Hunter Easterling was a whale of a football player on Orcas Island in the Pacific Northwest. He scored 28 touchdowns in his senior year for the Island High Vikings. But at 5ʹ8Ê° and 150 pounds, he wasn’t attracting big-time college recruiters. So the speedy wide receiver looked to continue his gridiron career at a Southern California community college. His search ended at a place reminiscent of his scenic home.
UCSB’s defending national soccer champions unveiled their version of David Beckham last Saturday night. Early in their exhibition game against Westmont College, the Gauchos were awarded a free kick about 25 yards out from the goal. Sophomore midfielder Ciaran O’Brien stepped forward and swung his foot into the ball.
The third time was the charm for Lyndon Lea in the Pacific Coast Open. His team Zacara won the prestigious tournament on Sunday.
The beauty of polo is the synchronization of horse and rider, making it the fastest ball game in the world. With the horses topping 30 miles per hour, it is safe to say that the games at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club last Sunday afternoon were moving faster than the thick southbound traffic on nearby Highway 101 through Carpinteria.
Kirk Reynolds will not likely attain the prominence of the great quarterbacks groomed by Bill Walsh-namely, Joe Montana and Steve Young-but he was the last person to call the signals for the legendary football coach. It was a heady experience for Reynolds, a Goleta native who pursued a career in sports publicity after graduating from UCSB. He was the San Francisco 49ers’ director of public relations for six years.
Karch Kiraly has often been called the Michael Jordan of beach volleyball, but it might be more fitting to compare him to Hank Aaron. They both achieved magic career numbers: Kiraly’s 148 tournament championships and Aaron’s 755 home runs. They both performed with consistency, dignity, and longevity. To many baseball fans, Aaron’s number will be the most respected no matter how much it is inflated by Barry Bonds.
There were no corks popping at UCSB’s Caesar Uyesaka Stadium on Sunday after the Santa Barbara Foresters clinched the championship of the California Collegiate League. It was the 14th time the team won the league pennant, and it has a bigger prize in mind-a repeat victory in the National Baseball Congress World Series.
Like Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady, Todd Rogers has guided a raw understudy into high society-in this case, to a position of preeminence in American beach volleyball-but Rogers’s relationship with the younger man, Phil Dalhausser, is one of equality and exquisite balance.
Professional football has a new look in Los Angeles-it is the game of soccer, known as football throughout the world outside the U.S., and its human face is that of David Beckham, the English star whose impending debut with the L.A. Galaxy has prompted much hyperventilating by the media multitudes.
Mark Warkentin is a rare human being who might be able to hang with a pod of dolphins. He’d be the funny-looking one with the long, skinny flippers and the tiny snout.
