Latest news with #LosAmigos
Los Angeles Times
28-05-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Los Amigos seniors lean into futures following graduation
Los Amigos led off the local high school graduation season, as some 350 seniors received diplomas Tuesday evening. The graduating Lobos leaned into their futures during a ceremony at the Michael A. Monsoor Memorial Stadium on the campus of Garden Grove High. District officials said the graduates explored 97 career pathways and that 130 plan to attend college in the University of California or California State University systems. An early college academy program helped propel the class of 2025 to 3,465 college credits. The Golden State Seal Merit Diploma for students who demonstrate mastery in at least six subject areas was awarded to 110 students. The graduates combined to complete 865 advanced-placement courses in reaching their collective cap-and-gown-wearing, tassel-turning milestone. Los Amigos Principal Todd Nirk presented the graduates at the commencement ceremony. Bob Harden, vice president of the Garden Grove Unified board of education, awarded the diplomas. Alexander Lozano and Cat Pham were recognized as co-valedictorians; each delivered remarks to the graduates. Brianna Li earned the honor of salutatorian. The Los Amigos vocal music program sang the national anthem.
Los Angeles Times
31-03-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Los Amigos softball learning, looking for more success
GARDEN GROVE — Los Amigos reached the CIF Southern Section softball playoffs the past two years after missing out the previous decade, advanced both times, then reeled off eight victories to start this season. It's nice to be winning, of course, and the Lobos treasure their successes — aspire to more and better — but let's not, head coach Jeff Holley suggests, get ahead of ourselves. Los Amigos is not, in any sense, a softball powerhouse, and so when those eight wins were followed by two lopsided losses — the second a 10-0, six-inning Coast League decision Friday afternoon at Santiago — there was disappointment, but no surprise. Los Amigos' old Garden Grove League rivals made it 21 in a row in the series since 2013 — hitting double digits for the 13th time in the past 14 meetings. 'I wanted to get out of here 5-0, 6-0. I would have been really excited by that,' Holley, in his fourth season in charge, said afterward. 'This still wasn't that bad, 10-0 in six innings. They have beaten us by a lot worse.' Holley and his players know where they stand, and there's pride in the strides the Lobos (8-2 overall, 1-2 in the Coast League) have taken since hitting bottom after the pandemic. He stepped in after a winless 2021 campaign, won four games in his first season with what were basically beginners, and has since gone 32-18-1 with three playoff wins and more, they hope, on the horizon. That's not really the point, more so fruits-of-labor stuff: Los Amigos' program, Holley says, is about 'learning the game of softball.' Literally. 'We have people who haven't played before,' he said. 'When they come to us, they're brand new, and so we teach them the game, we teach them to be enthusiastic and have energy and leave everything on the field. And everything else will take care of itself.' Success, he said, is measured by 'getting better every single day.' Every year 'is very rewarding, because you see the growth, especially with players that don't have the background. They're always growing and learning and getting better.' The Lobos have some experience this year, with six seniors who have grown within the program, but not much depth: just 11 players, including junior varsity call-ups, after two starters — senior Ingrid Alvarado and her sister, freshman Angie Cervantes — transferred this week to El Modena after a family move. 'A big loss,' Holley called it. Half the team is 'newcomers that we're going through what we did three years ago with [the seniors],' he said. 'And [the seniors] are staying on them, to say, 'Hey, you can do this. We went through this. You can learn this. You've just got to give it your all.' 'We get girls who have never touched a ball before,' senior first baseman Maria Castillo said. 'Seeing them go from not touching a ball before to simply falling in love with the game is what it's all about.' The experience against stronger programs, such as Santiago's, helps. The Cavaliers (9-3, 3-0) hammered 13 hits behind a nine-for-12, six-run, seven-RBI collaboration from the first three hitters in the lineup and rode senior right-hander Ihilani Berard, who limited Los Amigos to three hits — second- and fourth-inning singles by Alina Mendez and a fifth-inning single by Yvonne Gonzalez — and allowed just one runner past first base. She struck out nine, five on three pitches. It was over, for all intents, in the third, all through the top of Santiago's lineup. Lillian Centeno (three for four) turned a single into a triple when the ball bounced past left fielder Melenny Andrade. Nayelli DeJesus followed with an infield single that Gonzalez, the third baseman, could only knock down, and Marilyn Nuñez homered over the fence in right-center, the first of her three extra-base hits. That might have been it, on a better day, but five errors added up to four unearned runs, three of them with two out as Santiago extended its lead to 6-0 in the fourth, added another pair in the fifth, then put across two more with none out in the sixth to impose the 10-run mercy rule. 'I thought we actually played pretty well,' Holley said. 'In the fourth inning, we got the first two out, we had two easy ground balls to get out of the inning, we don't, and they erupt. And in the fifth inning, it was the same thing, and they explode.' The postseason is within reach. The Lobos figure to battle Savanna (2-12, 1-3) for third place, and they've got the advantage after a 7-5 victory in their March 21 Coast League debut and two more meetings ahead. Three in a row 'would say a lot for us,' senior shortstop Leah Lemusu said, 'just because I know a lot of people doubt us from previous years we didn't win many games. ... It would improve our image, and I think it would be exciting for everyone, too.' The title will go to Santiago, winner of the last three and four of the most recent five Garden Grove League titles, or Anaheim, which captured the last six Orange League championships (with Savanna runner-up the last three). The Colonists (10-1, 2-0), beat Los Amigos, 10-0, in a five-inning game Wednesday. Savanna took both teams the full seven innings. 'This is going to be the hardest year to make the playoffs because the league we're in is the toughest league we've been in,' Holley said. 'It would be an even greater accomplishment to do it this year.' That's the plan. 'We've accomplished so much,' Castillo said. 'And we have even more to accomplish.'
Los Angeles Times
14-02-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Los Amigos girls' basketball beats Perris in CIF opener
Los Amigos utilized a swarming defense and dominance on the offensive boards to make early, easy work of its CIF Southern Section girls' basketball playoff opener Thursday night, the first step in what the Lobos believe could be a magical run. They put Perris away in a 12-minute span of the first half, scoring 22 successive points en route to a 49-28 Division 5AA victory, their first postseason triumph in eight years. It wasn't so close. Sixth-seeded Los Amigos (13-9), the Grove League runner-up, romped to a 20-4 halftime lead, extended the advantage to 34 points near the end of the third quarter, then emptied its bench for the rest of the ride. Sophia Boyer scored eight of her 14 points in a 23-point third quarter, Madeline Nguyen hit three first-half three-pointers and scored 10 points, and Catalina Guardado tallied nine points for the Lobos, who head Saturday night to Jurupa Valley for a second-round meeting with Patriot (16-12). They suffocated visiting Perris (12-11), forcing the Panthers into a half-court game ('not our sweet spot,' noted Perris coach Ikeya Taylor), and then limiting them to one first-half field goal and three in the first three quarters, prodding 41 turnovers, and grabbing more offensive rebounds (33) than Perris managed at both ends (32, just seven on offense). 'We just got after it,' said Los Amigos coach Reginald Kennedy, who rotated 10 players against a seven-player roster. 'We fought hard, we got to the spots, and our girls wanted it.' The Panthers led twice in the first two minutes, and then, just like that, it was over. Los Amigos' aggressive approach denied them space to operate and 18 of their next 23 possessions ended with turnovers. The Lobos were sloppy, too, committing 31 turnovers in a frantically paced, often out-of-control battle. Both teams hit about a quarter of their shots, but all those offensive rebounds, among 52 in all, led to 78 shots to Perris' 36 attempts. Boyer and Heydi Nava grabbed 11 rebounds apiece — Nava had nine on the attacking end, Boyer seven — and Guardado had six rebounds (four offensive) and three steals. 'We were really aggressive,' Guardado said. 'We wanted to ball. We were always on the floor [diving for loose balls], you'd never see one of us standing up when the ball was rolling anywhere, we would literally throw ourselves [onto the floor]. ... 'We came out with energy right off the beginning. Today was a good day for us. We wanted to play. We are so excited, we can't wait for our next game.' Los Amigos targeted Carina Castaneda, the Panthers' top scorer, holding her to one basket and four points until she hit the first of three shots from beyond the arc midway through the third quarter. Eight of her 15 points came against the fourth-quarter reserves. The Lobos are thinking big, with good reason. They're the highest remaining seed in the lower half of the 5AA bracket. 'I think we're capable of going all the way,' Kennedy said. 'I've got all the confidence in the world in these girls. Right now they're riding high, and they've got confidence.' CIF Southern Section Division 5AA playoffs Los Amigos 49, Perris 28 SCORE BY QUARTERS Perris 3 - 1 - 10 - 14 — 28 Los Amigos 9 - 15 - 23 - 2 — 49 P — Castaneda 15, Martin 7, Rath 4, Ray 2. 3-pt. goals — Castaneda 3. Fouled out — None. Technicals — None. LA — Boyer 14, Nguyen 10, Guardado 9, Nava 5, Le 4, Kue 4, F. Macauley 3. 3-pt. goals — Nguyen 3, Guardado 1, F. Macauley 1. Fouled out — None. Technicals — None.
Los Angeles Times
14-02-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Los Amigos boys' basketball drops CIF opener to rival Santiago
Los Amigos and Santiago have had countless meetings as longtime league combatants. The rivals squared off for the third time in five weeks on Wednesday night, and while there was little left in their playbooks that the other hadn't seen, it was a marquee game that made the difference for the visiting Cavaliers with their season on the line. Senior forward Jerell Guidry supplied 10 points, 12 rebounds and six steals, as Santiago toppled host Los Amigos 45-42 in a rough-and-tumble first round matchup of the CIF Southern Section Division 4AA boys' basketball playoffs. '[Guidry] was outstanding today, and that was his best game of the year,' Santiago coach Matt Moorhouse said. 'The first time we played Los Amigos, he did not play like that. He did not have those rebounds. The second time, he was a little better, and this time, he showed what he's capable of. We're not winning the game without Jerell.' Santiago (18-11), which lost both games in Coast League play against Los Amigos (15-13), advances to play La Cañada Flintridge Prep (14-9) on Friday at home at 5 p.m. In a game that did not feature a double-digit lead, Santiago used an 8-0 run to produce the biggest lead of the game. Senior guard Jorden De La Mora, who had a game-high 26 points to go with four steals, scored seven consecutive points in that stretch, including a three-pointer that stretched the Cavaliers' advantage to 31-24 three minutes into the second half. 'He's been our guy the whole year, and I knew he was eventually going to come out,' Moorhouse said. 'It doesn't matter if you box-and-one, it doesn't matter if you just tag him. He's going to get his points. He's going to do his thing, and that's what he's done all year. No one's been able to stop him.' Los Amigos furnished its own 7-0 run to get right back in the contest. Junior guard Zion Rodgers finished through contact at the rim and then went coast to coast for a layup in transition. Rich Toledo's three-point play on another fast break opportunity knotted the score at 31-31. Tapasu Lapati scored all five of his points in the latter stages of the third quarter, helping Los Amigos take a 37-35 lead into the fourth quarter. The offense dried up from there for the Lobos, who went scoreless during a critical six-minute juncture. Rodgers broke the drought with a mid-range jumper. After back-to-back empty trips to the free-throw line for Rodgers and Toledo, Philip Steinert found Rodgers for a three from the left wing to cut the deficit to 43-42 with 23 seconds left. De La Mora made a pair of three throws, and when Rodgers kicked the ball out to Sales Connor with the clock winding down, the potential game-tying three-point attempt hit the back iron and stayed out. 'Unselfish, great group of kids,' Los Amigos coach DeAndre Ferguson said of his team. 'They worked hard. I wouldn't trade any of them. The kids are second to none. … They deserve more. … That's life. This game teaches life.' Los Amigos shared the Coast League championship with Savanna (18-8), and the Lobos have now won back-to-back league titles. Santiago was the third-place team in the league. 'From what I've seen from the time I've been here, they look like they look forward to it a lot,' Rodgers, a Lynwood Firebaugh transfer, said of the rivalry with Santiago. 'Every game's a battle. … Everybody, they just came to compete like it's their last game, and I respect it.' CIF Southern Section Division 4AA playoffs Santiago 45, Los Amigos 42 SCORE BY QUARTERS Santiago 8 - 15 - 12 - 10 — 45 Los Amigos 7 - 14 - 16 - 5 — 42 S — De La Mora 26, Guidry 10, Baude 7, Bracamonte 2. 3-pt. goals — De La Mora 2. Fouled out — None. Technicals — None. LA — Rodgers 18, Toledo 9, Lapati 5, Belote 4, Connor 3, Steinert 3. 3-pt. goals — Rodgers 2, Lapati 1, Connor 1, Steinert 1, Toledo 1. Fouled out — None. Technicals — None.
