Villa Park Is Feeling Short-Handed

The Villa Park boys’ water polo team, or what’s left of it, will be joined by 31 other teams for today’s start of the Villa Park tournament.

The Spartans, ranked No. 10 by The Times, have been slowed recently by a number of setbacks to starters. Junior Steve Bruner is sidelined as he awaits a procedure to correct an irregular heartbeat. Senior Kyle Casagrande injured his ribs in a game against Mission Viejo last week, and senior Andy Tack is recovering from a knee injury sustained while attending a concert.

To make matters worse, most of the team has been passing around a virus. In a nonleague game Tuesday against visiting Huntington Beach Marina, the short-handed Spartans were defeated, 11-5.

“We’re struggling right now,” said assistant coach John Kulisich, in his 27th season at Villa Park. “Hopefully, by the end of the tournament, we’ll get two of the three players back.”

The Spartans (6-4) managed to win their first two games at last weekend’s South Coast tournament before losing their next three. One of the victories came over San Diego The Bishop’s, one of the top teams from the San Diego Section and seeded second for the Villa Park tournament. Lake Forest El Toro is the top-seeded team, Villa Park is seeded third and Carlsbad fourth.

The championship game is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Villa Park. In addition to Villa Park, games will be played at Placentia El Dorado, Aliso Niguel and Anaheim Esperanza highs.

Dan Arritt

*

Daniel Im of La Habra, James Lee of Indio, Amie Cochran of Torrance and Jane Park of Beaumont were named American Junior Golf Assn. All-Americans.

Im, The Times’ 2003 boys’ high school golfer of the year, won an AJGA tournament and had four top-10 finishes. Lee was a semifinalist at the U.S. Junior Amateur. Cochran had six top-10 finishes, including a victory.

Park, the U.S. Women’s Amateur runner-up, won once and finished second twice in AJGA tournaments. She also qualified for and made the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open.

Brian Harman of Savannah, Ga., and Paula Creamer of Pleasanton, Calif., were the players of the year.

Jennie Lee of Huntington Beach and Angela Park of Torrance were named second-team all-Americans.

Honorable mention went to Seung Su Han of Chino Hills, Anthony Kim of La Quinta, Sihwan Kim of La Mirada, Lucas Lee of Torrance, Garrett Sapp of Cerritos, David Yoon of Irvine, Esther Choe of La Quinta, Mayumi Kobayashi of Santa Monica, and Jennifer Tangtiphaiboontana of Long Beach.

-- Peter Yoon

*

A memorial fund has been established to help defray medical and funeral costs for the family of Hesperia Sultana volleyball player Karina Ledesma, who died Sept. 13, two days after falling ill while warming up for a match.

Sultana Activities Director Stan Clark said Ledesma, a junior, suffered a brain aneurysm and was in a coma for two days

For information about the memorial fund, contact Sun Country Bank in Apple Valley (760) 247-2010 or read about it on the White Lightning Volleyball Club’s Web site at https://wlvc.net/

-- Paul McLeod