Articles by Phillip Brents

The South County passing tournament, hosted in mid-July by Southwestern College’s football program, traditionally wraps up summer workouts for high school teams in the region. The Helix Highlanders ended the summer with a phenomenal 34-1 record to welcome new head coach Robbie Owens to the program.

“When you come into a program that has been as successful as the one at Helix, you don’t want to change anything, you just want to add to it,” Owens explained.

Al Westermeyer has served in an administrator role in both Little League and Pony Baseball, and he likes where Emerald Pony League stands at present. Certainly, how could anyone not feel on top of the world after being on top of the world?

The league’s Mustang-9 and Pony-13 all-star teams swept to World Series championship titles in the span of the same weekend earlier this month — something that no other Pony League had ever managed to accomplish before.

Even if all the infrastructure and glitter isn’t quite in place, the Games of the XXXI Olympiad have started off on a decidedly festive note in Rio de Janeiro. Opening ceremonies took place last Friday, with unretired swimmer Michael Phelps leading the massive American contingent in the parade of nations as its flag bearer.

There has been a lot of activity on the Emerald Pony League Facebook site in the past few weeks, and with good reason. The El Cajon-based league’s Mustang-9 and Pony-13 all-star teams are both World Series bound.

Emerald FC Prime will represent the West Zone when play starts Thursday, July 28, in the Mustang-9 International World Series in Walnut. The eight-team international tournament wraps up Sunday, July 31.