Teamwork is a frequent theme at the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table but Monday’s luncheon was a lesson in legacy for the dozens of young athletes in attendance.
Dave Pintard, a SBART director filling in for ailing president Rick Wilson, awarded the Santa Barbara Bank & Trust Sportsperson of the Month to Jeff Moorhouse, himself a former honored athlete from his days at Carpinteria High and Santa Barbara City College. Moorhouse also happens to be the son of Pat Moorhouse-MacPhee, the legendary SBCC women’s volleyball and tennis coach and member of the SBART Hall of Fame.
In addition to his day job at Citi Smith Barney in Montecito, for the past 13 years Moorhouse has been a walk-on football coach at his alma mater and has helped teach hundreds of Warriors the finer points of pigskin protocol. But their education extends well beyond the gridiron and Moorhouse has been a tireless volunteer on behalf of enhanced opportunities for all students — athletes or not.
Moorhouse is a past president and current director of the nonprofit Carpinteria Education Foundation, which has provided more than $500,000 for school programs in Carpinteria and Summerland. In that capacity Monday, he put in a plug for Computers for Families’ “Team Carpinteria,” which is raffling off a 2008 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy Motorcycle on May 3, thanks to the generosity of Santa Barbara Harley-Davidson, 3501 Via Real. Only 650 tickets are available at $100 each. Click here to e-mail Sarah O’Brien at the Santa Barbara County Education Office or call 805.964.4710 x4418.
In his remarks, Moorhouse credited athletics — and his mom — for teaching him the commitment and dedication to achieve his goals. Surveying the room of fidgety teenagers chowing down at Harry’s Plaza Cafe, one wondered which of them would grow up to be the next Jeff Moorhouse.
Based on the praise doled out by their coaches, Monday’s SBART honorees are well on their way to glory on the field of play — or the pool, as the case may be.
In the round table portion of the luncheon, Dos Pueblos baseball coach Bob Townsend introduced Chris Joyce, his star pitcher and first baseman who has thrown 47 strikeouts in the last four games, including 14 in the Chargers’ victory against crosstown rival San Marcos. Townsend said Joyce, SBART’s male athlete of the week, and catcher James McCann have been instrumental in providing his young Chargers squad with senior leadership. Dos Pueblos plays in the Righetti tournament beginning Friday.
Jeff Ashton spoke on behalf of his boys’ swimming and diving team at San Marcos, as well as Brian Roth’s girls’ team. The boys’ team opened its season against Oxnard, eking out an 87-85 victory, and the Royals exceeded their pre-meet points goals against powerhouse Dos Pueblos. Kris Hummel and Erik Shafer turned in outstanding performances while Ian Donahue had success swimming across the pool as well as diving into it: He took first place in his first-ever diving attempt.
On the girls’ side, seniors Sam Monson and Elise Sienicki and junior Parinda Sukavivatanachai have been team leaders for the Royals.
Dos Pueblos boys’ tennis coach Liz Frech noted that her Chargers have been battling on two fronts: opposing teams and the participation of some of her key team members in the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy‘s robotics competition. So far, the robotics are cleaning up, but the depleted tennis team is more than holding its own. After a slow start, Dos Pueblos has evened its record at 5-5. She introduced assistant coach Heather Bailey and sang the praises — apparently, singing is another team pastime for the Chargers — of senior captain Justin Kautz along with Sean Simpson, Malcolm Sutton and Eric Zmolek.
Riding a four-match win streak, UCSB men’s tennis coach Marty Davis celebrated the Gauchos’ return to the national rankings, but lamented the loss of injured senior star Anders Dalskov. The No. 69 Gauchos have been feasting on Ivy League opponents, beating Dartmouth and Yale during their streak. They host No. 43 Harvard at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Recreation Center Courts with perhaps some additional motivation. It seems the Crimson have dropped the Gauchos from next year’s schedule. Davis got away before I could ask him whether Harvard just got tired of being called “the UCSB of the East.”
UCSB’s women’s tennis coach, Pete Kirkwood, said the Gauchos were taking care of business against teams they should be beating and were undaunted against stronger programs. Doubles play has been outstanding this season. UCSB plays a hastily scheduled match Tuesday at Westmont, hosts powerhouse Boise State on Wednesday, and then travels to the Bay Area for weekend matches against San Francisco and St. Mary’s.
Carpinteria’s Pat Cooney opened his report with a shout out to stalwart SBART supporter George Rempe, who underwent emergency knee surgery Friday. Then he got down to baseball business, saying his Warriors are off to a strong start, 3-1 in their last four games. Casey Noveski and Nathan Saito are having standout seasons.
Providing the Carpinteria tennis update, Cooney said the 29-9 Warriors are having their best season in 10 years — in large part because of Jordan Bleeker, Coby Bryant and Keith Saito.
Santa Barbara’s Mark Walsh brought six of his swimmers and water polo players with him. On the girls side, he said freshmen Chloe Brooks, Samantha King and Camille Wissman are providing another strong foundation for the Dons. Singled out for praise on the boys side were Brandon Cowan, Chris Dall and Hunter Ploch. Walsh joked that Ploch wasn’t a typical water polo goalie who viewed swimming as a means to stay in shape; he’s actually a mainstay on the swim team.
Speaking of swimming, UCSB women‘s coach Gregg Wilson was more than happy to talk about his team’s performance at the weekend’s 2008 National Championships at Ohio State. The Gauchos placed 25th overall after earning 36 team points — their first postseason points since 1990.
Although the Gauchos had only returned to Santa Barbara at 11:30 p.m. Sunday, and were on spring break, Wilson had with him two tired, but excited, All-Americans: freshman Sara Nicponski and junior Erin Yamamoto. Nicponski swam the 200 breaststroke, placing 25th in the prelims with a time of 2:14.34, while Yamamoto swam her way to a personal best in the 200 butterfly prelims, finishing in 1:59.95, the 35th best time.
Unable to attend Monday was freshman Anne Marie May, who set two school records, in the 50 and 100 freestyle. For her efforts, she was named SBART’s female athlete of the week.
Carpinteria swim coach Kate Holmsberg outlined the challenges of a small program. She said what the Warriors lacked in depth, they more than made up for in individual performance, and senior freestyle sprinter Taylor Spears was better than most.
Rob Beamer of the UCSB track and field teams highlighted Chris Ashley and Brian Rother on the men’s team. Ashley won the 3,000-meter race at the weekend USC Invitational while Rother set a 15-foot-7 personal best in the pole vault. From the women’s team, he lauded Danielle Domenichelli in the 1,500-meter race and Jane Doolittle in the high jump. He also described the Gauchos’ appearance in — I kid you not — a Buddhist track meet. There are some one-liners in there somewhere but I’ll let you readers come up with them.
Westmont women’s tennis coach Kathy LeSage touted her No. 23 Warriors’ thrilling victory over No. 12 Point Loma Nazarene last week as an important milestone for her young squad. She said the team has set as its goal a top 15 ranking to ensure an automatic NAIA tournament bid.
Ron Smith, Westmont’s sports information director, wrapped up the luncheon by highlighting the Warriors baseball team, which has started six freshmen this season but has seen a marked improvement in play. Freshman center fielder Taylor Maddox went 6-for-10 as Westmont swept a doubleheader from Occidental on Saturday. Smith earned ironman kudos of his own, having covered all 20 innings of the games.
The Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table meets at noon most Mondays at Harry’s Plaza Cafe, 3313 State St. Cost for nonmembers is $10. Because of spring break, the next luncheon is April 7.
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