By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor
As the 2021-22 school year gets underway, here are some local athletes to keep an eye on.
Kaila Elsayegh
The former Village School student from the Highlands shot rounds of 73-73 at Loomis Trail Club in Seattle, Washington, in July to secure the second qualifying spot for the Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championships at Coushatta Resort in Louisiana.
Three years ago, the gifted 14-year-old won the U.S. Kids World Championship in North Carolina to establish herself as one of the country’s best players in her age group.
At an AGJA event last September, Elsayegh aced the third hole at Stanford Golf Course and carded 14 birdies in the tournament on the way to her third top-10 finish since 2019.
Kerry Keefe
The Duke-bound opposite hitter from the El Medio neighborhood is on the national watchlist and hopes to power Marymount High to the CIF title after an impressive summer with her Sunshine Volleyball Club 17 LA team.
The daughter of ex-NBA star Adam Keefe and 1996 Olympic volleyball player Kristin Klein, Kerry enters her senior campaign for the Sailors at the top of her game. She led the team with 265 kills and added 42 blocks as a sophomore in 2019 when Marymount finished No. 2 in the state.
She was Female Athlete of the Year and valedictorian at Corpus Christi School in 2018.
Jack Gurevitch
Entering his senior year at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, the Knights’ first baseman and pitcher is poised for a huge year on the diamond.
Once a perennial Pacific Palisades Baseball Association All-Star, the Marquez Knolls resident batted .394 with 39 hits and 25 RBIs, and belted four home runs in the spring to help Notre Dame finish second in the Mission League.
He was a member of the Cooperstown Bronco 12U squad that reached the PONY West Zone Championships in 2016—the farthest any PPBA team has ever gone. He won the World Series with the Mustang Yankees in 2013.
Sydney Ginestro
In 2020, Ginestro earned the Windward Middle School Matt Schreck Leadership Award after excelling in the classroom, on the tennis court and on the softball diamond.
As an eighth-grader, this aspiring artist finished undefeated, winning all 11 of her matches, and captured the Pacific Basin League Singles Championship at UCLA.
A Village School alum from El Medio Bluffs, she not only dominated in tennis in the fall, but was a standout pitcher and infielder for the Wildcats’ softball squad in the spring.
Henry Mariscal
A sophomore-to-be at Harvard-Westlake High School, Mariscal won the 2021 Los Angeles City Junior Golf Championship Boys Flight last month at Griffith Park’s Wilson and Harding courses. He fired back-to-back rounds of 70 to finish at 4-under par.
As a freshman, the El Medio Bluffs resident played varsity golf for the Wolverines, earned All-Mission League honors and was a second alternate in the CIF-SS Individuals. Henry played SCPGA Junior and Future Champion golf tournaments all summer long, with several top five results.
He was a multi-sport athlete at St. Matthew’s Parish School and is an ex-PPBA All-Star.
Parker Turner
A former multi-sport phenom at St. Matthew’s Parish School, Turner is ready for a breakout junior year on the oval at Brentwood School, where he made the varsity basketball roster as a shooting guard in 10th grade and clocked personal bests of 10.98 seconds in the 100-meter dash and 22.54 seconds in the 200 meters in June at the CIF-SS Division 4 prelims.
Turner played a vital role in St. Matthew’s winning the Pacific Basin League track and field championship in 2019, taking first place in the 100 and 200 sprints. He played receiver and cornerback on the Falcons’ A-Division flag football team, which won the PBL crown, and was the top scorer on the A-Division championship basketball team that winter.
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