Glendale High

GLENDALE — For more than a decade of coaching softball at Glendale Community College, Dave “Hawk” Wilder has seen his share of players come and go from the program. He’s bid farewell to quite a few just this offseason alone. As Glendale is a two-year college, its hard to sustain continuity of the roster under the best of circumstances. But the 2009 squad represents as clean a slate as the veteran instructor has worked with in recent memory. “This is a year of major turnover,” said Wilder, whose roster includes just two major contributors from last year’s squad that went 22-17 and 15-10 in the Western State Conference.

Edgar Melik-Stepanyan Chris Rivera walked back to the bench, steaming with frustration, unable to do anything to help the Hoover High boys' basketball team's spiraling defense, described as "terrible" by co-captain and leader Armen Baghdasarian. The Tornadoes blew an 11-point third-quarter lead, had Rivera -- a starting shooting guard -- foul out midway through the fourth quarter and someone other than Joey Paysinger handled some of Burroughs' scoring while Rivera was on the bench Monday in a Glendale High Summer League game.

GLENDALE ? The Glendale High?s boys? water polo team got the Pacific League season off to a fast start Tuesday, and Burroughs simply could not keep up. The end result was a resounding 27-12 win for the Nitros at Glendale High in both teams? league openers and, perhaps, a statement about both programs. Glendale could very well be poised to make a run for a league title and contend with the league hierarchy of Crescenta Valley and Arcadia, while Burroughs might be in for a lengthy rebuilding campaign.

BURBANK - With the Glendale High and Burroughs girls' water polo teams undefeated in their first two respective Pacific League matches, Tuesday's league contest between the teams provided an opportunity for one to create separation. It took until the final minute for a gap to be created. Sam Buliavac capped her five-goal scoring performance with a five-meter goal with 43 seconds left to give host Burroughs a 7-6 victory. Burroughs improved to 15-2, 3-0 in league and maintained a first-place tie with Crescenta Valley, which posted a 21-10 win against host Pasadena on Tuesday.

GLENDALE — A common theme occurred during a Pacific League-opening match between Glendale High and Burroughs on Wednesday afternoon. Glendale and Burroughs played even in the early stages of each game before Burroughs used a big run in the middle to pull away with a 25-13, 25-16, 25-16 road victory. It’s something Burroughs Coach Joel Brinton and his counterpart, Taase Mose, certainly noticed. “Every game went the same exact way,” said Brinton, whose team improved to 8-5. “For those moments when we did pull away, our passing got better, and that led to our setting and hitting getting better.

GCC Professor emeritus shows art work GLENDALE -- Glendale Community College professor emeritus Martin Mondrus has always been a working artist, and his retirement from full-time teaching has not meant a retirement from his craft. His latest exhibit, "Paintings by Martin Mondrus," is running through April 30 in Forbes Hall at the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica. Call (310) 829-5436 for gallery hours and address. Mondrus teaches life drawing at GCC on Monday nights.

Glendale and Burbank school districts will host public meetings this coming week to address their respective financial crises. In Burbank, Supt. Jan Britz and several other school officials will outline the district's budget, future goals and how the past four years of cuts have impacted local schools. The meeting is from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11 at the Buena Vista Library. In Glendale, school officials plan to hold three meetings, one each at the city's three main high schools, to discuss the district's $15-million structural deficit, increased class sizes and future teacher layoffs.

Peter Samore GLENDALE -- In a sport where pitching often takes center stage, the Burbank High softball team showed a little batting power against Glendale High. The Bulldogs took advantage of a depleted Nitro squad, scoring 11 runs in the fourth inning, en route to winning the second game of a doubleheader, 13-6, Saturday at Glendale High. It was the first game Glendale has lost by more than two runs. Glendale lost the first game, 5-4, though it scored three runs in the eighth inning to tie the score.

Walks around campus have brightened John Cicuto's mood. The veteran Glendale Community College football coach can feel a buzz across campus on the eve of the upcoming football season. The Vaqueros will finally play their home games on campus after competing at Glendale High. Glendale College will start a new chapter in its lengthy history when it meets Southwestern College in a nonconference game at 7 p.m. today at Sartoris Field. "The students can identify now with the team because we are on campus," said Cicuto, who took over the program in 1989.

BURROUGHS AT CRESCENTA VALLEY WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday. WHERE: Moyse Field (Glendale High). RECORDS: The Indians are 3-1; the Falcons are 1-3. LAST WEEK: Burroughs defeated West Hills Chaminade, 27-10; Crescenta Valley defeated La Ca{nacutel}ada, 39-6. OUTLOOK: The Falcons come into the nonleague game after breaking out of their winless funk last week with a big victory against the Spartans. Crescenta Valley has a good quarterback in Aaron McGuiness, who ripped apart the Spartan defense, completing 23 of 36 passes for 329 and three touchdowns.

GLENDALE - Through three innings, there didn't seem to be much separating the respective first- and fifth-place Burbank and Glendale high softball teams Thursday - outside of an error. Those errors continued to pile up, as the Nitros committed seven in the game, turning a three-run game into a 14-0 mercy-rule, five-inning blowout for the Bulldogs, who improved to 18-1, 9-0 in the Pacific League, at Glendale High. “I think we did pretty good, we capitalized on them,” said Burbank's Julia Duarte, who was three for three with three runs batted in and three scored, of Glendale's miscues.

SOUTHEAST GLENDALE - More often than not, the Glendale High football team's woes have come down to its defense spending too much time on the field. Oddly enough, the Nitros suffered from the reverse dilemma when facing Burbank in a Pacific League game Thursday night at Moyse Field, as they were flattened by the Bulldogs' explosive rushing attack and one big-yardage scoring play after another. Burbank ran just 15 offensive plays in the first half, but made the most of them, scoring 35 points and opening the floodgates for a 56-10 victory in which three of its tailbacks topped the 100-yard rushing mark.

Glendale and Burbank school districts will host public meetings this coming week to address their respective financial crises. In Burbank, Supt. Jan Britz and several other school officials will outline the district's budget, future goals and how the past four years of cuts have impacted local schools. The meeting is from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11 at the Buena Vista Library. In Glendale, school officials plan to hold three meetings, one each at the city's three main high schools, to discuss the district's $15-million structural deficit, increased class sizes and future teacher layoffs.

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Vahe Aristakessian wasn't going to fret after he missed a free throw in the closing seconds of the second half that likely would have given the Glendale High boys' basketball team a victory in regulation against Pacific League rival Burroughs. Aristakessian shook off the misfortune and took it upon himself to stand out in overtime. He got the job done. "I missed the free throws at the end (with 3.6 seconds left), and I wanted to help my team win in overtime," said Aristakessian, who scored six of his 20 points in overtime to spark Glendale to a 48-45 victory against Burroughs on Friday afternoon in a pool-play game of the Vaquero Summer Classic at Glendale Community College.

BURBANK - For the entire first half and a large portion of the second, the Glendale High girls' basketball team did an excellent job containing Burroughs standout center Aysia Shellmire. In the opening half, Shellmire, a senior-to-be and perennial All-Area and all-league honoree, was held to just two points, as the Nitros constantly double- and triple-teamed the Indians' offensive centerpiece. However, Shellmire was able to break through the pressure late in the second half, scoring 11 of her game-high 13 points in the stanza to lift Burroughs to a 36-26 victory Wednesday in a Burbank Summer League game.

BURBANK — A chippy defensive battle between two Pacific League teams looking to end respective losing streaks came down to the final minute Tuesday afternoon. In the last couple of possessions of the girls' basketball contest between Glendale High and Burroughs, key plays on both ends of the court from the Nitros' Kris Zadourian gave Glendale its first league win, while Burroughs suffered its fourth straight loss. With the Indians fighting back late in the game, Zadourian's steal with less than 20 seconds remaining and two clutch free throws clinched a 47-43 victory for the Nitros.

BURBANK - With the Glendale High and Burroughs girls' water polo teams undefeated in their first two respective Pacific League matches, Tuesday's league contest between the teams provided an opportunity for one to create separation. It took until the final minute for a gap to be created. Sam Buliavac capped her five-goal scoring performance with a five-meter goal with 43 seconds left to give host Burroughs a 7-6 victory. Burroughs improved to 15-2, 3-0 in league and maintained a first-place tie with Crescenta Valley, which posted a 21-10 win against host Pasadena on Tuesday.

BURBANK - While the Glendale High and Burbank boys' water polo teams have posted winning records, they are on opposite sides of the spectrum in the Pacific League. The Nitros held a two-match lead against the Bulldogs entering Tuesday's league match at Burbank. Thanks to a big effort from Armand Momdzhyan, Glendale extended its lead. Momdzhyan finished with a match-best 10 goals to power Glendale to a 24-14 victory. Glendale, ranked No. 5 in CIF Southern Section Division V, improved to 13-7, 3-0 in league.

BURROUGHS VS. CRESCENTA VALLEY WHEN : 7 p.m. Thursday. WHERE : Moyse Field (Glendale High). RECORDS : The Indians are 4-3, 4-0 in league: the Falcons are 4-3, 2-2. LAST WEEK : Burroughs defeated Glendale, 35-6; Crescenta Valley lost to Pasadena, 21-14. OUTLOOK : Burroughs keeps rolling on in its quest to repeat as Pacific League champion, a title they shared with Burbank. The Indians are in the midst of a four-game winning streak, as they lost all three of their nonleague games and have been victorious in all four league contests.

GLENDALE — A common theme occurred during a Pacific League-opening match between Glendale High and Burroughs on Wednesday afternoon. Glendale and Burroughs played even in the early stages of each game before Burroughs used a big run in the middle to pull away with a 25-13, 25-16, 25-16 road victory. It’s something Burroughs Coach Joel Brinton and his counterpart, Taase Mose, certainly noticed. “Every game went the same exact way,” said Brinton, whose team improved to 8-5. “For those moments when we did pull away, our passing got better, and that led to our setting and hitting getting better.