Sorted by date Results 1401 - 1425 of 1841
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor All right, you win, we surrender. Those words often come from battlefields. Today, they appear to be coming from the Lakers. When Kobe Bryant underwent surgery Wednesday to repair a torn rotator cuff the Lakers adopted a plan for the upcoming months and most likely the rest of the season. Instead of fielding a lineup they’d likely put on the court in a bid for a playoff berth they’re featuring a group of inexperienced players they’re hoping to develop for the f...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor I was a young sportswriter, in my 20s when I joined the staff at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. There was a UCLA background in my family. My brother had graduated from UCLA, and even though I tried to be an objective journalist Bob Boyd, the USC basketball coach, labeled me a Bruin. "We have to make you into a Trojan," he would say. "We can get a psychiatrist to help." It was all in good fun and it continued for many years. Regardless of how many objective...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter "... and keeps on ticking." Over the course of the past three years the Culver City High girls basketball team has attained that favorable standard. The Centaurs have won 32 consecutive Ocean League games after beating new-members Lawndale and El Segundo in the opening week of the 2015 league competition. The winning streak began with a league home-opener against Morningside High in January, 2012. Last Wednesday's road victory at Lawndale, considered a contender...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Russell Wilson or Tom Brady? The quarterback who plays best in Super Bowl 49 on Feb. 1 will likely lead his team to the NFL championship. Wilson, a third round draft choice who has proven to be a sensation, will try to lead his team to a second straight Super Bowl triumph. And, if necessary, he might guide the Seattle Seahawks to another miracle-like comeback as he did in the NFC championship game Jan. 18 over the stunned Green Bay Packers. Or perhaps it will be...
By LaShon Rayford, Linwood Howe Parent & Executive Assistant – Human Resources CCUSD Sailing requires the courage to Explore, Dream and Discover. The students of Linwood E. Howe Elementary School are doing just that. As the strong winds propel their ship to move forward, the Vikings are adjusting their sails, leaving the harbor and navigating toward a new destination ... The Linwood E. Howe Sailing to Success College and Career Program. "The program is designed to expose and encourage our K-5 f...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter The Culver City High boys basketball team has completed its pre-season schedule leading up to 2014-15 Ocean League action that begins this week. The Centaurs will travel south to take on Lawndale High, then will host El Segundo on Friday night, January 16, in Del Goodyear Gymnasium. The Centaurs capped off their final pre-season week against three high schools from Torrance. They beat West High, 59-48, before losing to Torrance, 51-46, and North High, 84-63, in a...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor After Ohio State defeated Oregon Monday night to win the first ever college football playoff Coach Urban Meyer called the Buckeyes’rags to riches story one of the best in college football history. It would be hard to argue with him. Ohio State’s starting quarterback, a Heisman Trophy candidate, went out with an injury. His replacement had an outstanding season but was unable to play in the final three games due to his own injury. A sophomore who hadn’t playe...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter The students and athletes at Culver City High are about to enjoy the benefits of the school's current renovation and installation projects as the final stages of the older athletic fields and a new multi-purpose game and practice field are completed in early 2015. This is the next major phase of infrastructure upgrades to the athletic program's facilities that began last year with the unveiling of Jerry Chabola stadium, the playing field and track complex....
For many years the Pac-10 champion and Big Ten champion capped a football season by playing in the Rose Bowl game. This time the conference’s best teams, Oregon and Ohio State, will also cap a season. But it won’t be in merely one of many bowl games, it will be in the first college football national championship game. Oregon has already conquered its Rose Bowl opponent, Florida State, 59-20 in the playoff semi-final. It now moves on to the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium in Arlington, Texas Monday, Jan....
(mith on NBA) Kobe Doesn’t Play As Lakers Lose By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor On Christmas day folks annually gather for a festive occasion. But the National Basketball Association has another idea for this holiday. Marketing. The league puts on an extravaganza, Five nationally televised games on several networks, attractive matchups of the most popular teams, and a gimmick to sell merchsndise. The players always have their last name on their jerseys. But on this day the first names were on i...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter It's not often that Culver City High girls tennis has a player advance deep into the playoffs. But the team turned out such a gem this season as senior Danielle Garrido advanced to the Sweet 16 in the 2014 CIF Girls Individual Tennis Championship Singles. She then lost a two-hour grueling match to a long-time rival in her second match of the day on December 3 at the Seal Beach Tennis Center. Garrido is considered one of the best junior tennis players in Southern C...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor As I look at the Lakers’ dreadful record I wonder how much better they’d be this season if Pau Gasol remained on the team. Gasol, a far better big man than anyone on the Lakers this season, was driven away (let’s be frank about this) by his dispute with Coach Mike D’Antoni. As I’ve written before, D’Antoni’s offense featured three-point shooting rather than plays revolving around a center. Dwight Howard didn’t like that and departed after one Laker season wh...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter "... We sittin' in here, I'm supposed to be the franchise player and we in here talkin' about practice. I mean listen, we talkin' bout practice. Not a game, not a game, not a game. "We talkin' bout practice. Not a game, not a, not a, not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like its my last. Not the game. We talkin' bout practice, man. I mean how silly is that? We talkin' bout practice..." Allen Iverson's universally misunderstood but...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor When the National Basketball Association revealed its list of the 50 greatest players of all time I was on the selection committee. When the list was made public, unfortunately so was the balloting of every committee member. For years afterward several players who weren't chosen confronted me to ask me why I didn't vote for them. Really, it was an impossible task. There were 70 or 80 deserving players. No amount of research allowed me to feel comfortable about...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor In 1998 the Dodgers traded away Mike Piazza in what immediately became the most unpopular move in their Los Angeles history. Last week the Dodgers traded away Matt Kemp, and judging by initial reactions this is going to rival Piazza’s departure as the worst decision the club has made. Conditions are different. In 1998 new Dodger owners were trying to make a point that they were not going to cave in to players’ salary demands. Piazza’s contract had expired and n...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor The committee that settled on the four teams who’ll play in the first College Football Playoff got it right at the finish. But this distinguished group created needless controversy in the manner it operated, first advancing TCU to No. 3, then five days later after the team had crushed its final regular season opponent, 51-3, dropped TCU to No. 6. The committee on Sunday ultimately set up the two semi-finals properly. Oregon (No. 2) will play Florida State (No. 3...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Giancarlo Stanton recently signed a 13-year, $325 million contract with the Miami Marlins. Although the right fielder hit 37 home runs last season and came close to outpolling Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw for the National League MVP award critics have wondered about the wisdom of the Marlins’ decision. You see, the contract will be the largest for any player in the history of North American sports. I wondered too until I heard what Stanton had to say about t...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter It's becoming a tradition that the Culver City High boys basketball team opens its season in the Mira Costa High Tournament in Manhattan Beach. The Centaurs didn't make it to the championship game as they had last season but they did win their last two games of the tournament including a strong finish on Saturday afternoon, December 6, against Banning High, 59-31. This 2014-15 edition is noticeably different than last season's team that had nine seniors on the...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Reserve guard Xavier Henry is the latest in a long line of Laker players who have been injured in the last two seasons. Henry suffered a ruptured left Achilles tendon in practice last week. The Lakers announced he will be out for the rest of the season. Henry was far more successful last season than this one. Coach Byron Scott gave Henry limited playing time and said he was trying to see if Henry could regain his form of last season. The Lakers didn’t i...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor The joke in the Staples Center press room a few weeks ago was that new Clippers owner Steve Ballmer had called a meeting of the players. And he told them “if you don’t start playing better I’m going to sell the team back to Donald Sterling.” Well, no need for that anymore. The Clippers, who got off to a slow start this season, went on the road in the last week of November and did better than any Clippers team in history had ever done – six wins in seven gam...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter Centaur basketball fans... we have a liftoff. It's T+5 and counting for the Culver City High girls basketball team as they have successfully completed stage one of the 2014-15 season by beating View Park High, 56-47, in the championship game of the Inaugural Culver City / St. Mary's Tip-Off Classic on November 29 at home in Del Goodyear Gymnasium. The Centaurs won all five of their tournament games in six days with relative ease though View Park gave them a slight...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor I'm old enough to remember Red Sanders' impact when he coached football at UCLA. And the dynasties of John McKay and Pete Carroll at USC, among others. In this city with a remarkable cross-town rivalry the school with the more prominent coach often prevails. That coach currently is Jim Mora at UCLA. Mora has coached UCLA for three years and the Bruins, who couldn't beat the Trojans for a decade, have won the last three meetings. The latest was the Bruins'...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter The Inaugural Culver City / St. Mary's Tip-Off Classic is now officially under way as it initiated a very busy 2014-15 girls basketball season for co-host Culver City High. The current CIF Division 2AA champion Centaurs christened the occasion with a first-round win against Crossroads School of Santa Monica, 38-25, on Monday, November 24. Equally notable is the girls team having accepted an invitation to the McDonald's Classic in early December. Head coach...
The Culver-City High girls basketball team captured first-place in the inaugural Culver City / St. Mary's Tip-Off Classic on Saturday night, November 29 as they held off a strong fourth quarter rally by View Park High in the tournament final, 56-47. Third place went to Leuzinger High as they squeaked by St. Genevieve High 63-60 in a lively seesaw battle preceding the championship game at Del Goodyear Gymnasium. Kailey Tooke led the Centaurs with 14 points including a quick nine points in the...
The Culver-City High girls basketball team won their opening game of the 2014-15 season against Crossroads School, 38-25, in the first round of the Inaugural Culver City / St. Mary's Tip-Off Classic on Monday night, November 24. The current CIF Division 2AA champion Centaurs are co-sponsoring the week-long tournament with St. Mary's Academy of Inglewood featuring 12 local teams that will run through Saturday, November 29 with the finals held at Culver High's Del Goodyear Gymnasium. The...
