All photos by Shar Higa 

You would have needed a whole fleet of buses to pack in all the great high school athletes from Long Beach this year, but they packed as many as they could into three big buses last night for a parade down Pine.  Athletes from Poly’s CIF champion football team, and state champion track and girls’ basketball teams joined the Millikan boys’ soccer team, Millikan track athletes, and divers from St. Anthony, Millikan, and Poly to honk and wave at passersby on Pine, ending in a huge hamburger dinner at Smooth’s. 

Nelson Preciado, of the Rams soccer team, said over dinner that his team (almost all of whom will be attending Cypress College next year) had a great time.  “We were chanting and making the most out of it,” he said.  “It’s something special—not everybody gets to do this.”

Poly girls’ basketball coach Carl Buggs said his team had a good time too, though with four straight state titles it’s definitely not their first one.  “People are already asking about next year,” he said.  “They started asking the day after we got back from Sacramento—our principal asked me about it before he gave me the trophy.”

 

The teams unroll their banners

The Millikan Rams pose with their trolley

Incoming Century Club president Steve Blood hands out food tickets

A LBPD officer (and Poly alum) greets track coach Don Norford. “That’s my school,” he said happily when he saw the state track banner

Long Beach’s three CIF champion divers, from Poly, St. Anthony, and Millikan

That’s a lot of athletes

Raul Lara, Carl Buggs, John Morris, and Don Norford