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Sports

Spring Sports Begin at Culver City High

In addition, several teams will have new coaches spurring the Centaurs on.

Spring has officially arrived for the sports programs at Culver City High. 

The Centaurs will field nine teams: boys and girls lacrosse, boys golf, baseball, softball, boys volleyball, boys tennis and boys and girls track and field. Each sport opens its season either this week or next.

The baseball team was supposed to scrimmage Palos Verdes Peninsula last weekend, but the game was rained out. The Centaurs are scheduled to make it up Tuesday. That game begins stretch in which the Centaurs play five games in seven days. This will be the 17th season for head coach Rick Prieto, a Culver City High graduate, and the team will look to improve on last year's 19-10 record and 8-2 finish in the Ocean League.

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The only Culver City coach with a longer tenure than Prieto is John Sargent, who is returning for his 22nd season with the softball team. Sargent’s squad finished second in the Ocean League last winter, but lost a lot of talent to graduation. The Centaurs' battery will consist of two freshmen—pitcher Rosie Hernandez and catcher Lisa Kamba. The girls open the season against Hamilton on Tuesday at Veterans Park. 

“If we play .500 ball I think we’re doing a great job, with the youth that I have,” Sargent said.

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On the other end of the spectrum, there are some brand new faces coaching at Culver City this year. Felix Cardenas takes over as head coach of the girls’ lacrosse team and Joe Manzo is doing the same for the boys’ volleyball team. Manzo will have girls’ volleyball head coach Jessica Parel assisting in his inaugural season. Parel said this year’s squad is young and has a lot of new players to be excited about. The spikers' first match is Tuesday at Paramount High.

Cardenas will be looking to rebuild the girls’ lacrosse team almost from scratch. His squad will consist of only three returners along with 14 freshmen. Cardenas grew up playing soccer and basketball in his native Peru and will look to mix the philosophies he learned in those sports into lacrosse.

The boys team is coached by Casey Chabola, who is entering his 11th season. Unlike most Centaurs sports, both lacrosse teams compete in the Bay League. The boys only have two seniors this year and will be relying on a lot of sophomores and juniors.

“I just want to make sure we come out, we’re competitive, we play physical and just take another step in the learning process with the number of young players that we have,” Chabola said.

The boys' season gets started Friday against Manual Arts.

The boys track team will be led by a solid corps of football players, including junior speedsters Alex Jackson and Reggie House. Football coach Jahmal Wright will coach the boys' track team while the girls' team will be coached by Venus Jewett and Melodi Tillman.

Phil Rothenberg, who also coaches the girls tennis team, will coach the boys this spring. The Centaurs play in a four-team version of the Ocean League with Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and Inglewood. Rothenberg said the team has not been able to beat either Beverly or Santa Monica since he has been the coach, but will look to change that this year. Its first match is against West Torrance on Wednesday.

said the golf team’s schedule is forthcoming, but was not immediately available.

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