December 21 and 22 - Congratulations to the sportsmanship champions at  the 6th Annual Beverly Hills Sportsmanship Cup  - click in the left hand column for pictures of the teams

	Boys	Girls
U14	Palos Verdes (Bill Whalen)	Burbank (Ruben Mendoza)
U12	Huntington Beach (Tim McDonald)	1st place:  Woodland Hills (Scott Benton) Runner-up: Moorpark (German Valdivia)
U10	Beverly Hills (Brian Ashkenazi)	Moorpark (Norman Lew)
Almost every team achieved a high score and everyone had fun in the mud!

December 15 - Congratulations to the league champion teams for 2002.  All of them move on to the Area 1-P League Champions tournament.
BU14 - coach Saul Rosoff
GU14 - coach Michael Winegred
BU12 - coach Gerald Maestu
GU12 - coach Hadi Badrakhan

November 29-30 - CONGRATULATIONS too to the BU12 All Star team, which placed 1st out of 16 teams at the Cerritos Thanksgiving Tournament and was awarded the tournament's sportsmanship award!  See a picture of the team

November 23-24 CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR UPPER DIVISION TEAMS WHO PLACED IN THE AREA PLAYOFFS the weekend of November 16 and 17.  BU19 (Minars) finished 3rd, the two GU19 teams finished 2nd (Karlin) and 4th (Sun) and the two GU16 teams finished 6th (Willmer/Trangsrud) and 7th (Woods).  Michael Karlin's GU19 team went to the Section 1 playoffs on November 23 and 24, won its playoff pool and finished 3rd overall with an exciting 3-1 victory on Sunday afternoon.  See the pictures.

October 20 - Congratulations to the LA Galaxy, winners of the 2002 MLS Cup in Foxboro, Massachusetts, where they defeated the New England Revolution 1-0 with a golden goal from season MVP Carlos Ruiz.

September 24 - The Ann Nickoll Walkway at Beverly Hills High School was dedicated on September 24 - many AYSO families purchased the bricks and stones of the Walkway, which enabled us to light Beverly Hills High School's athletic fields - and our region also contributed $40,000, making us the largest single contributor.

July 9 - 14 - GU19 (Michael Karlin & AJ Willmer); GU14 (Jeff Pop) and BU12 (Jean-Jacques Elbaz and Justin Greenberg) participate in the AYSO National Games in Hawaii.  GU14 reaches the quarterfinals.  Read Michael's GU19 diary - with stories, pictures of all three teams, player quotes and even poetry.

May 11-12 - GU16 wins its bracket at the Camarillo Strawberry Cup.

March 16-17 - A good weekend at the Thousand Oaks Pot O'Gold.  GU16 won its bracket, GU14 finished 2nd (on goal difference) and GU19 finished 4th and scored 8 goals in 4 games.

March 9-10  - Congratulations to the GU14 All Star team, coached by Michael Karlin, assisted by Rachel Rosoff, Jeff Pop and Jeff Sundy, won their group in the Section playoffs at Riverside and finished fourth in the Section, the highest finish by a Beverly Hills girls' team since we have records (1994-5)

March 5 - Measure K, the $90 million bond issue to make improvements to Beverly Hills schools endorsed by the Regional Board, passed on March 5 with an overwhelming 79% of the vote .  The bond includes significant funding for improvements to playgrounds and athletic fields at all five public schools.

March 2-3 - Congratulations to Jeff Sundy and his GU14 league team, which participated in the Section playoffs in Riverside on March 2, winning all three of its pool games (2-1, 2-1, 3-0).  Despite losing a star player to pneumonia, it still managed to win 3rd place the next day.

February 10 - Several new board members or changes of position.  Dr. Scott Karlan is the new Child & Volunteer Protection Advocate.  Bruce Nii takes over as Referee Administrator.  Mike Clark adds uniforms to his responsibilities.  Joan Cashel is the co-director of Girls U8 and Carla Derhy is the new co-director for tournament teams.  David Nik takes over as division director for Boys U19 and U16.  On March 12, the board approved Melissa Krantz as Assistant Registrar and Registrar-designate. She will take over from Sharel Rolnick after the 2002 season. 

February 2 - We host an Area-wide clinic for AYSO coaches, featuring Jason Kelly, a leading club coach.

January 20 - Congratulations to the GU14 All Star team, winners of the Area 1-P All Star tournament on January 20.  The girls, coached by Michael Karlin, assisted by Rachel Rosoff, Jeff Pop and Jeff Sundy, scored 18 goals in 7 games and allowed just 4.  They shut out Santa Monica 1-0 in the semifinal and Pacific Palisades 2-0 in the final.  The team now goes to the Section playoffs in Riverside on March 9.

Congratulations too to Jeff Sundy and his GU14 league team, which came second in the Area League Champions tournament - losing just 2-1 to Santa Monica in the final (and having a goal disallowed, too).  The team advances to Section play in Riverside on March 2 as a wild card.

January 8- The Regional Board endorses Measure K, the $90 million bond issue to make improvements to Beverly Hills schools.  The bond includes significant funding for improvements to playing fields at all five schools.

2001

 

September 30  - The Area 1-P Goalkeeping Clinic was held at Westwood Park.  This was a clinic for U14, U16 and U19 keepers and coaches. Thanks to our great guest coach, Mike Page.

September 15/16 - Games will be played this weekend - read our board's letter

Summer 2001 - AYSO and many AYSO parents supported Lights! Fields! Action! the AYSO Region 76-sponsored campaign to double the number of lit fields in Beverly Hills by lighting the two fields at the High School.  Read Commissioner Lance Roth's letter to the region.  The lights were switched on on September 21.

March 1 - Lance Roth takes over as Regional Commissioner

2000

December 16 and 17-Congratulations to the sportsmanship champions at  the 4th Annual Beverly Hills Sportsmanship Cup

	Boys	Girls
U14	Agoura-Westlake - Mike Rivas	Wilshire - Claudio Sapir (and our sympathies to coach Robert Eisele, prevented by a family bereavement from coaching the team)
U12	Beverly Hills - Jean-Jacques Elbaz	San Bernardino - Dexter Thomas
U10	Beverly Hills - Tony Smith	Co-Champions: Palmdale - Ken Burgett Thousand Oaks - Jim Hoehn

September 30 - Fatima Dhalla is our new director of our junior referee program.

August 4 - Michael Karlin's article on whether youth sports have become too competitive is printed by the Beverly Hills Weekly.

August 3 - We ran a very successful summer soccer conditioning program for incoming freshman and sophomore girls at Beverly Hills High School - six weeks of soccer and speed and fitness training.  We'll leave information about the program up for a while.

July 3 - 9 - Jeff Pop's GU12 team competed in the AYSO National Games in Albuquerque, New Mexico (which Beverly Hills won in 1996)

March 25/6 - Junior referee Rahmin Buckman, a junior at Beverly Hills High School, was a member of the winning 3-referee team at San Juan Capistrano tournament

March 1 - Cliff Bochner takes over as Regional Commissioner

February 22 - Presentation to Beverly Hills Recreation & Parks Commission

February 21- GU16 team prevails at Riverside

February 1 - City Council honors retiring Regional Commissioner Michael Karlin and seven champion team

March 25/6, 2000  Results of the 4th annual Section 11 PRO (youth referee) competition 2000 in San Juan Capistrano are shown below. Teams from Area 1-P, of which Beverly Hills is a part, took three of the top four places in the most prestigious youth referee competition in Southern California.  Beverly Hills High School junior Rahmin Buckman was part of the team that took first place!  Congratulations, Rahmin!

1st place - Sam Milder & Cameron Pazirandeh (Palisades) and Rahmin Buckman (Beverly Hills). Thanks to Mike Milder for coordinating this team!

3rd place - Ian Rubinstein, Rafa Portgues & Jeremy Kutner (Santa Monica)

4th place  - Eli Marias, Alex Quick, & Matt Brewer (Santa Monica)

March 1, 2000 Cliff Bochner's term as Regional Commissioner begins on this date.  He succeeds Retiring Commissioner Michael Karlin.

February 22, 2000 Michael Karlin made a presentation about AYSO Region 76 to the City of Beverly Hills Recreation & Parks Commission.  You can view the presentation here.

February 21, 2000.  10 Beverly Hills teams participated in the Riverside Locomotion.  4 teams made it to Monday semi-final play (GU16, GU14 and BU12) and the GU16, coached by Selo Imrohoroglu and Michael Sun, won their section of the tournament - congratulations! 

February 1.  The Beverly Hills City Council opened its meeting on February 1 with 70 young players and their proud parents and coaches being honored for their achievements during the regular season.  Click here for a picture.  The Council also presented a proclamation honoring retiring commissioner Michael Karlin for his service to youth sports in Beverly Hills.

1999

December 19 Third Annual Sportsmanship Cup - a huge success

December 12 League Champions in U12 and U14

November 3 Friends of AYSO elected to School Board

October 3 Picture Day

March 14 Steve Jolley of the LA Galaxy/UCLA Women's team visit BH Farmer's Market

December 19.  Congratulations to all 57 teams who participated in the 1999 Beverly Hills Sportsmanship Cup - an AYSO Invitational Tournament with a difference. Sponsored by Niketown Los Angeles. Here are the teams who won medals:

GU10	Thousand Oaks	Coach Harriet Osinski
BU10	Santa Monica	Coach Nikki Edwards
GU12	Palos Verdes	Coach Ray Polin
BU12	Palos Verdes	Coach Eric Eastland
GU14	Van Nuys Sherman Oaks	Coach Lynda Pearl
BU14	Canyon Country	Coach Gary Smith

Every team scored very well and in a couple of cases, the winner was decided by a single point. Well done to all of you!

And a huge vote of thanks to the Region 76 volunteers who made it happen, including Patty Barnes, Jane Courtland, Cari Kuprenas, Fiona Karlin, Terry Leuin, Lance Roth, Scott, Patti and Kelli Serden, Michael Sun, AJ Willmer (9 games as an AR in two days), David Zarider, the GU14 goody bag crew, the field monitor crews from every BH team, Wylie Drummond and Region 78 for arranging the loan of Los Angeles High School, Rita Baumer for arranging the loan of Rancho Park and the many referees from all over Southern California and Niketown for arranging a visit by Los Angeles Galaxy star Danny Pena. A special hello of to Martin Garcia and Gary and Nancy Nelson. Guys and girbsp; Congratulations to Joel Prell (BU14), Gary Youngman (GU14), Kirk Velazc members of the nationa team. Thanks to our friends Mike Page at the Galaxy and UCLA coach Todd Saldana for arranging this and to Region 76 alumna (and UCLA graduating senior star) Louise Lieberman for her participation..

1998

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1998

November 8.   Congratulations to our GU19 team, coached by Michael Sun.  They are the winners of the Under 19 Area championships, having beaten the favored Wilshire team 3 - 1 rather handily.  Our Boys U19 team, coached by Bo Storch and assisted by Jeff Epstein, reached the final and, although their LA Central opponents were worthy winners (5-0), the game was close in the first half and was always played well and competitively.   Both teams moved on to the Section playoffs.  Congratulations to all.

October 30.   Lights at the High School - if only for a football game!  AYSO has pledged $40,000 to support the installation of permanent lights at BHHS and thanks to Musco Sports Lighting, temporary lights illuminated the Homecoming football game against Culver City.  On October 27, the BH Recreation and Parks Commission OK'd temporary lights at Roxbury Park for the Sportsmanship Cup.

September 27.  The U.S. National Team goalkeeper coach, Milutin (Shole) Soskic, appeared at a goalkeeper clinic for U19, U16 and U14s and for U12s.  What a thrill for our aspiring goalkeepers.

August 2.  We are proud to announce that the second Beverly Hills Sportsmanship Cup will take place on December 19 - 21.  Last year, the cup attracted 50 teams from all over Southern California and we hope to see as many again this year.  The Cup will take place over a single long weekend, with girls playing Saturday and Sunday December 19 and 20 and boys playing Sunday and Monday December 20 and 21.

  May 17.  See our April 25 newletter for information abouttickets to the Major League Soccer final on October 25, 1998 and the Womenn's World Cup in June and July 1999 (final at the Rose Bowl on July 10, 1999 - there is priority ticketing for AYSO families until June 1).

April 16.  Colleen Knerr will be running our junior referee program this season as its coordinator.   This is a new position.  Colleen is mother of two boys who play, David and Michael and she is herself a referee.  You can read about the program in Santa Monica on which we will be basing our program.   Welcome Colleen.  We'll have more news on this program later this spring.

  On March 10, Beverly Hills City Council elected Vice Mayor Les Bronte to be the Mayor of the City for a one-year term.  Les spelled out his vision for the City, which, for the soccer families served by AYSO, includes the development of a new sports complex at a site purchased from Pacific Gas & Electric.  The site would have room for a full sized soccer field.  No date yet set for the project to get started.

  David Zarider Rides Again.  Co-coach of the illustrious Boys 4 team last year, he coached the Boys 5 All Star team to the Area 1/P championship, despite the team finishing fourth in pool play.  But soccer being a game of miracles, the team beat a strong Culver City team in the semi-finals 1-0 and, after third-placed Santa Monica defeated second-placed LA Central in the other semi-final, the two teams met in the final.  Under threatening skies at Paul Revere Junior High School, and with fields amazingly drained after a night of pounding rain, the boys won comfortably 2-0.  The following weekend, they went to the Riverside Locomotion tournament (perhaps the best run tournament in Southern California) and won it all, allowing no goals at all in six games.   A picture to follow.  At the Sectional tournament, they won one game and lost another, their run in that tournament coming to a glorious end.

  In glorious conditions on January 2 and glorious conditions (except at swampy Roxbury) on January 3, we hosted the Sportsmanship Cup for boys in Divisions 3, 4 and 5, with 26 teams from 14 different regions, from Ojai to Corona to Newport Beach.  Except fot the loss of nine games in Boys 5 to field conditions, the tournament was just a repeat of the week before, with an enormous amount of fun and friendship mixed with lively competition.   A tribute to the volunteers will follow, when your website editor gets his breath back.

1997

November 8	A list of our select team coaches can be found on the All Star page; GU19 wins the Area and BU19 comes in second
October 30	Lights at the High School - if only for a football game.  Coming soon - an experiment at Roxbury Park
September 27	US National Team goalkeeper coach Milutin (Shole) Soskic appears at goalkeeper clinic.
August 2	Announcing the 1998 Beverly Hills Sportsmanship Cup
May 17	Information on MLS Cup final game at Rose Bowl on Sunday October 25, including special ticket  prices  was made available.  So is information on tickets to the Women's World Cup in 1999.
April 16	Colleen Knerr will run our junior referee program.
March 10	New Mayor Les Bronte announces sports complex project.
February 8	Zarider Rides Again - Boys 5 Win the Area and then the Riverside Locomotion
January 2 and 3

December 27/8	The Sportsmanship Cup for Girls - Fun for All! Winners Posted
December 14	League championships results posted below
November 24	UCLA tournament times posted on separate UCLA page
November 5	Karen Barrett Goldenberg Uniforms Coordinator
October 8	Winners of the Power Kick contest
October 5	A brand new registration system for 1998
October 5	Picture Day 1997 - A great success
September 3	Jane Courtland is our new Boys Division 7 director
July 12	Madelyn Bailey new Volunteer Coordinator
June 29	Scheduling templates now available
June 29	Girls 3 take third in tough tournament
June 11	Nearly 170 Internet registrations by September 30
May 25	Boys 5 and Girls 4 enjoy success.
May 18	Open Registration at the K Field
March 16	Boys 4 Win Tri-Section Tournament
March	Regional Board New Appointments
March 9	Boys 4 Win Section 1 Tournament
March 4	City Council Elections - Friends of AYSO Elected
February 20	Annual Board Dinner Honors Howard Molitz
February 18	City Council Honors 1996 League Champions
February 15-17	All Stars Do Well at Riverside Locomotion
January 18-19	Scrimmage Tournament for Girls 3 and 4
January 11-12	League Champion and All Star Tournaments Begin

1997

On December 28 and 29, under extraordinary California blue skies, Beverly Hills hosted the Sportsmanship Cup.  This weekend was for girls teams in Divisions 3, 4 and 5, with 24 teams competing from 16 different regions, as far away as Ojai and Canyon Country.  Congratulations to the winners of the Sportsmanship Trophies in Division 3 - Canyon Country, in Division 4 - Palos Verdes and in Division 5 - South Torrance.  We don't know the scores of the games, but these teams, through their conduct and the conduct of the players and coaches, earned the highest grades from referees.  Every team played four games, all played for fun but also played with commitment and skill.  Congratulations to Viviane Tondeur, Tournament Director, Lance Roth, Assistant Tournament Director and the small but amazing band of volunteers (Terry Leuin and his wonderful crew of referees, Laurent and Florence Bishlawy, Linda Virgo, Lynn and Gordon Zuiderweg, Richard Minars and sons Ricky and Paul, Sunny Velasco, Myra Demeter, Michael Thompson, Fiona Karlin and our friend Fred, King of Tents) who put this on and whose reward is to do it again for the boys on Friday and Saturday . . . More about these and other volunteers and the tournament next week.

Here are the results of the League Championship games played on December 14:

Boys 3 Michael Thompson's team, the Players, beat Kevin Lipton's team, the Bobos, 4-0.   The Players turned it on at every position, turning a 0-0 tie at half time into a decisive final score.

Kevin did have success in B4 with the Thunderhawks, 5-2 winners over Velez, coached by Richard Minars.  Velez was snakebit by an own goal and two goals deflected by their own team.

In Boys 5, Jeff Okano's team won a tight game over David Steiner's team, 2-1.  In the consolation game, decided on penalty kicks, David Zarider's team couldn't survive another shootout, having reached the final by that route.  On the last of five kicks, Jason Clark and Debra Groening's team prevailed after a 2-2 tie in regulation time.

In Girls 3, there was no stopping Larry Bruksch's team, 3-1 winners over Rachel Marks' squad.

In Girls 4, Saul Rosoff's beautifully coached and very young team won 2-1 over Serge Tobias' G.I.B. (Girls in Blue).  G.I.B. was ahead 1-0 for much of the game until an unfortunate injury to the goalkeeper in a collision on a 50:50 ball took her out of the game. 

In Girls 5, in a keenly contested match, Jeff Pop and Leon Owens' team squeaked out a 1-0 win over Barry Cynowiec's team.

We'll add the result of the consolation final when it comes in.

Karen Barrett, parent of a Boys 4 player, and recently married to Robert Goldenberg - congratulations - has agreed to become our Uniforms Coordinator.  Karen will be responsible for ordering and checking all of our uniforms.  She can be reached at uniforms@ayso76.org.

At Picture Day, we had a radar gun measuring kicking speeds. It worked a little erratically, but here are the winners of the boys' competition:

The winners earned a soccer pal and a ball. In the interests of full disclosure, Joey is the son of our Picture Day coordinator, the wonderful Rena, whose daughter Sarah did the tallying. Your webmaster says, the fix was in! Or, as Tom Stoppard put it in Jumpers, democracy isn't in the voting, it's in the counting!

We are going to implement a brand new registration system for the 1998 season. Basically, only on-line or in-person registrations will be accepted and there will be a major price increase for players registering after August 1. This year we were overwhelmed with registrations received in August. Our volunteers could barely cope and the selection of teams and coaches was disrupted because we could not tell how many teams there were going to be. So, there will be an early bird registration for $75 on December 7 at La Cienega Park and then it will be $85 at various registration days over the following months; but $120 after August 1. For details, see our 1998 registration page.

Picture Day on Sunday October 5 was a terrific success. Many enhancements, including the AYSO Power Kick booth where your shot were timed by radar (winners will be posted here very soon) - hats off to Moti Bar Zion for figuring out how it works and to Sonny Velasco for assembling the booth, Domino's Pizza, the Coffee Bean, baked goods from Beverly Vista Drill Team, hats for sale to go with great sweats and Ts designed by Guess?. Also, Steve Jolley from the Los Angeles Galaxy and other representatives of the Galaxy were on hand. Orchestrated by the wonderful efforts of Rena Kramer and Madelyn Bailey, it was a wonderful day.

Jane Courtland is joining our board as our new director for Division 7 Boys, replacing Steve Geller who had to withdraw for personal reasons. Jane is one of our grwoing band of Board members with e-mail and she can be reached at b7@ayso76.org.

  Madelyn Bailey has agreed to be our new volunteer coordinator.  Madelyn has three children playing in our Region and two smaller ones not old enough to play.  She signed up because she hasn't got enough to do already, we do not think.  Madelyn will be responsible for liaison with team administrators, organizing Picture Day, recruiting volunteers and a host of other jobs.  She will need lots of help, so if you would like to volunteer call us at 310-854-0898 or e-mail her at volunteer@ayso76.org.  That would be the best welcome you could give her!

 Scheduling templates are now available for AYSO administrators, free of charge. See the templates or download them in Quattro Pro, Excel and Lotus 1-2-3.

A medal at last. After a series of near misses, Girls 3 won a third place medal at the tough Freeway Jam tournament, wonderfully run by Area 1-C director Pat Gibson and his colleagues. In the final game, won 3-1 on a penalty from Jodee and second half goals brilliantly taken by Grace and Keren from equally brilliant passes from Megan and Katie, the team beat a very tough Whittier team. With spectacular saves throughout the tournament from Ashley, including a full-length dive to save a line drive penalty into the corner, and awesome defense from Dejah, Christine, newcomer Allie and Jenny, pinpoint passing from Laura in midfield and tremendous effort from Stacey in innumerable positions, the girls did a great job in what may be their last tournament. We missed you Rachael!

 168 players registered on-line for the Fall season and so have 25 volunteers!

The Boys 5 team won a tough tournament at Irvine over Memorial Day weekend - their first tournament success. Congratulations to Kevin Lipton, Michael Winegred and Willie Brien and to a fine group of players. And congratulations to the Bellissimas, the Girls 4 tournament team on their first tournament success. We'll try to get a picture.

The Boys 4 All Star team, the Tigers, participated in the Tri-Section Championship on Sunday March 16. Coached by Cliff Bochner and David Zarider, the team fell behind to a very early goal in the semi-final against a fine team from Irvine but the result was never in doubt. (Click on the image to see the bigger picture.)

Constant pressure from a team of destiny produced an equalizer from right half David B and, despite a horrifying elbow to the amazing 4 foot nothing Alex which took him out of the second quarter and produced a yellow card against the other team and a penalty (which we missed), the team put it away in the second half with two tremendous goals from Peter and a final exclamation point of a header by Alex from a corner from the five foot eight Chris M! The final score was 4-1. In the final, the boys outplayed a strong but mostly long-ball playing Lancaster team, getting a 30 yard goal from defender Mark in the first half and a tremendous tap-in goal by Alex from a pass by Chris from the deep left. Great stuff, and congratulations to all, including defenders goalkeeper Matt, David S and Steve, sweeper David S, midfielders Gil, forward Jonathan and midfielder/forwards Matt R and Greg. This was a team capable of anything, which played mature soccer often brilliant and always with courage and heart. A credit to the program, they are the champions of Southern California, from an area with over 200,000 registered players and probably 25,000 in Boys Division 4. This is the second year in a row that a team from our region was a Tri-Section champion, the Boys 3 team having done it last year. Wow!

 March 1997: Congratulations to our Tournaments Director, Viviane Tondeur, who has agreed to become our Coach Administrator while continuing to work on tournaments. And welcome to John Heidt, Co-Registrar, Rena Kramer, new division director in Girls 6 and Steve Geller, new division director for Division 7 boys. For the full Board list for 1997, click here.

More kudos for our Boys 4 All Star team, winner on Sunday March 9 of the Section 1 tournament in Upland. Just to give you some idea of what a monumental achievement that is, our team was picked from just 12 regular season teams; the teams they played against in both the semi-final and final were picked from 32 teams. There are probably 5-6,000 boys playing in Boys 4 in Section 1! The semi-final was a heartstopper. The boys gave up a goal in the first minute and then banged at the door for nearly an hour. Then, when all seemed lost, with 4 minutes to play, they scored three times to win - no overtime needed. The second goal was a standout, with a glorious hard cross from the right being headed in powerfully by the perfectly positioned winger. Great stuff. The final was much less emotional, the boys playing dominant soccer and winning 3-0. Cliff Bochner, the coach, has said that this team does not know how to lose. They certainly showed it on Sunday. On to the Tri-Sectional tournament next weekend. Come out to Whittier on Sunday March 16 and see some classy soccer players in action.

Congratulations to Mayor Tom Levyn, top vote-getter in the City Council election on March 4, and his wife Karen. Tom and Karen is a parent of two All Star players. Tom's campaign was managed by Rona Leuin, wife of our Referee Administrator Terry Leuin. And congratulations to former AYSO coach Mark Egerman, who won a seat for the first time and to past mayor Vickie Reynolds, winner of a third term on the Council. Tom, Mark and Vickie are strong supporters of our program and we look forward to their continued support.

Referees are always wanted, even (especially) in the off season! Check out our referee page.

Click here for the press release about our annual board dinner on February 20, most of which was published in the Beverly Hills Courier on February 28.

Our League Champion teams were honored at Beverly Hills City Council on February 18. This was, as always a fun occasion, - so our thanks to Mayor Tom Levyn, Vice Mayor Goldman and Councilmembers Alexander, Bronte and Reynolds for inviting us. We know they enjoyed themselves too! At the same meeting, the Council honored Howard Molitz by naming a Citizen of Honor of the City of Beverly Hills.

Congratulations to all our teams who participated in the Riverside Locomotion tournament on February 15-17 and especially to Boys 3, who made it to the final and to Boys 4 winners of the whole tournament. After winning in overtime in the semifinal, they played an incredible final match in which, after an hour of play, overtime periods were played in which, with each succeeding period, the number of players on the field were reduced by two, with no goalkeepers and no offsides. Into a high wind, with no change of sides at the end of each overtime period, our team went down to 9, then 7, then 5 and finally to 3 players when, with a heroic effort, the boys got the winning goal against a Culver City with which we had offered to share the championship at the end of regulation time. Congratulations, Cliff and David and to each and everyone of your remarkable young team.

We organized our first ever tournament - a scrimmage tournament for Girls Divisions 3 and 4 at La Cienega Park on Martin Luther King Day weekend. For us, the sun shone and 23 games were played by 12 teams. We didn't keep score but congratulations to our sportsmanship trophy winners - Pacific Palisades (coach Dick Held) in Division 3 and Santa Monica tournament team (coach Terry Mitchell) and Westchester (coach Pat McGinnis) joint winners in Division 4. We'll do this again next year.

Beginning on Monday January 13, we will update you on the progress of our League Champions and All Star teams. On the first weekend, our girls 3 Wild Card (coached by Joel Prell) and Girls 4 league champion won their games. Still checking on the other teams - but I do know that our Girls 3, Girls 4 Wild Card and Boys 5 champions didn't make it - well done any way for getting so far.. Girls 3 lost 3-1 to Culver City in a downpour, then the rest of the games were cancelled.

We'll have more to say about this but Championship Day marked the last such day of the 9-year tenure of our Regional Commissioner, Howard Molitz. Howard has been a tremendous leader of our program for so many years. We salute him.

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1996

December 15	League Championships
November 28	Tournaments Begin at Thanksgiving
The Season	Short-Sided Games
October 2	G3 at the Rose Bowl
September 29	B5 at the Rose Bowl

Championship Day was Sunday December 15 at La Cienega Park - championship games for Boys and Girls Divisions 3, 4 and 5. Check out the playoff page for all the championship score and the odd mini-match report. In the meantime, congratulations to our Champions:

Viviane Tondeur and the Lakers (B5); Kevin Lipton and the Executioners (B5 Consolation); Barry Cynowiec and Blue Thunder (G5); Serge Tobias and the Tornadoes (G5 Consolation); Sandy Bettelman and The Who (B4); Rachel Marks and the Sting (G4); Ed Hagopian and his team (B3) and David Levi and the Hell's Angels (G3).

Please check out our Tournament Page for information about All Stars and Tournaments. Divisions 3, 4 and 5 all played at UCLA on Thanksgiving weekend. Congratulations to Boys 4 for their victory and Girls 4 for a close loss in the final and commiserations to Boys 5 eliminated in the first round by a goal scored at the very last kick of the last game. Our other teams were all competetive. The Tournament Page includes a schedule of January playoffs for regular season champions and All Star teams.

Our experiment with short-sided games in Divisions 5 has ended but is continuing in Division 6. Two half-teams play on half a field for the first four weeks of the season. The reaction has mostly been very positive, although some of our more traditional-minded parents don't like it. Never mind, we're going to see the experiment through. The idea is to get the kids to touch the ball more (2 balls for 24 players rather than one for 22) and no one sits on the bench so long as no team has an advantage of more than two players (one per short-sided game). To keep things balanced, one of the teams swaps field at half time. It's going well - keep up the good work, coaches!

On October 2, a Girls Division 3 team played Sherman Oaks before the second LA Galaxy home playoff game. This was the decider against San Jose for the Western Conference semi-final. The Clash were without Eric Wynalda, sent off on Sunday for what may have been one of the most brainless fouls committed by a so-called star. Why fling Cobi Jones (half his size and a friend since school days) to the ground in front of the referee, when you already have a yellow card?

The girls kicked off at 5:45 p.m. and played for about 45 minutes and then watched as the Galaxy beat San Jose comfortably on a lovely Hurtado goal and a Cienfuegos penalty after Jones was brought down. We had a blast. The Sherman Oaks team won 2-0 on two goals by the great Melissa (Missy), about whom you can read in our Kalamazoo Diary. The first was a real beauty, a breakaway down the right, but our defender succeeded in pushing her wide right, yet she still slammed the ball in at the far post despite the fact that Catherine, our goalkeeper, was perfectly positioned and gave her almost no room. The Rose Bowl turf was like a carpet - what a joy and a thrill to be there.

The preceding Sunday, September 29, last year's Boys 5 team played their counterparts from LA Central at the Rose Bowl. The LA Central kids, including one girl, were well schooled and they had learned the importance of keeping the ball on the ground, making use of the true bounce and even roll. They won the game 2-0, but not without some excellent play from our players and several chances. As in the Girls 3 game, an outstanding goalkeeper, Mark, kept the score close. In the second half, our smallest, but feistiest, player, Alex, got cheers from the raucous crowd on the east side of the field as he repeatedly outwitted his opponent on the left. It was a happy experience with nothing but good feelings. Your Webmaster and his daughter Laura each ran a line with an LA Central referee (we're called assistant referees now, in a FIFA abomination of political correctness).

The Galaxy game which followed was a frustrating 83 minutes, at which point, when it seemed as if the Clash had achieved its objective of holding the Galaxy scoreless and going for a shootout (or a win on a breakaway or Wynalda free kick), Robin Fraser got a fluke goal, a hard shot which the goalkeeper had comfortably covered but which deflected off two Clash players. Hurtado added a 90th minute garbage time goal on a well-worked move with Campos, who was playing forward. Wynalda and another Clash player were shown the red card, mostly for stupidity.

Last updated June 14, 2008 at 02:35 PM