Under Interim Coach LeBre Merritt the Palisades High Boys Basketball Team Is Climbing Up the Western League Ladder

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Despite losing three of four games in the Silver Division of The Classic at Damien the Palisades High boys basketball team accomplished its goal December 26-30 and returned to Western League action Wednesday with renewed purpose and confidence, thanks to a hard earned and much needed 61-59 victory over San Marin that ended a sixgame losing streak and earned the Dolphins 15th place in the Silver Division.

“It was a pivotal win coming off our meltdown the night before when we blew a 20-point lead at halftime versus Paraclete,” interim coach LeBre Merritt said. “It was a true test of character. We were able to stick together. We’re still learning our personnel but for once we were able to get timely stops when it mattered. Even though we dropped
our first three games I consider this tournament a win. I didn’t want to cancel it because win or lose this was important for our growth. It’s just what we needed heading into the second half of the season.” Muhammed Butler scored 13 points to lead the Dolphins (2-11), who outscored San Marin by three points in each of the first two quarters and widened the lead in the third on clutch shooting by Butler and Donovan Knighten, who finished with
12 points. Palisades saw a 15-point lead at the start of the fourth quarter whittled down to one before Butler got fouled intentionally with 12.1 seconds left. He made the second of two free throws to make it 61-59. The Mustangs opted to play for the win but a 3-point shot from the corner at the buzzer fell short and the Dolphins celebrated their first win since Dec. 6 when they beat league rival University on the road 65-41.

Aten Hassan did not play, having injured his wrist earlier in the tournament. Cassian Aguet scored eight points, Jordan Farhadian had seven, Jack Levey and Matin Farhangnia each had five and Mike Stewart added two.

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By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

When the opposing team failed to show up for a water polo game at Maggie Gilbert Aquatic Center, Palisades had an intrasquad scrimmage on Monday, presenting freshman Bailey Gair a rare opportunity to go one-on-one with her senior sister Taylor. In the end, Taylor’s white caps prevailed over Bailey’s blue caps but there were no hard feelings. It was just another day in the life of two teenage girls who live under the same roof, play the same sport, shop at the same stores, eat the same foods and, most importantly, share the same desire to win. It is in their DNA as their parents were both NCAA Division I swimmers.

“Yes, there’s a lot of screaming at home,” says Taylor, the team captain and top goal scorer who is headed to UC Davis. “I tell Bailey as much as all the effort you put in, the bonds you form with your teammates are lasting. She has improved the most of anyone on the team. I’m teaching her all my tricks. She aspires to be the next me.”

Taylor’s high school journey is nearing an end but Bailey’s is just beginning. Taylor has already won a City water polo title and Bailey may win several before she graduates, but this is their only chance to win one together—and they know it.

“I’m pretty confident we can win this year,” says Taylor, the more serious of the two. She helped the Dolphins beat Birmingham in the finals her sophomore year and led them to a runner-up finish last winter.

“Me too!,” Bailey chimes in. “I’m gonna have a huge responsibility when Taylor leaves but she’s preparing me. I really love being part of this team! [Sophomores] Dylan Kuperberg and Yasmine Santini are two of my best friends.”

What is the best advice Bailey has gotten from her older sibling?

“To show up and do my best,” she says. “Stay determined and serious even when I don’t want to. I love how Taylor can be serious but also kind and funny at the same time.”

Taylor just turned 18 while Bailey just turned 15 (their birthdays are 11 days apart) and they live in the Highlands with their wiener dogs Sunny and Luna. Their father Tim was teammates with Dolphins swim coach Maggie Nance, graduating from Pali High in 1992, and swam butterfly and freestyle at UCSB. He also set the time record for the 32-mile Catalina Classic Paddleboard Marathon. Their mom Ericka swam for Pepperdine and set a 200 backstroke record that stood for 26 years.

“Dad definitely passed his competitive nature along,” says Taylor, who is also on the swim team and took fifth in the 500 freestyle at the City Championships last May.

Bailey confirms in the spring she will join the swim team too—a sport she has participated in longer than water polo.

“I’m her chauffeur,” Taylor jokes on the way to their new favorite eatery: Layla Bagels on Ocean Park Boulevard in Santa Monica. “After practice, that’s where I’ll be.”

Winning league titles is normal at Palisades High but when it comes to boys soccer the Dolphins’ mindset is “nothing less will do.”

Tied 1-1 with Fairfax at halftime and in danger of falling out of first place, Palisades gave coach Marvin Lemus what he wanted—maximum effort for 40 minutes—and came away with a 4-2 victory in the rain Monday night. Coupled with University’s loss to LACES by the same score the Dolphins exited a soggy Stadium by the Sea atop the Western League with four games left.

Fairfax scored first in the 19th minute before Hudson Weinberger got the equalizer on a laser from 15 yards out off a centering pass from Jayce Jones five minutes before the 10-miute intermission.

Angel Diaz slammed home the rebound after Jones’ point-blank bid was saved in the six-yard box and the Dolphins led 2-1 in the 48th minute. The last two goals were by Weinberger and Noah Ferrero while Jones tallied two assists. He scored one of the goals in last Wednesday’s 2-0 victory over LACES and both goals in Friday’s 2-1 win at Venice.

On January 10, Palisades battled Universty to the last whistle. Josh Portela and Sonny Gethin scored for the Dolphins, but Mubarak Ndoley

banged in a rebound off a direct free kick from 25 yards away in the final seconds of regulation and it ended in a 2-2 stalemate. Palisades fell 3-1 to Animo Leadership on Jan. 17.

After leading the Palisades High football team to the Western League title and the Open Division playoffs, eight Dolphins have been named to the All-City Team.

Senior end Evan Nehrenberg was seleced the Defensive Line Most Valuable Player, having recorded 46 tackles (21 for losses) and a team-best 10.5 sacks in the eight games he played.

Teammates joining Nehrenberg on the Defensive First Team are senior safety and cornerback Matthew Spoonamore (49 tackles, three interceptions, two pass deflections and one fumble recovery) and senior punter Caden Robertson (35.6-yard average). Making the Second Team are senior safety Saxon Wald (56 tackles) and junior linebacker Jake Treibatch (a team-best 60 tackles and 2.5 sacks).

Senior Maynor Morales of City champion Birmingham is the Defensive MVP.

Three Pali High players earned Offensive First Team recognition: junior tailback Teralle Watson (who won the Joe Spector trophy as Varsity MVP at the team banquet in December after pacing the Dolphins with 741 yards rushing, 223 yards receiving and 10 touchdowns); senior center Alfonso Orozco; and senior wide receiver Braydon Sanford, who led the squad with 23 catches for 418 yards and seven touchdowns.

Birmingham wide receiver Peyton Waters is the Open Division Player of the Year for the second straight season. Patriots quarterback Kingston Tisdell is the Offensive MVP and Abdoni Ubeda is the Offensive Lineman of the Year. Birmingham’s Jim Rose was voted Coach of the Year.

“I’m so proud of the Palisades High football players who were named All-League and All-City,” Dolphins first-year coach Dylan Smith said on social media. “Your hard work and dedication has paid off!”

Highlighting the All-Western League First Team are Orozco and Nehrenberg, who were chosen Offensive and Defensive Lineman of the Year, respectively. Smith got picked Coach of the Year.

Making the All-League Offensive First Team were Watson and Sanford and earning Defensive First Team accolades were Treibatch, Spoonamore and Wald. Venice receiver/cornerback Amir Smith was chosen MVP.

Paced by the hitting and blocking of native Palisadian and Palisades High alum Justin Howard, the Ohio State University men’s volleyball team pulled off back-to-back five-set victories over UCLA and USC at the First Point Collegiate Challenge last weekend in Austin, TX to move up to No. 1 in the AVCA rankings.

On Friday, the Buckeyes’ 6-foot-6 redshirt senior middle blocker had four kills, four blocks and one dig against the then top-ranked Bruins, who received 11

kills, five blocks and two digs from 6-foot-7 Palisadian and former Loyola High standout Cooper Robinson, a redshirt sophomore outside hitter. On Saturday, Howard had five kills, two blocks and two aces against the 13th-ranked Trojans, who got got 12 kills, six blocks and four digs from Palisadian and former Loyola High star Dillon Klein, a 5-foot-6 sophomore outside hitter who earned CIF Player of the Year and Palisadian-Post Athlete of the Year honors in 2022.

Howard was selected the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Defensive Player of the Week on Jan. 7 after powering the then No. 4-ranked Buckeyes with nine blocks in the team’s first two matches, victories over North Greenville and Daemen College.

The son of David and Nicole Howard, Justin won three City titles at Pali High and he captained both the Dolphins and his Pac6 Volleyball Club squad to championships in 2019. He also led Pac6 VC to a third-place finish in the 2018 Junior Nationals. Howard powered the Southern California Volleyball Association (SCVA) to its first USAV High Performance national title in 2018, serving the winning ace in the semifinals. A journalism major, Howard was the 2023 recipient of the Ken Dunlap Award, an annual honor given to a player who exhibits the character of the program’s very first men’s volleyball coach Ken Dunlap (1968-71) after whom the award is named.

The AYSO Area 1-P League Champions Tournament consisting of teams representing Culver City, West LA, South LA, Santa Monica, Palisades, Beverly Hills, Los Feliz and Hollywood was held Jan. 13-14 at the Belmar Park fields in Santa Monica.

The Mambas, a local Boys 12U squad representing Region 69, won the league title in December and continued their winning ways in the Area playoffs, advancing all the way to the final game after two thrilling wins. Head coach Jordan Pynes and assistant Steve Gilison guided the soccer team to a 14-1 overall record in one of the best runs by a Palisades-based AYSO team in over 30 years.

The Mambas’ roster consisted of 11 talented players: Ryan Bonakdar, Oliver Darvish, Max Gerber, Leo Gilison, Kai Holyoak, Jack McCutchen, Linken Merrill, Dominic Petersen, Asher Pynes, Josiah Vazales and Noah Zarnegin.

In the first game on Saturday, The Mambas beat Santa Monica 5-4 on penaty kicks after the sides tied 2-2 through regulation and overtime. Bonakdar converted the winning kick in the shootout. The semifinals on Sunday saw the locals beat West LA 5-2.

The championship game that evening was a tense struggle as Gerber scored with 10 seconds left in regulation to pull the Mambas even at 2-2 with Los Feliz and force overtime. Neither team scored in the extra session and Los Feliz prevailed 5-4 in the shootout to hand the Mambas their only defeat in a remarkable season.

T he Liberty League announced its weekly award winners Monday and in men’s basketball Vassar College freshman guard Avery Lee was named the league’s Rookie of the Week for the first time this season.

The Palisades High graduate put together back-to-back impressive performances off the bench against Union and Bard, posting 22 points, six rebounds and one assist while playing 19 minutes the first game and netting a career-best 26 points with five three-pointers in 25 minutes of action the next night.

Lee currently ranks second on the team in points per game with 10.0 while ranking third in assists and fourth in steals. The first-year Brewer has already recorded double digit points in eight contests this season and broke the 20-point mark twice last weekend.

Lee has played in all 17 of his team’s games this season, including one start. The Brewers are 6-11 heading into Friday’s league game at Clarkson University in Potsdam.

As a senior guard for Pali High last season, Lee was the Dolphins’ leading scorer and made the All-City Division I first team. He scored a season-high 30 points in a double-overtime loss to Servite in the Harvey Kitani Classic at Fairfax.

Lee grew up in Westwood near UCLA, went to Westwood Charter Elementary and Paul Revere Middle School and honed his skills on travel teams like Fastbreak and Pacific Hoops. He played AYSO until age 8 and learnd Taekwondo, His older brother Kyle is a junor guard at Colorado College.

His Major League career has been like a merry-go-round but Tyler Heineman does not mind one bit. On December 1 he was claimed off waivers by the New York Mets and should he see action it would mark the fifth MLB team for whom he has played since making his debut on Sept. 4, 2019. The 32-year-old catcher has previously played for Miami, San Francisco, Toronto and Pittsburgh. In 104 MLB games he has a .218 batting average with 54 hits, 15 RBIs, 25 runs, 20 walks, 11 doubles and one home run.

A Palisades native, Heineman grew up on Radcliffe and starred at Windward High in Mar Vista before playing for John Savage at UCLA .

He was drafted in the eighth round (249th overall) by the Houston Astros in 2012. After signing he played for the Tri-City ValleyCats of the Class A-Short Season New York–Penn League and batted a league-best .358. He played for the Lancaster JetHawks of the Class A-Advanced California League in 2013 and the Corpus Christi Hooks of the Class AA Texas League in 2014, after which he got assigned to the Salt River Rafters of the Arizona Fall League. In 2015 he played for Corpus Christi and the Fresno Grizzlies of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League, batting .285 with three homers and 30 RBIs. He remained in Fresno in 2016 and hit .259 with three homers and 14 RBIs.

He got dealt to Milwaukee in 2017 and the Brewers sent him to the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, for whom he hit .281 with 20 RBIs. In 2018 he signed a minor-league contract with Arizona and opened the 2019 season with the Reno Aces, batting .325. He got traded to Miami in June and played five games that year. He played in 15 games in 2020 with San Francisco.

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

In the last 20 years the Palisades High girls soccer team has had a number of prolific scorers and Erica Hamilton is right there with the best of them. Going into yesterday’s contest at league rival Hamilton the Dolphins’ senior striker had netted 21 goals in 13 games played (an average of 1.6 per game), including a four-goal performance January 3 versus Windward and three-goal efforts versus Hamilton (Dec. 6) and Birmingham (Jan. 20). She needs seven goals to surpass the school single-season record set by Kathryn Gaskin, who pumped in 27 goals in 20 games as a junior in 2009-10.

Hamilton has powered Palisades to a 12-1-2 mark, the only defeat being to reigning City Division I champion El Camino Real. She is also steadily climbing the program ranks in career goals—remarkable considering she has only played three varsity seasons, not four. She tallied 15 goals as a sophomore and 18 more last winter. Her total of 54 equals that of Jordan Darrow (Class of 2019). Lucy Miller (2006) set the program record of 88 career goals, tallying 26 in 20 games as a senior. Katie van Daalen Wetters (2012) had a four-year total of 68, Gaskin (2011) scored 64 and Kaitlyn Parcell (2016) finished with 57, becoming the only player in school annals to accumulate 50+ goals and 50+ assists in her varsity career. Parcell had 17 goals and 20 assists in just 15 games as a senior. No matter what happens from here on out, Hamilton is in elite company.