Pacific Palisades residents might have noticed a new face in town’that of LAPD Senior Lead Officer Michael Moore, who took over Chris Ragsdale’s duties early last month. A Los Angeles native, Moore brings with him a passion for community policing and a range of experience dealing with everything from residential burglaries to the homeless population. He moved over from the Westwood/Bel Air District, where he decided he wanted to be a Senior Lead Officer while he was working on foot patrol in Westwood Village. He enjoyed being able to follow up with shop owners who would stop him on the street with their concerns. “If you take the time to communicate, you avoid getting complaints,” says Moore, 42, who became a Senior Lead about two-and-a-half years ago. He is familiar with the Palisades, having worked the 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift here briefly as a patrol officer in the early 1990s. “It was fascinating back then,” he says. “Palisades Drive was not as developed. I would see deer standing on people’s lawns.” He started coming here again recently, before the official change, to reacquaint himself with the area. “I forgot how beautiful it is,” he says, adding that “although there are crime problems, they are fewer than in Westwood/Bel Air,” where the population in the hills is more dense than it is here. “The bottom line is that Chris [Ragsdale] got the raw end of the deal,” Moore says, in good humor. His job as Senior Lead Officer is “to communicate with the public and let them know what’s happening, to enlist their help in stopping crime and to find out what, in their area, they need help with.” Since Moore has been on duty here, locals have brought to his attention several issues of concern, from vehicular vandalism to the homeless camps between PCH and the Via de las Olas bluffs. He is also aware of speeding on Palisades Drive as well as a more unusual violation on the street’a strawberry vendor who stops on the way up to put up signs and parks his vehicle in areas that concern residents. “It seems that the No. 1 crime [in the Palisades] is burglary from vehicles, and stolen vehicles,” Moore says. The good news is that burglary from vehicles is easy to fix. “Don’t leave anything in your car,” Moore advises residents. “If you leave a penny on your dashboard, that’s an invitation [for criminals].” Moore is currently working with five Basic Car officers who help patrol the Palisades area. Some of the officers “have been working the [area] longer than I’ve been a Senior Lead Officer,” he says. “Right now, they know the problems better than I do.” Moore, who grew up in Westchester, began his police training as a young 25-year-old working for the Los Angeles Airports Police Department in 1988. Though he does not admit knowing he wanted to join the police force, he says, “I’ve been told that I knew.” Moore’s father was superintendent of operations at the Hollywood Bowl and knew a lot of police officers, who Moore says “left an impression on me.” After graduating from high school in 1981, Moore joined the Army Reserves for six years and worked as a chemical equipment repair person, training other reservists on how to protect and fix their equipment. He admits that there was a part of him interested in going into the movie production field, having studied drama in high school. “It must be something in the name,” he jokes, referring to the left-wing documentarian Michael Moore who wrote and directed “Fahrenheit 9/11.” “Every once in a while, I get the acting bug.” The basic training he received in the Reserves helped prepare him for the two years of law enforcement training he had to complete before becoming a police officer at LAX. He says that working as a young officer at the airport was frustrating because, at the time, “the airport was more concerned with traffic regulations than airport security. There were not as many criminals to get there.” Yet, the airport was “a good working environment to learn how to communicate and deal with people.” Public relations was ingrained as an important aspect of the job’an attitude that Moore says “was not reflected” by the officers who trained him when he joined the LAPD in 1990. That changed, he says, after the Rodney King beating in 1991. At the time of the beating, Moore was working the front desk at the Central Division downtown. “People were calling up and threatening my life,” he says. “I think the way the city handled the whole situation was what led to the riots. They [city officials] denounced the actions of the officers without investigating it first.” During his year and three months working as a probationer (a new police officer under the supervision of a training officer), Moore dealt with “just about any crime imaginable.” Mainly, the criminal activity involved homeless people who he says “one day, are victimized, and the next day, are the predators.” He adds that “It’s hard to turn a corner in downtown L.A. without coming across a drug deal.” Moore moved to the West L.A. Division in 1992 and started as a patrol officer, working the shoplifting detail in Westwood. He then became a training officer, teaching new officers how to do police work’everything from how to inspect a car to how to write a rape report. Now, as a Senior Lead Officer, he says that an important part of his job is attending community meetings. He tries to go to “as many as I can,” including at least one Palisades Community Council meeting a month. He plans to attend the Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association meeting on April 25. Though Moore can’t be sure how long he will serve the Palisades community, he says, “In theory, I’ll be here for the rest of my career.” Realistically, he says, he’ll probably serve 10 to 13 more years as a Senior Lead. Moore does not intend to move up the ladder because that would mean spending more time away from his family, which he says is his main priority. Moore currently lives in El Segundo with his wife of 17 years and their two children, ages 13 and 9. He coaches his daughter’s AYSO team, and says proudly, “My daughter wants to play as long as I’m her coach.” Moore encourages residents to call him at 444-0737 or contact him by e-mail at 27995@lapd.lacity.org. “It doesn’t matter how big or small [the problem] or whether it’s a police problem or not,” he says.
Iliff Neighbors Fight Cell Tower
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
As mobile phone companies compete for increased market share by enticing consumers with more feature-rich communication options, the pressure for more cell phone antenna sites is ever increasing. But the search for cell sites, particularly in residential areas, often pits the companies against residents who object to the equipment being placed in their neighborhood. Last June, Mount Holyoke neighbors fought Cingular Wireless’s cell tower installation in the 300 block. Cingular has yet to make the facility operational, and pledged to look for other sites. Two weeks ago, when Mary Lou Piccard, who lives at 701 Iliff, looked out her window she noticed that T-Mobile was in the midst of installing an antenna on a telephone pole on the parkway approximately 30 feet from her children’s bedroom. The apparatus, consisting of various transformers, fuse and electrical equipment boxes, saddles the pole terminating with three vertical antennae hung on an outrigger high above. “There was no notice whatsoever, they just started the installation,” Piccard told the Palisadian-Post. “I called T-Mobile and asked them to please stop until we could have a conversation.” The company field representative Tracy Zubke and the engineer met with Piccard and her across-the-street neighbor Youry Kornec to explain the rationale for siting the equipment at that location. “They talked about topography, line of sight, and offered some fine theoretical performance issues about uninterrupted service,” Kornec said, adding that the antennae were meant to fill in “some dead spots on Sunset.” “I suggested that instead of 30 feet from someone’s bedroom, it could have been 100 feet from someone’s house and they probably wouldn’t have noticed it [being there].” Citing the health risks, aesthetics and potential impact on property values, Piccard was adamant that it be removed. The T-Mobile representatives (who have not returned phone calls to the Palisadian-Post) told Piccard they’d look into it, but there were no promises. ” I said that’s not good enough,” Piccard told Zubke. “You can’t come and erect this stuff without talking to the homeowner. What’s going to stop the next company from adding more lines?” Although the antennae and the boxes have been attached, a diesel generator located in the street is providing power awaiting the permanent meter to be installed by the Department of Water and Power. This machine has aggravated both Piccard and Kornec and his family, who live at 709 Iliff. “We haven’t been able to open our kitchen windows for a week, because of the noise and fumes,” Kornec told the Post. T-Mobile is exercising its right to install cellular equipment on an existing telephone pole under a Joint Pole Agreement among utilities. Any signatory can use any other signatory’s poles, and is exempt from the City of Los Angeles AGF ordinance passed in 2003, which regulates above-ground facilities operated and maintained in the public right-of-way. “Because of the exemption, all the notice requirements, public input provisions, and aesthetic restraints of the AGF ordinance are not applicable to any signatory to the JPA,” said Norman Kulla, deputy director for Councilman Bill Rosendahl. Mount Holyoke residents hired attorney Cris Armenta to assist in their opposition, and she negotiated a standstill agreement with Cingular. “Cingular has been a good corporate citizen in not only agreeing to look for an alternative,” Armenta said, “but they also understand the need for a community resolution to the problem.” Iliff resident Kornec said ” I was hoping there would have been some dialogue, that there would have been a process such as there is when a building goes in or when dogs are pooping in the park.”
Finding the Genius in Every Kid
It doesn’t take a genius but it might take an inspiring teacher to turn a student’s world around for the better. This is the premise behind a new book, “It Doesn’t Take a Genius: Five Truths to Inspire Success in Every Student,” written by award-winning educators Randall McCutcheon and Tommie Lindsey. McCutcheon, who has also written a series of prep guides for the SAT and ACT exams, will speak at Village Books on Thursday, April 20, at 7:30 p.m. He will talk about how parents can help their children improve their writing, reading and speaking skills’to score better on tests but also to become more articulate. Both McCutcheon and Lindsey believe that all children are talented and all are at risk. The challenge, for parents and teachers, is finding out what those special talents are and motivating the child to develop them. In “It Doesn’t Take a Genius,” the authors explain the innovative strategies they used to inspire all types of students’those from underprivileged backgrounds and those who were apathetic about learning or going to college. They have organized their ideas into five “truths” or principles for transforming students into successful adults, based on their decades of experience teaching in public and private schools. “Most books [on the subject] will have sort of a generalization about how you should believe in students, but they don’t give any examples,” McCutcheon said in a recent interview with the Palisadian-Post. “This book is about filling in the gaps.” The idea for the book was actually inspired by a comment from one of Lindsey’s students, Pierre Clark, who, in the award-winning PBS documentary “Accidental Hero: Room 408,” was asked why he quit the football team to join the forensics team. “Pierre replied, ‘I saw how many forensics kids were going to college, which was about 100 percent, and I saw how many football players were going to college, which was about 15 percent. You don’t have to be a genius to figure that out.'” Lindsey and McCutcheon don’t pretend to be geniuses either, but they believe that teachers can change the lives of children” one child at a time.” They met in the early 1990s and found that they shared a passion for coaching high school speech and debate teams and had similar approaches to engaging students. When Lindsey won the MacArthur Foundation’s Genius Grant in 2004 for his creativity, he and McCutcheon had the financial means to write their book. “When we wrote down our philosophies and what we believed in, it was almost exactly the same,” said McCutcheon who taught high school English, speech, debate and journalism for 27 years. He retired from teaching four years ago. McCutcheon believes that what might be missing from some classrooms today is the joy in learning. “I don’t know why learning can’t be fun,” he said, referring to the way poetry is often taught in a dull, uninspiring way. He said teachers can “trick students into liking poetry” by allowing them to work with poems that appeal to them and giving them stimulating assignments that help them understand the connections between two works. While the forensics team was, in many cases, the vehicle the authors used to engage their students, McCutcheon said that extracurricular activities like forensics, Model UN and science club do not receive adequate funding in many schools or may not be available to students. “Too much of learning is about breadth, not depth,” he said. “Students don’t have much emphasis on speaking, but without learning how to speak effectively, you’re not able to do a lot of things in your life.” He believes that parents often have to help their children develop reading, writing and speaking skills in other ways. That’s why the authors have incorporated practical, concrete examples of activities parents can suggest or use to help motivate and challenge their children. In addition to the authors’ individual humorous and moving accounts about how they inspired certain students, they asked their former students to write about what got them excited about learning. These segments, appropriately called “When They Get It,” clearly reflect the authors’ five “truths” and offer an inside-look into the perspectives of high school students’what they fear and what makes them tick. “It all started with an e-mail I got from a former student and [2004] National Book Award [in Fiction] finalist,” said McCutcheon, who had e-mailed Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum to congratulate her on being a finalist for “Madeleine Is Sleeping.” “She sent me back an e-mail telling me how I had changed her life.” In “It Doesn’t Take a Genius,” Bynum writes that McCutcheon “taught Shakespeare and Dickinson and Eliot with the same urgency and passion with which I loved Jim Carroll and Lester Bangs’so that I learned to love all of these writers in the same breath.” McCutcheon cannot emphasize how important and yet challenging the teacher’s role is today, with students relying more than ever on the Internet as a research tool and being tempted to watch a reality television show instead of reading a book. “The innocent eye has become jaded,” he said, referring to the social pressures and self-esteem issues that children face. “Many teachers are not able to relate to students too well because they didn’t grow up with those problems. “If you’re walking into a school as a young teacher, you want to find out in a subtle way who’s the best teacher at the school, and that teacher becomes your friend,” he said. “Then you find the teachers who are most effective and sit in on their classes. You become a student of being a teacher.” McCutcheon, who is “semi-retired,” currently resides in New Mexico. He writes books and works for the Department of Defense, giving speeches internationally.
‘From Babylon to Ballona’: The History of Open Space
Joe Edmiston will give an overview of the history of open space in the next program in the Chautauqua series sponsored by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority on April 18, 7:30 p.m. in the dining hall in Temescal Gateway Park (at Sunset and Temescal Canyon). Open space has been an integral component of the urban landscape since the founding of the first cities, and its use has been determined by visionaries and politicians. Interest in open space has risen and flagged throughout history, motivated largely by the politics of the day. For example, the Victorian era saw a rise in open space as rich philanthropists sought to alleviate discontent in overcrowded cities by creating parklands. World War II saw a decline in open space as parks were plowed to grow food. The audience will journey through the history of parks and open space, from the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to the private grounds of kings; from New York’s Central Park through the contemporary fight to preserve natural areas and bring back nature to blighted urban communities. Edmiston serves as the executive officer of both the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority. He regularly teaches the course “From Central Park to the Santa Monica Mountains: A History of the Park Movement in the United States” at UCLA, and has lectured on environmental planning, park development, and urban land use at UC Berkeley, USC and Cal Poly, Pomona. He has also given public lectures on park history for the National Park Service and the Ranger Training Institute. Contact: 454-1395, ext. 106.
Recording the Light
Anyone with children involved in sports in the Palisades has likely met or heard about Rick Steil. He is an assistant coach in the Palisades Pony Baseball Association and volunteers as a Rec Center basketball and flag football coach for his two sons, Tucker and Tyler. Watching him in action, it’s clear he understands the intricacies of the sports he’s involved in, yet he chooses to take a secondary role. Not that he wouldn’t embrace the opportunity to be a head coach, it’s just that in his line of work he must be prepared to leave for weeks at a time at the click of a camera. You see, Steil is a freelance fashion photographer who spends much of his time on photo shoots far away from the Palisades. Steil’s sports knowledge harkens back to his childhood in Dubuque, Iowa, where he lettered all four years in four different sports’ football, basketball, baseball, and track. Although he was recruited by colleges throughout the Midwest for sports, he also won an arts scholarship. When he was a sophomore, he took a beginning photography course with teacher Chuck Renfrow. “Whenever I was off sports,” Steil said, “I’d do photography.” Renfrow thought he had talent and helped Steil pursue photography through independent study. Renfrow persuaded Steil to enter Iowa State’s Art Competition with his photos. Out of the entire state, he was one of the 30 applicants who got an interview, and from there, he was one of only four who was selected to receive a full four-year tuition scholarship.”It’s ironic I won. I never felt like I was artistic,” he said.”I’m a recorder. I don’t create.” Steil went to the University of Dubuque, where he was the starting quarterback for four years. Looking back, Steil is philosophical about his high school and college athletic days. “When you’ve played sports, it’s like a small shot of your life,” he said. “I see it now when I coach. It’s like some dads try to live through their sons, but there’s so much more in life.” After earning his B.A. in marketing, he went to Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara for photography. He graduated in January 1983 and moved to New York City with only a camera and his dad’s army duffel bag filled with clothes. He didn’t have any money, knew no one and didn’t have a place to live. Eventually he found a two-bedroom apartment in Stuyvesant Town on 23rd, between first and the East River that he shared with another man. The man’s wife worked in Princeton and their daughter had graduated. The man would give Steil a blank check to go grocery shopping as long as he cooked enough food to ensure there were leftovers. Steil interviewed with photographer Hal Davis, who shot ads for Benson & Hedges, Johnny Walker and Revlon. Davis asked two questions: where are you from and from what school did you graduate? After Steil answered the questions, Davis hired him on the spot. Later Davis explained that since Steil had graduated from Brooks, he knew he had the right technical background, but more importantly, since he was from Iowa, he knew Steil had worked during his life and would work hard. Steil worked two years as Davis’s assistant, before he took time off to travel in Europe with a friend. They spent six months in 14 countries and were living in Portugal in a two-bedroom apartment overlooking the ocean for six dollars a day, when they started to run out of money. Steil happened to speak to his former employer and found out that Davis had just landed a job for Nivea which included shooting the beaches of Portugal. Davis rehired Steil, which allowed him to live in Europer longer. He met and fell in love with a girl in Madrid, but eventually money became an issue once again. Steil flew back to New York and did some freelance work and then went back to Paris and his girlfriend. The relationship eventually fell apart, but during that time, he starting working as an assistant for Mike Reinhardt, a major fashion photographer. “We traveled to Paris, Milan, the Caribbean, Tahiti; we stayed in five-star hotels, ate the best food and were surrounded by beautiful girls.” Steil said. “And I got paid to do it. I still have to pinch myself.” After working for Reinhardt for almost two years, Steil went back to Paris to establish himself by shooting model portfolios for agencies. After doing that for almost a year and a half, he got a chance call from the son of the publisher of “Australian Mode” magazine who was in London and needed a photographer. Steil was the only one he knew. Having never seen the magazine before, Steil had no idea of the kind of shot they needed. To make matters more complicated it was the summer and most of the models had already gone to the beaches in the south of France for the weekend. He found a six-foot-tall Swedish Marilyn Monroe look-alike who couldn’t speak a word of English, and photographed her. To his surprise, not only did the magazine use every single photo, but promised him work if he ever came to Australia. He immediately moved and spent the next seven months in Sydney. About a month before he returned to the United States, he started dreaming every night about Nicole Fitzgerald, an American model he had met in Paris. He was friends with her, but they had never even kissed. “I knew I was going to marry her,” he said. As soon as he landed he called her. They were married in January 1993 and moved to the Palisades. “Within six months, I had a wife, a baby on the way and a mortgage,” Steil said. “I knew then life would never be simple again.” Steil has photographed top models and actresses like Cameron Diaz. He’s worked as a free-lance photographer for Nordstrom, Eddie Bauer, L.A.Times, Ocean Pacific and Pendleton. With his background in sports, I wondered why he never pursued that area of photography. “I’ve never really taken sports photos,” he said. “When you shoot you isolate on one action, and I like looking at the whole arena.” What makes his photography distinct? “I’m known for beautiful lighting,” he said. “I enjoy shooting light; the way it hits people and makes them look.”
Palisadians Lead Junior King Bantams to State Hockey Title
Three Palisadians helped the Los Angeles Junior Kings’ Bantam ‘A’ ice hockey team win the California Amateur Hockey Association’s state championship last Sunday at the Iceoplex in Escondido. The King’s 18-player roster, consisting of 14- and 15-year-olds, includes local boys Tyler Heineman (one of the team’s two goalies), defender Alex Kopelevich and forward Nicholas Matejovsky. Coached by Tomas Kapusta, the Junior Kings defeated the Cougars of Northern California, 3-2, in double overtime of the finals, with Zachary Hagmaier scoring the game-winning goal. The Kings beat the West Valley Wolves by the same score in the semifinals Saturday only hours after playing the Cougars to a 3-3 tie. Last Friday, the Kings beat the San Jose Junior Sharks 5-1. The Kings won the Bantam ‘A’ Southern California championship on March 26 with a 3-2 shootout victory over the Wolves in the finals–avenging a loss by the same score earlier in the tournament. The CAHA and SCAHA championships are the latest in a season of success for the Junior Kings Bantams, who finished 2-2 at the President’s Day tournament in Las Vegas February 17-20, finished 2-1-1 at the San Jose Winter Classic in December, went undefeated on their way to winning the Thanksgiving tournament last November and won the Labor Day tournament last September at the Glacial Gardens rink in Lakewood.
Brothers Impress in Boardercross
Daniel and Matthew Edelstein like to live on the edge–of their skis, that is. The Palisades brothers recently returned from Lake Tahoe, where they competed at the United States of America Snowboard Association National Championships March 25-31, where they displayed their skills against over 100 of the best skiers and snowboarders in the country. Members of the Mammoth Mountain ski and snowboard teams for the past three years, the siblings have competed all season long in Mammoth in the Vans Unbound Series Boardercross competitions. While Daniel prefers snowboarding, younger brother Matthew is honing his skills on two skis. Daniel, a seventh-grader at Harvard-Westlake, competed in the Breaker Boys’ 12- to-13-year-olds division and finished 32nd overall. It marked his third consecutive appearance at the USASA Nationals. Matthew, a fifth-grader at St. Matthew’s, competed in the Skier Boys’ 11-15 age group and placed 13th. It was the first time he has competed at the Nationals. The siblings will continue to compete and participate for Mammoth’s teams next season.
Cohen Skates to Gold
She may only be five years old, but Palisadian Grace Cohen is already making quite a name for herself in the world of figure skating. Demonstrating the confidence and poise of someone much older, she won the gold medal at the International Skating Institute’s annual spring competition Sunday at the Toyota Center in El Segundo. It was Cohen’s third first-place finish in six months and she attributes her success to hard work (four morning skates a week) and having fun. “I practiced my routine for a really long time,” said Cohen, who attends kindergarten at Marquez Elementary. “My coaches [Heather McLaughlin and Burt Lancon] teach me the moves and then I practice them.” Could it be that Grace is a natural in the same ilk as her favorite skater of the same last name, Sasha Cohen, who won a silver medal at the 2006 Olympic Games in Torino, Italy? Since she took up the sport a year and a half ago, Grace has progressed to Alpha level, meaning she knows how to execute at least one jump. “My favorite is the Waltz jump,” said Cohen, who is currently participating in Marquez’ Star Camp. “It was one of the jumps I landed in my routine.” Dressed in a custom-made Snow White outfit and performing to “Whistle While You Work,” Cohen was nearly flawless during her one-minute free-skate program, which propelled her into first-place ahead of eight other girls in her category. She was in third place entering the afternoon’s free-skate portion of the competition, having taken the bronze medal in the compulsories (judged on technical proficiency) that morning. Cohen appeared unfazed skating before a packed house, never losing her concentration. “I don’t really get nervous in front of other people,” she confessed. “Sometimes my friends come to watch me and that’s when I want to do my best.” Because of the way her age group breaks down, Cohen frequently finds herself skating against older, more experienced girls. When she turns 7, she will be eligible to start competing in the United States Figure Skating Association. “It would be fun to skate in the Olympics someday,” she confessed. When she’s not on the ice, Cohen lives the life of any other five-year-old, hanging out with her friends, playing games and going to the beach. Some of her competitive spirit is likely born from her desire to keep up with her older brothers, Sam, who plays baseball, and Harry, a tennis player.
Spikers Exceeding Expectations
Shubin Has PaliHi Volleyball Program on the Rise
One need only look up at the endless stream of banners hanging from the walls of Palisades High’s gymnasium to know that volleyball is one of the school’s most successful sports. The boys team, however, has not won the City championship since 1998. Player defections and numerous coaching changes have taken their toll in recent years and the aura of invincibility the Dolphins once enjoyed is gone. The theme for new coach Matt Shubin is to get that long-lost swagger back. “If I had to give us a letter grade at this point in the season, I’d give us an ‘A’,” Shubin said after a recent practice. “We’re starting to come together as a team and there’s a healthy competition at every position. I expected it to take a few seasons to get the program back up to the level it once was, but seeing the progress we’ve made so far I don’t see why we can’t do it this year. All the pieces are in place.” Amidst this week’s winter break the Dolphins find themselves second place in the Western League, having lost only two matches all season–a sweep at the hands of defending City champion Chatsworth on March 14 and a four-game loss to league rival Venice March 29. “Every match we’re improving,” said Joey Sarafian, one of seven seniors on the Dolphins’ varsity roster. “I’ve never seen this much improvement in one year. Last year, we practically coached ourselves but this coach has us doing things we’ve never done before. He’s even got us soliciting businesses around town to donate money for a sound system.” Sarafian, who leads the team in kills, is joined on the outside by 12th-grader Beck Johnson. Ace leader John Barneson is referred to by Shubin as “the best setter in the City Section” and fellow seniors Rob Mees and Vertis Hays are the middle blockers–a key position in the Dolphins’ first-tempo offense. “Our attack is designed to get our hitters one-on-one with a blocker,” Shubin said. “If we can get a good pass we should be able to put the ball away 80 percent of the time. We also have versatility in our serving. We have guys who can float it short and others who can jump serve it deep, which keeps opponents off balance.” The team has exceeded expectations largely because of the development of Hayes, who joined the squad after Pali’s basketball season ended, and freshmen liberos Jordan Cohen and Matt Hanley. Junior Will Smith and sophomore Adam Cristiano rotate at opposite hitter. “I had never really played volleyball before I joined the team because basketball has always been my sport,” Hayes admitted. “They are completely different. The first volleyball practice I had was on a Thursday and by Friday night I couldn’t do a push-up because my shoulders and back were killing me. The only similarity I see is that serving is like shooting a free throw. It was great to beat Fairfax and Westchester in volleyball because that’s something we haven’t done in basketball.” Cohen, who trained with Shubin at Sinjin Smith’s beach volleyball camp over the summer, moved into the starting lineup three matches ago and Shubin has been impressed with his on-court leadership and work ethic. He called Hanley “the best defensive player we have” and said the healthy competition in practice keeps players sharp. “Our practices are tougher than most of our matches,” Mees said. “We still have room for improvement but I definitely think if we can improve our passing we’re good enough to win City.” Rounding out the varsity are Scott Vegas, Jonathan Peters, Nathan Pezeshki, Stuart Klein and Jacob Khoubian, a senior on the All-Academic team who has been accepted to both Harvard and Yale. Shubin said he will likely bring Noah Kauss, who has dominated on the junior varsity level, up to varsity for the playoffs. Palisades resumes Western league play next Wednesday with a home match against Hamilton. JV plays first at 2:30 p.m., followed by the varsity.
Jeannette Henkes, 91: Avid Bruin, Loved Fishing
Jeannette Ford Sternberg Henkes, loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and 52-year resident of Pacific Palisades, passed away at home on April 6. She was 91. The daughter of John and Anna Ford, Jeannette was born on February 23, 1915 in Kansas City, Missouri. Her family moved to Des Moines in 1924 and she graduated from East High in 1933. She met Donald Sternberg in 1933 at Iowa State College in Ames, Iowa, where she was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority. She moved to Los Angeles in 1936 and they married on May 28, 1938. Jeannette and Don were charter members of Westwood Hills Christian Church, a new church near UCLA. In 1950, they moved to Pacific Palisades with their three children, Steve, Kent and Christie. In July 1953, Don died and Jeannette moved to Santa Monica, where she lived until 1958. On February 23, 1958, she and J. H. “Judd” Henkes, Jr. were married at Westwood Hills Christian Church. That May, Jeannette and her family moved back to Pacific Palisades. Their combined household included Judd’s two children, Justus III and Denise Marie. Jeannette’s interests included a love for the outdoors and for UCLA athletics. She loved to fish, sometimes even “outfishing” Judd, who introduced her and all of the children to these hobbies. She also loved to travel and in her later years greatly enjoyed family reunions and visits with her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Jeannette continued to live in their Palisades home until her death and also remained active in Westwood Hills Christian Church, Pi Beta Phi alumni, the Palisades Rotary Anns, P.E.O., Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Republican Women’s Club. Along with her husband, endowed scholarships were established in their names at UCLA for football and kidney research and at Pepperdine University for water polo and academic achievement. In addition to Donald Sternberg, Jeannette was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, Justus H. Henkes, Jr., who passed away in 2001, her sister, Catherine, her brother, John, and her daughter, Denise Marie Henkes Meyers. She is survived by her brother Charles R. Ford (wife Elaine) of Riverside; brother- in-law Howard Henkes (wife Petie) of Los Angeles; sons, Stephen F. Sternberg of Dallas, TX, Justus H. Henkes III of Santa Monica, and Kent H. Sternberg of Sacramento, CA; daughter Christie Henkes Fulton of Napa, CA; and their families, which include 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren, with the 14th due in May. A memorial celebration will be held at Westwood Hills Christian Church,10808 Le Conte Ave., on Friday, April 14 at 2 p.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations in memory of Jeannette Henkes be made to the Rotary Club of Pacific Palisades, attn.: Rotary Foundation Chair, P.0. Box 114, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 or to a charity of one’s choice.
