O.C. team makes long-distance connection
Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:
•Nick Skillington and his son Ethan live in St. Louis, and each spring they come here to visit Nick's parents and they also make a point of catching a Cypress baseball game, and have become faraway Cypress baseball fans. Ethan recently had surgery to remove a small tumor on his spine, not a life-threatening situation but it did keep the Skillington's from hitting a Cypress game this season. So Cypress coach John Weber had the team sign a baseball and sent it to Ethan.
•Who are the greatest athletes to come out of each and every county high school? We want to publish a list of each school's top male and female athlete, those athletes who went on to great post-high school achievement, and not just the athletes who were the greatest during their high school years. Athletic directors, coaches and all readers are invited to send nominations to sfryer@ocregister.com or by calling 714-796-2245.
•Westminster baseball has an excellent pitcher, junior right-hander Tyler Mahle. He threw a perfect game Wednesday in the Lions' 8-0 victory over Orange, and is 7-2 with a 0.84 ERA and 65 strikeouts in 58 1/3innings. His brother Greg, a left-handed pitcher/designated hitter, is starting as a freshman at UC Santa Barbara.
•To clarify a headline situation here, it is Esperanza first baseman Brad Anderson, not pitcher Scott Mason, who committed to Pepperdine after the Aztecs' 4-0 victory over El Dorado on Wednesday. Mason pitched the shutout and Anderson, an All-County candidate, homered.
•The CIF-Southern Section, with a lot of support from the Angels and Ford, honored its team academic champions before Tuesday's Angels game against the Twins at Angel Stadium. Honorees, selected based upon team members' cumulative grade-point average, were given a banner and were introduced on the field. County winners: St. Margaret's, for girls basketball, girls track and field, wrestling and girls golf; Irvine, boys cross country; and Canyon, boys tennis.
•The best field in county baseball might be the one at El Dorado, for its accoutrements like the dugouts, scoreboard, sound system, bullpens and more. The best playing surface might be at Cypress. Personal favorite places for high school baseball are some of ones not on high school campuses: Glover Stadium and Boysen Park, in Anaheim; and Hart Park, in Orange.
•Orange Lutheran's baseball team is No. 1 in the county and in the CIF-Southern Section Division 1 rankings, and has done it without a player who was one of Lutheran's top juniors last season. Andre Real, an infielder who batted .365 for the Lancers in 2011, opted to play in the travel ball circuit exclusively this season but he still is a student at Orange Lutheran.
•And that makes one wonder what University tennis star Gage Brymer will do next school year. Brymer, a junior, won the high school singles championship at the Ojai two weeks ago, just like he did in 2011, to become only the fourth two-time high school singles champion in the 112-year history of the Ojai. Many top players like Brymer opt not to play high school tennis their senior year so they can focus on the juniors circuit.
•The county has produced some outstanding golfers, and here is a name that could be worth remembering: Brett Robinson of Beckman. He won this season's Pacific Coast League individual boys golf championship, and he is only a freshman.
•Former Cypress football head coach Michael Cobleigh had an offer to coach linebackers at Mater Dei this season, but turned it down because of time commitments. He said he might join former Cypress coach Ray Fenton's staff at Webb of Claremont, if Cobleigh's schedule allows it.
•Let's try to simplify a transfer rule that will be in effect this fall, once the CIF State Federated Council as expected passes a proposal today or Saturday: The free and unencumbered transfer before the student-athlete begins the sophomore year is intact; a change of residence is required for immediate athletic eligibility after the sophomore year begins, unless a hardship waiver is acquired; and a student-athlete who transfers without a hardship waiver and without making the change of residence must sit out a 30-day period that starts with the first day of the beginning of that student-athlete's season of sport, except in football in which a 37-day sit-out period is required because of the Week 0 first-game option in football.
•Representatives of county leagues will meet Tuesday at Segerstrom to select the Orange County Athletic Director Association's male and female athletes of the year. The selected athletes must be seniors, and must be their leagues' male and female athletes of the year. The Register/ocvarsity.com also selects male and female athletes of the year, in June, and those athletes do not have to be seniors or their leagues' athletes of the year.
