Category: Sports

By Ernie McCray

Back when I was playing
in the old Bear Down Gym
doing my “Easy Ernie” thing,
draining 2’s
and what today|
would be 3’s
and snatching rebounds
like I was taking back
something that had been stolen from me,
I couldn’t have dreamed
that all that balling
would someday
result in my name hanging from a rafter
in the University of Arizona’s
Basketball Ring of Honor,

The Pickleball Association of San Diego has proposed a “Managed Pickleball Facility at Robb Field”. The group last week met with the Parks Director, his staff, the Mayor’s staff, and tennis representatives and proposed a compromise.  Here is the Association’s statement from Jan. 15:

We proposed a compromise: Temporarily repurpose half of the 12 tennis courts at Robb Field into dedicated pickleball courts, funded and managed by our nonprofit organization. This would be an interim solution for pickleball players until a pickleball facility at Robb Field is built from scratch at a future date.

From Save Our Heritage Now – Jan-Feb 2023 Newsletter

The nonprofit Sea of Clouds (a San Diego preservation group) together with Surfrider Foundation, Long Beach Chapter, have nominated Long Beach’s former site of the 1938 National Surfing and Paddleboard Championships as a California Point of Historical Interest to commemorate the area’s pre-World War II surfing history.

Held adjacent to Long Beach’s famed (and since demolished) Rainbow Pier, the contest was Los Angeles County’s first surfing and paddleboard competition billed as a national event.

Vert Magazine / Nov. 16, 2022

The California Bodyboarding Tour 2022 stopped off in Ocean Beach November 12th-13th for the US Festival.

As usual, the event was a get together of the boogie scene in Southern California despite the clean and small waves, with new faces showing up in Ocean Beach but also a couple legends like Jay Reale competing and winning, for the second year in a row, the Masters division.

From PR.com

Peninsula Tennis Club President Todd Sprague, presented two conceptual plans for facility improvements at Robb Field at the Mission Bay Park Committee meeting held on October 4, 2022.

The first concept is for improving and enhancing the existing Peninsula Tennis Club.

By Geoff Page

The saga of pickleball’s attempt to find a home at Robb Field continued Tuesday, November 1, with an appearance before the Mission Bay Park Committee, at the Santa Clara Recreation Center in Mission Beach.

Stephan Boyland and Mike Shinzaki made the pitch on behalf of the Pickleball Association of San Diego. The pitch involved three possible options to have pickleball at Robb Field.

#1 – Share the existing 12 tennis courts. There are six courts in one fenced-in enclosure and six in another. Pickleball would like to have six of the 12 courts.

On Thursday, October 6, the OB Rag made national news. The Guardian newspaper ran a long piece about the “escalating war between pickleball and tennis players” across America. It began:

There’s a storm brewing on the tennis courts of America. Admittedly a very middle class, middle-aged storm, but a storm nonetheless. On one side are the tennis players, with their eons of history, perfectly pressed shorts and thousands of dollars to spend on lessons. And on the other are the advocates for America’s fastest growing athletic pursuit: pickleball.

By Mike Shinzaki

I got into pickleball seven years ago at the suggestion of some close pals. To be honest I didn’t take to it much at first, it seemed like a silly pastime. A month later I realized I was playing everyday. As time went on I started competing, instructing, and advocating for pickleball’s growth here in town. Pickleball quietly became the fulcrum of my entire life. It has been a beautiful surprise. I’ve gotten to know great people along the way, many of you included. Stefan Boyland as well.

In 2020, Stefan and I embarked on a coordinated, full-time undertaking to help pickleball secure its rightful place in the City of San Diego

By Colleen Shalby, Robert J. Lopez / Los Angeles Times / Aug. 25, 2022

A civil lawsuit filed Thursday in state court accuses three past and present San Diego State University football players — including a top punter now in the NFL — of gang raping a 17-year-old girl last year at an off-campus party.

Matt Araiza, 22, whose powerful and precision kicking in college earned him the moniker “Punt God,” was accused of having sex with the minor outside the home and then bringing her inside to a room where she was repeatedly raped.

The third annual World Surfing Championships came to sleepy Ocean Beach in the late summer of 1966. And Eric DuVall, head of the OB Historical Society, has just compiled a wonderful remembrance of that event and those early days of surfing in OB and Southern California.

Here are some quotes from DuVall’s latest historical piece in the Pt Loma – Ocean Beach Monthly:

The following is based on news accounts but edited on the premise that the victim, her family and friends are telling the truth.

Close to Halloween last year in October 2021, a then 17-year old woman, as yet publicly identified, was out with friends on a Saturday night. She wore a costume. They had heard about a night house party so she and her friends decided to check it out.

Once at the party, she either began or continued to drive alcohol and was intoxicated. At some point, she was approached by a man who made small talk and offered her a drink. He then led her to a room. Other men were there.