Archive - 2010 - Sports Article
October 1st
By
George Shirk - Mammoth Times Senior Writer
The Mammoth Mountain Ski Back Trail, at best a highly modified success last ski season and at worst a flub, is getting a makeover.
On the trail itself, workers under the direction of Operations Director Clifford Mann have been grading, erecting retaining walls and fixing the areas that made the trail nearly impossible for snowboarders and a problem for many skiers.
Having largely completed the work in the forest, Mann and his crew now are busy on the finishing touch â the long awaited pedestrian bridge across Forest Trail.
By
George Shirk - Mammoth Times Senior Writer
Three games into the season and with their conference season looming, the Mammoth Huskies (2-1) have given themselves an infusion of athletic talent.
In a move that is unparalleled in Head Coach Tom Gaultâs long tenure at the helm, six players walked on two weeks ago, asking for spots on the team.
All of them are from the Mammoth Mountain Ski Team, and some could see game action tonight when the Huskies visit their longtime rivals, the Bishop Broncos (3-0).
By
george Shirk - Mammoth Times Senior Writer
The Mammoth Huskies travel to Bishop tonight, and thatâs almost enough to put a glaze over Head Coach Tom Gaultâs eyes.
âIâm not sure what to expect,â Gault said earlier this week, âbut Iâll tell you that somebody asked me the other day, âYou look back on the Bishop-Mammoth rivalry, what are the some of the high points you can mention?â
âAnd I told him, âWell, weâve beaten them (the Broncos) three or four times in 30 years, so those are the high points.ââ
A heat wave in Southern California meant crystal-clear skies and warm sunny weather these past several days in Mammoth.
What a weekend to spend on the fields at Shady Rest during week three of AYSO soccer season (Sept. 25-26). The warm weather fooled us all into feeling like summer hadnât yet blown away on a cool fall breeze or buried itself under the changing leaves.
It was sophomore Toby Qualls who shot to the front of the pack and stayed there to win the varsity race in the 37th Bellarmine Cross Country Invitational.
Quallsâ blistering time was as hot as the dayâs temperatures: 15:46 for the three-mile hilly course. He was 14 seconds shy of breaking the all-time sophomore record set in 1989 at 15:32. He beat his closest competitor by 24 seconds. Had the temperature been lower, or Qualls been pushed, chances are he would have lowered the record said his coach Andrew Kastor.
By
Wendilyn Grasseschi - Mammoth Times Staff Writer
It took me 15 years of living in the Eastern Sierra before I drove up northern Mono County’s Green Creek Road in the fall – which is just too damn bad.
The combination of the placid, serpentine creek, wide, golden meadows rimmed with deep green lodgepole and flaming aspens and the sheer mountains above Green Creek’s headwaters is incomparable in the Eastern Sierra, rivaling even the more popular – and more crowded – Lundy Canyon.
September 24th
By
George Shirk - Mammoth Times Senior Writer
Jorge "Coco" Galvan kicked a 42-yard field goal with 45 seconds to go Friday night, lifting the Mammoth Huskies to a 10-7 victory over the Calvary Murrieta Warriors at Gault/McClure Stadium.
Galvan's dramatic field goal â long by any standard - came just two minutes, three seconds after he shanked an easier attempt, pushing the ball to the right of the north goal posts.
His winning kick was made more improbable because the error-prone Husky offense on the previous play was pushed back five yards because of a procedure penalty.
By
George Shirk - Mammoth Times Senior Writer
It looks like any other mid-week football practice in any other small town in America. But thereâs something different about this Mammoth Huskies junior varsity team this year.
As the team gathers around Coach Noel Looney after a rigorous two-hour session on the high schoolâs practice field, the players, one by one, take off their helmets, including the rugged and intense interior lineman in the middle of the pack.
Make that linewoman.
âIâve been told that Iâm the first girl who ever played Mammoth High School football,â said Elizabeth Martinez. âI feel really happy about that.â
By
George Shirk - Mammoth Times Senior Writer
This is the trouble season for Keith Dawley.
The 49-year-old trails supervisor for the Inyo National Forest, Dawley peers at the sky each September and October, hoping â praying â for enough snow to ski.
âSeptember is the hardest month,â said Dawley, who has one of the more spectacular streaks of skiing anywhere. âUsually by the end of October, Halloween, it snows somewhere.â
For 189 straight months (that would be more than 15 years) the personable Dawley has skied at least once in each month, sometimes hiking up, up and up to find enough snow to make a turn.
By
George Shirk - Mammoth Times Senior Writer
It might have been a bye week for the Mammoth Huskies last week, but that didnât mean that Head Coach Tom Gault and his coaching crew took the weekend off.
Instead, they got their video equipment in order and traveled to Murrieta, where they watched, analyzed and shot video of Calvary Murrietaâs 16-6 loss to Bloomington Christian â a loss that dropped Mammothâs next opponent to 0-2 for the season.
Calvary Murrieta comes calling tonight at Gault/McClure Stadium, with a JV game at 4 oâclock and the varsity at 7.
The 2010 Mammoth High School Cross Country season is off and running, with two large invitationals under its belt. On Sept. 10, Mammoth traveled to the Whittel Warrior invitational in Zephyr Cove at Lake Tahoe, Calif.
More than 30 high schools came together to compete and see who was âbest of the best.â Mammoth only brought seven of its members, but showed the much larger schools they should not be overlooked.
September 20th
By
George Shirk - Mammoth Times Senior Writer
It doesn’t take a physics professor to tell you that the two-day Everest Challenge bike race attracts an odd set of cyclists.
“There’s something about the human spirit that makes us wonder exactly what we can do,” said race director Steven Barnes, who happens to be an adjunct professor of physics at Cal State-San Bernardino. “This race is out there, pretty close to the limits.”
By
George Shirk - Mammoth Times Senior Writer
If you’re a distance runner in Mammoth, chances are you’re already working the outer fringes of sanity, but then there are some events that go beyond that, such as tomorrow’s Moeben Ultra 50K and 25K races in the Mammoth Mountain Bike Park.
Organized by Andrew Kastor and Elaine Smith of the High Sierra Striders, the race begins at the crack of morning, 6:30 a.m., and the runners hope to clear the first part of the race on top of Mammoth Mountain by 11 o’clock. It is shaping up to be quite a challenge for everyone.
By
George Shirk - Mammoth Times Senior Writer
The Mammoth Huskies have had a week to lick their wounds, daub their eyes and otherwise try to recover from last week’s 27-0 debacle against Mission College Prep of San Luis Obispo.
At the same time, Head Coach Tom Gault’s coaching staff has two weeks to try to recalibrate last week’s sucky offense and out-of-kilter defense. Whether any of their work pays off will be revealed next Friday night, when the Calvary Murietta Warriors (0-1) come calling at Gault-McClure Stadium.
September 13th
By
George Shirk, Mammoth Times Senior Writer
Well, we knew the Mammoth Huskies weren't going to go undefeated, but still, last weekend hurt.
Coming off an opening-game victory against L.A. Baptist, the Huskies on Friday night were whomped by the visiting Mission College Prep of San Luis Obispo, 27-0. On the bright side, sort of, the varsity did a bit better than the junior varsity, which lost, 32-0.
Mammoth Times Photo/Susan Morning
