Category: Sports

By Angelo Haynes

On the evening of January 8th at 6pm, residents and community members of Encanto and surrounding areas of City Council District 4 gathered at the Encanto Recreation Center to provide input on the construction of a skate plaza on an existing shuffleboard court.

Several community groups were in attendance, including the San Diego Parks Foundation, an independent non-profit group that raises funds with the goal of enhancing public parks across San Diego County. One man in particular, Abel Macias, has been the driving force behind this entire project beginning with his activism with a local chapter of Black Lives Matter during the pandemic.

Abel coordinated with several skater friends in the neighborhood to create an activist group that took to the streets in a unique protest that brought people together for social justice, but turned into a coalition that sought to develop the sport of skating in his community.

By Steve Rodriguez

The start of a new year always brings forth a flurry of predictions for what to expect in the coming months. Predictions can range from the wild to the more reasonable, with prognostications coming from a variety of individuals to include mystical clairvoyants, creative visionaries, and more research-based futurists.

Instead of just waiting to review such predictions, I thought this year I would do some hard thinking and come up with my own look into what 2026 might bring forth at both local and national levels.

My approach is a mixture of amateur psychic, sophisticated seer and analytical trend forecaster.  Not to intentionally downplay my prophetic talents, but some of these predictions are easier to make than others. After all, predictions are often based on data and patterns reflecting past behavior. On the other hand, some of the more extraordinary prophecies can be attributed to my exceptional gut instinct.

Quite frankly, I enjoy being called a “futurist.”  In fact, just the other day as I was walking through the neighborhood, I heard someone say, “Look, it’s the smarty pants futurist, too bad he can’t bother to look ahead to figure out which week to put out the blue recycling bin.”

In any event, here is my list of the top 26 headlines we can expect to see sometime in 2026.

1.     Padres Hire New Batting Instructor

Sean McKaveney Wins Men’s Division

by: Julian Del Gaudio / Fox5 San Diego / Dec. 10, 2025 

24 hours. Below freezing temperatures. The adventure of a lifetime.

Sean McKaveney’s vacations are unlike any other. He’s a lawyer by day with a lust for life’s ultimate adventures.

One of his recent adventures was the Antarctic Ice Ultra 50k, a total of 31 miles and the ultimate test.

“The wind was howling, it was minus 2 degrees Fahrenheit,” said McKaveney, “We started just about 15 runners. You’re looking through the start gate and all you see is white in every direction, the wind is just pounding your face.”

By Evan Weiner / Sports Talk Florida / November 19, 2025

The San Diego Planning Commission has recommended that the San Diego City Council give its approval to the Midway Rising project that could eventually become an arena-village.

San Diego needs an arena to have a chance to land either a National Hockey League or National Basketball Association franchise.

Different investors in Alpharetta, Georgia are planning to build arenas and are pushing to get an NHL expansion franchise. The NBA may expand by two franchises in the future and there might be an opportunity to land a financially struggling franchise with an expiring arena lease agreement around 2030. Las Vegas and Seattle more than likely will get the two expansion slots if  the league gets around to expanding.

San Diego has a 59-year-old arena that local elected officials and business leaders think needs to be replaced. A 7,500-seat arena opened in nearby Oceanside in 2024.

By Savannah Smith / The Point – LomaBeat / Nov 17, 2025

Point Loma Nazarene University’s Surf Team anticipates a strong season after taking first place in their opener at Black’s Beach last month.

The annual season opener, hosted by the University of California, San Diego’s Surf Team, took place from Oct. 25-26 and marked an exciting start to the year for the team. They competed against 31 collegiate teams and scored a total of 211 points, 63 points higher than any other team.

Sydney Ott, a third-year marketing major and returning team member, said it felt great to start the season with a win, especially after the team’s ninth national championship title win in June.

“Everyone was surfing super well, so it was awesome seeing us win as a team,” Ott said.

Leading up to the opener, the team held group practices at Mission Beach to prepare and get into the competition mindset.

“For me personally, I made sure to surf consistently leading up to the event and made sure that I had my board dialed in,” Ott said.

This preparation proved to be valuable once the contest began, as competitors were met with difficult conditions throughout the weekend.

by Caleb Lunetta / San Diego Union-Tribune / Nov. 15, 2025

Scottie Williams, a U.S. Army veteran and Ocean Beach resident, lived with intention, his family said Friday. When the 28-year-old said he’d do something — like finishing a job or committing to hanging out with someone — he’d do it.

On Sunday, Nov. 9 he approached the Silver Strand Half Marathon with that same level of commitment, strongly finishing the race in the same fashion he had completed so many other half marathons before. But after crossing the finish line and receiving his medal, the seemingly healthy Williams collapsed and died.

“It was a normal day,” said Sarah Lloyd, his older sister. “And then he just collapsed. They worked on him for a long time, and they just couldn’t bring him back.”

“We don’t have any answers,” she added.

By Dave Summers / 7SanDiego / November 13, 2025

Mexican authorities are searching for a popular YouTuber from Ocean Beach who was reported missing after fishing off the coast of Baja California on Tuesday, Nov.11.

“He’s an adventurer. He pushes the envelope. That’s part of what we love about him,“ said Phil Friedman, a fellow angler, podcaster and close friend.

Officials say Mikey Rijavec was fishing eight miles off the coast on Tuesday when he issued a mayday call. Over the phone, fellow anglers tried to help him with the engine trouble he was having when the call suddenly ended.

by Ernie McCray

I remember my grandfather
always saying to me
“Well, son, I guess that’s too much like right”
when my most logical response to a situation
should have been put into action but was not,
and lately I’ve been saying that to myself a lot
as I look at what’s happening
here and there
around the country,
thinking, particularly,
about what if we bypassed all the rigmarole
with regard to Bad Bunny
headlining the halftime show
at the 60th Super Bowl,
singing in Espanol,
and instead praised him
for how he rose
from work as a bag boy at a grocery store
in Puerto Rico
and became a global music icon

by Beacon Staff and Wire Reports / Peninsula Beacon / Nov. 10, 2025

Ready to watch a rousing game of pickleball?

If so, you’re in luck: The 2025 USA Pickleball National Championships will take place at Barnes Tennis Center in Point Loma from Nov. 15-23.

It will feature elite-level competition, with the most skilled players qualifying to participate in the prestigious tournament.

“Barnes Tennis Center will provide an exceptional backdrop, offering a dynamic atmosphere for both participants and spectators alike,” said USA Pickleball chief executive director Mike Nealy. “We are thrilled to honor the passion and talent within the pickleball community in San Diego.”

The national championships will build on the success of the 2024 tournament, which drew over 2,600 athletes from 47 states and 13 countries, along with more than 10,000 spectators.

by Scott Hopkins / Times of San Diego / October 28, 2025

Point Loma High School‘s football team will be playing to make dreams come true at home on Oct. 31 against Eastern League foe St. Augustine.

One of those dreams is to finish the regular season undefeated as the Pointers enter the game with a 9-0 record and first place in the league at 4-0.

The St. Augustine Saints are in second place at 4-5 and 3-1. But Point Loma scored 101 more points and gave up 109 fewer than the private school.

The Pointers last finished the regular season undefeated in 2005 under longtime coach Mike Hastings. That team went on to the California Interscholastic Federation championship, where it lost, coincidentally to the Saints and finished 12-1.

Another dream is to receive a high seed in CIF Division I playoffs when pairings are announced on Nov. 1. Highest seeds receive a coveted first-round bye and home games against every lower-seeded team.

These dreams, if realized, would lead to a third dream – the team’s first CIF championship since Bennie Edens guided his 1991 team to the title.

By Bradley Granieri / The Point – PL Nazarene University / Oct 8, 2025

Having a fantasy football team isn’t all that fun. But watching that team beat somebody else’s is thrilling.

I didn’t start playing fantasy football because I loved watching the NFL. Four seasons ago, I barely watched football. I said “yes” to joining a league because I was bored, and figured doing so would give me something mildly interesting to do in math class. But when the next season rolled around, I agreed again.

“It’s a fun thing to talk to your friends about, even though I don’t really care about football,” Kate Walter, a third-year applied health major, said.

Just like Walter, I don’t care all that much about the NFL, but I still sign up because it’s what happens off the field that makes fantasy football truly matter. It’s the community and competition that comes from it that keeps me coming back year after year.

When I started my first fantasy football team four years ago, I didn’t know how anything worked. I was a rookie, but I quickly learned the basics in a trial-by-fire period of just a few short weeks. What I learned was that fantasy football put me, the “coach,” in control of a virtual team composed of real NFL players who play against other virtual teams.

By Jillian Butler 

The Ocean Beach Woman’s Club (OBWC), a century-old San Diego institution, drew crowds of players and spectators to its Fifth Annual ‘Battle for the Paddle’ charity ping pong tournament, raising more than $5,000 for local causes.

With the current clubhouse being established in 1944, the OBWC is in its 101st year of operation despite clubhouses surviving a multitude of natural disasters from fires to being crushed by waves during a high surf advisory. This organization has spearheaded a multitude of charitable ventures, ranging from providing a center of refuge for servicemembers during the second world war to advocating for year round life guards to raising money for homeless pets. The Battle for the Paddle ping pong tournament is one of their larger annual fundraisers.

The Tournament was spearheaded by the OBWC Project Lead, Susan Winkie, and Christine Freeman, the Project Lead of OBWC’s Philanthropy and Social Justice branch. Ms. Winkie commanded a strong presence as she emcee’d the entirety of the event.