Ray Holly etched his name into the record books

Posted by Tony Lee - Nov. 18

Coast's running back Ray Holley broke the all-time single season rushing record at OCC Saturday (Nov. 14) when he rushed for 266 yards with five touchdowns against Long Beach City College. See all the entire game summary and how Holley got the record.

Fastest of them all

Posted by Tony Lee - Oct. 31

Orange Coast College's cross country teams proved Friday (Oct. 30) that both men's and women's squads are the team to beat for the 2009 state championship. At the Orange Empire Conference Cross Country Tournament in Huntington Beach's Central Park, Coast finished first in the men's five-mile run and the women's 5K run in a convincing fashion. See how the runners finished.

Where are the champs?

Posted by Tony Lee - Oct. 25

The defending Orange Empire Conference Player of the Year, Brett Wallach, who was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers, leads the pack key players on the 2009 state champion baseball team have moved onto different locations. See where they moved to since then.

What loss to Golden West?

Posted by Tony Lee - Oct. 25

After the Orange Coast College women's volleyball team suffered its first loss of the season, the lady Pirates have won five-straight games - the latest on Friday (Oct. 23) against Santa Ana College. See how the lady Pirates have bounced back.

Meet a Pirate: Danny Orona

Posted by Tony Lee - Sept. 20

Danny Orona is a 5 foot 6 inch, 160 pound driver from Los Amigos High School who starts on the men's water polo team. “Last year, he really didn't get much playing time but he kept working in practice every single day,” head coach Monty McCord said. "He makes things happen when he's in there. He's a great defensive player (and) he's willing to do a lot of the dirty work not everyone is willing to do." See how he answered the questions.

Victory Bell stays at Coast

Posted by Tony Lee - Sept. 20

For the first time in the West-Coast Showdown history, the Pirates have won the Victory Bell three years in a row. In a dramatic 24-21 victory, Coast (3-0) defeated the Golden West College Rustlers (0-3) to even up the all-time series at 20-20-2. See the last-second dramatics of the game with pictures and quotes from players and coaches.

Meet a Pirate(s): Rebecca Murray and Melissa Mahi

Posted by Tony Lee - Sept. 11

The women's basketball coaching staff have picked their captains for the 2009-2010 season. Rebecca Murray (left) and Melissa Mahi (right) are sophomore returners. See how they answered the questions from the hat.

Good luck OCC athletes

By Tony Lee On Friday, April 17, 2009 0 comments
Today is a big day for three OCC athletics programs.

The Coast track and field team has the Orange Empire Conference Prelims today at noon.




The men's and women's swimming teams are on its second day of the OEC Championships at Golden West College. The meets start from 9:30 a.m. and ends at 3:30 p.m.



OCC tennis teams are also on its second day of the OEC Tournament - the men's at Fullerton College and the women's at Riverside Community College.



Good luck to all the OCC sports teams. I can't wait to write about post-season victories.

[Track and field photos by Tony Lee]
[Swimming photo by Melissa Lee]
[Tennis photo by Peter Bicknell]
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PirateTXT: Men's golfer Ryan Indovina

By Tony Lee On Thursday, April 16, 2009 0 comments
The OCC men's golf team had hopes of winning the Orange Empire Conference and state titles at the start of the year.

After losing four matches in a row and looking at a 3-6 record, the Pirates got it together and won seven straight to earn itself a third-place seed in the OEC playoffs.

The golf team won its final match Wednesday against Irvine Valley College. Here's what Indovina had to say.

Me: hey how'd u guys do yesterday?
Ryan: winner winner chicken dinner
Me: What were the scores? And congrats on making the playoffs dude :-)
Ryan: joe and albert, 74, kord and I, 75, marcus 78, floro, 79. third place by ourselves in con. and thanks I am happy we improved.
Me: So where's the playoff course? and are u excited about ur 36 hole walk? Haha
Ryan: con. champ first then reg. are at marshala? marshalia ranch? something like that. and no not happy about the walk but i got a week and a half to prepare.

Check out the slideshow I made for the golfers also.



[Photo and slideshow by Tony Lee]
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Breaking the curse (update 6)

By Tony Lee On Wednesday, April 15, 2009 0 comments
I told you that these shoes will do the trick.

Tony Lee is now 12-17 and the shoes are 7-1. It's weird to think I was 4-15 at one point. [Click here to read my sports column "It's Me, Tony Lee" to read about why I started wearing these shoes.]

I'm not sure if my shoes will make it to another game this semester. Most of the events are either qualifiers or really far away from Costa Mesa.

If any of the OCC athletes wants to borrow these for good luck, give me a call.

It'll be a shame not to use its luck.

[Photo by Tony Lee]
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Shout outs and final thoughts

By Tony Lee On Wednesday, April 15, 2009 0 comments
[Photos of tonight's attendance by Tony Lee]

I'll say it again. I would not have anything to write about or take pictures of without the Orange Coast College athletics program and everyone involved in it. I'm having a great time covering you guys this semester. Thank you.

I want to thank Tony Altobelli (Coast's Sports Information Director) for providing me with a small desk behind the team benches to update the results on this blog live. And I need to apologize for the mess I left back there. My bad.

He also wrote a game summary quicker than I finished this blog. [Click here to read Altobelli's game summary of tonight's match]

I also want to thank head coach Travis Turner for all the telling me I've been doing a great job all season long. I can say the same thing back at you coach. Thanks for letting me attend practices and always finding time to talk to me after winning or losing a game.

And here's something that's never happened to me before tonight. Jake Melone shaked my hand after the interview. This is the first time a Coast athlete has done that to me. I just wanted to say thank you for that.

I also talked to Palomar College's Dylan Vessell after the game by pure luck. I commented earlier that he looked like NBA player Charlie Villanueva in the blog.

Vessell is also a sophomore and it was his last collegiate game. He said he applied for a highway patrol job and didn't talk about transfering to another school.

He added the team was all freshmen and two sophomores so the Comets will be good next year.

Good luck to you Vessell and it was great meeting you.

Finally, I want to comment on the support from fellow OCC athletes. The women's volleyball, softball, track and field and basketball team members came out today to support their fellow athletes.

Head women's crew coach Laura Behr was also at the game.

It's nice to know that even though we're at a two-year school, we have a family-esk atmosphere in the athletics department.


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Q & A with OCC men's volleyball head coach Travis Turner and player Jake Melone

By Tony Lee On Wednesday, April 15, 2009 0 comments
Orange Coast College's men's volleyball player Jake Melone (left) is a sophomore outside hitter from Loara High School and lead the team today with 19 kills.

Melone is also a former Pirate of the Week that I had the honor to interview. I'm glad he won his last home game as a sophomore.

Travis Turner (right) is the head coach of the OCC men's volleyball team. He's always available for interviews and always helps me out in anyway possible.

Here's the interview after the game.

Today was the last game of the season and you guys came out with a victory. How do you guys feel about that?
Travis: I'm glad. I thought we played well and we tried a new lineup and I think it worked pretty well.
Jake: It's good. Just to play our last game on our home court - last game few of the guys are going to play (at OCC) - and we came out with a win. It was good.

I wanted to ask you guys about the problem the team's had of winning a game in a dominating fashion and then not winning the next ones.
Travis: Yeah, we've had that problem all year but we haven't came back to win after losing game two all year. So to do that tonight was a step forward.

And Jake, you've been talking about the "killer mentality" all year. Do you guys think you have that under control now?
Jake: I think we did have that tonight - not too much in the second game obviously - but as soon as we lost (game two), some of us got together, we were sick of us backing down and came back out with some attitude.

You guys were trailing game four for most of the time until you guys rallied back to tie it up at 20-20 and then went on to win the match. How big was that?
Travis: Well I think we finally got more serves in a row. I think Jake was serving at the time and kind of went on a run there. We've been trying to talk about understanding when to rip your serve and when to get it in and I thought we did a good job.
Jake: I just tried to keep my serve in and let our big guys at the net do their thing and they did it.

And next game against Moorpark...
Travis: That's going to be tough. They're good. They're pretty similar to us so we'll see. It's at their place which will be a good challenge for us.
Jake: I'm really excited to play there and beat them. It's a big game, I think we're ready for it, we're going to get at it at practice and just go over there and...
Travis: ...show them what's up.
Jake: Exactly.

[Photo by Tony Lee]
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Volleyball at Orange Coast College is a family

By Tony Lee On Wednesday, April 15, 2009 1 comments
The Orange Coast College women's volleyball players help out the men's team whenever they can.

Christina Richards, Kelly Garis, Rachel Freeno and Briana Fields (going left to right) were sitting at the announcer's booth taking stats for today's game and took time out of their busy schedules for a photo-op.

I want to give a shout out to Christina Richards because she's a staff writer on the Coast Report. She works hard, meets the deadlines and makes my job as an editor easy. So thank you Christina. [Click here to read her feature on the men's volleyball team]

Good luck in the fall season ladies.

[Photo by Tony Lee]
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Pirates send the Comets back to space

By Tony Lee On Wednesday, April 15, 2009 0 comments
Your Orange Coast College Pirates wins the fourth game 30-25 to beat the Palomar College Comets in four sets.

Interviews, additional pictures and post-game thoughts will be available shortly.
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Scoring update 5 and commentary

By Tony Lee On Wednesday, April 15, 2009 0 comments
The Pirates, once again, came out sluggish after winning a match.

Coast trailed for the majority of the match until they tied it up 20-20 in the fourth game.

The score is now 27-24 in favor of OCC. Only three more points for the victory men.

Also, Palomar's winning celebration on the bench is bumping chests against each other. For the record, I'm not a fan.

And Palomar's No. 14 Dylan Vessell reminds me of NBA player Charlie Villanueva.
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Q & A with OCC softball players Kursten Evanski and Sarah Munson

By Tony Lee On Wednesday, April 15, 2009 0 comments
The Orange Coast College softball team played a game earlier today against Santa Ana College.

The lady Pirates lost 5-1 - the lone run scored by Kayse Potter.

Coast players Kursten Evanski (left) and Sarah Munson (right) are here after the game to support the men’s volleyball team.

Do you guys come to a lot of the volleyball games?
Sarah: Yes we do.
Kursten: Yeah.

Do you guys wish you had this many people for your softball games.
Sarah: Yeah, maybe we’d win then. Yesterday we had a class come watch us for extra credit. It’s so sad.

Talk about the game a little bit.
Kursten: They met with the ball so that was all we could do. They hit a few shots up the middle and we had some errors.

Did you guys have chances to rally or anything like that?
Kursten: We had a few of them but when we hit the ball sometimes, they were hard hits, but we hit it straight to them. But I don’t think we could be mad because we put the balls in play.

When’s your next game?
Both: Friday (at 3 p.m.).

Against?
Sarah: Santiago (Canyon College).
Kursten: Our last two games are at home.

What do you want to say to the fans so they’ll come to the game?
Sarah: We’re good looking.
Kursten: That’s all you need.

[Photo by Tony Lee]
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Scoring update 4

By Tony Lee On Wednesday, April 15, 2009 0 comments
After losing 30-21 to the Comets in game two, the Pirates responded back with a 30-21 victory themselves.

OCC is one game away from winning its last game of the season.
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Scoring update 3 and commentary

By Tony Lee On Wednesday, April 15, 2009 0 comments
The Comets regrouped to win game two 30-21.

Travis Turner, head OCC men's volleyball coach, said to me that his team struggle finishing games and player Paul Leon told me the team can go into a "cruise mode" after the team gets off to a big lead.

I hope this isn't the case because I don't want to lose another game with my lucky shoes. [Click here to read about my shoes]

In game three, the Pirates are leading 10-6.

UPDATE

The score is now 14-12 in favor of the Pirates.
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Scoring update 2

By Tony Lee On Wednesday, April 15, 2009 0 comments
The Palomar College Comets are not giving up after its first-game blunder.

Palomar has taken the lead for the first time in the second game (18-19).

The Pirates came back to tie it up but after a serve hit the net, the score is 19-20 in favor of the Comets.
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Pictures and commentary from the game

By Tony Lee On Wednesday, April 15, 2009 0 comments
Keri Altobelli and her daughter Alexis Altobelli are helping out the men's volleyball team. [Click here to read their Q & A session from earlier this year]

Someone's reading the Coast Report. On behalf of the entire staff, we thank you and hope you enjoy.

Lady Pirate basketball players Melissa Mahi (Green sunglasses), Anna Simmons (on the right of Mahi) and track and field athlete Isabelle Ngyuen (yellow USC shirt) are here to support the men's volleyball team.

[Photos by Tony Lee]
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Scoring update 1

By Tony Lee On Wednesday, April 15, 2009 0 comments
Your Orange Coast College Pirates wins the first game easily 30-20.

Palomar College tied the game up at 4-4 but never tied the game up or had a lead for the remainder.
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OCC vs. Palomar College (men's volleyball)

By Tony Lee On Wednesday, April 15, 2009 0 comments
The last home game of the Orange Coast College men's volleyball game is underway. The Pirates are in blue and the visiting Palomar College Comets are in red.

So far, the score is 15-11 in OCC's favor.





[Photos by Tony Lee]
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OCC track and field star is ranked No. 1 in the United Staets

By Tony Lee On Wednesday, April 15, 2009 0 comments
Cassie Mitchell, a Kinesiology major at OCC, is ranked No. 1 in the United States for the 3000-meter steeplechase.

Mitchell was hoping to get personal records in the 1,500 and 3,000 meter run at the Coast Classic over the weekend because, "it's my last chance to do it."

She finished first in both events with a time of 4:42.50 and 10:20.98 respectively.

What is the steeplechase and what’s your best time?
It’s a 3000-meter run with five barriers between them. My best time is 10:58.

How long have you been doing the steeplechase?
I’m fairly new at it. I’ve only had probably a year experience because I started in my freshmen year and I’m a sophomore.

Do you like doing the steeplechase?
Yeah, it makes the run more interesting because it’s kind of like a hurdle race for a long distance race.

What kind of music do you like to listen to and any favorite artists?
Mostly rock. I like The Goo Goo Dolls, that’s probably my favorite, and Train.

Do you have any pregame rituals?
Not really, though every time before a race, I listen to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I have no idea why. They have a good beat and I like that funk-rock rhythm before a race.

Talk about being ranked No. 1 in the United States.
I actually had no idea until (head coach John Knox) told me. I don’t know, I feel like I could do a lot better, even though I’m apparently No. 1 right now. I don’t see it as that big of a deal. I’m thinking there are girls on the East coast who haven’t – the coaches hasn’t put in their times yet – so I’m always going to think I’m below someone.

Besides track and field, name some of your hobbies.
I like to do jigsaw puzzles a lot. The 1,000 piece ones or over that. I had a 5,000 piece one that took over three months.

What was the picture of the puzzle at the end?
It was a picture of a horseshoe like in Utah I think. It was so hard.

Any other hobbies?
Occasionally I like to sketch. I haven’t found a lot of time to do that, but sketching and reading.

Me too Cassie. I too have other hobbies than just updating the OCC Sports blog but I wouldn't have it any other way.

[Photo by Tony Lee]
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It's Me, Tony Lee: Just lose yourself

By Tony Lee On Wednesday, April 15, 2009 0 comments
I understand not everyone listens to hip hop or rap music so I included a link to Eminem's song "Lose Yourself" below.

I dedicated my "It's Me, Tony Lee" column to the athletes this week. I truly wish the athletes and coaches the best and I hope I get to write multiple articles about OCC players winning conference and state titles.



Great poets like W.B. Yeats and Robert Frost, had an uncanny talent for describing what goes on in a human being. But when it comes to describing what an Orange Coast College athlete goes through during the month of April, no one explains it better than the modern poet Eminem.

Just look at the athletes yourself. Their palms are sweaty. I bet their knees feel weak and arms are heavy. It’s obvious that they’re nervous even though on the surface they look calm and ready.


It’s because April marks the start of the playoffs and there’s no room for error. It’s the one time of the year that being good is not good enough. Only greatness will be rewarded and there won’t be a second chance.

Like Eminem said, the mood’s all changed.

The hundreds of hours of practice, the hundreds more in the weight room, the thousands of hours they’ve spent playing their sport throughout their lifetime will come down to a couple of minutes.

This is a moment athletes live for. It’s a chance at the biggest stage to make themselves kings or queens. They know being a normal athlete is boring but rising to superstardom is close to perfection.

And for you Coast sophomores, this will be the last time you lace up in your Pirate gear. It’ll be the last time to make a mark in the record books at OCC.

The nerves, the jitters and the butterflies are all worth it because if they perform to their potential, the world is theirs for the taking.

So I have one question for the OCC athletes: If you had one shot or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted, would you capture it or let it slip?

You better lose yourself in that moment, you better own it and you better never let it go. Do not miss your chance for greatness because this opportunity comes once in a lifetime.
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Q & A with OCC basketball star Casey Gomez

By Tony Lee On Wednesday, April 15, 2009 0 comments
Gomez is one of the two lady Pirates to earn All-Orange Empire Conference first team honors in the 2008-2009 season.

She lead the lady Pirates with 119 assists (3.7 per game), steals (2.4 per game), free throws attempted (107) and averaged 12.6 points per game - 29 being her highest total - this season.

Gomez was recently accepted to Chapman University and plans on playing on the women's basketball team this fall.

But more importantly, she was the first Pirate of the Week in the Coast Report and the first athlete I interviewed for the paper this semester. Obviously this is the bigger accomplishment.

So you got into Chapman - how stoked are you?
I'm pretty stoked. I didn't know I was going to go there and I didn't expect to go there but I'm excited I can keep playing basketball.

What's going to be the saddest part about leaving OCC?
Oh my god everything! I love OCC - I really wish it was a four-year school so I don't have to go away. But I'm definitely going to miss all the people that I made friends with here, I'm going to miss the team and just the smaller, personal feeling you get (here at OCC).

How do you think the team will do without you next season?
I'm sure they'll be fine. I like to say that they'd be terrible without me but I'm pretty sure they are going to do good. Everybody's coming back (from last season), only a couple of us are leaving, so they'll be good. And there's new good people.

Anything else you want to add?
Shout out to my basketball girls. I'm going to miss everybody. We all became like a family when you're here and definitely going to miss - I don't know what it's like when I go over to Chapman but I know it won't be anything like it was here. I'm going to remember these times and keep it in my heart.

[Photo by Tony Lee]
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Q & A with OCC head men's volleyball coach Travis Turner

By Tony Lee On Tuesday, April 14, 2009 0 comments
The men’s volleyball team is 11-8 (7-4 in Pacific Coast Conference) and hopes to play in the state championship game again.

Last year, the Pirates finished in second place to the state champions Irvine Valley College and looks forward to another strong playoff run.

Even though two out of the four PCC losses this year came from IVC (the other two from Golden West College), I’m optimistic about our team’s chances after talking to head coach Travis Turner after Tuesday’s practice.


Talk about your season so far.
You know what, it’s probably been a little down from what I expected us to do just based on what we had in the fall but if we end this thing on a positive note and beat Moorpark (College) at Moorpark, you can forget about the whole season – (it matters that) you do well at the end.

Talk about Irvine Valley and Golden West College – your main rivals in the Pacific Coast Conference.
IVC just out-gutted us and Golden West are a little bit more physical than we are. Those are two teams we can beat but we’ve got to play better than we did and today was a big step. We had a really good practice today.

Far as returning to state championship game again, that has to be your goal right?
Oh definitely. I think If we can beat Moorpark at Moorpark then we’re there and we have a shot. Anything can happen there – there are only four teams.

Name one thing you guys have been doing good all season long and name one thing you guys been struggling with.
I think our ball control has been good all season long. Our serving hasn’t been very good and our blocking's been really poor – which is not a good thing.

Anything you want to say to the fans out there?
We’ve had great support all year. The women’s volleyball team’s been great, the women’s softball team’s been to a lot of the matches. Professor (Robert) Raya is awesome – he gets kids here – and we’ve been lucky. In all the JCs, we have more people (at our games) than anyone else. And our sports editor isn’t too bad either.

Log on Wednesday at around 6 p.m. to see the live coverage of the final home game for the men’s volleyball team against Palomar College.

[Photo by Tony Lee]
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Winner, winner, chicken dinner

By Tony Lee On Tuesday, April 14, 2009 0 comments
The poll is over and the winner is Tony does: track and field.

This is going to be interesting. I have a feeling the coaches will work me out extra hard.
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Tony's thoughts and upcoming things on the blog

By Tony Lee On Monday, April 13, 2009 0 comments
This has been a great weekend for the OCC Sports blog and I would like to thank everyone involved in it - especially the OCC athletes.

Without you guys allowing me to take pictures, granting me interviews, giving me feedback and asking everyone to visit the blog, the sports blog would not be what it is.

As of Monday at 7:20 a.m., this blog's had 578 visitors - more than double since this time last week.

I know there's only 1.5 months left in the school year but I'm still hoping to hit 10,000 visitors before then. We'll see how (un)realistic that maybe but I have high expectations.

Also, there is only two days left on the poll. So far, the track and field persuasion seems to want another installment of "Tony does." [Click here to read "Tony does softball"]

But I am extremely excited about the "It's Me, Tony Lee" column this week. I can't wait for everyone to read it when the Coast Report (OCC's student newspaper) comes out on Wednesday.

And the men's volleyball team is having its last home game of the season on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Peterson Gym against Palomar College. Even though I'm covering the game live, I suggest everyone to come see them.
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Coast Classic photo slideshow

By Tony Lee On Sunday, April 12, 2009 1 comments
The slideshow is around 2 minutes and 45 seconds but I promise it'll be worth it. Enjoy.

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