• en_US
  • es_MX
  • Community Resources
  • About Us
  • Archives
Sunday, May 11, 2025
No Result
View All Result

  • La Jolla Village News
    • Top Stories
    • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Education
    • Arts Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Business Directory
    • Expert Advice
    • Real Estate
  • Beach Bay Press
    • Top Stories
    • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Education
    • Arts Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Business Directory
    • Expert Advice
    • Real Estate
  • Peninsula Beacon
    • Top Stories
    • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Education
    • Arts Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Business Directory
    • Expert Advice
    • Real Estate
  • Downtown News
    • Top Stories
    • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Education
    • Arts Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Business Directory
    • Expert Advice
    • Real Estate
  • Uptown News
    • Top Stories
    • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Education
    • Arts Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Business Directory
    • Expert Advice
    • Real Estate
  • La Mesa Courier
    • Top Stories
    • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Education
    • Arts Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Business Directory
    • Expert Advice
    • Real Estate
  • Mission Times Courier
    • Top Stories
    • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Education
    • Arts Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Business Directory
    • Expert Advice
    • Real Estate
  • College Times Courier
    • Top Stories
    • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Education
    • Arts Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Business Directory
    • Expert Advice
    • Real Estate
  • Mission Valley News
    • Top Stories
    • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Education
    • Arts Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Business Directory
    • Expert Advice
    • Real Estate
  • Home
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Community Resources
    • Report News
  • Publications
    • La Jolla Village News
      • Top Stories
      • News
      • Features
      • Opinion
      • Education
      • Art & Entertainment
      • Sports
      • Business Directory
      • Expert Advice
      • Real Estate
    • Beach Bay Press
      • Top Stories
      • News
      • Features
      • Opinion
      • Education
      • Art & Entertainment
      • Sports
      • Business Directory
      • Expert Advice
      • Real Estate
    • Peninsula Beacon
      • Top Stories
      • News
      • Features
      • Opinion
      • Education
      • Art & Entertainment
      • Sports
      • Business Directory
      • Expert Advice
      • Real Estate
    • Downtown News
      • Top Stories
      • News
      • Features
      • Opinion
      • Education
      • Art & Entertainment
      • Sports
      • Business Directory
      • Expert Advice
      • Real Estate
    • Uptown News
      • Top Stories
      • News
      • Features
      • Opinion
      • Education
      • Art & Entertainment
      • Sports
      • Business Directory
      • Expert Advice
      • Real Estate
    • La Mesa Courier
      • Top Stories
      • News
      • Features
      • Opinion
      • Education
      • Art & Entertainment
      • Sports
      • Business Directory
      • Expert Advice
      • Real Estate
    • Mission Times Courier
      • Top Stories
      • News
      • Features
      • Opinion
      • Education
      • Art & Entertainment
      • Sports
      • Business Directory
      • Expert Advice
      • Real Estate
    • College Times Courier
      • Top Stories
      • News
      • Features
      • Opinion
      • Education
      • Art & Entertainment
      • Sports
      • Business Directory
      • Expert Advice
      • Real Estate
    • Mission Valley News
      • Top Stories
      • News
      • Features
      • Opinion
      • Education
      • Art & Entertainment
      • Sports
      • Business Directory
      • Expert Advice
      • Real Estate
    • Find Your Newspaper
    • Archives
  • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Art & Entertainment
    • Education
    • Local Sports
    • Report News
  • Event Calendar
  • Business Directory
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Digital Editions/Archives
SDNews.com
Home La Jolla Village News

Memories of a sportswriter – I played the Jacksons in basketball

Ed Piper by Ed Piper
August 3, 2022
in La Jolla Village News, Sports
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0 0
A A
0
Sports San Diego launched to recruit, support, and host world-class sports events
0
SHARES
404
VIEWS

I guess that was my biggest media claim to fame — playing the Jacksons in basketball in a charity game at Santa Barbara High School. I blocked a shot at the buzzer that would have tied or won the game. My coach, Jack Trigueiro, the coach of Santa Barbara High’s boys team, told me I should have let them make the basket. Oh well, my destiny wasn’t fulfilled.

This was during the Jacksons’ heyday in 1977. No, Michael Jackson wasn’t there. I remember we, the faceless opposition made up of local members of the media, sat leaning against the gym walls during the halftime spectacular before a packed house that had come to see the Jacksons sing and put on a dance show before enormous throbbing speakers.

During a George Plimpton (look it up) phase of participatory journalism as a 23-year-old and thereabouts, alternately:

–I played ice hockey against a boys youth team on skates. At the conclusion of the game, we piled the kids in the goal as a humorous coda to the event. They all loved it.

–I jogged with a female UC Santa Barbara long-distance runner while interviewing her, then wrote up the whole piece afterward for the Goleta Today, a weekday-morning daily I served as a one-man sports staff.

–I got smoked by Los Angeles Rams player Otis Grant (like me, 6 feet 5 inches tall) as he went around me easily to score in a benefit basketball game at Rio Mesa High School in Oxnard, near my hometown.

I spent one week as an assistant basketball coach for Bruce Lofthus at Dos Pueblos High in Goleta/Santa Barbara until I explained a pivot to a varsity player that didn’t comport with Bruce’s understanding of the move and we called the whole experiment off. I continued my sports writing, he continued his teaching and coaching at the school. That was my one foray into coaching, and I have remained a sports reporter/photographer on the sidelines in stretches ever since.

Along the way, I experienced the mundane — covering local high school basketball games for the Chico Enterprise-Record as a college student intern — and the more elevated — sitting in the top deck of Estadio Azteca in Mexico City sharing sandwiches and snacks with other fans during a pro soccer semifinal.

When I entered journalism as a junior high writer with a column, “Eddie the Editor,” then proceeded to high school to author my next sports column, “Physical Ed,” I never once thought of newspapers as something that would go out of style. My cousin, a managing editor of an outlet in Nebraska, recently told me he knew from his college days that the days of newspapers were numbered.

However, I did realize that some of my own days writing for a paper would be limited when after 14 months at the Goleta newspaper, my health went bad and I had to seek the support and solace of my parents’ home in Ventura County to figure out my medical issues and complete my recovery.

Previous Post

Padres land Juan Soto and Josh Bell from Nationals in blockbuster deal

Next Post

Padres acquire Brandon Drury from Reds, trade Eric Hosmer to Red Sox

Ed Piper

Ed Piper

RelatedPosts

dutch
Sports

New San Diego soccer teams will have same rival: Capo FC

by Hector Trujillo
May 10, 2025
final iblewmydiet cover
La Jolla Village News - Features

La Jolla author’s latest book on ditching junk and eating healthy

by Dave Schwab
May 10, 2025
garden tour
La Jolla Village News - Features

Secret Garden Tour in La Jolla raises funds for Historical Society

by Dave Schwab
May 9, 2025
utf 8utf 8shauna amon 1063x1063
Downtown News - News

Amon joins Jackson Lewis firm

by SDNEWS staff
May 9, 2025
img 0408 2 copy
Beach & Bay Press - Arts & Entertainment

PB ARTS DISTRICT SPOTLIGHT – Pacific Beach artist Michaela Jean Upp

by SDNEWS staff
May 9, 2025
taste of la mesa feature lmc
La Mesa Courier - Top Stories

Inaugural Taste of La Mesa Village proves a hit

by SDNEWS staff
May 9, 2025
sdsu returns pic 5 1 683x1024 1 (1)
College Times Courier - Top Stories

San Diego State University set for May graduation ceremonies

by SDSU News Team
May 9, 2025
crown point residents and vietnam war veterans mike miller and wayne thompson reminiscing about their recent honor flight to washington, d.c.
Beach & Bay Press - Features

Two local veterans take emotional Honor Flight to D.C.

by Dave Schwab
May 9, 2025
Next Post
Padres acquire closer Josh Hader from Brewers

Padres acquire Brandon Drury from Reds, trade Eric Hosmer to Red Sox

Discussion about this post

  • SD News
  • Event Calendar
  • Business Directory
  • Advertise
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Community Resources
  • Staff Writers
  • Subscriptions/Support
  • Publications
  • La Jolla Village News
  • Beach Bay Press
  • Peninsula Beacon
  • Downtown News
  • Uptown News
  • La Mesa Courier
  • Mission Times Courier
  • College Times Courier
  • Mission Valley News
  • Find Your Newspaper
  • Archives
  • News
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Arts Entertainment
  • Education
  • Local Sports
  • Report News

CONNECT + SHARE

© Copyright 2024 SDNews.com Privacy Policy

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • en_US
  • es_MX
  • SDNews.com
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
  • La Jolla Village News
    • Top Stories
    • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Education
    • Art & Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Business Directory
    • Expert Advice
    • Real Estate
  • Beach Bay Press
    • Top Stories
    • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Education
    • Art & Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Business Directory
    • Expert Advice
    • Real Estate
  • Peninsula Beacon
    • Top Stories
    • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Education
    • Art & Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Business Directory
    • Expert Advice
    • Real Estate
  • Downtown News
    • Top Stories
    • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Education
    • Art & Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Business Directory
    • Expert Advice
    • Real Estate
  • Uptown News
    • Top Stories
    • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Education
    • Art & Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Business Directory
    • Expert Advice
    • Real Estate
  • La Mesa Courier
    • Top Stories
    • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Education
    • Art & Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Business Directory
    • Expert Advice
    • Real Estate
  • Mission Times Courier
    • Top Stories
    • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Education
    • Art & Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Business Directory
    • Expert Advice
    • Real Estate
  • College Times Courier
    • Top Stories
    • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Education
    • Art & Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Business Directory
    • Expert Advice
    • Real Estate
  • Mission Valley News
    • Top Stories
    • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Education
    • Art & Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Business Directory
    • Expert Advice
    • Real Estate
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Report News
  • Find Your Newspaper
  • Digital Editions/Archives
  • Community Resources
  • RSS Feeds

© Copyright 2024 SDNews.com Privacy Policy