Week 1 News & Notes: SoCal Fires & Media Links

Good evening from the press box high atop PGE Park in Portland. In between home events for the Boxers, I am working at my side job as the official statistician for the Portland Timbers soccer club. The team is having a fabulous season: first place in the USL First Division and hasn't lost a match in league play since their season opener in April.

I am not the only Boxer connection to the team. The Pacific men's soccer coaching staff, Head Coach Jim Brazeau and assistant Jim Rilatt, are both assistant coaches for the Timbers under Gavin Wilkinson. They are both in attendance tonight ahead of the Boxers' trip to Southern California. The team flies out Friday morning.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FIRES: The men's soccer squad is literally traveling into a firestorm as wildfires continue to devastate lands in northern Los Angeles Basin. According to KNX 1070 Newsradio, the fire complex was at 35 percent containment as of Thursday night. The city of Redlands and the University of Redlands, where the Boxers will play on Saturday, is 10 miles west of the basin's easternmost blaze, the Yuciapa Fire. Smoke and heat index caused the school to cancel a scheduled women's soccer scrimmage, but their weekend athletics events are expected to take place this weekend as scheduled. Click Here For Interactive Google Map Of The Fire Area.

MEDIA LINKS: Some items of interest on Pacific athletics from the press wires this week...
TENNIS COURTS OPEN: The Wednesday edition of the Forest Grove News-Times featured the new Holce Tennis Courts, located on the northeast corner of campus. The facility has been a long time in coming, as head men's tennis coach Brian Jackson describes.

GHOSTS OF FOOTBALL PAST: The Sunday Oregonian ran a feature of prep football coaches who have chosen to stay at the high school ranks rather than make the jump to (or in some cases the jump back) to the college ranks. Among those profiled is Bill Singler, who was Pacific's last football coach in the 1990 and 1991 seasons. After the program was cut at Pacific, Singler went to Rutgers and Stanford, where he coached under the legendary Bill Walsh, before returning to his alma mater, South Medford High School, to build a state power. The page also features a prep preview with another Pacific gridiron product: Marist Head Coach Frank Geske.

FAREWELL RUSS BLUNCK: Tuesday's Oregonian Small College Notebook makes mention of Russ Blunck, former Western Oregon sports information director and football broadcaster, who was recently named associate athletic director at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. Blunck has been at Western Oregon doing double duty as SID and football radio broadcaster since 1997. Russ played football for Pacific in the late 1970s and 1980s and for a time served as a student SID. Best of luck, Russ on your return to San Diego.

BOXER KICKOFF THIS WEEKEND: The only home event for Pacific this weekend is the fifth annual Boxer Kickoff Volleyball Invitational. Action kicks off Friday at 7 p.m., as the host Boxers take on Schreiner University of Texas. Matches take place all day Saturday, culminating with the Boxers facing Central (Iowa), a perennial NCAA playoff contender, at 8:15 p.m. Four matches on Sunday wrap the tourney, highlighted the Boxers against Wartburg at 1:30 p.m. All Pacific matches can be followed online via our Live Stats service. For more information of the tournament and the participating teams, read this week's volleyball notebook.

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