WEEKEND EDITION
INSIDE SCOOP
FOOD
JUDGE RULES IN GOLDMANS’ FAVOR PAGE 3 TASTY PRESENTS PAGE 7
DECEMBER 20-21, 2008
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Volume 7 Issue 343
Santa Monica Daily Press SEEING SIGNS SEE PAGE 4
Since 2001: A news odyssey
THE PARTING WAYS ISSUE
Samohi’s head coach decides to leave post BY DANIEL ARCHULETA Managing Editor
SAMOHI Rumors are a funny thing. They can
cations bunker, eating together, hanging out and essentially treating each other as brothers. They would often talk about life back home. Crilly in particular would boast about the beautiful California beaches in his native Santa Monica, walking on the sand and going on about the Beach Boys. Sometimes Crilly would talk about a girl back home. Because of his small frame and younger age, he was given the nickname “Kid Crilly.” “He was the kid,” Ark recalled. “He liked stepping on machine gun belts like you see in the war pictures and he had this big 60 caliber machine gun that he was very proud of.” Six months after Crilly began his tour of
make an otherwise simple situation seem so much more salacious. Such is the case with Santa Monica High School’s head football coach Zach Cuda’s decision to step down. His resignation created speculation, much of it less than true. Was he forced out following an 8-3 season and a second straight first-round playoff loss? Did the pressures of dealing with the community — mostly parents — get to him? Apparently not. “I’m leaving to spend time with family and friends and get back to working on my teaching credential,” Cuda said. “We’re not going to be able to put the same amount of time on coaching as we did the last three seasons.” His brother Conrad Cuda, the team’s defensive coordinator, has also decided to leave the team. Zach Cuda said that the decision was an easy one to make. “High school coaching is a tough gig these days,” he said. “Financially, it’s not the most rewarding of careers. “You do it when you’re single like I’ve been and you’re young in your career.” While he did say that dealing with parents can at times be trying, he said that had nothing to do with his decison to step aside. While he looks back at his time leading the team fondly, he’s happy to get back to working on his teaching duties. He said that his position as an advance placement economics teacher is just more of a priority in his life at this time. Instead of spending the summer working with his players preparing for the 2009 season, he’ll be attending conferences and furthering his academic career. “At least 90 percent of my livelihood is teaching AP economics,” he said. “I have to get back to focusing on that.” While he will be taking a break from coaching, he plans to return to the sideline someday.
SEE VET PAGE 11
SEE SAMOHI PAGE 12
GIVING BACK
Byron Kennerly news@smdp.com California’s First Lady Maria Shriver (right center) bags food at the One Voice holiday event at Barker Hangar on Thursday night. Over 2,000 volunteers prepared holiday packages for needy families that included toys, books and food. One Voice is a nonprofit organization.
Local helps soldier’s mom discover truth BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
ST. MONICA Stewart Resmer vividly remembers the day when he last saw classmate David Crilly, sitting together on a school bench, each longingly staring at each other’s sandwiches, contemplating a swap. The two were never the kind of friends who would hang out when class wasn’t in session, just acquaintances at St. Monica Catholic High School who would say hi to one another and enjoy an occasional lunch. Yet when Resmer returned home from his 40th high school reunion in October, he couldn’t help think about that small and skinny kid with big brown eyes who would die in the Vietnam War just months after their last encounter. Resmer, 58, who today is an executive
working in ground transportation, knew Crilly was among the soldiers who never made it back home, dying after accidentally shooting himself in the head. But it was after the reunion — the Santa Monica resident’s first — where he saw a dedication to deceased classmates that Resmer really started thinking about Crilly and decided to do some digging online. What Resmer didn’t know at the time was that a casual Web search would eventually help a veteran who served with Crilly connect with the soldier’s mother and finally let her know what happened that day on June, 7, 1969. VIETNAM BROTHERS
Together, Crilly, Randy Ark and Jesse Fugate were an inseparable trio. The three soldiers lived in the communi-
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