Amgen Tour of California Preview

By Mike Takeuchi

*Reprinted article.

As I expected, the first stage of the Amgen Tour of California was cancelled due to snow and ice on the roads. They will try again tomorrow.

With the Tour of California starting today in Lake Tahoe, a predicted snow forecast and the death of a rider in the Giro d'Italia are on the minds of many of the riders. But for three-time defending champion Levi Leipheimer, the concerns are understood.

"I think we as riders have a unique perspective, because we can do it (race) and then watch it on television," Leipheimer said. "On television it looks fairly docile and at times boring — we want riders to attack. But then, when we race, it's nerve-wracking and stressful, and sometimes, a moment of relapse or loss of concentration can be serious. When riders talk about safety or danger, we're not doing that to gain sympathy or dramatize our sport. I've been scared on downhills — in the Giro d'Italia the roads are small and steep and the riders have a lot of skill, but there is not a lot of room for error. Safety is a big issue for us. It's not so much about complaining — safety is a real issue."

That said, Leipheimer also added in a press conference that the race organizers "had their backs." Race director Jim Birrell said that they are monitoring the situation on a minute by minute basis.

"We've been watching the forecast and will continue to monitor the situation," Birrell said. Our team will come together (Saturday night) and will determine our action plan. Our concern is going to be what's on the road. If it's just wet, it will be all systems go. We'll look at all the variables we can to make the decision that's safest for these riders."

Race organizers will make a decision at 9 a.m. today on whether to conditions will be condusive to racing.

Rider safety is of paramount concern because the death of Leopard Trek rider Wouter Welandt in the third stage of the Giro has hit very close to home to some members of the peleton, including his teammate and current Tour co-favorite Andy Schleck.

"The loss of Wouter last week was personally a big shock for me," Schleck said. "He was a good friend of mine. There are no words to describe the feelings that were going through me, my brother and the team. The day after the crash, everyone at the Giro (d'Italia) showed respect and it was really nice to see."

"It has been hard for me to stay focused on training, but I'm sure he would have wanted me to stay in the race and do my best. The team is here and we ride for Wouter."

Schleck and Leipheimer are expected to take over the reins of the race after defending champion, Australian rider Michael Rogers pulled out of the race due to a stomach virus.

Weather permitting on Sunday, the biggest challenges of the initial stage will begin halfway through the first day at Spooner Pass (elevation 7,000 feet), and then culminate with a 1,000-foot climb at Brockway Summit toward the end. But just when the riders think they were done climbing, a short, steep 300 foot climb awaits them.

In stage two from Squaw Valley to Sacramento, what goes up, must come down. Going from the famed ski village and 1960 Winter Olympics Venue to the state's capital, this is a sprinter's delight, with the major concern being what a cyclist eats as they fly through the infamous Donner Pass. With HTC High Road's sprinting god Mark Cavendish and his gang of leadout riders racing in the Giro d'Italia look for Garmin-Cervelo's Thor Hushovd, U.S. national road champion Ben King (BMC Racing Team) or perhaps King's wily veteran teammate George Hincapie) to look for a stage win. Remember, it was Hincapie who took the sprint finish on Cabrillo Boulevard in the inaugural race.

After a relatively flat stage from Auburn to Modesto with sprinters again vying for a win in stage three, the next stage heads to the Mt. Hamilton Observatory in a steep climb to 4,130, but could be the ideal place for a young rider such as American rider Tejay Van Garderen, who supported 2010 champion Rogers in his win, to possibly try and steal the stage and take command of the race.

"Winning this year's Amgen Tour of California is definitely a goal for me," Van Garderen said. "The goal would be to do well or win, so I'm going to try to win. If I fail, I fail. I know it's going to be hard, but it's what I'm going to try to do."

After a relatively flat, yet long (at nearly 140 miles the lengthiest of the race) stage from Seaside to Paso Robles on Thursday, the long awaited stage for the local community arrives with the Solvang time trial. Despite its relatively short distance, this could be where the race is won...or lost. While sprinters are not enamored with the stage, time trialists like U.S. champion Taylor Phinney (the son of Davis Phinney) are practically chomping at the bit for this stage.

"I haven't really had a good test in the time trial yet, so Solvang will be my first big test before Nationals," Phinney said. "As a course, it kind of suits me. The time trial is my biggest goal here. I will be giving it my all for sure."

Despite not having Rogers, who is also one of the best time trial riders in the world, the all-around contenders like Schleck, who is Luxemburg's time trial champ, and Leipheimer, will pose stiff challenges for Phinney in the stage.

Following Friday's stage, despite being a relatively short 75.8-miles, what is considered the most difficult stage in the history of the Tour awaits. After a rolling first tough climb in the early part of the stage, the race ends with a brutal climb starting at the 50-mile mark and then proceeds to go nowhere but up, finally reaching the summit with 1,000 feet of climbing in less than three miles.

"This is by far the hardest edition of the Amgen Tour of California in six years," Leipheimer said. "I rode Mt. Baldy last April before last year's Tour because I had gotten word that it might be added to the route. That is a real climb — worthy of the Tour de France. Now, all of a sudden we have two mountain-top finishes with Mt. Baldy and Sierra Road."

The Hollywood Ranters

By Mike Takeuchi

VROMANS BOOKSTORE CAFÉ- I haven’t seen too many “grown-ups” throw temper tantrums throughout my life. In fact, I have only seen two in the last ten years and both of them involved people in “the business” or Hollywood. As a sportswriter/production supervisor aka glorified celebrity hand holder, I have had the privilege to be near some interesting people.

On the same token, the closer look revealed the warts. Of the people with the most distinctive blemishes, I would put Kobe Bryant at the top of the list of jerks that I have come across. Surprisingly, Barry Bonds wouldn’t even make my top (or bottom) ten list. Perhaps the few interactions I had with the recently convicted (of only obstruction of justice) ex-ballplayer, he seemed to be in a talkative mood.

But the one thing I have never encountered in a locker room or on the field was someone resembling Baby Huey when things didn’t go the large cartoon fowl’s way. I can’t say the same for my other job. Perhaps the machismo factor is involved when dealing with athletes. Showing anything other than anger followed by grim determination often gets one labeled a…well, a bitch. Internalize until you succeed and then say something like “I was disrespected” and sportswriters and fans will nod their heads knowingly.

It is the complete opposite in my other field of work Even those who do not get behind the camera, are often emotive to the point that they should honestly try out for a soap opera-if any of them are left.

The first occurrence happened during an awards tribute given to the great actor Geoffrey Rush. Oh, it wasn’t the gracious Australian who committed the faux pas’. To the contrary, he was a friendly gentleman who even took the time to thank this writer for “taking care” of him as he was being whisked away back to the airport. The night, which also included Academy Award winning best actor Colin Firth and the wonderfully wacky Helena Bonham Carter was a night for future Best Picture winner “The King’s Speech” and despite having to change some things, worked out pretty well.

However, the publicist for the actors didn’t think so. (Okay, I’m going to digress because I know now that although I have no desire to work in Hollywood, I don’t want to be sued for my debt and six-year-old 150 thousand mile Subaru. Therefore, I won’t reveal the culprit’s name-but I am sure if he read this, he knew it was him). In fact in his mind, he thought it was clear that the show had to end at a certain time. However, in everyone else’s world, aka reality, the actual stop time was to be later.

No matter.

The curmudgeonly clean pated publicist (who resembled a desert tortoise) voiced his displeasure to a co-worker of mine, bringing them to tears. While swearing, waving his arms, he stomped his feet like a little petulant child. My first instinct was because I liked this person I worked with was to slap him on the forehead with a “bitch slap”. My second instinct was to kick him in the d&^k as hard as I could to give him a real reason to throw a temper tantrum.

But my days when I was known as “Mad Mike” have been over for two decades. And although they threaten to come out from time-to-time, mellow Mike always helps his alter ego to come to his senses. Yet I was still in a rage after, I mean how a grown person can treat others this way. Yeah, he’s got a good job, and I’m sure he is competent at what he did. But it’s not as if a surgical resident dropped the one-sized scalpel that could remove the cancer from someone’s body or anything. This was the movies for Christ sake, just effing chill. Yet, regrettably I held my tongue and just kind of laughed at him from afar. Some of his peeps looked at me funny, but I didn’t give a crap.

And now three months later, I saw the scene again on an L.A. street. Going to some unknown film I was invited to and finding out that it was moved to yesterday. Sure I was pissed, because I had just met some friends at the Dodgers game (they’re terrible by the way), when I could have rode down with them and saved $35 in gas. Yet I drove separately to see this mystery film.

I had waited with another ear ringed guy who didn’t seem to want to receive a friendly greeting from me for about 30 minutes. When it became apparent nobody else was coming, he called the person that was both of our contacts. Yet because this middle-aged man was probably more important in the “business” than a seasonal worker at a film festival, the contact, who avoided my calls, immediately picked up.

As ear ringed middle aged guy listened to the contact from his IPhone 4 or whatever the hell version it was, I could see the hairs beginning to stand on the back of his neck as his skin started turning a crimson shade. I swear to Christ, I could see smoke, but it probably wasn’t true. After contact-on-the-other-end guy finished backpedaling, there was this long tense pause just like the final moments before Old Faithful blew at its regular interlude, or perhaps it even resembled Vesuvius before it wreaked havoc unexpectedly upon the resident s of Pompeii in 79 AD.

The release seemed almost as intense.

What followed was a torrent of expletives of epic proportions. The middle-aged earring guy blew his top that made the curmudgeonly tortoise look like Roger Williams addressing the Puritans. I hadn’t heard that many swear words in such a small amount of words since I watched the late George Carlin in his concert movie when he said “the seven words you can’t say on television”. It was perhaps even more expletive-filled than Tommy Lasorda’s rant to pitcher Doug Rau on the mound during the 1977 World Series that television microphones picked up. This is must-listening by the way, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-mqXodn5mQ).

He jumped up and down higher than the tortoise wished he could and gesture wildly with his one free arm saying to the effect that contact guy ruined his day and that his boss was going to hear about it. As for me, sure I was kind of annoyed, but that emotion quickly went by the wayside as I watched this impromptu performance on a Los Angeles street. My emotions went from irked, amused, to nearly rolling on the ground in hysterics or LMFAO to ROFLMAOIT in a span of about five seconds.

. I don’t know why, maybe I was thinking of the tortoise, but this guy looked so ridiculous that my reaction made me realize that I had better go around the corner. Once there, I immediately went into convulsions as tears squirted out of my ducts. I was so tempted to take a photo of the ranter, but I was afraid that even though his relatively small stature, rage would overcome my hysterics and then people would be watching a murder scene on KCAL 9. Besides, I doubted I could hold a camera straight because I was shaking so much.

Just when I started calming down, Mr. TT turned the corner and saw me. I was immediately embarrassed, but he just glanced at me and kept walking without a word. Perhaps he realized what an ass he made himself out to be. But probably not.

Security at Dodger Stadium gets a New (Old) Chief

From a press release from the Dodgers.

DODGERS HIRE FORMER LA POLICE CHIEF BRATTON

LOS ANGELES – Earlier today, the Los Angeles Dodgers hired Kroll Chairman and former Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton to assess policies and procedures related to security and fan services at Dodger Stadium, and to work with the Dodger organization to develop a best practices security blueprint that extends to both the stadium and the parking lots.

"Bill Bratton is widely credited with spearheading modern community policing in America," said Los Angeles Dodgers Owner Frank McCourt. "There is no one better to lead a top-to-bottom review of our current practices and make recommendations to be implemented now and into the future.”

Bratton and his team at Kroll will begin consulting immediately.

"I am pleased to have the opportunity to return to Los Angeles to consult with the Dodger organization on the security posture at Dodger Stadium," said Bratton. "We will take a full and comprehensive look at security procedures and processes, and make recommendations based on our findings."

Mr. Bratton possesses extensive expertise in U.S. law enforcement that includes achieving major reductions in violent crimes when he led the New York City Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department.

The Dodgers enjoy a longtime working partnership with the LAPD, and see Bratton and Kroll's role helping with internal procedures at the Dodgers.

"We are committed to ensuring that Dodger Stadium remains a family-friendly environment for all baseball fans," said McCourt.

Stop the Violence and Chillax! Edition 2-Sigh

By Mike Takeuchi

*The bottom part of this article is reprinted from a previous article.

Why is it that every time I go to a Dodgers/Giants game, somebody gets hurt or worse yet, killed? Thursday's Opening Day 2-1 victory over their hated (in their minds only) rivals the Giants made Dodgers fans rejoice-potential team shortcomings that were revealed notwithstanding. But the worse shortcomings have to do with the lack of proper security and the inability of the home crowd to act in accordance with basic civility.

Based on personal experience of Opening Day crowds and my own neurosis, my wife Munch and I arrived approximately two hours prior to the 5:00 start time. During this time, we had plenty of time to watch the Giants batting practice, do the NY Times crossword (which we almost finished because it was a baseball theme and I was given a few clues from a story about Brian Wilson-the Giants bearded reliever and the Beach Boys singer), and just to people watch. During this time, there were several shouts behind us in the Reserved Level concourse. Munch asked what was going on, and all I could say was that it was Giant fans going through "the gauntlet"- a human-made tunnel of 40-something energetic men all about 5'6" tall and equally wide, wearing Dodgers gear, and primed with alcohol.

The group indiscriminately taunted, insulted, and sometimes harassed anyone wearing orange or black or both. While it is commonplace to give the visiting fans a hard time, this group went far beyond the line by physically bodying up to male "miscreants" or with leering, remarks to female "enemies".

During the game, we were surrounded by some of the most rude fans around. One "gentleman" proceeded to sit in the seat in front of me and when I told him to move because they weren't his seats and his fat head was blocking my way, he became belligerent, prompting me to respond in kind. It got to the point where I thought more than once about what would happen if I pushed him over the railing onto the deck below? The drunkard eventually left, but his presence wasn't far from my mind for the rest of the game. And then something worse happened after the game..

From an Article in the Los Angeles Times on April 1 by Richard Winton

Los Angeles police were searching Friday for two Dodgers fans responsible for assaulting and critically injuring a man wearing San Francisco Giants apparel following Thursday’s game.

"The man suffered a serious head injury during the assault after the game,'' said Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Sanford Rosenberg, watch commander at the Northeast Station.

Rosenberg said the victim was one of three Giants fans attacked in the parking lot around the end of the game by two unidentified men wearing Dodgers clothing.

The unprovoked attack occurred about 8:30 p.m. in Parking Lot 2 when two men in Dodgers clothing approached three victims in Giants apparel, police said.

The men then attacked the trio, kicking and punching them and shouting expletives about the Giants as they delivered the blows, Rosenberg said. The attack left one victim hospitalized in critical but stable condition, Rosenberg said.

Is this new? Hardly. It has been going on for years and it doesn't show any sign of abating. My proof? I wrote the article below in 2009. Now, two years later, it appears things have not changed

"My son was killed at Dodger stadium in 2003. Please stop the violence and enjoy the sport."

— Char Antenorcruz, mother of Marc Antenorcruz to the L.A. Times

People gotta chill. It is bad enough that Southland baseball lovers have had to weather the sadness of the death of Angels' pitcher Nick Adenhart, but violence at or near opening day Games for both Los Angeles area teams made the first week a lot less joyous.

The latest incident occurred during Monday's home opener at Dodger Stadium. As the fans cheered their team to victory courtesy of second baseman Orlando Hudson hitting for the cycle, something unfortunately more common was about to occur.

A man was stabbed several times after a confrontation in the parking lot with a group of men in a pick-up truck.

This happened one week after Buena Park resident Brian Powers, who while fighting with one man, was punched from behind by another after the Angels' home opener. After hitting his head on concrete during the fall, he was declared brain dead that evening and died April 8.

Far too many incidences of violence have occurrenced in the past few years.

Perhaps the worst occurred nearly five years ago at Dodger Stadium the night the San Francisco Giants clinched the National League West pennant. Shortly after the game, Marc Antenorcruz was shot.

Two years later, security personnel scuffled with unlicensed merchandise vendors in the stadium parking lot. Although there weren't any fatalities, four people had knife wounds.

At Oakland Coliseum in 2003, some yahoo thought it would be funny to throw a cherry bomb from the upper to the lower deck. It burned an 8-year-old boy and damaging his father's eardrums.

Over the years, despite beefing up security, going to the ballpark seems less safe — even without the aforementioned violence.

In 2006, before they were eliminated by the Mets in the playoffs, I lamented to my seat neighbor Jose that the Dodgers Cam never showed the fans in the pavilion or the upper deck.

"It's because they are always fighting," Jose laughed.

How true he was. Sure enough as the Dodgers were going down, no fewer than five fights occurred around us.

Even last season, when fans momentarily forgot their anger towards each other thanks to Manny Ramirez and a magical year, Game 4 of the NLCS was marred not only by the Phillies' comeback win, but several brawls — not to mention verbal abuse that reduced a petite college-aged woman to tears because she had the audacity to wear a Philadelphia cap.

Short of imposing martial law in the stadium, there seems to be no perfect solution. Because of the famous bottom line, teams would never consider cutting off beer sales earlier or distributing drink tickets to limit quantity. The only things I can think of are to beef up security, make them more proactive and not just reactive, and not allowing already drunk fans into the stadium.

Self policing would help, but it can't be relied upon. While it is noble for fans to come forward to complain, oftentimes fear of repercussions prevent this from happening.

There seems to be no clear cut solutions — only an acceptance that things are getting worse. And that's bad news for the true fans.

Boxing Day: A Needed Holiday Tradition

By Mike Takeuchi

*Note a slighter shorter, less personal, more sanitized, and less soapbox ranting version of this story was published in a different medium.

During the holidays, it's better to give than receive, especially when we have too much.

Someone I have never met recently donated a very nice bike to a very worthy charity, which prompted two friends (who insisted on remaining anonymous) to follow suit with clothes, running shoes and other items. Inspired, this writer impulsively did the same thing-gathering up six bags of clothes, blankets, books, a bike and a car rack for bikes and dropped them off at local charities.

It does this skeptical optimist's heart good to see our community looking out for others, whether it is on a relatively large scale like the Christmas Unity Telethon, or Santa Barbara Middle School teaming with Hazard's Cyclesport to build bikes to donate to the local Boys and Girls Clubs, or even individuals such as Ovidio Mora, who collects soccer equipment for the youth of his native Costa Rica.

It is like a grass-roots form of Boxing Day.

According to Wikipedia and three other sites, Boxing Day is a tradition from Europe that dates back to the Middle Ages, and perhaps the early Christian era, during which metal boxes were placed outside churches for offerings to celebrate the Feast of St. Stephen (also Dec. 26).

While I wish that this country officially celebrated such a day, Although I am gladdened to see people do this on their own, I wish that this country officially celebrated such a day. Because frankly, we have too much crap.

When looking at the clutter in my home and attic, I asked myself if I really needed the three extra jackets that I haven't worn in two years. The answer of course was no. Then I took it a step further by looking at the rusting, but still functional mountain bike on my back porch and decided that I wasn't going to fix it up and that somebody else could probably use it more than I. I looked at a virtual mini library of books and decided the expose' on Roger Clemens that I read, really wasn't worth keeping, nor was the book on overthrown governments. From the result of this, I took into account that all of these things were still useful... for someone else.

So I packed things up and distributed them to shelters, the library (although I have yet to deliver), and a community bike place. I immediately felt lighter. Because not only was this going to someone who can use it, I unburdened myself.

My only regret is that this revelation occurred during the holidays. I had wished it occurred in the spring because that's when places need things the most. While shelves are stalked during the Yule season, they are positively freaking bare during the rest of the time. So I am hoping that if anyone is reading this, they might consider waiting till the spring or summer to act impulsively...

Also please consider what one drops off. Coats and useful staples such as canned goods are much better, of course, than high-tech bike shorts or energy bars. In one's own home, items that haven't been worn or used in the last year or two probably won't be.

Clothes are great, but think of other items too-like bikes. Bikes are a very useful item, especially if one lacks a car for transportation. While it may be a bit late for this Christmas, perhaps you can consider buying a kids bike to donate next year.

For me, personally, I get much satisfaction in more ways than one each time I do this. The first is to help others. The second is appreciating that I am in a position to do this. And lastly,as I said before, it is a very liberating feeling to get rid of crap we don't need.

I have a rule that for every Barcelona Football Club (my addiction of choice) shirt or item that I buy, I have to give a bag of clothes or an amount similar to charity.

But the last thing may be to my wife Munch's chagrin: I may have to wear a red- and blue-striped Barca jersey under my sport coat at the next wedding we attend.

In all seriousness, I believe that we are a society that likes to own things - which is fine. But in turn, we are often unnecessarily weighed down by what we collect. Although I am not Buddhist, there is a parable generally saying that the more one owns, the more they worry. And combining that with the polytheistic tenet of doing unto others as one would like to be done to them reminds me that not only this time, but any time is good to help others. But a warning, you may get a better feeling of liberation than that of doing general good for your fellow human beings. I should know, because I confess that it happened to me.

Chills in Carpinteria

By Mike Takeuchi

In the midst of the din where one couldn't hear themselves think, a presence may or may not have been felt.

The Carpinteria High boys basketball team was about to rally for an improbable win to put themselves in the final of their very own 43rd Annual Jim Bashore Cage Classic tournament and the noise reached a crescendo.

I looked down at my arm and saw all the hairs standing up and a chill ran down the back of my neck. I wondered, "Is that you Coach?" The coach I was wondering about was my former teacher John Ward, who incidentally was a teacher as well as the basketball coach and athletic director at Carp High until he passed away in September. Since then, his son Johnny, along with Henry Gonzalez have taken over the program.

They, along with Johnny's forever smiling sister Nancy have taken the reins of the traditional tournament as well. In what could have been a tough act to go through, the siblings made it easier by insisting to one and all that it would be fun.

"That's the way my dad would have wanted it," Johnny said before the tournament.

And with one day to go, fun it has been. Not only has there been exciting basketball, but it has been accompanied by a lot of laughter, often at the expense of others. Whether it was Carpinteria coach Johnny Ward ribbing his guard Munchie Aguilar on wardrobe choice or his social habits, or a referee taking the court late in the second half because he was sampling the goodies in the hospitality room, no one was spared from being target-including reporters.

"That's the way John would have wanted it, to run a good tournament that everyone enjoys," co-coach Henry Gonzalez said. "We have all been working hard to get this going, but Johnny and Nancy have been amazing in the organization and keeping the tradition of the tournament. "

At halftime in front of a court filled with kids shooting baskets, Warriors baseball coach Pat Cooney surveyed the scene and expressed pride, yet not surprise at their success in doing so.

"They ran the tournament for their dad last year, so it's not a reach for them to continue what they have been doing," Cooney said. "But doing this in a year that has been difficult, is admirable on their parts.

The players have noticed and appreciated this as well.

"They both have been keeping us together by doing a lot of things together," Andrew Sova said. " No one's really staying sad, thanks to them, we are going towards being happier now. But I still think about (John Ward) just about every day."

So it was kismet that Sova, who was close to the elder Ward, was the one to make the winning free throws with no time left on the clock. And perhaps something more was at work because John Ward's own son brought his team to the school's own tournament final while doing it with a "have fun" attitude.

"He would have been so stoked to see Johnny do that," Nancy Ward said. "That was dad's favorite kind of game and he would have loved to seen that. He would have been very proud of my brother."

"Yeah, he would have been happy," Johnny Ward said. "He's happy, I'm happy, everyone's happy. We had a great atmosphere. He was part of that atmosphere, he was covering it....he was here."

The Russian Rocket

By Mike Takeuchi
(*Note A shorter version of this story appeared in another publication)

When he was a mere nine-year-old Sergey Sushchikh had already found himself in a transition period. One year removed from coming to this country from St. Petersburg Russia, his family was relocating to Goleta. Yet instead of struggling with the language, he thrived in many aspects thanks to some great teachers and friends who embraced him. Eight years later, another group of friends and teachers have brought him into the comfort zone once again. Only instead of the language barrier being conquered, it was a possible championship.

On Saturday, Sushchikh will try to lead the Dos Pueblos boys cross country team to its highest CIF Southern Section Division placing in 38 years. The seven-member team of Sushchikh, Jacob Bartholomew, Alfred Scott, Sam Sarmiento, Bryan Fernandez, Max Davis, and Ben York, along with alternates Dylan Zukin and Brendan Morrow-Jones will travel to Mt. San Antonio College to try and become the first team to qualify for the State Meet since the Chargers placed fifth in the State Meet among Division II schools in 1999. The top seven teams and top 20 individuals of non-qualifying teams in the division earn a berth to the State Meet at Woodward Park (Fresno) on November 27.

One person who is confident that the current team will be there is Gordon McClenathen, the longtime coach who headed the Dos Pueblos program from 1967 to ’97, and whose 1972 team was the runner-up to division champion Lompoc. McClenathen, along with Micks Purnell assists head coach Leslie Wiggins-Roth and Len Miller in coaching the Chargers.

“They have the talent and the desire to go to State,” McClenathen said. “But they also have the character to do well if they do.”

And the runner in front will be undoubtedly Sushchikh. After a junior year in which he placed 47^th individually in the 2009 CIF-Southern Section Division II Finals, the senior started off solidly this fall. By the end of the season, he took off by running a league record 14 minutes and 31 seconds over a three-mile course to take top individual honors and lead the Chargers to a Channel League title. Last week he placed second in his division and fifth out of all runners by running 15:11 over 5k en route to pacing the Chargers to a third place in last week’s Division II Southern Section Preliminaries.

“We have been feeling really good these last few weeks, all of us,” the soft-spoken Sushchikh said.

While initially needing prodding to talk about his own running, the 17-year-old acknowledged that he was having a good year so far and expressed hope that it was a stepping stone to a running future that included competing for a Division I university. While taking college level calculus and English, he has maintained good enough grades to draw the interest of Syracuse University. That school, along with the University of Colorado and the hometown UCSB are among the schools he is considering.

He added that all of this wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for his coaches, especially Miller, the man who guided former American record holder in the mile, Steve Scott. Sushchikh credited the longtime coach, who was inducted into the UC Irvine Hall of Fame in 2006 as well as headed up the Arizona State program, as the coach who helped put him on the path to success.

“During my sophomore year, Coach Miller came along and something clicked,” Sushchikh said. “I just have so much respect for him as a coach.”

Miller said that while he couldn’t compare the runner to anyone he has coached, but he did recognize a common bond.

“Every runner is unique,” Miller said. “The great runners that I’ve coached have common threads that are part of the whole fabric. From Steve Scott on down to the great half milers I had at Arizona State, Sergey has all the personal and emotional qualities that my greatest runners possessed. He handles setbacks really well and accepts that nobody is going to win all the time. As his career progresses and someone beats him, instead of being depressed, he’ll try and figure out what he has to do to be better prepared the next time. Plus he is not intimidated by anyone. That’s why I think he will succeed.”

The one thing that Miller and his teammates alike appreciated about Sushchikh is his humility said Bartholomew, who shares captaincy duties with his teammate.

“We all know he is the best guy on the team, but he never goes around telling people that he is,” Bartholomew said. “He’s an admirable guy who’s dedicated to running, but is not above having fun and sharing his humor.”

Yet he is afforded immediate respect by his peers because of the example he has set for the younger runners, according to Fernandez, one of the three sophomores on the team, was the second fastest of the Chargers while finishing fifth in the division in 15:34 had the second fastest time on the team last week.

“He has taught us younger guys to let stuff like bad races go,” Fernandez said. “He just brushes it off and kills it the next time. In workouts, he is great at challenging us, always trying to break us. What it does is push us to another level. He is a great talent that I think will go far.”

On Wednesday afternoon, as the group gathers for a photo, the banter was light and fun with Sushchikh’s teammates willingly giving up their leader when asked if he had a nickname (which incidentally is the Russian Rocket, which was bestowed upon him by his middle school coach John Sprague). Yet when it came time to actually take the shot, each member filed respectfully behind Sushchikh even though he hadn’t uttered a word.

And when it was time to talk about an ideal race on Saturday, he responded in perfect sounding Russian and then translated it into English.

“Saturday is going to be a great day,” Sushchikh translated. “We’re all going to run really fast. And we’re going to go to the State Meet.”

While the language needed translation, the message most certainly did not.