High Life. A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : Shopping for Talent at Ralphs Tourney

Five thousand high school musicians will once again fill Santa Ana Stadium on Saturday during the 19th annual Ralphs Southern California School Band and Orchestra Assn. Tournament of Champions.

Those teen-agers are expected to be cheered on by 5,000 parents and band boosters, all anticipating the naming of the 1992 Grand Champion High School Marching Band of Southern California.

The tournament annually culminates a season of competitions throughout the Southland during the months of October and November. The 1992 competition will feature 24 of the area’s top high school marching bands competing in band review and field competition.

The band review takes place at 8:30 a.m. on Raitt Street between Adams Street and Segerstrom Avenue, immediately prior to the Times Orange County Holiday Parade (to be held this year in the South Coast Plaza Village vicinity).

The Top 16 bands then march in the holiday parade, which begins at 9:30 a.m. The new route is on Bristol Street beginning at Alton Avenue and concluding on Sunflower Avenue at Plaza Drive.

The field competitions begin at noon in Santa Ana Stadium. The Ralphs Tournament of Champions concludes with awards and a grand finale at 9 p.m.

This year, county marching bands competing are from Cypress, El Dorado, Fountain Valley, Loara, Magnolia, Mater Dei, Savanna and Valencia high schools.

Donkeys recently helped to kick off the St. Margaret’s High School basketball season in the Tartans’ gym in San Juan Capistrano.

St. Margaret’s defeated cross-town rival Capistrano Valley Christian, 12-10, in a game of donkey basketball co-sponsored by the schools’ booster clubs as an athletic fund-raiser.

The primary rule governing donkey basketball is that a person must be on a donkey when shooting or passing. The greatest challenge for most riders was hopping aboard, especially while holding onto the ball with one hand and the donkey’s lead line with the other.

Jennifer Farley, St. Margaret’s college counselor, described the experience as “a combination of tackle football and horseback riding.”

--Brooke Lyons,

St. Margaret’s

“When down in the mouth, remember Jonah. He came out all right.”

--Thomas Edison (1847-1931)