Sage Hill School

PASADENA - Coach JR Tolver was livid from the start. After watching his Sage Hill School football team give up huge chunks of yards on Pasadena Poly's first drive, Tolver ate into his players on the sideline. "They're running the same play over and over! Dive! Dive! Dive!" Tolver yelled. "It's going to be 57-0 if we don't stop it. " The Lightning never figured out how to slow down running back Harrison Hodgkins on Friday. The senior pounded Sage Hill for 232 yards and three touchdowns on 25 carries.

NEWPORT COAST - Dressed in sweats, Taylor Petty was closer to going to bed than playing for Sage Hill School on Saturday night. Sage Hill was without its best athlete. Bad timing when the Lighting played host to The Bishop's, the defending CIF State Division IV champion. Petty, out with a leg issue, saw the Knights run away with a 57-7 victory. The Lighting missed their senior against the program from La Jolla. Without Petty at quarterback, the offense went nowhere.

Sage Hill School was awarded almost $74,000 in a grant to expand its campus garden. State Farm is giving the Newport Coast private school money for its Organic Educational Center, a project that focuses on environmental responsibility. Sage Hill's organic garden was created through a service learning project by six of the school's students and Savannah's Organic Ranch, an Aliso Viejo-based nonprofit that educates children about organic gardening. The students spent a school year planning out the project before more than 100 volunteers brought the garden to life over three weekends in April.

NEWPORT COAST - Just before halftime, there was a contest for who could come up with the best nickname for Sage Hill School's offense during its season opener Friday night. The second-place nickname: Cheng Reaction, a play on the last name of senior Eric Cheng. He wasn't the entire offense, but after watching him against Fairmont Prep, you would understand the clever moniker. Cheng ran for 172 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries to help the Lightning score a 48-6 win at Sage Hill's Ramer Field.

Taylor Ross accomplished a great deal in his four years at Sage Hill School. Now, he's taking the next step at USC. Ross, who was a football standout and multi-sport athlete at Sage, is one of only two non-scholarship freshmen who were recently added to USC's football team roster. As such he was invited to the Trojans' preseason camp. For more than a week, Ross has been competing for a spot. He's listed as No. 47, and as a 5-foot-10, 190-pound tailback. Ross starred at Sage Hill, and gained interest to be a walk-on for other programs such as SMU, Rice and Tulane.

Courtney Conlogue, a Sage Hill School product, won the Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro completed Saturday in Praia do Guincho, Portugal. Conlogue, who claimed the $4,500 winner's purse, defeated fellow Californian Lakey Peterson in the 30-minute main event final. She has $51,550 in winnings on the tour this season. Conlogue solidified her No. 1 position in the Assn. of Surfing Professionals Women's Star rankings. She has 11,720 points, well ahead of No. 2-ranked Sage Erickson (7,640)

NEWPORT COAST — When Olivia Simon sat down in Cha for Tea to write the speech she would give at her graduation from Sage Hill School, she wasn't sure how to explain her time there, but all that changed when three junior girls walked in. Simon, who will attend Washington University in St. Louis in the fall, said although she didn't know the girls well, they recognized each other from school and immediately sat down and started talking. "We laughed together like we were old friends," she said.

NEWPORT BEACH — When Robbe Simon twists and turns to hit the tennis ball across the net there isn't any more pain. Last year, he dealt with a bad back and was relegated to doubles play for the Sage Hill School boys' tennis team. But things have changed for Simon, and for the Lightning squad too. Simon is now Sage Hill's No. 1 singles player. He doesn't look to be in any pain now. His play this year is one of many reasons Sage Hill appears at the top of its game seeking its first CIF Southern Section crown in boys' tennis.

YUCAIPA — Sage Hill School boys' volleyball coach Dan Thomassen said his team couldn't finish in Game 2 and it made a difference against Yucaipa Thursday night. The sixth-seeded Thunderbirds (21-1) fed off their home crowd and beat No. 10 Sage, 18-25, 25-23, 22-25, 25-18, 15-9, in a CIF Southern Section Division IV second-round match. "It was one of the games that we couldn't find a way to win it," Thomassen said of the second set. "It was 22-all. They kept getting better in front of their crowd.

NEWPORT COAST — It definitely wasn't something you'd associate with a beach town like Newport Beach. Sun shining and blue sky overhead, the four Wimberley siblings filled the Sage Hill School courtyard with the sounds of traditional bluegrass music, banjo and all. With Michael, 12, as lead singer, twins Mark and James, 16, on the guitar and banjo and Danielle, 17, on the bandolim, the quartet showed Sage Hill families and guests another...