Culver Sports-Year in Review

By Fred Altieri

Observer Sports Reporter

Part 2 of 2. Part 1 appeared in last week's Culver City Observer. Both Part 1 and Part 2 are available for viewing online at http://www.culvercityobserver.com

The school's student sports medicine trainers won the CIF competition for the second year in a row at the Southern Section Championships at St. Francis high school. Marcos White does an unbelievable job. He's our head trainer in charge of all of our teams. He runs the student training program during the day in the classroom. All of his student trainers go and help all the athletic programs here at the school.

They went to the National Championships again and came in second place. So we're lucky to have Marcos as the trainer. What he does with the sports medicine and student trainers is second to none.

The new synthetic field really helped. We get a bigger turnout. More kids are coming out for sports and it has helped both the girls and boys lacrosse programs. Definitely. The amount of kids that are coming out and participating in our athletic programs is such a positive statement about having a facility like that.

It really has helped our P.E. classes as more students are participating in physical education. Kids love playing on it. It's an even, balanced field. It just makes the games a lot better and it just makes it a safer environment. It's a positive win-win for everyone.

We did have the Athlete of the Year banquet. We had over 30 students senior athletes get a 3.5 G.P.A. or higher. We named that award the Dave Sanchez Award. So we rewarded over 30 seniors that played sports for us this year. That's impressive.

The girls Athlete of the Year was Michelle Curry who played for the girls basketball team. The male Athlete of the Year was Ryan Armstrong, he played soccer and volleyball, and Kevin Beacham who played football, basketball and track.

The girls Scholar Athlete of the Year award went to Kelsey Ueda who played girls basketball. She is going to UCLA. Our boys Scholar Athlete of the Year award went to Wesley Dixon who played volleyball and basketball. He is going to the University of Stanford.

The senior class not only left their mark on the field and in the gym but also in the classroom. They are not only great leaders and student athletes but have terrific families and parents. It's just a great senior group who came through.

The Ocean League has been realigned for the coming school year. It's a new league and we're excited about that. El Segundo High and Lawndale High are coming in. We play El Segundo in a lot of sports in non-league games and now that we're in the same league it will be a great rivalry. All of their sports are terrific and it will make a tougher competition. Having them in is going to be great for us.

Lawndale is an up-and-coming school. They have over 2,500 kids and are very strong in a lot of sports. They beat us in soccer last year, both boys and girls. They also have very strong basketball and football programs. These are new teams we are going to be playing but we've played them before in the preseason.

Steve Shevlin, the El Segundo athletic director, is a Culver City High graduate. He is also the head coach for their football team. He's a great guy and has been an athletic director for a long time. He's been a head football coach and also did baseball for many years.

Lawndale has a new A.D. this year. We've played Lawndale in soccer, basketball, baseball and football over the years so we're familiar with them. They're upcoming and a large school so definitely we have our hands full.

What's great about the fall sports is that you never really know until you get out there. What I like is that we have continuity in our coaching staffs. We have all of our coaches coming back. The student athletes just keep getting better and better. Our facilities are getting updated all the time so it's a great time to be coming to Culver City and playing high school athletics.

There are 18 schools in the South Bay Association. It is comprised of three leagues: the Ocean League, the Bay League and the Pioneer League. So we all work together.

We are going to be having a big coaches workshop that the district is putting on: "Pursuing Victory With Honor." So all the coaches are getting together for that. A lot of good positive things are happening at Culver City High School.

This will be my third year as the Culver City High athletic director. Jerry Chabola really set the foundation and we're just trying to keep the train on the track. It's a great job and I'm very lucky and proud to have it. It keeps me busy.

My brother Tim is the head football coach at Upland high school going on his 20th year there. He's doing very well. They usually go to the semi's and he's won a couple of championships. My sister Kathie is a principal who just got moved up to the district office at Charter Oak High. She was a principal for many years.

My father Dick Salter just passed away. He was a head coach for about 40 years and an athletic director. They named the Arcadia high school stadium after him back in 1992. He helped me with film and coaching when I was coaching here at Culver City and broke the film down for me. Nobody watched film better than my dad. He coached the Matthews brothers, Bruce, an NFL Hall of Famer and Clay. Without a doubt I owe everything to my dad. So I come from a coaching background.