Sports

Santa Monica Sports Notes

Ron Mims, who was on the Santa Monica College coaching staff last season, has left to become defensive co-ordinator at Venice High. He has extensive football experience, having coached at Purdue and other colleges and should be a big help to new Venice High head coach Angelo Gasca, himself a former SMC quarterback.

Gasca was the obvious choice when longtime Venice High head coach Tony Chretin stepped down to concentrate on other duties at the school. Since playing at SMC Gasca has earned a reputation as an able coach and is ready to take over a program.

The SMC coaching staff will also be without longtime mentor Owen Hahn, an assistant the last few seasons and former head coach of the Corsairs. He has ended his distinguished career, retiring and moving to San Diego. It will be a major loss for the Corsairs but the timing is right. Hahn was recently inducted into the Community College Hall of Fame.

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Santa Monica West Loses, But Still Has a Chance

By Mitch Chortkoff

Although losing Thursday night, Santa Monica West remains in contention for top honors in the District 25 Little League Majors tournament at Memorial Park.

Santa Monica West was defeated by Playa Vista, 6-1. That puts Playa Vista into the championship game while Santa Monica West was scheduled for a semifinal game in hopes of gaining one too.

The opponent was to be determined by the result of a game between Culver City and Malibu.

Santa Monica West avoided being shut out when Justin Gordon-Cooper and Fred McLafferty hit consecutive doubles in the fourth inning.

Santa Monica East was eliminated with a 5-0 loss to Culver City Tuesday.

These kids deserve our support. They play a nice brand of baseball and have been hand-picked to represent the city at this level.

Another Santa Monica team, the Bobby Sox Majors, have advanced to the national tournament and will be playing in Buena Park beginning July 27.

The 12-year-olds will compete in a 32-team tournament after defeating La Puente, Los Altos and Heartwell.

Christine Foley and Katie Bofshever were the star pitchers. Britney Garland, Alli Shaefer and Serina Fazio have been all-stars since they were eight years old.

In the national tournament opponents will arrive from various states, including Hawaii.

The Santa Monica Minors are going to a national tournament too. Alyson Herman and Logan Kinsey have done the pitching. The manager is Barbara Wittner.

In a few months we'll be focusing on high school teams but in July the youngsters deserve their place in the spotlight.