Sports

It’s an all-star team that isn’t technically an all-star team. Three years ago, the Ventura County Baseball Academy held a tryout at Newbury Park High for a U-13 team. Dustin Tubb, VCBA’s founder, and Steve Henson, the head coach, wanted to form a squad that would help youngsters prepare for high school baseball. The travel team has become a national […]

YEARN FOR THE CUP—The CVU Boys 2006 Red soccer team won the Cal South 2021 Presidents Cup and advanced to the U.S. Youth Soccer Far West President’s Cup Regional Championship in Salt Lake City. Pictured the back row, from left, are assistant coach Charles Lee, head coach Fawaz Daniels, Bobby Bagheri, Jonathan Flores, Kevin Parker, Keon Saleh, Ryan Gunderson, Benny […]

Sports brings people together. The Olympics, the greatest spectacle of athletics, amplify humanity’s yearning for a better world. Three people with deep roots in the local community—Zach Penprase, Scott Blatt and Eric Blum—will make their Olympic debuts this summer in Tokyo. “This is really what we all strive for. It’s a bucket list item to get here one day,” Blatt […]

Mark Amaral has been coaching basketball for 31 years. He’s spent most of that time in the college ranks, including memorable stops at Pepperdine and UC Santa Barbara, and he’s worked with pros overseas. For the first time in his career, he’ll be teaching the game to high school athletes. “It’s just time,” Amaral said. He is the new head […]

Max Muncy’s year just keeps getting better. Nine stars from Acorn country heard their names called during this week’s Major League Baseball amateur draft, including Muncy, a Thousand Oaks High shortstop. Muncy, who lives in Camarillo, was drafted No. 25 overall in the first round by the Oakland Athletics on July 11. “It’s a dream come true,” Muncy told the […]

They played for months on outdoor blacktops and in empty gyms. They played with masks covering their faces. They played without bellyaching, kvetching or whining . . . when they had every right to bellyache, kvetch and whine during a pandemic. They all deserve a standing ovation and a sincere round of applause. Here’s our first All-Acorn Basketball Team. We […]

The juggernauts didn’t meet for a CIF-Southern Section championship. That was OK. Instead of wallowing in selfpity, high school softball squads at Westlake and Camarillo rebounded from disappointment to reach a regional final. Camarillo, the Coastal Canyon League conquerors, defeated Westlake, the Marmonte League title-holders, 2-0 in the CIF Southern California Division I championship on June 26 at Camarillo. The […]

Details will turn fuzzy. Some games will bleed into others. Time will slowly tug at and fray the red stitches of the last pitch, the last fly ball, the last play. The boys of summer will become the men of fall, and some, if they continue traversing this orbit, will become the men of the Fall Classic. But let the […]

They really are road Warriors. Westlake High’s girls’ basketball team, days after losing in the Final Four of the CIF-Southern Section Division 2A postseason, logged 652 miles and spent 20 hours traveling on a bus to play three more games. The Warriors made the most of their time on the hardwood and on the road. Westlake, without any seniors on […]

Look up “dominating” in the dictionary. There should be an Oak Park Eagle mascot swinging a 9-iron . . . for an eagle. What mortal could resist that dad joke? Oak Park High’s girls’ golf team captured its first CIF-Southern Section championship in program history by shooting 415 in the Division 3 finals on June 8 at Santa Barbara Golf […]