Seniors Awarded Post Cup

In a year full of ups and a sprinkling of downs, Palisades High seniors Kene Izuchukwu and Erika Martin received the ultimate “high” last Thursday evening when they were presented Palisadian-Post Cup Awards as the school’s outstanding senior athletes for 2009-10. Izuchukwu was captain of the boys’ varsity volleyball team, which came within two points of capturing the City Section Division I championship back in May. After leading the Dolphins in kills, blocks, digs and hitting percentage, the outside/opposite hitter was voted City Co-Player of the Year–which was one of his goals when the season started. “I’m most proud of helping my team win the City championship [as a sophomore] in 2008,” Izuchukwu said. “This year, my goals were to win City again, earn Player of the Year and to play in my first state regional tournament.” Amazingly, Izuchukwu has a 41-inch vertical leap that enables him to hit over blockers, instead of trying to hit through them. It may take all summer to repair the dents in the gym floor as a result of his thunderous spikes. One such spike earned he and his teammates a free pizza early in the season. “Our coach offers us a pizza party if anyone can hit a defender in the face off of a spike,” Izuchukwu explained. “The first time we played Venice I was able to hit one of their players in the face on match point, so we got our pizza party.” Izuchukwu lives in Ladera Heights. He was born in Albany, but grew up in Atlanta and Buffalo before moving to Los Angeles and enrolling at Paul Revere Middle School as a sixth-grader. He admitted he was ‘humbled’ by winning the Post Cup and that all of his hard work this spring has been worth it. “One way to show leadership in volleyball is to be exemplary,” he said. “Every practice I tried to play my hardest and show my teammates that even though I was the best player I still understood that I needed to work hard all the time.” Following in the footsteps of former Dolphins teammates Scott Vegas (2008) and Matt Hanley (2009), Izuchukwu chose UCLA for its academics and Division I volleyball status. He also visited UC San Diego, NYU and Harvard, but ultimately decided Westwood was the right fit to begin his collegiate career. “Volleyball is 90 percent mental to me,” he said. “I know when I have the right mindset my physical abilities will easily complement it. I can be happy with a win, but I’m not truly satisfied unless I play well.” Citing AP Government and Politics as his favorite class because ‘I enjoy learning and analyzing the way the U.S. Government works,’ Izuchukwu is eager to begin the next phase of his life. What he said he’ll remember most about this season is proving people wrong by reaching the City finals–something the Dolphins were not expected to do. “Kene is the best player in the entire City,” Palisades Coach Chris Forrest said. “He’s our captain, he’s our leader, he’s the guy we look to when we need a kill. He’s been first-team All-City three years in a row now, so that speaks to his ability.” Martin, meanwhile, is largely responsible for fueling the resurgence of Palisades’ track & field program. For the past two seasons she has been the cornerstone for a girls’ team that captured its first City title ever last month–a meet in which she qualified for the finals in four individual events and won the 100-meter hurdles in 14.74 seconds. “A year ago I sat in the stands at state finals and told myself that my senior I would be on the track,” Martin recalled. “On paper, I wasn’t supposed to qualify, but I ran the best race of my life and I made it.” Martin lives in Palisades Highlands. She moved to town when she was 7, spending half of her second-grade year at Marquez Elementary and the other half at Seven Arrows, where she stayed through third grade. She switched to Calvary Christian School the next year, remaining there through eighth grade. “I’m most proud of being a part of being part of a team that made Pali history,” said Martin, who will be competing in the ACC as a heptathlete at Wake Forest, which she picked over Duke, Syracuse, Penn and Vanderbilt. “There are so many talented girls on the team and together we accomplished our goal. Pali’s never been seen as an intimidating team at big meets, but this year people knew who we were.” Martin was MVP of the girls’ soccer team as a sophomore before giving the sport up to concentrate on track and field. She was seventh in the heptathlon and a finalist in the 300 hurdles at the Arcadia Invitational this spring, breaking the school record in that event by a full three seconds. She also won both the long jump and 100 hurdles at the South Bay Championships. “Track is mostly mental,” she said. “The physical training is done and that can’t change but fighting your mind when you don’t want to run or managing nerves is difficult. I’m more satisfied with a personal best than winning an event because it’s impossible to control the competition but you can control your own races.” Martin’s best event is the hurdles, where her technique is nearly flawless. She has left her share of scorch marks in the blue track at Stadium by the Sea, blessed with a rare combination of speed, power and grace. She describes her sport, however, as “scary” and one of her scariest moments came early in the season. “I had to run a meet this year with my glasses instead of contacts,” she said. “My depth-perception was completely off and it was the scariest hurdle race of my life.” Martin described winning the Post Cup as an “honor.” Her favorite class was U.S. history with Mr. King because “his enthusiasm for the subject entertains and makes students want to learn.” Perhaps no one is more gratified by her success than longtime Pali track coach Ron Brumel: “Erika was the spearhead of our championship season. I can see her scoring points on the national level because she’s nowhere near over-trained and her learning curve is very steep. In my opinion, she could also be a world-class triple jumper, even though she never did it in high school.” When they receive their diploma’s at Thursday’s graduation they will have completed one journey and taken their first steps into another. Both of these Post Cup winners, however, have a leg up on the competition.