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.

Second place for the Pirates

By Tony Lee On Saturday, November 21, 2009 0 comments
The lady Pirates cross country team will not defend its state championship as Coast fell to Glendale College by 37 points at the 2009 California Community College State Championship at Woodward Park in Fresno Saturday (Nov. 21).

Glendale finished first at 43 points and Mt. San Antonio College finished third with 92 points.

To lead the lady Pirates once again was sophomore standout Kimone Hewitt, who finished in third with a 18:05.30 mark.

Coast's Hillary Labelle finished 16th (18:52.24), Jane Kerner finished 22nd (18:59.93), Andrea Gayton-Jacob finished 23rd (19:05.74), Sara Toberty finished 28thh (19:16.83), Andrea Guerra finished 42nd (19:37.02) and Margaret McDuffee finished 62nd (19:58.57).

The men's squad also finished in second place Saturday.

San Bernardino Valley won the state championship with a 67 and OCC finished 66 points behind with a 133 to finish in second.

Third place finisher was Glendale College at 164.

Coast was led by sophomore standout Russell Westphal, who finished 13th with a mark of 20:41.94.

Eric Dyson finished 24th with 20:55.35, Sergio Olivarrias finished 29th with 20:58.04, Pedro Saucedo finished 31st with 20:59.68, Jake Dawson finished 44th with 21:10.20, Francisco Baquero finished 63rd with 21:24.30 and Jorge Torres at 124th with 22:05.03.

[Photos from the Orange Empire Conference finals and courtesy of Hank Schellingerhout]
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Nov. 18 issue of the Coast Report

By Tony Lee On Wednesday, November 18, 2009 0 comments
This week's top headline of the Coast Report's sports page is the men's and women's cross country team going to the state championship on Saturday (Nov. 21) to Fresno.

Sports column "It's Me, Tony Lee" is about football player Ray Holley who set OCC's all-time single season rushing record Saturday (Nov. 14) in Coast's final game of the season.

This week's Pirates of the Week are Nikki Osuna, who almost set a school record in digs, and Antonio Dominquez, who scored seven goals in the men's water polo playoff games.

Also, more than 50 percent of the 2009 OCC spring athletes made the honor roll.

All the articles are available on www.coastreportonline.com.
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Top of the rowing world

By Tony Lee On Wednesday, November 18, 2009 0 comments



The Orange Coast College men's crew team defeated many Division-I, four-year universities and placed first and second place in the Head of the Harbor's Novice 8 race at San Pedro Harbor Sunday (Nov. 15).

Out of the seven teams in the race, Coast's A team finished at 15:55 for first and Coast's B team finished second at 16:42, which beat third place UC Santa Barbara by five seconds.

In the Varsity 8 race, Coast's A team lost a neck-to-neck race to USC (15:26) by just one second and finished second at 15:27.

Coast's B team finished behind third place Loyola Marymount University (15:54) and UC Irvine's A team (15:57) at 16:29 to finish fifth out of nine teams.

[Photos courtesy of Dan Ferons]
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Men's soccer ends in a shutout

By Tony Lee On Tuesday, November 17, 2009 0 comments
Prior to the 4-0 loss to Riverside Community College in its season finale Friday (Nov. 13), Orange Coast College's men’s soccer team was ranked 16th in the region.

However, the loss bounced Coast (8-10-3, 5-6-3) out of playoff contention and the Pirates finished the season 19th in the southern region with a 1.7286 power ranking.

“We thought we would be much better than we did,” head men’s soccer coach Laird Hayes said. “We were wrecked by injuries. We just got disseminated.”

On top of injuries, Hayes said he lost some players due to academic ineligibility and a lack of sophomore leadership also hurt the team down the stretch.

“I’m not blaming the kids. That’s our responsibility as coaches,” Hayes said of coaching leadership, “to try to teach that, get them to buy into it. (The coaching staff) learned a lot, we got a lot to do, make amends and improve for the next year.”

The Pirates were led by Jordan Gorman (six goals, nine assists) and William Munoz's (pictured) nine goals and two assists this season.

[Photo by Hank Schellingerhout]
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Lady Pirates playoff bound

By Tony Lee On Tuesday, November 17, 2009 0 comments
After defeating Irvine Valley College due to a forfeit Friday (Nov. 13), the lady Pirates (14-5-1, 10-5-1 in the Orange Empire Conference) finished the season ranked 12th in the southern region with a 2.0425 power ranking.

This earned Coast a playoff spot and the lady Pirates will face the fifth-ranked Cypress College (16-3-2) Saturday in the first round of the playoffs.

Head women’s coach Kevin Smith said that one of the key wins that helped the lady Pirates to make it to the playoffs this season was the victory against Riverside Community College in the OEC opener on Sept. 15.

“To be honest with you, out of the bat, Riverside on the road, turned out to be a pretty big win,” Smith said of beating the 10th ranked team in the southern region.

However, Coast didn’t find the same success against OEC's top two teams, Santiago Canyon College (ranked first in the southern region) and Cypress, as the lady Pirates went 0-4 against them and was outscored 12-to-one in those games.

“We just have to find a way to beat Santiago and Cypress,” Smith said.

The lady Pirates will rely on Kallie Ryker (pictured), the No. 1 goal scorer in the OEC with 19 goals and eight assists, Taryn Bales (eight goals, 14 assists) and Laura Tishler (nine goals, six assists).

If Coast beats the Chargers Saturday (Nov. 21), the lady Pirates face the winner of fourth-ranked Moorpark College and 13th-rank San Diego Miramar College on Tuesday (Nov. 24).

[Photo by Hank Schellingerhout]
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It's Me, Tony Lee: Holley is the best ever at OCC

By Tony Lee On Sunday, November 15, 2009 0 comments
It’s hard to explain what Orange Coast College football player Ray Holley has that makes him the best running back our school has ever seen.

On Saturday, Holley, playing in his 10th game of the season and his fourth with a sprained medial collateral ligament (MCL), needed 252 yards to break the school’s single-season rushing record of 1,442 yards set by Jeff Clayton in 11 games.

The 5-foot-9-inch sophomore from El Modena High School knew what he needed to do and opted not to tape his knee so he wouldn’t have to think about the injury.

As a result, Holley played in arguably his best game at OCC, rushing for 266 yards and all five of the team’s touchdowns on Saturday and set the all-time record at 1,457 yards in a season.

“It feels great,” Holley said. “I worked for it, everyone else worked for it and they helped me get there. It was a great group of guys we played with and it was fun. I just wish that it would last another week.”

However, the Pirates did lose to Long Beach City College 42-38 and no one was more disappointed than Holley.

“It sucks to be a sophomore, come out and be this close to make it to a bowl game,” Holley said. “It just sucks to lose this way.”

But it’s not just the single-season rushing record that he’ll be known for.

“That kid’s got the most heart that I’ve ever seen,” said teammate Jimmy Keating after the 33-27 triple overtime victory against Santa Ana College on Oct. 10.

Holley sprained MCL on the Pirates’ first offensive possession in that game but played through the injury and finished with 42 carries for 191 yards and three touchdowns n the last being the game winning score.

That’s not just having heart. That’s having courage, determination and pride like no other athlete I’ve ever come across.

Ever.

He also puts on an eye-black before every game with the initial PIW — which stands for put in work.

“The guy’s a solider,” sophomore teammate Jimmy Keating said. “Put in work is his motto. He puts in the work everyday and no one wanted (Saturday’s game) more than him.”

Head coach Mike Taylor said that Holley not only puts his time in on the football field during practice, but he also studies films regularly and puts the effort in the weight room.

“Ray’s a great kid; I’ve said that from the get-go,” he said. “He’s a team kid, the team loves him, he’s got lots of energy (and) he practices hard.”

This season, Holley had 75 percent of the Pirates’ touchdowns, involved in 45.3 percent of plays of scrimmage and rushed for 311 times — almost 100 more times than the previous record holder Bart Recktenwald (216).

The stats and records he has set speak volumes about his football abilities but it’s what’s behind pads and the helmet that makes him truly stands out.

This season, he’s also showed all the Coast fans the expression of “leaving everything out on the field.” This season, he showed what it means to play through an injury.

Records are mean to be broken but I hope no one breaks the school records Holley’s set in 2009.

[Photo courtesy of Hank Schellingerhout]
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