NEWS
By Michael Miller | May 5, 2010
Sharks don’t scare Tom Jones much. He’s paddled around great whites before. And he can put up with stormy weather, even if it means making an emergency landing. But there’s something in the water that truly frightens the extreme athlete from Huntington Beach. That would be plastic, which he considers the greatest modern threat to humans and the environment — and which he’s embarking on a quest this month to eliminate. Jones, a seven-time Muay Thai kickboxing champion and marathon runner, paddled 1,250 miles from Oregon to Mexico in 2007 to raise awareness about plastic pollution.
FEATURES
By Rick Fignetti | February 25, 2010
The start of the 2010 Assn. of Surfing Professionals’ world championship tour kicks off Saturday and continues through March 10. The $400,000 Quiksilver Pro starts at Snapper Rocks in Queensland, Australia, with the top 48 surfers in the world ready to go. This is the first of 10 stops for the elite surfers. Starting out the list of standouts is last year’s world champ, Mick Fanning, no doubt the fastest surfer on the planet. Fanning, with his focus and all-around training, is again looking like the man to beat.
LOCAL
By Michael Miller | February 18, 2010
I had a high school English teacher who started each day by writing an inspirational quote on the blackboard. She was an avid fan of Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson and “Dead Poets Society,” and she looked for phrases that encouraged going out on a limb. Two that stuck with me over the years were Emerson’s “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string” and the slogan from the movie “Braveheart”: “Every man dies; not every man really lives.
SPORTS
By Matt Szabo | December 24, 2009
All year long, Matt Viles was the quarterback of one of the highest powered offenses in the state. The quiet but steady demeanor of Viles, the Edison High senior, helped the Chargers football team on several occasions. And now Viles has been named Sunset League Most Valuable Player. Among the other top awards given to area athletes, Edison senior Jordan Zumwalt was named Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight year and Fountain Valley senior Kyle Middlebrooks earned Offensive Player of the Year honors.
NEWS
By Britney Barnes | December 9, 2009
A chance opportunity almost four decades ago brought Huntington Beach Fire Chief Duane Olson into the department, but after 39 years with the city, he has shown it wasn’t chance that kept him here. Olson announced over the summer his intention to retire Dec. 22 after overseeing the city’s fire protection and prevention, rescue and emergency medical services for more than 200,000 residents since 2003, when he was appointed chief. After seven years at the helm, Olson said it is the right time to go. “I don’t think there is ever a good time to retire, but I really think there is a right time to retire, and for me, both personally and professionally, it is the right time to retire,” he said Olson started out as a lifeguard for the city and was “very fortunate,” as he put it, to be transferred to the fire department with a handful of others.
SPORTS
November 26, 2009
Matt McElroy finished third Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College at the CIF Southern Section Division II boys’ cross-country championships in 14 minutes, 41 seconds. The Edison senior has bigger goals in mind, though, and they start this Saturday at the CIF State meet in Fresno. “I kind of don’t even want to talk about [getting third at CIF],” McElroy said. “I was pretty disappointed about it but I want to leave it behind me. It didn’t go well because I didn’t really train for Mt. SAC.” McElroy would like to win the CIF State meet, or at least get top three.
SPORTS
By Matt Szabo | October 22, 2009
PLACENTIA — One of the centers of attention coming into last Friday’s Sunset League opener was the center himself. Edison High senior center Roman Sapolu was out with a foot injury, so the Chargers turned to senior Kris Bonham, who hadn’t played the position in three years and is usually on the defensive line. Esperanza probably couldn’t tell the difference, the way Bonham stepped in and performed. But what the Aztecs probably could tell after Edison’s 34-10 win at Valencia High is why the Chargers, the top-ranked team in the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division poll, are considered favorites to win their fifth straight league title.
ENTERTAINMENT
By Tom Titus | October 22, 2009
The topic under discussion in Golden West College’s new production “How I Learned to Drive” may be pedophilia, but a more accurate word may be obsession — a middle-aged man’s pitiful lust for his teenage niece that ultimately disrupts both lives. This touchy subject is exceptionally well-handled by director Martie Ramm and her involving young cast. Paula Vogel’s entrancing play touches the heart without outraging the senses, and the Golden West performers display a commendable sensitivity in its production.
SPORTS
By Matt Szabo | September 2, 2009
As the center for the Ocean View High football team, Kody Afusia’s first job on offense is to snap the ball to the quarterback. But Coach Harold Eggers compared Afusia himself to the quarterback. The Seahawks’ only returning All-Golden West League player, who is 6-foot-3, 295 pounds and also plays defensive tackle, is clearly important for the Seahawks this season. “He’s a leader,” Eggers said of Afusia, a three-year varsity player. “He’s very aggressive on the defensive side of the ball, and he’s like the quarterback on the line on the offensive side of the ball.
SPORTS
By Matt Szabo | September 2, 2009
A year after Sean Guite set the Huntington Beach High single-season passing record with 2,346 yards, Coach Eric Lo said he’d like for the Oilers to run the ball a bit more this year. Guite, a senior, will be a part of that, too. “I can’t say enough great things,” said Lo of Guite, a second-team All-Sea View League selection who was fifth in the county in passing yards. “Strong arm, smart kid, and he’s a stronger runner than he was last year.