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Main Street
Local shines at high school for Olympic hopefuls
By Mary Ann Cook
ICE HOCKEY VALEDICTORIAN: Los Gatan Noel Nelson recently graduated from the National Sports Academy in Lake Placid, N.Y., with a fist full of honors. First off, she was valedictorian of the school designed specifically for Olympic hopefuls in winter sports.
Secondly, she won the John G. A. O'Neill Award for excellence in human relations and concern for school and community. She worked for Habitat for Humanity, dog-walked for shut-ins and baby-sat for people in low-income households so they could get to job interviews. Nelson was also a peer tutor.
She won an Adirondacks Poetry Contest and her work was published in an anthology. "And I didn't even know she wrote poetry," exclaims her mother, Lynda. And Noel won the Alumni Academic Scholarships in both English and foreign language. That means she was the top scholar in each of those departments.
Next fall this scholar/athlete will head to Rochester Institute of Technology where she will play hockey and study to be a mechanical engineer. At least, that's her chosen profession at the moment. Noel got into hockey in a most unlikely way--she was first a figure skater and before that a gymnast.
Figure skaters and ice hockey players are natural antagonists, each accusing the other of tearing up the ice or hogging the rink--coming from different planets, as Lynda Nelson explains it. But within six months of switching sports, Noel was playing on the men's team, the Black Hawks.
Then she was picked for the Cal Select all-girls team. They were regional champs the year she was on the team. She was doing so much traveling competing, that when she was offered a scholarship to the National Sports Academy it seemed like the best solution to her schooling.
Brother Sweyn is a hockey player, too. Her father, Russell, owns a landscaping business called Monte Verde; her mother is a dispatcher for Stevens Creek Toyota.
CHESS CHAMP: Stephen Zerk is only 7 years old, but already he's winning chess tournaments. He won first place in a field of mostly adult players in the World Open in Philadelphia recently, winning $3,666. Stephen had already won the California state primary champion title in Santa Clara this spring--that's the category title for those in kindergarten to third grade.
Stephen plays chess on the Internet and takes lessons from Robert Snyder, who says this student has "a brilliant grasp of tactical concepts" and the ability to become one of the youngest masters ever.
IRISH DANCER: Sean Collins won third place in the North American Dance Championships held in Toronto recently. Collins is a Leigh High School student who has been dancing for three years. He competed against a large field of adults with considerably more training.
Collins is a student at the Kennelly School of Irish Dancing in Los Gatos. Is he getting set to give Michael Flatley of Riverdance fame a run for his money?
CABRILLO MUSIC FESTIVAL: Trumpet player James Dooley and keyboard player Brenda Tom will perform with the orchestra at the Cabrillo Music Festival. Both are Los Gatans. Tom will play in the first week's production and Dooley in the second week.
ON TO LAW SCHOOL: Lisa Gilmore, a graduate of Los Gatos High, graduated magna cum laude from San Diego State University and will be starting law school at Santa Clara University this fall. She is the daughter of Karen Desmarais of Los Gatos.
A GEORGE QUINTET: Five Georges sat at the same table at the noontime Live Oak Senior Nutrition lunch one recent Thursday and comprised a virtual United Nations of Georges, considering their family origins. Thus, the table had one Jorge Kasper, German; George Therrien, French; George Omata, Japanese; George Bielski, Eastern European; and George Hinojosa, Hispanic.
The center serves a hot meal to some 40 people each day to those 60 or older in the community room of the Methodist Church. On Wednesdays the lunch is served at the Neighborhood Center. Debbie Kranefuss is the nutrition center director.
TOWN PRINTS FOR SALE: Prints of the winners in the town's Centennial Arts Competition some 26 years ago are for sale at the Chamber of Commerce office, announces director Janice Balfour. The prints sell for $25-$75, depending on whether or not they are signed and numbered.
Such historic sites as Leo and Leona, Forbes Mill, Los Gatos High School, the Novitiate and Old Town are examples of some of the spots depicted. The prints were recently discovered in a print shop, thanks to a hint Balfour received from a resident at the recent July 4 activities in front of Los Gatos high school.
NEW PREZ: Former LGHS principal Ted Simonson is just back from Wichita, Kan., where he was named president of the WW II Rainbow Veteran's Association. This rainbow has nothing to do with color, but reflects the fact that the vets are from all over the United States.
BOOKS: The recent book sale by Friends of the Los Gatos Library netted $1,200, which will be used for library enhancements and/or concerted efforts toward a new library.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
