Los Al boys basketball team defeated the Huntington Beach Oilers 59-42 on Jan. 6.
PHOTOS: Griffins boys basketball team defeats Huntington Beach
Local students earn top marks at their university
Kaitlyn Nichole Spear named to Dean’s list at the University of New Haven
JFTB announces 2017 public tour schedule
The Joint Forces Training Base Los Alamitos announced its 2017 public base tour program on Jan. 6.
Dates include Feb. 16, May 18, Aug. 17 and Nov. 16. Tours are scheduled on Thursday afternoons and get underway at 1 p.m. from the Military and Veterans Resource Center (Building 244) located just inside the JFTB main gate on Lexington Drive. Those taking the tour should plan for approximately three hours.
Rotary hosts OC District Attorney
The Los Alamitos/Seal Beach Rotary hosted the District Attorney of Orange County, Tony Rackauckas as the guest speaker at its regular meeting at Griffins Grill in December.
Rackauckas talked about the success of the District Attorney’s office, the number of cases prosecuted, and the strong law enforcement presence in Orange County. Currently, Rackauckas is serving his fifth term as the District Attorney and was a former Superior Court Judge.
Collecting toys for Military kids
Love and giving is what St. Hedwig School demonstrated this past Holiday season.
Last month, St. Hedwig students and their families donated 18 boxes of brand new toys, books and more for local military children. Also in doing so, the school hopes to pay tribute to the military men and women who’ve served and those who still serve our country.
Cypress Board of Trustees reorganizes
At its Annual Organizational Meeting in December, the Cypress School District Board of Trustees elected new officers as follows:
• Brian Nakamura, President
• Lydia Sondhi, Ph.D., Vice President
• Sandra Lee, Clerk
• Candi Kern, Member
• Donna McDougall, Member
‘Count the Santas’ winner crowned
Mason Arias of Cypress is the winner of this year’s “Count the Santas” contest at the Cypress Santa Center. Mason won $50 for getting the correct number. There were seven people with the correct number; those names were put into a hat and Mason’s name was pulled. “Mason was thrilled and his whole family came over to pick up the prize, and then they were going shopping with him, so he could buy some video games,” said Cypress Councilmember Mariellen Yarc.
La Palma AAUW donates to Su Casa
The La Palma-Cerritos Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) gathered in December to celebrate the Holiday season with their spouses or significant others. Members brought a variety of appetizers, main dishes, salads and desserts to share at the gathering. In keeping with the holiday spirit of helping others in need at this time, members also brought toys, toiletries and other gifts to donate for families being helped by Su Casa. Su Casa is a non-profit, community based organization dedicated to “Ending Domestic Violence” by offerin
Veterans Voices: Walking a mile in Santa’s shoes
During the festive Thanksgiving family reunions, one of the most popular questions asked is, “What do you want for Christmas?” Most people do not answer immediately. Gradually, after everyone has said their “good-byes” everyone departs, goes home.
On the following Saturday, my family and I went to visit my sister, Helen and her family in Orange, California. We stayed for lunch.
Youth Center tree lot burglarized
Money from a donation jar at the Los Al Youth Center’s Christmas tree lot was stolen at around 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 10. The money in the jar was for purchasing Christmas gifts on the wish lists of local youth that attend the Youth Center’s programs.
Lina Lumme, the Center’s Executive Director, said the culprit is seen on camera arriving at the location on a bike before hiding behind a porta-potty. After scaling the fence, the suspect cut down the donation jar, which was duct-taped to pole and headed to the cash registers.
League Cup Finalists
Even though we are in the midst of the holiday season, plenty of soccer was enjoyed this past weekend. A local AYSO Los Alamitos Extra Boys U9 team from Region 159 topped off their fall season in style.
Scouts send gifts to our troops
St. Hedwig Church Cub Scout Pack 620, in partnership with the non-profit group Words of Comfort, Hope and Promise, sent 100 Christmas stockings directly to troops in Afghanistan.
Cubmaster Nate Morrissey said “This is the third year that our scouts have participated in this event. It is a great way for us to directly impact our troops who may be in harm’s way over the holidays. Each stocking contains a handwritten card from a scout that starts with “Dear Hero-” along with yummy treats from home.”
King & Queen of Hearts kickoff
The Los Alamitos Education Foundation (LAEF) recently announced the start of the fourth annual King & Queen of Hearts Campaign and released the date for the campaign’s Royal Court debut and Coronation Gala.
LAEF’ fundraising efforts through this signature event, the “King & Queen of Hearts,” which has a connection to the popular “I Heart Los Al” district campaign, provides resources to the school district.
Veterans Voices: The worst jolt in America, 1941
Being born in 1923, life for me during the Great Depression years of the 1920’s and 30’s was no jolt to me. Everything seemed normal. I knew nothing of my life that compared with anything I heard from others except I knew many people were hungry with many inadequacies, suffering from lack of food, unemployment, illnesses, and miseries of all sorts, etc.
Oxford claims city crown by beating Cypress 50-41
Oxford Academy Girls Basketball Tournament kicks off the season for 16 teams but for Oxford Academy and Cypress High, their sights are set on the title.
Winning the tournament was a legitimate goal as both teams were coming off strong campaigns last year where Oxford finished with a record of 25-5 and Cypress was 19-10.
Undefeated Lightning
The Blue Lightning U10 AYSO girls soccer team of Los Alamitos finished with an undefeated record of 13-0 (including the regular season and playoffs), as both the U10 girls League Champions and Playoff Champions. They will continue to play as a U10 travel team representing Los Al in early December in La Habra battling other regional top placed teams.
Local programmer wins award
A Los Al student with a keen interest in video game programming recently won a video game contest and was recognized at the Nation’s capitol.
Los Al High School senior Brent VanZant was recently announced as the winner of the High School Game Maker category in the 2016 National STEM Video Game Challenge for his game called Orbit Arena.
Brent said he entered the video game design competition “for fun,” and said he did it because “he likes programming.”
Boeing anticipates manufacturing influx
In a recent press release, Boeing said its transfering half of its employees because they believe “President-elect Donald Trump” is “promising a huge military expansion” so “Boeing is moving half the jobs out of its Huntington Beach facility as the company streamlines in preparation for huge manufacturing orders coming to Southern California.”
Though the move is speculative, the company looks to believe a huge expansion is on the horizon and is preparing itself for it.
For the rest of the press release, see below.
Los Al’s football team comes up short in CIF semifinals
When the Los Alamitos High football team scored with 7:32 left in the game to potentially pull within one score of tying the game, it ignited the Griffins and seemed to swing momentum to their side.
But a botched extra point conversion left them trailing 29-20 and that would be as close as the Griffins would get. La Mirada would tack on a late touchdown to gain the final edge, 36-20, as the Griffins’ season ended one game short of a CIF-SS, Division 3 finals appearance.
Undefeated season for local team
The FC Premier Boys 2001 ended the season undefeated SCDSL league Champs.
FC Premier (formerly known a Cypress FC) plays under the Southern California Development Soccer League and will be applying to move to Tier 1 in the fall 2017.
The team is comprised with players from our local cities of Rossmoor, Seal Beach, Los Alamitos, Cypress, and Long Beach.
The team had an outstanding season together and although the majority of the kids had only been together for a short period of time, they quickly adapted to the coaching style and philosophy of Coach Kenny Hodge.