By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor
Pacific Palisades is loaded with talented youth eager to shine in their sports as the school year begins. Here are 15 local athletes poised to have breakthrough seasons in 2022-23.
Martha Valkov
As Martha Valkov begins her sophomore year at Palisades Charter High School, this confident 15-year-old is ready to take the world of rhythmic gymnastics by storm after taking first place in the Level 10 Junior Division—the highest level in the USA Gymnastics Junior Olympics Program—in June at the National Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Valkov has been on a steady rise ever since taking up the sport at age 6. She currently trains six days per week at California Rhythms in West LA. The Canyon Charter Elementary and Paul Revere Charter Middle school alum discovered what has become her life’s passion while vacationing in Bulgaria. She was second in hoop, first in ball, fifth in club and first in ribbon in Iowa, and her goal is to make the U.S. national team.
Cody Elkins
The more he plays, the higher Cody Elkins climbs on the ladder. Entering his senior year at Pali High, 17-year-old Elkins upset Lucas Bain of Oregon and Samuel Schulze of Florida to reach the finals of the Boys Singles 21-and-Under Gold Division at the USA Racquetball National Junior Championships two months ago in the Midwest. He even took a set off top-seeded Micah Farmer of Texas in the championship match—quite a feat against a player five years older. Elkins also paired with Schulze to place second in doubles. He represented Pali High at the High School Nationals in March and has already earned his spot on Team USA at the Junior World Championships in November.
Dani Fenster
Fresh off leading the USA Girls U18 volleyball team to gold at the 21st World Maccabiah Games in Israel, the 5-foot-10 middle blocker from the Huntington is poised to have a stellar senior season at Archer School for Girls. Dani Fenster served the last two points to close out the fourth set in the finals against the host nation, which had defeated Team USA in round robin play. Last fall, Fenster powered Archer to second in the Liberty League and a Southern Section Division 4 playoff berth. She grew up playing basketball at Palisades Recreation Center, which was her favorite sport until she chose volleyball in high school. She played club for Actyve Volleyball Club in Santa Monica through 2020.
Aidan Flintoft
The No. 1 rated punter in all of Southern California is Stanford-bound Aidan Flintoft, a senior at Oaks Christian High School who is proudly following in the footsteps of cousin Stefan and brother Collin, who were both punters at UCLA. The 6-foot-2 Highlands resident considered the Army, Navy and Harvard before committing to the Cardinal. He earned All-Ventura County honors as a junior after booting 59 of his 74 kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks, averaging 40 yards per punt, converting 38 of 40 extra point tries and making 13 of 16 field goal attempts, including a 50-yarder versus Sierra Canyon. Flintoft was obsessed with soccer until eighth grade, and he was a multi-sport star at Windward as a freshman and sophomore before transferring.
Anna Song
If her freshman season is any indication, Pali High golf coach Dave Suarez has good reason to be optimistic about his team’s chances of repeating as City champion this fall—as well as Anna Song’s chances of capturing a state individual title before her prep career is over. She was in contention for most of the afternoon before settling for a 2-over par 73 in the CIF state championships at Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach last November, finishing 18th in a field of 54 players, all but a few of them older and more experienced than her. After shooting 5-under to earn medalist honors at league finals, Song tied for second at City finals and became the Dolphins’ first-ever state qualifier by carding a 70 at the SoCal Regionals.
Bodhi Sahakian
Hanging ten is an art for this confident Pali High junior, who rode waves all the way to the Elite Eight of the Men’s Longboard Division at the Scholastic Surf Series California High School State Championships in April. Reaching the quarterfinals was nothing to sneeze at after Bodhi Sahakian placed first in meets at Emma Wood, Manhattan Beach, C Street, Carpinteria and Zuma as a 10th-grader. He is also a budding superstar on the track, running the 400 and 800 meters and the 4×400 relay for the Dolphins in the spring. As the top-ranked board gamer for his age from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, Sahakian will be barrel riding at Topanga and Will Rogers in preparation for the first swells competition in October.
Natalia Johnson
In November, Natalia Johnson entered a ring at The Grand Theater in Anaheim for her very first Muay Thai fight, and following three spirited rounds, her arm was raised in victory—vindication for months of training with retired kickboxing champion Baxter Humby. The Harvard-Westlake High School senior, who hails from Swarthmore near the Village, practices punching and kicking at Gerry Blanck’s dojo, where she took Little Dragon classes as a wide-eyed preschooler. Now, the former Pali Waves club basketball standout is pining for more IFC-sanctioned amateur bouts to prove her unanimous decision over an opponent 10 years older was no fluke. With a living legend in her corner, look for a knockout next time.
Braun Levi
How do you top a freshman season in which you were crowned the Mission League doubles champion and got all the way to the round of 16 in the CIF Individual Tournament? That is the challenge facing this talented Loyola High School tennis player whose consistent strokes helped the Cubs advance to the Southern Section Division 1 finals. Braun Levi carried that success into the summer, traveling around the globe to represent the United States as a member of the Boys U16 tennis squad at the 21st World Maccabiah Games in Israel. He advanced to the quarterfinals after winning his group, losing a total of two games in the process. Levi, who lives near St. Matthew’s, has a bright future in front of him.
Kingsley Wolf
A seventh-grader at Corpus Christi School, Kingsley Wolf has already started to establish herself as a prodigy on the tennis court. Over Memorial Day weekend and only two days after her 13th birthday, she captured the Girls 14s singles championship at the Woody Hunt Junior Tennis Tournament in Palm Desert—a result that secured her a spot on Team SoCal where she will be invited to train at USTA headquarters in Carson. Listed as one of the 15 best college recruits in the 2028 graduating class, the Riviera resident is also ranked in the Top 20 in Southern California in the Girls 14-and-under age group. Wolf can be found training and playing practice matches at Palisades Tennis Center.
Holden Gering
No one fits the “student-athlete” mold more than Holden Gering, who is not only a game changer on the gridiron at Crespi High, but also an overachiever in the classroom. As a junior last fall, he played offense, defense and special teams. In only eight games, Gering had 36 catches for 454 yards and five touchdowns as a receiver, and recorded 42 tackles at safety and cornerback. He scored three touchdowns while amassing nearly 200 yards in a victory at Newbury Park. Gering was president of his class and made the National Honor Society with a 4.5 GPA. He was on the PPBA Bronco All-Star team that made the PONY West Zone Championships in 2016 and is determined to finish his high school football career in style.
James Van Wagenen
It did not take very long for James Van Wagenen to win the 106-pound weight division at the City Wrestling Championships last winter. In fact, the Pali High sophomore needed less than a minute and a half. A whirling dervish on the mat, he used cat-quick reflexes to pin all three of his opponents—each in 30 seconds or faster—to help the Dolphins to second place in the team standings. He pounced on Birmingham’s Jaydon Whitaker in the final and ended it in just 18 seconds with one swift, perfectly executed move—one of the most decisive matches in the history of the tournament and one that qualified Van Wagenen for the state meet. Whether he stays at 106 or moves up as a junior, he will be the favorite in his weight class.
Blake Pecsok
Blake Pecsok won everything there was to win in 2021-22, and he begins his last year at Pali High primed for an encore. As a junior, he shared LA City Player of the Year honors with his teammate Gus Wibbelsman and left no doubt he is the best returning setter in the section—and perhaps all of Southern California. Pecsok was also selected Western League MVP upon passing the Dolphins to a perfect league mark and on to their 17th City crown and first since 2019 when Pecsok led St. Matthew’s to the Delphic League ‘A’ Division title as an eighth-grader. Growing up he was also a fine soccer player, kicking his AYSO U10 Extra squad, nicknamed FC Pali, to first-place finishes in four of seven tournaments in 2015.
Rachel Lande
A 17-year-old rising senior at Pali High, Rachel Lande represented the USA at the World Rowing U19 Championships two weeks ago in Varete, Italy, and took ninth place in Women’s Pair with Marina Aquatic Center teammate Shannon Kearney, with whom she had won by an 11-second margin at the U19 National Team Trials in mid-June. Lande was sixth in the youth four at this year’s USRowing Youth National Championships, and was second in the four and pair at the Southwest Youth Championships. Lande committed to Yale after getting full-ride offers from USC, UCLA and Stanford. She has been rowing since eighth grade, and when she was 13, she broke the national record in the 2K.
Mechal Green
Mechal Green has the Midas Touch on the soccer pitch, where she struck gold last month at the 21st World Maccabiah Games in Israel, leading the USA to the 16-and-under girls championship in the premiere sporting event for Jewish youth worldwide. Green scored a goal in a 10-0 rout of Argentina in group play and Team USA went on to finish with a perfect 5-0 record. In February, Green co-captained Paul Revere to its second straight Delphic League ‘A’ Division crown, tallying the only goal in the championship game against Harvard-Westlake. She lives in the Marquez area, plays club for Beach FC and is eager to contribute as a freshman in the Pali High program this year.
Katie Sakamoto
If there had been an MVP award handed out, Katie Sakamoto would have won it after her performance throughout the LA Recreation and Parks’ Citywide Minor Division All-Star girls basketball tournament last winter. The starting point guard for her Palisades Recreation Center squad, she did her best Michael Jordan impression, scoring 28 points in the regional final, 11 points in the City semifinals and 17 more in the finals. The 11-year-old from the Alphabet Streets attends Village School, plays club for The Wolfpack in Culver City and has been scorching the nets since making her first basket at age 5. She is also fast as lightning. At the Optimist/YMCA Youth Track Meet in 2019 she won her division in the 100 and 400 meters.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.