Show Me Love.

So, I decided this Wednesday to watch Long Beach City College's women's volleyball team in action against El Camino College. Here's the verdict. As the old saying goes, Rome was not built in a day. Translate that to LBCC Women's Volleyball, this team did not win a conference title overnight in spite of a massive turnaround under Misty May-Treanor. All of the lossses that this team had were in five against teams ranked sixth (Cypress), seventh (Mira Costa) and eighth (El Camino) in the state. No other losses were incurred. 13 of the 18 victories by LBCC were sweeps. (18 as of this post. Worse the team can finish is 18-5.)



This is unheard of. In the past, LBCC women's volleyball was absolutely horrible to watch. We simply were not a competitive team. With a changing of the guard at El Camino next year, and with the Lady Vikings on the rise, LBCC are doing better than Long Beach State. Both teams are on pace to finish second in their respective conference, but LBCC's record (18-4) is slightly better than LBSU's (17-10) wins wise, but when you take into consideration the improvement in talent, LBCC is starting to turn the tables.



The question will have to be asked: how long will Misty May-Treanor coach the women's volleyball and beach volleyball teams? With Brian Gimmillaro soon to step down in a few years, it may not be long before we have an immediately successor. A similar case regarding Mauricio Ingrassia saw Long Beach State women's soccer win conference tournament titles and participate in national tournaments on a frequent basis. I think if LBCC win state, LBSU has to take a look at this.



Of course, there is the possibility that Misty decides to have a longevity similar to a living legend in Le Valley Pattison. But with May being a legend at the Beach, you have to wonder if LBCC are able to pull off a miracle and keep Misty May-Treanor on the books at #VGOH for at least a decade or so. In any case, this result is expected for now. But the signs are present: LBCC Women's Volleyball is finally on the rise.



That being said, this effort against ElCo is similar to the football team's efforts against Saddleback this season: the inability to manage games against proud opposition that don't know how to lose very often. Misty will need to start recruiting high school talent in the area and also in ElCo's territory while pitching the benefits of an A.A. or A.S. degree (and the benefits are real, just so you know) so that this resurging team can stop the likes of Mira Costa, Cypress and especially El Camino on a consistent basis and finally be on par with the men. I am very confident that unless LBCC does the unthinkable and wins State this year, Misty's going to be in your company for a long time so enjoy it, Vikings fans. Who knows...she might even be in the Hall of Champions years from now!?



El Camino won 27-29, 19-25, 25-18, 25-13, 15-10. Fortunately, the football team is getting El Camino's number now and their victory offset's the Lady Vikings not getting it done yet on their end.

Now calling out: the red and black recidivists on the volleyball court!

Mr. Randy Totorp:

Webster's dictionary defines recidivism as "Committing new offenses after being punished for a crime." In this instance, the crime was to be out of form against the likes of Orange Coast College, whose only losses were to Irvine Valley (who got eliminated by Moorpark in five), on February 12.
Last night, your Vikings were recidivistic in their four-set defeat to the Pirates. Come on now. Your guys had TWO MONTHS and TEN DAYS to figure out how to even the score, and they couldn't get it done. I am in pure disbelief as to why they couldn't do any of the fundamentals right: hit, serve, and especially dig. They made it as easy as possible for the Pirates to finish the job, even after salvaging Set 3.

Guess what, Randy? Your returning players got THE REST OF THE CALENDAR YEAR to think about the futility that plagued your title defense. They didn't play like title contenders, or defenders. Long Beach City College played like PRETENDERS. Pretenders don't win anything (and a runner-up plaque doesn't not count as anything, not like it's going to matter; they couldn't even make the championship). Your boys have no one to blame but themselves for this atrocious inability to rebound from the humiliation dealt to them in February. I hope they make the most of their time to train their hearts out, to condition themselves like there is no tomorrow...anything to turn their fortunes around next season.

One more thing: if Moorpark, for some hare-brained reason unbeknownst to man, wins Saturday...it's the end of the world as we know it.

Yours truly has spoken,


JR Salazar.

BoBA Post Number 900!

In between discussions and capstones and laundry services, I decided to take one more trip to Long Beach City College's Small Gym to watch the men's volleyball last time. Once again, we were taking on Pierce College to finish our regular season. Randy Totorp's men wrapped up the 2010 Western State Conference championship with a sweep of Moorpark College. I told them guys, "Treat this as a warm-up for the 22nd of April at Orange Coast College. Congratulations on winning the conference, by the way."

I was surprised that Los Angeles Pierce did give us a game. It did take them the third set to finally show up. However, early on signs were pointing to a sweep.

In the first match, the Vikings were keeping pace with the Brahmas until we pulled through late to win 30-28. However, in the second set, tempers flared on the Pierce end and one of their players was sent off for arguing with the official and delaying the game.

It was a unusual sight. I never saw a junior college match that saw a player get redded. But here's the thing: Pierce College was going through a tough season. They were 4-12 (4-5 WSC) and needed to finish a tough year on the right note. However, a few of the players continued to argue with the officials and even I was telling them, "Enough! Get on with it; know where you are you punks!" They still argued.

That reminded me of something: a few weeks ago, I applied for a lifetime membership to the LBCC Alumni Association. for $250...I ended up getting a red piece of construction paper with black print for a card.

I felt cheated. Couldn't they have treated me with respect and used red plastic and did it in the way of the CSULB Alumni Association? To give my card some of the dignity it lost, I had it laminated at STAPLES for a buck and change. That's $251 and change for the entire lifetime membership.

Knowing that a red card in volleyball is an automatic expulsion, I pulled it out and showed it to the crowd as a strong suggestiong of what this official should do. If I'm the white maggot on top making the calls, I'm not messing around; this guy is gone. And so he was. Because of that, LBCC won the second set.

What irked me is the inability of this team to close the deal. In the third and fourth sets, I watched the Vikings squander their chances. Bad serves. Terrible digs. And too much improvisation. They were out of position, and I was not pleased by this.

So I told them, as the fifth game began, "You WILL finish the job, or you're gonna be one and done at OCC two Thursdays from now!" Understanding my frustration, they torched Pierce 15-7.

I still have my doubts, but they proved that they can still deliver when a match goes the distance. One of the sophomores will be heading to UCI, another to Hawaii, another to Lindenwood, an NAIA school in Missouri.

A very funny day

Today was sort of a funny day for me. On the first try, I solved the Solitaire puzzle. And then my Chipotle free burrito coupon mysteriously regenerated. And on the bus from the men's volleyball match between Long Beach City and Orange Coast, I was the only passenger.

But I learned an answer to one question. How do you rebound from giving a winless team their first win of the season at your house? Simple. You give an undefeated team their first defeat of the season at your house.

With that, here's a pop quiz to put it all in perspective.

You're Kim Sowder. The night before the game with Florida, you make a decision regarding who you want to start in the circle. Bridgette Pagano was money in the first game against St. John's, but Brooke Turner couldn't get any help from the rest of your lineup in the second game. What do you do?

A. Start Bridgette in hopes that she can get it done against the high-flying Gators.
B. Start Turner, but let the players have fun, because you expect the Gators to bring out the mercy rule.
C. Start Turner, and keep in mind of her ability to rebound, as well as her ability to win big games (i.e. San Diego, Hawaii).

If you chose C, that's what the real Kim Sowder did. This was the first time I saw a match go to the ISF tiebreaker rule. ISF is the International Softball Federation, and the rule dictates that to start the 10th inning, a runner will be on second. Turner was fantastic, striking out 16, and in the tiebreaker inning, they got the winning run home, and then-undefeated, #5-ranked Florida, fell to Long Beach State, 2-1.

That's TWO sports our women have the upper hand on against UF. And that's the first time I flung my shirt into the air at that complex. This is going to bring monster confidence as they head to Vegas for a tourney there this weekend. And in that game, my Chipotle free burrito coupon regenerated. Actually, I won a new won after winning my first scavenger hunt at the Softball Complex. Mystery solved.

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I went over and said hello to some of the new guys on the Long Beach City College men's volleyball team. I like #6 on the squad, Casey Bennett from Redondo Beach. He has a very good arm, and nice power to boot. Interesting thing about the gym the Viking play in (which has been renovated with new bleachers and a new surface, to go with repainted walls (the banners have been relocated, too, so that you know why the men have historically performed better than the women; obviously it's the reverse, if not same success on both sides, at Long Beach State). And the roof is so close, that balls tend to hit onto the roof, and when you are trying to set and spike, you mess up because the digs are too high. It's a bit crazier than the Walter Pyramid, because some of the more impossible digs are possible here. It's a smaller facility, and the court looks smaller. You get to do a bit more, given the lack of space. At the Pyramid, you can see where the ball is going. You would have to set like Hercules to make it touch the roof there.

There are some other good players there on this year's edition, including: Chuck Chamberlain, Antwain Aguillard, Dane Mulligan, Joe Strotman, Casey Landel, Bojan Vucicevic, Tyler Jenkins, Justin Flake, Brandon Anaya, Dan Saldana, and Tyler Mullen.

We ended up sweeping Orange Coast in three.

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On the bus back home, I found out that I was the only passenger aboard. No one else got on, no one else got off. It's like I was riding an taxi disguised as a bus. That probably is the first time I've gone through that on Long Beach Transit.

Thus, it's been a funny day. But then again, my mood is where I want to be when tomorrow comes.

A great day to be a yanderekko...

For those of you who don't know what the heck a yanderekko is, that is the term for a cute girl who ends up becoming a hellbent killer. An example of this is Rena Ryuuguu (one of my favorite yanderekkos) from When Cicadas Cry (Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni).

And why is that, one asks? While a number of my local teams won, a number of my local teams also lost today (and yesterday).

I'll go to the teams that failed. Starting with the Galaxy. Now, call what you will, all those "the ball is round" type of talk, but the bottom line is: my LA Galaxy played the type of football that overpaid, pretentious, impotent sportswriters love to rip apart just to get some extra dough. They lost 2-1 to an FC Dallas team that should have been winnable without David Beckham. No excuse for that uncompelling home opener.

Next, the Lakers. Oh dear. How many more losses before you salvage a playoff berth, Phil Jackson? They sunk to .500, losing to Phoenix. I'd rather cheer for the Clippers now. I'll place even money on Phil Jackson and his staff fired if they are eliminated while crashing into the finish line.

Next, the Avengers. Ouch! Ed Hodgkiss, when will you tell you guys to play some defense when it matters most? I mean, I know Arena Football is a high-scoring ordeal-it's a given, and I've actually seen a game during your inaugural season-but come on now. Dropping another one to the Utah Blaze? You can feel the heat now, Hodgie, and it's not coming from Utah...I leave it to you to find that out. Schmuck.

Next, the Angels. While I know Boston will be once again a force to be reckoned with, you gotta tell your guys not to make getting blown out of the water a habit. Baseball, like any sport, has a business side to things. That's why I'm attending classes at the CBA right now...

Finally, Long Beach City College and Long Beach State men's volleyball. I'll get to Alan Knipe's swains last. First, LBCC. Jeez Louise, Randy Totorp! Dropping the match to Santa Monica on the 6th (after looking for the result for over a week)!? You gotta kick butt against Moorpark to get the conference title. The Corsairs might be the ones who take the wheels off you. Unforgivable.
But I'll give you this, Randy: your guys are nowhere near as pathetic as Long Beach State. Ugh, Alan Knipe! Why, oh why, did USA Volleyball hire you to coach the national side at the Pan American Games this summer? It doesn't make sense. Finishing the season on a losing note, getting whitewashed by UC Irvine, of all teams! If this is how your national side will play (and I know they can send the Beach off the face off this war-torn planet if they wanted to), then they've got as good a chance of winning gold as England have a chance of winning the World Cup. USA Volleyball, hire John Speraw for the Olympic run. Please. Or Marv Dunphy. Or Al Scates. Or Bill Ferguson or Mike Wilton. Heck, have your program do an about-face and hire Ryan McGuyre! Anybody but Alan Knipe! For the love of William "Mintonette" Morgan!

I hope I am proven wrong.

Now I go to the good stuff that happened. Anaheim Ducks are now 2-0 on Minnesota Wild, while the Dodgers, LBSU women's tennis, the Dirtbags, and the Las Vegas 51s won. End good stuff. I seem to write more about failure than victory. I suppose I'm falling in with those sportswriters, except for one thing: I'm not paid to blog. And until someone gives me the ability to snap my fingers to take money from someone without them knowing it and letting me get away with it...I like it that way.

Uncontrollable? Coming…

I tried out the love tester at the Claim Jumper after my meal with my sister and her new fiancée. The light pointed to the highest spot, Uncontrollable. I think I need to go through that again. The urge to do so must be felt now. If the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars, then it must be true: I love the color red.

I have nothing but scathing remarks to say about our effort against USC in volleyball. To be honest, they wouldn’t stand a chance against Long Beach City.

I think my voice is coming back. Two weeks! Two frustrating weeks without my voice. Thank god the Fortnight of Silence is now silenced…for now.