Century Club's Middle School Sports Banquet A Packed Success • Long Beach Post Sports

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For the 22nd time, the Century Club put together an extraordinary night to honor Long Beach’s youngest champions last Tuesday. The Middle School All-City Sports Banquet seems to get bigger every year, and 2010 was no exception, as nearly 800 people packed the Grand’s main ballroom for the ceremonies, which also took time to honor Jim Lineberger, the longtime director of Middle School sports in Long Beach, as well as the secretary of the Moore League, who is retiring in a few short weeks.

Lineberger was given a large round of applause for his service, and then took a moment to address the athletes. “The Moore League will continue to be the dominant league in all of CIF for one reason,” he said. “And that’s you.”

Showing how long in the tooth this tradition is getting, event co-founder Sam Breuklander asked if there were any parents in the crowd who’d been honored as athletes themselves—and was promptly joined onstage by five former Middle School champions. But of course the evening was about the current athletes, as 16 All-City Champion teams were honored, representing seven different schools.

Hoover, Marshall and Tincher all won one title, while Hughes and Lindsey won two each. Stanford had its usual strong showing with four, but it was Division 2 school Cubberley who set a new record with five championships, including a complete sweep of the girls’ sports in Division 2. Stanford and Cubberley won the Division 1 and 2 overall titles, with Cubberley taking 52.5 out of a potential 64 points. Congrats to all of the championship teams and players, and we’ll see you in the next few years as you move on to the Moore League!

The full list of awardees (Division 1, then Division 2):

Howard Lyon Sportsmanship Award: Marshall, Tincher

Football: Hoover, Cubberley

Girls’ Volleyball: Hughes, Cubberley

Boys’ Basketball: Stanford, Tincher

Girls’ Basketball: Hughes, Cubberley

Boys’ Track: Stanford, Lindsey

Girls’ Track: Stanford, Cubberley

Boys’ Soccer: Marshall, Lindsey

Girls’ Soccer: Stanford, Cubberley

Overall Titles:

Girls’ Teams: Hughes, Cubberley

Boys’ Teams: Stanford, Linsdsey

Combined: Stanford, Cubberley

Here are some photos from the event—aside from the fact that photographing groups of middle school students is always a bit like herding cats, keep in mind that there were hundreds of awardees, so while we got most of the kids in a picture, there are assuredly some we missed. If you notice anything we’re lacking in and you’d like to add a photo, please send the picture to me at mike@lbpostsports.com along with the name I should give photo credit to.

The team plaques awarded to the schools to be put on display (each athlete gets their own plaque as well):