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By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter The scoreboard was flashing constantly throughout the warm Friday evening at Jerry Chabola Stadium as Culver City High and Lawndale High lit it up for the 2015 Ocean League home opener on October 9. It was a grand offensive affair that saw Lawndale outlast the Centaurs 48-41 as both teams combined for over 1,000 total yards. The differences in both attacks were stark. Culver was effective by using the combined efforts of multiple players. The high-ranking...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter The 2015 season is still young but the Culver City High football team's 34-21 victory over University High on September 25 may have been the turning point as they evened their record to 2-2. There will be one game remaining before Ocean League play begins. The offense led by quarterback Jonathan Martin had its third productive game in a row. The Centaurs scored five more touchdowns to run the season total to 16 while averaging 36 points per game over the past...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter The 2015 Culver City High football team traveled to San Pedro High on Friday night, September 18, as decided underdogs to the South Bay power currently ranked sixth in the CIF Los Angeles city section. A high-scoring battle of contrasting styles ensued into the fourth quarter and despite losing the game, 44-33, the Centaur players and coaches came away excited about the future of the program. "There's not too many times as a coach that I'm happy with the team for...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter The hint of a late ocean breeze graced the Culver City High football team as the Centaurs visited Peninsula High in the Rolling Hills Estates of Palos Verdes for their second game of the 2015 season. The Centaurs scored six touchdowns with a touch of vengeance and readily beat a stubborn Peninsula High squad, 41-28 on the warm and hazy Friday September 11 afternoon. The Panthers, who won in a 19-14 upset at Culver City last year, scored on a 15-yard run in the...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter Culver City High opened the 2015 football season with a hard-fought loss to West Torrance High, 22-0 before a very lively home crowd spirited on by the Centaur cheer team, dance team and marching band at Jerry Chabola Stadium on a balmy summer evening, Friday, September 4. Culver is starting a new era with a talented sophomore quarterback at the helm to compliment its perennially impressive defense. This combination gave more than a silver lining of hope for the...
Last year Culver City High had a rare down year. It was the first time they missed the playoffs since 2001. Head coach Jahmal Wright feels we should turn it around this year. Although the Centaurs are young this year they do have some experienced seniors on the O-line and D-line. Every coach knows that a good football team lives and dies by how well their offensive and defensive lines do. Coach Wright and his O-line coach Ralph Oliver and D-line coach Brandon Patterson feel that they have a good group of quick footed, athletes that should play...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter The twilight hours ushered in a full moon rising low from the eastern horizon to a signature point high above the Southern sky over Beverly Hills. It glowed upon the Culver City High football team playing its final game of the season. The Centaurs took note and overpowered Ocean League rival Beverly Hills High, 41-12, to end the end the year on a two-game winning note. The players, coaches, referees, bands, cheer teams, officials and fans all added to a very...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter Refreshing. Cleansing. The Culver City varsity football team savored the moist precipitous air and instantaneously swept away a season of doubt and loss. Soon afterward, a rare Friday night rain in late October fell upon the drought-ridden South Bay basin and soaked into the predawn hours of early November. An unfulfilled but resolute Centaur squad bused a good dozen exits down the 405 Freeway to Hawthorne High to secure its first victory of the 2014 season,...
The age-old adage "when it rains it pours" still rings true and certainly it does for Culver City High and Ocean League football in 2014. This time it happened on 'Senior Night', October 24, at Jerry Chabola Stadium when the Centaurs hosted cross-town Santa Monica High for a rather untypical Friday night showdown between the two archrivals. Though not the case this year, for the past decade this game has determined the league championship in nine of the past 10 seasons. Santa Monica came in...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter The unofficial changing of the guard for Ocean League football took place in Jerry Chabola Stadium at Culver City High on Friday, October 17 as the undefeated and new-league upstart El Segundo High Eagles shut out the current league title-holding Centaurs, 41-0. The Mercy Rule was in effect for the fourth quarter, meaning the game continued on running time. That happens when there's a difference of 35 points with one quarter remaining. For Culver City the game...
"It was a game that was a tale of two halves." The opening words from Culver High head football Jahmal Wright aptly describing his team's 42-10 loss at Lawndale High to begin the 2014 Ocean League season last Friday night, October 10, cut to the chase. He continued: "In the first half I thought that we were able to keep the game close with some good defensive plays. Our offense had that one drive down the field to get a field goal. We were able to end the first half with an interception return...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter The 2014 Ocean League football season cannot start soon enough for Culver City High as they are still searching for their first victory of the season. Their last preseason contest against the Channel Islands High Raiders in Jerry Chabola Stadium on a rare Thursday night game, October 2 resulted in a 21-14 loss. Again the Centaurs rallied for a touchdown in the fourth quarter only to come up on the short end of the final score. Culver lost all five non-league...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter The school of hard knocks is alive and well and still in session for Culver City High football in 2014. As the fading twilight sky revealed a sliver of an autumn moon dipping toward the Pacific Ocean beyond the western hometown bleachers the Centaurs were playing host to the Paramount High Pirates on September 26 at Jerry Chabola Stadium. This particular test was going to become another rough but purposeful one. Ultimately, Paramount imposed themselves with...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter The inviting nights of a cooling autumn were still just around the corner when the undefeated San Pedro High football team visited Jerry Chabola Stadium at Culver City High on Friday, September 19. But the scoring was still hot as both teams meeting for the first time combined for seven touchdowns, seven extra-point kicks and one field goal each as the #3 city-ranked Pirates held off the host Centaurs and a fourth quarter comeback for a 38-17 victory. The game...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter The first line in this story easily could have read: 'On any given Friday night...' Ultimately it was a game that evoked an element often missing from high school football now as the focus frequently evolves around big-time recruiting football programs: the thrill of the unknown until the final seconds tick away. The fans at Friday night's 2014 Centaur home-opener in Jerry Chabola Stadium were fortunate to have experienced such as the Peninsula High Panthers...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter The Culver City High 2014 varsity football team customarily began another year with a very tough pre-league season schedule. Last year was a prime example of this forging process that has served the Centaurs well during the past five years culminating with a 5-0 record and the 2013 Ocean League Championship. Last Friday the Centaurs took a short excursion south to the ‘friendly’ confines of West High School in Torrance to take on the CIF Southern Section div...
Special to the Observer Part 2 of 2 Last week the offense was featured in our Culver City High football preview. Now we’ll focus on the defense Defensive line: Since the Tom Salter era began in 1999, Culver City switched from an even (40) defense to a 3-4 defensive odd front. This has been the basis of their front three which contains several reads. Coaches are excited about the leaders on the defensive line. “Although not big in stature, they make up for it in quickness and ferocity. “The first one is Fred Wadibia (6’-0”, 215 lbs.) who is a...
Part 1 of 2 By Greg Goodyear Special to the Observer Last year Culver City High School football was the Ocean League champs when they beat Santa Monica in overtime and went 5-0 in league play. This was their first league championship since 2009, but they were frustratingly close in 2010, 11, and 12. The Centaurs have a good nucleus of returning starters on both offense and defense, but several of their top players transferred to other schools. Although this will make it tougher the coaches feel...
By Fred Altieri Observer Sports Reporter Culver City High will have two new Ocean League opponents to contend with for the approaching athletic school year due to league realignments within the South Bay Athletic Association: El Segundo High and Lawndale High. And that means only one thing... across the board the competition just got tougher. Opportunely, it's the shot in arm the Ocean League needed as it seeks to improve upon its recent resurgent athletic success within the CIF Southern...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Darius Banks, one of the most talented quarterbacks in Culver City High history, is planning to resume his career at Bethany College in Kansas next season. Banks has received a full scholarship, which is unusual at an NAIA school. Banks’ last year at Culver City was in 2008. He played two successful years at Fullerton College and also attended Central Washington. Banks may have former Centaur teammate Ijumaa Armstrong on the Bethany team. Armstrong, a receiver a...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor It's official. Culver City High football star Stanley Norman has transferred to Serra High in Gardena. Serra football coach Scott Altenberg confirmed the speculation that began last week that Norman had taken out transfer papers. Norman then enrolled in classes at his new school in Gardena. Altenberg also said the player's family has moved into the Serra area. The Observer was among the media outlets that had gathered information leading to the likelihood Norman...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter Culver City High's 2013 championship football season was officially honored when 15 members including the head coach were named to the 2013 Ocean League all-league team. The basic procedure for determining the all-league team is that the six league coaches are not allowed to vote for players from their own team. Each coach ranks all the players that are nominated from the other teams in the league. The Centaurs also brought home three of the league's four most c...
(EDITOR's NOTE: Fred Altieri completes his two-part series as Culver City High wins the 2013 Ocean League football championship.) By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter Game #7 was the one that put Culver into the driver's seat. In their farewell game with Inglewood High, who is leaving the Ocean League after this school year, the Centaurs put together their most balanced game of the year in terms of controlling the ball. After shocking the Sentinels with two explosive touchdowns, it was the defense...
(EDITOR’s NOTE: Fred Altieri takes us through the Culver City High football season in this two-part series.) PART 1 By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter Culver City High football 2013 is now history as they say and can only be characterized as “drama past sundown.” And Jerry Chabola Stadium was the scene for half of that drama unfolding during every Friday night home game. The newly refurbished football stadium, complete with a state-of-the-art synthetic turf field encircled by a top-flight runni...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Venice High, the last Westside team remaining in the current football playoffs, lost its semi-final game to Crenshaw, 30-25 last Friday. Crenshaw and Narbonne will play for the LA City Section championship. Venice, the Western League champion, was the No. 3 seed in the playoff tournament. Coach Angelo Gasca’s team finished with a 10-3 record. BASKETBALL Santa Monica High will hold its annual early season tournament this week. Among the entrants will be p...
