Lashley Jumped at Opportunity

Kevin Lashley of North Hollywood discovered he was a triple jumper by accident.

He was preparing to board the team bus for a dual meet as a sophomore when his coach, Chris Trammell, asked if he could compete in the event.

“What is the triple jump?” Lashley said.

“I’ll show you when we get to the meet,” Trammell told him.

“He showed me,” Lashley said, “and I was a natural.”

Lashley has become one of the best triple jumpers in the state in his senior season. His improvement has been startling.

Before this spring, his best mark was 44 feet 5. In a dual meet against Sun Valley Poly on March 24, he jumped 47-9.

“I was shocked when I did it,” he said. “I had them check it at least three times.”

On April 8 at the Arcadia Invitational, he won the day portion of the meet with a career-best 48-1. In the evening, he placed third at 48-2. Two weeks ago at the Sunset Six League finals, he reached 48-4.

Tonight in the City Section championships at Lake Balboa Birmingham, Lashley will try to win the triple jump title and help North Hollywood contend for the team championship.

At 6-1 and 165 pounds, Lashley, who also started for the Huskies’ basketball team, seems to have found his niche.

“He has been the most successful athlete I’ve ever coached in the triple jump,” Trammell said. “And I don’t even think this year he’s still done with his best mark. He’s on fire and totally comfortable with his jumps.”

There are no doubts about what Lashley is capable of accomplishing.

“His jumps are, ‘Yes, you’re right, I can do this,’ ” Trammell said.

*

When he’s healthy, Jamere Holland of Woodland Hills Taft deserves the title of fastest teenager in America.

A strained hamstring muscle, however, has left people wondering how effective Holland will be running in the 100-meter City final.

But another Taft student is ready to emerge as a big-time athlete. Junior hurdler Jeshua Anderson, like Holland, is a receiver and defensive back for the Toreadors.

“He can make circus catches,” football Coach Troy Starr said.

Anderson is favored to win the 110 high and 300 intermediate hurdles and is expected to score points in the high jump and long jump.

*

Drew Housman, a former Calabasas basketball standout, averaged 10 points as a freshman starter for Harvard.

The big news, though, is that Housman has grown to 6 feet. As a freshman at Calabasas, he was a 5-3 starting point guard on varsity and so tiny that opposing fans would taunt him entering the gym.

“It’s cool,” he said of reaching 6 feet. “It doesn’t feel much different.”

Housman is returning to the Southland next month to play against players from USC, UCLA, Pepperdine and others in a college summer league at West L.A. College that runs from June 24 to Aug. 13.

His growth as a player should be inspirational for those who remember how far he has come.

*

For those who like power pitchers, Saturday’s City Championship baseball game at Dodger Stadium features two probable June draft picks: left-hander Fabian Williamson of Granada Hills Kennedy against right-hander Josh Ravin of Chatsworth.

Both are capable of reaching 90 mph on the radar gun, but they also have encountered occasional control problems. Avoiding walks could be the difference between victory and defeat. Williamson is dangerous at the plate, too. He had a two-run home run Tuesday in Kennedy’s 3-2 victory over Woodland Hills El Camino Real.

What’s remarkable is that Chatsworth juniors Mike Moustakas and Matt Dominguez and senior Oliver Padre will start for the third consecutive year in the City final. There are plenty of high school baseball players who never get to play at Dodger Stadium, let alone three times.

Dominguez homered in last year’s final. Only one player in City championship history has hit more than one home run at Dodger Stadium, and that was John Dolak of Palisades, with two in the 1985 City 3-A final.

*

Remember Danny Almonte, the Little League pitching phenom from the Bronx, N.Y., who was determined to be 14 instead of 12 in 2001?

Now he’s a 19-year-old senior at Monroe High in New York City and married to a 30-year-old hairstylist, according to the New York Daily News. He has been selected to play in the All-American Baseball Game June 7 at Albuquerque.