The Season Ends

The South Pasadena boys' volleyball season ended short of their goal to make the CIF finals. After barely beating Carpinteria on 5/11, the Tigers went to Whittier Christian and played some of their best volleyball of the season, sweeping the Heralds in three games. That made possible their showdown with Bishop Montgomery on 5/25 at the South Pasadena gym.

The number 7 ranked Tigers roared to victory in game one over the number two ranked Knights. The Knights rallied to tie by taking game two, but the Tigers fought back to take a very emotional game three.

Up 24-21 in game four, and sensing a huge upset, the Tigers were achingly close. My son, Mark, had a short set in the middle, only to be met by three Knight blockers, determined to deny the score. Instead, Mark dinked the ball, which agonizingly rolled along the top of the net for a full six feet before dropping....on our side of the court. The wind seemed to go out of the Tigers' sails, and the Knights rallied with great heart to win 28-26, meaning that the Knights outscored the Tigers 7-2 over the last nine points.

Deflated, the Tigers were down early and by a large margin in game 5, but came back on three huge jump serves by David Allen to tie at 13-13. Alas, it was not to be, and the Knights put the Tigers away for the final two points, and the quarterfinal win.

I was really proud of our boys. They gave it their all, though the lost focus at the end. Those five games were some of the best volleyball I have seen all season.

So Mark's high school career in volleyball is over. What a great experience it has been, from making the CIF finals two years ago, to this year's quarter-final match. Next year's team looks very solid, though may lack some leadership. One of the great things about this year's team was how "tight" the boys were, they really came together as a team and really supported one another. A great, great, season. And oh so close to going one more round in the playoffs.

For more info on the season, go here.

Memorial Day 2007

An outstanding article today in the New York Times on restoration of Civil War graves in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Teams of volunteers have worked for over five years to recover and rediscover the graves of Civil War veterans there. Today, some 1200 new gravestones will be dedicated. The director of this volunteer project, Jeff Richman, the cemetery's historian, estimates they have discovered 3,000 graves, and there may be an additional 6,000.

Evidently many of the gravestones just sank into the earth over the years. And some made of limestone just disintegrated, and had no legible information on them.

There is a fine video on the Times' web site as well.

A moving tribute to those who, as Lincoln said, "gave the last full measure of devotion."

Friends and Teammates

My son has many friends of long standing. That's one of the benefits of growing up in the same community for many years. Mark was born in South Pasadena, and he will graduate from South Pasadena High School in about a month. He is one of dozens of graduating students who will have attended South Pasadena schools from K-12.

One of his buddies from preschool is Kevin Kuramoto, we call him Kurrie. There was a nice write-up in the regional paper, the Pasadena Star-News today about Mark and Kevin.

The article is here.

To see the picture, go here, and then click on the picture to get to the article.

The first volleyball playoff game is this Friday, May 11, at 7:00 at SPHS against Carpinteria. Go Tigers!

Tigers Win! Tigers Win!

The SPHS Tigers boys volleyball team won the Rio Hondo League championship on Thursday, beating Gabrielino 3 games to 1. The Star-News article is here. The first playoff game will be Friday, May 11th, at home at 7:00 p.m. The opponent will be determined on Monday. The Tigers won in spite of playing without captain and setter, Kevin Kuramoto, who was forced to leave the San Marino match on Tuesday with a hand injury. Kevin wound up tearing the webbing of his right hand between the two middle fingers, and required seven stitches at Huntington Hospital. Without their setter, Cody Carpenter did a fine job filling in. Way to go, Tigers!

In other news, South Pasadena High School won the sportsmanship award for the Rio Hondo League. Mark was selected to go to Dodger Stadium and receive the award on behalf of the school, and he invited me to go along. A nice father and son time at the baseball stadium. I was sitting too far away to take a picture of Mark on the field, so I took a picture of Mark on the big screen.

The game was great, as the Giants beat the Dodgers, and Barry Bonds hit a mammoth home run to center field, much to the chagrin of the Dodger faithful in attendance.

However, while all the sportsmanship winners sat in the same section, there were several fights that broke out. When Pedro Feliz hit the game winning home run, a Giant fan in our section stood up and clapped. He was immediately doused with beer from an irate Dodger fan, and some male bonding ensued, complete with the use of less than acceptable language. The father sitting next to me muttered, "So much for sportsmanship." Sad.