Area Roundup

Kevin Higgins of Tustin, an All-American outside center for the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo rugby team, was recently selected to play with the United States Eagles, a national Olympic-level rugby team, during its current tour of Japan.

Higgins is a graduate of Mater Dei High School, where he competed in football and track. He was the only college player chosen by the Eagles. He has previously played on the international level, accompanying the Pacific Coast Grizzlies to New Zealand last summer.

The Eagles left last week for the month-long trip, which includes six matches and concludes with a contest against the Japanese National Select Side.

The Orange County Greyhounds basketball team recently won the upper division championship of the 24-team National Half Court Seniors Basketball tournament at Sonoma State University.

The Greyhounds have won the title for players over 35 years of age two years in a row. This year they beat San Jose Teachers in the championship game.

The members of the team, which went undefeated in the six tournament games, include Bob Hamblin, 53, of Fullerton, James Hatchett, 44, of Fullerton, Ben Marumoto, 46, of Fullerton and Don Sims, 41, of Riverside.

Hamblin, a physical education teacher at Kramer Junior High School in Placentia, is a former All-American from Chapman College. In 1982, he was named to the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame.

Hamblin coached basketball at Valencia High School, where Sims was one of his players. Sims, now a teacher in Riverside, played basketball and football at Fullerton College in the 1960s.

Hatchett, a county probation officer and former Cal State Fullerton basketball player in the early ‘60s, was the key to the Greyhounds’ defense at the senior tournament. He was a member of the Orange State team that won the 1962 state championship for small colleges, and went on to the quarterfinals of the national championships.

Marumoto is a Brea optometrist who coaches three teams in the Southern California Asian Basketball League.