Latest news with #SetTheStandard
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Defending flag football champion Orange Lutheran aims to achieve even more this season
Last year's theme for the Orange Lutheran flag football team was 'Set the Standard.' The Lancers did just that, finishing 23-2 and defeating Newport Harbor 20-18 to win the inaugural Southern Section Division 1 title and secure the No. 1 ranking in California. Coach Kristen Sherman revealed this season's theme is "Raise the Bar" and, having graduated only one starter, it looks like her team could be even better than a year ago. It may have to be if it wants to defend its crown as the talent throughout the Southland is deeper than ever. 'We're hoping to reach a higher level this year,' said Sherman, whose husband, Rod, is head coach of Orange Lutheran's football squad. 'These new rules change a lot. I may have preferred the old rules, but the girls like punting and returning, so I think it'll be more fun for them.' Since defensive players will now be able to line up six yards closer to the ball, an elite quarterback will be essential, and the Lancers have the best in Makena Cook, the reigning CIF player of the year. On Aug. 6, the two-sport athlete committed to Georgia for soccer, but her focus right now is on a repeat. 'We're definitely better ... but it's a clean slate,' Cook said after tossing six touchdown passes against host Long Beach Poly in a scrimmage Thursday — her first competitive game since November. As a sophomore last season, Cook passed for 6,611 yards and 97 touchdowns, 20 of them caught by All-CIF receiver Julia Oberholtzer (now a senior) who also led the defense with 114 flag pulls and eight interceptions. The Lancers open the season Wednesday at Woodbridge. Sherman once again filled the schedule with quality opponents, including a Sept. 4 clash with Irvine Northwood, which took the Division 2 title last fall thanks to Natalie Keith, who earned division player of the year honors after throwing for five touchdowns in the final against Trabuco Hills. Sherman predicted Trinity League competition will be a 'smack in the face.' JSerra's roster features three incoming freshmen who are members of the 15U junior national team — quarterback Katherine Meier and wide receiver/defensive backs Tessa Russell and Ava Irwin. Kendra Hansen will be a scoring threat every time she touches the ball for Mater Dei, and running the offense at Santa Margarita will be All-CIF senior Madi Lam, who quarterbacked her Conquer Chargers club team at the NFL Flag Championships in Canton, Ohio, in July. Division 1 finalist Newport Harbor graduated All-CIF quarterback Maia Helmar, but sophomore Scarlett Guyser will take over the position. Cooper Dick (a Texas Tech soccer commit) and Maddy Michel are set to be her primary targets. Skylie Cid led the team in touchdowns as a freshman. The Sailors beat Orange Lutheran in triple overtime in a tournament at Beckman over the summer, but Cook did not play. Huntington Beach has all the offensive firepower it needs to challenge Newport Harbor for Sunset League supremacy with the return of Roxie Shaia, who threw for 7,465 yards and 99 touchdowns in 2024, and receiver/safety Taylor Savage, who racked up 1,491 receiving yards. Last fall, Ventura lost a shootout to Huntington Beach in the Division 1 quarterfinals, but the Cougars could ride the arm of senior Ava Ortman to a deeper playoff run in 2025. Statistically, she was one of the best in the section with 6,974 yards, 110 touchdowns and a 141.2 rating. In its opener Thursday, Ventura takes on Camarillo, which has one of the top two-way players in Ventura County in Stella Alessi (41 touchdowns and 14 interceptions last season). Long Beach Poly will seek to three-peat in the Moore League, but it will be a taller task without All-CIF quarterback Kenzie Paimany, who tore her anterior cruciate ligament playing soccer. She threw for 60 touchdowns last year. The most versatile player for the Jackrabbits is senior receiver/linebacker Ki'ele Ho-Ching, who has committed to Oklahoma for softball. 'We're hoping she can come back towards the end of the season,' Poly coach Rob Shock said about Paimany. 'We take every game as a tough game. Nothing's given, everything's earned.' Lakewood St. Joseph suffered only one defeat in 22 games last year, however, the Jesters are poised to go further with junior signal-caller Lexi Loya (5,377 yards and 73 touchdowns last fall) throwing to sophomore receiver Jaclyn Brennan (76 catches for 985 yards and 16 touchdowns). The City Section is up to 93 teams, and the one to beat appears to be Narbonne, led by its All-City two-wayers Faith Ugoje, Shayla Rivera and Luna Orozco. The Gauchos beat King/Drew 7-0 for the Division I title last year and twice defeated the 2024 Open Division winner Banning in the summer. Ugoje was chosen Division I player of the year after rushing for 1,660 yards, catching 60 passes for 828 yards and scoring 23 touchdowns as a freshman under City coach of the year Sherrelle Holmes. Also contending for the Marine League crown will be is two-time Open finalist San Pedro. Teams to watch: Orange Lutheran, JSerra, Santa Margarita, Newport Harbor, Mater Dei, Huntington Beach, Northwood, Eastvale Roosevelt, Ventura, Narbonne, Lakewood St. Joseph, Aliso Niguel, Trabuco Hills, Anaheim Canyon. Sign up for the L.A. Times SoCal high school sports newsletter to get scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Sky News AU
03-06-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Brittany Higgins announces return to the workforce after four years as she seeks her 'own identity' outside of media interest
Brittany Higgins is returning to the workforce four years after the ex-political staffer quit parliament, joining the same company currently employing her husband. Ms Higgins, 30, has been appointed public affairs director at independent public relations agency Third Hemisphere, the Australian Financial Review (AFR) reported on Wednesday. It comes after the former Liberal Party media adviser's husband David Sharaz also joined the boutique Sydney agency as a director in April. Ms Higgins' will head strategic advocacy and reputation management for target clients and oversee stakeholder engagement, media relations, and public affairs initiatives aimed at moulding public perception and change. Her female-focused clients include non-profit organisations, women's advocacy and support groups, and female leaders at large organisations. The clients represent an extension of Ms Higgins' advocacy for workplace safety, gender-based violence, and cultural reform in politics. Third Hemisphere founder and CEO Hannah Moreno is also a rape survivor, and her social justice advocacy helped convince Ms Higgins to join the firm. 'There was this general feeling of 'how long do I have to be the story for?' At what point do I get to put it to rest and actually get on the tools and be a working person again, and have my own identity outside this narrative of Brittany Higgins,' the former parliamentary staffer told the AFR. 'Who I was was really founded in my work. I was the most intense person back in the day – the first one in and the last one out – I had no work-life balance, and it was exactly how I liked it. 'To lose that was really quite tough. To start to reclaim that sense of identity feels good.' Ms Higgins, who in March welcomed her first child with Mr Sharaz, a boy named Freddie, said she has a "brand reputation" to uphold and did not want to associate herself with an "untoward" new workplace corporately. Instead, the first-time mother wished to join a team she believed in and one that believed in her, too. Alongside her career in government, Ms Higgins helped advance feminism and influence national legislative reform. In 2021, she was appointed as the inaugural Visiting Fellow at The Australian National University's Global Institute for Women's Leadership. Her lobbying was key to prompting Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner's historic review of parliamentary workplace culture. The review led to the federal government's commitment to implement the full slate of recommendations of the Set The Standard report. Reflecting on her efforts to the AFR, Ms Higgins said she's passionate about advocacy, but "it's not forever" nor a "self-sustaining career." She said she aspires to follow in the footsteps of gender equality advocate Sam Mostyn, social activist Tanya Hosch and business executive Christine Holgate and hopes her new role is the first step. "To feel sidelined and forever be living in your trauma is really reductive,' she said. Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz, 33, will work from home full-time as they navigate being parents to three-month-old Freddie. Mr Sharaz previously worked as a journalist and media advisor and it is understood his role at Third Hemisphere entails boosting the agency's political media engagement. The ex-reporter proposed to Ms Higgins at Byron Bay on New Year's Eve in 2022, months after the former political staffer was paid compensation after Bruce Lehrmann raped her in Parliament House. Ms Higgins received a $2.4 million payout from the Commonwealth in 2022. The newlyweds were previously living in France in a home purchased by Ms Higgins to start afresh following intense media coverage in Australia. However, they listed their chateau in the south of France and returned to Australia, where they have set up a home in Melbourne.
