The Santa Barbara 805 Water Polo Club has been one of the top youth water polo programs in the nation for years, and it has continued to show its dominance in 2025.

The club has qualified a whopping 13 teams for the 2025 USA Water Polo Junior Olympics set for July in Irvine.

Of those 13 squads, eight have earned spots in the Championship Tournament. The other five will compete in the Classic Division.

“These results speak volumes,” SB 805 Club Director Kelsie Karam said. “We’ve invested in long-term athlete development, and you can see that paying off with multiple teams in the Championship division and younger athletes stepping into leadership roles.”

The Junior Olympics is the largest age-group water polo tournament in the world, featuring thousands of athletes from across the country.

The Championship Tournament qualifiers are the 10U Girls (#1 Seed), 10U Coed (#2 Seed), 12U Girls (#1 Seed), 14U A Girls (#2 Seed), 16U A Girls (#1 Seed), 16U B Girls (#3 Seed), 18U A Girls (#2 Seed) and 18U B Girls (#7 Seed) teams.

Meanwhile, the Classic Tournament qualifiers are the 12U A Boys (#1 Seed), 12U B Boys (#11 Seed), 14U Boys (#4 Seed), 14U B Girls (#2 Seed) and 16U C Girls (#2 Seed) teams.

“Our boys’ and B/C teams worked incredibly hard to earn their spots,” Karam said. “This kind of club-wide success doesn’t happen by accident – it comes from dedication, smart coaching and a culture of accountability.”

With a history of success at the biggest of stages, Santa Barbara 805 will look to keep it rolling in Irvine next month.

Follow Santa Barbara 805 Water Polo Club’s road to Irvine at www.sb805wpc.org and on Instagram @sb805wpc.

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Monday, June 16, 2025 10:00PM

West Philadelphia teacher Carly Dunbar stepped up to coach the girls’ volleyball team and helped to score an undefeated regular season.

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (WPVI) — Becoming head volleyball coach wasn’t always in the game plan for high school teacher Carly Dunbar. But when she found the ball in her court, she served up a season to remember.

Dunbar was preparing to start just her second year teaching at Overbrook High School in West Philadelphia when she stepped up to lead the girls’ volleyball team.

Dunbar helped lead the 2024 team to an undefeated regular season with a record of 12-0. They were recognized as American Conference Champions in their league and did ultimately lose during the playoffs.

The fairy tale year led to some amazing experiences for Dunbar and the students.

Watch the video above to see the story.

RELATED: Twin tennis players each score state championships at PA high school

Twins Ava and Gabriel Shapiro helped the girls and boys tennis teams at Lower Moreland High School each score a state championship.

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Georgia outdoor track and field won their first-ever NCAA championship in style this weekend, finishing the four-day meet with a dominant 73 points to claim the team title by a massive margin of 26 points on Saturday.

Snagging podium finishes with 47 and 43 points, respectively, were silver medalists USC and bronze winners Texas A&M.

The Bulldogs proved impossible to beat, boasting individual champions in the 400-meter dash (junior Aaliyah Butler), the high jump (senior Elena Kulichenko), the hammer throw (grad student Stephanie Ratcliffe) and the 4×400-meter relay — more individual titles than any other school at the meet.

The winning relay team of freshman Michelle Smith, sophomore Sydney Harris, and juniors Butler and Dejanea Oakley particularly impressed, with three of the four taking individual podium spots as well.

Butler — a 2024 US Olympic gold medalist in the 4×400-meter relay — led the aforementioned 400-meter dash, with teammate Oakley securing second-place just behind her.

Meanwhile, Smith bagged bronze in the 400-meter hurdles.

Georgia head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert, who previously led three-time champion USC to the Trojans’ 2018 and 2021 NCAA titles, is now the only woman to coach two different schools to an outdoor track and field national championship.

“I love these kids. They teach me more about me than I teach them about anything,” said an emotional Smith Gilbert during the trophy ceremony. “They worked so hard, and they believed in themselves, and we did it.”

Trio of NCAA records crumble at championship meet

While first-time champion Georgia was making team program history, a trio of NCAA women were busy shattering national track and field records this weekend.

First, Washington sophomore Hana Moll became the national pole vault champion with a new NCAA record leap of 4.79 meters on Thursday.

Notably, this was the third time this season that the collegiate pole vault mark was cleared by a Huskie, with Moll’s twin sister Amanda breaking the record twice last month.

Then on Saturday, two records fell, with Alabama sophomore Doris Lemngole earning her second straight 3,000-meter steeplechase title in 8:58.15 — the fastest time in NCAA history.

Michigan senior Savannah Sutherland, a 2024 Olympian for Team Canada, closed out the 2025 NCAA record-breaking by dethroning a legend, smashing the 400-meter hurdles mark previously held by now-two-time Olympic individual champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.

Sutherland’s 52.46-second race was 0.29 seconds below McLaughlin-Levrone’s collegiate record — and a full 0.8 seconds below Sutherland’s own personal best.

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Embracing a slightly revised baseball slogan – “If you build it, they will come” – Ontario will soon be a city with a minor league baseball team – again.

It enticed a team to forsake Rancho Cucamonga and play in Ontario for the 2026 California League season, the city is assembling a 6,000-seat baseball stadium and athletic complex just off Riverside Drive. There’s a relocation of the minor league affiliates happening in the Inland Empire for the 2026 season, which means Rancho Cucamonga won’t be without a team.

But 78 years ago, Ontario boasted of having its first pro baseball franchise – the curiously named Ontario Orioles. It didn’t last very long nor was it very successful. The Orioles played only the 1947 season in the Class C Sunset League and achieved little to be remembered, with the possible exception of the identity of the owner of the club, Babe Dahlgren.

Dahlgren didn’t play for the Orioles nor spent much time locally when his team played here, but in baseball lore he occupies a very prominent place.

He is the answer to a baseball trivia question: Who replaced the legendary Lou Gehrig, ending his 2,130-consecutive games-played streak?” Dahlgren was inserted in the lineup of the New York Yankees instead of illness-plagued Gehrig for the first time on May 2, 1939.

Other than that moment in the spotlight, Dahlgren played in 1,137 games for eight major league teams (including the Brooklyn Dodgers of 1942, managing a woeful one hit in 19 at-bats). He was a member of the Yankees’ World Series champions of 1938 and 1939.

RELATED: Ontario’s new minor league ballpark, sports complex is taking shape

With the end of World War II bringing home many war veterans, new ball teams and leagues were created, both for players and spectators. The new Sunset League existed from 1947 to 1950, with teams during its first year in Riverside, Anaheim, Las Vegas, Reno and El Centro as well as Ontario. Dahlgren, who was still an active ball player though only in the minors, became owner of the Ontario club with his brother-in-law Russ Decker who was its general manager, reported the Riverside Daily Press, Jan. 28, 1947.

In preparation for the team’s night games during the 1947 season, the city installed arc-lights for the stadium at John Galvan Park. It was just last August that that historic field’s grandstand was destroyed by fire.

The first task for Dahlgren was to find players so he scheduled a couple of “schools,” or tryouts, in San Bernardino and Arcadia in late February. It attracted hopeful players from as far away as Gardena and Los Angeles, wrote the Sun newspaper Feb. 23, 1947.

It turned out that his manager, and World War II veteran, Danny Reagan would also be his best player. Reagan was the Orioles’ catcher and offensive leader, batting .331 that year with 26 home runs and 101 runs batted in.

But otherwise, there really wasn’t much else to talk about from the Orioles’ season.

The team lost four straight in its season-opening series at the Riverside Dons. Things improved a bit when the team returned for its first home game on April 25, 1947, and beat the El Centro Imperials, 15-11. A mere 469 spectators bought tickets for the opener, an early hint of the poor attendance that plagued the team.

The team did win three of four games over El Centro that first week but attracted fewer than 1,000 spectators.

The Orioles’ lack of success continued for the first half of the season but found a brief streak of victories at the midpoint. In late June, the Orioles won six of eight games, some positive results the team just couldn’t sustain in the remaining weeks.

The ballpark did have one brief bit of bliss. If you saw the movie, “Bull Durham,” in which a Durham ballplayer was married at home plate before a game, then you’ll appreciate what happened Aug. 24 to Orioles outfielder Leandro Garcia, a Claremont native.

Escorted under an arch of crossed baseball bats, he and Dorothy Riggins of Pomona were married at home plate between the games of a doubleheader, reported the Pomona Progress-Bulletin two days later. Garcia would hit .308 and slug 16 home runs for the Orioles in his first year of professional baseball. He played four more years in the minor leagues but never made it to the major leagues.

The Orioles finished the season with a 64-75 record, in fifth place, 15½ games behind Riverside. The team averaged 340 paid spectators for each game.

Dahlgren made his home in Upland, after completing a season with the Baltimore team in the International League. He expressed reservations about continuing the Orioles as the team lost money during the season.

Riverside Daily Press writer Bob Weide reported on Feb. 10, 1948, that Dahlgreen proposed moving the team to San Bernardino but decided against it after the cost to rent the 10,000-seat Orange Show Stadium proved too high. Instead, he sold the team to Mexicali, Mexico, where the team played as the Mexicali Aguilas and won the 1948 regular-season championship.

I want to thank my friend Joe Caskey, president of Ontario Heritage, who first drew my attention to the Ontario Orioles. He also offered the suggestion that the nickname for the new team ought to be the Orioles, honoring the original team of 1947.

But why was it called the Orioles in the first place? The Ontario Daily Report on Feb. 8, 1947, told the story that the nickname was picked after very little forethought by Dahlgren. He discovered one day that he had to immediately order team uniforms for his team which still didn’t have a name.

“Dahlgren was forced to make a quick decision,” said the article, “so decided upon (Orioles), which is the nickname of the Baltimore club of the International League where Dahlgren will play this season.”

Historical doings

The Historical Society of the Pomona Valley will hold its annual meeting at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 22, at the Ebell Museum of Pomona History, 585 E. Holt Ave., Pomona. Information: pomonahistorical.org.

On June 28, the organization is planning the second of two cleanups at the Palomares Adobe, 491 E. Arrow Highway, Pomona. The work begins at 8 a.m. and involves tidying up the gardens at the historic site. Volunteers interested in participating should call 909-623-2198.

Joe Blackstock writes on Inland Empire history. He can be reached at joe.blackstock@gmail.com or Twitter @JoeBlackstock. Check out some of our columns of the past at Inland Empire Stories on Facebook at www.facebook.com/IEHistory.