Mountain Views News          Saturday, October 9, 2010

15

SPORTS

 Mountain Views News Saturday, October 9, 2010 

Alverno XCountry Teams Split Wins With Sacred Heart

By Lara L. Larramendi

Strong finishes of first place by sophomore 
Eryn Blakely (19:35) and second place by 
senior Audrey Davy (20:45) along with tenth 
place by frosh Jessica Lopez (22:32), twentieth 
place by soph Ashley Haylett (23:51) and 
twenty-first place by frosh Francesca Rueda 
(24:02) were not enough for the Jaguar varsity 
cross country runners to overcome 3rd, 4th, 6th, 
7th, and 8th place finishes by Sacred Heart of 
Jesus runners. Senior Kelly Janzen finishing 
in 25th place (24:22) rounded out the varsity 
team.

The 28-54 loss in the second Horizon League 
meet hosted by Sacred Heart of Jesus at the 
wet and rugged 3 mile course at Griffith Park 
on Wednesday October 6th, has Alverno in 
2nd place in League standings behind Sacred 
Heart of Jesus. 

The Jaguar cross country JV runners bested 
Sacred Heart of Jesus JV by a score of 24-32. 
The top 5 runners, Adrianna Martinez (25:34 
– 3rd place), Sacha Rosemond (25:47 – 4th 
place), Miranda Akkari (26:06 – 5th place), 
Sahhara Assafiri (26:07 – 6th place) and Bella 
Daniels-Campos (26:32 – 8th place) lead the 
Horizon League JV standings with a 2-0 
record.

Rounding out the Jaguar JV runners were 
Devny Osuna, Reagan Dowd, Andrea 
Gochez-Wilson, Victoria Pintado, Madi 
Daniels-Campos and Nicolette Rodriguez.

Alverno’s next challenge will come from San 
Gabriel Mission High School, host of the 
Next Horizon League cross country meet on 
Wednesday, October 13th at Legg Lake. 

With Bobby Eldridge 
GOLF SWING BALANCE DRILL

There have been millions of words written about the golf 
swing. Balance seems to always get left out. I am going to 
explain to you today exactly what great balance in the golf 
swings means and how to attain it. 

If I can show you how to make a golf swing with balance 
your swing will be more fluid, you will make more solid 
impact with your shots and the ball will go further. There 
are two reasons why your golf swing is not in balace. The 
first reason is clubhead speed and the second is the direction 
you swing the golf club. Let’s start with direction first. 

When you swing the golf club it has to swing on an arc. The 
clubhead has to swing back on an arc and down on an arc. If 
the clubhead swings too much out to in (across your body) it 
will pull you off balance towards the golf ball. If you swing 
the golf club too much from in to out (under your body) it 
will throw you off balance and you will fall backwards away 
from the ball.

I have a drill that will help you learn proper balance. You 
have to start this drill out very slowly. 

The next time you 
are at the driving 
range take out a 7 
iron and tee up a 
golf ball. After you 
have addressed the 
golf ball, lift your 
left leg a couple of 
inches off of the 
groud. You have 
to balance yourself 
on the right leg, 
now I want you 
to make a swing. 
That in itself is 
very difficult to 
do the first time. 
You can start out 
by making tiny 
swings, chip shot 
swings. After you 
make some swings 
and hit a few shots, 
do the same thing 
with your right leg 
in the air.

This drill will 
teach you how to 
maintain proper balance in the golf swing. It is a fantastic 
drill for those of you that struggle with this part of your 
swing. After you hit 5 shots with your left leg off the ground 
and then 5 shots with the right leg off the ground you can hit 
5 shots with both feet on the ground. 

You see the first reason you lose your balance is because 
of the direction you swing the club, the second reason is 
clubhead speed. This drill teaches you how to swing the 
golf club in the correct direction with the proper speed. For 
better golf swing balance-hit practice shots on one leg.

Want to learn more? Go to: www.igolffixes.com


Alverno’s Eryn Blakely & Audrey Davy leading the pack of runners at Griffith 
Park course. Photo by Belle N’ Beau. 

GEM PLUMBING WINS BIG AT SIERRA MADRE OKTOBERFEST

Group Ties For First Place; Wins Pumpkin Challenge for 2nd Straight Year


Winners of the 6th Annual Oktoberfest Golf Tournament are: (from left to right) Team 1 - Gem Plumbing: Marty Martinez, Marc Van 
Cleave, Gary Cox, Joe Wuence, and Team 2: Fili Arizmendi, Maurice Montoya, Robert Romero, Rick Lane. Those who did not 
participate in the tournaments joined the players for lunch at the Senior Center. Photos courtesy City of Sierra Madre

 
GEM Plumbing of Sierra Madre tied as winners of the Annual Golf 
Tournament held on October 2nd to benefit youth programs for the 
City of Sierra Madre at their 6th Annual Oktoberfest. They also 
won, for the second year in a row, the Pumpkin Challenge between 
GEM and the Mountain Views News. The losers of that match must 
donate the pumpkins used by the Youth Activity Center for the 
Annual Halloween Pumpkin Carving Contest and decorations for 
the Costume Contest in Memorial Park.

 The GEM Team beat Mountain Views by 5 strokes and smaller 
margin than last year’s competition.

 Proceeds from the Oktoberfest, which included both a Golf and 
Tennis Tournament will support activites at the Youth Activity 
Center. The results of the Tennis Tournament were not available at 
press time.

 After the tournament, a luncheon was held at the Senior Center 
where tournament participants and guests enjoyed food prepared by 
Matt Denny’s. In the tradition of Oktoberfest, a German festival, 
there were also three types of beer served.

 The event was sponsored by the city’s Community and Personnel 
Services Department and the Community Services Commission.


That’s My Call ------- What is yours? by Guy Miali, Sports Writer

 Do you believe that there is too much emphasis on winning rather than learning in our youth sports? When growing up in southern 
California, I played a sport almost everyday - baseball, football, 
basketball and track. I played on the vacant lot which is now San 
Gabriel high school. From that vacant lot I moved on to playing 
baseball and football in high school, then college and finally I 
signed with Philadelphia to play professional baseball. 

 With my experience with many coaches over the years, I have 
come to the conclusion that in my younger years the coaches 
were determined to win, no matter the cost. I have watched many 
athletes with enormous amounts of talent quit before they were 
able to reach their goal and their careers came to an end. I have 
seen coaches chastise young athletes to the point where the boys 
or girls would not want to play anymore. I have seen coaches and 
parents yell and scream at our young players to the point that the 
children would cry.

 What do you believe that this adult behavior has on your 
young sensitive children? Does self esteem stop at sports? Or 
does it continue in their lives? Not all coaches and parents are 
like this, but there are a few of them that affect many young 
and impressionable lives. Sports are not as easy as it looks on 
television. It takes talent to bunt a baseball, to catch a pass while 
running with a defender on your hip, to sink a twenty-foot jump 
shot. Let’s give these young athletes some credit. Let’s give them 
encouragement, rather than, “How do you expect us to win if 
you cannot bunt the ball when I give you the bunt sign?” 

 Hand-eye coordination is something you have; it’s not 
something you learn. Some young athletes have better hand-eye 
coordination than other athletes. Encourage your child to have 
fun and enjoy the sport that s/he is playing. Kids that have fun 
playing a sport will become better at that sport. What’s more, 
they’ll have good memories when it’s their time – and their turn 
- to become a parent or a coach. 


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Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com