Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed funding cut for education this fall may force Palisades Charter High School to reduce spending by about $1 million. Pali will receive about $500,000 less from federal, state and local revenues, said Chief Business Officer Greg Wood on Tuesday. In addition, the costs of employee benefits and the rent for the school building will increase by about $500,000. The Pali board of directors responded on Tuesday by voting unanimously to increase student enrollment to generate more revenue for the school. ‘If we can increase our attendance, that can increase our revenue,’ Wood said during the meeting at the library. The state pays schools a certain amount per student based on their attendance rate. Pali is paid about $8,300 per student this year, but that amount is predicted to decline to approximately $8,100 this fall, Wood said. The school’s capacity is 2,760 students and the total enrollment now is 2,670, which includes students in the magnet program. Pali has a 95.3 percent attendance rate. By increasing enrollment and slightly improving attendance, the school could recover $500,000 of the shortfall, Wood said. Admissions and Attendance Director Margaret Evans said she doesn’t think it will be challenging to enroll more students this September. As of Tuesday, Pali had received 1,157 applications for admittance, mostly from incoming ninth graders. Prospective students have until Monday, March 3 to submit their applications. The high school received applications from 644 Paul Revere Middle School students. First preference will be given to Revere students who live in the Palisades, attended a Palisades public elementary school or are part of the Permit with Transportation (PWT) and Capacity Adjustment Programs (CAP). The PWT program is designed to integrate students of different ethnicities, resulting in youth being bused to public schools in the Palisades from other areas of Los Angeles. CAP students are transferred to Palisades’ schools when their neighborhood school does not have enough room. ‘We were able to accept all Revere students last school year, and we are hopeful to do the same this year,’ Executive Director Amy Dresser-Held said. The high school will give second preference to Palisades residents who did not attend Revere. The school has received 143 applications from this group. However, many of these applicants are also considering private schools, so they may not attend Pali even if admitted, Evans said. After residents are accepted, siblings of Pali students who are not residents will be enrolled. Twenty-three siblings have applied. In addition, the school has set aside 60 spots for public school choice transfers, those students from area schools identified as needing improvement through the No Child Left Behind Act. Students at these low-performing schools have the option to transfer to another school. A lottery will be held on March 26 for all other applicants. ‘I always over-enroll 100 kids or so on paper, so that we don’t have a huge drop,’ Evans said. ‘I know they are not all going to come.’ Pali admitted about 800 freshmen for the current school year and now has 695, Evans said. Wood suggested that she consider enrolling even more students this fall, so the school can be near capacity. Some board members during Tuesday’s meeting expressed concern that the additional students could increase class size, which is already an issue. Some classes have more than 40 students. Dresser-Held assured the board that the school plans to expand online classes and community college offerings to lower class size. In addition to increasing enrollment, administrators plan to trim spending by another $500,000 throughout the school. Administrators are asking teachers to review their expenses and determine the resources they’ll need with the smaller budget in mind. They are requesting teachers not to purchase new textbooks this fall if they bought books recently. Administrators are not considering a reduction in personnel, but if teachers retire or leave they may be replaced by less experienced teachers, Wood said. The school pays teachers based on education and years of experience. ‘2008-09 is going to be a lean year,’ Wood admitted. ‘We are all going to have to chip in to be in a good place for the future.’ Enrollment applications are available at the school’s front office. The first round of acceptance letters will be mailed March 7.
A Palisadian’s “Golden” Oscar Moment
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
‘We were convinced that we were not going to win,’ said Michael Fink, senior visual effects supervisor on New Line’s ‘The Golden Compass.’ Indeed, the Palisadian and his partners on the adaptation of the Philip Pullman novel ” Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood”attended Sunday’s 80th Annual Academy Awards ceremony knowing they were up against tough competition in the Achievement in Visual Effects category. ‘Everyone had seen ‘Transformers’ and nearly everyone had seen ‘Pirates,” Fink told the Palisadian-Post. ‘We really felt the cards were stacked against us. So to have won it, I thought it was a real recognition for a movie that was relying on intimacy to carry the special effects.’ After the ‘Golden Compass’ team was announced as the winner, Fink could barely explain what transpired next. ‘I had no idea what happened,’ he said of his podium time. ‘I was in this cloud of euphoria ‘ I saw nothing. ‘I saw my life pass before my eyes,’ he said, laughing. ‘Your head explodes and you’re lucky to get your words out.’ Fink explained that from the dais, he could not spot his wife or even a shades-sporting Jack Nicholson in the front row. ‘The stage is lit so people can see you; it’s not lit so you can see them.’ As designated representative for his nominated group, Fink delivered the acceptance speech, in which he quoted Walt Disney: ‘It’s fun to do the impossible.’ In addition to his three named partners, Fink was quick to credit visual effects producer Susan MacLeod: ‘She was half of the equation.’ Following the awards ceremony, the Finks and their 17 year-old son, Alex, headed to the Governor’s Ball, where Fink was congratulated by Best Supporting Actress winner Tilda Swinton (he worked on her film ‘Constantine’). ‘As soon as you have the Oscar in your hands,’ Fink said, ‘people come up to you and ask if they can touch it, they want to hold it. We sat at a table right by John Travolta and Forrest Whitaker’I spoke to Ethan Coen. It was just a lot of fun.’ Fink explained how crucial his team’s services were to ‘Compass,’ which is laden with talking animals such as the polar bear Iorek Byrnison. ‘We created a world where these people and their animals could exist,’ Fink said. ‘The relationships in the movie were very dependent on the quality of the effects.’ He was in charge of ‘supervising the entire movie, executing the visual effects shop, and post-production and completing the shots’ over 22 months. According to Fink, ‘there were about 1,200 special-effects shots used out of about 1,600 created for the movie.’ By contrast, ‘there were 130 shots on ‘Batman Returns’ ‘ I could do everything myself.’ Fink noted that he had worked with some of the effects guys on the competing films, such as Scott Farrar of the ‘Transformers.’ ‘Scott and I once spent months making sparks while sitting in a corner with a camera and a Tesla coil,’ said Fink, recalling their work on ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’ in 1979. Fink, whose credits also include the first two ‘X-Men’ movies and ‘Road to Perdition,’ received his first Academy Awards nomination in 1994 for Tim Burton’s ‘Batman Returns’ (which lost to ‘Death Becomes Her’). Last month, ‘Compass’ won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award (BAFTA, but because of his current obligations on Ben Stiller’s next comedy, ‘Tropical Thunder,’ Fink could not travel to England to pick up his trophy. ‘We moved to London for a year while he was working on this film and it’s the first movie where I feel like it’s a family effort,’ said Fink’s wife, Melissa Bachrach. ‘It was an amazing job on his part.’ The Finks have been proud Palisadians for about a decade. ‘We were comfortable in the Palisades from the minute we visited,’ said Fink, recalling that he and his wife witnessed the Halloween season here while house-hunting. ‘It’s my wife’s favorite holiday. We saw all the kids walking home from school in their costumes: the perfect Norman Rockwell moment.’ Sunday night, other talented persons with Palisades connections at the Oscar ceremony included actress Amy Adams, who sang a nominated song from her film, ‘Enchanted.’ In August 2000, Adams played Babe McGrath in the Theatre Palisades production of “Crimes of the Heart.” Two years ago, she landed a best supporting actress Oscar for her performance in “Junebug.” Palisades resident Colleen Atwood was nominated this year for Achievement in Costume Design, but her film ‘Sweeney Todd’ lost out to Alexandra Byrne for ‘Elizabeth: The Golden Age.’ Atwood previously won Oscars for ‘Chicago’ (2002) and ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ (2005). Another local, Mindy Marin, was casting director on ‘Juno,’ which received three nominations and won for Best Original Screenplay. However, Marin’s craft is not recognized by the Academy. Marin was a Pacific Palisades Co-Citizen of the Year in 2003. As for Fink, he believes that he and his team definitely earned their Oscar gold. ‘I’ve been doing it for 30 years,’ he said. ‘You really have to like it. This work is way too hard.’
The YMCA Pool Remains Closed –With No Quick Solutions Available
The Palisades-Malibu YMCA pool in Temescal Canyon closed on February 10 because of a water recirculation leak, thanks to deteriorating copper plumbing. After repairs costing about $25,000 are made, the earliest projected opening is three weeks. This unexpected closure has left the Palisades High School swim team, the Y-swim team, master swimmers, lap swimmers and the water aerobic classes scrambling to find alternative sites. PaliHi’s first swim meet, scheduled for Monday at the Y pool, has been moved to Cal State Northridge. In a letter to parents with kids in the Paly swim program, YMCA Executive Director Carol Pfannkuche explained that the facility, built around 1958 by the Presbyterian Synod, is old and in need of upgrading. The Y, which received the rights from the Synod to run the pool in 1985, discovered during routine maintenance that the pool had developed a major leak under the deck between the pool and the pump room. ‘ A complete overhaul of the plumbing would be in order, if we owned this facility and if we did not have a vision of a great new facility someday in the not-too-distant future,’ Pfannkuche wrote. ‘But, we don’t own the pool, the Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy does, and a plumbing overhaul would cost in the range of $350,000 and cause the facility to be closed for six months or more.’ The Y has elected to do a short-term fix by repairing just the recirculation leak. Once the pipe is repaired, a leak detection test will determine if there are additional leaks. If the ‘Band-Aid’ remedies the plumbing, the pool will re-open. If there are more leaks? That is a question that hasn’t been addressed, yet. ‘We believe our community has a long-term vision of some better aquatics options–PaliHi’s proposed pool,’ Pfannkuche said. The $25,000 repair cost is a big burden for the YMCA, but Pfannkuche hopes for community support through its annual support campaign in March. She thanks everyone for having patience with the closure. The Maggie Gilbert Aquatics Center at Pali, proposed for land at the corner of Temescal Canyon Road and Bowdoin, has a projected cost of $3.5 million. To date, $1.7 million has been raised. ‘We are in active fundraising mode soliciting donations from community organizations, wealthy residents, major foundations and many others,’ PaliHi Executive Director Amy Held said in an e-mail to the Palisadian-Post. ‘We have several events planned in the near future including a swim-a-thon, a reception and a casino night fundraiser for swim families.’ Of course, a swim-a-thon will take a pool. Currently the high school swim team is practicing at Santa Monica City College, but is uncertain how long they’ll have space. The Y swim team is using the Santa Monica High pool after the SamoHi team concludes its practice. PaliHi swim coach Maggie Nance, who is also helping raise money for the new aquatics center, said her group has a contractor willing to donate his time, which is potentially a $500,000 donation. She added that the CEQA study is ongoing and the school has submitted eight grant proposals to seek additional funding. ‘Thousands of dollars come in every week,’ Nance wrote in an e-mail. ‘We’re still planning on breaking ground this summer. Send money! There will be a new pool in the Palisades and the more money we get the faster it will go.’ On Wednesday, Pfannkuche wrote the Post, ‘While the repairs are proceeding with a good faith agreement, the YMCA and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy will re-negotiate our lease for future use of the pool. Both the YMCA and the Conservancy agree we would like to try to keep the facility operating, as long as the costs are not too high and the closures not too many, at least until another aquatics facility opens in our community.’
Joy Skidmore, 92; Former Palisadian
Joy Skidmore, 92; Former Palisadian Joy Virginia Skidmore, 92, died peacefully on February 23 in Napa, California, after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Her daughter Terri and son-in-law Steve Lantz were at her side. Born in Ephraim, Utah, on November 19, 1915, Joy was a lifelong member of the Mormon Church. Her parents, Lorenzo Christensen and Mae Josephine Carlston Christensen, raised Joy and siblings Fern and Rex on a working ranch there until Lorenzo’s premature death in 1929. Mae Junius ‘June’ Erickson in 1934 and moved the family to his ranch near Salt Lake City. He helped raise her children as his own from their teen years on, and later moved to Pacific Palisades, where he ran the Town Talk Caf’ on Sunset. He remained a beloved member of the family until his death in 1991. Joy was known for her beauty, gentle and patient spirit, graceful dancing skill, loyalty and wit. She was the runner-up for Miss Utah in 1941. She attended Snow College in Ephraim, and worked for the Federal Reserve Bank in Salt Lake City during World War II. She met Navy Lieutenant Les Skidmore there while he was on leave from the Pacific Theatre in 1942. They married on June 9, 1945, and soon moved to Annapolis, Maryland. Their son, Randy, was born there the following year. Les and Joy traveled extensively during his Navy career, living in Norfolk, Virginia, San Diego and Honolulu. Their daughter, Terri, was born in San Diego in 1950. While in Hawaii, Joy mastered and taught hula and ukulele and volunteered at Trippler Hospital. After Les retired from the Navy in 1956 to begin a new career in the aerospace industry, the family settled in Pacific Palisades, where they lived for the next 24 years. Joy became a real estate agent in the early 1960s, at a time when women were first breaking into the industry. She worked at Lelah Pierson Realty in the Palisades, which was later purchased by Fred Sands Realty. Joy nurtured a network in the entertainment industry, and was soon quite successful and well-known in the local real estate community. She was a master of complex multi-party transactions, using her tact, patience and negotiation skills. She continued to work until she and Les retired to Monterey in 1981, where they lived until moving to Napa in 1999. Les and Joy traveled extensively during their marriage. They were particularly fond of Asian culture and enjoyed extended vacations in the mid-’70s to Thailand, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Their home was adorned with Asian furniture and artifacts, and their cooking was frequently seasoned with an Asian flair. Joy fought her Parkinson’s disease and a series of strokes with dignity, grace and courage. Her family never heard her complain or express any regrets. Her flamboyant hats lifted the spirits of everyone who knew her during her long illness, and spoke to her sense of humor and jaunty spirit even during the most trying times. Her optimism was best evidenced by the twinkle in her eye that accompanied Joy’s favorite expression, ‘You betcha!’ Joy was predeceased by her husband, Les, in 2004. She is survived by her daughter, Terri Skidmore Lantz (husband Steve) in Pacific Palisades; her son Randy Skidmore in Napa; and her grandchildren, Patrick and Kaitlin Lantz and Peter and Geoffrey Skidmore. Contributions in her name may be made to The Parkinson’s Institute, 675 Almanor Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94085 or to UCP of Los Angeles County, 6430 Independence Ave., Woodland Hills, CA 91367. A private service was held in Napa.
Bob LeMond, Broadcaster, 94
Senior citizens in Pacific Palisades may recall seeing the handsome Bob LeMond playing golf at the Riviera Country Club in the 1950s and ’60s, but millions of Americans will remember his voice. LeMond, a television and radio announcer, narrated popular shows such as ‘The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,’ ‘Leave It to Beaver’ and ‘Bat Masterson.’ He narrated Lucille Ball’s first sitcom on CBS radio, ‘My Favorite Husband,’ from its debut in 1948 to its close in 1951. He worked again with Ball on the pilot for her TV show ‘I Love Lucy: The Very First Show!’ LeMond, who died January 6 at age 94, raised his children in the Palisades area while pursuing a career in broadcasting. ‘He always spoke in that classic radio announcer voice,’ said his son Rob, who lives in Malibu. ‘Of course, it was more pronounced on camera.’ Born in Hale Center, Texas, LeMond grew up in Southern California and began his career at the Los Angeles station KEHE in 1936. He played records and announced commercials for a half-hour daily (his brother-in-law hired him). His natural speaking talent soon led to a job with CBS radio. He announced Bill Henry’s segment of ‘The World Today,’ a popular news program. He also worked with the famous newscaster Chet Huntley, who told LeMond the evening before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor that he predicted the United States was headed to war. Deciding to support the war effort, LeMond joined the Army and ran the Mosquito Network for the Armed Forces Radio Service in New Caledonia. ‘He spoke about news that would be pertinent to the war and played music for the soldiers,’ his son Rob said. When the war ended, LeMond was sent to Japan, where he took over for Tokyo Rose, who had broadcast Japanese propaganda during the war. While in the service, he met Barbara Brewster when she came to New Caledonia to entertain troops as part of a traveling USO show. The actress played one of the ‘Brewster Twins’ in 20th Century Fox films and had the lead in the USO show ‘The Dough Girls.’ In a 1957 magazine article in TV-Radio Mirror, LeMond described their first encounter: ‘My reaction to Barbara? First of all, I was prepared. Before the troupe arrived, our special service officer brought around a brochure with pictures of the six girls in the show’When he asked me which one I liked, I pointed to Barbara’s picture and said ‘This is the one for me.’ He guaranteed that when the troupe arrived, he’d bring them over to the station. And he did. Right away, Barbara and I established a sort of rapport.’ LeMond and Brewster married in 1946 and moved to a home on La Mesa Drive, overlooking the Riviera, where they raised three sons: Rob, Stephen and Barry. During those years, LeMond enjoyed playing tennis with his wife and taking his children boating. He also liked to watch movies with his family at the Bay Theater on Sunset, (where Norris Hardware is now located). ‘He spent a lot of time with his family,’ Rob said. ‘I had a good childhood.’ LeMond continued to broadcast on- and off-camera for many TV and radio programs, including ‘Our Miss Brooks,’ ‘My Friend Irma,’ and ‘The Red Skeleton Show.’ He announced for the Tournament of Roses and the Academy Awards and voiced numerous commercials for the likes of Oldsmobile, Dial Soap and Raid. ‘Many of his shows were live, so he didn’t make mistakes,’ Rob said. After retiring from broadcasting in 1971, LeMond became a real estate agent and moved with Barbara to Bonsall, where they spent the rest of their lives. She died of congestive heart failure in 2005, and he died in his home from complications of dementia. LeMond liked to reminisce about the past, Rob said. About four years ago, he appeared on a television show in Oceanside to talk about his broadcast career. ‘He was outgoing and very well liked,’ said his son. ‘Those who worked with him always said nice things about my dad.’ In addition to Rob, LeMond is survived by two other sons, Stephen of Vista and Barry of Issaquah, Washington; five grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
Douglas Beamish, 81; Past Principal at Palisades High
Douglas M. Beamish Jr., principal of what is now Palisades Charter High School from 1984-1987 and a Pacific Palisades resident since 1951, died on February 21 after an extended illness. He was 81. ‘Dr. Beamish was a great principal-teacher,’ said Rose Gilbert, who has taught at the school since it opened in 1961. ‘He really was concerned about the kids learning and the teachers teaching. To me, that’s so important for a principal.’ ‘He was an excellent principal and he did wonderful things for the school,’ said Bill Layton, who taught physics at the high school while Beamish was principal. ‘He was always walking around on campus during nutrition and lunch, talking with the kids and handling problems.’ Beamish was born and raised in Westwood Village. After serving two years with the Navy in World War II, he began a career with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) that lasted 36 years. He was principal or assistant principal at eight schools, including Emerson Junior High, Webster Junior High, Dorsey High and Burroughs Junior High. He earned three degrees from UCLA: a B.S. in business administration in 1948, a master’s degree in education in 1959, and a doctorate in education in 1974. He also attended Stanford Business School. After retiring from LAUSD in 1987, he served on the administrative staff at Marlborough School for six years. Beamish provided leadership to a number of community organizations. He served on the board of directors of the Bel-Air Bay Club and the Palisades-Malibu YMCA. He was president of the Palisades Rotary Club and chairman of the LAUSD’s United Way Fund Drive. He was a member of the vestry of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church and a trustee for St. Matthew’s Parish School. In 1951, Beamish bought a vacant lot on Via de la Paz from Clifford Clearwater, former editor and publisher of the Palisadian-Post. The lot was a garden next to Clearwater’s home. Beamish finished building a house on the property the next year. In 1969, he moved to a home in the Marquez Knolls area. His hobbies included paddle tennis at the Bel-Air Bay Club, golf, and reading history. A devoted family member, he is survived by Betsey Beamish, his wife of 39 years; his sister Diana Buchholz; sons Phil Beamish of Los Angeles and Richard Beamish of Santa Monica; daughter Sarah Puckett of San Francisco; son-in-laws Tod Puckett and Curt Neff; and five grandchildren: Macy and Ella Puckett and Peter, Laura and Charlotte Neff. A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 8, at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in memory of Douglas Beamish to St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church (1031 Bienveneda, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272), or to the UCLA Department of Neurology (please make check payable to the UCLA Foundation, include ‘Neurology-Douglas Beamish’ in the memo section, and send to Alan Han, c/o The UCLA Department of Neurology, 10945 Le Conte Ave., Suite 3132, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1784).
Smooth Sailing for Festas
Father & Son Win Midwinter Regatta
Competing against four other teams in the Open 5.70 class, Rich and Tony Festa sailed their boat Havic to an easy victory February 16-17 at the Southern California Yacht Association’s 79th annual Midwinter Regatta in Santa Monica Bay. The local father-son tandem had four bullets (wins) and one third to win the event by two points. “There was nobody in sight behind us at the finish line for all four wins,” said Rich, the skipper, a Palisadian since the age of two. “We never missed a beat.” Rich has been a State Farm insurance agent in the Palisades for 23 years and is married to Jeanne Elfant Festa, a former Miss Palisades and lifelong resident. Sailing is more than just a hobby for Rich and 13-year-old Tony, an eighth-grader at Corpus Christi, who also plays football and lacrosse. “We’ve been racing sailboats together for the past five years,” Rich said. “It’s been a lot of fun and we get along so well together that I don’t need another crewman. Tony’s the only kid out there racing with adults.” Teamwork is vital in a sport where seconds count and Rich is quick to give his son most of the credit. “Tony does way more work than I do,” he said. “It’s his job to set the sail, to know when to trim in or let it out so it performs at the optimum level. My primary job is to steer the boat.” Father and son race in many regattas, including the Newport to Ensenada race in 2007 and last year’s Midwinter Regatta in the PHRF class. The Havic is a brand new design boat made in France.
Lisberger Seizes the Moment
Palisadian Scores on Header as Eagles Oust Notre Dame Academy in Quarters
Guarded closely for 80 minutes, Amanda Lisberger only got one decent scoring chance the entire game. Fortunately, that’s all she needed. Lisberger scored on a header in the 81st minute that lifted the Brentwood girls soccer team to a 1-0 victory over rival Notre Dame Academy in a Division V second round game last Wednesday. It was the 87th career goal, 28th this season and third of the playoffs for the Eagles’ senior. Not surprisingly, it was fellow Palisadian Caitlin Blosser who set up Lisberger’s winning goal. “This one girl marked me the whole time, it was really annoying,” Lisberger said. “Finally we had a throw-in down in their end. Caitlin [Blosser] got the ball to Margaret [Bylsma] and she sent a high cross over to me. I honestly thought their goalie would get it.” Actually, two defenders went up in the air with Lisberger, but she timed her jump better, getting just enough of the ball to arc it underneath the crossbar and inches over the keeper’s fingertips. Brentwood Coach David Foote has seen his top scorer rise to the occasion many times in her four years on varsity. “That’s typical of Amanda,” he said. “She’s pretty opportunistic.” Lisberger scored on a similar header to win the state championship for her Eagles’ U17 club team last year. In fact, her penchant for scoring big goals is the reason she has signed to play at the University of Texas. “I was talking to Kelly McCarthy (Brentwood’s other senior) beforehand about this possibly being our last game and neither of us wanted it to end,” Lisberger said. “It’s do or die, so I said ‘Let’s do.'” Eagles’ goalie Susie Dunner, also a Palisadian, was celebrating her birthday and victory proved the perfect gift, but teammates still serenaded her with “Happy Birthday to You” after the game. Blosser scored on a header of her own to give Brentwood a 1-0 lead over heavily-favored Oaks Christian in Friday’s quarterfinal, but the host Lions rallied for two quick goals to win, 2-1.
Youth Served for Palisades Tennis
Having lost to Taft in the City finals last season, the Palisades High boys tennis team has something to prove. However, if the Dolphins are to regain the section title the young players on their roster will have to step up. “We lost four players to graduation and another kid was dropped from the program,” Coach Bud Kling said. “We’ve only got two senior starters and both are doubles players. We’re very young in singles.” As it stands, the Dolphins’ singles lineup consists of sophomores Brett Allchorn and Kyung Choi and freshmen brothers Oliver and Trinity Thornton. According to Kling, Allchorn continued to improve throughout the summer and will start in the No. 1 spot. Senior co-captain Matt Goodman will pair with junior Jeremy Shore at No. 1 doubles. The other senior co-captain, Ren Nielson, will join junior Spencer Lewin at No. 2 and junior returner Che Borja will play No. 3 with either Ali Yazdi or Kenneth Choi. Also competing for varsity playing time will be junior Alex Gaskin, senior Eric Eckhert and Brentwood transfer Zach Piehl. Sean Passan will head a JV squad that includes sophomores Azad Amanat, Eric Cereghino, Howard Cha and Colton Callahan and freshmen Parker Chenowith and Eli Goodman. The Dolphins’ nonleague schedule consists of Brentwood, Beverly Hills, Mira Costa and Malibu. Palisades travels to Fresno this weekend for the California Classic. “Taft only lost one singles player so they should be the team to beat in City,” Kling said. “Venice will be our major competition in league but I think we can get the No. 2 seed ahaead of Carson, Granada Hills and Eagle Rock.”
Palisades Spikers Sweep Carson
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
Coach Chris Forrest has high expectations for the Palisades High boys’ volleyball team this season. After a quarterfinal exit last year, he hopes the Dolphins can reclaim the Western League title and make a run in the City playoffs. Palisades certainly got off to a good start on Monday, sweeping visiting Carson, 25-17, 25-16, 25-18, to open the season with a resounding victory. “We have five returning starters so we should be seeded way higher–at least in the top 10,” Forrest said. “I think we’re better, but we have to go out and prove it.” Opposite hitter Kenny Izuchukwu led the charge on Monday with 11 kills and Matt Hanley added eight kills, three blocks and two aces for Palisades. Setter Scott Vegas had 37 assists and Wylie Janousek had seven digs.
