COACH HAS TAUGHT EAGLES TO SOAR.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
Odds and ends from around the Valley: What do you call a guy with the ability to teach 30 integrated assignments to a group of 7- and 8-year-old boys with notoriously short attention spans? On the West Valley Eagles youth football team in Canoga Park, they call him Coach Cummins. For the past 30 years, Ken Cummins has been leaving his day job as an airplane mechanic to coach football at night and on weekends to kids ages 6 to 15. On Nov. 1, at the Eagles homecoming Homecoming Odyssey concerning Odysseus’s difficulties in getting home after war. [Gk. Myth.: Odyssey] You Can’t Go Home Again revisiting his home town, a writer is disillusioned by what he sees. [Am. Lit. game at Canoga Park High School Canoga Park High School is a public school located in Canoga Park in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California, USA, within the Los Angeles Unified School District. It is located right across the street from the Topanga Plaza shopping center. , Cummins will be honored before his team's 11 a.m. kickoff for his three decades of coaching. While most youth coaches stick around just long enough to coach their own kids, Cummins stayed with the league more than 20 years after his own two sons got too old to play. And he has no plans to quit. ``As long as I still feel the excitement before each game, the nervousness, I'll keep coaching,'' said Cummins, 60. ``I love the game, love the kids. My gratification GRATIFICATION. A reward given voluntarily for some service or benefit rendered, without being requested so to do, either expressly or by implication. is to see them excel - go from this stage where they don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. much about football to becoming good players. ``My biggest thrill is to go to the high school games, and see the kids I've coached out there playing. Having them come up to me later and saying, 'Thanks, coach.''' Fellow coach Terrell Newby says Cummins has an uncanny ability to get the most out of kids with short attention spans. ``Imagine trying to teach a group of 7- and 8-year-olds 30 or 40 plays to remember,'' Newby said. ``Over the years, it's not only been the kids who have learned a lot from this man, it's been the other coaches and parents, too. It's been a privilege working with him.'' One of those parents is Norma Earhardt, whose five sons played for the West Valley Eagles. ``You always felt with Ken that he was coaching for the kids, not the parents,'' Earhardt said. ``He's devoted a big chunk of his life to these boys.'' Tuesday's column on Bill Steward's search to find an old pal, Vince House, who was a member of the Rhythm Aces singing group with him back in the early '50s, brought some sad news. ``Some of his relatives read the column and called to tell me Vince had passed away last July at 74,'' Steward said. ``It wasn't the result I had hoped for, but I've been able to close a chapter on my life. I'm sure Vince is in a better place now.'' The two men were on a military ship bound for Germany and service at a checkpoint on the Berlin Wall in 1948 when they met and formed the singing group that went on to sing professionally for 10 years. Bill also wanted me to pass on his thanks to all the people who called after reading the column and offered to help him locate his old pal. And finally, if you're a renter in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. and concerned about increasing rents, substandard substandard, adj below an acceptable level of performance. living conditions living conditions npl → condiciones fpl de vida living conditions npl → conditions fpl de vie living conditions living , and landlord disputes, mark Wednesday on your calendar. State Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Van Nuys, is sponsoring a renter's rights forum at 7 p.m. in the St. Elisabeth Church Auditorium, 6635 Tobias Ave., Van Nuys. ``Some tenants are facing huge increases in their rents for no reason and with little notices,'' Alarcon said. ``Others are being forced to live in deplorable de·plor·a·ble adj. 1. Worthy of severe condemnation or reproach: a deplorable act of violence. 2. conditions, and often it's the renters with the least resources who are being abused. ``We're ready to help them with the information they need to fight back,'' he said. Attorneys from Neighborhood Legal Services legal services n. the work performed by a lawyer for a client. will be on hand to answer questions about tenant-landlord disputes, and the City Attorney's Office will inform renters about the eviction The removal of a tenant from possession of premises in which he or she resides or has a property interest done by a landlord either by reentry upon the premises or through a court action. process. Contact names and numbers for city inspectors, the housing department and other resources will also be provided. Dennis McCarthy, (818) 713-3749 dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Coach Ken Cummins, with, from left, players Max Vogel, Terrell Newby, Jordan Pierce and Bradley Kaaya, will be honored for his three decades of coaching. Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer |
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