Aliso Niguel Adds 2 More Coaches

Aliso Niguel added to its coaching staff Monday, hiring Kari Boothroyd for the girls’ volleyball and softball programs and Deni Christensen for the girls’ basketball program, Athletic Director Kurt Westling said.

Boothroyd, who coached the varsity softball and junior varsity volleyball teams at Sunny Hills the last three seasons, graduated from Irvine High in 1986 and went on to play volleyball at Rutgers. She will teach Spanish.

“There’s lots of potential here,” said Boothroyd after the first day of volleyball practice Monday. “I’m looking forward to working with the girls and building the program.”

Christensen, who graduated from Western High in 1976, played basketball at Cal State Fullerton and was a Titan assistant coach the next three years. She coached two years at El Toro High, interrupted by a season at Rancho Santiago College before the school dropped its program.

“There was no teaching job at El Toro and none in the foreseeable future,” said Christensen of her decision to change schools. “With the enrollment projections, it looks as if I might be teaching here (Aliso Niguel) by September, 1994.”

Christensen will complete her student teaching this fall and if no permanent position opens for the spring, she’ll be the school’s resident substitute teacher.

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The Esperanza boys’ athletic program was the runaway winner of the second annual “Cavalcade of Champions” award to be presented before the Ram-Raiders game Saturday at Anaheim Stadium.

The awards, sponsored by the Southern Section and the Rams, will be presented to the top 10 school athletic programs (both boys’ and girls’) based on their success in playoff competition during the past school year.

Winners were determined by a point system that assigns five points for a divisional championship, three for runner-up, two for losing in the semifinals or finishing in third place in cross-country, golf, swimming and track, and one point for a fourth-place finish in the same four sports.

The Aztec boys totaled 26 points, with divisional championships in baseball, soccer, water polo and volleyball and a co-championship in football. La Crescenta Crescenta Valley, Pasadena Muir and Ojai Nordhoff tied for second with 12 points each. Other county programs in the top 10 are Corona del Mar (ranked fifth, 11 points) and Irvine and Sunny Hills (tied for sixth, 10 points).

The Laguna Hills and Newport Harbor girls’ programs (12 points) finished tied for second behind Pasadena Poly (13 points). The Hawk girls won divisional championships in cross-country and softball, and the Sailors took the title in track and field.

Other county programs in the top 10 are Laguna Beach (fourth, 11 points), Corona del Mar and Irvine (tied for sixth, 10 points) and Los Alamitos (10th, 8 1/2 points).

Honored schools will be presented banners for permanent display on their campuses.

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Brian Slingsby of Newport Beach finished 13th in the juniors division of the World Triathlon Championship Sunday at Manchester, England.

Slingsby, who will be a junior at Corona del Mar High this fall, was the third American overall, finishing in 1 hour 58 minutes 53 seconds. Olivier Hufschmid of Switzerland was first in 1:56:26.