Lincoln Volleyball Team has Foreign Flavor

Lincoln’s volleyball players freely shout out their plays and instructions to each other, uncaring if opponents hear those directions. They probably couldn’t understand anyway.

There are only seven players on the team but five are from Laos. Another is from Thailand and the other is from Afghanistan. The coach, Paul Loozen, is from the Netherlands.

“It’s tough for me to interpret what they’re saying to each other when they’re on the court,” Loozen said. “On timeouts and game breaks, when they’re mad at each other, it’s a big problem. They’re yelling at each other in Lao and I have no idea what they’re saying to each other.

“In the heat of the battle, they’re more comfortable speaking in Lao, and every one of them understands it, except (Yamah) Mojadedi, who’s from Afghanistan. But being around them as much as he’s been, he’s starting to pick up some of the key phrases.”

The team also presents a problem for Loozen when he’s writing out the lineup. In addition to Mojadedi, there’s Fasazang Sengaloune, Anousa Chanthrathip, Aek-Panya Sengaloune, Khambao Soundara and Keo Manyvong, all from Laos. Apichart Suebsene is from Thailand.

“We run our plays in Lao,” Loozen said. “We don’t use hand signals much, except when we play Hoover.”

Hoover also is a melting pot of nationalities, with five Laotians, three Vietnamese, one Hispanic and two Americans.

But unlike Lincoln, Hoover players communicate in English while on the court.

Trivia time: Poway High on Saturday will try to win both boys’ and girls’ San Diego Section swim titles for the third consecutive year. Only one other program has accomplished the feat. Which one?

Making a switch: Ramona High’s Todd Tuggle separated and dislocated his right shoulder on the last day of football practice in the fall, but he didn’t let the injury get in the way of his baseball season.

Tuggle, a catcher, simply began throwing with his left arm and has done so all season, playing in the outfield and recently moving to first base. On Thursday, Tuggle made his return behind the plate and even threw out a Carlsbad runner at third base, a difficult throw for a left-hander.

Interestingly, the ambidextrous Tuggle was a quarterback on the football team his junior season and threw left-handed.

He has been accepted at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo and plans to walk on as a right-handed outfielder.

“He came out so late, he couldn’t lift his arm so he played right field,” Ramona Coach Bill Tamburrino said. “He could throw and catch. He’s our best outfielder, but he can’t throw right-handed yet.

“He can play. He’s a genuine player.”

Tuggle is batting .549 this season (28 for 51) with 15 RBIs and a home run.

Grabbing a bat: Vista High School’s baseball team is in first place in the Palomar League despite an interesting makeup.

The Panthers start three sophomores and a freshman and have a senior who plays part-time.

Jason Harrington, who missed Thursday’s big victory over third-ranked Poway, moonlights as a batboy for the Padres. When the major league team is in town, he misses his high school games and practice.

It didn’t matter to Coach Butch Smith early in the season, but that’s changed lately.

“It bothers me now that we’re in first place and we could use him,” Smith said. “It’s nice that he’s doing something he enjoys doing. At least it has something to do with baseball.”

Harrington is batting .347 with 16 RBIs in 15 games this season. He’ll be back in the lineup Thursday for the last game of the season, and the Padres will give him a few days off so he can participate in the playoffs.

Must have been the heat: In Desert League baseball action last Tuesday, Imperial defeated Holtville, 9-5. Nothing was strange about that and the victory clinched a tie for the league championship for Imperial.

It was the way Imperial won--and the way Holtville lost--that drove Imperial Coach Ian Kelly to say: “This was something. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game like this.”

Imperial scored nine runs on only two hits and one Holtville error.

Imperial’s offensive “star” was Omar Garcia, who walked three times, contributed a sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly, scored twice and drove in one.

Imperial benefited from 13 walks, a hit batter and a number of passed balls, Kelly said. And the opposing pitchers were a duo named Hoyt (Paul) and Valenzuela (Albert).

The outcome was only fair, Kelly said, “because the first time we played them, we made nine errors and they beat us 7-2.”

Holtville had 13 hits, but managed only five runs.

Trivia answer: Grossmont won the boys’ and girls’ swimming titles from 1973 to 1975.

Working overtime: Brandon Mudd had quite a week in the City Conference Match Play Championships at Torrey Pines South golf course. The Serra sophomore, seeded 24th in the tournament, worked overtime to finish in fourth place. He won his first three matches 1 up after 20 holes.

“You have a few playoffs that go to extra holes,” Serra Coach Joe Kovacevich said, “but for the same guy to do that three days in a row is kind of bizarre.”

He beat, in order, the Nos. 15, 8 and 6 seeds--Patrick Henry’s Gary Symington, USDHS’ Richard Bachofener and Point Loma’s Kevin Miller.

Mudd lost the next two days, though, to the 11th and 24th seeds, Kurt Wittkow of La Jolla and Chris Anselmo of Coronado.