Chris White is Peoples Choice Top Vote-Getter; Sargeant Tackles Aggies at Alamo Bowl

CHRIS WHITE is the Lompoc Locker Room People’s Choice Athlete of the Year for 2007.

White led Sacramento City College in virtually every one of baseball’s offensive statistics, and was named the MVP of his conference before being signed by the Detroit Tigers. He was arguably the best junior college player in all Northern California.

The centerfielder was Big 7 Conference MVP and an All-American. He batted .369 with 30 stolen bases in the regular season and helped his team to the state JC Final Four. He was picked in the 12th round by the Tigers.

White spent much of the summer with the Tiger affiliate in the Gulf Coast League where he caught fire at the end of the season. He was promoted to Oneonta of the New York-Penn League for the playoffs.

White voters came alive with a roar in the final day of voting to post a colossal 144 votes for their favorite. The monster turnout forced LLR to add a fifth voting category, that of “Sweepstakes” to indicate the local nominee who overshadowed all others regardless of category. White was initially in the Male Athlete category but with 156 total votes he was truly in a league by himself.

White will appear on “Lompoc Locker Room—the TV Show” on Monday, December 31 at 5:30.

The other “Peoples Choice” winners are water polo’s WES HAIN in Male Athlete of the Year, golfer KELLIE GEORGE Female Athlete of the Year, boxing’s ROY BACA Coach of the Year, and the Cabrillo girls water polo team as Team of the Year. George and Baca will join White on TV on Monday afternoon.

The winners were picked from a field of 50 nominees named by the public. The public also selected the “People’s Choice” winners. Two hundred seventy votes were cast.

The “People’s Choice” winners differed in three of four divisions from the winners picked by a select panel of sportswriters, broadcasters, and sports officials earlier in December. The panel named pitcher DANNY DUFFY Male Athlete of the Year, soccer’s JANI CARMONA and water polo’s SARAH UR Female Athlete of the Year in a tie vote, water polo coach COREY McINTYRE Coach of the Year, and his Cabrillo girls water polo team Team of the Year. Only the latter repeated in the public vote.

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LYDELL DOESN’T LET DOWN

LYDELL SARGEANT did not get to start for Penn State Saturday in the Alamo Bowl against Texas A&M, but he nevertheless made his signature contribution.

Sargeant made two solo tackles and three assists for five tackles as the Nittany Lions shut down the Aggies in the second half to win 24-17.

For the season Sargeant totaled 70 tackles to lead all PSU defensive backs. Forty-four were solo and 26 were assists. He made two interceptions and returned them 34 yards. He had three pass breakups and five deflections.

Sargeant started in eight of the Lions’ first 10 games but did not start opposite Temple, Michigan State or on Saturday.

He will return for his senior year next season.