is the anchor in the bullpen. The closer broke the team record for career saves June 20 when he pitched the ninth inning of a 4-1 win over Washington.

It was save number162 for Jansen, breaking the record sat by Eric Gagne, who got 152 of his 161 saves with the Dodgers between 2002 and 2004.

Of course, Gagne saved 84 games in a row between Aug. 26, 2002 and July 5, 2004, including all 55 save chances in 2003. That’s a record that will probably last forever.

Jansen picked up save 163 the next night after Adam Liberatore and Louis Coleman pitched scoreless seventh and eighth innings.

Chris Hatcher and J.P. Howell are the only two relief pitchers with earned run averages over 4 and Liberatore has given up only two runs in 31 appearances.

Joe Blanton has been a surprise and Pedro Baez may yet prove to be the setup man the Dodgers feel he can be.

Anyway you want to look at, the Dodgers bullpen is carrying a big load right now. Hopefully, that will continue.

Nneka Ogwumike of the Los Angeles Sparks dribbles the ball up the court June 21 in the Sparks loss to the Minnesota Lynx, 72-69. It was the Sparks first loss of the season after they won their first 11 games. (Courtesy photo)

SPARKS FINALLY LOSE: The Los Angeles Sparks don’t get a lot of attention here, but they are off to a great start. They lost for the first time this season June 21 to the Minnesota Lynx, 72-69, dropping their record to 11-1. The Lynx are 13-0.

The game featured 17 lead changes and wasn’t decided until Minnesota guard Renee Montgomery hit a three-pointer with 2.9 seconds left.

The Sparks Kristi Tolliver followed with her own long basket at the buzzer, but the officials ruled she got the shot off after the buzzer and that her toe was on the three-point line when the ball left her hand.

The Sparks led by one at halftime and the game was tied after three quarters.

The Sparks and the Lynx figure to battle all year for supremacy in he Western Conference.

NEW CIF ALIGNMENT: The CIF Southern Section has released new playoff groupings for 11 sports including football, basketball, soccer, softball and baseball. Teams are now evaluated and grouped for the playoffs based on a series of factors that include regular season records, strength of schedule and playoff performances over the past two seasons.

Those factors will be used to compile power rankings that will be used to determine which divisions schools will be placed in for the playoffs.

The rankings for next year were released June 17 and as soon as I figure them out, I will let you know what they are. Corona Centennial is the top school overall.

The objective, as far as the section is concerned is competitive equity. The new system relies on all schools to report the results of all games and matches.

The new power rankings will be used for the upcoming school year.

The post SPORTS DIGEST: Luke Walton ready for first head coaching job appeared first on Wave Newspapers.

In 1993, when Garrett was a newcomer to his job as athletic director at USC, he hired Miller to coach the women’s basketball team she had once starred for.

In 2014, as the athletic director at Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma, Garrett hired Miller as the school’s women’s basketball coach.

Last week, the new executive director of athletics at Cal State Los Angeles hired Miller as his women’s basketball coach.

“I’ve known Cheryl as a player, coach and general manager for more than 20 years,” Garrett said in the statement regarding Miller’s hiring. “She is a world-class talent.

“I came to Cal State L.A. to win national championships and Cheryl has done just that. She knows how to get us to where we intend to go.”

Miller, the older sister of Reggie Miller, the former UCLA and Indiana Pacers star, was a star at Riverside Poly High from 1978 to 1982. The team was 132-4 in those four years and Miller was the national high school player of the year in 1981 and 1982. In one game her senior year, Miller scored 105 points.

At USC, Miller led the Trojans to national titles in 1983 and 1984, both times being named the NCAA Tournament MVP.

She also led the U.S. national team to the Olympic gold medal in 1984.

“Graduating and developing women of inspiration and substance is my goal,” Miller said. “Cal State L.A. is the perfect place for that mission.”

As a teenager Miller spent summers playing in the U.S. Olympic development program in the Cal State L.A. gym.

“The first college I played at, literally, was Cal State L.A. I’m glad to be back,” she said.

During her coaching stint at USC, Miller led the Lady Trojans to the NCAA Tournament both years.

In her two years at Langston, her teams went 49-12 and qualified for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics both years.

Cal State L.A. President William A. Covino said Miller “embodies the kind of athlete and human being who will lead our students to successful futures beyond what they’ve imagined.”

It was expected Garrett, who was named executive director of athletics at Cal State Los Angeles earlier this year, would make a splash in his new role.

Garrett’s story isn’t new. He went from Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights to USC, becoming the university’s first Heisman Trophy in 1965.

From USC he went to the American Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs, where he played in two of the first four Super Bowls.

After becoming an attorney in his post-football career, Garrett returned to USC as athletic director, leading the athletic department for 17 years and hiring Pete Carroll to turn around the football program.

After leaving USC when the NCAA put the Trojans on sanctions in 2010, Garrett landed at Langston and tried to put that university on the athletic map.

Expect similar things to happen at Cal State L.A.

UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero, left, and Kevin Plank, founder and CEO of Under Armour, announced a 15-year agreement May 24 for Under Armour to supply sports uniform and equipment for UCLA athletes, beginning July 1, 2117. The contract is reportedly the largest apparel contract in the history of college sports. (Courtesy photo)

UCLA’S BIG CONTRACT: The Bruins made big news May 24 when UCLA officials and sports apparel manufacturer Under Armour announced a 15-year sports apparel contract that is the largest such contract in NCAA history.

The deal will pay UCLA about $280 million over the terms of the deal.

“UCLA has always been about challenging the status quo and breaking through barriers,” UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero said. “Under Armour shares those core values. They are about more than simply making athletes look good, they constantly pursue innovation in order to make athletes better.”

Under Armour is a relative newcomer to the sports apparel game compared to Nike and Adidas, but it is trying to move up quickly.

The Baltimore-based company already has apparel deals with Notre Dame, Auburn and Wisconsin.

“With 113 NCAA championships, UCLA is the most decorated athletic program in history, the benchmark for excellence in performance,” said Under Armour founder and CEO Kevin Plank. “Under Armour’s commitment to growth through innovation and an unwavering mission to make all athletes better aligns seamlessly with UCLA and the pioneering figures that helped build the program, and we look forward to reaching new heights with the Bruins.”

Under the deal Under Armour will design and supply shoes, apparel and uniforms for all 25 of the university’s men’s and women’s varsity athletic teams. The deal will begin July 1, 2017, replacing the university’s deal with Adidas.

The Los Angeles Times reported that UCLA will receive $15 million in cash up front. The school will subsequently be paid approximately $11 million annually in rights and marketing fees.

Under Armour has agreed to supply about $7.4 million worth of clothing, shoes and equipment each school year and contribute an additional $2 million over the next eight years for upgrades at facilities such as the Morgan Center and the Acosta Athletic Complex.

With an equipment deal of this size, coupled with the television money that football and basketball generate, college sports continues to be a cash cow for the adults. Meanwhile, the kids that play the sports (the real generators of the income) are stuck with archaic NCAA rules that limit how many “benefits” they can receive from their universities.

UCLA’s star quarterback Josh Rosen was quick to note that in an Instagram message that said: “We’re still amateurs, though. … Gotta love non-profits.”

The message was removed from Instagram shortly after it was posted.

Former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon, who has sued the NCAA over the use of his likeness in an NCAA-sanctioned video game, also was quick to comment.

“The fact that the college athletes can’t share any part of that money is unreal,” O’Bannon told The Times’ Bill Plaschke.

Yes, college football players receive a scholarship that covers their tuition and some living expenses. They get their meals paid for during the season.

The value of a four-year scholarship for an out-of-state student is set at $240,000. That’s a nice chunk of change, even spread out over four years, but it is a small amount compared to what the athletes generate for their schools. And as the size of coaching, television and apparel contracts grow larger and larger, the outcry from college athletes is also going to grow correspondingly, until the NCAA is forced to do something about it.

EARLY BENEFITS: The benefits of having a National Football League stadium in Los Angeles (er, Inglewood) manifested themselves May 24 when the NFL announced the 2021 Super Bowl would be played in the new stadium.

That means the focus of the average sports fan will be on Inglewood and Los Angeles for the first week of February that year. The Super Bowl will be just one of several major sporting events that the stadium will eventually host.

The NCAA March Madness Final Four will surely be held there one day. Many NFL watchers predict the NFL Combine that tests players just leaving college could be held there as well.

In other words, the stadium will bring big crowds to Inglewood more than just 10 times a year.

And how does this matchup sound for the 2021 Super Bowl: The Los Angeles Rams versus the Las Vegas Raiders.

The post SPORTS DIGEST: Garrett hires Cheryl Miller to coach Cal State L.A. women’s basketball appeared first on Wave Newspapers.

The Lakers will pick second, following the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA Draft June 23, just like last year.

Chances are good that the Lakers won’t be drafting second again next year. Who knows about Philadelphia, which is still finishing last in the league despite having the third overall pick in the last two drafts. Of course, the 2014 pick, Joel Embiid, has yet to play a minute in the NBA.

For the next month, all the speculation will be about whom the Lakers will draft.

The top two consensus choices are Duke forward Brandon Ingram and Louisiana State forward Ben Simmons, both one-and-done freshmen.

Simmons drew early comparisons to Lebron James at the start of last season, but those were tempered by the end of the year when LSU didn’t even make the NCAA Tournament.

Simmons can do everything on a basketball court except shoot. Ingram excels at shooting.

At 6-10, 240, Simmons has the size to get close to the basket where his shooting deficiencies aren’t as noticeable. He averaged 19.2 points, 11.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists a game for LSU.

Brandon Ingram, a freshman from Duke, is expected to be one of the top two picks in the NBA Draft June 23.
(Courtesy photo)

Ingram is 6-9 but reed thin at about 190 pounds. He said he would go on a diet consuming 5,000 calories a day to add weight, while also bulking up in the weight room. His numbers were 17.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2 assists per game.

Simmons is believed to have more upside, so expect the 76ers to draft him. That leaves Ingram for the Lakers, unless Lakers front office brass Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak fall in love with someone else between now and June 23.

With the Lakers set at guard, the sleeper in the draft becomes Dragan Bender, a 7-1 Croatian who is only 18. Bender is being compared to both Dirk Nowitski and Kristaps Porzingis. Nowitski is nearing the end of a Hall of Fame career. Porzingis was drafted fourth overall by the New York Knicks last year and ended up second in the rookie of the year balloting and is believed to be on his way to superstardom.

If Bender is impressive in his pre-draft workouts, the Lakers would be wise to skip the slender Ingram and go for size and draft Bender second.

A good big man inside would compliment young guards D’Angelo Russell and Jordan Clarkson and forward Julius Randle could use Bender’s size to keep heat off him.

The draft should add to the Lakers young nucleus, but the team still has to make a splash in the free agent market this summer if they are going to rise to the level of playoff contender.

It has been a successful off-season so far for the Lakers. They signed Luke Walton to be their new head coach and they kept their first round draft pick.

A solid free agent signing or two could put them near the playoffs next season.

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw delivers a pitch against the Angels May 17. Kershaw is off to one of the best starts of his career with a 6-1 record and 88 strikeouts in 70 innings. (Photo by Nick Koza)

SOMETHING SPECIAL: Even if you are not a baseball fan, make an effort to get out to Dodger Stadium and see Clayton Kershaw pitch. The 28-year-old left-handed ace of the Dodgers pitching staff is putting up some historic numbers for the Boys in Blue, who otherwise are struggling.

Kershaw has made nine starts for the Dodgers this season. They are 8-1 in those games. They are 13-18 when someone else starts.

In his nine starts, he has thrown 70 innings (almost eight innings a start), struck out 88, walked four and given up 45 hits and 14 runs. His walks and hits per inning is at .700, a career low, and Kershaw has led the league in that statistic four of the last five years.

The Major League record for best strikeout-to-walk ratio is 11.63 to 1, set by Phil Hughes of the Minnesota Twins in 2014. Kershaw’s ratio this season: 22:1.

In his most recent start May 17, Kershaw defeated the Angels, 5-1. He went eight innings, striking out 11. It was the sixth consecutive start that Kershaw struck out 10 or more batters, a team record that even the great Sandy Koufax never achieved.

Only 28, Kershaw already has won three Cy Young Awards, voted to the best pitcher in the National League each year, and seems headed for a fourth this year.

Players like Kershaw don’t come along very often. We in Los Angeles should enjoy him while we can.

Bo Jackson will be inducted into the Shrine of the Eternals by the Baseball Reliquary during the organization’s annual induction ceremony July 17 in Pasadena.
(Courtesy photo)

BASEBALL SHRINE: The Baseball Reliquary is a Pasadena-based organization that is dedicated to fostering an appreciation of American art and culture through the context of baseball history and to explore the games unparalleled creative possibilities.

The group will hold its annual award ceremony July 17 at the Pasadena Central Library at which time Don Newcombe, Bo Jackson and author Arnold Hano will be inducted into the Shrine of the Eternals, an honor bestowed upon people who have impacted the game on or off the field.

According to the Reliquary rules, honorees shall have been responsible for developing baseball through athletic and or business achievements, in terms of its larger cultural and sociological impact as mass entertainment and as an arena for the human imagination.

Newcombe broke in with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948, a year after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.

The Dodgers traded him to the Cincinnati Reds in 1958, the year they moved to Los Angeles and he ended his career with the Cleveland Indians.

During his career he had a record of 149 wins and 90 losses.

He was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1946 and the National league Most Valuable Player in 1956, the year he won the first ever Cy Young Award.

Since the late 1970s, Newcombe has been a member of the Dodgers’ community affairs staff.

Jackson had a mercurial two-sport career in football and baseball, winning the 1985 Heisman Trophy as a running back for Auburn.

Drafted first by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 1986 NFL Draft, Jackson instead signed with the Kansas City Royals in baseball, breaking in with them in September 1986 after only 53 games in the minor leagues.

In 1989 he made the All Star Game and was selected the game’s most valuable player after making a fine running catch to prevent two runs in the first inning and then leading off the bottom of the inning with a 448-foot home run.

A football hip injury limited his baseball career and he retired after 1994 with a career batting average of .250 and 141 home runs.

Hano is best known for his book “A Day in the Bleachers” about Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, which was highlighted by Willie Mays’ over-the-shoulder catch of a ball hit by Vic Wertz.

Membership in the Reliquary ranges from $25 to $500 a year and all members vote for three people each year in the Shrine of the Eternals balloting.

More information is available at www.baseballreliquary.org.

GET THOSE TICKETS: The Los Angeles Rams have begun contacting the 56,000 people who paid a $100 deposit to get on the waiting list for season tickets this season.

The Rams will play nine home games (including two exhibition games) at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum this year.

“We are excited to begin the process of building our season ticket fan base and creating the best home field advantage in the National Football League,” Rams Vice President Jake Bye said in a team news release. “Our goal is to reciprocate the passion demonstrated by our fans through a one-of-a-kind game-day experience as we kick off our first season back in Los Angeles.”

Fans that placed a refundable deposit for 2016 Los Angeles Rams season tickets will be grouped into tiered phases based upon the order in which their deposit was first received, Bye said. Over the next several weeks, the Rams will contact deposit holders according to their phase grouping regarding their 2016 seat locations.

Upon being contacted by the club, deposit holders will have the opportunity to select their seat locations for the upcoming season through the “Rams Member Portal.”

Inside the portal, fans can utilize a state-of-the-art, 360-degree seat viewer to see different aspects of the game-day experience from any available seat in the Coliseum. Additionally, the portal will serve as a communications hub from the team to season ticket members. The portal will feature exclusive content and information surrounding Rams events, including special offseason experiences, training camp access, and more.

Season tickets range from $360 to $2,025. Pending availability, single-game tickets will go on sale later this summer and more information will be released at that time, Bye said.

HIGH SCHOOL TRACK: The CIF Southern Section conducts its track and field championship meet May 21 at Cerritos College. The Master’s Meet, which will qualify athletes for the state meet, is May 28, also at Cerritos College.

In the L.A. City Section, the semifinals will be held May 19 at Birmingham High School. The finals will be conducted May 26, also at Birmingham.

The post SPORTS DIGEST: Lakers keep first-round pick, will draft second overall appeared first on Wave Newspapers.

He didn’t make the varsity team until his junior year. By the time he was a senior, he had sprouted to the 6-3 he is today with the Oklahoma City Thunder and led Leuzinger to a 25-4 record, averaging 25.1 points and 8.7 rebounds a game.

He scored 30 or more points eight times, topped by 51 against Carson on Jan. 6, 2006. Still Westbrook wasn’t highly recruited by the major colleges until Jordan Farmar decided to turn pro after his sophomore year at UCLA and coach Ben Howland offered him a scholarship to replace Farmar.

Still, Westbrook came off the bench his freshman year, playing behind Darren Collison. When Collison got hurt the following season, Westbrook took over and guided the Bruins to a third straight appearance in the Final Four, where they lost to Memphis.

Westbrook then decided to turn pro and was drafted by the Seattle Supersonics fourth overall in the 2008 NBA Draft. The Sonics became the Oklahoma City Thunder shortly after the draft and Westbrook has been a star for the Thunder almost since he arrived.

This year, he finished fourth in voting for most valuable player in the league behind MVP Steph Curry, Kawhi Leonard of the San Antonio Spurs and LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers. He averaged 23.8 points a game, a career-high 10.8 assists a game and a career-high 7.8 rebounds a game.

With forward Kevin Durant, Westbrook provides the best one-two punch in the NBA behind Curry and Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors and, with the 95-91 win over the San Antonio Spurs May 10, the Thunder are one win away from the NBA’s Western Conference finals.

Durant is the star of the 2016 free agent class for the NBA and everyone has been wondering what he will do this summer.

Will he stay in Oklahoma City? Will he go home to Washington, D.C. and play for the Wizards? Will he take a paycut to play for the Spurs or the Warriors and chase a ring?

Westbrook has one more year left on his contract before free agency. Personally, I think he would look great in purple and gold playing half his games in his hometown.

The Lakers might have to unload D’Angelo Russell to make way for Westbrook, who plays with a passion that most of his peers don’t have.

The Lakers front office knows they need a superstar to guide the Lakers back to the playoffs. Westbrook would be a perfect fit a year from now, something I’m sure Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss have already thought about.

The Lakers won’t know until after the NBA Draft Lottery May 17 if they have kept their first round pick this year. There is lots of rebuilding to do. A player like Russell Westbrook would speed up the process considerably.

The Los Angeles Sports Arena has been the site of thousands of athletic performances since it was built in 1959. It will soon be demolished to make way for a new soccer stadium that will be home to the Los Angeles Football Club, which will open play in the Major Soccer League in 2018.
(Courtesy photo)

SO LONG, SPORTS ARENA: The Los Angeles City Council May 6 voted to move forward on the project to replace the Los Angeles Sports Arena with a soccer stadium for a Major League Soccer expansion team that will begin play in 2018.

The $250 million project calls for a 22,000-seat stadium, restaurants, retail stores and a sports museum as well as 143,000 square feet of open space for public use, including wide sidewalks and plazas.

The Los Angeles Sports Arena has been home to many a sporting event in its 57-year history.

A boxing match was held four days after Vice President Richard Nixon attended grand opening ceremonies for the facility on July 4 1959.

At one time or another, the arena served as the home court for the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Clippers, the USC Trojans, the UCLA Bruins before Pauley Pavilion was built in 1965, the Los Angeles Stars of the old American Basketball Association, and home ice of the Los Angeles Blades of the Western Hockey League, and the Los Angeles Sharks of the World Hockey Association.

It was the site of the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four in 1968 and 1972, the women’s Final Four in 1992, the NBA All Star Game in 1962 and the boxing competition for the 1984 Olympics.

From 1960 until 2004, it hosted the best track and field athletes in the world at the Los Angeles Invitational (later the Sunkist Invitational) meet.

City Councilman Curren Price, whose district includes the project, said the soccer stadium will “reactivate an often overlooked concrete jungle,” and called the project the largest the city and South Los Angeles “has seen in decades,” but the demolition of the Sports Arena will mark the end of an era for a venue that provided lots of great sports action over 57 years.

REAL WRESTLING: Now mostly a concert venue, The Forum in Inglewood still holds the occasional sporting event and will again next month when the 2016 Men’s Freestyle Wrestling World Cup comes to town June 11 and 12.

Wrestling for the U.S. team will be Aaron Pico, a 19 year old from Whittier, who attended St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower.

“I am super excited to be competing on the World Cup team. Anytime you can represent your country internationally is an honor,” Pico said. “The fact that this will be held in the USA is awesome. I will be part of a great team that will have members of the Olympic Team on it. I am going to focus on getting ready for the World Cup and putting on a great show.”

The World Cup is an international dual meet championship featuring the eight best men’s freestyle teams in the world. The United States team will compete against Azerbaijan, Georgia, India, Iran, Mongolia, Russia and Turkey.

Pico won a state wrestling tile in 2013 for St. John Bosco before he quit competing at the high school level to concentrate full time on international freestyle wrestling. He finished second in the 143-pound weight class at the recent U.S. Olympic Trials.

He currently wrestles for the Titan Mercury Wrestling Club.

The post SPORTS DIGEST: Now a superstar, Westbrook would make a great Laker appeared first on Wave Newspapers.

That’s the message Lakers management sent April 29 when announcing the hiring of Luke Walton as the new head coach.

I didn’t agree with the firing of Byron Scott because there wasn’t much he could have done with the Lakers the last two years. But hiring Walton will be the first step in getting the franchise moving in the right direction.

First, Walton has a championship pedigree. He is the son of basketball Hall of Famer Bill Walton, the former UCLA great whose NBA career was hampered by injuries. Luke played on the last two Lakers championship teams, not as a starter but a role player off the bench who did the little things well.

Walton first impressed me when he was playing at the University of Arizona. Not an overly gifted athlete, he was a two-time all Pac 10 first team selection because he was intelligent, knew how and when to pass the ball and seemed to understand the nuances of the game better than most college players.

At 36, Walton is young enough to still relate to NBA players. As an assistant coach on the Golden State Warriors, he has learned what it is like to coach in the NBA and his experience as the substitute head coach for the Warriors this season when Steve Kerr was sidelined by back surgery made him someone every team with a coaching vacancy wanted to interview

The Lakers were smart in moving in first with the best offer, although Walton said the Lakers was the only head coaching job he was interested in.

Walton still has work to do with the Warriors before taking over with the Lakers. That’s fine.

The Lakers are waiting to see how the NBA’s draft lottery works out before making plans for next season. If the Lakers manage to hold on to their top pick, they are assured of having another top college player on the roster next year to blend it with the nucleus of DeAndre Russell, Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr., their four picks from the last two drafts.

Walton hopefully will be better at recruiting free agents to come play for the Lakers than any of the recent Lakers head coaches because the roster needs veterans who can mentor the young players and show them how it’s supposed to be done in the NBA.

The Lakers may not make the playoffs next year. But with Walton calling the shots from the bench, they will have a chance to be competitive, which they haven’t been the last two seasons.

Jared Goff, shown here during his days at Cal, was the Rams number one pick in the NFL Draft April 28. He is expected to contend for the starting quarterback job as a rookie. (Photo courtesy of Marin Media)

THE RAMS ARE BACK: That was quite a party the Los Angeles Rams staged at L.A. Live April 28. Rams fans packed the plaza to watch the NFL Draft, which saw the Rams take Cal quarterback Jared Goff with the overall number one pick.

The Rams felt they needed an upgrade at quarterback and thought Goff was the best one on the draft board, which made it a pretty simple decision. Except those decisions are never simple.

No one will know how good a quarterback Goff will be in the NFL until he gets out on the field and proves it. Even a solid rookie year won’t necessarily mean Goff is going to be a star.

Just go back to the Rams top pick in 2010.

Sam Bradford was the 2008 Heisman Trophy winner and the first overall choice fir the Rams in the 2010 draft. In his first year, he set the NFL record for most pass completions by a rookie and was chosen the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.

Six years later and Bradford isn’t even sure he has a starting job in the league with the Philadelphia Eagles, who traded up to draft quarterback Carson Wentz of North Dakota State right behind Goff last week.

Bradford immediately asked to be traded.

Bradford’s progress has been stymied by injuries, much like Robert Griffin III, who is trying to restart his career with the Cleveland Browns.

First-year success doesn’t always indicate stardom, so I’m not jumping on the Goff bandwagon yet. Besides, I’ve followed the Rams for a long time. In the old days, the most popular person with the fans on the team used to be the backup quarterback.

We will see if new Rams fans are as fickle as the old ones were.

The Rams only had five other picks in the draft after Goff, trading most of their other picks to move up to get Goff.

In the fourth round, they drafted Western Kentucky tight end Tyler Higbee and South Carolina wide receiver Pharoh Cooper. In the sixth round, they added Kentucky linebacker Josh Forrest, South Carolina State tight end Tamarrick Hemingway and Southern Mississippi wide receiver Mike Thomas.

The Rams need more receivers for Goff to get the ball to so the four offensive rookies have good chances of making the opening day roster.

Kenta Maeda has been a pleasant surprise in his first month as a starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Signed as a free agent from Japan in the offseason, Maeda has a 3-1 record after five starts with a 1.41 earned run average.
(Courtesy photo)

A LONG SEASON: It’s only the first week of May and already you have to remind Dodgers fans that baseball teams play a 162-game schedule over six months and there are bound to be ups and downs.

After being down on the bullpen for most of the first month of the season, pessimistic Dodgers fans turned their venom on the offense last week after the Dodgers dropped six games on a seven-game homestand, scoring only 10 runs in the last six games.

The offense was no better in the one game the Dodgers managed to win: a 1-0 victory over the San Diego Padres May 1 in which Clayton Kershaw pitched a three-hit shutout and drove in the only run of the game with a third-inning single.

The Dodgers are currently only a half-game behind the Giants with 21 more weeks to play. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

There have been some good signs, led by the success of Japanese starting pitcher Kenta Maeda, who could replace Zack Greinke in the hearts of fans. Joe Blanton has been a pleasant surprise out of the bullpen and Trayce Thompson has provided some offensive pop off the bench as a reserve outfielder.

Thompson is battling his big brother Klay, the starting shooting guard for the Golden State Warriors, for publicity.

Their dad, former Lakers center Mychal Thompson, should be a very proud father.

Former St. John Bosco wide receiver Bryce Treggs, who played collegiately at Cal, has signed a free agent contract with the San Francisco 49ers. (Photo by Jose/Marin Media)

SHORT NOTES: McKenna Stevens, a junior on Culver City High School’s girls’ volleyball team, recently won a trip to the Olympic Games in Brazil later this summer. Dick’s Sporting Goods in El Segundo received 5,000 nominations to participate in this program, and McKenna was nominated by her club coach and selected for this opportunity.

She and her mother will fly to Rio this summer on an all-expenses-paid trip to the Olympics and will get to see many of the Olympic events.

On May 3, Fremont High School in South Los Angeles renamed its baseball field in honor of Clarence Johnson for his 50 years of dedicated service to the school and its baseball team.  For the last 50 years, Johnson has served as the groundskeeper for the baseball diamond at Fremont, getting the field into shape for practices and games.

Every year when the NFL Draft is over, teams in the league quickly hurry to sign players who weren’t drafted to free agent contracts to fill out preseason rosters. These players start out as longshots, but every year there are players who survive the exhibition season and stick with the teams they signed with.

Two former wide receivers from Dorsey High School will continue as teammates at least for the summer. Jaydon Mickens and Marvin Hall, who played their college ball at the University of Washington, both signed free agent deals with the Oakland Raiders.

A third area player, former St, John Bosco standout Bryce Treggs, who caught passes from Jared Goff at Cal the last three seasons, signed with the San Francisco 49ers.

The post SPORTS DIGEST: Lakers turn to Luke Walton to revive franchise appeared first on Wave Newspapers.

Two years ago, it was an easy choice.

The Lakers were named by 43 percent of those questioned as the favorite local team, followed by the Dodgers at 34 percent.

But the last two seasons have been the worst in Lakers franchise history, while the Dodgers have been to Major League Baseball’s postseason three times in a row for the first time in club history.

So when Forecast LA, an annual economic forecast and public opinion poll conducted by the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, conducted the poll again this year, the results were a lot closer.

The Lakers still led, but only by a 37-35 percent margin.

Forecast LA surveyed 2,400 people during January and February for the poll. Following the Lakers and Dodgers were the Clippers at 9 percent, the Kings at 8 percent, the Galaxy at 6 percent, the Angels at 5 percent and the Sparks at 1 percent.

I’m surprised at how low the Angels were on the poll. Owner Arte Moreno has insisted on calling his team the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for marketing purposes more than anything, but the Angels are barely a blip in the Los Angeles sports scene, trailing even the Major League Soccer Galaxy. Of course, the Galaxy shows up in the postseason every year.

My second favorite Los Angeles sports team wasn’t on the ballot because the survey limited responses to professional teams. I wonder where the USC football team or the UCLA football or basketball teams would rank in the survey?

My top team would be the Dodgers, followed by USC football and the Lakers.

The survey bodes well for the Los Angeles Rams. It won’t take much for the Rams to move into third place the next time Forecast LA takes the survey.

Unless the Clippers can figure out how to get away from whatever curse still plagues them and make a playoff run in the NBA between now and then.

BAD LUCK STREAK: Just when it looked like the Clippers might have a chance to advance past the second round of the NBA playoffs, the team’s bad luck jumped out and ambushed them.

With Stephen Curry out for two weeks for the Golden State Warriors with a sprained knee, the Clippers might have been able to sneak past the Warriors in the second round of the playoffs and advance to the Western Conference finals.

But on April 25, Chris Paul broke his hand and Blake Griffin reinjured the quadriceps tendon in his left leg that caused him to miss 45 games this season in a loss to the Portland Trailblazers and now the Clippers are facing three games with Portland without their two best players.

So much for the Clippers upset plans. They will be lucky to escape Portland.

Even without Curry, Golden State should be able to withstand the Clippers without Paul and Griffin.

During the offseason, which will start sooner than Clippers’ fans were hoping, coach Doc Rivers and company may have to decide if it is time to break up the nucleus of the team and seek a title run with other players.

Paul and Griffin are each under contract through the 2016-17 season, with a player option for the following year.

The window of opportunity is closing fast for the Clippers, or was that window only an illusion?

The Lakers made coach Byron Scott the fall guy for the worst season in franchise history, firing him April 24 after two seasons. Scott won only 38 games during his tenure. (Courtesy photo)

THE FALL GUY: Byron Scott deserved a better fate. The former Morningside High star was fired April 24 by the Lakers after coaching the team to the two worst season records in franchise history.

What did the Lakers’ front office think Scott was going to do with those teams?

The Lakers had an aging Kobe Bryant, a group of untested young players and a bunch of journeymen who were happy to still be in the league.

Scott, who spent his last year as an NBA player during Bryant’s rookie season, was given the dubious task of bringing along the young talent during Bryant’s retirement tour throughout the league.

Scott was criticized roundly for the way he handled the young players, particularly rookie point guard D’Angelo Russell, who was taken out of the starting lineup 20 games into the season and not reinserted until after the all-star break.

With Bryant gone and the Lakers with plenty of room under the salary cap to sign a key free agent or two, general manager Mitch Kupchak and his boss, Jim Buss, decided they would be better off with a coach who would appeal more to possible free agents like Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The problem with Kupchak and Buss conducting the coaching search is that they haven’t hired a quality coach ever.

Since Phil Jackson left the first time, after the 2003-04 season, the Kupchak-Buss team has hired Rudy Tomjanovich, Mike Brown, Mike D’Antoni and Scott.

The only successful coach in the ensuing years was Jackson, who came in back in 2005 and coached through the 2010-11 season.

Buss’ dad, Jerry, brought Jackson back in 2005.

If the Lakers are going to hire a big-name coach, they are going to have to give that coach more say in personnel decisions, which I don’t think Kupchak and Buss are going to want to allow.

My two personal favorites for the coaching slot would be former Laker Luke Walton and former Crenshaw High star Kevin Ollie, who coaches at the University of Connecticut.

I would be surprised to see either one coaching the Lakers next season.

Jacob Davison of Cantwell-Sacred Heart of Mary High School will close out his high school basketball career April 30 in the 18th annual Collision All Star Games at Inglewood High School. The games feature the top girls and boys senior players from the Los Angeles City and Southern Sections. (Photo by Nick Koza)

PREP BASKETBALL FINALE: The 2015-16 prep basketball season closes its curtain April 30 when the 18th annual Collision All Star Games are played at Inglewood High School.

The Collision Games feature the best Southern Section girls and boys playing against the top players from the L.A City Section.

The girls game tips off at 4 p.m. and the boys game follows.

Several players from area schools will be participating.

For the Southern Section boys, Kobe Parras and Daron Henson of Cathedral, Jacob Davison of Cantwell-Sacred Heart of Mary, and Terrell Gomez of Inglewood will play.

For the L.A. City Section, Damaria Jones and Jamal Hicks of Narbonne, Lafayette Dorsey of Dorsey, Babacar Thiombane of Fairfax, Jalen Chatham and Matthew Mondesir of Washington Prep, L’kielynn Taylor and Evan Council form Westchester and Marqueece McKinzey of Fremont will play.

The L.A. City girls team includes Monica Garcia of Garfield; Christina Rodriguez, Nathaly Roque and Jessica Gomez of Legacy; Heidi Ramos of Animo Ralph Bunche Charter; Terrin Sullivan and Alexia Budd of Middle College, Aubrey Burke of Foshay  and Dominique Dotson of Fairfax.

The Southern Section girls’ roster was not available.

Tickets, at $10 for adults and $5 for children, will be available at the door.

Edgar Valerio, left, fights Javier Rodriguez earlier this year at the Belasco Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. The young fighter from South Los Angeles has signed a contract with Golden Boy Promotions to promote his fights.
(Courtesy photo)

YOUNG BOXER TURNS PRO: Edgar Valerio, who learned to box at the Century Sheriff’s Boxing Gym in South Los Angeles, has signed with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions.

Valerio, 21, started boxing when his father took him to the Youth Activities League Center operated by the Century Sheriff’s Station at the age of 11.

He honed his skills at the center over the next six years, registering an amateur boxing record of 49 wins and 11 losses before he turned pro in 2012.

In his first professional fight at The Hangar in Costa Mesa, Valerio scored a technical knockout over Fernando Fuentes.

He has since gone on to fight six times professionally, winning all his bouts, four by knockouts.

He signed with Golden Boy after appearing on two fight cards at the Belasco Theatre downtown that were promoted by Golden Boy.

There is no word when his debut for Golden Boy will be held.

The Century Sheriff’s Boxing Gym is open from 3 to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday at 7116 Makee Ave. About 150 kids take part in the Sheriff’s Youth Activities League after-school program, which is designed to steer children away from gangs and teach them a sense of personal pride, community service, leadership skills and promote the importance of education.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department operates 17 Youth Activities League programs throughout the county.

The post SPORTS DIGEST: Lakers edge Dodgers as L.A.’s favorite team appeared first on Wave Newspapers.

The season doesn’t start until Sept. 12. They don’t play at home until Sept. 18, but now that the schedule has been announced — and the Rams have mortgaged their future for an untested rookie quarterback — it’s like the Rams never left.

The trade April 14 with the Tennessee Titans for the number one overall pick in the April 28 National Football League draft was the kind of splash the Rams needed to make in the Los Angeles sports market. The Rams traded four draft picks in next week’s draft, plus two more in the 2017 draft, for the Titans top pick, plus a fourth round pick and a sixth round pick in this year’s draft.

If nothing else, it shows that Rams ownership realizes that to be a major player in Los Angeles you need to create your own stars. Whoever the Rams draft April 28 will be a star from the moment his name is announced until training camps open in July.

After that, Carson Wentz or Jared Goff will have to prove they were worth six draft picks on the field. No pressure, guys.

Wentz is from North Dakota State. Goff is from Cal. Both are quarterbacks. One or the other will be the Rams number one draft choice.

You don’t trade six draft picks for an offensive lineman.

The Rams already know which of the two they want to draft. Goff is the safest choice. He is big enough to play quarterback in the NFL and spent the last three years in the Pac 12 Conference, so he is has faced top-notch competition in college.

Wentz played at North Dakota State. There is no Oregon, USC or even Washington State or Colorado on the North Dakota State schedule. There is Montana. And Weber State. And South Dakota State. And North Dakota. Get the picture.

He also missed eight games last year with a broken wrist.

But he led the Bison to the NCAA Division I Football Championship in January, the fifth straight title for the Bison.

No one knows how Wentz’s skills will translate to the NFL, but that’s true of every draft choice.

It’s also fitting that the Rams won’t play a game for five more months and they already have a quarterback controversy. And once the Rams make their selection, they still might have a quarterback controversy.

The Rams have Case Keenum and Nick Foles already on their roster.

They acquired Foles in a trade last offseason for Sam Bradford, the Rams number one overall draft choice in the 2010 draft. Keenum supplanted Foles as the starting quarterback midway through last season and recently signed a new contract.

Of course, quarterback controversies and the Rams are no strangers.

Sixty-five years ago it was Norm Van Brocklin and Bob Waterfield, two Hall of Famers. After Waterfield retired, it was Van Brocklin and Bill Wade.

Van Brocklin was traded and promptly led the Philadelphia Eagles to the NFL title in 1960.

Then it was Wade and Frank Ryan. They both ended up being traded and winning NFL titles with their new teams.

The controversies continued in the 1960s with Bill Munson and Roman Gabriel and in the 1970s with John Hadl and James Harris, Harris and Pat Haden, Haden and Ron Jaworski, Haden and Vince Ferragamo, etc.

So, it’s nice to know the Rams are reviving their old traits while moving back to town.

As for next season’s schedule, the Rams will open the season on Sept. 12, a Monday night, in San Francisco. Their home opener will be the following Sunday, Sept. 18 against another NFC Western Division foe, the Seattle Seahawks. It will mark Seattle coach Pete Carroll’s first return to the Coliseum since he left USC.

The Rams’ other home games will be against the Buffalo Bills Oct. 9, the Carolina Panthers Nov. 6, the Miami Dolphins Nov. 20, the Atlanta Falcons Dec. 11, the San Francisco 49ers Dec. 24 and the Arizona Cardinals Jan. 1.

The Rams game against the New York Giants Oct. 23 is considered a home game even though it will be played in London, starting at 6:30 a.m. here.

Max Browne has waited three years for the chance to become the starting quarterback at USC. (Courtesy photo)

ANOTHER QB CONTROVERSY?: The Rams will share the Coliseum with the USC Trojans for the next three years and the Trojans may have a quarterback controversy as well.

Four years ago, Max Browne was considered the top high school quarterback in the nation. He is still waiting to start his first collegiate game.

And now that Cody Kessler has graduated, Browne is getting competition from redshirt freshman Sam Darnold.

USC finished spring practice April 16 and new head coach Clay Helton said the quarterback competition would extend into summer training camp.

Browne is said to have the better arm, but Darnold moves better outside the pocket and might give the Trojans a bit of versatility at the position they haven’t had in years.

The Trojans have a lot of offensive weapons so the quarterback’s primary objective next fall will be not to make mistakes.

We will have to wait until August to find out who will be the chosen one.

TOO MANY BAD GAMES: After watching the opening weekend of games in the NBA playoffs, I have to say there are too many lopsided games because there are too many playoff teams. The eighth-seeded teams have little chance of winning one game in a best-of-seven series against the top-seeded teams and the seventh-seeded teams have only a slightly better chance against the second seeds.

Ideally, only the top six teams in each conference should make the playoffs but playoff games mean revenue so don’t expect the league to be cutting back anytime soon.

During the opening round of the playoffs, I find the National Hockey League games more entertaining than the NBA games. Now if the Kings and Ducks would get their acts together so we can see them do battle against each other in the second round.

Both teams lost their first two games, before bouncing back to win game three.

Los Angeles Clippers Jamal Crawford was chosen the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year April 19, the third time he has won that award. The Los Angeles chapter of the Professional Basketball Writers Association also honored Crawford as the winner of the Elton Brand Media Recognition Award as the local player most accommodating to the media. (Courtesy photo)

AWARDS FOR GOOD GUY: Jamal Crawford is one of the most valuable members of the Los Angeles Clippers. That value was recognized again April 19 when he was named the best sixth man in the league, the third time he has won that award.

Crawford averages 14.2 points a game for the Clippers as their primary sparkplug off the bench. Most importantly, he leads the team in fourth quarter scoring with 341 points.

He also was honored April 17 when the Los Angeles chapter of the Professional Basketball Writers Association voted him the winner of the Elton Brand Media Recognition Award as the local player most accommodating to the media.

Crawford needs to keep his game at a high level for the Clippers to have a chance to go far in the NBA playoffs this year. The Clippers shouldn’t have to work too hard to defeat Portland in the opening round, but waiting right around the corner are the Golden State Warriors.

With Steph Curry currently slowed by a sprained ankle, the Clippers might have a chance against the Warriors in the second round. The third round would likely bring the winner of the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder series.

Yes, the road to the NBA championship this year leads through the Western Conference.

Cleveland, the best team in the east, doesn’t have a chance against Golden State, San Antonio or Oklahoma City.

The post SPORTS DIGEST: Rams revive old tradition — quarterback controversies appeared first on Wave Newspapers.

Swann, 64, was an All-American at USC and helped lead the Trojans to an undefeated national championship season in 1972. As a pro, Swann won four Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and was named MVP of Super Bowl X.

“To his new role, Lynn Swann will bring the heart and soul of a Trojan,” USC president C.L. Max Nikias said. “He shares our profound dedication to combining academic excellence with athletic excellence.”

Swann earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations from USC.

“I am excited about coming back to USC — its growth and success under President Nikias has been phenomenal and my family and I are looking forward to being a part of that,” Swann said. “As athletic director, my goals for the student-athletes will be to graduate, to win and to experience.”

Swann’s hiring brought immediate words of support from another prominent former Trojan, Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll.

“Excited to hear Lynn Swann is the next athletic director at USC,” Carroll wrote on his Twitter page. “He will be an outstanding leader and great champion for the Trojan cause.”

Swann retired from the NFL in 1983 and began working as a broadcaster with ABC Sports. He worked on broadcast teams covering several Olympic Games, college football games, the Kentucky Derby and even appeared on ABC’s “Monday Night Football.”

Swann was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001.

He was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2002 as chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, on which he served until 2005. Swann ran for governor of Pennsylvania in 2006, losing to incumbent Ed Rendell.

Haden announced in February that he would retire at the end of June. He is expected to remain with the university for another year to help guide the renovation of Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Haden became USC’s athletic director in 2010, replacing Mike Garrett, who held the post for 17 years. Haden, a former USC quarterback, had been serving on the university’s Board of Trustees since 1991. He resigned that post when he was named athletic director.

Haden came under criticism late last year over his handling of the suspension and ultimate firing of football coach Steve Sarkisian, who was ousted amid a battle with alcohol use. Haden did not immediately fire Sarkisian, opting to keep him on despite a public melt-down in which the coach slurred his words and used profanity during an apparently drunken speech at a pre-season pep rally.

Sarkisian later blamed his behavior on a mix of alcohol and prescription drugs. Haden publicly rebuked the coach, but allowed him to keep his job. But concerns about his behavior persisted, prompting Haden to place Sarkisian on indefinite leave in October. Haden fired him the next day.

Nikias again thanked Haden for his leadership of the department.

“The Trojan family will be forever grateful to Pat for stewarding USC athletics through some of its most challenging times,” he said.

The post USC names Lynn Swann new athletic director appeared first on Wave Newspapers.

Scully began calling Dodgers games in Brooklyn eight years before the Dodgers left New York for Los Angeles and here he is, 58 years later, still calling Dodgers games.

This writer, along with thousands of other Southern California youngsters, grew up listening to Scully’s radio broadcasts back in the days when the Dodgers were rarely on television. As a young boy, I remember my grandfather sitting at the dining room table at night playing solitaire and listening to Scully and the Dodgers.

Thirty years later, my grandmother on the other side of the family was still listening to Scully, keeping score as he called the games.

I wasn’t listening when he made arguably his most famous call — Kirk Gibson’s game-winning home run in the first game of the 1988 World Series — because I was there at Dodger Stadium, but Scully was a major part of my youth and, as I’ve grown older, he’s become a fixture of my adulthood, too.

It’s a shame in the last years of his career that Scully’s work hasn’t been available to everyone because of the Dodgers outlandish television contract that made satellite service providers balk at paying Time Warner’s rates.

Scully could probably make reading names from the phone book sound interesting. God knows he has a way with baseball. He also was an accomplished broadcaster in football and golf before his desire to cut back on travel made the Dodgers his lone employer 20 years ago.

It was Scully on the play-by-play on CBS when Dwight Clark made a leaping catch of a pass from Joe Montana in the end zone for a game-winning touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys in an NFL playoff game in 1982 that is now simply known as “The Catch.”

Everyone needs to hear Scully describe a ballgame in a manner that makes you think you are there at the ballpark. That’s what Scully has always done for me, and that’s why he is appreciated by so many and will be missed by so many next year when he is no longer calling Dodgers games.

Dodger relief pitcher Pedro Baez watches Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed circle the bases after he hit a home run off Baez in the seventh inning April 12 as the Dodgers lost their home opener, 4-2. The bullpen has been instrumental in three of the four team losses so far. (Photo by Jon SooHoo courtesy of the Los Angeles Dodgers)

BULLPEN WOES: Scully may want to retire early if he has to keep watching the Dodgers’ bullpen implode.

After eight games, the Dodgers are 4-4 and three of the losses can directly be blamed on the bullpen. I’ll blame Sunday’s 9-6 loss to the Giants on starting pitcher Scott Kazmir. Any starter staked to a 5-0 lead in the first inning who gives it all back too soon, deserves the blame for that loss.

The other three losses for the Dodgers can rest on the sagging shoulders of the bullpen. We should have expected as much, but the Dodgers’ front-office decision to pretty much stick with last’s year relief pitchers doesn’t look like a very sound decision.

Yimi Garcia and Pedro Baez are young hard throwers who haven’t learned how to pitch in pressure situations yet. I think they should be learning in Oklahoma City, where the Dodgers Triple A minor league affiliate plays, not in major league ballparks.

After a horrible start followed by two months on the disabled list last year, Chris Hatcher pitched well for the Dodgers out of the bullpen in August and September. This year, he’s horrible in April again.

Even J,P. Howell, the most reliable reliever after Kenley Jansen the last two years, hasn’t gotten anybody out in his last two appearances. He has faced six batters and all six have reached base and scored.

The Dodgers have a good supply of strong, young arms in the minors. It’s time to find out how many of those guys can get out major league hitters because Garcia, Baez and Hatcher don’t appear to be capable of doing it on a regular basis.

The Los Angeles Clippers top three players, from left, Chris Paul, DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin, stretch before entering a recent game. The Clippers begin the NBA playoffs this weekend against a team still to be determined. (Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Clippers)

PLAYOFF POSSIBILITIES: If the Clippers win their first-round playoff series, which begins this weekend against either the Portland Trailblazers, the Dallas Mavericks or the Memphis Grizzlies, they will most likely face the Golden State Warriors.

So much for the Clippers advancing to the Western Conference finals this year. There are some people who feel the Clippers match up well against the Warriors, but I’m not one of them.

Maybe with a healthy Blake Griffin. Maybe with a younger Paul Pierce.

But not with this year’s Clippers against the Warriors who had a chance to achieve the best single-season won-loss record in NBA history if they managed to defeat Memphis April 13.

The Warriors have three all stars in guards Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and swingman Draymond Green. They have a skilled big man in Andrew Bogut and a solid shooting forward in Harrison Barnes.

Off the bench they have Andre Iguodala, Marreese Speights and Shaun Livingston.

A healthy Griffin and Pierce from 2008 might be able to match that, but not these Clippers.

Of course, I don’t give any other team a chance to stop the Warriors, either. San Antonio, who the Warriors figure to face in the Western Conference finals, has the best chance but I don’t see anything standing in the way of the Warriors and their second straight title.

KINGS KONNECTIONS: Another Staples Center tenant, the Los Angeles Kings, start there run to the Stanley Cup title April 14 against an always tough San Jose Sharks. The Kings made things tougher on themselves by letting the Anaheim Ducks pass them for the best record in the Pacific Division in the last night of the season.

Personally, I’m looking forward to a Kings-Ducks playoff series. That will turn up the heat on the local rivalry and for a couple of weeks flash the sports spotlight of Los Angeles on ice hockey for a change.

The post SPORTS DIGEST: Vin Scully begins last year as Dodgers’ broadcaster appeared first on Wave Newspapers.

The inseparable Downey teenagers were prepared to give up their dream of playing college soccer in exchange for attending a top-notch, four-year university, even though it meant carrying significant debt without help from sports scholarships.

“But something kept bothering us. It just felt like the wrong decision,” Maritza Acuña said. “We decided we should give soccer another shot and see if we could land a scholarship.”

So the teens enrolled at Rio Hondo College since the soccer program there had shown interest in them as athletes and as students. They also liked Rio Hondo’s top-notch nursing program and general education program.

“We didn’t really know much about college; we are the first ones in our family to go to college,” Janeth Acuña said. “But we quickly learned that coming to Rio Hondo was the better choice for us.”

Indeed, the 19-year-olds describe a program of support services that engaged them from the moment they arrived on campus, a soccer coach who urged them to excel on and off the field, and a network that has encouraged them continually to seek higher goals.

Now, after two years as Roadrunners, the Acuña sisters are known across the nation for helping their soccer team shine in the 2015 California state playoffs, an accomplishment on par with their stellar grade point averages.

The icing on the cake? UC Irvine, where they were accepted out of high school, has offered sports scholarships that will pick up where grant aid leaves off, essentially making their final two years of college free and allowing them to continue pursuing the sport they love.

“The Acuña sisters are a tremendous example of how Rio Hondo College can help students realize their dreams,” college President Teresa Dreyfuss said. “At Rio Hondo, these young women found just the right combination of opportunity, motivation and support.”

The Acuña sisters are quick to name Rio Hondo College head soccer coach Jennifer Tanaka as one of their biggest supporters.

“She believes in us,” Janeth said. “If we have a goal, she helps us meet it. She always pushes us to do better. She thinks education is really important. If we don’t do our best in our classes, she makes us reflect on ourselves, to think about the future.”

Maritza (who boasts a 4.0 GPA) was named Junior College Scholar National Player of the Year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. Janeth (with a 3.93 GPA) was named to the Scholar All-American second team.

As much as the twins love soccer, though, their studies have always come first.

Rio Hondo College’s support services helped them in that arena, providing services that included counseling, aid in buying books and participation in the Summer Scholar Transfer Institute, a 10-day program hosted by UC Irvine last summer.

During the institute, professors echoed a message the sisters had heard from nurses while volunteering at a local hospital: Don’t limit yourselves. Explore all medical careers. Consider becoming doctors.

“So I’m aiming for that, now,” Maritza said. “I think it would be great if someday, we could run a medical practice together.”

The post Soccer-playing twins to attend UC Irvine together appeared first on Wave Newspapers.