In our dozen years of covering sports together, the fall has been a fun time to write about Long Beach State. More years than not, the women\u2019s volleyball team or the women\u2019s soccer team have been on top of the Big West, including a few years where both teams were crowned conference champions. There was the volleyball team\u2019s undefeated run through the Big West a few years back, and the women\u2019s soccer team\u2019s Elite Eight trip in 2011.<\/p>\n
This year?\u00a0The women\u2019s volleyball team is 6-13 overall and just 3-4 in conference, while the soccer team is 3-10 overall and 1-3 in the Big West.<\/p>\n
A forgettable fall to say the least.<\/p>\n
The Beach soccer team is in danger of its first losing record since 2009, and the volleyball team needs to go 5-4 over their final nine matches to avoid tying the second-worst record in program history. They\u2019re already all but guaranteed to have a losing record for just the second time since 1986.<\/p>\n
So what happened? Just last year, the women\u2019s soccer team was crowned Big West champions and made its sixth NCAA Tournament appearance in the last eight years.<\/p>\n
The answer is pretty boring: key players graduating, key returners injured, a few soccer balls bouncing in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings aren\u2019t going the way we\u2019d like,\u201d said LBSU athletic director Andy Fee when asked this week about the tough fall.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the winter doesn\u2019t look like it will bring much respite. The men\u2019s basketball team finished fifth in the Big West last year and graduated more than 90% of its minutes and point production. The women\u2019s basketball team was picked to finish a dismal eighth in the preseason Big West coaches poll released earlier this week.<\/p>\n
How soon can spring get here?<\/p>\n
Willie Brown Passes<\/strong><\/p>\n As if it wasn\u2019t a tough time already around Long Beach State, the school\u2019s former football coach, Willie Brown, passed away earlier this week.<\/p>\n Brown, who was 78, was the final football coach at the university in 1991 before the program was shut down. Brown was well-liked locally, not for the team’s 2-9 \u201891 season, but because he stuck around and coached at Jordan High after Long Beach State shuttered its program.<\/p>\n Brown was a first-ballot Hall of Famer as an NFL player after an exemplary career with the Broncos and Raiders. After leaving Long Beach, Brown served as a front office member of the Raiders for over 20 years.<\/p>\n He’s also the subject of perhaps the greatest film clip in the history of NFL Films:<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ClMIHLMQw24<\/p>\n LBCC Football Starts Off Right<\/strong><\/p>\n The LBCC football team won conference championships in 2016 and 2017, but struggled last year amid what head coach Brett Peabody called poor work ethic and major character issues. This year\u2019s team has started off 4-2 and won its conference opener easily last Saturday against East Los Angeles College 33-9.<\/p>\n How easy was the win? The team faced a 1st and 40 situation early in the game and ended up converting the first down.<\/p>\n Quarterback Derrach West had more than 350 yards and four touchdowns in the win. Asked what he thought his team\u2019s advantage would be in the game, he laughed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe saw mismatches all over the field,\u201d he said. \u201cWe felt like anywhere on the field, we had the guys that could help us win.\u201d<\/p>\n The Vikings will hit the long and not-winding road to Bakersfield College, this Saturday, trying to remain undefeated in conference.<\/p>\n LBCC Water Polo<\/strong><\/p>\n The best college sports program anywhere in Long Beach this fall is in the pool at LBCC. The Vikings men\u2019s water polo team is 20-0 and ranked No. 1 in the State. They have four matches left in the regular season before they begin what should be a long postseason with the conference tournament at Cerritos, Nov. 7-9, the SoCal Regional Playoffs at Riverside College, Nov. 14-16 and the CCCAA State Championships at Golden West Nov. 22-23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In our dozen years of covering sports together, the fall has been a fun time to write about Long Beach State. More years than not, the women\u2019s volleyball team or the women\u2019s soccer team have been on top of the Big West, including a few years where both teams were crowned conference champions. 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