La Verne

Barry Faulkner LA VERNE - The Newport Harbor High football team will travel in style for Friday's 7:30 p.m. nonleague road clash with Claremont at Bonita High. And, if the outcome mirrors recent history against competition outside of Orange County, Coach Jeff Brinkley's Sailors will have fun bus ride home. The Tars (3-1 and ranked No. 6 in CIF Southern Section Division VI) have not lost a regular-season game to a team outside the county since a 1980 setback against Long Beach Millikan.

Looking back, 5 years ago this week: Costa Mesa High Athletic Director Jerry Howell announces that baseball coach Doug Deats has resigned after four years. Deats cites the need to spend more time with family and "explore other areas in life." He guides Mesa to back-to-back playoff appearances in 1995-96, collecting a 42-55 overall record. He sent four players to the college ranks: Jeremy Starns, (Chapman), Matt Broesamle (Concordia), Seth Halvorson (La Verne)

Danette Goulet NEWPORT-MESA -- Patrick Ryan has dedicated his life to children -- his own and others'. Ryan, 53, the district's new director of special education, set up his office as a veritable shrine to the family he adores. The first things unpacked early Monday morning were pictures of his wife Stephana and his four daughters, Gail, Karen, Katie and Annie. Although his career in education has spanned 29 years, he held off on getting into the administrative side for many years so he would have time to be with his daughters.

Don Cantrell Almost 60 years ago, Harbor High gridders, like many, were confronted with numerous problems due to World War II, especially transportation to football games. It was not an ordinary war since the entire globe was engulfed with the critical needs and shortages. Many things were rationed like gas, oil, rubber, sugar and meat. The Neth brothers, Bill and Roger, members of the championship '42 grid team, will remember. Outside possibly the two road contests, there were no buses being extended to the gridders.

For the first time in the new millennium, the Vanguard softball team doesn’t have to rely upon the alumni game to hear about the experience of playing in the postseason. The 2007 Lions earned the school’s first postseason bid since 1999, competing in both the NAIA Region II and NAIA national tournament, where they finished tied for ninth among the 20-team field. So, the 10 returners have first-person accounts with which to familiarize the program’s nine freshman about what is expected to return to the national stage.

Barry Faulkner LA VERNE - Just as several of this year's Costa Mesa High seniors were in the dugout urging them on, the upper classmen from the Mustangs' 1999 CIF quarterfinalist have made their presence felt during this year's run through the CIF Southern Section Division IV baseball playoffs. That run continues today with a 3:15 quarterfinal road date at Bonita High. "I'm glad those guys are around," Mesa Coach Kirk Bauermeister said of the former players, who are both proud and protective of the program's recent success.

Barry Faulkner LA VERNE - The Costa Mesa High baseball team revealed a chink in its Teflon Friday as the normally resilient Mustangs found a CIF Southern Section playoff foe they could not overcome: Themselves. Mesa (17-10-1), which had stepped past pitfalls all season, committed eight errors and allowed five unearned runs in a 5-4 Division IV quarterfinal loss in eight innings at Bonita High. The Mustangs executed flawlessly on offense to post single runs in the first, third and fourth innings.

Amara Aguilar COSTA MESA - Sometimes, a big lead can be bad. Not that the Vanguard University men's basketball team minded having one against the University of La Verne (3-5) for most of Friday's 94-74 nonconference victory at the Pit. The Lions (4-7) led by as many as 26 points in the second half, but Vanguard Coach Stephen French wasn't exactly thrilled. "When you are up on a team it's hard to keep your focus," French said. "It's hard to keep your intensity.

All five men’s basketball opponents on the UC Irvine preconference home schedule had losing records and the Anteaters are scheduled to play just one nonconference game against an opponent that made the NCAA Tournament in 2009. Among those early 2009-2010 season nonconference home games are dates with NAIA representative Vanguard University and La Verne, a Division III school. In addition, the ’Eaters, who were 12-19 last season, play a home exhibition game against Concordia of Irvine, an NAIA school.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA — Coach Ryan Schachter said Corona del Mar High was up against a team that was more athletic. That is saying something because the Sea Kings are the most talented players he said he has guided in five seasons at CdM. But four players on the Lutheran of La Verne roster are NCAA Division I basketball recruits. The Sea Kings just have one player committed to play on the next level. The Trojans are so deep that there is not a starting spot for everyone. Bruce English, who is bound for Loyola Marymount University, comes off the bench.