The Genesis Invitational returns to Riviera Country Club next week and once again the golf world’s best will compete for one of golf’s most coveted trophies at one of the sport’s most historic venues.

The PGA TOUR’s Los Angeles stop will again be hosted by 15-time major winner Tiger Woods, who welcomes an elite field to the course where legacies are defined, legends are born and the stars shine brightest. The excitement begins Monday with the Collegiate Showcase.

The tournament tees off Thursday and, barring weather delays, wraps up Sunday afternoon. Among the players committed to compete for the $4 million winner’s share are Keegan Bradley, Sam Burns, Matt Kuchar, Patrick Cantlay, Wyndham Clark, Hideki Matsuyama, Rory McIlroy, Taylor Montgomery, Jason Day, Nick Dunlap, Collin Morikawa, Tony Finau, Tommy Fleetwood, Rickie Fowler, Lucas Glover, Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, Brian Harman, Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth, Sepp Straka, Max Homa, Viktor Hovland, Sahith Theegala, Justin Thomas, Cameron Young, Si Woo Kim and Will Zalatoris.

If the first game was indicative of the thrills and skills on display, the next two weeks will be a wild ride for the USA Water Polo men’s national team, led by Highlands resident Johnny Hooper.

The 26-year-old is among 15 players competing for his country at the 2024 World Aquatics World Championships in Doha, Qatar and he scored a goal in the Americans’ 16-15 loss to Montenegro in a penalty shootout. Alex Bowen scored six goals for the U.S. and goalie Drew Holland made 10 saves. Team USA returned to action early Wednesday morning against Japan.

USA head coach Dejan Udovicic announced that 13 athletes will be eligible for each match and they will be determined prior to game day.

Team USA is in Group C with Montenegro, Japan and Serbia. Live streaming of every game is available on Peacock (login required). The event is an Olympic qualifier, although Team USA has already earned its spot at the Paris Olympic Games following a gold medal victory at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.

Hooper was an All-American at Cal, scoring 245 career goals and leading the Bears to the 2016 NCAA Championship. An avid surfer, he went to Harvard-Westlake High and helped the Wolverines win back-to-back CIF-SS Division 1 titles.

For the first time, three girls will represent Palisades High at the City Wrestling Championships, thanks to the efforts of freshmen Alicia Chow, Emma Bolch and Sofia Townsley, who each qualified for the finals in their division at last weekend’s Region 2 Tournament, showing that the sport is not all about the guys.

Chow lost her first match 8-6 on a takedown in the final seconds but rebounded to win her second 7-5 and wound up fifth in the 107-pound class—not bad for someone who started wrestling in September.

“My dad is super into martial arts and since not a lot of girls wrestle he encouraged me to try it because there are scholarships available if you’re good enough,” said Chow, who placed fourth in the Valley Girl Rumble at Monroe. “It’s a big commitment—two hours a day to go to practice and strength training but I’ve learned to be persistent and never give up. We don’t have any classes together but when we see each other in the halls we say hi. It’s worth the sacrifice in the long run to have less hang-out time with friends.”

Bolch thought about wrestling at Paul Revere but decided not to. She also takes karate lessons and likes the physicality of wrestling, so she joined late because she wanted to be part of a team. She lost her first bout by major decision at regionals but pinned her next two opponents before being pinned herself in the third-place match. Her 2-2 record got her fourth at 142.

“I haven’t won any tournaments but I’ve won at three dual meets and the more you do it, the stronger you get,” Bolch said. “My best move is the Hi-C. It’s easy for us to get along being the only girls on the team. Sometimes I’ll wrestle with boys in practice and it’s very tiring and challenging. Everyone’s more experienced than me, the boys are always beating me.”

Townsley tried ballet, boxing and Brazilian jiu jitsu before joining her school wrestling team at her father’s urging. She lost her first match at regionals by fall, but won her next two on pins in the second period to take home the third place medal in the 172-pound division.

“It keeps you in shape and teaches discipline,” Townsley said. “I like the front headlock. I’d rather it be two rounds instead of three but besides that it’s been great. The boys are never mean to us and encourage us to do our best. I’d like to get a scholarship and win City.”

Ten girls representing Windward Middle School enjoyed a night they will never forget Feb. 2 when they teamed up to defeat Westside Neighborhood School 36-22 in the Crossroads High gym to capture the Pacific Basin League basketball championship. Pacing the team were several Palisadians, especially seventh-grader and Village School graduate Katie Sakamoto, who lit up the stat sheet with 12 points, eight rebounds, three steals and two assists. Eighth-grader and Palisades resident Alexie Wehrle scored 10 points, including a three-pointer, made five of six free throw attempts and grabbed three rebounds. Fellow Palisadian and Village School alum Fiona Levin had a steal and fellow seventh-grader Alexis Grayeli, who also attended Village, played lockdown defense as Windward pulled away in the second half.

Mikaella Kawahito had 12 points, including a pair of three-pointers, and pulled down six rebounds. Another eighth-grader, Morgan Litt, contributed three rebounds, four steals and two assists. Eighth-grader

Saira Rahemtulla had five rebounds and one steal and adding two points and one rebound was eighth-grader

Sofia Armon. Eighth-grader Izzy Meigs grabbed a rebound and seventh-grader Blakely Shore, who was injured, rounded out the squad.

Sakamoto, Wehrle, Levin and Grayeli have played basketball in the Palisades Recreation Center league since the Rookie Division.

Two years ago Sakamoto started at point guard for the Pali Rec Girls All-Stars in the LA Recreation and Parks’ Citywide Minor Division Tournament, scoring 28 points in the regional final, 11 points in the City semifinals and 17 more in the championship game.

Windward’s boys team also won the PBL title and once again it was helped by several Palisadians. The boys also topped Westside Neighborhood School in the finals behind 26 points from local resident and Village School alum Jackson Thomas and 10 points from Walker Diggs. Thomas also sparked the Wildcats’ semifinal win versus Crossroads with a 37-point effort. Palisadian and Village School alum Jake Ginestro also was a starter and played a key role in Windward’s success. Palisades resident and Village alum Landon Wallace and Seven Arrows alum Daniel Turteltaub were also on the roster.

Last February, Thomas, Ginestro, Wallace, Diggs, Turteltaub, Village School alum Owen Shukov and Palisadian Jaxson Goodman led Windward’s seventh-grade team to the PBL title, beating Brentwood 53-31 in the finals. Thomas led all scorers with 16 points in the championship game while Ginestro broke it openwith seven points in a three-minute span of the second quarter.

That team was coached by James Coleman and assistant Zach Bright, himself a Village School graduate.Thomas was the quarterback and Ginestro a receiver on Windward’s flag football team in the fall of 2023.

Private swim teacher Sharon Minasian Skowron is proud to announce that two weeks ago the Class of 2023—consisting of 25 brave young students—received their trophies upon completing their long distance freestyle swims. Minasian Skowron’s mother, Diane, gave private lessons for 46 years in her 52-foot pool in the backyard of her upper Bienveneda home, retiring in 2010 and Sharon began offering instruction herself over 40 years ago. Since then, several generations of local children have graduated.

All of Minasian Skowron’s students come to her through referrals. She primarily teaches at her house a few blocks from her mom’s and believes it is never too soon to start learning how to blow bubbles along with floating and turning over techniques. Her “pool school” kids typically range from 4-12 years old.

“All year I teach my athletes that age isn’t the most important factor in determining how long they’ll be able to swim but rather how long they’ve been swimming, how hard they’ve practiced and how often they can get in the pool to train,” Minasian Skowron said. “For example, some of the swimmers this year are older but started swimming later and only trained barely a year. Most though have learned strokes including side breadths in my weekly lessons, then moved on join one of my small one hour per week teams. They learn skills such as floating, treading and even how to do it all in heavy clothes in case they have an unexpected fall. There are four little ones this year who earned medals for what I call the “Clothed Safely Plunge.” The idea is that once they’ve experienced how it feels and what they need to do differently when clothed, hopefully they’ll panic less and help themselves out of a scary situation.”

She continued: “Some of them work each year on their technique and speed because they want to join a swim team or water polo program at places like Westside Aquatics, TSM Aquatics and LA Water Polo.  Others use swimming as cross-training for other sports and healthy movement. Surfers in the group are trying to increase their strength and endurance as they take on bigger and rougher waves. Many people ask how kids this age can swim so far and I tell them what I tell my swimmers—it’s like walking instead of running. Once you have an efficient stroke where you rock through the water and are able to take plenty of easy rolling breaths it’s like walking. While most people can’t run very far, they can walk almost forever if they have to. Therefore these kids don’t have a time limit, they just have to keep a good freestyle going and I’ll stay counting the lengths for as long as they want to go, and they often go for hours.”

Below are the 2023 graduates and their distances…

*** Click on any photo below to view slide show ***

When the Palisades High boys basketball team lost 11 of its first 12 games no one could have predicted it would be one the eight best teams in the city at season’s end. Yet that is where the Dolphins find themselves after being placed in the Open Division. The Dolphins are seeded seventh and travel to No. 2 King/Drew (16-11), the Coliseum League champion, for a quarterfinal game Friday. Tip-off is at 7:45 p.m.

Palisades’ girls squad (17-11) is seeded fifth in the Open and travels to No. 4 King/Drew (17-7) Friday at 6 p.m., right before the boys game.

If the boys win, they will play No. 6 Grant or No. 3 Birmingham in the semifinals Feb. 17 at El Camino College. If the girls win, they will face top-seeded Birmingham or No. 8 Crenshaw in the semifinals the same day also at El Camino College.

For the first time ever the City Section girls water polo playoffs will feature two brackets: the Open Division, comprised of the top four teams; and Division I, which features the remaining 12 teams in a single-elimination format.

After finishing undefeated in the Western League, Palisades earned the No. 2 seed in the Open Division behind West Valley League co-winner and reigning Open champion Birmingham, which beat the Dolphins 19-11 in last year’s final.

Palisades (14-7) will host No. 3 Granada Hills (11-2), which tied for first place in the West Valley with Birmingham, in the semifinal round next Tuesday at 3 p.m. at Maggie Gilbert Aquatic Center. Birmingham (14-13) hosts Western runner-up and No. 4 seed San Pedro (7-7) in the other semifinal. The two winners will meet for the championship next Thursday, Feb. 15, at 7 p.m. at LA Valley College. Palisades is riding a three-game winning streak, outscoring league rivals San Pedro, LACES and Venice by a combined total of 54-22.

Since Palisades’ girls water polo program started in 2011-12 the Dolphins have failed to make the finals only twice—their inaugural season when they lost their playoff opener to Huntington Park in overtime and 2015-16 when they were upset by Birmingham 13-7 in the semifinals.

The Dolphins are seeking their third City title, having won Division I to cap the 2018-19 and 2021-22 seasons, beating Birmingham in the finals both times.

Eagle Rock holds the section record with six titles—including five finals victories over Palisades—and Birmingham is next with four titles. Palisades and Cleveland each have two. Palisades made the SoCal Regional Division III finals in 2022.

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

When Erica Hamiton watched what seemed like a harmless shot skip through the goalie’s legs wtih 10 minutes left in the first half of the Palisades High girls soccer team’s Western League on January 31 at Stadium by the Sea, she looked almost embarrassed as teammates sprinted over to hug and high-five her as if she had just won them the City championship. Her third goal of the game was not quite that significant, but it did set her apart from every other player who has donned a Dolphins uniform.

It marked the fifth time Hamilton has scored three or more goals in a game this winter and upped her season total to 28, breaking the school record of 27 goals in a season set by Kathryn Gaskin in 2009-10. Even more remarkable is that Hamilton needed only 17 games to set a new program standard—three less than it took Gasklin to better Lucy Miller’s previous mark of 26 in 2005-06.

“I set a goal to at least get more than last year and once I got to 20 I thought I might as well keep going,” Hamilton said after sitting out the entire second half of Palisades’ 7-2 victory. The achievement came three days after her 18th birthday and in a peculiar way she has her grandparents to thank—for it was they who fostered her competitive nature at age 5 on her first AYSO team, the Strawberry Buttlerflies.

“My parents didn’t think this sport was for me because I was bugging people and not paying much attention but one day my grandparents said they’d take me to Target if I scored. Well, I did and we won 5-1.”

Hamilton has been scoring ever since and even after she recently switched from center forward to winger, where she had played since eighth grade, she is gifted with that “scorer’s touch” in the penalty area.

Next year, Hamilton will take her talent to the next level, having committed to Macalester College, a Division III program in Minnesota, along with teammate Kyra Morris

“Kyra committed first, she talked to me about it and when I contacted the coach they emailed back in five minutes,” Hamilton said. “I visited in September. It fits all my criteria.”

Hamilton plays for Santa Monica Surf (a club team coached by Pali High girls pilot Christian Chambers) and lives by UCLA where her dad Roy played basketball from 1975-79 before a two-year stint in the NBA with the Pistons and Trail Blazers.

Hamilton wears No. 10 (her dad’s jersey at UCLA) and each goal she scores from now on merely adds to her own record. She could not play as a freshman when everything was online due to COVID, but in three varsity seasons she has racked up 61 goals (she had 15 as a sophomore, 18 her junior year). Miller holds the school record with 88 career goals.

Hamilton’s “goal” now is to lead her team to its first City Div. I title. Palisades is seeded No. 2 and hosts a second-round game next Thursday.