While having his photograph taken in front of the new gym at the Palisades Recreation Center, rock singer Dave Wakeling was visited by two little boys from the nearby playground. His concert with The English Beat this Saturday evening will help raise money to build a new handball court that the young boys can one day enjoy at the park. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
“We’re doing a concert designed with kids and babysitters in mind,” joked Palisadian David Wakeling about his benefit concert with The English Beat at the Palisades Recreation Center this Saturday, May 20 at 7 p.m. All ages are invited. Many parents may be surprised to know that the dad who coached a team in last winter’s youth basketball league at the park is actually a major rock star. When park director David Gadelha explained that he needed $15,000 to build a new a handball court, Wakeling offered to help by playing a concert. Since The English Beat is playing 70 concerts between now and September, a logistical problem was finding a date when Wakeling’s band would be in town. “That’s one of the great by-products of this job,” he says. “I’ve been all over the United States and in countries all over the world.” Wakeling is the original lead singer and songwriter for The English Beat, a popular British rock band that originally broke up in 1983, but has since regrouped around Wakeling. HIs band was famous in the ’80s for such hits as “I Just Can’t Stop It” and “Special Beat Service,” and he’s amazed that another of their hits, “Save It For Later,” has been used as background music for everything from a barn raising in a Woody Harrelson movie to an HBO special about the Gulf War as bombs explode. The English Beat is famous for creating a hybrid of pop, punk and reggae. The music has a good dance beat that kids can move to. “This music is really popular at the moment,” Wakeling says. “The 80’s have become the new ’60s.” He explains that ’60s music is considered the standard of rock music, but younger listeners have discovered the music of the ’80s and are making it their own. Currently, his singles are played on all the classic rock radio stations. Of music from the ’80s, The Beat’s music in particular is not dated and Wakeling is quick to credit the producer, Bob Sergeant. “He wouldn’t let us use ‘gizmos” everything had to be classic, classic drums, pianos and amps.” Wakeling started playing guitar in Birmingham, England, when he was 12. “I kept it to myself for a long time,” he says. “I’m ambidextrous and I taught myself, which means I learned how to play a guitar upside down and back to front. I made up my own chords, which gave me an original sound.” He credits Van Morrison as an influence as well as Bob Marley and The Clash. His first guitar is now on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. “It went from an instrument to an artifact,” Wakeling muses. “Now if I ever touch it again, I have to put on a pair of gloves.” He writes his own songs. “It’s ever so lucky’ they write themselves. You get really excited or really upset and it just pulls out of you. It all splurges out, even in the shower, and sometimes you have to say it over and over so you can remember it. The job is to put yourself in the way so you can catch it.” Wakeling said that Saturday’s concert will feature “loads of old hits and a handful of new ones. It’s a delicate balance because people come to reminisce, but you have to enjoy songs in the moment. They can’t all be in the past.” He hopes that this concert will be the start of something that could mobilize and utilize the enormous talent of all the Grammy and Oscar winners who live in the Palisades, to help benefit the community. “After 9/11, the destruction of the Twin Towers helped us realize that the simple pleasures become all the more valuable. There are true family and community values in the Palisades and one of the places my family enjoys them is at the park. It’s one of the things we enjoy most in the Palisades.” Wakeling, his wife, son and daughter live in the Palisades. Three years ago, he did a benefit concert for Marquez Elementary School, where his children were attending, and asked the crossing guard at the school, Dane Calcote, to play with the band. Wakeling is hoping he can get Calcote, whom he calls a “marvelous percussionist,” to once again play with his band on Saturday. Concert tickets can be purchased (by check only) at the Rec Center front office, between 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. today and tomorrow and until 5 p.m. on Saturday ($25 for adults, $15 for kids under 16).
Palisadian Jeanette Mills makes her way through “Death Snorkel,” one of the areas off the coast of Moorea where strong currents make it challenging for marine biology students to conduct research without bumping into coral or sea urchins. Photo: Jenny Hofmeister
“Ia orana!” That’s “hello” in Tahitian, and how Jeanette Mills begins e-mails she sends to her family and friends from Moorea in French Polynesia. Jeanette, 21, is on the island just west of Tahiti, with a group of 24 UCLA students for their Marine Biology Quarter (MBQ), a two-month-long field program in marine biology. Actually, she’s a dance major with a passion for marine science who grew up in the Palisades and trained at Emily Kay’s Fancy Feet Dance Studio for 12 years. She was a lead dancer in Palisades High’s spring musicals throughout high school. Though she has chosen to concentrate in dance through the World Arts and Cultures (WAC) department at UCLA, she continues to take marine biology classes and was the only non-science major accepted to the MBQ program, which is held alternating years in Bodega Bay, California, Hawaii and Moorea. In the weeks before her departure for Moorea, Jeanette attended preparatory lectures and seminars during the day and, at night, rehearsed for WAC Smash, the annual student-choreographed, student-performed showcase of the WAC department. The week after her performance, she left her tap shoes behind and boarded a plane destined for the Polynesian islands. Jeanette arrived in Tahiti on April 15 and took a ferry to Moorea, where the students, along with four professors and three teaching assistants, stay at the UC Berkeley Gump Research Station on Cook’s Bay. On April 17, she began writing e-mails back home to update everybody on her adventures and to keep as a journal for herself. First, a little bit about the research station: It’s right on the water, with beautiful views of the bay and the mountains. Basically, there is a student dorm that I live in, a wet lab, a dry lab, a library, dive lockers, and a traditional Tahitian meeting hut, complete with hammock, a dog named Chicken and a cat we call Turkey. A friendly housekeeping staff prepares our meals, which so far have been pretty good. Baguettes with every meal (this is part of France, after all). The staff here are mostly Polynesians, and they don’t speak much English, only French and Tahitian, but that doesn’t matter when they are demolishing us on the volleyball court. (I don’t play’haha, funny’but I watch.) On Monday morning we went on our first scuba dive, on the outer reef just off the bay. It was beautiful, a spur and groove area just beyond the reef crest. I love tropical water! Thin wet suit, only 8 lbs. on my weight belt, and 45 minutes in the water without getting the slightest bit chilled. The reef here is so healthy. It’s gonna be great doing research here. Moorea is a triangular island encircled by a lagoon and the reefs of the Polynesian sea. The students’ first two weeks on the island were exploratory, as they visited different sites, went snorkeling and grew accustomed to the marine life and island lifestyle. Jeanette quickly discovered the difficulty of conducting marine research in areas with strong currents, where you have to “concentrate on not getting bumped into coral or urchins.” The students completed a class project dealing with water flow and sedimentation before starting their first of two research projects. They’re testing the effects of light on demersal zooplankton (plankton that emerges out of the sediment at night and returns during the day) and how plankton emergence is related to substrate type and light vs. dark. Jeanette joked that their traps “are super high-tech, made from plastic Coke bottles and glow sticks,” but they work. “We set out a couple right on the reef in front of the station and went back to collect them a couple hours later, and they had caught a bunch of little critters, which we will be counting and sorting in the lab.” A week into the project, Jeanette wrote: After some preliminary test runs, during which we discovered lots of little problems, we’ve made a few slight adjustments to our trap design and project plan, and now we’re underway collecting data which we hope will be legit and sufficient. It’s so exciting to realize that we’re actually doing real research, doing things no one has done before and, hopefully, finding out things that no one has found out before. Even though it may seem like we’re just cutting up plastic bottles or sticking spikes in the sediment or tying Styrofoam floats to orange flags, this is real science. Even if we have to chug a 1.5L bottle of Coke in one sitting just so we have enough bottles, it’s all in the name of science. Even if I have to wade through urchin-infested waters alone at night to retrieve the plankton traps and hope that I don’t misstep or fall while I’m holding a flashlight between my legs and simultaneously trying to pick up the trap carefully so that nothing spills out, it’s exciting because we’re out here doing real things with unknown results and that’s so much more interesting than reading a book about what other people have already found out. In a separate e-mail to the Palisadian-Post, Jeanette said that she hopes to gain a better understanding of what being a field biologist entails. “So far, I’m mostly learning what it would be like to be a plankton biologist, which is probably not what I would want to pursue as a career, but it is a valuable and rewarding experience nonetheless. Even if I end up doing something unrelated, like photography or teaching dance, I will always be able to say that I did marine biology research in Moorea. (But I can’t imagine myself not doing something that is somehow related to marine science.)” Of course, Jeanette found the opportunity to dance during a Tahitian feast and party. The Polynesian housekeeping staff and their families helped cook the food, which included taro (a tropical plant), breadfruit, sweet potato, plantains, pork cooked in the ground, poi (a Polynesian staple food made from taro), a soupy chicken dish, a yogurt-like coconut dipping sauce and strong fermented raw fish. After dinner, the fun began: …Some of the Polynesians blasted some Tahitian music from the trunk of their BMW and, as soon as I heard the drumming, I was there. I had been itching to do some Tahitian dancing for two weeks, especially every time I hear drumming coming from across the bay in some live hotel show that I can’t see. A couple of the kids showed us some Tahitian dancing and then we were invited to join in. So I did, and I tried to remember as much as I could from my Polynesian dance classes [at UCLA]. When I get back home, I’m starting class again’. There was one little boy who kept running into the middle of the circle and busting some Tahitian men’s dance moves, and I went and did the women’s counterpart, and everyone laughed and it was great. Then one of the Polynesian women started doing a hula when a particular song came on, and at first I kind of followed along from the side’Because it was a hula, and quite a bit slower than the Tahitian drum dancing, it was pretty easy for me to follow along, and it was so great to be dancing hula again. While dancing is a great release from marine biology research, so is a little dose of city life. Last week, Jeanette took a break from sorting and counting plankton samples to take a ferry ride to Tahiti. The downtown area is really nice, with a combination of quaint Tahitian shops and familiar brand-name stores like Quicksilver, Billabong and, of course, McDonald’s, which made us feel a bit more at home. (What’s a big metropolitan area without the golden arches?) There is also a great, two-story open-air marketplace where we spent a long time admiring fruits, veggies, meat, fish, perfumes, vanilla beans, woven baskets, carved necklaces, black pearls, pareos [sarongs] and endless other Tahitian handicrafts and jewelry. I bought a carved shell necklace and a beautiful tan pareo with two Tahitian dancers and a drummer dyed in brown. After we had our fill of shopping, the four of us sat on a stone wall on the side of the street, just watching the cars and people pass by, breathing in the exhaust fumes, feeling at home. Usually you hear people talk about taking a break from civilization and going somewhere remote to relax, but for me it was the opposite. I needed a good dose of citification. Having just reached the halfway point of her program, Jeanette still feels that she has quite a bit of studying and research to do. She also admits she has “mixed feelings” about the thought of the program ending: “On the one hand, I’m excited to go home and to dance class again, to go to Disneyland and drink real milk and not feel dirty all the time. On the other hand, I know I’ll miss this place like crazy and have major culture shock and withdrawal when I come home.” She plans to update the Palisades community on her experiences after she returns home on June 10. Jeanette’s father, Rick, is a realtor with HomesUSA and her mother, Ruth, is a Spanish teacher at PaliHi. Her brother, Josh, is a senior at UCLA.
GARRETT WAIT Palisadian-Post Intern Janie Dempsey Watts’ artistic vision has once again led her to publication with a short story called “Southern Spirit” in “Chicken Soup for the Horse Lover’s Soul II,” published February 28. Watts, a Pacific Palisades resident for nearly six years, tells the story of her great-great-grandmother, Matilda Arnold Seabolt, a Southern woman dealing with a horde of bandits in the mountains of Georgia during the Civil War. Seabolt, strong in her determination, fends off the bandits attempting to steal her horse, Snip, during a raid on the family farm. The story of Snip and Seabolt is one that has been passed down from generation to generation, according to Watts. “My grandmother told me that story first,” Watts said. “Then my father and uncle told it to me. It’s part of the great oral tradition of the South.” Watts’ professional writing career has enabled her to carry on her family’s storytelling tradition with a wide array of fictional and nonfictional short stories and screenplays. The Tennessee native’s focus on horses in many of her stories is the product of a childhood spent on horses. “That’s all we ever did,” Watts said. “You know how other people have soccer or baseball? Well, horses are our family thing. We had a farm across the border in Georgia and we went out every weekend to ride horses.” Watts earned a B.A. in journalism from UC Berkeley in 1974. She has focused on writing prose more during the past several years of her career and said she became interested in writing at a young age after reading one of the classic American novels. “When I was 12, I read ‘The Catcher in the Rye,'” Watts said. “I decided it would be great to write more, so in high school I wrote poems and wrote for the high school newspaper. In college, I took English, but I quickly found out it was all analysis so I switched to journalism because I wanted to write. I wrote for the college newspaper and got a job in journalism and loved it.” However, her career as a writer took a different turn when she entered the world of screenplays, something that she says can be frustrating because it takes so much time and financial backing to get a film produced. “I did screenplays for a while, but I wanted more control,” said Watts, who decided to write prose. “It’s easier to get an audience for a shorter piece and you can say a lot more in print.” A Web site announcement led her to submit a story to a “Chicken Soup” book in 2003. The story, entitled “Frosty Georgia Morning,” was published in the first edition of “Chicken Soup for the Horse Lover’s Soul.” The horse theme runs through many of Watts’ essays and her time spent in Georgia and Tennessee as a girl helped shape the background for most of the stories she has had published. In fact, her family still owns the farm in Ringgold, Georgia. “Each of us owns a little piece of the land,” Watts said. “It’s got a little creek and you can fish. I plan to get some more horses some day and move back but there aren’t any on the farm now because you have to be there to take care of them.” Watts, who still rents horses a few times a year and rides with friends, said her love of horses is deeply ingrained and built on the basic enjoyment she experienced with horses as a child. “It’s just fun,” Watts said. “[The horses] are like friends. There was always something you could do with them. You never ran out of any activity, you could train the horses, ride the horses, see new places. It was like transportation. You could see more of the farm and use your imagination.” Watts’ writing career is in a holding pattern right now, she said. She’s waiting to get her first novel, “Moon Over Taylor’s Ridge,” published. She’s seeking an agent to take it around to publishers at the moment, but has several back-up plans for publication. Meanwhile, she’s working on her second novel as well as several short stories about her childhood in the South. She has stories nearing publication in West magazine and Georgia Backroads magazine, along with online essays at boomerwomenspeak.com. Her husband Stephen Spataro, an attorney, and their sons Jack, a student at Santa Monica Community College and Anthony, of Goleta, have been featured in some of her stories published online. However, horses are where it’s at for Watts, especially when she’s writing nonfiction. “I was asked to submit more stories to other ‘Chicken Soup’ books,” Watts said. “It’s very hard to get a short story published. Fiction is much harder to sell; everybody loves nonfiction and that’s what I like to write most. I know I’m good at it so I’ll keep doing it.”
JOEL ROSENTHAL, a fourth grade student at Marquez Charter Elementary School, played violin in the Los Angeles Unified School District Elementary Music Festival, Accent on Performance, on April 30 at the Luckman Theatre on the campus of Cal State Los Angeles. Joel, the son of Betsy and David Rosenthal, was the only Marquez student invited to perform in this 2006 Elementary Honor Orchestra. o o o BYRON KENNERLY, a senior at Virginia Tech, won first place in the general news photo category for his work at The Collegiate Times, the school’s student-run newspaper. Kennerly is a graduate of Windward High School. o o o CAITLIN TORTORICI, the daughter of Peter and Susan Tortorici and a freshman at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, received academic distinction for the fall 2005 semester. To be eligible for academic distinction, a student must be full-time and receive a 3.5 grade point average or higher. Tortorici is a graduate of Crossroads School. o o o AMY JACLYN GUMENICK, DAVID DALE LAMB and JESSICA CAREY SANBORN, undergraduate students at UCSB, were selected for the dean’s list for the winter quarter. This honor is earned by students who have attained a grade point average of 3.75 (A-) on a program of 12 or more graded units in the College of Letters and Science or 3.50 in the College of Engineering. o o o DAVID L. PHILIPSON, a student at Harvard-Westlake School, and ARASH GHARIB, a student at Palisades Charter High School, were among 2,500 high school seniors in the nation who won National Merit Scholarships of $2,500 each. The winners were selected based on their academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned; scores from two standardized tests; contributions and leadership in school and community activities; an essay describing interests and goals; and a recommendation written by a high school official.
Wilson’s ‘ The Piano Lesson’ Plays at Morgan-Wixson August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” continues at the Morgan-Wixson Theatre, 2627 Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica. Directed by Donis Leonard, the production continues through Saturday, June 3. This dramatic work centers on the Charles family’s prized and hard-won possession of an antique upright piano covered with ornate carvings detailing their rise from slavery. When Boy Willie comes home with the dream of buying the same Mississippi land that his family worked as slaves, he will need to persuade his stubborn sister that the past is the past, and they should sell the family piano to stake their future. The play runs Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $18; $15 for students and seniors. Contact: 828-7519. Artists of Tomorrow to Perform at Revere The Brentwood-Westwood Symphony, under the baton of Alvin Mills, will present the annual Artists of Tomorrow concert on Sunday, May 21 at 3 p.m. at Paul Revere Middle School, 1450 Allenford. The six young talented musicians are winners of the annual competition sponsored by the Brentwood-Westwood Symphony Orchestra Association, in which 46 talented musicians participated. This year the Howard Engelman Grand Prize of $1, 000 will be divided between Tina Guo, cellist, and pupil of Eleonore Schoenfeld, who will perform the first movement of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, and Sean Chen, pianist and student of Edward Francis, who will play the first movement of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2. The other four winners will perform music by Sarasate, Chopin, Mozart, Chaminade and Richard Strauss. There is no admission charge, and parking is free. Contact: 829-3149. New Roads Parents to Hold Garage-Sale Fundraiser This Weekend The Parent Association of New Roads School will hold a garage sale fundraiser on Sunday, May 21, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the campus of New Roads High School, located at 3131 Olympic in Santa Monica. Proceeds from the sale will benefit New Roads’ financial aid program, which has achieved national recognition for its commitment to providing need-based financial assistance to more than 50 percent of the student population. Early birds can come from 7 to 8 a.m. for the “pre-sale”; $5 admission buys first dibs on everything. Visa/Mastercard will be accepted with a minimum purchase of $10. Last Chance to Catch ‘Bright Ideas’ in SM “Bright Ideas,” playing at the Edgemar Center for the Arts through May 20, is a dark comedy about how far some parents will go to get their child into the “right” preschool. When parents Josh and Generva find out how hard the admissions process is, they go to great lengths to get their son in’including murder! The award-winning play by Eric Coble is directed by Neil Kinsella and stars Michelle Danner, Brian Drillinger, Ali Elk, Michelle Johnson and Kevin Small. The theater is located at 2437 Main St. in Santa Monica. Tickets are $20. Contact: 392-7327 or go to www.edgemarcenter.org. TP Kids Auditions for ’42nd Street’ Theatre Palisades Kids will hold auditions for its summer camp production of “42nd Street” on Friday, June 2, from 4 to 7 p.m. and Saturday, June 3, from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Auditions are open to 4th grade through current 8th grade students and will be held at the United Methodist Church at 801 Via de la Paz. Please prepare to sing a song and dance (bring tap and/or dance shoes). “42nd Street” rehearsals begin July 10 and performances will take place the weekend of July 28 at Pierson Playhouse. This show will be directed by Nancy Fracchiolla and produced by Elisa Varela. For more information, contact: varelae@aol.com or call 573-2004. Korean Dance at the Library on May 23 Dancer Young-Ae Park will demonstrate “Salpuri” (Exorcism Dance), one of the most popular Korean traditional folk dances derived from shamanic ceremonies, and “Da Mong” (Dream Layers), a modern rendition of “Salpuri,” on Tuesday, May 23 at 4 p.m. at the Palisades Branch Library, 861 Alma Real. This free event, which celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, is the second in a series of cultural programs for families. “Da Mong” is a story dance about a girl who learns how to deal with the dark and mischievous forces that cause confusion, doubt, fear, sadness, shame and hate. She courageously faces these dark forces and transforms them into something beautiful.
Dolphins Dump Granada Hills for Second Straight Section Title
Stephen Surjue (left) shakes hands with partner Sepehr Safii after they swept their three sets at No. 1 doubles for the Dolphins. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
What separates Palisades High from its opponents is an intangible far more important than acquired skill or natural ability. It may not be noticeable on the court, but the Dolphins’ mystique is alive and well. Just ask Granada Hills. A long-anticipated final showdown pitting the top two tennis teams in the City Section quickly dissolved into a coronation for Palisades, which dominated in both singles and doubles to earn its second consecutive championship and 26th overall with a 19 1/2-10 victory Friday afternoon at Balboa Sports Center in Encino. “The key for us is that when we have to play our best, we’re able to raise our game,” said head coach Bud Kling, who has led the Dolphins to 16 boys titles since he took over the program in 1979. “That’s why we’ve been able to win so many times. We’ve built a tradition of winning. Our players expect to win.” From the moment the first ball was struck, top-seeded Palisades (16-0) played the big points better. The Dolphins won five out of six tiebreakers and the one they lost came late in the match, long after the outcome had been decided. “We’ve had Granada Hills on our radar from day one,” said senior Ben Tom, Palisades’ No. 1 player. “We figured we were probably going to meet them in the finals and we were honestly expecting a closer match.” Tom beat Granada Hills’ top player, Eric Lee, in a tiebreaker, then rallied from a 5-1 deficit and two service breaks to beat the Highlanders No. 2 player, Vinnie Amor, 7-6 (7-4). Each win was worth one point on the scoreboard, but their impact on the opponents’ psyche was just as important. “The whole match came down to a few big points and Palisades won them,” said Granada Hills’ third-year coach Simon Robertshaw. “You have to give them credit. I just hope their guys are sore tomorrow–especially the singles players.” The Dolphins seized control of the match by winning six of seven sets to gain 7 1/2 out of a possible 8 1/2 points in the first rotation of round robin. With a total of 29 1/2 points possible, the first team to reach 15 points wins. “Last year, it was all about ending El Camino Real’s dynasty,” said Palisades senior Seth Mandelkern, who teamed with junior Michael Light to sweep three sets at No. 2 doubles, the first of them in a tiebreaker. “They’d won five in a row and we were the underdogs, so beating them was sweet. This year we were the favorites, so it was about proving our dominance.” “It’s my 17th birthday today,” said Light, who won the City title on his birthday last year as well. “This is the best present anyone can give me.” Freshman Chase Pekar won two sets at No. 2 singles, junior Ariel Oleynik won three of four sets at No. 3 singles and senior Adam Deloje won a crucial tiebreaker at No. 4 singles for the Dolphins. Senior Stephen Surjue and junior Sepehr Safii swept 6-1, 7-6 (2), 6-1 at No. 1 doubles. Juniors George Hudak and Mason Hays won one set at No. 3 doubles. “We were pumping each other up the whole way over on the bus,” said Pekar, who is glad he chose Palisades over Loyola, where most of his friends from Corpus Christi went. “We had the attitude that we were going to win this together, as a team, and we did.” Robertshaw gambled by breaking up his No. 1 doubles team in an effort to bolster his singles lineup. He moved one of his best doubles players, Mark Lewin, to No. 3 singles, but the Highlanders’ fate was sealed when Lewin won only two of four sets and the player he replaced, Dustin Yu, failed to win a set at No. 3 doubles with partner Evan Kopel. “My strategy was to make sure Palisades had to earn each point. I didn’t want to give away any easy sets,” Robertshaw reasoned. “We needed to win between nine and 12 sets in singles and we only got six, so they won that battle.” Kling was surprised by his counterparts’ last-minute change. “He must not have been very confident that they could beat us with their normal lineup. To me, that sends the wrong message to your kids.” Lee swept his last three singles sets but it was too little, too late for the second-seeded Highlanders (14-2), who were vying for their first City title. “This is a great way to go out,” said Surjue, who will attend Howard University next fall. “Not only did we win, we dominated. We’re a stronger team top to bottom than we were last year.” So can the Dolphins make it three in a row next spring? “We’ll have a good chance,” Kling said. “We lose our best singles player and two of our top five doubles players but everyone else will be back. I’m so proud of this team because we played at such a high level all season. In terms of talent it’s not the best team I’ve ever had, but it’s one of the most consistent.”
“Enthusiasm” and “experience” are words that can easily be attributed to new Palisades-Malibu YMCA swim team coaches Brian Timmerman and Caroline Ryan, who join current coach Eric Butler on deck. Both Timmerman and Ryan are experienced swimmers, not just coaches. Ryan qualified as a junior national level swimmer in the 100 and 200 Butterfly and was the swim team captain at Columbia University. Timmerman was a high school All-American as well as an NCAA Division II national qualifier at UC Davis. Timmerman started swimming as a six-year-old in Santa Monica and eventually joined the Santa Monica High team. In college he took his first coaching job in Sacramento for a summer league team. He remembers having about 200 swimmers all practicing in a four-lane pool. The team practiced from April through August and ended up with faster swimmers than a year-round USA team. After graduating from UC Davis in 1995 with a BA in English, he went to Steven Weiss and coached their aquatic team. Four of his “boys” made the U.S. national team and he traveled with them as they competed throughout California, Washington and North Dakota. “It was fun to travel around the country and go to the big meets,” says Timmerman, who is anxious to begin his new assignment. “As a head coach, I have a chance to help swimmers improve and get them excited about swimming.” While coaching 11- to 14-year-olds and serving as the head boys water polo coach for the CCAT, Timmerman was approached by Paly Aquatics Program Administrator Gayle Kirkpatrick, who asked him to substitute for departing head coach Kameron Kennedy, who left in the winter to pursue an advanced degree. “I liked the kids, I liked the location,” Timmerman recalls. “So when she offered me the head coaching job, I accepted. I wanted the opportunity to set the program. It’s an interesting mix of kids in the Palisades because you have those that could be national swimmers as well as those who are just acquiring their skills.” Timmerman explains that for many kids swimming is not an exciting sport because their heads are always in the water looking at the bottom of the pool, or in the case of the backstroke, they are on their backs looking at the sky. “It takes a lot of dedication and commitment,” he says. “I try to make practices as interesting, exciting and fun as possible. The kids get faster because they want to come and in the process they also get fitter.” Coaching techniques have evolved over the years and Timmerman says the old school method of “how far” and “how intense” was predicated on repetition–doing the same workout over and over. The new school of thought implements more interesting methods and varied training to achieve similar, if not superior, results. Timmerman’s objective is to increase the intensity and time his swimmers spend in the water in a way that coincides with the individual’s age. Above all else, however, he wants workouts to remain fun. He encourages all ages and abilities to try out for the Paly team, especially novices in the 12-14 age range. He and his wife Lisa, a second grade teacher at Marquez, have two children, Lia, 6, and Quincy, 3. Ryan, meanwhile, is a graduate student in social work at USC, where she is currently on the Dean’s list. She was hired as an age group coach and is looking forward to infusing her energy into the Paly program. “I’m definitely excited and enthusiastic,” she says. “I love it, the kids banter and play around.” Ryan grew up in Arizona and swam competitively on a USS swim club team for 19 years. One summer she even taught swimming to ADHD and autistic children. Despite training 20 hours a week, she made the Dean’s list at Columbia. “Time management was huge, getting everything done–the work, swimming, enough sleep,” Ryan said. “The upside was that when I first got to college I already had a built in network. I also got to travel.” Up at the Y pool in Temescal Canyon, Ryan pointed to a lane of six girls who were finishing their workout. “It’s nice because they’re 14 and 15 years old and you can see they’ve developed close friendships. I definitely remember what it’s like to be in high school. I never had a female coach, so I’m glad I can be for them.” If your child or teen is interested in the Paly swim team, call Kirkpatrick at 454-9637 or e-mail gaylekirkpatrick@ymcala.org. For swimmers in need of more lessons before trying out, the Y is offering a special May Madness session where you can sign up for five private or semi-private lessons and get a sixth free
Palisadian Robbie Bellamy continued his meteoric rise up the USTA rankings by advancing to the semifinals in the 12-and-under age division of the Cerritos Junior Tennis Open, one of the most competitive tournaments in Southern California. Bellamy, who just moved up to the 12s, attained a No. 9 ranking in Southern California in the 10s, a division in which he won 14 Open and satellite events. At Cerritos, the sixth-seeded Bellamy defeated Jefferey Chen, 6-0, 6-1, in the first round, beat Kevin Pham, 7-6 (3), 6-3, in the second round and beat Kenny Gea, 6-2, 7-5, in the quarterfinals. Fellow Palisadian Alex Giannini, seeded seventh in the 64-player draw, beat Jack Winn in the first round, 6-2, 6-0, beat Brett Silverstein, 6-2, 6-0, in the second round, and lost to top-seeded Garrett Auproux in the quarterfinals. Another local player, Derrick Levchenko, beat Nishanth Yamani, 6-1, 6-0, in the first round before losing to third-seeded Patrick Skopek in the second round. In the boys 10s division, Palisadians Eric Busi and Joshua Rosen advanced to the second round.
Palisades High juniors Bryan Greenberg and Angela Liberatore swept the pole vault events for the second straight year at last Thursday’s Western League finals meet in Culver City. Both train with UCLA pole vault coach Anthony Curran. Liberatore vaulted a personal-best 11 feet, beating her top mark from last year by two feet, to win the girls’ varsity division. Greenberg cleared 13 feet, the same height he reached in winning the gold medal at the Rotary Meet in April. Greenberg and Liberatore will vault at today’s City prelims at Birmingham High. Junior Kristabel Doebel-Hickok took second in both the 1600 and 3200 at league finals and remains a strong contender for the City title in both events. Leah Guerrero won the 100 hurdles, Sara McNees won the 300 hurdles, Tukeha Huntley was second in both the 200 and the high jump, Unique Shanklin was second in the 800 and Alex Cohen was second in the triple jump. Jann Stavro was second in both the 800 and 3200 and Jeff Fujimoto was second in the 300 hurdles.
The 35th annual Palisades Optimist/YMCA youth track meet will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. this Sunday, May 21, at Palisades High’s Stadium by the Sea. Cost to register is $20 per child and the event is open to boys and girls ages 3-15. Running events will include 25, 50, 100 and 200-meter dashes and 4 x 100 relays while field events will be the long jump, high jump and shot put. On an overcast day, 156 athletes competed in last year’s meet and several records were broken. ‘We had a great turnout last year and we’re hoping for an even bigger one this year,” event coordinator Jim Kirtley said. Call the YMCA at 454-5591 or log on to the Web site: www.ymcala.org/pm for more information.
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