1:30pm | When a long ago LBSU marketing gal Jean Kramer was plying her trade in the pre-Pyramid days (late ‘80s), she latched on to a couple of neat word plays. First she named the old east gym the “Gold Mine” and got it a paint job to boot. She also reminded anyone who would listen that CSULB was the only college in the land with “Beach” in its official name and therefore LBSU could use it as a brand on tee-shirts, jerseys etc.
Jean later married an assistant LBSU men’s coach (John Welch) who is now one of the key guys for the NBA Denver Nuggets. John and Jean, have a daughter, Haley, and a son, Riley.
Back to the Beach name, the locals loved it then and still do today. However, on the east coast, Palm Beach State, one of the better Division I junior college sports programs in the nation, actually had the Beach in their name long before LBSU (or whatever you like to call this place.) Palm Beach State College was founded in 1933 and has a total enrollment of 48,000 students on four campuses but the home campus in Lake Worth is where their men’s baseball, men and women’s basketball, and women’s softball and volleyball play. Palm Beach State plays in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division I in the Southern Conference. The college mascot is the Panther, the college colors are green and gold and until those Long Beach “Beach” jerseys make the NCAA tourney, they haven’t thought about stealing our local’s favorite logo.
So with logo logistics fixed we have to turn our attention to the teams and athletes that represent. This week we have a heap of hoops, a gallery of volleys—volley balls and tennis balls, and season starts for water polo, baseball, golf, and track.
The current volley team in action is the 11th-ranked Long Beach State men’s volleyball team bunch who stumbled early but now is finding its footing. The Beach swept No. 10 Cal State Northridge, 25-16, 25-19, 25-20, Friday night, and improved to 5-4 overall and 1-3 in MPSF action. The Beach played their first six matches on the road, but in the friendly confines have three consecutive sweeps. Coach ANDY Read has a quick trigger finger on his lineup and it worked over the Matadors when the Niners hit a sizzling .423 and out blocked CSUN 11 to 4. LBSU continues its MPSF play this weekend facing No. 7 Stanford Friday and No. 12 Pacific Saturday.
The ladies of spike also are doing some spring drills for next fall’s indoor work and testing their prospects for the first ever NCAA Beach season this spring. In Beach v-ball there are 2 players per side; 5 teams per “match”; (many schools will carry 18 players on roster) with essentially the same rules as the Olympics. Brian Gimmillaro is funding the sport out of his budget and with the international success of Misty May Treanor the kids at the Beach seem to love the game.
The six person indoor team has spring practice scheduled and some exhibition tourneys coming up. On Saturday February 25 in the Goldmine the Beach will play a round robin tourney against USC, Pepperdine, Biola, and Concordia. First match starts at 9am. Next up is a test with USC March 3rd and another weekend event is likely in the cards.
The Beach season will come after the spring training is over for the indoor ladies and has tourneys, head to head, and contest with everybody big in the sport from Florida State to Hawaii and all about these parts–Southern Cal, Pepp, LMU, etc.
Now if you only read the post game coaches quotes you wouldn’t know what the basketball scores were. Dan Monson fretted and fumed and his team won. Jody Wynn loved the grit and comeback of her women’s team but they lost.
True the Long Beach State women’s basketball team nearly erased a 19-point first-half deficit but its late rally came up just short in a 75-71 loss at UC Riverside Saturday. Sophomore Hallie Meneses was the surprise star with 19 of her career-high 21 points in the second half. Freshman Lauren Spargo grabbed a team-high nine boards but going forward LBSU is 9-14, and 4-6 in the Big West. The Niners finish their four-game road trip Saturday at first place Northridge in a 4 p.m. showdown.
The men had to find another way to win when Casper Ware had an off night. It was Mike Caffey who scored all 11 of his points in the final six minutes, T.J. Robinson finished with his 49th career double-double and the softly packed 4,007 enjoyed the 75-67 win over Northridge Saturday night.
The friendly ghost Casper was held to five points for just the second time this season but had three assists allowing him to tie Billy Walker (1984-88) for the most assists (507) in school history. He also moved into a tie for 10th all-time in the Big West Conference in assists. Should you be worried? Nah, after all CW is a big game player so nobody is surprised that CSUN didn’t really light his fire.
NO MAS SUPER DUST
My first Dean at LBSU was Dr. Tom Dean who recruited me in 1975 to join the 49er athletic association for 49 bucks…I said at the time that I certainly was glad the team wasn’t the 76ers…anyhow the number 49 is now special for another few days since T.J. Robinson finished with his 49th career double-double Saturday night…
Saturday Feb 18th at 4 pm the colors will be black, gold, orange and pink! Yes, the pink game to support women’s cancer research is back and the Beach gals want to beat both the disease and the visiting Pacific Tigers.
As far as student bodies taxing themselves, I’m impressed by the margin of victory at the University of Houston where 7200 of 9900 students voted “Yes” to a $45/semester fee that will last 25 years and help pay for the $40M renovation of the Hofheinz basketball arena as well as the Cougar football stadium project.
The fee is expected to generate $2.5M+ per year. Both the football and basketball stadium projects will take place at the same time to take advantage of low bond yields and low construction costs. By the fall of 2014, Houston’s 2nd season in the Big East, UH will be playing football in a new stadium and basketball in a highly renovated on campus basketball facility. I know, the Beach got their own student fee money infusion last year, details TBA.