Diamond Dust is often (perhaps too often) about cute connections and alliterative asides, to sports that attract merely a portion of the populace. However, the 49-ton elephant in the Beach living room is clearly basketball.
As it has been since Day One (circa 1949), the intersection of Seventh St. and Bellflower Blvd. has to be very strategic in selecting a sport to support while dreaming about a national championship. The first Long Beach State national championship I can personally recall was for women’s field hockey in the year 1979.
Other titles came before in lower divisions such as the 1967 men’s track and field championship under the late and great Jack Rose; the 1967 men’s tennis led by Coach Dan Campbell; and the 1968 men’s swimming and diving title coached by Don Gambril.
Back then, women athletes were in the province (and protection) of the AIAW, separate and clearly unequal, from the men. The AIAW national trophies won by LBSU were the 1970 women’s badminton crown, Dixie Grimmet’s back-to-back women’s volleyball titles in 1972 and 1973. Those teams all played before I arrived in town in 1975 so it was that 1979 women’s field hockey title that I count as my first. The beach gals used outfits and sticks a lot like lacrosse but they shutout mighty Penn State 2-0.
It took another ten years and another volleyball coach to pick up the first of the NCAA flavored titles, the first of which was the 1989 women’s volleyball crown won by a former high school coach named Brian Gimmillaro who repeated the feat twice more (so far) with the 1993 and 1998 women’s volleyball championships.
A franchise for 49er volleyball seemed right and indeed the men of the Beach won the 1991 men’s volleyball championship under the coaching of Ray Ratelle and the playing of Beach coach Alan Knipe. We head to hoops in a moment but we can close the history book with an observation that other national notoriety has come mostly in baseball and basketball. The diamond men have four College World Series appearances (1989, 1991, 1993, 1998); 2 Super Regionals (2003-04) and 19 NCAA Regionals. (1964, 1970, 1989, 1991-99, 2001-05, 2007-08). In softball, the Beach ladies went to five of their College World Series and had a 5-10 record. Lastly we note that women’s basketball made it to a pair of NCAA Final Fours (1987, 1988) and 11 NCAA Tournaments (1982-92).
All of this tour down memory lane is a lead-in to men’s basketball which is that elephant still waiting in the Niner trophy room. Last year, Long Beach won both the regular season and conference titles in the Big West and the media picked them to do the same this season. Those NCAA Tournaments invites were in 1970-73, 1977, 1993, 1995, 2007, and 2011. The Beach boys got to the Elite Eight (1971, 1972); Sweet 16 (1970, 1973) and—of less interest—they have made six NIT Appearances (1980, 1988, 1990, 1992, 2000, 2011).
The 2012-13 play opens Saturday afternoon in their first home game (called Homecoming) and the foe is the hardly heard of University of North Alabama. The away coming part of the schedule is er, ah very well heard of. That would be games at USC (Nov. 13), at Arizona (Nov. 19), at Syracuse (Dec. 6), at Ohio State (Dec. 8) and at UCLA (Dec. 18).
The chatter on the court of course is about a rare visit with the fabled University of North Carolina on the first stop in the Tar Heels’ road trip to the Maui invitational.
Other toughies for the new look Niners (four starters are out playing around the globe in non NBA pro leagues) include a two game test with Fresno State (Nov. 25 and Dec. 3) and at Loyola Marymount (Nov. 29). And oh yes, the bull’s-eye is on the Beach unis from all the bridesmaids left in the Big West Conference. Should be fun as soon as the home boys figure out each other.
Ironically, Saturday is also a work day for soccer coach Mauricio Ingrassia who missed the Big West tourney but made the NCAA tourney (break that news gently to UC Irvine and Fullerton).
The Long Beach State earned one of 34 at-large bids to the NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championship and the party begins Saturday when it heads to Santa Clara to take on the 18th-ranked Broncos at 1PM. The coach weighed in on the drama: “We felt we had done enough to be considered for the NCAA Tournament, but it was a matter of waiting and seeing how things went, I think it’s a strong statement from our program and our conference and hopefully now we can make everyone proud.”
Santa Clara (11-3-6) also earned an at-large bid as it finished third in the West Coast Conference. Julie Johnston leads the Broncos with 20 points (8 goals, 4 assists), while Sofia Huerta has also registered six goals and five assists. Andi Tostanoski has seen most of the action between the posts, compiling 68 saves and 1.10 goals against average. The winner of the 49ers-Broncos match will play the victor of top-seeded Stanford and Idaho State in the second round on Nov. 16.
The BWC soccer tourney champ, CSUN, will travel to face future conference foe San Diego State also on Saturday.
DOT DOT DUSTING—The sporting sked is pretty busy from here on volleyball on Thursday and Saturday night, ladies hoops opening vs. Sac State on Friday and the previously mentioned men’s first game with East Long Beach U vs. North Alabama. On Sunday the ladies play Iona. Last add ladies, following the women’s basketball game on December 9 (2:00 p.m. start vs. Santa Clara) the program will be hosting the Art Johnson ‘Shoot-a-Thon’ to raise scholarship money. The young student-athletes and even some brave, older, boosters will shoot free throws for 30 minutes on the court collecting bucks for each basket made.
Almost-Dirtbag and now Houston Astros first-base prospect Jon Singleton, is a left-handed hitter with good size, (6-foot-2 and 235 pounds.) He has the size and raw power to be a prototypical first baseman and may be the next local to climb the MLB ladder.
The Saturday homecoming gala starts at 11 a.m. with the sounds of the band The Emperors regaling the brunch crowds at the alumni and athletic association tents. There is also a fund raiser at the Alumni Brick Plaza by the Prospector Pete Statue; a student tailgate hoo-hah (mechanical bull, jousting, etc.) and some of the better food spots—Lime Truck, Gringo’s Tacos, Chunk & Chip and Hale’wa Shaved Ice. Now back to your diet already in progress.—DR DAN