2006:SPORTS YEAR IN REVIEW: Quite a year to remember

With the prep athletic year coming to a close Saturday, it’s time to take a look at the key highlights from the local sports scene.

Below is a recap of some of the biggest stories from 2006, as reported by the Coastline Pilot:

January to June

The 2006 athletic year started out with several highlights for the Breakers.

On the basketball court, Claire Bevacqua scored a school-record 31 points for Laguna in a 59-55 loss to Pacific Coast League rival Calvary Chapel in girls’ action.

On the field, Laguna’s boys’ soccer team earned a share of the Pacific Coast League title with Tesoro and qualified for the CIF Southern Section playoffs for the first time since 2003. The Breakers fell in the first round to Laguna Hills in their first year participating in Division II.

Team scoring leader Derek LeBon, a senior, was named Most Valuable Player of the Pacific Coast League. LeBon and teammate Brennen Healey were also named to the Southern California Soccer Coaches’ Assn. 2005-06 Boys’ Division II team.

In girls’ water polo, Laguna finished second in the Pacific Coast League standings and entered the Division II playoffs as the No. 2 seed.

The Breakers reached the quarterfinals before being eliminated by Villa Park. Breakers Jessica McKee and Breanna Duplisea were named first team, Erin Reid was a second-team pick and Annika Dries a third-team selection on the 2005-06 Southern California Water Polo Coaches’ Assn. Girls’ Division II team.

Freshman Chelsea Wild set records in the 100-yard butterfly and 500 freestyle. The medley relay team of freshman Annika Dries, sophomore Andrea Reigel, Wild and junior Erin Reid and the 200-yard medley team of Dries, freshman Taylor Dodson, junior Breanna Duplisea and Reid also swam to new school records in a Pacific Coast League girls’ swim meet against University.

Wild went on to finish fourth in the 500 freestyle at the Division II girls’ swim finals and eighth in the CIF Masters Meet. The girls’ 200-yard freestyle team of Dries, Wild, Dodson and Reigel finished eighth at CIF finals.

Laguna’s boys’ 4X100 relay team of Behrang Ziaeian, E.J. Gomez, Jonathan Martinez and Mike Austin set a school record in a Pacific Coast League track and field victory over Tesoro.

Justin Rovin also rewrote his own school record in the 300 hurdles at the Pacific Coast League Track & Field Preliminaries and Brittany Clark set a school record in the girls’ long jump at league finals.

Ryan Landry hit four home runs as Laguna routed Beckman, 17-1, in Pacific Coast League baseball. The four homers put Landry in the CIF Southern Section record book for tying the mark for home runs by one player in a single game. Landry also registered the record with National High School Sports Record Book.

Laguna’s boys’ volleyball team qualified for the playoffs for a 33rd consecutive year — a claim no other school can make. The Breakers went on to earn a berth in the quarterfinal round for the 26th time after stunning previously undefeated West Valley of Hemet. They were eliminated from title contention by eventual Division II champion Valencia of Valencia.

Stephanie Darnall and Xander Olson represented Laguna Beach High in the 29th annual Dave Mohs Memorial Orange County High School Volleyball All-Star Game.

Laguna qualified 10 of 12 athletes for the Division IV Track & Field Preliminaries in Carpinteria. Laguna’s boys’ team earned a second-place finish behind Oaks Christian in the Division IV competition, where the 4X400 relay team of Justin Rovin, Jeremy Eaton, Jonathan Martinez and Behrang Ziaeian won the division title. Laguna’s girls finished in 19th place at the division finals meet.

“Second in CIF is the highest finish ever for the Laguna boys’ track and field program,” Laguna boys’ Coach Dave Brobeck said. “The boys were very proud of themselves and represented our school very well.”

Summer

The World Championships of Skimboarding celebrated its 30th anniversary with its annual competition at Aliso Creek Beach. Thirteen proved to be a lucky number for Bill Bryan, but luck was not on the side of Jaime Lovett.

Lovett was announced as the winner of a hotly-contested Pro Division but computer tabulations later revealed that Bryan had indeed won the event.

It was world title No. 13 for the Laguna Beach resident.

“I had a pretty good idea that something would be happening, being that this would be my 13th title,” Bryan, 33, said, laughing about the results mix-up.

A total of 161 skimboarders, 33 with professional status, competed in 11 divisions in the weekend competition. Athletes from the U.S., Japan and Australia vied for division titles.

There was no encore for Rachel Wacholder and Elaine Youngs in the women’s final of the Cuervo Gold Crown Huntington Beach Open.

On a day when history was made and one player officially joined the $1-million club, the No. 2-seeded team of Wacholder and Youngs fell in the women’s final to the world’s top-ranked team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, 21-16, 21-12, before 5,000 who sat center court at the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier.

Wacholder and Youngs had swept May-Treanor and Walsh in finals of the 2005 Huntington Beach Open.

“You just witnessed history in the making,” Amato said after May-Treanor and Walsh cruised to victory. May-Treanor did make history by becoming the second player to join the women’s $1-million club in beach volleyball earnings.

“It’s a great accomplishment,” she said of her earnings. “Kerri got me to the million-dollar mark, and I want to get her there, too.”

Shortly after the tournament, Wacholder and Youngs parted ways after playing as partners for nearly two years. Wacholder said that personality differences played a role in their split.

The duo, which last won an AVP tournament on July 9 in Atlanta, had been the only women’s team other than No. 1-rated May-Treanor and Walsh to have won an AVP event in the last two years.

“We’re really different people with different personalities,” Wacholder said. “It was an emotional thing, but we both agreed that it’d be better if we played with other people.”

Wacholder teamed with new partner Jennifer Boss for the remainder of the AVP season.

Laguna Beach’s Mike Todd turned in several strong performances at the U.S. Open of Surfing men’s competition and advanced to the Round of 48 before being eliminated from title contention. The men’s competition was part of the Bank of the West Beach Games featuring the Honda U.S. Open of Surfing at the Huntington Beach Pier.

Laguna’s Pat O’Connell won his opening round heat in the men’s competition but was eliminated from title contention in his next heat. O’Connell, however, won the surfing division of the PartyPoker.net Big ThrowDown at the games.

September to December

The fall marked a big change for Laguna, as its athletic teams moved from the Pacific Coast League into the newly-formed Orange Coast League. The school reaped the benefits of the move, too, by winning league championships in five sports: football, girls’ tennis, girls’ volleyball, boys’ cross country and boys’ water polo. Two other teams, girls’ cross-country and girls’ golf, finished in second place.

In football, Laguna won its first league title in 19 years. In addition, Laguna was able to host its first playoff game since 1987. The Breakers lost to Valencia of Placentia.

“Undisputed, undefeated, outright Orange Coast League champions. No one can ever take that away from our boys,” Laguna Coach Jimmy Nolan said after the Breakers clinched the league title with a win at Costa Mesa on Nov. 9. “The boys never quit. Never. All 10 games they worked hard.”

Laguna’s girls’ golf program reached new heights by finishing in second place at the Orange Coast League championships at El Prado Golf Club in Chino Hills.

The Breakers finished second to Estancia, a placement that Coach Barbara Williams said was the best in school history.

Senior Sasha Speare grabbed the spotlight by doing something no other Laguna golfer had done before: win an individual league championship. The 17-year-old was the league’s lowest scorer throughout the course of the 2006 season, Williams said.

“I’m am just so happy for the team and for Sasha,” Williams said. “Sasha basically went up against the entire Estancia team in the final. What she accomplished is unreal. She single-handedly beat an entire team. She’s pretty awesome.”

Laguna’s girls’ tennis team went undefeated in Orange Coast League play and advanced to the second round of the playoffs, where the defending Division I champion Breakers were eliminated by Troy.

In the pool, the boys’ water polo team resided in the top five of the Division II poll throughout a majority of the season and went undefeated in league play. However, it lost in the first round of the playoffs to San Clemente. Senior Peter Phelps, a utility player for the Breakers, was named to the 2006 All-Southern California Water Polo Coaches’ Assn. Boys’ Division II team.

Laguna’s boys’ and girls’ cross-country programs had another successful run.

In girls’ action, the Breakers finished second in CIF Division IV and 12th in the Division IV state meet in Fresno. Senior Alex Crawley earned All-CIF honors.

“We had a blast at the state meet,” girls’ Coach Earl Towner said. “It’s always exciting whenever a Laguna Beach team makes the podium, as the boys team did again. We had a solid team finish with a 12th-place.”

For the boys, Laguna placed second at the CIF Division IV race and reached the podium by claiming a second-place finish at the CIF Division IV state meet. Jeremy Eaton and Yann Panassie each garnered All-CIF status. Eaton earned All-State honors by running to a fifth-place finish in 15:52.

Coach Dave Brobeck said that Eaton’s time was the fastest by a Laguna runner at the park and highest individual placement. The program also recorded its fastest time (1 hour 23 minutes) in its history at Woodward Park.

“This was an outstanding performance for us,” Brobeck said. “It was our best team race at this level to date”

One of the magical seasons of 2006 belonged to the Breakers girls’ volleyball team, which turned in a season to remember.

Laguna compiled a 29-6 record, captured four of six championship events they entered, won Orange Coast League, CIF Southern Section Division II-AA and Southern California Regional Division II titles and played in a state title game for just the second time in school history.

Junior outside hitter Dana Hutchinson was named co-MVP on a Division II team that included senior middle blocker Zoe Garrett and sophomore Alex Palmer on the first team and senior setter Mychaela Miller on the second team.

“I couldn’t have asked for more from this team,” Coach Lance Stewart said. “The girls grew as people and really came together as a team. They worked hard throughout the year. It was a glorious season.”