Granada Hills

Break out the pitchforks. A grassroots battle is unfolding at Granada Hills Kennedy High involving parents, students, teachers, administrators and alumni. Parents and members of the baseball team say they intend to march outside the campus Monday morning at 7:30 in support of Coach Manny Alvarado, who was informed last week he will be suspended for three weeks without pay for his role in an alleged hazing incident. The protesters want to send a loud and clear message to first-year Kennedy Principal Suzanne Blake that they don't appreciate hearing one thing from her in December, then learning a month later that everything had changed.

At a time of teacher layoffs, budget cuts and constant uncertainty in the Los Angeles Unified School District, four members of the National League Central Division champion Milwaukee Brewers are creating excitement and pride at their old City Section high schools. And maybe providing something resembling a local rooting interest in the Major League Baseball playoffs. Outfielder Ryan Braun and pitcher Kameron Loe played for Granada Hills High. Pitchers Randy Wolf and Marco Estrada played for Woodland Hills El Camino Real and Sylmar.

Filmmaker Jim Rodnunsky took a backward (and face-down) approach to developing Cablecam, among the most revolutionary innovations in the history of sports broadcasting. Rodnunsky's system of using a cat's cradle of synthetic ropes to suspend a remote-controlled camera over an event began in 1989, when he constructed a Rube Goldberg-type contraption to capture footage for a ski simulator. To get his first overhead shots, he strung 1,400 feet of steel cable above Saudan Couloir at Blackcomb Mountain in British Columbia, one of North America's most harrowing ski runs, anchoring the cable to rocks at the top and bottom.

The Los Angeles police union joined calls Monday for a federal investigation into why a judge in Puerto Rico granted bail to a murder suspect who is now on the run. The Los Angeles Police Protective League called Judge Gloria Maynard's decision last month to release the suspected killer of a Granada Hills man "shocking and inexplicable. " In May, authorities tracked down the man they believe killed Mike Yepremyan , 19, in 2009 in a beach town outside Puerto Rico's capital city, San Juan.

Emotions were running so high for Friday's Valley Mission League title decider between San Fernando and Granada Hills Kennedy that the teams' two veteran head coaches acted like teenagers. Armando Gomez jogged down a line of his San Fernando players prior to the opening pitch giving them high-fives and telling them, "It's now or never, boys. " And longtime Kennedy Coach Manny Alvarado got so excited in the fifth inning that he sprinted out of the dugout to challenge first-base umpire Bryan Rodgers, who ejected his son, first-base coach Marcus Alvarado, for questioning a call.

It takes a lot of guts to choose a college whose sports teams are known as the Otters. Then again, All-City pitcher Ryan Cruz of Granada Hills Kennedy might be smarter than most, because Cal State Monterey Bay in Northern California is located a mile from some of the best surfing conditions in the state. "I don't surf, but I love the beach," Cruz said. The school is made up of 61% female students, has a student body of less than 5,000 and was formerly the Ft. Ord Army base.

Just shy of a year ago, the students on Granada Hills Charter High School's Academic Decathlon team told themselves that they would win a national title. It took months of practice, weekends and holidays lost, and spring break spent hunkered down in a classroom, studying guides thicker than a phone book. But in a hotel banquet hall here Saturday, the students embraced each other, their parents screamed, their coaches looked to be in a state of shock: Granada Hills was the national champion.

Reporting from Charlotte, N.C. -- For weeks leading up to the national Academic Decathlon, two teams — from California and Texas — have been sizing each other up from afar, rekindling a rivalry nearly as old as the competition itself. Each team has something to prove: Granada Hills Charter High School wants to maintain California's winning streak for the ninth consecutive year; Dobie High School, on the outskirts of Houston, wants to show that Texas, dormant as a frontrunner since 2000, is ready to be a contender again.

Granada Hills Charter High School emerged Monday from two days of intense competition ? and nearly a year of preparation ? as the winner of the state Academic Decathlon, grabbing the chance to represent California at the national level and joining other Los Angeles Unified schools in a strong showing. Los Angeles Unified School District campuses nabbed the top three spots in the competition, with Marshall High School in second place and last year's national winner, El Camino Real , placing third.

Hugs were shared, high-fives were dealt and hearts were broken. A year of stringent studying came down to this: El Camino Real High School beat out 61 other teams Monday to win the California Academic Decathlon. The Woodland Hills team, which has won five national championships, clinched the state title during grueling testing Saturday and Sunday in Sacramento. Winners were announced during a three-hour ceremony Monday afternoon; El Camino had a score of 50,590 out of 60,000 points.