Gold

Was it that long ago when we held their timid little hands and helped them take that first step that would eventually lead us to let go? We dressed them in new clothes, fixed them a snack, tied their shoes, helped them blow their nose and off they went to kindergarten and their first days of school. We had no idea that these very children would someday define this town. I see them every day, dressed in a garb with signs that define their brashness. They're the 'High School Seniors' from the La Cañada schools: Flintridge Prep, Saint Francis, LCHS, Sacred Heart, Pinewood Academy, Renaissance Academy and Hillside School.

Gary Moskowitz LA CRESCENTA -- The Crescenta Valley High School Orchestra was awarded a gold rating and won first place in the Heritage Music Competition Saturday in San Francisco. The gold award has earned the ensemble an invitation to perform in Chicago the next school year. Thirty groups from 12 schools participated in the competition. Crescenta Valley High sent 114 students to Saturday's competition. The Falcon Jazz Band earned second-place honors and a silver award.

Amber Willard GLENDALE -- In just two years, Oscar Rodriguez has conquered the world. Rodriguez, an officer for Glendale Police for 11 years, won the gold medal in his boxing weight class last week in the 2001 World Police and Fire Games. He hadn't even taken up boxing until 1999, although he had been an avid fan since growing up in rural New Mexico. "My dad told me a long time ago that if you want to do something, just do it," Rodriguez, 34, said Wednesday afternoon in the boxing gym at Roosevelt Middle School, where he trained.

After capturing gold by coming in as "the first to adopt Christianity" and "the first in the 20th century to be subject to a systematic genocide," Armenians have long been overdue for another gold medal. Attaining silver in the category of literacy (99% rate), behind the Finns, Norwegians and the Danes (100%) has not satiated their innate desire for winning something. Recent attempts at striking gold in such categories as "the most oppressed people in history," "first to have raised the curtain of Communism," or the "gaudiest houses on the hills" have failed.

Edgar Melik-Stepanyan Two Olympic gold medalists -- including one of the best American women's basketball players -- could trace their roots to the local area. Diana Taurasi and Stacey Nuveman aren't exactly local products -- they call Chino and La Verne their hometowns -- but they do have area ties. Taurasi was born in Glendale on June 11, 1982, and Nuveman was born in La Canada Flintridge on April 26, 1978. More than 20 years later, Taurasi and Nuveman will return to California with gold medals draped around their necks.

The CCY Dragons hosted the 19th annual Dragon Invitational Swim Meet at the El Monte Aquatic Center on Nov. 13 -14. With 114 boys and girls competing, the Dragons came in a close second to a much larger San Pedro team and showed their mettle against teams from 12 YMCA club swimming programs. Standouts among many excellent swimmers were 13-year-old Yumi So, who won all of her events with personal best times in five of them, Harrison Thai, 9, with five firsts and a second, all personal bests, Ashley Min, 16, with five firsts and five personal bests, Vinh Doan with four firsts and three personal bests, Jason Kim with seven firsts and five personal bests, and Alex Park, 15, five first places and five personal bests.

Since 1861, 3,459 individuals have received the Congressional Medal of Honor. Of the 770 Nobel Laureates, 112 received the Nobel Peace Prize. And nearly 36,000 individual and team Olympic medals have been awarded since 1932. Through a priceless exhibit of more than 300 hand-crafted medals on loan from recipients and artists of the American Medallic Sculpture Association (AMSA), Forest Lawn Museum introduces medallic art to Los Angeles. The medals, on exhibit beginning Jan. 22, are rare in their artistry, detail and beauty and serve as art pieces expressing thoughts about life.

The Dae-Myung Academy -- which is located in Glendale -- sent nine students to the 24th annual United States Tae Kwon Do Junior Olympic Nationals in Atlanta on June 30, and returned home with its hands full of gold. Roma Pasamba, a 15-year-old Hoover High student, won gold medals in the forms and sparring competitions for the second consecutive year. Pasamba recently completed her sophomore year. Francis Pasamba -- the younger sister of Roma -- also won gold medals in both events.

The CCY Dragon Swim Team took first place Pacific Regional Championship swim meet January 27 and 28. Alex Park , 17, went home with gold medals in all five of his events. Eight-year-old Summer Otazu and Yvette Kim , 6, were golden girls taking first place in all of their events. Tricia Dobson and Michelle Du once gain dominated the girls 13+ division with Du taking first in the 200 IM, 200 free and 100 fly. Dobson went for the gold in the 100 and 200 back and 100 free.

Force brings home gold in annual games Officers from the Glendale Police Department came home victorious after participating in the 2005 Western States Police and Fire Games. Almost 40 Glendale participants competed in events in the five day tournament that took place in Reno, Nev., from July 25 to 30. Winners included: the Glendale-Burbank open softball team, gold medal; Glendale Officer Dan Hulben and Sgt. Dave Buckley, team bronze medal in golf; retiree Terry Jones, bronze medal in individual golf; retirees Jon Harrison and Jerry Stolze, team gold medal in golf; Harrison, gold medal in individual golf; Glendale Sgt. Oscar Rodriguez, silver medal in boxing; Glendale Sgt. Randy Osborne, gold and silver medal in track and field.

For the past week a deep sadness has shadowed me concerning the death of Huell Howser. I am so grateful that Huell Howser was able to hear what I wrote about him in the Crosby Chronicles a month ago. His assistant called me and said that when he read the piece to Huell, it moved him to tears, and that if he could have talked me and said so himself, he would have. Hopefully, he was made aware of other's tributes to his fine work as well. I knew then that it was only a matter of time before his obituary appeared.

For the Glendale Community College women's cross-country team, the title chase at Saturday's California Community College State Cross-Country Championships will be twofold. Although the Vaqueros have a sizable gap to close between themselves and Orange Coast College for the team championship, they still remain players to capture the crown for the second year in a row when the meet kicks off at 10 a.m. at Woodward Park in Fresno. Perhaps a likelier bet, though, is Grace Zamudio's contention for the individual title, as the GCC sophomore hasn't lost a race in her last eight outings this season, including winning the Southern California crown on Nov. 3. “We've been training for this race since summer,” said Zamudio, who's undefeated against junior college competition.

NORTHEAST GLENDALE - Four-hit games don't come around often for Nick LaFace. The Glendale Angelenos catcher said he's not necessarily searching for them. LaFace celebrated a rare four-hit performance, as he hit two home runs and drove in five runs Thursday night to lead Glendale to a 17-2 victory against the Gold Coast Braves in an independent summer collegiate game at Stengel Field called after eight innings because of curfew. "I've been struggling the last couple of games, so I had to go up there and be aggressive," said LaFace, who also collected a single and double and scored three runs to help Glendale improve to 27-7.

NORTHEAST GLENDALE - A key pinch hit and a pair of long home runs got the Glendale Angelenos back on track following a tough road trip. Back at Stengel Field after losing two games in a row for the first time this season, Glendale received a clutch pinch-hit double from John Schwer and a pair of homers from Sako Chapjian to earn a 10-5 victory against the Gold Coast Braves in an Independent Collegiate Summer League contest. Schwer, a former Glendale Community College standout, broke a 4-4 deadlock with a two-run double to right to give the Angelenos a 6-4 lead with one out in the sixth inning.

LA CRESCENTA - Without even setting foot in the Crescenta Valley High gymnasium on Friday, the Village Christian boys' volleyball team turned Pool B of the 2012 Crescenta Valley Varsity Tournament on its ear. The Crusaders were unable to put off an Olympic League match that had been rescheduled for Friday and were therefore unable to take their place in Pool B alongside Paraclete, Salesian and the host Falcons. As a result, the remaining three were left to battle it out for first place and the berths in today's Gold Division playoffs awarded to the top two teams in each of the four pools.

It was the longest fight of Ronda Rousey's mixed-martial-arts career. And it was also the most satisfying fight of Rousey's burgeoning MMA ascent. The Glendale Fighting Club-trained judoka submitted defending champion Miesha Tate at the 4:27 mark of the first round of their headlining bout at Strikeforce "Tate vs. Rousey" at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio on Saturday night to become the new Strikeforce women's bantamweight champion. "I didn't talk my way into that one," said Rousey in the postfight cage interview in reference to naysayers, led by Tate, before the fight saying the phenom hadn't done enough to deserve the title shot.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich today called for a review of expenditures made by the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority -- the latest volley after three high-profile officials, including South Pasadena Councilman Michael Cacciotti, left the authority board earlier this year following conflict-of-interest accusations. The motion to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority -- co-authored by fellow board directors Glendale City Councilman Ara Najarian and county Supervisor Don Knabe -- also calls for an independent review of the Exposition Metro Line Construction and Alameda Corridor-East Construction authorities.

Last season, St. Francis High and Crescenta Valley were the most successful boys' soccer programs in the area, with both squads advancing to the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division I and IV playoffs, respectively. The Golden Knights and Falcons will look to keep things running smoothly and senior leadership and depth could well be the keys for both. The Golden Knights have depth in goal, key pieces back in the midfield led by senior Austin Frank and a pair of dangerous strikers up top in seniors Eric Bocanegra and Billy McCreary.

GIRLS' VOLLEYBALL Crescenta Valley 2, L.A. Baptist 0: The Falcons won their final pool-play match, 25-18, 25-18, on Friday night in the opening round of their host tournament to finish second in Pool B and secure a Gold Division playoff berth for today's final round, which begins at 10:30 a.m. Crescenta Valley split its first two matches. It fell to South Hills, 24-26, 25-14, 15-4 before besting Van Nuys, 25-23, 24-26, 15-13. Viewpoint 3, Glendale Adventist Academy 0: Glendale Adventist put up a fight in the final game, racking up 22 points, but was still swept by Viewpoint, 25-14, 25-12, 25-22, in a Liberty League match Thursday.

Where you stumble lies your treasure, and that's just what struggling actress and filmmaker Christy Oldham found during a brief, dark period, when she became a phone sex operator to pay rent in Burbank. The treasure came in the form of raw material and passionate motivation, which fueled the fire of her new film “Barracuda,” being featured at the Burbank International Film Festival on Sept. 15. Oldham wrote, produced and starred in the film, which is about a phone sex operator turned vigilante who drives her Plymouth Barracuda across the country, bringing sexual deviants to justice.