Year in review: Top 10 sports stories of 2023
Local schools competed to the best of their abilities and against top-tier competition across all sports in the past year.
The Daily Pilot thanks the athletes, coaches, parents and school communities for allowing us to chronicle the accomplishments of these area programs.
It is time to look back on some of the memorable moments in sports of 2023:
CdM’s Niels Hoffmann reigns supreme in boys’ tennis
Corona del Mar’s Niels Hoffmann capped a junior season to remember by winning the CIF Southern Section Individuals boys’ tennis title, not dropping a set in the process.
Hoffmann, a USC commit, joined his older brother, Bjorn, as CIF Individuals champions, becoming the first brothers to accomplish the feat since Rick and Jon Leach of Laguna Beach in the 1980s.
Hoffmann and fellow junior Jack Cross, a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo commit, were key in helping the Sea Kings advance to the CIF Southern Section Open Division and CIF/USTA Southern California Regional title matches.
The Sea Kings graduated no senior starters and are expected to field another strong team in 2024.
Newport Harbor boys’ volleyball repeats as CIF champions
Newport Harbor won its sixth section championship overall, a remarkable feat on its own.
Dig a little deeper to find out how truly special this one was. Newport Harbor refused to stand down, winning back-to-back CIF titles for the first time in program history.
That distinction belongs to a group led by Luca Curci (UCLA) and Jake Read (Loyola-Chicago), who were key pin hitters for the Sailors in those seasons.
Newport Harbor swept Corona del Mar 25-19, 25-22, 25-18 in the Division 1 final at Cerritos College. The Sailors, who have appeared in the CIF finals in five consecutive seasons, are now 2-2 all-time against the crosstown rival Sea Kings in section championship matches.
Pacifica Christian boys, Marina girls advance to CIF State basketball finals
A thrilling postseason on the hardwood culminated in a trip to the state capitol for the Pacifica Christian boys’ basketball and the Marina girls’ basketball programs.
While neither saw their season end in victory at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, both fought valiantly to reach the state finals.
Pacifica Christian did so as the No. 9 seed, earning three road victories, including a 52-51 win at Orange Lutheran in the Division II regional final.
Marina’s regional playoff run included a 49-33 win at Cerritos Gahr, a result that was surely sweet for the Vikings after the Gladiators edged them 39-38 in the CIF Southern Section Division 5AA semifinals.
Five local wrestlers bring home state titles
As the Fountain Valley wrestling program became increasingly formidable, the talk among the elite wrestlers in the room often centered around a desire to become a state champion.
TJ McDonnell became the first in program history to pull it off, winning the 182-pound bracket a year removed from placing third in the same weight class.
Additionally, four area girls secured the coveted titles in the CIF State individual wrestling championships in Bakersfield.
The Marina senior trio of Carissa Qureshi (126), Saiheron Preciado-Meza (189) and Destiny Marquez (235) were joined by Newport Harbor junior Duda Rodrigues (150) as state champions.
A crowning girls’ cross-country season
In a sport where the athletes often compete against themselves to set lifetime-best race times, local girls’ cross-country runners stood out among their peers.
Corona del Mar senior Melisse Djomby Enyawe and Pacifica Christian senior Ella Murray won section titles in Division 3 and Division 5, respectively.
The postseason accolades were just beginning, as the area produced four runners with podium finishes for placing among the top 10 in their divisions at the state meet.
Huntington Beach freshman Sydney Rubio qualified for the Nike Cross Nationals in Oregon, while Djomby Enyawe advanced to the Foot Locker Cross-Country National Championships in San Diego.
Keaton Robar’s fastest two laps
It’s perhaps not forever, but it is for now. Keaton Robar, then a sophomore in the spring, dropped a time of two minutes 9.13 seconds in the 800 meters against a national field in the Arcadia Invitational.
The performance placed her fifth in the race, but it also stood up as the sixth-best time in the event at the end of the track and field season. Robar dropped under 2:10 again in the state finals, where she made the podium with another top-five showing.
Confidence is king, and it certainly carried over to the fall for Robar. She was one of four local girls to earn all-state honors in cross-country, and she authored a runner-up finish in the Orange County Championships.
Excellence in boys’ water polo
Orange County is often called a hotbed for water polo, and local boys’ water polo teams showed that to be the case with another stellar season in the pool.
Three of the four programs competing in the Open Division and Division 1 final, which switched to the Mt. San Antonio College aquatics complex, were local.
Two-time defending Open Division champion Newport Harbor reached its third straight final after a buzzer-beater semifinal win over Studio City Harvard-Westlake, falling there to JSerra 16-10.
In the Division 1 final, Huntington Beach made history with its first CIF title in the sport, outlasting Surf League rival Laguna Beach 10-9 in sudden-death overtime on junior JD Johnson’s strike.
Senior-laden Corona del Mar also returned to the semifinals in the top division for the first time in years, earning a memorable quarterfinal win at Oaks Christian before falling to JSerra.
Laguna Beach back on top in girls’ tennis
Laguna Beach has long been a successful tennis program, but the Breakers finally got the hardware in 2023 to back that up.
The sister duo of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo-bound senior Jessica McCallum and freshman Rebecca MacCallum helped Laguna Beach win the CIF Division 2 title, the program’s first CIF championship since 2005 and 12th overall.
Second-year coach Robert Klugman had a deep squad, as junior No. 3 singles player Hannah Nguyen also picked up some big postseason victories. Senior captain Kendyl Beresford was a key doubles player.
Huntington Beach girls’ lacrosse earns first crown
Huntington Beach had a girls’ lacrosse program in just its second season.
That didn’t matter to the Oilers, who beat Portola for the CIF Southern Section Division 3 crown. Sophomore Lauren Pilkington led Huntington Beach with four goals in the final, as the Oilers’ first postseason appearance turned into a banner year.
Huntington Beach junior Summer Vandergrift was the Division 3 Player of the Year, while Brian Eisenburg earned Coach of the Year accolades. Junior attackers Devyn Trang and Maya Ford also joined Pilkington as All-CIF selections.
CdM, Huntington Beach football programs make deep playoff runs
The Corona del Mar football team had a new head coach in Kevin Hettig, but it was business as usual on the gridiron for the Sea Kings in terms of winning.
Though they lost a thriller to rival Newport Harbor in the Battle of the Bay game, snapping a 10-year winning streak, the Sea Kings recovered to advance all the way to the CIF Southern Section Division 4 title game. They lost there to eventual state champion Whittier La Serna, 49-29.
Huntington Beach, like CdM, had to earn an at-large berth into the postseason from the Sunset League. But the Oilers made the most of it, advancing all the way to the Division 6 semifinals before losing a heartbreaker, 32-29, on the road against Simi Valley.
Freshman quarterback Brady Edmunds made his mark, breaking the program’s single-season passing record.
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