Drill Team

The first semester of summer school is over, and second semester is underway. Program distribution for all incoming Hoover students will be Aug. 23 through 25. Expect to receive a packet of materials in the mail with information on the coming school year. Program distribution information is available on the Hoover website by grade at www.hooverhs.org. Sessions 1 to 4 of Tornado Baseball camp are in session through July, and the first day of Hoover High’s football training is Aug. 16. Hoover’s Class of 1970, 40-year reunion is Saturday at the Castaway Restaurant.

BURBANK ? Thousands of people, many wearing their best 10-gallon hats and cowboy boots, moseyed on down to the Los Angeles Equestrian Center Saturday night to enjoy the color and spectacle of the Fiesta of the Spanish Horse Extravaganza. The evening's entertainment was the highlight of more than three days of horse show competition at the center, designed to showcase the cultural legacy of Spanish horse breeds in America, event coordinator Joanne Asman said. "The Spanish horse has heart and soul," Asman said.

FATHER KNOWS BEST Father Joe Shea knows how to throw a party. His yearly fund-raise,r "A Midsummer Night's Cuisine," attracted 1,300 guests who wined and dined on some of the best food and drink from area restaurants. Guests could also cast their bids on enormous gift baskets and trip packages during the silent auction part of the evening. Perhaps the most charming and clever money-making moment of the evening came when guests were encouraged to pay and dance with their choice of priest with no limit on the number of dances.

Gary Moskowitz Glendale High School's homecoming king and queen had one thing in common Friday night -- a look of complete surprise on their faces. Glendale High seniors Valentina Ambarchyan and Vahan Shakhbandaryan both gasped in disbelief when they were crowned king and queen during halftime of the home- coming football game between Glendale and Hoover high schools Friday at Glendale High's Moyse Field. "It's so amazing," said Valentina, 17. "This is the greatest feeling.

RITA PARDUE-FALLMAN Congratulations to Hoover High School jazz students Timmy Jordan, Autumn Yi, Sam Gonzalez, Frankie Bueno and Alexy Yeghikian for receiving outstanding soloist awards in the Valencia Super Bowl of Jazz on May 21. Congratulations to Cameron Funk for earning third place in the Junior Olympics Archery Division for 15- to 17-year-olds. According to Julianne Erikson, PTSA president, senior students are very busy with senior events.

Mary Mallory, Weekend BURBANK -- A perfect antidote to a rainy day, "Funky Punks With Junk In Their Trunks" is another one of the Troubadour Theatre Company's laugh riots. Frenetic and entertaining for both children and the eternally young at heart, the production at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank is a spontaneously improvised hodgepodge of delights that combines slapstick, acrobatics, stilt walking, juggling and other circus tricks performed by a madcap cast of clowns.

Those who say that the arts are dead or dying in Glendale should sit up and take notice of the Stepping Stone Players' presentation of "Annie." I took 27 members of my dance/drill team to the Saturday evening show. Many of these girls had never seen a live theater presentation, since very often, ticket prices for such productions are prohibitive. Most of what these kids know of theater is from going to the local AMC or learning about it in a classroom setting.

A community theater company is bringing families together, whether it’s in the cast or the audience. The Stepping Stone Players are in final rehearsals for “Once Upon a Mattress” opening Friday at Hoover High School’s Auditorium. It’s the ninth production of the nonprofit theater group, whose vision is to build a sense of community through theater by encouraging the participation of people of all ages and backgrounds. Over the years, more and more family members have auditioned and landed roles in the shows, said director Susan Kussman, who added that they got the roles on their own merit as individuals.

Judy Seckler THORNYCROFT -- Neither of Holy Family Girls High School's two valedictorians this year could tell you their grade-point averages were both 4.04. Why? Because they were just too busy to keep track. What Anne Jeanette DeGuzman and Christine Joyce Rodriguez do recall, however, and probably will for the rest of their lives, was the different paths they took to get to the top of their class. Another classmate, Grace Paguio, was salutatorian with a 3.92 grade point average.

After eight years of weekend commutes to Ventura, Mary McKee is finally moving home. McKee is leaving her position as the assistant superintendent of secondary education for the Glendale Unified School District to become superintendent of Somis Union School District in Ventura. She will give up the day-to-day workings at the middle and high school levels of a 29,000-students district to take over responsibility of a district of just 500 students. With the blessing of a very understanding husband, McKee has been living, since she took the GUSD job in 1996, in an apartment in Glendale Monday through Friday and traveling home to Ventura on the weekends.