Notebook / Ray Ripton : Beverly Hills Youth Soccer Coach Takes Team to Country He Fled

Edmund Mandel of Beverly Hills will be returning to Hungary in June for the eighth time since he fled his native land after the 1956 revolution. But this is the first time he’ll be bringing a soccer team with him.

Mandel, 62, owner and president of a food processing plant, said he will visit his sister, Irene Siklos, in Budapest. But he also plans to show his Beverly Hills team of 12- and 13-year-old boys “what real soccer is.”

His team, the U.S.A. Rangers, won the championship of its division this year in Region 76 of the American Youth Soccer Organization, he said, and the Rangers will play three games with Hungarian teams in the same age group, two in Budapest and one in a suburb.

Mandel said he has coached AYSO teams in Beverly Hills for 10 years, that five have won division championships and that one won an area title in 1983. He said four have reached the area finals and that this year his Rangers won two area playoff games before losing in the finals to Culver City. The Rangers’ record was 12-1-2, he said.

He said he thinks this will be the first time that an American youth soccer team has toured Hungary.

The games are scheduled June 27 and July 8 and 9, Mandel said, and the trip is being financed through donations from parents of his players and by the boys, who have sold candy and have been involved in other fund-raising activities.

He said his players are “super excited” about the trip and that he thinks they will give a good account of themselves. A former soccer player in Hungary (“in Division II”), Mandel said that the Hungarian youths may play a stronger game but that the Rangers won’t be going there to lose.

“We will do our best,” he said, “and we will give them a difficult time.”

Rangers who are prepared to do so are David Brown, Brad Burstin, Gregg Colvin, Tony Croll, Lee Egerman, Jason Friedman, Brad Harris, Marty Holly, Steven Kilmann, David Kim, Yonah Kliger, Joey Mani and Josh Schechter.

Two Loyola Marymount University baseball players from Culver City, sophomore catcher Jim McAnany and junior pitcher Tim Layana, had strong years for the Lions this past season.

McAnany slugged eight home runs to tie for the club lead with freshman second baseman Chris Donnels, batted .298, drove in 37 runs and was rated an excellent catcher.

Layana posted an 8-8 record (5-3 in the West Coast Athletic Conference) and had 107 strikeouts in 123 innings, three short of the school record of 110 set by Rod Volk. He made 25 appearances and completed eight of 13 starts.

McAnany and Layana graduated from Loyola High School.