Today's vocal-and-local edition of The Sporting Muse:
College athletics often drops to bended knee to raise money from boosters and fans of its programs. When the sport is football or basketball, there's at least some expectation of school spirit.
But it's harder for sports that do not perform in the public eye, which makes what Jenny Hilt-Costello has accomplished with Long Beach State's women's tennis program dramatically successful.
Today, she and her players will host eight individual boosters in "Beach Tennis Boosters Day" at the Rhodes Tennis Center. The boosters will go through a practice with the team and spend the afternoon with them at a private lunch.
There aren't many college tennis programs that can count on individual donors like that. But since Hilt-Costello arrived and turned the 49er tennis program into a Big West Conference dynasty, she's been able to attract a $1.25 million donation from Terry L. Rhodes for a 12-court facility and a separate donation from the Hendricks family for a scoreboard.
"I'm proud of how we've managed to increase fund-raising every year," she said, to the point where the 2011 donations have equaled her operating budget. "That's a pretty substantial achievement for tennis.
"We've had a chance to cultivate relationships, get people involved and introduce them to the girls. And once they meet the players, it's hard to not be involved."
West titles and a spot in the NCAA Tournament over the last 10 seasons, broken into the top 20, and claimed a 20-win season five times. The 2011-12 squad starts its modest fall schedule later this month, and six returnees from last year's team, plus two newcomers, make them a prohibitive favorite to win the conference title again.
Terry Rhodes was a former men's tennis player at Long Beach State who reacquainted himself with the university and became a benefactor for the program. The Hendricks family has ties, too: the late Gloria Hendricks was the tennis coach from 1975-79, before the NCAA era.
Her husband Bob, brother John, daughter Cindy Hendricks Robbins and Cindy's husband Les Robbins came together to sponsor the scoreboard, which makes watching a match much easier.
The Long Beach Triathlon taking off Sunday morning at 7 a.m. has a back story that's a lot deeper than the water competitors will be diving in.
Karen Kachigan founded the race 13 years ago in memory of her brother Kevin, who died of AIDS in 1996. All proceeds from the race benefit the St. Mary Medical Center CARE program (Comprehensive AIDS Resource Education), and more than $300,000 has been donated to the program since the race began.
"Starting the triathlon was my way of thanking the CARE Program for taking care of my brother and our family when nobody else would," Kachigan said. "This is a great event for the city and the Long Beach community."
Of all the inductees in the Long Beach State Hall of Fame class of 2011, one of the most admired is former basketball star Margaret Mohr. After her playing career, she was an assistant coach for the 49ers and Santa Clara, coached at Wilson and reached a CIF title game, and was an assistant for the WNBA's L.A. Sparks for two seasons.
She did that work along with her main job as the head coach at Cypress College. She's won 205 games in her 12 years, has had four 20-win seasons, reached the state regional finals five times and won the state crown in 2005 with a 28-5 record.
When former Long Beach State standout Kyle Kopp is inducted into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame tonight in Newport Beach, he will join a litany of local water polo players and coaches already in the Hall.
Remarkably, there are 32 members of the hall with ties to Long Beach, including Kopp. That includes Bill Barnett (Long Beach State), Charles Bittick (Wilson, LBCC), Bruce Bradley (Millikan), Jody Campbell (Wilson), Stan Cole (Wilson), Ron Crawford (Downey, Long Beach State), Bob Horn (Long Beach State), Doug Kimball (Long Beach State), Edwin Knox (Poly, LBCC), Ken Lindgren (Long Beach State), Harold McAllister (Poly), Charles McIlroy (Long Beach State), Alan Mouchawar (Poly), Monte Nitzkowski (LBCC), Maureen O'Toole (Wilson, LBCC), Tim Shaw (Wilson, Long Beach State) and Calvert Strong (Poly).
Strong and McAllister were on the 1932 and 1936 Olympic teams, Nitzkowski is the Godfather of Long Beach water polo, Lindgren is the longtime 49er coach and four-time Olympic assistant, Campbell and Shaw were on the unbeaten silver medal team in 1984, and O'Toole was a groundbreaker as the first star women's player.
The Dirtbags promoted two assistants this past week, but former pitcher Abe Alvarez will remain with the program as an undergraduate assistant next season. The left-handed ace will graduate this fall and may start a credential program afterward that could lead to his becoming a teacher-coach on the high school or college level.
Perhaps you heard about the Nike bat controversy? Several name teams complained about the ineffectiveness of the Nike bats this past season - all bats had new specs that took a chunk out of offense - and the company is allowing those schools, including USC, Oregon and a lot of SEC teams - to use other bats in 2012.
The Dirtbag bat deal is with Louisville Slugger. Alas, no scape-bat for last year's offensive issues.
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