Amid Sorrow, a Celebration of Life
Tears are falling from my eyes as I try to come to terms with the tragic death of Jim Toring, the former UCLA and Harvard-Westlake High water polo player.
On Saturday morning, in a steady drizzle, hundreds of people came to Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village for a service in memory of Toring, who died April 20, one week after being struck by a bus in Paris.
He was just 23. Why did his life have to end now? He had so much more to offer, not just in water polo but in teaching others about life itself.
“He was so full of it--life--that sometimes you’d mistake him for a 5-year-old,” his former roommate, Alex Yoffe, said.
I met him when he was a freshman prodigy at Harvard-Westlake in the fall of 1989. His water polo coach, Rich Corso, told me Toring would one day be the best in the nation. He was a prophet.
Toring made the U.S. national team as a high school senior in 1993. He led UCLA to NCAA championships in 1995 and 1996.
He was expected to be a key player for the U.S. national team in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
There were two home videos played Saturday, reminding everyone of Toring’s amazing smile. That infectious smile always made you feel like his friend even if you hardly knew him.
Toring was an international athlete. People who follow water polo knew of him in Hungary, Yugoslavia, Russia and Italy.
But he was “as American as apple pie,” Harvard-Westlake headmaster Thomas Hudnut reminded everyone in his eulogy.
Trying to understand life is difficult. I’m thankful for the words offered by Hudnut.
“What has brought us together today is not so much what happened at the end of Jim’s life but what he did during that life,” Hudnut said. “He worked hard. He pushed himself. He was kind, loving, affectionate and giving.
“These are lessons to take to heart. If each of us works a little harder, does a little better, loves more fully, cares more passionately and gives more deeply, then we would have profited from his example.”
Toring’s father, Hank, closed the memorial service by insisting, “I pronounce today a good day.”
He wanted everyone to celebrate his son’s life, not to mourn it.
And so I will.
I’ll remember him for what he was--one of the greatest athletes this region has produced and one of the nicest people you’d ever want to meet.
*
Opening on Monday at a high school near you is “Transfer Game V.” Some coaches think it’s scarier than “Scream 2.”
The state-wide experiment known as open enrollment is beginning its fifth year in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest in the nation.
Starting Monday, parents can apply to enroll their children at any school in the district, as long as there’s space available.
Once again, Taft High in Woodland Hills has the most openings among Valley schools--400. Next is Birmingham with 250, followed by San Fernando (200), Grant (200), Canoga Park (200), Monroe (150), Cleveland (130), Kennedy (100), Chatsworth (100), Reseda (100), Granada Hills (100), El Camino Real (75), Verdugo Hills (50) and Sylmar (20). If you want to transfer to Poly, North Hollywood or Van Nuys, forget it. There’s no room.
If more students apply than slots available, a lottery will be held the first week of June.
Open enrollment is supposed to be about choosing a school for academic reasons, but it has become much more. It’s an opportunity for parents to pick a specific high school for sports reasons.
In the City Section, it’s always entertaining to keep track of player movement. You need a flow chart. Football players end up transferring to Taft and Sylmar, baseball players to Kennedy and Chatsworth, basketball players to Cleveland, swimmers to Granada Hills, sportswriters to Birmingham.
That’s right--Birmingham has a journalism magnet program known for preparing the next generation of witty sports columnists.
Coaches don’t know whether to laugh or cry when a player they’ve spent months training decides to transfer.
Look what happened to Reseda High boys’ basketball coach David Enowitz. His team went 0-20 two seasons ago. He played a bunch of young players to get them experience. The Regents came back this season to make the 3-A playoffs. It was a real triumph. But after the season, sophomore Michael Brignac transferred to Westlake and sophomore Larry Knox transferred to Cleveland. They didn’t even wait for the City open enrollment period.
“It doesn’t mean I’m happy,” Enowitz said. “But I can accept it. It’s part of life in the ‘90s. In some ways, you think, ‘Why am I doing this?’ But then you have a lot of great kids who are loyal. It just makes me more determined to win anyway.”
Southern Section schools have already begun the open enrollment process. Two Simi Valley football players transferred to Royal. Hart is picking up the best incoming freshman running back in the Santa Clarita Valley in Tim Gregory, who lives in Valencia but will make the trip to Newhall.
Until the end of the summer, no one knows for sure who’s coming or who’s going. So let the transfer games begin. . . .
Last June, Mike Schultz, a pitcher from Cleveland High, was drafted in the ninth round by the Philadelphia Phillies. Thankfully, he decided to attend Loyola Marymount. He’s going to be a rich man in two years.
In his freshman season with the Lions, Schultz is 7-1 with a 5.74 earned-run average. Last week, he struck out a career-high 12 against Santa Clara. He’s 6 feet 7 and weighs 190 pounds, up 10 pounds from high school. “We only need about 30 more pounds,” said Loyola Marymount Coach Frank Cruz.
Schultz’s pitches have been clocked at a consistent 87 mph, reaching 90 mph on several occasions. He’s still only 18. There’s no telling how good he’ll be by the time he’s next eligible for the draft in 2000. “Yeah, he could be exciting,” Cruz said.
Schultz admits he had to adjust to college competition. “I came in and I guess you can say I was intimidated,” he said. “But I’m starting to get over that. One through nine, everybody hits the ball. In high school, there were a couple good hitters and I could throw it by them. Now you have to be a complete pitcher.”
Schultz will play this summer in Alaska. If he needs an agent in 2000, he can give me a call. . . .
Former Chatsworth High golfer Todd Golditch, a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania, helped the Quakers win their first Ivy League golf championship in 88 years. . . .
Rio Mesa junior pitcher Greg Ramirez has stamped himself as one of the region’s top college baseball prospects for 1999. . . .
After throwing a two-hitter to beat El Camino Real, 8-0, junior pitcher Mike Kunes of Chatsworth went home to celebrate by studying for a math analysis test with a tutor. It was a good decision. It’s going to help him land a scholarship to UCLA or USC in November.
*
Eric Sondheimer’s local column appears Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at (818) 772-3422.
