When Rich McKeon took over as Athletic Director at Palisades High in May, he knew one of his top priorities was to replace several coaching positions for the upcoming school year. He can now cross that item off his “to do” list. Last week, Mike Voelkel was hired as both a P.E. teacher and head varsity baseball coach and McKeon announced the addition of cross country coaches Kevin Castille and Todd Vollstedt on Monday. “We’ve added some really capable and qualified people,” McKeon said. “I think they’ll be great assets to our coaching staff. Mike comes very highly recommended and what’s even better is that he’ll be a teacher on campus.” Voelkel, 45, taught P.E. and was varsity baseball coach at Aberdeen, Montesano and Hoquiam High Schools in Washington. He was also a member of the faculty at Washington State, where he taught advanced Physical Education and Weight Training. A graduate of Central Washington University, Voelkel was a pitching coach in the Independent League with Feather River, Reno and Grays Harbor. He was drafted in the ninth round as a pitcher out of Centralia Community College in 1982. “It sort of happened by accident,” said Voelkel, who moved to Woodland Hills in July. “I actually applied for the teaching position when Rich [McKeon] told me he was looking for a baseball coach too.” Voelkel has already met many of his returning players and is looking forward to continuing the program’s recent success. “My philosophy is to play confidently, aggressively and fundamentally,” he said. Castille was previously the head track/cross country coach at Our Lady of Fatima Lafayette in Louisiana and a member of the Team Eugene Elite Track Club in Oregon. Vollstedt was a high school math teacher and track/cross country coach in Minnesota and Iowa before relocating to Southern California. Social Studies teacher Sean Passan is the new assistant girls tennis coach and will assist Head Coach Bud Kling with on-court tryouts next week.

Palisadian Jonathan Goldstein had 18 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists to lead Westside Jewish Community Center?s 14-and-under boys basketball team to victory over Miami JCC in the finals of the Maccabi Games on August 8 in Baltimore, Maryland. Team Westside went 7-0 on its way to winning the gold medal, finishing first in a pool of 21 teams. The final was a rematch of a double overtime game the day before in which Westside prevailed by eight points. Goldstein?s teammates included Andy Bogart, Nicholas Bryman, Lorenzo Cohen, Ephraim Lavey, Taylor Moldo, Jonathan Neumann, Luke Silverman-Lloyd and Matthew Steinberg. The Maccabi games were created in remembrance of the Jewish athletes killed during the 1972 Munich Olympics. Over 6,000 teens nationwide participate in the Games every summer. Competing in Orange County last week were Westside?s swim team (coached by 2004 Palisades High graduate and Palisadian-Post Cup Award winner Cara Davidoff), consisting of locals Hannah Kogan and Hayley Hacker, and the tennis team with Palisadian Samantha Kogan. Locals Compete in Aquathlon Palisades Highlands mother Laurie Rasmussen and her daughters Karen and Anna participated in the Playa Del Run July 20 at Dockweiler Beach and all three finished the Aquathlon, which consisted of a 1,000-meter ocean swim and a 5K run. Karen (19) and Anna (17) crossed the finish line together, with only a second separating them. Anna completed both legs of the event in 48:06 and Karen in 48:07 and both girls finished in the top 40 percent amongst a field of 142. Laurie, 51, completed the race in one hour, four minutes and 22 seconds “I’m just proud to participate with my daughters and make it over the finish line each time,” said Laurie, who stays in shape by competing in one or two triathlons and three or four 10Ks every year. Another Palisadian, 39-year-old Felicia Bushman, finished the event in 55:53, fifth out of seven competitors in her age category.

It came as no surprise that local players dominated last week’s Palisades Tennis Center Junior Open. After all, the public facility on Alma Real is a training ground for many of Southern California’s top-ranked players. The real shocker was 15-year-old Henriique Norbiato, who played “up” and won the Boys 18s division of the USTA-sanctioned event. He recently moved to the United States from Brazil and has begun training at the PTC. “The park was packed with kids, parents and great matches,” said PTC founder Steve Bellamy. “I think it was the best week in the history of the Palisades Tennis Center. We had players from Utah, Florida and even Brazil. The kid who won the 18s is a phenomenal talent who is starting to play pro tournaments already.” Norbiato lost a total of seven games in six sets on his way to the 18s title, beating Evan Cohen, 6-1, 6-3, in the final. The PTC’s Ilana Oleynik took the Girls 10s crown, blanking Parris Todd of Ladera Ranch, 6-0, 6-0, in the final. Palisadian Krystal Hansard lost one set en route to the Girls 16s title, beating Elizabeth Leitner of South Pasadena, 7-5, 6-4, in the final. PTC players Cristobal Rivera and Robbie Bellamy played a tense semifinal in the Boys 14s, with Rivera staving off two match points in the second set to win, 1-6, 7-6, 6-1. Half an hour later, he was back on the court for the finals and beat Conrad McKinnon of Santa Monica, 6-3, 6-1. In the Boys 10s, PTC trainee Brandon Michaels lost to No. 2-seeded Gave Rappaport in the finals, 6-2, 6-3. Lucas Bellamy and Charlie Sherman won the Boys 10s doubles division, beating Stanley Morris and Ben Goldberg in the finals.

If all goes well, groundbreaking for an aquatics center at Palisades Charter High School that will include a 8-lane competitive pool and a separate lesson pool will begin next June, with completion by February 2009. The pool, which will be located on the northwest corner of Temescal Canyon Road and Bowdoin Street, is envisioned as a community venture. Total cost of the aquatics center is projected at $3.5 million and $1,280,000 has been raised thus far, according to Greg Wood, PaliHi?s chief business officer. Before groundbreaking can take place, the school must have 50 percent of the cost ($1.75 million) in the bank and another 25 percent pledged. Rose Gilbert, who has taught English at Pali since the school opened in 1961, donated most of the money thus far ($1.1 million), and was the impetus that got the project underway. The complex will be called the Maggie Gilbert Aquatics Center in honor of her late daughter. Aquatic Design Company, an architectural firm that specializes in pools, has been retained and a business plan for operating the pool is complete. Parent Jeanne Goldsmith, who works for Mission Possible, a fundraising group, is developing the fundraising plan. ?The idea is that outside of school hours, on weekends and during the summer the pool will be available for community groups and users,? said Maggie Nance, the school?s swim team coach and member of the pool committee, who is helping with the business plan. ?If kids are playing water polo, they won?t have to drive over to Harvard-Westlake anymore for club practices, they can do it here.? ?The reality is there is insufficient pool space on the Westside,? added PaliHi Executive Director Amy Held. She pointed out the only competition pool in Pacific Palisades is the Palisades-Malibu YMCA pool in Temescal Canyon, an aging facility that is only six lanes and wasn?t built for water polo. “The Y pool also can?t be upgraded because of the geology of the area,? Nance said. ?We?ve met with the Y and continue to meet with the Y to see how we can work together,? Held added. The plan has always been that the pool will benefit the high school as well as the community. ?It is not sustainable financially to operate the pool only from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. [school hours],? Nance said. ?Once opened, the pool will be in constant use.? ?The pool is designed for maximum community use,? Held said. The high school currently permits its fields and gyms for outside use. The plan is that through permits, admission fees, swimming lessons, swim meets and rentals to summer and sports camps, the pool will generate enough revenue to break even. The yearly cost is projected to be $500,000, which includes heating, chemical, maintenance and staffing costs. ?By doing upfront planning, we won?t run into the problems that LAUSD and other cities have,? Nance said. A recent L.A. Times photo showed a child looking through a chain-link fence an empty LAUSD pool at the Miguel Contreras Learning Center on Third Street, which was closed because planning precluded it from community use. Held and Nance feel that this is the difference between a regular LAUSD project and a charter school project. ?Charter law becomes free from bureaucracy, not just with education, but also with facilities,? Nance said. Nance and Held attended a three-day conference hosted by the USA Swimming Facility Development Department on new pool construction, which covered issues concerning construction and highlighted possible problems once the pool opens. While at the conference they ran their business plans by USA Swimming Facility Director Mick Nelson, who thought the plans looked good and that their revenue estimates were conservative. He also reinforced PaliHi?s architectural choice as one of the top in the country. On August 29, the pool committee will meet with representatives of California Environmental Quality Act, the first step in major construction. Professional facilities project manager Chaz Yench, who splits his time between Palisades High and Granada Hills (also a fiscally independent charter), will oversee construction. He is currently overseeing the new PaliHi track and field construction. This is the third facilities construction project that PaliHi has undertaken in recent years. The first was the bungalows, which cost $800,000; the second is the stadium renovation, expected to be completed in late September at a cost of $1.5 million. ?Each project is a building block,? Held said. ?With each one we learn how to raise funds and manage the construction. In the near future we foresee doing a $10 to $20 million performing arts complex.? ?Every time we do a project we get better at it,? Nance said. Further questions about the pool project can be directed to Nance maggienance@gmail.com or Held aheld@palihigh.org Anyone wishing to donate can contact Greg Wood (310) 459-0310.

There are lots of ways to celebrate a birthday, but it’s hard to “top” what Andy Lundberg did in anticipation of turning 50 just a few weeks ago. Lundberg scaled Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps (and in fact all of Western Europe), reaching the summit of 15,574 feet on July 31. Also known as “La Dame Blanche” (French for “White Lady”), Mont Blanc lies between the regions of Aosta Valley in Italy and Haute-Savoie in France. “Somehow, I managed a smile when I reached the top but I don’t know how–that was a real haul,” Lundberg said. “With the wind chill it was about -10 degrees Fahrenheit up there.” A Palisades resident since 1985, Lundberg is a partner in Latham & Watkins’ Los Angeles office and co-chairs the firm’s global Insurance Coverage Practice Group. He was recently named one of America’s top 10 policyholder lawyers. Lundberg’s passion for mountain climbing was ignited in 1994 at his 20-year high school reunion in Seattle, Washington, where he was born and raised. “I had a few drinks and entered into a pact with my two best buddies from the class of ’74 to climb Mt. Rainier the following summer,” Lundberg recalled. “I did, I liked it and I’ve climbed it three more times since then.” Rainier is the tallest mountain in the Cascades at 14,410 feet and its summit is topped by a pair of volcanic craters, each over 1,000 feet in diameter. “The guide service up there (Rainier Mountaineering) has it wired,” Lundberg said. “One day of ‘school’ and two days of climbing and you’ve done something pretty unusual. Plus, you pound yourself into the best shape of your life to get ready for it.” Lundberg was instantly hooked and, upon conquering Rainier for the first time, has tried to do a climb every summer since.

By LARRY NILES Special to the Palisadian-Post Age is simply a question of mind over matter. Just ask Leonard Wolfe, who turned 90 on August 10 yet continues to play tennis four or more days a week, outwitting Father Time in the same manner that Roger Federer dispatches opponents at Wimbledon. In fact, not only is Wolfe still playing, he’s still striving to improve his game. He spends several hours a week refining his strokes with his ball machine. He is even taking lessons to improve his forehand and his coach, Gino, claims Wolfe is the best “physical therapist” he knows. Wolfe has lived in Pacific Palisades for 52 years. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, but moved with his family to Southern California when he was 10. He graduated from University High in West LA and then UCLA. He began playing tennis at the age of 14 and has played the sport continuously ever since, except for a seven-year hiatus due to tuberculosis, which he contracted in India while serving as a warrant officer in the army for five years during World War II. After successful treatment during his 12-month stay at the VA Hospital in San Fernando, Wolfe completed his university studies and went to work for the State Franchise Tax Board, where he became a supervising auditor. Upon retiring in 1982 after 31 years as a state employee, Wolfe continued to sharpen his tennis skills and became well known on local courts as an ageless southpaw player. Before moving to the Palisades in 1955, Wolfe lived in Westwood and used to ride horses in the Marquez area for 50 cents an hour. Marion, his wife of 57 years, passed away eight years ago but Wolfe lives on with his two cats in a house he bought 60 years ago on the Via bluffs. As an avid player, Wolfe follows all of the major tournaments on television and gives enthusiastic support to younger athletes. One of his proteges is 14-year-old Sara Lee, a budding tennis star who trains at Riviera Tennis Club. Wolfe is also a friend and fan of local distance runner Kara Barnard, an eight-time winner of the Palisades-Will Rogers 5/10K Race. “Leonard is one of the nicest people one would ever hope to know,” says Eric Valentine, his longtime friend and doubles partner. Wolfe plays in a weekly doubles group and frequently fills in a couple of days for another group. Although the oldest player, he claims he is still the fastest on the court. And after the match, he heads to Gelson’s for coffee with his pals. Wolfe seldom misses a chance to dine at Denny’s in Santa Monica, where the friendly staff have a table and coffee waiting for him when he arrives. Two weeks ago, they even surprised him with a cake on his birthday, which he thought they didn’t know about. ‘Leonard is never without a story or a joke,’ says longtime friend and local tennis player Gene Golling. Wolfe bought a new car several months ago and plans on driving for many years to come. To what does he attribute his longevity and athletic prowess? ‘Clean living and healthy eating,’ he says.