WELL-SUITED?: Edison's Tom Shields, who said he hasn't practiced in a a full-body suit, will race in one at the Division I finals. KEVIN SULLIVAN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER |
Fryer column: Speedy Shields tries new suit for finals
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In his biggest meet of the year, Edison junior swimmer Tom Shields is going to wear a full-body speed suit for the first time.
Shield will don a Speedo Fastskin Pro suit for today's CIF-SS Division I finals at Belmont Plaza. There is nothing illegal about that; the suits are approved by FINA and some versions have been worn by world-class swimmers like Michael Phelps and others. Shields did not wear the suit in the prelims Wednesday, when he set the section record in the 100 butterfly with a time of 48.00, so imagine what he might do wearing one.
He has never even practiced in a full-body suit.
"This will be the first time I've been in the water in one," Shields said. "I've heard rumors that it's hard to breathe in them, but I'm hoping the rumors aren't true."
Shields said he does not swim with records in mind.
"I thrive off of racing other swimmers," he said. "I swim to win. But I don't get all mad if I lose. I like to get records, too, but I'll just swim my best and see what happens."
(Click here for archived videos and stories about Tom Shields)
Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:
•Admission to the CIF-SS swimming finals at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach today and Saturday are $7 for adults and $5 children 13 and younger and for students with student identification. There is metered parking at Belmont – 25 cents for every 15 minutes, like some of the parking lots in Newport Beach.
•Haley McNamara is 2 for 2. McNamara, a sophomore diver at Mission Viejo, on Tuesday won the CIF-Southern Section Division I championship for the second year in as many tries. She wont he title by 62.15 points as a freshman in 2007, and by 45.7 this year.
•The lineup for the boys and girls lacrosse championships today at Trabuco Hills: girls, St. Margaret's vs. Palos Verdes, 5 p.m.; boys, Foothill vs. Palos Verdes, 7 p.m. If you are going, keep in mind that at the Trabuco Hills stadium the following are not allowed: food, including sunflower seeds; coffee; chewing gum; any colored or flavored drinks, carbonated or otherwise. The lacrosse championships are not official CIF-SS championships, because the sport does not have participation by at least 20 percent of the section's schools.
•When the Register and the Orange County Athletic Directors Association select boys and girls athletes of the year in coming days, a name not to overlook is Hunter Steffien, of St. Margaret's. Steffien was CIF-SS Northeast Division offensive player of the year, led the county in rushing and touchdowns, was All-Academy League honorable mention in basketball, and is a leading candidate for county lacrosse player of the year honors.
•One prominent name that won't be nominated at the OCADA athletes of the year selection meeting Tuesday: Orange Lutheran's Blake Ayles, All-County tight end and Orange County Track and Field Championships discus champion. The Trinity League's male athlete of the year is Andrew La Forge of Servite – who better have a great resume to beat Ayles, and La Forge sure does. La Forge was All-CIF in water polo, is the Trinity League's swimmer of the year, is going to Stanford on a water polo scholarship, has a 4.66 grade-point average, is ranked ninth in his class at a school famed for its academic demands, was named a U.S. Water Polo Academic All-American, and achieved the rare Life Scout honor with the Boys Scouts of America.
•The quality level of high school sports officiating in the county is excellent; everybody should keep in mind that we are not going to get pro sports-level officiating in high school athletics, no matter the sport. The men and women officials are going to miss calls. But I do have one pet peeve, and it's in baseball: When a batter makes no effort to get out of the way, or even leans in, when he is hit by a pitch, that's a ball and the batter is not entitled to first base, but I rarely see it called.
•Matt Barkley of Mater Dei committed to USC, and on Thursday Allan Bridgford of Mission Viejo committed to Cal. The other member of a trio of great senior quarterbacks this fall, Los Alamitos' Clark Evans, likely will not commit early, according to Los Alamitos coach John Barnes. Barnes said Boise State, Colorado and Kansas State have tendered scholarship offers, and a large group of other very interested programs includes Arizona State, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oregon and UCLA.
•Longtime La Quinta athletic director Jim Perry said he might apply for the CIF-SS assistant commissioner vacancy created by the ensuing retirement of Paul Castillo, who is in charge of the section's management of basketball and other sports. Perry has served in various capacities within CIF, both the Southern Section and State levels, and is a former basketball coach, all of which would make him a strong candidate. But there might be too much Orange County presence among the CIF-SS hierarchy already; of the three remaining commissioners, two of them have Orange County backgrounds – Kristine Palle, who was an athletics administrator at Mission Viejo, and Rob Wigod, who was an athletics administrator at Los Alamitos – and Commissioner Dr. Jim Staunton was principal at Huntington Beach.
•That's right – one commissioner and four assistant commissioners for a 569-school section, the largest high school athletics organization of its kind in the nation. That, and the way the CIF State and Southern Section constitutions are written, is why the CIF-Southern Section is very much an organization run and policed by its member schools.
•The section and its member schools will miss Castillo. And they will miss another retiring CIF-SS office staff member who is retiring, Shirley Frazier. As the section director of budget and finance, her behind-the-scenes contributions have been numerous and significant to the section's ability to have well-run championship events at excellent facilities.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
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