Somebody broke into the large gym at the Palisades Recreation Center sometime Sunday night and sprayed the fire extinguisher across the wood floor, causing an undetermined amount of damage. The culprit(s) replaced the extinguisher and then left. The crime is under investigation and fingerprints will be taken. There was no sign of forced entry. Parks Director Erich Haas suspects that someone hid in a closet or a bathroom stall as the gym was locked for the day and, when no one was around, came out and sprayed the extinguisher. According to Haas, the residue needs to be cleaned up with a solution and the floor buffed. ‘Maintenance tried to mop it up,’ he said, ‘but the floor still feels gritty.’ Haas has been told the city will send a crew to the gym on Friday and they will use a solution on the floor, then possibly buff it. At that point, the exact cost of the damage can be determined. ‘Someone did a number on the gym, and I don’t understand why they would want to do that to us,’ Haas said. ‘We have local schools who have permits for the gym, senior fitness classes and about 400 kids in the basketball program who will be affected.’ The Rec Center is in the middle of its basketball season and since there was an earlier water leak in the small gym that caused the wood to warp, there is now no facility available for basketball. Haas has been told that the entire floor in the little gym must be replaced, at a cost of $50,000. He hopes that a temporary fix (replacing the warped boards) can be done for $10,000. On Saturday evening, someone also smashed a window by the entrance to the new gym. The recent vandalism will severely limit open gym hours, which are currently about 20 hours a week. ‘I don’t have the staff to sit in open gym,’ Haas said. ‘The people who use the gym will have to suffer for the acts of a few.’ Haas suggested that in order to continue open gym hours, one alternative is to get volunteers to register with the city, then take turns supervising in the gym. In the past month, vandalism also resulted in problems with the field lights, several of which wouldn’t turn on. Park staff discovered that somebody had stacked several metal garbage cans in order to gain access to the control boxes on the poles, which are 12 feet tall. The lights were then switched off on several poles. That will no longer be possible once the light boxes are locked in the near future. ‘I’m just glad whoever did it, didn’t fall off the cans and get hurt,’ Haas said. ‘We would have had a lawsuit.’ ‘We’re working hard to get this park back to what it should be for this community,’ the director said. ‘This vandalism is time-consuming, expensive and frustrating.’ Anyone having information about the person(s) who damaged the gym floor should call Haas or Jacki Kochi at (310) 454-1412.
Two House Fires Hit the Palisades
Early Saturday evening, a Palisades Highlands family was having dinner at Mogan’s Cafe when fire trucks from Stations 23, 69 and 19 drove past on Palisades Drive. According to Station 23 Captain Dan Thompson, the father reportedly said to his family that he hoped it wasn’t their house. Unfortunately, the family’s residence on Avenida de Santa Ynez had indeed caught on fire. According to Thompson, the fire started in the filtering system of the fish tank located in the living room. During the fire, the stand holding the tank burned and collapsed, causing the tank to crash to the floor. The family had three dogs; two were accounted for, but after the fire was out, firefighters found a seemingly lifeless dachshund in the bathtub. Firefighters covered the dog with a blanket and took him outside before the family returned. As they carried the dog, it started to move slightly, so the firefighters gave it oxygen and the animal came to life. Thompson reported that the pet was later taken to the vet, which pronounced the animal okay. The house was not okay, suffering an estimated $100,000 worth of smoke and water damage (from hoses as well as from the broken fish tank). Valentine’s Day was not a happy affair for a manufactured home on Bali Lane in the Tahitian Terrace mobile home park above Pacific Coast Highway, just north of Temescal Canyon Road. A faulty furnace is suspected to have started a fire that destroyed the single-family residence. Stations 23 and 69 responded to the 8:40 a.m. call. ‘The trailer was well-involved when we arrived at the site,’ said Captain Thompson, who added that it took just 10 minutes to extinguish the fire. ‘The manufactured homes burn like crazy because of how they’re constructed,’ said Thompson, who explained that the paneling inside the structures are like plywood and burn faster than drywall. The firefighters spent the next two-and-a-half hours sifting through the debris left on the home’s floor, and making sure there were no embers that could re-ignite. ‘We make sure that everything is out and cold before we leave,’ Thompson said. Palisadian-Post reader Wendy Anderson wrote in an e-mail to the Post, ‘Thanks to all the wonderful firemen that saved our park by containing the fire to one home. Fortunately, it was not a windy day or it could have been a much worse situation.’ Anderson also told the Post that the owner got safely out of her home, but that the owner’s two cats perished.
Temescal Hearing Assesses Money Woes in State Parks
Responding to the state’s projected $42-billion budget shortfall, a group of park advocates gathered inside Woodland Hall at Temescal Gateway Park on Monday evening to discuss the future of state parks. Traci Verardo-Torres, the legislative and policy director for California State Parks Foundation (a nonprofit that supports state parks), provided the latest updates on the budget and the challenges ahead. The Topanga Canyon Docents and Temescal Canyon Association hosted the advocacy briefing to educate park supporters and give them an opportunity to become more involved, said Lucinda Mittleman, vice president of Topanga Canyon Docents. ‘I don’t feel our battle is over for securing funding for state parks,’ Mittleman said. Last year, Will Rogers State Historic Park and Topanga State Park were among 48 parks that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had proposed closing because of the budget deficit. Local advocates collected approximately 17,000 signatures protesting the closure, and Schwarzenegger listened to his constituents. In the budget passed last week, legislators spared the Department of Parks and Recreation, which will receive $141 million from the general fund in 2008-09 and $145 million in 2009-10. The slight increase is to make handicap accessibility improvements and clean up a toxic site in the Sierra Foothills. Verardo-Torres said her foundation recognizes that state parks need a steady revenue stream and supported the State Parks Access Pass, which assembly Budget Committee Chair John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) introduced last fall. The concept is that every Californian who operates a non-commercial vehicle would be assessed a $10 surcharge on their vehicle license fee. This money would be used to maintain and operate state parks and provide residents with an access pass that would give those with a valid state license plate free entry into any park. The day-use fee of $6 to $10 would be abolished. The foundation conducted a poll in April and 74 percent of Californians supported the access pass, Verardo-Torres said. However, the proposal did not make it into the final budget. Additionally, in the budget passed last week, legislators decided to increase the vehicle license fee by a half percent to generate money for the general fund. The foundation is uncertain whether to continue pursuing the access pass, but plans to conduct another poll to determine if there is enough support. ‘We want to keep talking about it, and working on it,’ Verardo-Torres said. In December, legislators temporarily froze all bond-funded projects. This means that several projects in state parks came to a halt, including one in Topanga State Park to restore Trippet Ranch Nature Center. It took about five years to plan for the project, and work had just begun in November, said Lynne Haigh, president of the Topanga Canyon Docents. ‘California bonds are rated the lowest in the nation,’ Verardo-Torres said. ‘The state can’t sell bonds right now, so it can’t keep funding bond projects.’ At the beginning of February, state financial leaders instituted furloughs ‘ unpaid leave for government employees ‘ on the first and third Fridays of the month. The Department of Parks and Recreation has been exempted in order to keep parks open. Verardo-Torres encourages park supporters to become involved by participating in the 7th Annual Park Advocacy Day on March 23 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Sacramento. Advocates are invited to meet with policymakers throughout the day to discuss parks. Attendees will attend a press conference at the state capital and the foundation’s annual Legacy Awards reception at the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts to honor legislators who have been committed to state parks. ‘It’s important for our legislators to see their constituents,’ Verardo-Torres said. Information: www.calparks.org.
Palisadians Go Hollywood At Oscar Night Festivities
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
Pacific Palisadians were prominent in the Kodak Theater Sunday as Hollywood celebrated its biggest night. Composer Thomas Newman was nominated for an Oscar in two categories for his work on ‘Wall-E,’ while producer Brian Grazer received a nod for Best Picture contender ‘Frost/Nixon.’ Cameras caught actor Judd Apatow in the audience. Former Pacific Palisades honorary mayor Jerry Lewis received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, while another former mayor, Anthony Hopkins, introduced Best Actor nominee Brad Pitt, and Steven Spielberg announced Best Picture winner, ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’ Palisadians also collected accolades on Sunday evening at Children Uniting Nations’ (CUN) 10th Annual Awards Celebration and Viewing Party, a Beverly Hilton banquet fundraiser to support CUN’s work with foster children.   The Palisadian-Post was present when artist David Russo arrived”with wife Elisabeth Leitz and daughters Taylor, 14, and Logan, 13”from their Palisades home. Russo created the colorful 20′ x 8′ mural in the lobby which greeted guests, who posed for photos in front of it. The crown jewel of the night’s silent auction, ‘The Mentor’ was listed with a $10,000 opening bid and $2,500 increments. (Organizers said that they will continue to take bids on the mural for several weeks.) Also available, at $500 a pop, were 16′ x 40′ prints from a limited edition of 120 signed by Russo. ‘It’s an amazing mural,’ said CUN president Lola Levoy, who attended last November’s Day of the Child event where Russo collaborated on the painting with dozens of foster kids. At the Oscar function, CUN founder Daphna Ziman singled out Black Eyed Peas (whose leader, will.i.am., attended Palisades High School). Band member Taboo accepted an award on behalf of his hip-hop group with a thank-you that included rap verses, rhyming ‘Joe Biden’ with ‘catching Osama bin Laden,’ who is still ‘hidin’.’ Recalling charities the Peas have performed for, Taboo told attendees, ‘Our hearts are always at the forefront of helping kids. We’re all about positivity. We’ve always made it a priority to give back.’
The ‘Mighty’ Palisades Connection of 2 Special Effects Pioneers
If you’re a member of Hollywood’s special-effects community, Ray Harryhausen needs no introduction. The stop-motion animation master created celluloid magic for myriad fantasy films melding myth and monsters: ‘Seventh Voyage of Sinbad’ (1958), ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ (1963), and his final feature, ‘Clash of the Titans’ (1981). But two motion pictures that weighed significantly in Harryhausen’s history starred overgrown gorillas: ‘King Kong’ (1933), with stop-motion special effects innovated by Willis O’Brien that forever influenced Harryhausen’s profession; and ‘Mighty Joe Young’ (1949), on which Harryhausen became O’Brien’s prot’g’. What Harryhausen fans may not realize is that he and mentor O’Brien shared a Pacific Palisades connection. Harryhausen’s life changed forever on a Hollywood afternoon in 1933, when he entered Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and fell under the spell of a new movie about the bond between beauty and beast. ’I saw ‘King Kong’ when I was thirteen, and I didn’t know how it was done at the time, but I knew it wasn’t a man in a gorilla suit,’ Harryhausen, 88, said in 2007. ‘I finally found out about stop-motion and I started experimenting in my garage.’ Harryhausen remembers how he met his idol after a schoolmate toting a ‘Kong’ script urged him to contact the stop-motion master at MGM: ‘He invited me to the studio. I brought my dinosaurs in a suitcase to show him. His office was filled with wonderful drawings of [the never-produced] ‘War Eagles.’ He said, ‘Your dinosaur legs look like sausages!’ So I studied anatomy and kept in touch. When he started ‘Mighty Joe Young,’ I became his assistant.’ The ‘King Kong’ team” Merian Cooper, Ernest Schoedsack, Robert Armstrong, O’Brien” essentially remade ‘Kong’ with ‘Mighty,’ on which Harryhausen handled most effects. Actress Terry Moore was 18 when she played Jill, ‘Mighty”s Fay Wray. ‘Ray was an assistant so we didn’t see that much of him,’ Moore, 79, told the Palisadian-Post. ‘I worked on a blank stage. When I threw a banana, I was throwing it at nothing,’ as special effects were merged later. When ‘Mighty’ came out 60 years ago, it was a big hit, second only to ‘Sitting Pretty.’ It won the special effects Oscar. ’It was the biggest event in my life to be able to work with the people who had made ‘King Kong’,’ Harryhausen told the Post by phone from his London home. Harryhausen moved to Europe in the late 1950s because he didn’t want to interfere with O’Brien’s career: ‘We made ‘Three Worlds of Gulliver’ [released in 1960] in England. I met my wife Diana over here. She’s Scottish.’ In 1962, Harryhausen, shooting in Spain, heard O’Brien had died. ‘I was sorry he had a lot of difficulty in Hollywood,’ his prot’g’ said. ‘He had so many movies that didn’t make it.’ For several years, Obie’s widow, Darlyne, lived in a small Hollywood apartment on a Social Security pension. Out of loyalty to his mentor, Harryhausen let Darlyne live in his Palisades home until her death a few years later. ’She needed a house and we hadn’t been there for a while,’ Harryhausen said. ‘We had a lovely little house on Via de la Paz, a block from the bluffs, and we built a second floor. We still have that house. It’s rented.’ ’Mighty’ inspired a 1988 Disney remake (Harryhausen and Moore made cameo appearances), which, despite special-effects advances, could not match the original. ‘It’s like eating homemade fudge versus store-bought fudge,’ Moore said. Now retired, Harryhausen bumps into Moore at conventions. His career is covered in Mike Hankin’s book, ‘Ray Harryhausen: Master of the Majicks,’ and Ray and Tony Dalton’s ‘A Century of Stop-Motion Animation.’ Today a Santa Monica resident, Moore had no idea while filming ‘Mighty’ the impact Harryhausen’s work would have on audiences”herself included. ’I watch everything I can on gorillas,’ Moore said. ‘I may make a trip to Africa. While making the movie, I fell in love with Joe myself.’ Visit www.TerryMoore.com and www.RayHarryhausen.com.
Council Supports Local Temescal Pool Campaign
The Pacific Palisades Community Council voted 13-1 with nine abstentions last Thursday ‘to support the efforts of the community to resurrect the community swimming pool in Temescal Gateway Park.’ The pool was closed last February because of leaking pipes with repairs to cost $400,000. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the Palisades-Malibu YMCA, which operated the pool, were unable to reach a new lease agreement. Citing liability concerns, the Conservancy has since temporarily filled in the pool with gravel and dirt covered by sod. Community Council vice chair Susan Nash drafted the motion, saying ‘I think in this particular area, we can do something useful, by urging the stakeholders to work this out,’ she said. ‘The goal I have for tonight is that we support the efforts of the people to raise the money and open the pool.’ Members of Friends of the Temescal Pool (FTP), a nonprofit organization dedicated to reopening the pool, spoke last Thursday about what they have done so far and their goals for the future. The organization has filed a lawsuit against the Conservancy and its partner, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, asking the court to order the Conservancy to negotiate a pool lease, pay to repair the pool, and make the park fully accessible to the disabled. FTP contends that by filling in the pool, the Conservancy violated its contract agreement with the Presbyterian Synod, from which it acquired the property in 1994, and its obligation under Proposition A to provide recreational facilities for senior citizens. According to the lawsuit, ‘The pool was the only part of Temescal Gateway Park that was open and accessible for recreation use by many handicapped and senior citizens of the community.’ FTP President Jane Albrecht said her organization is working on a business plan with concrete proposals for reopening the pool. The operator may be the YMCA or another interested party. The organization has decided that a swim card should be available to any community member who wishes to use the pool. When the YMCA operated the pool, it was for members only. ‘The idea is to present the plan to the community and Conservancy once it is complete,’ Albrecht told the Palisadian-Post. ‘We will work to get it ready as quickly as possible and are aiming to have it done in six to eight weeks.’ At the meeting, Albrecht announced that Stephen Groner, a real estate investor who lives in Santa Barbara, has pledged $100,000 to repair the pool. Groner’s mother, Barbara Groner, drove from Santa Monica to swim at the pool every day for 15 years before she died last year. Many of Barbara’s fellow swimmers cared for her after she was diagnosed with colon cancer. Albrecht is confident that more money can be raised. Ilene Cassidy, co-founder of FTP, told the Council that the pool was a special place where lifelong friendships were formed. ‘With the loss of this pool in Temescal Canyon, the Conservancy has destroyed a longstanding essential gathering place and a base of social support,’ Cassidy said, adding that the organization has found contractors willing to repair the pool at a reasonable cost and make it ‘green.’ ‘We could and should have the pool up and running by mid-summer,’ said Cassidy, a masters swimmer at the pool for 26 years.   Albrecht unveiled FTP’s new logo, a life preserver circling a shovel and grass, with the phrase ‘Rescue the Pool.’ Resident Lee Kovel, a partner in the advertising agency Kovel/Fuller in Culver City, voluntarily created the logo, which will be used on yard signs, T-shirts and sweatshirts. ‘Our goal is simply to restore this jewel in the park,’ Albrecht said, noting the organization has about 2,200 members and is growing. After hearing the presentation, Council member Peter Fisher responded, ‘What is most impressive to me is the support [Friends of Temescal Pool] has received. To me, that is the community speaking about what they want.’ Member Gil Dembo offered his support, saying ‘This pool creates an asset to the community.’ However, members Barbara Kohn and Flo Elfant questioned whether Temescal Gateway Park (a state park) was the appropriate location for a community pool. Additionally, member Harry Sondheim expressed concern that Palisades Charter High School representatives were not at the meeting. The school hopes to begin constructing the Maggie Gilbert Aquatic Center this spring. The center will be open to the public during non-school hours, so ‘they have a stake in this,’ Sondheim said. Sondheim asked to table the motion until PaliHi Executive Director Amy Dresser-Held or swim coach Maggie Nance could attend. The Council voted down his suggestion. Member Laura Chung argued that if PaliHi school officials had a stance on the issue, they would have voiced it by now. Jason Lemire, a new Council member representing Pali Blues Soccer Club, said there is always a need for recreational facilities, so he thinks there would be a demand for two pools. Following the debate, Council Chair Richard G. Cohen appointed member Kurt Toppel to head a committee that will work with stakeholders to resurrect the pool.
Palisades Pacesetters
Palisadian Danny Fujinaka qualified in the 500 freestyle for the National Club Swimming Association Junior Nationals February 14-15 at the San Diego Imperial Senior Swim Classic. The Harvard-Westlake junior was seeded fifth after preliminaries and his time was five seconds away from the Junior National standard. In the finals, Fujinaka, who swims for Team Santa Monica, dropped five and a half seconds and finished fourth. Fujinaka ended his breakthrough weekend by winning the 200 freestyle consolation finals in 1:44.75–three second faster than his previous best time. Thirteen-year-old Jake Feldmann, a seventh-grade honors student at Paul Revere Middle School, qualified for next month’s state gymnastics meet by scoring well at the North Conference Championships last weekend in Van Nuys. Feldman tied for first on the vault, took third in floor exercise and placed fourth in three other events. He scored over 80 points to take fourth in the All- Around competition and led his Broadway Gymnastics Level 7 team to a runner-up finish. Palisades High freshman Spencer Pekar advanced to the semifinals of last weekend’s Morre Tennis Academy Junior Open in Palm Springs. Pekar defeated Bryan Guggolz of Cathedral City, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, in the quarterfinals before losing to No. 1 seed and eventual champion Hayden Tremper of Corona Del Mar. Hailey Dunham, a former volleyball and basketball standout at L.A. Windward High is now a making headlines at USC as a junior guard for the Women of Troy, who began this week 8-6 in the Pac-10. Paced by Palisadians Isabella DeSantis, Katherine Hathaway, Natasha Wachtel and Loren Hart, the Marymount High soccer team edged Monrovia, 4-3, in its opening game of the CIF playoffs. The Sailors traveled to Downey for a second round game Tuesday.
Pali Blues Sign O’Hara
Last Thursday, the Pali Blues Soccer Club announced the acquisition of Stanford University forward Kelley O’Hara–the latest in a series of off-season moves that make the Palisades-based team the favorite to defend its W-League title. “This is another huge signing for us,” Blues Coach Charlie Naimo said. “Kelley is not only a complete player, she is a winner. Her competitive spirit and passion shine every time she steps on the pitch. She reminds me a lot of [U.S. national team player] Heather O’Reilly and, without question, will be joining her next year in the new women’s pro league.” O’Hara has experience at the national level as well. She received her first call-up to the senior U.S. Women’s National Team in March 2007 and began her national team career with the U-16 club in 2004. She then progressed to the U-17 side and led the team with 10 goals in 2005. Since then she has logged minutes for both the U-20 and U-21 Women’s National Teams. In three years at Stanford O’Hara has 81 points (31 goals, 19 assists) and is a three-time All-Pac 10 selection. She was the Gatorade State Player of the Year in 2006 when she led Starr’s Mill High of Fayetteville, Georgia, to the 5A state championship. “Kelley is another tremendous signing and reflects our commitment this season to building an exciting, offensive-minded team our fans are sure to appreciate,” Blues General Manager Jason Lemire said.
iPhone App Modernizes Golf
Don’t be surprised to see the pros breaking out their cell phones during next year’s Northern Trust Open. No, not to call their coaches for advice, but to figure out how far they need to hit the ball. Thanks to a new iPhone application designed by Geno and Ryan Andrews, the sons of longtime amateur golfer and Pacific Palisades resident Gene Andrews, yardage is at your fingertips. Now, the touch of a button is all anyone needs to figure out chipping distances. “My father died in 2001 but one of his legacies is that he was known as the father of playing by yardage. He even invented a yardage guide that is still used to this day,” Geno said. “He played in the Masters three times, the British Open four times and his accomplishments for his golf inventions span the globe.” Geno and Ryan, who graduated from Palisades High in 1982 and 1984, respectively, decided to add a “modern touch” to one of their father’s ingenious inventions and the result was the iPitching Guide–which they have ported to an App for the iPhone and iPod touch. “It’s an interactive chart on the iPhone or iPod touch for calculating exactly how far to pitch a golf ball to have it stop at the hole,” Geno explained. “There’s an official news release you can download and read at the Web site and you can read all about my father’s accomplishments and how his sons are continuing his efforts to help golfers improve their game and lower their scores with the use of modern technology.” On the site, www.ipitchingguide.com, Ryan demonstrates through video how to use the pitching guide: “If you play golf, this app is as crucial to your shortgame as your wedge!” he says. “We’ve all used a yardage guide to help us with our distances from tee to green, but inside 30 yards our shortgame becomes a game of guesswork and feel. But not anymore. The “iPitching Guide” tells you exactly where to pitch the ball, based on your distance to the hole, for it to land, roll and stop at the pin.” Back in the 1940s, long before the days of GPS or the Sky Caddy, Gene Andrews, a mathematician at heart, took a scientific approach to the game that revolutionized the sport forever. His calculations were charted on a graph giving players the ability to read the graph and know exactly how far to pitch the ball. He called this nifty little chart “The Chipping Guide” and his calculations are the same ones used to calculate the pitch distances in the “iPitching Guide.” To see the online demonstration visit www.ipitchingguide.com. To reach Geno or Ryan, e-mail contact@ipitchingguide.com.
Dolphins Extend Shutout Streak
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
It’s hard to lose when you don’t give up any goals. That has been the philosophy of the Palisades High women’s soccer team, which allowed 10–that’s right, 10 measly goals all season. Two rounds into the City Section playoffs, the Dolphins’ goals against had not changed–a big reason why Palisades is one of eight teams still alive in the championship bracket. “As a team we set certain goals for ourselves before the season started and one of them was to get a shutout every game,” sophomore striker Katherine Gaskin said. “We take just as much pride in blanking the other team as we do in scoring a lot of goals.” The Dolphins have been doing both with regularity and the numbers are getting downright ridiculous. Palisades has not allowed a goal in its last 10 games–equating to well over 800 minutes of clock time–and has scored 69 goals over that same span. In the first round last Wednesday night Palisades took on L.A. Marshall at Stadium by the Sea and the host Dolphins turned the lights out early against the 29th-seeded Barristers, scoring four times in the first half on their way to a 7-0 win. Gaskin netted two goals and added one assist, Katie van Daalen Wetters added two goals and Natasha Burks, Melissa Tallis and Leslie Ota each added a goal. Estafania Yanez-Ceballos had three assists as the Dolphins racked up 32 shots. On Friday afternoon, 13th-seeded Eagle Rock was supposed to be a much sterner test. Indeed, the Eagles hung tough for the first half until Samantha Elander scored on a rebound in the 39th minute to give the Dolphins a 1-0 lead. The final 40 minutes, however, was all Palisades. Elander scored again and Gaskin, Tiffany Falk, Erika Martin and Meredith Kornfeind each added goals as the Dolphins turned what had been a tight game into another rout. The fourth-seeded Dolphins (16-2-4) hosted fifth-seeded Granada Hills in the quarterfinals yesterday (result unavailable at press time). If victorious, Palisades will either travel to top-seeded El Camino Real or host sixth-seeded Cleveland in the semifinals on Monday. Boys Basketball Perhaps no gym in the City Section is tougher to win in than Fremont’s, as the Dolphins discovered last Thursday night in the first round of the City Division I playoffs. Of course, Coach James Paleno’s young squad had grown accustomed to playing in hostile environments–having come within a shot of upsetting Fairfax on its home court earlier in the season. This time, however, the Dolphins were unable to take the home crowd out of the game in a 61-46 loss that ended their season. Four Pathfinders scored in double figures, led by senior guard Ryan Smith, who had 12 points. Palisades finished the season 17-13. Girls Basketball Despite a heroic effort by senior center Dominique Scott (29 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists, four steals and four blocks) Palisades lost to Dorsey, 72-70, in overtime in the first round of the City Division I playoffs. Palisades (17-11) led by 10 points in the second quarter but the host Dons had pulled even by halftime. Scott made a spinning layup at the buzzer to force overtime and almost sent the game into double overtime–her rebound shot going in and out. “If this was her last game in a Palisades uniform this is the way to go out,” Coach Torino Johnson said of Scott. “I’m proud of the way all the seniors played. They gave me their all and that’s why they were all on the floor at the end.” Boys Soccer Palisades found itself back in the playoffs after being left out of last year’s tournament but their stay lasted only 80 minutes. The #23-seeded Dolphins were handed a 6-0 loss at the hands of 10th-seeded Bell last Thursday afternoon and Coach David Suarez wasn’t happy about his team’s seed or its performance. “I thought we should’ve been seeded in the 17 to 19 range and Bell had a strong case for a five or six seed,” Suarez said. “We should’ve gone ahead of [No. 13] Hamilton because we finished ahead of them in league. Regardless, though, we didn’t play our best game today and Bell did.” The Eagles led 3-0 at halftime, then put the game away with a goal less than 30 seconds into the second half. Palisades finished 9-4-1. For complete playoff brackets in each sport, visit the L.A. City Section Web site at www.cif-la.org.
