Americans

Corona del Mar High senior kicker Griff Amies has earned first-team MaxPreps All-American Football honors after he converted 22 field goals, tying the California single-season record for field goals made. Amies played a key role in CdM winning a second straight CIF Southern Section Southern Division championship and claiming the school's first undefeated league championship. The Sea Kings finished 12-2, 5-0 in Pacific Coast League play. Amies, a left-footed kicker, made 73.3% of his field-goal attempts, including nine from at least 40 yards out. His longest successful field goal was a 52-yarder.

Vanguard University junior Jordan Davidson has been named first-team NAIA All-American in women's soccer. Vanguard seniors Amanda Couch and Lauren Evans are second-team honorees, while sophomore Lauren Terry is a third-team pick by NAIA coaches. Davidson, a forward, was the Golden State Athletic Conference Player of the Year in her first season after transferring from Paradise Valley Community College in Arizona. She amassed 18 goals and 10 assists to help lead the Lions to GSAC regular-season and tournament titles, and reach the quarterfinals of the NAIA Tournament.

As of Tuesday afternoon, a Newport Beach Movember team has raised more money than any other U.S. team, making it the organization's second-highest fundraiser globally. Led by "Coach" John Cornuke, a Costa Mesa native who now lives in Newport Beach, Team Nuclear's 170 members have raised $85,192, which puts them ahead of the 12,908 other American teams. By growing mustaches from Nov. 1 to 30, the men raise funds and awareness for men's health issues, such as prostate and testicular cancer.

He would trade his headphones for a helmet in a second. But these days, the headphones represent Matt Grootegoed's connection to the game he has always loved. "On the field, I get the itch, sometimes, to go play," said Grootegoed, 30, a former USC All-American linebacker who became an Orange County football legend as a tailback and safety at Mater Dei High about a dozen years ago. "The best part about coaching is being around football, being around the guys and just being in the game.

What started as a simple demonstration in Lake Arrowhead for abused children has turned into a decade of helping many more children for one Costa Mesa man. Bob White is among a group heading to Chile this week to demonstrate Kenpo karate and donate the first installment of $10,000 to start a camp for Royal Family Kids, which helps children who have been abused, abandoned or neglected. Cox Communications named Santa Ana-based RFK its top nonprofit in 2011, and White has been assisting the group for nearly a decade.

Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra's feted "Swan Lake" will open the 2012 - 13 International Dance Series at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa. The company will make its seventh appearance at the Center from Tuesday to Oct. 7, during an exclusive Southern California engagement. "The audience in Costa Mesa is very warm and very understanding of the art," Interim Ballet Director Yuri Fateev said in a phone interview. Mariinsky's 2012 U.S. tour will also make one-week stops in Berkeley and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. through Oct. 21, Fateev said.

Several local high school students gathered last week to share their summer experience gaining first-hand knowledge of the political system. American Legion Newport Harbor Post 291, and its ladies auxiliary unit, hosted a Boys and Girls State Dinner Friday to recognize the students and hear about their experiences spending a week in summer creating and running their own city, county and state governments. "It was really fun and interesting hearing other's stories and perspectives and what they got out of it," said Estancia High School senior Hayden Swift, 17. "It sounded like everyone got a lot out of it. " Post and Auxiliary Unit 291 sponsored 25 boys and nine girls from Sage Hill, Newport-Mesa Unified, Irvine Unified and other school districts to attend the American Legion's Boys State and Girls State programs at Cal State Sacramento for the boys and Claremont McKenna College for the girls.

The Newport Beach Public Library brought a bit of democracy to residents through an interactive program and display. "Searching for Democracy," a program that debuted in April, "gives people a different spin on something we all take for granted," said library Director Cynthia Cowell. "It's very easy for us not to think about it, and that's what the whole grant process was about. " The library received a $2,500 grant from the California Council for Humanities, plus matching funding from the Newport Beach Library Foundation, for the program to engage residents of all ages in a dialogue about the democratic process, said Jana Barbier, the library's cultural arts coordinator.

Orange Coast College football coach Mike Taylor has had enough trouble navigating the annual mine field known as his schedule. In recent years, however, he has been increasingly plagued by the pitfalls, mostly academics, that have posed too great an opposition for his would-be returning players. The recent off-season proved perilous, indeed, as Taylor lost 2011 All-American running back Domenic Betts, outside linebacker Aaron Jones, who led the team in tackles as a freshman, and a handful of other 2011 contributors to obstacles having nothing to do with an on-field opponent.

B. Michael, a New York fashion designer and costumer for Whitney Houston in the upcoming film"Sparkle," premiered his new collection, b michael America Red, atMacy's South Coast Plaza this week. Fashion enthusiasts gathered in the dresses department Wednesday evening to preview the informally modeled collection. Those in attendance were given a chance to meet the designer and peruse the new designs. Oscar-nominated Cicely Tyson ("The Help") bought a brown dress in support of the line.