Water Polo Goes Overboard on Its All-American List

You’ve heard of Everybody’s All-American. In water polo, everybody is an All-American.

Either that or San Diego had one heck of a year.

Including Matt Humphreys and Jonathon Johnson of Coronado, nine local players were named to the 1992 California Hawaii Water Polo All-American Team, and nine others received honorable mention.

The catch is that there were 10 11-member teams selected and 28 more made the honorable mention list.

Taking nothing away from say, 10th-team member Patrick Buchanan of Bishop’s, this is one All-American listing that is just a tad watered down.

For the record: Humphreys made the first team and Johnson the second. Valhalla’s Dennis Sutherland was named to the third team, Poway’s Matt Swanson to the fifth team, Poway’s Erik Opstad sixth, Fallbrook’s Jeff Peck seventh, Granite Hills’ Rhett Gaeir eighth, Monte Vista’s Tim Porter ninth and Buchanan 10th.

The honorable mention list included: Tim Ault (Valhalla), Dave Meyers (Coronado), Kevin Mossbarger (Vista), Mike O’Beirne (USDHS), Court Levy (Helix), Nathan Myers (Fallbrook), Nick Collingwood (El Capitan), Alexis Beck (Army-Navy) and Mike Morrill (Poway).

What drought?: Sticking with water sports, Thursday’s Southwest-Sweetwater girls’ basketball game was postponed because of rain and a subsequent leak in the roof of Sweetwater’s gym.

“We all determined the floor was too dangerous to play,” Sweetwater Coach Rich Ruppert said after puddles began forming in the fourth quarter of the junior varsity game.

Sound odd? Wait.

The game has been “tentatively” rescheduled for Wednesday at noon.

Sweetwater, a year-round school, has a minimum day on Wednesday.

Go ahead and jump: No doubt, a few area basketball coaches were relieved when organizers for the Sunkist Invitational indoor track and field meet decided on an all-Saturday format this year.

The meet is Feb. 15 in Los Angeles.

In the past, the meet also included events on Friday, and some athletes opted to skip their basketball games.

With the new format, athletes such as Lincoln’s Scott Hammond can jump for rebounds on Friday and for distance on Saturday.

The inevitable record: San Diego’s Joe Panian set a San Diego Section record for career shutouts with his 34th in a 2-0 victory over Crawford on Wednesday. The old mark was held by John Churchman of La Jolla from 1973-75.

Panian should have plenty of opportunities to boost his record. He is only a junior.

You are getting sleepy: Torrey Pines’ Craig Brown set a Section record Wednesday in the Falcons’ basketball victory over Fallbrook by making 13 of 13 field goals, including seven from three-point range. He finished with 33 points.

Upon learning this, Mt. Carmel Coach John Marincovich commented: “I’m going to have to get that hypnotist they have over there.”

Starting from scratch: In small schools such as La Jolla Country Day, rebuilding years are the norm rather than the exception. Still, the task facing Torres boys’ basketball Coach Bill Cahoone next year appears monumental.

There are eight players on this year’s varsity. All eight are seniors.

“We’re going to start from the bakery next year,” Cahoone said. “We’re going to have to raise some dough.”

In the meantime: Cahoone’s all-senior team is one of the favorites to win the Division V championship this year. LJCD (16-3) is averaging nearly 85 points per game and five Torres--Jason Boyle, Larry Cheng, Everett Alexander, Noah Katsell and Daniel Sparling--are averaging between 21 and 10 points per game.

Tough luck: Hoping to avoid an 18th consecutive loss, the Mt. Miguel girls’ basketball team had a one-point lead with three seconds left Friday, only to watch a 44% free-throw shooter beat them with two foul shots.

Granite Hills’ Brande Wray, who had already missed 10 of 17 free throws in the game and was shooting 44% for the year, made both shots in an one-and-one situation with three seconds left to lift the Eagles to a 37-36 victory.

Home sweet home?: Poway had played six of its previous seven games on the road before its 50-44 boys’ basketball loss to No. 1 Torrey Pines on Friday. It was Poway’s first home loss in two years.

Get those blindfolds out: The seventh San Diego slam dunk contest, the Mt. Carmel Slam-N-Jam, is at 7:30 p.m. March 20 at Mt. Carmel High. This event is open to all high school students but restricted to 40 participants. Interested athletes should contact their school’s basketball coach, athletic director or call the Mt. Carmel athletic department at 484-1180.