28th aual Century Club banquet honors Long Beach's middle school best

LONG BEACH >> The 28th aual Long Beach Century Club Middle School All-City awards banquet was the biggest yet, with more than 750 athletes, coaches,and family members on hand to accept awards for being the best in the Long Beach Unified School District in the 2015-16 year.

This year’s banquet, held at the Grand in East Long Beach, was organized by Keith Hansen, the first time in the nearly three-decade history of the event that someone other than Sam Breuklander had the reins, although Breuklander was still the master of ceremonies.

“I thought it was the biggest we’ve ever done and maybe the best,” said Hansen, who attended all the all-city championship events to take the team pictures. “It was really nice to be able to congratulate all the teams that were here.”

Each school received a plaque for its all-city teams with a photo of the team and each athlete received a plaque.

The event also marked the end of an era as it’s the last time that longtime Hughes coach John Tokeshi will be honored. Tokeshi’s girls basketball Owls won a seventh consecutive Division 1 All-City championship. Tokeshi is retiring after decades of teaching and coaching at the middle school level.

Tokeshi’s girls hoops team made history this year with the title, as it gives them the longest run of championships in Long Beach middle school history.

The overall championships for best programs were given to Hughes (Division 1 girls), Tincher (Division 2 girls), Rogers (Division 1 boys) and Lindsey (Division 2 boys). It was the first win for Lindsey for an overall program.

The overall sports award for best program with boys and girls results combined were Rogers (Division 1) and Newcomb (Division 2). It was just the fifth win for Rogers in the program’s history, but second consecutive as it tied with Stanford and Hughes last year in the first-ever three-way championship. It was the third win for Newcomb and the first since 2009.

The Howard Lyon sportsmanship awards were given to Hamilton (Division 1) and Robinson (Division 2).

Division 1, followed by the Division 2, champions are:

Girls volleyball: Rogers and Hudson; flag football: Stanford and Tincher; girls basketball: Hughes and Tincher; boys basketball: Rogers and Newcomb; girls track: Hughes and Tincher; girls soccer: Rogers and Newcomb; and boys soccer: Bancroft and Lindsey.

For the first time in city history there was a three-way team championship on the track this year in Division 2. Rogers claimed the boys championship, but Division 2 was split between Cubberly, Keller, and Tincher.

Advertisement

Guardabascio is a past president of the Century Club