By
Tony Lee
On
Friday, September 11, 2009
Sophomores Rebecca Murray (left) and Melissa Mahi (right) were chosen as co-team captains by the coaching staff earlier this week.
“I think they’re well respected by all their teammates and, to my knowledge, there’s not anybody that dislikes them on the team. They both are in good standing academically - which also came into consideration,” head coach Mike Thornton said.
The lady Pirates will play its first game on Dec. 11 against Mt. San Jancito at 7 p.m. and will return home on Jan. 6 to play its first home OEC game against RCC at 7:30 p.m. 
Who is your celebrity crush and why?Murray: David Beckham because of his beautiful body and his tattoos.If you could have dinner with anyone dead or alive, who would it be and why?Mahi: I would say Ellen DeGeneres because she is hilarious – or Michael Jackson.Last time you cried during a movie and why?Murray: I have a last time I cried during a show. It was “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” I cry every time. What’s in your gym bag that’s weird or you don’t want people to know about?Mahi: I have my bathing suit just in case I don’t have class and I get to go to the beach.Do you think you deserve more playing time?Murray: No, because we haven’t got into the season yet, but it just depends on how you play individually in practice because how I practice is how I play in the game.What’s the weirdest thing in your room and why do you still have it?Mahi: I have a big portrait of myself – like a big poster. It was from high school, like those banners they put up on the gym wall. It’s really weird because people come into my room and like, “Are you conceited?”
What is your biggest pet peeve and why?Murray: People interrupting when I’m talking because it just cuts the flow off.LeBron or Kobe and why?Mahi: Oh man, that’s so easy. It’s LeBron – King James!Murray: Why? Please tell me.Mahi: I’m not a Kobe lover and LeBron is just a beast. LeBron James can just knock him down. Any day, LeBron James.Me: Then tell your Kobe argument?Murray: Kobe is just amazing. There’s no questions about it.Mahi: Overrated.Murray: No he’s not! MVP. What about that? MVP.Questions you want answered by athletes can be submitted to coastreportsports@gmail.com and I would add it in the hat.[Photos courtesy of Hank Schellingerhout]
By
Tony Lee
On
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
The lady Pirates are off to a good start by defeating Glendale College 25-5, 25-18 and 25-13 in its home and season opener today (Sept. 9) at the Peterson Gym.
Sophomore Briana Fields led the team with 12 kills and sophomore Poerava Gantt added 10 for the lady Pirates. Freshman setter Kimya Jafroudi had 24 assists and sophomore Nikki Osuna had 15 digs in the contest.
"Our energy was going good," Fields said. "We had some let downs in the second and third games but like the fact that our energy stayed up was good." In that second game, Coast trailed 2-1 and it was the only time the lady Pirates trailed in the day."Once you beat a team by 20, you kind of are just like, 'Eh' but we shouldn't have thought like that but they came back with some fire.After the lady Pirates tied it up at 7-7, Fields had one of her 12 kills to go up a point on Glendale and win the first match of the season."Nikki, our libero, played really well. So did Amanda (Cheseborough) and then the middles Kristin (Rice) and Alex (Mainini) did an awesome job today," Fields said.Coast (1-0) plays Friday (Sept. 11) at San Diego Mesa College and will return home Sept. 18 against Citrus College. Both games start at 6 p.m.Here are the live Twitter updates from the game. Follow OCC Sports Blog's twitter page (@OccSports).- Lady Pirates win in 3 sets - third being 25-13. Interviews and pics coming soon on the sports blog.
- Third set: Coast 15, Glendale 10 - only 10 more points for win.
- Set 2 was a lot closer but Coast still won 25-18. One more set for the lady Pirates' home and season opener.
- Second set: Coast 14, Glendale 9.
- Nikki Osuna just made a dig with her head! Coast wins 25-5 in the first set.
- Lady Pirates got the first 8 points to take an early 9-1 lead against Glendale.
- Starting lineups were announced and the Lady Pirates' first home game is all set to start!
- Women's volleyball plays its first home game today at 6 p.m. The game will be covered live via twitter. Hope to see everyone @ Peterson Gym.
By
Tony Lee
On
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
The lady Pirates are off to a good start by defeating Glendale College 25-5, 25-18 and 25-13 in its home and season opener today (Sept. 9) at the Peterson Gym.
Chuck Cutenese is the head women's volleyball coach at OCC and is in his 18th season.
Which team are you guys? The one that won by 20, 7 or 12?I think one of our strengths is that there are a lot of sophomores and they're really familiar. We're going surprise a lot of teams and that's what we did in the first game. But they were a little bit nervous, they settled down, we got a little complacent and the third game we picked it up; so right now, we're all three of those teams. Our goal is to be that first team - real focused and well disciplined.Name one thing you guys did good and one thing you guys did bad.I thought we served really well and I thought we need to tip and roll-shot better. It looks like you designed a lot of plays for Briana Fields. Is that a fair indication of how the season will go?Well it's not just Bri, but Bri's very explosive and jumps fast and quick. She's someone we gave the ball to a lot last year so no surprise we're doing that. We are much more evenly divided this year than last year. The rule of thumb is to set whoever has the hot hand. (Fields) was putting the ball away early so we kept giving her the ball.You've said the net work needs work for the team but it looks like the team played well in that aspect today.(Glendale) was setting up (No.) 2 and 11 a lot so it gave us more time to just key in on that. We weren't really challenged in that respect but we got some things at the net we need to work on.
By
Tony Lee
On
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Yours truly will be at the first women's volleyball home game Wednesday (Sept. 9) at 6 p.m. and reporting it live on twitter.com/OccSports.Tweets will include set scores and game commentaries and the OCC Sports Blog will have a Q & A session with the player of the game and head coach Chuck Cutenese.Good luck lady Pirates.
By
Tony Lee
On
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
The top story for the Coast Report's Sept. 9 issue is "Coast axes intersession offers" and talks about Orange Coast College cutting intersession to allocate funds elsewhere.
This will affect OCC's women's basketball program more than other Coast sports since basketball is the only one that plays both fall and spring.
"Usually half our team takes intersession classes so the kids that are sophomores, they expected to have an opportunity to pick up a transferable class in the intersession, but that's not there," head coach Mike Thornton said.But even for the fall semester, many sophomores might have to go to OCC one more year because they have trouble getting into classes required for transfering."There are a couple classes...one's a chemistry class, I think, and there are only one or two of those classes offered," Thornton said. "Even though they had an early registration appointment, they didn't get in."Thornton added the team relied on donations for their Rebounder's Club and advertisements for team media guides. The school printed out a couple hundred guides and any excess copies were to come out of the donations and advertisements. But that's not the case this year."The only way (budget cuts) have affected it is we have to pay for all the printing," Thornton said. The budget cuts have hurt the lady Pirates on the court too."We had to cut back four games from our schedule, from 28 games to 24 games," he said.Thornton's team will play in five tournaments this year to try to make up the lost games. If the lady Pirates play in the maximum amount of games possible at the tournaments, they will play more than 28 games. Budget cuts have affected other Coast teams similarly also and this is just one exampleDuring the summer, Coast's Communications Director Jeff Hobbs said “I don’t think the programs themselves are going to see any drastic cuts as of now, but that could change."Well, at least they didn't axe one of the 21 sports program instead, but if how the women's basketball team is affected is a foreshadowing of things to come, I have a feeling I might be reporting a bigger story sooner than later.
[Photo courtesy of CartoonStock.com]
By
Tony Lee
On
Friday, September 04, 2009
Meet a Pirate is a new standing feature on the OCC Sports Blog.
This is just like the Q and A feature but with a twist.
The athlete will pick seven random questions out of 30 or so pre-written questions out of a hat. Some of these are sports related, some are personal, some are meant to be comical. No matter what the question, an athlete has to answer it truthfully.
The first athlete for this feature is women's soccer player Lara "Tish" Tishler. She is a sophomore midfielder from Fountain Valley High School who had two goals and an assist in the season opener against Rio Hondo on Aug. 28. 
Do you have any superstitions and why do you have or not have it?I always have to french braid my hair when I play soccer and my electric tape for my shin guards have to be taped the same way. Sometimes I have OCD a little and so my tape has to be pretty straight and same on both sides and I've just kept it that way. And the braid, I tried it out and had a good game with the braid in and kept it that way ever since.Do you have any guilty pleasures?Probably eating ice cream and cookie dough. My biggest thing is not making cookies when I have cookie dough. I'll end up eating those big jars of cookie dough and not making any of it. What’s the most stressful thing that’s ever happened to you at OCC and why?This first week right now has been really stressful. I got dropped out of two of my classes and one of mine was changed to something else - they changed the time on it - and I'm having to petition for three classes right now. What's the weirdest thing in your room and why do you have it?I have a bunch of dried out leis and flower laid out in my room. I have a branch/twig head wrap thing sitting in my room.Do you think you deserve more playing time or why do you deserve or not deserve it?I think I play a pretty good amount. I wouldn't mind playing a whole game, that wouldn't be to bad. I think I deserve it too. I work pretty hard out here, come to every practice, put forth a lot of effort on and off the field.
How many hours a day do you spend on Facebook, Myspace and/or Twitter and what else should you usually be doing instead?I probably take half an hour to an hour a day, maybe. I don't really go on the computer that often. Instead I should be probably doing homework or something or go outside. I hate being stuck inside.Complete this statement: If my coaches found out that I... they’d probably kill me.I didn't tell my coach this but I was in a cast for a week and I took it off early. I was supposed to have it for two weeks and I didn't say anything. It's perfectly fine now but I did take it off a week early.Questions you want answered by athletes can be submitted to coastreportsports@gmail.com and I would add it in the hat.[Photo by Tony Lee]
By
Tony Lee
On
Friday, September 04, 2009
The lady Pirates will host an alumni volleyball scrimmage today (Sept. 4) at the Peterson Gym at 6 p.m.Yours truly will be in attendance and attempt to take some volleyball action photos for the blog. Photos will be uploaded later tonight.EDITThe 2009 lady Pirates defeated the Pirate alumni in four sets today as the prepare for the season opener on Wednesday (Sept. 9).All the results of this alumni game will be available in the first Coast Report issue of the fall semester.The pictures below are of the 2009 lady Pirates. Head coach Chuck Cutenese is the man in the bluish-purple shirt. 
[Photos by Tony Lee]
By
Tony Lee
On
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Athletes are just like any other students at Orange Coast College. They too need a syllabus, petition for classes and follow school rules to be at school.An orientation for the Coast athletes were held today (Sept. 2) at the Peterson Gym for a class meeting of sorts - where OCC's Athletics Director Barbara Bond talked about athletes having to take a minimum of 12-units to be eligible, the H1N1 virus, what not to post online and expected behavior during games or matches.But it wasn't just about requirements. Everyone in attendance got treated to a show by Coast's national champion cheer and dance team and got free food and drinks afterward. One of the key points that stuck out at the meeting was that Bond said you should not drop a class unless you are certain you can add on another class.She said that it will be harder to add on a class for next semester (maybe a foreshadowing of the effects of the budget cuts) and if you do not have 12-units, you cannot play your sport.Another interesting point was the do-not-post-something-online-you-might-regret bit, and I have to agree. The last thing I want to do is post about some OCC sports scandal on this blog.
Bond also introduced key staff and administrative members involved in OCC athletics, including new interim president Denise Whittaker (pictured holding mic).It was an informative and entertaining orientation today.And it also made me realize there are a lot of athletes in our school.It looks like I'm going to have a busy semester, and I'm loving it.[Photos by Tony Lee]
By
Tony Lee
On
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
OCC's 2009 State baseball championship team were one of the many teams honored at the Salute to Champions Night at Angels Stadium Friday (Aug. 28).
Prior to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim vs. Oakland Athletics baseball game, any team that's won a state, national or world baseball championship was allowed to parade on the field at 6:30 p.m.
To read about the dramatic season the Pirates had in 2009, click here.
And when you win a state championship, you get a big, fat championship ring to celebrate and remember the moment forever.
This is head baseball coach John Altobelli's hand and ring. The bracelet with "J Wat #22" on it is for teammate Jourdan Watanabe, who died at the start of the season.
Click here to read the coverage of Watanabe's candlelight vigil.
The rings also has the engraving "Forever a Pirate, J Watt 22" on the side. Today (Sept. 2), I had the honor of holding Altobelli's ring myself.The picture doesn't do it justice - it is massive, fancy and perfect for the occasion. Once again, congratulations and hope we bring another state title to Coast in 2010.[Photo courtesty of Keri Altobelli]
By
Tony Lee
On
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
The men's soccer team played its first preseason game before the 2009 fall semester at home and lost 3-1 to Rio Hondo College on Aug. 27.I'd write a summary myself but OCC's Sports Information Director Tony Altobelli beat me to it. [Click here to read the game recap] After talking to head coach Laird Hayes at practice on Monday (Aug. 31), he said Toshi Fujimura, an all-Orange Empire Conference player in 2008, will not play for the Pirates in the fall because he did not pass a three-unit online class to be academically eligible.He added the team still has depth and can be competitive despite losing Fujimura.The Pirates will play its second home game today (Sept. 1) against San Diego Mesa College at 4 p.m.Results of the SD Mesa game will be posted later on the blog today.EDITThe Pirates are back on top, as the men's soccer team defeated visiting San Diego Mesa College 2-1 Tuesday at the OCC Soccer Complex.I was also taking some pictures of Tuesday's game and will have those up in the near future. To read the game summary written by Altobelli, click here.[Photo by Tony Lee]
By
Tony Lee
On
Monday, August 31, 2009
Today (Aug. 31) was the first day of the 2009 fall semester at Orange Coast College and I'm excited to report to you that the sports season has begun.To my delight, I found out today that the men's and women's soccer teams already played its first games, all the fall 2009 sports are ready for the season and we have multiple aspiring sports writers on the Coast Report staff.[Click here to see how the men's soccer team played in its first match]This means more sports coverage for you guys and more dedicated time on the OCC Sports Blog from me.The year has already started I'm optimistic this will be the best sports coverage OCC has ever had in its history - and yes, you can quote me on that.I can't wait to reveal my "It's Me, Tony Lee" column on Sept. 9 and the rest of the upcoming stories for the 2009 fall semester. Make sure to follow the blog's Twitter account (@OccSports) to stay updated throughout the year.
[Photo courtesy of kellsmurthwaite.wordpress.com]
By
Tony Lee
On
Saturday, August 15, 2009
The men's basketball team will start its season by going away for the Ventura Tournament on Nov. 5-7.The Pirates' first home game, held at Peterson Gym, will be on Nov. 12 against Moorpark College at 7:30 p.m.Its first home Orange Empire Conference game will be on Jan. 6 against Riverside Community College at 5:30 p.m.As reported earlier, head coach Steve Spencer said "I don’t guarantee somebody who’s on the team last year that they’re going to be on the team.”But I have a feeling sophomore Martin Whitmore (right), who led the Pirates with 15.4 points and 5.7 rebounds per game last year, will lace-up for Spencer for 2009-10.For the entire men's schedule, click here.
On the other hand, the women's head coach Mike Thornton said in an earlier report that he almost has his roster set already and will have more of a practice, rather than tryouts, during the summer.One of the returners will be sophomore starter Jenna Lujan (left). In 32 games, she averaged 6.7 points and 6.2 rebounds per game.Thornton's team start off the season at the Santa Barbara Tournament on Nov. 13-15.The lady Pirates' first home game is on Dec. 11 against Mt. San Jancito at 7 p.m. and will return home on Jan. 6 to play its first home OEC game against RCC at 7:30 p.m. For the entire women's schedule, click here.[Photos by Hank Schellingerhout]
Who is your celebrity crush and why?
