Top 10 Stories of 2006

10. Hays and Slocum Win Post Cup Award Swimmer Paris Hays and tennis player Krista Slocum were named Post Cup Award winners in June as the outstanding senior athletes at Palisades High. Hays won every individual race he swam for the Dolphins. Slocum was a senior captain of Palisades’ City championship team and took third at the Individual singles tournament. 9. Madsen Cashes in at Poker World Series Whoever said playing games gets you nowhere never met Jeff Madsen. Perhaps the most improbable success story of 2006 was when the 21-year-old Palisades High grad earned two gold bracelets and pocketed nearly $1.5 million at the World Series of Poker in July. Madsen showed the saavy of a veteran, not a college student playing the event for the first time. His feat was equivalent to a qualifier beating Tiger Woods at The Masters. 8. Pali Volleyball Club Teams Net Golds Two Pacific Palisades Volleyball Club teams won national titles at the Junior Olympics in July. Pali’s 15-1s Blue team won with Oliver Deutschman, Matthew Bagnard, Matt Hanley, Michael Hartwick, Jacob Sachse, Robert Stoeckinger and Mason Wojciechowski. Pali’s 17s Black won, led by Clark Porter, Stephen and Douglas Brown, Matthew Ricard, Brian Scilacci, Sean Dennis and Paul Peterson. 7. UCLA Hoops Youth Camp is Slam Dunk By the end of the week it was hard to tell who was having more fun–UCLA men’s basketball coach Ben Howland or the kids invited to his summer basketball camp at the Palisades High gym. Howland and his staff instructed boys and girls ages 6-12 on fundamentals like shooting, passing and dribbling. Bruins’ sophomore guard Darren Collison captivated his audience by swishing nine three-point jumpers in a row. 6. Sabbatini Wins Nissan Open at Riviera Rory Sabbatini learned the hard way that no lead is safe on a Sunday at Riviera Country Club. The South African began his final round of the Nissan Open in February four strokes ahead of Fred Couples and Craig Barlow, but by the 15th hole he was locked in a four-way tie. Sabbatini escaped with a one-shot victory and the $918,000 winner’s check. “This was the hardest round of golf I’ve ever played in my life,” he confessed. 5. Tennis Teams Repeat as City Champs In May, Palisades High’s boys team beat Granada Hills, 19 ‘-10, to win its second consecutive City title and 26th overall. In November, despite having lost seven starters from the previous year’s championship team, PaliHi’s girls team rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat Taft, 4-3. It was the girls’ 19th title and further proof that the Dolphins’ storied program once again reigns supreme in the City Section. 4. PaliHi Football “Surrenders” at Venice Perhaps the most bizarre and controversial story of 2006 was the decision by Palisades High varsity football coaches Leo and Aaronn Castro to pull their team off the field with 5:35 left in a 48-13 loss to Venice in November. It occurred after Venice called timeout to present a jersey to one of its coaches. The incident is being investigated by City Section officials. 3. Mustang All-Stars Reach Regionals Head Coach Bill Elder’s squad of PPBA All-Stars advanced through the District and Sectional playoffs and became the first Palisades-based Mustang team to reach the Southern California Regionals in June. Palisades defeated Norwalk and Lynwood to earn a trip to the Regionals in Covina. “To be one of the final eight in SoCal says a lot about how hard our kids worked,” Elder said. 2. Palisades High Lacrosse Program Debuts A new spring sport was added to Palisades High’s athletic program in 2006. The school fielded boys JV and varsity and girls varsity lacrosse teams. The first game in school history took place on March 11 at Stadium by the Sea when the boys varsity lost to Loyola 15-1. Eric Rosen scored Palisades’ first goal in the second quarter. Pali notched its first win two days later. 1. ‘Racquets, Stars and Guitars” Tennis Event The Palisades Tennis Center celebrated its 10-year anniversary in style by hosting a tennis exhibition in December featuring Bob and Mike Bryan, the No. 1-ranked doubles team in the world. The event featured a celebrity doubles match pitting Mike Bryan and comedian Jon Lovitz against Bob Bryan and musician Gavin Rossdale and a rock concert in the Rec Center gym.