And We're Back ....

With some news, notes, and occasional commentary. Today we'll be talking about the upcoming fall High School sports season, the future of local area sports coverage, and some interesting tid-bits from the world of sports - starting with ...

Camp Kotowski

For several years now Village Country Club golf pro Bob Kotowski has hosted and been the lead instructor for the Cathedral City High School Golf Camp. Why Cathedral City? At VCC?  Well, the CCHS girls golf Head Coach is Lisa Johnson. Her dad, Jerry, was the Head Coach at Cabrillo and one of his players was a certain "Bobby Kotowski". She likes to drop by and visit the folks during the summer and she brings some of her players and a few other folks along for some team-building fun, top-notch golf instruction, and a chance to avoid the 117 degree heat back in the desert. Coach Johnson gives us the info.

This year Coach Johnson brought another coach, 8 squad members, and two junior golfers - both children of CCHS staff. The Lions prowling the course were 5 seniors - Alma Perez, Karina Munoz, Amanda Barone, Marisa Carona, Angie Cardona, and 3 juniors - Odalys Ugalde, Ariel Carillo, and Brittany Salgado. Good Luck, Ladies !!!

Bob gathers the crew around for a lesson on the driving range. The weather, by the way, was clear with 5mph winds and 78 degrees.

Does remind me of this:  If You're Famous - You Live in Beverly Hills.
                                      If  You're Rich - You Live in Montecito
                                      If You're Lucky - You Live In Lompoc

Upcoming Events

The VCC is also going to have a lot of special events in the coming month:

23 Sept 2012 - The California Classic Blind Golf\Lou Benetti Memorial Tournament [Sign up by 7 Sept]

  This event raises money for the Lions Club Sight programs & support for blin golf activities. Contact Howard Shaw (735-3948 or hemkshaw@verizon.net) for more information.

1 Sept 2012 - Patriot Golf Day

7 Sept 2012 - The Norma Stillman "Fiesta on the Fairways" Memorial Tournament to raise funds for the Lompoc Boys & Girls Club.

30 Sep 2012 - The Braves Classic fundraiser for Lompoc HS athletics.

Broadcast News

It has been a very tumultuous time for Lompoc Valley sports reportage the last few months. First, of course we lost the Dean of local reporters - the inimitable Al Hunt to a sudden and far too early death. Main LV coverage guy for the LCC newspapers, Brad Memberto, is doing better but is still dealing with some major health problems. The SB News-Press has apparently decided to replace Al with their crew of stringers, and LCC has also lost a sports reporter in addition to the Big Guy being on somewhat reduced duty. Oh, and did I mention that the valley has been invaded by the big boys.

The 'Big Boys' being Fox Sports West. After many years of neglecting the area, the LA-based sports folks have discovered SLO and Santa Barbara counties - specifically the AG @ Lompoc season opener on Friday. It will only be shown as a live stream on FSW's Prep Zone and not aired live on TV. It is also likely that this will also happen to the Big Game at the end of the regular season. 

In better news, there is a new game preview show in the works to precede the TAP-TV football broadcasts that do occur, and Steve Crummy is putting together a weekly sports wrap-up show, Sports On TAP-TV, to air on the regular TAP-TV schedule.

Fall Sports News and Notes

Just a few quick notes for now. I will be posting schedules, rosters and more in-depth profiles over the next several days. There will be some football stuff on Friday, and game recaps, etc. on Saturday.

Girls Golf

Out at Cabrillo HS, Dave Schroeder has 17 girls out for the squad, but graduated most of his big guns, including 2011 LPL Champ Morgan Salm and her sidekick Mariah Hall. Tom Garrard has at least 11 girls working to nab a spot on the Lompoc varsity. With the Salm-inators departure to the University of Toledo, the competition for the top individual spot in league is wide open, but expect the usual superior depth of Ginny Smith's Santa Ynez Pirates to carry off the team title.

Girls Volleyball

Aaron Batula's young Lompoc Braves opened things off by taking on an Alumni squad on Thursday night. The varsity dropped three straight to the 'vets', but improved with each game. The junior dominated team (2 seniors, 1 soph) fell 25-15 in the initial game, stayed close in the 2nd (25-23), and led much of the 3rd, before being nipped 27-25. Jim Hilliard has a deep, experienced group up on the hill, and the Conquistadores figure to be competitive in a rather balanced LPL this season. The factor which is causing many area VB watchers some puzzlement is the fact that Chip Fenega's Santa Ynez Pirates do not have any players on their roster listed at 6' or above.

Frosh Football

Both local schools have looked good early. Downtown, the Braves, led by YFL fixture Buddy Sims' son Torey, thoroughly dominated Santa Ynez in a scrimmage last week. The younger Sims, as part of Paul Terrones' well-oiled machine, made a number of plays that would have been good for someone on varsity - in college. Cabrillo, meanwhile, followed a scrimmage at SLO last week with a 34-21 victory over San Marcos at Cabrillo Stadium on Thursday afternoon. QB Ben Gonzales got things started with a pair of TD passes to Marcos Rodriguez. [Much more on this game to come.]