Palisades Recreation Center’s Minor All-Star Basketball Team Is Best in L.A.

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

It was a storybook ending for the Palisades Recreation Center’s Coed Minor Division All-Star basketball team, which capped an improbable and courageous run with a thrilling 36-33 triumph over host Pan Pacific to capture the Citywide Tournament championship on April 10.

Having secured the West Region title in late March the heroic squad of nine talented boys continued its quest for the City crown with a lopsided victory over Valley Region winner North Weddington in the semifinals, setting up a final showdown versus the Metro Region champions, who were playing in their home gym. In a contest that went down to the wire, Palisades prevailed thanks to clutch free throw shooting and lock down defense in the closing seconds.        

Knox Redick, son of Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick, hit a stepback jumper from 12 feet out to give Palisades the lead for good  with two minutes left, but Pan Pacific battled to the final buzzer. Dax Skinner made a pair of foul shots to push his team’s lead to 32-28 with 1:48 left, but a three-pointer pulled the home side within one with 1:23  remaining. Arjun Srinivasan’s putback made it 34-31, but Pan Pacific answered with a layup. Palisades called timeout with 39 seconds on the clock and on its ensuing possession, Srinivasan was fouled and sank the first of two free throw attempts to make it 35-33. Pan Pacific missed two chances to tie before Kingsley Citron was fouled intentionally with 12 seconds left. He stepped to the line and calmly made the first free throw and after Pan Pacific’s last gasp came up empty it was time to celebrate.    

Redick scored nine of his team-high 12 points in the second half, Srinivasan finished with nine, Citron had six, Matthew Bundy and Skinner contributed four apiece and Bowman, the only third-grader on the squad, added what proved to be a crucial free throw.   

“I couldn’t be more proud,” Pali Rec Center Senior Director Jasmine Dowlatshahi said,   fighting back tears. “I mean, we weren’t even supposed to play and look what we’ve done. We had 700 kids enrolled and didn’t have a gym to practice in so I want to thank Oakwood Rec Center for opening their doors to us.”

Head coach Vijay Srinivasan first thanked the opponent for a spirited effort: “You’re the  best team we played.” He then acknowledged  the contributions each player made, including Beckett Thomas (sidelined  for the final due to a bee sting on his hand but who was on the bench to cheer for his teammates) and Hunter Ma (who played every other game but was on vacation for Spring Break). “These kids are so resilient. When the new Rec Center opens hopefully ours will be the first banner hung up!”

Wearing the biggest smile was Arjun Srinivasan, the only returner from last winter’s Pali Rec Minor team, which won the West Region but dropped a heartbreaker to Rosecrans in the Citywide semifinals.    

“We lost by one point when I missed what would’ve been a game-winner and I vowed to be back this year,” he said. “I want this more than anyone. It’s cool to win it with my dad  who’s been coaching me for four or five years.”

Chemistry was key even though the team was only together for two months. Srinivasan plays for the same local club as Kingsley and Ma (Loyalty, founded by Christian Morataya).  

“At practice Tuesday I injured my wrist,”  Srinivasan added. “I iced it as much as I could. My mentality was that we’re 40 minutes away from the City title. I want this, my dad wants this and everyone’s watching.”   

Josh Ahdoot, who pulled down several big rebounds and got a steal against Pan Pacific,  earned redemption for his 12-year-old brother Ben, who played alongside Srinivasan on last year’s Minor squad that fell just short of a spot in the Citywide final.

“We play together a lot in the backyard,” he said. “I was pretty confident we’d win.”

“When Kingsley made that last foul shot I’m like ‘I’m pretty sure we’ve got this,” said Bundy, who turned 10 in January and wants to join Loyalty with his brother.

“I love the way we play together,” the 10-year-old Citron said. “This was very much a team win. I played for Mar Vista last year and we lost to Pali in the West Region so I decided to play for Pali this year. It took a lot of hard work and effort but it was worth it.”

Skinner, who will also play on the PPBA 10U All-Star Baseball Team, shared what his father (and assistant coach) John said in the team huddle before the final sequence: “Don’t foul and no threes.”

Palisades finished a perfect 8-0 in All-Star competition, winning by an average margin of nearly 30 points per game.

—– Click on any photos below to view slide show —–

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor      

Roman Hawk was locked in at the plate last Tuesday against Taft. The Palisades High baseball senior had four hits, including two home runs and a double, drove in six runs and scored three more to lead his team to a 13-2 tournament victory in Woodland Hills.   

Hudson Ramberg, Jack Kurland and Ian Sullivan added two hits apiece and sophomore pitcher Caleb Gitlin had three RBIs and pitched all five innings, allowing three hits with five strikeouts as the Dolphins posted their seventh win in a row. Three days earlier, Jett Teegardin scattered four hits and struck out 11 batters in six innings in a 6-2 tournament win against North Hollywood.   

Last Thursday, Palisades’ win streak ended in a tough 1-0 loss at Verdugo Hills. David Castaneda drove in Isaiah Guevara in the bottom of the sixth for the game’s only run and senior reliever Milo Medeiros struck out two Dolphins in the top of the seventh to save it for starting pitcher D’Angelo Duran, who allowed one hit (to Kurland) in six innings. Sullivan threw five innings, allowing three hits with seven strikeouts.

On Saturday, Palisades battled Granada Hills in nonleague action and the host Highlanders prevailed 7-0. Sullivan and Andreas Konnari each had two hits for the Dolphins, who dropped their fourth straight to the Highlanders since blanking Granada Hills 2-0 in the quarterfinals of the City Open Division playoffs in 2019.

Palisades returned to its winning ways Monday at Pote Field in Griffith Park with a 15-6 win against University. Logan Bailey, Sullivan, Gitlin and Hudson Ramberg each had two hits and Hawk threw 3.2 innings, striking out four and surrendering just two hits as the Dolphins improved to 12-8 overall and 9-3 in the Western League.       
   Only once has head coach Mike Voelkel, who picked up his 300th win with the Dolphins on March 7, failed to get his team into the Open Division­—last spring when they lost at home to South East in the first round of Division I—but he knows the Dolphins likely need to win their final eight games (including road victories over Western League frontrunner Venice and reigning City Open champion Bell) to have any shot at making the top bracket, which has been reduced from 12 to eight schools.

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor      

Palisades High’s track and field teams are testing themselves against top notch competition in preparation for next Wednesday’s Western League prelims at Hamilton. On April 12 at the prestigious Arcadia Invitational, Zach Armster, Harrison Carter, Cole Hubbard and Ronin Sherertz were entered in the Boys Open Division 4×400 relay and clocked 3:36.07.   

On April 18-19 the Dolphins traveled to West Torrance High for the South Bay Championships. For the boys, Carter took ninth in the 400 meters in 52.61 seconds. His running and returning helped  the Dolphins’ football team reach the City Division I final in the fall. Fellow junior Jackson Taylor was 10th in the 800 in 1:59.34 while senior Owen Lewicky was second in the 3200 in 9:39.74. Sophomore Marley Duff was eighth in the 110 hurdles in 17.48 and ninth in the 300 hurdles in 43.85. Senior Devin Carey, whose accurate shooting helped the Pali High basketball squad make the City Open Division semifinals in the winter, finished sixth in the triple jump with a distance of 38-07.50. Palisades was 12th out of 19 schools in the varsity boys standings at South Bay, scoring 12 points.      

On the girls side senior sprinter Skyla Jones was 10th in the 200 in 26.58 and seventh in the 400 in 1:00.93 and sophomore Gabriella Gilyard was ninth in the 1600 in 5:32.22. Three Dolphins were in the top 10 in the 3200: sophomore Zoey Morris was fourth in the 3200 in 12:23.01; freshman Hanna Sadzik was eighth in 12:45.34  and sophomore Kendal Shaver was ninth with a time of 12:48.15.

Senior Ava Bondar was fifth in the 100 hurdles in 17.36 and fourth in the 300 hurdles in 49.43 while junior Maia Vasquez was sixth in the 300 hurdles in 50.96.        

The Dolphins’ 4×100 relayers (Kalee Herd, Clara Fleckenstein, Javayah Sole and Jones) were fourth in 51.55. Palisades’ varsity girls accumulated 24 points, placing ninth out of 17 schools in the team standings.

Last weekend, the Dolphins’ 4×800 relay team ran in the rated rcae at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut and took second in 9:31.91.

Palisadian and Brentwood School sophomore Amelia Sarkisian competed in the Invitational 3200 meters Friday at Mt. SAC and clocked a personal-best 10:46.46, good enough for sixth.

Loyola High Football Rising Seniors Make College Commitments

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Three years ago, Nathan Turk and Max Meier were key contributors on the Loyola High freshman football team, which finished undefeated for the first time in 44 years.

Now, they are poised to lead the varsity squad back to prominence in the CIF Southern Section and after that they plan on making noise at the NCAA level, both having recently committed to Division I programs.        

As eighth-graders in 2021, Turk and Meier were teammates on the Corpus Christi team that captured the Catholic Youth Organization football championship for the Los Angeles Archdiocese. The next year they joined a slew of other boys from Palisades private schools to form a dominant ninth-grade unit that not only won the Angelus League title but outscored its nine opponents 374-66. The starting quarterback on that team was Jack Thomas, who transferred to Palisades High after his sophomore season and led the Dolphins to the City Section Division I final last fall. Meier played with Thomas in the City of Los Angeles Flag Football championship in 2018 and now the 6-foot-6, 250-pound defensive end is ready to take his blitzing skills to Stanford University. The rising senior was the Cubs’ sack leader last fall and received 22 offers from, among others, USC, UCLA, Colorado, Washington, California, Arizona State, Wisconsin, Princeton, Harvard and Northwestern before picking the Cardinal. 

Turk, a 6-foot-4, 279-pound  All-CIF Division 3 and All-State offensive tackle who has committed to Harvard after being heavily recruited by every school in the Ivy League, grew up in the El Medio Bluffs and graduated as Corpus Christi’s first male recipient of the CYO’s Athlete of the Year Award.