GLENDALE — The following are odds and ends from the local sports scene.
RIHN AND CO.
WIN THIRD STRAIGHT
St. Francis High junior Nick Rihn, a standout for the Golden Knights soccer team, is also a member of the Under-16 Boys Real So Cal club soccer squad.
Over the weekend, Real So Cal became only the second boys' team to win three titles, as it claimed the 2007 U.S. Youth Soccer National Championships in Frisco, Texas.
On the strength of a Zach Zerrenner goal, So Cal defeated the Michigan Wolves, 1-0, on Saturday in the final, known as the D.J. Niotis Cup.
Rihn and Co. finished the tournament 3-1, with the championship win against the Wolves avenging their only loss of the festivities.
Taking place at Pizza Hut Park, the U.S. National Championships crown boys' and girls' titlists in six age groups - U-14 to U-19 - as the four top teams in every age group, representing the West, East, North and South Regions, converge for the championship tournament.
Rihn was a starting midfielder for St. Francis last season, when it finished second in the Mission League and advanced to the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division I playoffs.
WHEN THE COACH
MET 'THE DUKE'
When he's not coaching on the Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy sidelines every winter, Tologs girls' soccer co-Coach Frank Pace keeps himself quite busy.
An Emmy-Award-winning producer whose credits include "The George Lopez Show" and "Murphy Brown," Pace is also one of the key parties behind HallOfFameMagazine.com, an online publication that features the works of Armen Keteyian, Robert Lipsyte, Charley Steiner, Joe McDonnell and many others.
Pace's most recent contribution to the magazine is a look back on an encounter he had with Glendale's most famous resident - John Wayne. The story is entitled, "My Shot with John Wayne."
"This year marks the 100th birthday of John Wayne. Yet 28 years after his death, the magnitude of his star is as bright as when Wayne was America's top box office draw," begins the story about Pace meeting the movie icon roughly a year before his death.
Wayne starred on the gridiron as a standout lineman at Glendale High and USC, before becoming, arguably, the biggest star the silver screen has ever seen.
To read the story, you can go to hofmag.com.
A HALL OF
FAME LEGACY
Speaking of the Hall of Fame, according to the aforementioned Frank Pace, one of the Tologs' incoming freshman soccer players, Erica Davidson, is the granddaughter of Sven Davidson.
