FALL SPORTS ARE UNDERWAY
Summer is over for Laguna Beach High School and prep sports in Southern California.
CROSS COUNTRY
The squads start practice on Monday, Aug. 19. The first competition will be Aug. 30 at Trabuco Hills for the Saddleback Cup. Tommy Newton Neal returns for his third season at the helm of the boys, while Steve Lalim is back for his 17th season with the girls.
The League Cluster meet is on Oct. 2, and the League Finals are on Nov. 6. The Breakers are in the Pacific Hills League. The boys’ league includes Laguna, Irvine, St Margaret’s and Sage Hill, and the girls’ league includes Laguna, St Margaret’s, Sage Hill and Rosary.
FLAG FOOTBALL
Ryan Olson is back as head coach. Season #2 begins on Monday, Aug. 19, with a home game with Estancia at 6:30 p.m. at Guyer Field. The Breakers will host Santiago/GG on Aug. 20, and Long Beach Wilson on Aug. 26. The Pacific Coast League requires each school to play each other twice and includes Laguna, Northwood, University, Woodbridge, Portola, Irvine, Rosary Academy and Sage Hill. St. Margaret’s has no team.
FOOTBALL
Practice is in progress, and the Breakers have a 41-player roster for the 90th season.
Unlike previous seasons – the new format puts the Breakers at a disadvantage, with no easy games to help regroup and nurse injuries during the season. The larger schools may have the same squad size, but the caliber of the reserves should be stronger than the Breaker’s bench.
Expected enrollments for “Fox Trot” League schools
Fountain Valley: 3,129
Aliso Niguel: 2,599
Northwood: 2,482
Dana Hills: 1,788
Orange: 1,754
Laguna Beach: 883
2024 Season Schedule: Kick-off time is at 7 p.m.
Aug. 23 at St. Margaret’s (1-4-0)
Aug. 30 at Santa Monica (first meeting)
Sep. 6 – Kennedy/La Palma (first meeting)
Sep. 13 – Gig Harbor, Wash. (first meeting)
Sep. 20 – El Dorado (2-3-0)
Sep. 27 – Bye
Oct. 4 – Northwood at Irvine HS (6-8-0)
Oct. 11 – Fountain Valley (1-0-0) Homecoming game
Oct. 18 at Aliso Niguel (0-5-0)
Oct. 25 – Dana Hills (11-11-1)
Nov. 1 – Orange (5-12-0)
“Fox Trot” League games in italics
Check the Cal Preps website for ratings, schedules and scores etc.
GIRLS GOLF
The golf team faced Estancia on Aug. 14 in a scrimmage and will open season play on Aug. 26 against Costa Mesa at the Mesa Linda Golf Club. League play begins in September with Laguna in the Pacific Hills League, which includes teams from Laguna, Irvine, Sage Hill and Rosary.
GIRLS TENNIS
The first match is Tuesday, Aug. 27 at Tesoro with league play beginning in September. The Breakers are in the competitive Pacific Coast League, which will be having only single-match play this season against Northwood, University, Woodbridge, Portola, Irvine, Rosary Academy, Sage Hill and St Margaret’s.
GIRLS VOLLEYBALL
The 53rd season opens on Friday, Aug. 6, at the 30-team Tesoro Varsity Tournament, with Laguna facing San Juan Hills, Poway, and El Toro in pool play. The top seed in the event is Santa Margarita.
This past week, the team had a traditional scrimmage on Aug. 8 at Dana Hills and a more formal match format event on Aug. 9 at Aliso Niguel. Laguna was competitive with the Wolverines but lost the four sets 23-25, 19-25, 19-25, 22-25.
The squad will travel to San Clemente for a best-of-five set match on Tuesday, Aug. 20, and to JSerra on Thursday, Aug. 22. The Breakers lead the series with the Tritons 11-7, and the series with the Lions is tied 6-6.
Pacific Coast League play with Rosary, Irvine, St Margaret’s and Northwood begins on Sep. 12 with a home match against Rosary.
BOYS WATER POLO
The team is back in the pool prepping for their 61st season and pointing to make their 32nd consecutive trip to post-season play. Camron Hauer is back for his third season as coach and the team is favored in league play. The Pacific Coast League will be playing a single round with games against Northwood, Sage Hill, Woodbridge, Portola and Irvine. The Breakers open the regular season at home with Crean Lutheran on Thursday, Aug. 22, 3:30 p.m. start. There is no admission charge for boys water polo regular season contests.
KYRA ZAENGLE ON USA VOLLEYBALL JUNIOR NATIONAL U19 TEAM
Laguna senior Kyra Zaengle made USA Volleyball’s nine-member U19 beach volleyball team for the upcoming international season, skipping the high school sports season. This past summer, she took a bronze medal at the U19 World Championship trials.
At Laguna, she played both indoor for three seasons and beach for two seasons, earning first-team all-Sunset Wave League in indoor volleyball and capturing the Sunset League 2023 pair’s title with Dempsey Sadler. She finished her indoor career 10th all-time for Laguna in kills and points off kills, blocks and aces.
Have a note/question on Laguna sports/correction/update? E-mail Frank at Frank@twometer.net. Looking for the 2023-24 high school schedules and scores? Check Laguna Beach High School on the Max Preps website.
