SPRING BEGINS WITH ACTION Transitions
• The indoor warmth of the winter sports season is ending with spring sports ready to begin this month.
The Palos Verdes Youth Basketball League is wrapping up its winter season today with a handful of championship games.
Coming up is the Opening Day of Little League with community parades, games and competition at all four Peninsula leagues.
Check out the next edition of Panorama for Little League Opening Day coverage from all over the Peninsula, plus the beginning of the high school and middle spring sports season and a whole lot more.
Softball Opens Spring Sports Season
• The Palos Verdes Peninsula Fast-Pitch Girls Softball League held its annual parade from Highridge Park to Cornerstone School to open the spring sports season.
More than 300 girls in divisions from U6 to U14 will play competitive games at Cornerstone School and Highridge Park through May.
Put Ball In Play . . . The big yellow ball is back in play with great fastpitch softball action at Cornerstone School and Highridge Park every weekend this spring.
Be One With The Circle . . . Softball teams, friends and family attend Opening Day ceremonies for the opening of the girls’ softball season at Cornerstone School.
The Color Purple . . . The Purple Pickles celebrate a great defensive inning during the first game of the 10U Division play at Cornerstone School.
12U Division Will Be Tough . . . The Kraken won the first game of the season to take an early lead in the four-team 12U Division.
Ready To Compete . . . The Icebreaker are prepared to have a great spring season after a fun Opening Day at Cornerstone School last week.
Youthful Skills Come Together For High School Junior Year
High School
• All paths must pass the high school junior year where stress hangs over many life decisions.
By James Lew
Most high school seniors will tell you junior year was the most stressful year of high school. Some college students even consider junior year to be harder than college. With the pressure of college applications around the corner, having to balance school work, social life, extracurricular activities, family responsibilities, and for some students part time jobs can be very overwhelming.
As high school is growing more competitive than ever, acceptance rates
to Ivy Leagues and UCs are dropping drastically. Acceptance rates for Harvard have decreased from 6.9% in 2014 to 3.59% in 2025 according to Harvard admission stats, and UCLA acceptance rates decreased from 18.2% in 2014 to 9% in 2025 based on UCLA’s First Year Profile stats.
With acceptance rates to elite colleges trending down, high school students are taking more AP courses, seeking out internships, volunteering for passion projects, gaining work experience, taking SAT prep courses, etc. In addition to maintaining a high GPA, students are taking on more leadership positions in school clubs, starting their own clubs, joining honors societies, participating in athletics, school activities and programs.
Some students may also be facing added pressure to follow a parent’s alma mater to meet their expectations, and others may be concerned about financial aid considerations if they get into their dream school.
There are definitely a lot of factors contributing to junior year stress, so it’s important to take time off to relax and do something you enjoy like playing sports, going to the gym, watching a sports game, etc. to clear your mind. There are also good resources to talk to for advice such as your counselor, peers/ seniors, teachers, and parents.
While junior year is undoubtedly stressful and requires some serious time management skills, the good news is senior year is a fun year to look forward to so hang in there.
Lacrosse Growing On The Hill
Youth Sports
• New recreational youth lacrosse league begins to take shape on the Peninsula.
Interested in lacrosse? Now is the perfect time to join the fastest growing sport in America and learn what all the hype is about.
Lacrosse is our nation’s oldest sport, and also the newest sport to be added to the LA28 Olympics. And there’s no better way to learn than by joining the local, grassroots movement to get more kids playing! You can learn how to play the game right here in PV.
The league is led by coach Marissa Hewitt, who first started coaching lacrosse here in Palos Verdes in 2005 as the head coach of a brand new PVHS girls lacrosse team.
Since then, she has been on a mission to increase the number of youth playing lacrosse in our community. We hope you will join us as we launch the only rec lacrosse league for youth right here on The Hill.
The hope is that some day, the spring youth league will follow in the footsteps of the other successful leagues here on the hill, like Little
League Baseball, Mavericks Flag Football and PVYBL.
Spring Training Sports (www. SpringTrainingSports.com) is a huge supporter of youth sports, and in order to make lacrosse accessible to all of our baseball, softball and soccer playing friends, the lacrosse league will be on Sunday afternoons only. No tryouts. No travel. No Equipment or Experience Necessary. We bring everything to make it as easy as possible for young athletes to come try this action-packed sport.
— email reports
• PVIS, Ridgecrest and Miraleste Middle Schools compete in the South Bay League against school teams from all over the South Bay. Middle School
Down To The Final Seconds . . . Luka
and Bradley
celebrate the winning basket during the Purple Thunders’, 26-25, win over the Pythons in the Purple Division, Charoite Conference final game.
Skracic
Nguyen
Panthers On The Prowl . . . Layla Rose Mattera leads the Pink Panthers in the Hibiscus championship game.
Basketball Season In Final Period
PVYBL
• The Palos Verdes Youth Basketball League is finishing its winter season with championship final games this weekend and last.
The season will end this weekend with final games being played all over the Peninsula. Last week saw the Black Magic, Sharks, Hell’s Angels and Splash Sisters among others win final championship games.
Check out the next edition of Panorama for more basketball coverage.
For The Gold . . . The Huskies’ Samuel Hutting and the Vikings’ Maddux Spring battle during the Purple Division, Amethyst Conference championship game
The Waves’ Madelyn Dileva looks for a shot during the Waves’ 15-7 win over the Court Queens in the Iris Division championship game at Miraleste school.
Brown Bombers’ Christian Cohu goes up against the Eagles’ Adam Booker during the Brown Division, Agate Conference,
Tough Defense
The Waves played tough defense against the Court Queens during the Iris Division final game at the Miraleste gym.
