It doesn”t feel like spring yet, not with snow lingering on the mountaintops, the “new” Warriors with a death grip on last place in the Pacific Division again, the NHL playoffs drawing near, and high school teams … although not any in this area … gearing up for the NorCal tournament this week.
On the other hand, it doesn”t feel much like winter anymore, not with baseball on the radio, the local prep ball teams gearing up for a new season, the start of the Lake County Amateur Golf Circuit just around the corner, and the Warriors firmly entrenched in last place in the Pacific, truly a last-place team for all seasons.
A check of the calendar tells us today is Tuesday, March 6, still technically winter but the first big day of the spring sports season in Lake County, with just about all of the county”s baseball and softball teams in action (weather permitting, of course).
In the local baseball ranks, the scenery has definitely changed. Gone from Kelseyville is longtime varsity baseball coach Steve Olson, who led the Indians-now-Knights for 20 seasons before calling it quits after the 2006 campaign. Gone from Middletown was the next most senior member of the county”s baseball coaching corps, Mike Robertson, who told me he had probably coached his last game after being eliminated by Justin-Siena in the Class A playoffs last May in Middletown. Also gone is Upper Lake”s Rob Young, who weathered a series of last-place finishes on the Northshore.
Their replacements are Morgan Weiper at Kelseyville, Mitch Tucker (promoted from the JV ranks) at Middletown, and Joe Ogulin at Upper Lake. Brian Figg returns for another season at Clear Lake and Chris Denny is back to coach the Lower Lake Trojans, who might actually jump out of the North Central League I North cellar this season.
The only new face in the county”s softball ranks is Justin Dutcher, who takes over for Ryan Kinser, who followed Frank Cronin, who followed Craig Kinser and Don Meri as Upper Lake coaches. In other words, more turnover for the Cougars, who, as you can guess, have done their fair share of struggling in recent seasons.
The three Lake County schools who do field tennis teams, Clear Lake, Kelseyville and Middletown, also are breaking in new coaches this season. Gone are Rik Hayes (Clear Lake), James Kuzu (Kelseyville) and Tony Hart (Middletown). Replacing them are Jen Goff (Clear Lake), Jeff McLaren (Kelseyville) and Mark Morita (Middletown).
Another longtime coach calling it a career is Bob Norris of the Middletown golf team. He”s giving way to former Kelseyville High star, Shawn Auten.
In track, Omer Mursal takes over for Bob Galloway at Lower Lake High School.
That”s 10 new coaches in all, perhaps the most turnover seen in the local coaching ranks in many years, possibly ever. It”s the most I”ve seen since I arrived in the county almost 23 years ago.
There are no hidden agendas at work here, only a random series of events that all played out at nearly the same time. Olson, with 20 years at Kelseyville, plans to spend time watching sons Ben and Paul play college ball. The same with Robertson at Middletown, who now has more time to follow son Nick”s career.
Spring is supposed to be a season for change and it certainly is in 2007, at least in Lake County.
Hall of Fame
The Mendocino College Athletic Hall of Fame inducted six more deserving athletes on Feb. 24 during a nice ceremony at Redwood Valley Cellars, including former Lake County prep stars Ronnie Cruz (Clear Lake), Angela Mantele (Lower Lake) and Tim Angiolini (Upper Lake). The athlete acceptance speeches were pretty enjoyable and some of the presenter speeches were entertaining as well. I especially enjoyed Cruz” speech. Now a running back for the Kansas City Chiefs, Cruz” remarks were poignant and his humility refreshing from a professional athlete. Hopefully he stays that way.
I give a close second in the inductee speech category to Warren Galletti of Point Arena.
The best speech by a presenter? I give the nod to Ed Schweitzer, the volleyball coach at Mendocino, who presented Mantele for induction. His remarks were thought out, he”s well-spoken, and his stories about Mantele were concise and funny.
Runner-up goes to Ed Boyle, who introduced Galletti. Boyle seems like a pretty good guy though I”ve never had to play for him or cover one of his teams him in my capacity as the Record-Bee sports editor.
And what can you say about special inductee Glenn Erickson, the longtime sports editor of the Ukiah Daily Journal? Guys like him simply don”t exist anymore largely because the newspaper business has changed so much. It”s hard to make it a half-century in this profession, let alone at one newspaper. Erickson is a local journalism legend. He covered local sports at the expense of all out because that”s what a community newspaper is supposed to do.
Sad to say, but that”s not always true nowadays. It”s easier to slap wire copy onto the pages and cheaper, but bottom-line mentality is the order of the day in the newspaper industry. Quality? It”s a nice idea, one that Erickson never overlooked in all his years a the Ukiah Daily Journal.
Best phone call
Best phone call taken in the last few weeks? The relative of a Middletown varsity basketball player wanted to remind me that Middletown is in Lake County and it might serve the Record-Bee well to visit the town once in awhile during basketball and especially football seasons.
Heck, even if John Lindblom covered every Middletown football game in sight for the Record-Bee this past season and just about every Middletown home game during the 2005-06 basketball season, that wasn”t good enough for this gentleman, no siree.
But it made for one heck of a good laugh. I even got hung up on, which always warms my crusty old heart.
The real question is who else covers Middletown high school sports? That would be the Record-Bee and … ?
Yep, thought so.
