Duane and Nip and all those who came before

There are quite a few sports personalities from this little town that have gone on to great things. All the way back to Nick Carter going to the Olympics in 1920 (don’t go check, I haven’t, so I might be off by four years). Mike Bratz became director of player personnel with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Why is LeBron where he is? Because Mike drafted him. Granted it was a no-brainer, but Mike was the guy who pulled the trigger. Then there were Roy Howell going to the All-Star Game and Roy Thomas and Casey Candaele, and now Ryan Church in major league baseball. By my count there are right now five professional baseball players from Lompoc (can you name them all?). And in football remember Napoleon?

Who from here couldn’t? This fall there will be seven Lompoc football players at four year schools, all from The Poke. And that does not count Boo Jackson, quarterback of the top JC team in the state. Frank Piemme and Jurgen Schmidt are the world’s best swimmers for their age in the world. Torin Simpson is producing video for the Raiders. Brad Lilley directs music for the Dodgers. Marcus Jenkins was just hired by the basketball program at the University of Richmond. Right now Duane Solomon (see the photo) has qualified to be part of Team USA at the World Track & Field Championships in Japan in August. He is No. 3 in the nation in the 800 and he’s not even out of college. He’s the first Lompocan on Team USA since George Porter 20 years ago. He’s got a shot to follow in Nick Carter’s footsteps.

My point here is that I enjoyed following the careers of these people, and I still do. So why don’t we do it together? I CANNOT do it by myself. Already B.J. Lingle has agreed to follow Air Force Academy JV football (quick now, why would that team be of interest in Lompoc?) Texas Bob Wiener is on board to cover the Lone Star State. Barry Marks will be monitoring Washington, DC.
Send in the stuff you’re hearing (pressboxprod@verizon.net) and we’ll stick it onto this website. My motto is Everybody is a correspondent. Write letters, complaints, whatever.