Schools History

Ashley Sturgeon sat outside El Segundo High School on a hot August day, chatting with her sister and dreading the end of summer vacation. Ashley and her sister Amber, who is starting seventh grade, have been told that the summer break is a tradition born in rural society. But they see simpler reasons for the respite. "It's a good idea, whether you live in the city or on a farm," said Ashley, who will be in 11th grade. "Without the summer off, we might go insane."

Lane Kiffin said it near the end of last season, repeated it in the spring and summer and didn't back down in the run-up to USC's season opener: Marqise Lee has a chance to be the best receiver in Trojans history. Kiffin upped the ante Saturday after the sophomore bolted into the Heisman Trophy discussion with an electrifying performance in USC's 49-10 victory over Hawaii. "He'll be the best one ever," Kiffin said. Keyshawn Johnson was the only USC receiver taken No. 1 overall in the NFL draft.

The year Paul Ryan graduated from high school, the Winter Olympics were held in Calgary, Canada, Oliver North testified in front of Congress about the Iran-Contra affair, and Michael Dukakis and  George H.W. Bush were running for president. Judging from his high school yearbook, the newly minted Republican vice presidential nominee might have been too busy to pay attention to any of that. The 1988 high school yearbook, “Standing Room Only,” for Joseph A. Craig High School in Janesville, Wis., shows a young Ryan, often clad in an oversized Craig Cougars sweatshirt, posing in photos for the student council, the Latin club, the history club, the letterman's club, the outdoors club and the International Geographic Society.

The year Paul Ryan graduated from high school, the Winter Olympics were held in Calgary, Canada, Oliver North testified in front of Congress about the Iran-Contra affair, and Michael Dukakis and  George H.W. Bush were running for president. Judging from his high school yearbook, the newly minted Republican vice presidential nominee might have been too busy to pay attention to any of that. The 1988 high school yearbook, “Standing Room Only,” for Joseph A. Craig High School in Janesville, Wis., shows a young Ryan, often clad in an oversized Craig Cougars sweatshirt, posing in photos for the student council, the Latin club, the history club, the letterman's club, the outdoors club and the International Geographic Society.

The American high school, serving a smorgasbord of undemanding, unrelated courses and turning out far too many graduates unprepared for either college or the workplace, is obsolete. That's the view of the editors of a new book, who argue that it is time to abolish it and start over.

Trabuco Hills High School will play host to Pacific Coast League rival Woodbridge at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Mission Viejo High in the Southern Section Division VIII championship football game. Trabuco Hills (11-2) defeated Woodbridge, 17-13, in the Pacific Coast League finale to stop Woodbridge's 13-game winning streak that spanned 2 seasons. Woodbridge (12-1) is the division's defending champion; Trabuco Hills is seeking its first championship in any sport in the school's 4-year history.

Royal has one of the area's most talented quarterbacks in Ryan Fien, and when he hooks up with receivers Jeff Creed (12 catches for 236 yards) and Tony Liming (13 catches for 251 yards), the Highlanders can mount a potent attack. Nevertheless, it is Royal's defense that has been the key to the Highlanders' 5-0 start, the school's best. The Highlanders have allowed only 21 points--including just two touchdowns--and they recorded their second shutout with a 10-0 win over Newbury Park on Friday.

Tradition or no tradition, Brock will have nothing to do with high school football. Last Saturday, the voters of Brock, Tex., an unincorporated rural community 30 miles west of Ft. Worth, rejected a proposal to "include football in the extracurricular program" of the town's 97-student high school. According to the Associated Press, this was the first football referendum in Texas' history. According to natural law, a Texas town without high school football is not a Texas town.

Claremont High School won its first Express League championship in the school's 10-year history Saturday, defeating Bethel Baptist, 67-53, at Bethel Baptist. Claremont (16-5, 13-1) was led by Derek Evans, who scored 27 points and had 19 rebounds. Tom Patraw--Claremont's leading scorer, averaging 23 points a game--was double- and triple-teamed and limited to 13 points. But Patraw had 10 assists to go along with 19 rebounds. Mark Sanger added 15 points for Claremont, including two three-pointers.

Six years ago, Patrick Rooney set out to write a book that he knew most people wouldn't read. Rooney, who spent 21 years as superintendent of the Ventura Unified School District, decided to chronicle the district's history as part of an early retirement program. Now, 499 single-spaced pages and 300,000 words later, Rooney's book is finished. More than 75 copies will be distributed throughout the district's libraries.

It's Saturday morning, and four of Westlake High's six offensive linemen have shown up to practice wearing pajama bottoms. "If we know the coaches aren't going to have a problem with us being comfortable, then we're going to be comfortable," said the line's spokesman, senior center Jordie Hannel. "So it's wake up, throw on the most comfortable thing we can find, come to practice. " There's no reason to doubt the sincerity of Hannel, a 6-foot-2, 250-pound senior who has a 4.7 grade-point average, a 2320 SAT score out of a possible 2400 and has never received a grade other than A on his report card in high school.

Robert Woods lined up in the USC backfield at one point Saturday, triggering panic among Arizona's defenders. "Woods! Woods! Woods!" the Wildcats barked. Shadowing the Trojans receiver was possible … until the ball was snapped. Then the sophomore continually baffled his opponents. He turned short catches into big plays. He forced safeties to all but ignore other receivers. He transformed the Coliseum into his oversized playground during USC's 48-41 victory. "He tore our zone up, man," cornerback Shaquille Richardson said.

Clara M. Luper, a black civil rights activist in Oklahoma whose early leadership of lunch counter sit-ins helped break down racial barriers at restaurants and diners nearly two years before the Greensboro, N.C., sit-ins captured national attention in 1960, died of natural causes Wednesday at her home in Oklahoma City, her family said. She was 88. Luper's role in civil rights history began with a Greyhound bus trip to New York City in 1957. A high school history teacher, Luper had written a play called "Brother President," about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the leader of the successful Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott.

Courtney Vandersloot scored 29 points, handed out seven assists and got seven steals to lead 11th-seeded Gonzaga to the Elite Eight for the first time in school history with a 76-69 win over Louisville on Saturday night in the Spokane Regional semifinal of the NCAA women's tournament. Gonzaga is the lowest-seeded team to advance to a regional final in the history of the women's tournament. Playing less than two miles from their campus in Spokane, Wash., the Bulldogs (31-4) sent the blood pressure rising for the 10,000 or so hometown fans in attendance after squandering nearly all of a 20-point second half lead.

There was an important lesson learned by UCLA's baseball team last year en route to its most successful season in school history: Don't celebrate with a dog pile. The Bruins lost one of their best hitters, infielder Tyler Rahmatulla, to a broken hand during a postgame victory celebration in the Super Regionals. Insult was added to injury when South Carolina's pitchers shut down the Bruins' hitting in consecutive victories in a best-of-three series for the national championship. Rahmatulla is healthy for his junior season even though he broke his foot on the first day of fall practice.

Concerns that NCAA sanctions would end USC's reign as a college football recruiting force were apparently unfounded. USC Coach Lane Kiffin has already welcomed nine players who enrolled early in January. And on Wednesday, the first day of the NCAA's signing period for fall sports, USC is expected to sign as many as two dozen more players to cap what will surely be a national top-10 recruiting class. So what happened to the 15-scholarship limit that was supposed to handcuff the program?

Chris Hardy's 92-yard touchdown Saturday night against Colorado State, the second-longest in San Diego State history, was the longest Aztec running play in more than 30 years. Phil Prokop set the school record with a 98-yard run against Pepperdine in 1952, 12 years before Hardy was born. Volney Quinlan also had 92-yard run against the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in 1951. Hardy rushed for a career-high 235 yards in the 48-23 win over Colorado State, the fourth-highest total in Aztec history.

As many as 50 historical photographs of Hawthorne School students, dating back more than half a century, were found recently in a school storeroom where they had been kept for more than a decade. The photographs, still in excellent condition, span two decades at the Beverly Hills school, from 1922 to the 1940s. They show neatly dressed, well-groomed children posing in "picture-day" clothing.

There's not much room for running in the Verdugo Hills High gym. Shorter than a regulation high school court by 10 feet, half court is essentially the top of the key. The quarters are so tight that players often go flying into walls during practices. Going on runs? That was no problem for the long-suffering Dons during a breakthrough season in which they won their first section title in school history and first league title since 1959. Verdugo Hills used a 19-0 run in the fourth quarter to rally for a 60-52 victory over Woodland Hills El Camino Real in the Los Angeles City Section Division III championship.

About the time California's Jahvid Best was weaving his way through what looked like powder blue pylons, slipping tackle after tackle against the UCLA defense, the idea that there was a problem should have crossed the Bruins' minds. Best's 93-yard touchdown run underscored the Bears' ability to make big plays -- and the Bruins' inability to prevent them -- in Cal's 45-26 victory Saturday in a Pacific 10 Conference game at the Rose Bowl. By the time Cal linebacker Mychal Kendricks was sailing down field on a 68-yard interception return to polish off things, the Bruins probably realized their season was in critical condition.