Newport Beach estate, still under construction, aims for a record $89 million

• January 19, 2024

A Newport Beach ultra-luxury mansion taking shape in Crystal Cove behind double gates has hit the market for $89 million.

That makes it the most expensive listing in Orange County.

Tim Smith of Coldwell Banker Realty, one of two agents who represent the Newport Coast trophy estate still under construction, told the Southern California News Group in October 2023 that OC is increasingly producing the kind of high-end luxury builds with the potential for $100 million-plus sales.

“Historically, nobody has built properties to meet that demand, but over the next three to five years, I think you’ll see the best sales in the United States here in Orange County because you’re starting to see people build homes that will fetch those prices,” he said then.

Now, here’s an example of an upward price trend — a mansion marketed as “a masterpiece of engineering and design” with natural light from an atrium to illuminate each level, extending two levels above and below ground.

The nearly 15,000-square-foot, four-story house will have five bedrooms, eight bathrooms and a car museum when it’s completed in 2025, according to the listing, as a collaboration by architect Geoff Sumich, builder Ryan Hill of Hill Construction Co., and designer Errol Dejager .

Sited on a three-quarter-acre bluff lot, the property overlooks Pelican Hill Golf Club and offers unobstructed ocean and coastline views. It’s a quick drive to Crystal Cove State Park, Crystal Cove Shopping Center, John Wayne Airport and Fashion Island.

The house fronts a private street in the Crystal Cove Estate Collection neighborhood. From the streetside, a staircase descends to a bridge over a pond from which Sumich, in a video tour, envisions fog emanating at night.

“When you’re walking across the bridge, you’re literally walking across a cloud as you get the entry,” he said.

Arched glass entry doors open into the foyer flanked by offices, and an interior bridge to the living areas and kitchen passes through the multi-level atrium.

“You stand at the bridge, and you look into the volume of that courtyard,” Dejager said in the video. “It takes your breath away.”

The property is owned through a California limited liability company managed by Scott Mather, a former Pimco portfolio manager who retired at the end of 2022. County records show Mather and his wife, Nicole, have been linked to it since January 2007. Thee couple transferred it into an LLC in February 2018. In October 2023, the unfinished home hit the market at just under $50 million and resurfaced on Jan. 12 at its current ask.

According to the listing, the main floor seamlessly flows into the backyard swimming pool, spa, and loggia.

The atrium carries natural light two levels down to a basement-level shallow pond with an acrylic bottom that illuminates the subterranean level below. It has a swimming pool with a spa and waterfall, a wellness center with a sauna and steam room, a gym and the car museum, accessible by lift from the garage one floor up.

Together they hold a minimum of 13 cars.

Other property highlights include a bar lounge, home theater and wine room with storage.

Smith shares the listing with Georgina Jacobson of Coldwell Banker Realty.

​ Orange County Register 

Mistrial declared in trial against ex-LAPD officer who fatally shot disabled man in Corona Costco

• January 19, 2024

A mistrial was declared Thursday afternoon, Jan. 18, when the jury deadlocked on the charges against a former Los Angeles Police Department officer who fatally shot an intellectually disabled man and wounded his parents after the man slugged the off-duty officer at the Costco on Corona in 2019.

The state Attorney General’s Office must now decide whether to retry Salvador Alejandro Sanchez on charges of voluntary manslaughter in the death of Kenneth French and two counts of assault with a firearm for injuring French’s parents, Paola and Russell, after the unprovoked attack on Sanchez as he held his toddler son.

Superior Court Judge Jason L. Stone scheduled a trial-readiness conference for Feb. 13 at Larson Justice Center in Indio.

Sanchez’s attorney, Michael Schwartz, said after Thursday’s hearing that there had been “some movement” in the attempt Thursday to get the unanimous verdict required by law and that “the majority” of the jurors favored acquittal. Schwartz did not have the exact count.

“I just think it’s the kind of case where it was a tragedy but it wasn’t a crime, and at this point, they put it in front of a (Riverside County) grand jury and there was no indictment, and they put it in front of a jury and there was no conviction, and at this point, all parties should be allowed to move on,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz said the defense can make a motion to dismiss the case but added that those requests are rarely granted.

Messages were sent to the prosecutor, state Deputy Attorney General Mike Murphy, and the Attorney General’s Office seeking comment.

Jurors were given the case in the monthlong trial on Dec. 27 after attorneys debated whether Sanchez acted recklessly and in haste or whether he was justified in firing a volley of 10 shots seconds after the blindside punch to his head that knocked him to the floor as he held his 20-month-old son.

The deliberations were interrupted because of scheduling issues in early January, and jurors did not reconvene until Thursday.

Sanchez, 33, faced up to 33 years in prison if convicted on all counts, Murphy said.

Kenneth French, top, with his parents Paola French and Russell French in a family photo. The parents were wounded and their son was killed when LAPD Officer Salvador Sanchez opened fire after being punched by Kenneth in the Costco in Corona on June 14, 2019. (Photo courtesy of French family)

Testimony during the trial was the basis for nuanced closing arguments about whether Sanchez’s actions met the standard for self-defense: what a reasonable person would do given the same circumstances.

Corona police arrived four minutes after the shooting on June 14, 2019, by Sanchez, who was off duty and not in uniform. Sanchez, in the body-worn camera video, is seen sitting on the deli floor without any visible injuries. He told officers that he believed he saw a flash and that he had been shot. Sanchez said he believed he was knocked unconscious when he hit his head on the floor and that he saw his attacker holding a gun, so he fired his service weapon.

Kenneth French was struck four times and his parents once each.

Sanchez was then helped up and was escorted outside, unassisted. He was examined at a hospital and prescribed painkillers, according to his attorney, Michael Schwartz, a lawyer known for defending police officers against criminal charges.

Murphy took on Sanchez’s account on several fronts.

Murphy said anyone carrying a gun loaded with 13 bullets should have been more responsible. Murphy accused Sanchez of fabricating the belief that he had been shot to avoid prosecution. Murphy pointed out to jurors that despite Sanchez believing that he’d been injured in the head, he was able to clearly recollect the events for police.

And Murphy repeatedly insisted that Sanchez should have taken a moment to assess exactly what happened. The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office determined that 3.8 seconds elapsed between the punch and the first shot. Had Sanchez realized he had been slugged and not shot, Murphy said, Kenneth French would be alive and his parents would not have been wounded.

Murphy said the danger had passed after the punch and that Sanchez was defending a threat that no longer existed.

Schwartz countered that there was testimony that after the punch, French stood near Sanchez with his fists clenched and with an “angry” look on his face and was capable of additional attack. Had Sanchez waited and the threat had been real, Schwartz said, Sanchez and his son could have been killed.

Schwartz said Sanchez fired not to kill, but to preserve the lives of himself and his son. Once the threat was ended, he stopped shooting.

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Schwartz also played a body-worn camera video that showed Paola French, despite being shot and suffering wounds that would require several surgeries, was, like Sanchez, also able to clearly recollect events for police.

After Corona police completed their investigation, District Attorney Mike Hestrin asked a court to convene a criminal grand jury to hear testimony. That grand jury declined to indict Sanchez.

Hestrin, even though he said he believed he could not completely clear Sanchez, then decided not to charge him. Hestrin said he believed Sanchez genuinely feared for his life and that the officer did not receive special treatment.

“It was the type of case where the community needs to weigh in and draw the lines and say this is what we think about an off-duty officer using force,” Hestrin said in 2019.

Then in 2020, the Los Angeles Police Commission determined that Sanchez’s actions violated department policy, and he was fired.

Sanchez “made no attempts to communicate with Kenneth in an effort to de-escalate the incident,” a report from LAPD Chief Michel Moore said. “Additionally, Kenneth was being pushed away (from Sanchez) and was not armed. (Sanchez) did not take time to correctly assess the incident and to analyze the threat.”

In 2022, a federal jury awarded $17 million to French’s parents in a civil case. Jurors found Sanchez was acting in his role as a police officer — which made the city of Los Angeles liable for paying for most of the damages — when he was fired upon the Frenches.

Although Corona police investigated the case as an officer-involved shooting, Sanchez’s training — police are supposed to be aware of innocent bystanders who might be in the way of gunfire — was not brought up during closing arguments. Murphy said the standard for determining self-defense does not allow jurors to take into account a defendant’s background, experience or attributes.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County scores and player stats for Thursday, Jan. 18

• January 19, 2024

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Scores and stats from Orange County games on Thursday, Jan. 18

Click here for details about sending your team’s scores and stats to the Register.

The deadline for submitting information is 10:45 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 p.m. Saturday.

THURSDAY’S SCORES

GIRLS SOCCER

ORANGE LEAGUE

Anaheim  2, Century 1

ORANGE COAST LEAGUE

Estancia 6, Orange 0

GIRLS WATER POLO

EMPIRE LEAGUE

Tustin 6, Valencia 5

Cypress 21, Kennedy 3

ORANGE LEAGUE

Savanna 13, Santa Ana Valley 12

TRINITY LEAGUE

Orange Lutheran 22, Rosary 2

Goals: (OLu) Cohen 4. Umeda 4.

Saves: (OLu) Pranajaya (OLu) 8

Other Trinity scores

JSerra 20, Santa Margarita 4

SOUTH COAST LEAGUE

El Toro 13, Dana Hills 7

​ Orange County Register 

Newport Harbor names Matt Burns as football coach

• January 19, 2024

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Newport Harbor has selected alumnus Matt Burns as its football coach, Sailors principal Sean Boulton announced  Thursday.

“Newport Harbor High School proudly announces the appointment of Matt Burns, a distinguished alumnus from the class of ’94, as the school’s 18th head football coach,” a school press release stated.

New football coach at Newport Harbor pic.twitter.com/WwuEA7oJjR

— Dan Albano (@ocvarsityguy) January 18, 2024

Burns served as the Sailors’ defensive coordinator last season, according to the team’s website. He coached under coach Peter Lofthouse, who recently left Newport Harbor to take over the program at El Toro.

Burns teaches science at Newport Harbor.

He played offensive line and linebacker for legendary Sailors football coach Jeff Brinkley.

After his playing career at Newport Harbor, he served as an assistant under Brinkley.

Newport Harbor finished 5-6 last season, falling to Trabuco Hills 24-21 in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 4 playoffs. The Sailors’ season included defeating Corona del Mar 21-20 for their first victory in the Battle of the Bay rivalry since 2012.

For the next two seasons, Newport Harbor will play in the Bravo League as the county shifts to leagues based on Calpreps’ power ratings. The league includes Villa Park, Yorba Linda, Corona del Mar, San Juan Hills and Tesoro.

Please send football news to Dan Albano at [email protected] or @ocvarsityguy on X or Instagram

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​ Orange County Register 

Can trash flushed down San Gabriel River be stopped before it hits the beach?

• January 19, 2024

Take a stroll along the sand in Seal Beach and Long Beach near the San Gabriel River after it rains and you might wonder if you’re in a landfill.

Trash often covers the usually pristine beach after a downpour, a scene that is not just unsightly and detrimental to the ocean’s health, but a visual that puts a spotlight on the challenges trying to control trash washed to the coast.

A group of elected officials from local cities, counties and the state, as well as environmentalists, will gather in Seal Beach on Friday, Jan. 19, to brainstorm ideas on how to stop the flow of inland trash that ends up on the beach any time in rains.

“The San Gabriel River is just a trash heap,” said Assemblymember Diane Dixon, who called for the gathering. “It’s hundreds of thousands of tons of trash. It lands in those boulders on the river wall, and it’s just horrendous trash.”

The meeting is meant to be the first step in getting various agencies in the same room to talk about what needs to be done, what funding may be available, what technologies should be evaluated and conceptual planning, she said.

As a previous member of the Newport Beach City Council, Dixon participated in planning for a water wheel trash interceptor in the Back Bay, which will be able to remove upward of 100,000 pounds of the trash flowing from the San Diego Creek and Santa Ana Delhi Channel before it reaches the estuary habitat, the Newport Harbor and the open ocean.

A week of storms left trash and debris at the Seal Beach jetty in Seal Beach, CA on Friday, January 18, 2019. Free the Ocean, an ocean trivia website, raises money to help non-profit groups collect plastics from oceans and beaches. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Once in the legislature, she helped secure $1.5 million in state funds toward the trash wheel, which broke ground in September, following nearly a decade of planning. Expectations are it will start scooping up trash by December.

Now, Dixon said she wonders not only if Seal Beach can use a similar method to keep its beaches clean, but if it can work in other trash-troubled areas.

“I’d like to put a water wheel in every river that flows into the ocean in the state of California,” she said. “I want to spread the word to other cities. We have to stop this trash.”

The San Gabriel River is an especially tricky puzzle, funneling runoff from 52 inland cities into the ocean, with trash and debris getting swept up in the water flowing down storm drains.

While some cities have installed screens or capture systems – as required by the State Water Resource Control Board by December 2030 – thousands of tons of trash is still making its way down the concrete channel.

Throughout the state, concrete channels were built decades ago to transport the water during heavy rains straight to the ocean, helping to direct and contain the gushing runoff to avoid flooding streets and neighborhoods.

Trash and plant matter is piled up along the bank of the San Gabriel River just a few hundred yards from the Pacific Ocean in Seal Beach on Tuesday morning, December 13, 2022. Recent heavy rains have sent trash flowing down the river from many miles inland. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Toward the north, the San Gabriel River receives drainage from 689 square miles of eastern Los Angeles County and releases it into the ocean at the border of Long Beach and Seal Beach.

As populations boomed throughout Southern California, more trash was getting tossed onto freeways and streets and left in parks, building up in gutters and sewers during dry times and getting washed by the rain to the coast through the elaborate system of underground storm drains that funnel into the major channels.

It’s a problem Seal Beach grapples with not just after the winter’s “first flush,” but every storm, said City Councilman Joe Kalmick.

He remembers talking to the city’s trash haulers after a storm a few years back as they took away 229 tons of trash.

“It took forever for our beach crew to get it all together and haul it up to the dumpsters,” he said.

But finding ways to solve the issue is like “fighting feather pillows,” he said, with the biggest challenge being getting all the different jurisdictions together to take action.

He’s been researching a solar-powered, barge interceptor with booms created by the group Ocean Clean Up based out of the Netherlands. Currently, they have about a dozen of them deployed around the world, including one at Ballona Creek in Los Angeles County.

Richard Busch, co-chairman and cleanup coordinator for Surfrider Foundation’s North Orange County chapter, called the San Gabriel River one of the “biggest polluters” in the area, always the place with the most trash during cleanups.

A gull picks up a fast food drink cup that washed up along the bank of the San Gabriel River just a few hundred yards from the Pacific Ocean in Seal Beach on Tuesday morning, December 13, 2022. Recent heavy rains have sent trash flowing down the river from many miles inland. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

In the past eight years, the group has held 43 cleanups, scooping up 24,626 pounds of trash. That doesn’t take into account the thousands more pounds picked up by volunteers with the nonprofit Save Our Beaches, which holds monthly cleanups, or what is removed by city workers – or what ends up in the ocean.

There’s always the single-use plastics: the straws, utensils, to-go bags and boxes. Styrofoam is always present. Then, there’s the bigger items such as tires, soccer balls, shopping carts and bed mattresses.

Just last Saturday, Surfrider teamed up with a company that brought out 95 employees for a cleanup. In 90 minutes, they scooped up 700 pounds of trash.

“It seems to be never ending, unfortunately,” Busch said.

​ Orange County Register 

Alexander: For former USC star Rico Hoey, an impressive start at La Quinta

• January 19, 2024

LA QUINTA — Rico Hoey has played these desert courses before. But this time? This was different.

Hoey, a star at Rancho Cucamonga High and USC before grinding through the Korn Ferry developmental tour, finally broke through last season and received his PGA Tour card after finishing in the top 30 in winnings on the developmental tour. Thursday’s first round at The American Express tournament began his fourth PGA Tour event and his second as a full-fledged tour member.

He played like he intends on staying a good, long while. He shot a 9-under 63, missing a 62 only when his short putt on 18 slid past the hole at the Nicklaus Tournament course at PGA West.

That round came before a group of family and friends that should grow over the weekend should Hoey stay in the hunt, in what is about as close to a hometown event as he can get.

“It was kind of cool having everyone out here, my family, my dad, girlfriend, coaches, everyone,” he said. “Feels like a home event for me. I only live an hour away. I grew up out here, playing junior tournaments out here, so it was fun.”

Born in the Philippines, Hoey grew up in Rancho Cucamonga and still lists that as his hometown. His home club is Goose Creek Golf Club, a par-71, 6,556-yard layout alongside the Santa Ana River in Mira Loma, now part of Jurupa Valley and just west of Riverside. And in participating in junior golf in Southern California, he said he spent a lot of time on desert courses, including the Nicklaus Tournament layout.

“I played out here a handful of times, and all the other tracks as well,” he said. “It’s a little bit nicer, I would say. It’s a lot firmer. The conditions are just awesome. They keep it well-kept throughout the year, but it was just really fun being out here and playing how fast and firm it was today.”

Some of those tournaments were in the summertime, which meant early tee times to avoid the desert’s triple-digit temperatures. “Pace of play,” he said, “was awesome.”

That was then. This is now, and starting on 10 Thursday, Hoey had four birdies before the turn, then birdied 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7 to put himself in a tie with Christiaan Bezuidenhout for second place behind the day’s leaders, Zach Johnson and Alex Noren, both of whom shot 10-under at La Quinta Country Club.

Hoey understands the drill in this tournament, as much of its heritage as the spirit of Bob Hope, for whom the event was originally named: Go low, every day, if you want to have any chance at all.

He also understands one of the other quirks of this event. He knows that if the wind turbines just outside of Palm Springs are whirring, the elements may be a challenge. If they’re still, the birdie harvest is on. On Thursday, they were lazily moving.

“Oh, yeah, I’ve taken that 10 Freeway drive many a time, and I totally get what you mean,” he said. “Once you see those (spinning), it’s blowing. It’s going to be a pretty windy day. But you know, this time of year, you can’t beat it. It’s so nice out here.”

Just getting here and playing in this tournament is a sign of success. The path has been difficult, as it should be.

Hoey was a four-time All-American at USC and a first-teamer as a senior in 2017. He won the Callaway Junior World Championship in 2012 at Torrey Pines, the CIF Southern Section individual title in 2013 and the SCGA Amateur Championship in 2016.

But after he turned pro, victories were tough to come by. Injuries set him back, and for a time he stepped away, working at Goose Creek for a while, before going back to Q-School and qualifying for the Korn Ferry Tour in 2022.

The next year was a breakthrough. Hoey won the Visit Knoxville Open in May, sinking a 15-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to win it, his first win on the Korn Ferry tour and just his second since turning pro, having won a PGA Canadian tour event in 2017. This one punched his ticket to the tour.

He had played three PGA Tour events before this, missing the cut at the Sony Hawaii Open in 2020 and again this year, and tying for 20th at the Barracuda Championship in Truckee in July.

“It’s pretty amazing” to be a full-fledged member of the tour, he said. “It’s a dream come true, for sure. I mean, I get to be out here playing the best courses in the world (against) the best players in the world. So, I mean, I don’t want to take anything for granted. I want to be out here for a long time, and I’m just going to keep working hard and hopefully one day I can be one of those great players.”

Does it mean more when you’ve struggled?

“Yeah, but I think everyone has their own path, right?” he said. “I have to look at it as, everyone has the same opportunities. It’s just a matter of whoever can take it. I’ve failed multiple times, but I’ve also been out here, and I’ve earned my way out here.

“Everyone out here has hit thousands of thousands of golf balls, and putted until dark. But I think it’s just who you surround yourself with (to deal with the setbacks). And I’m very lucky to surround myself with great friends. My coach, Ross Fisher from Goose Creek, girlfriend Megan (Mercado). I mean, they’ve been by my side since, you know, the low point in my life. So, like I said, I’m very fortunate to be out here, and I’m just really happy to have a tee time and just keep shining, right?”

If he keeps up this pace this week, he’s liable to be buying a round for the clubhouse at Goose Creek at some point.

“Yeah, this will be a story to tell one day for sure,” he said.

[email protected]

​ Orange County Register 

Chargers interview David Shaw, Mike Vrabel for coaching job

• January 19, 2024

The list of Chargers coaching candidates continued to grow Thursday.

Former Stanford coach David Shaw and former Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel were interviewed to replace Brandon Staley as the Chargers’ next coach. Shaw and Vrabel were the 10th and 11th prospective coaches to be interviewed, according to the team.

In addition, the Chargers are now in compliance with the NFL’s Rooney Rule and are free to hire their new coach. Shaw would be an intriguing choice, having coached at Stanford for 16 seasons, including 12 as the head coach. He didn’t coach this past season, but he did interview for the Denver Broncos’ job last year.

Denver went on to hire Sean Payton as its coach.

Shaw, 51, departed Stanford as the winningest coach in school history with a 96-54 record. Three of his players were Heisman Trophy finalists: Running back Bryce Love in 2007, quarterback Andrew Luck in 2011 and running back Christian McCaffrey in 2015.

Luck (first overall) and McCaffrey (eighth) were top-10 NFL draft picks.

Vrabel, 48, was a defensive coordinator with the Houston Texans in 2017 before he was hired to be the head coach of the Titans. He spent six seasons with Tennessee and compiled a 54-45 record before the Titans fired him on Jan. 9 after they finished out of the playoff picture with a 6-11 record.

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Vrabel is a former NFL linebacker who played 14 seasons with the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs. He was a three-time Super Bowl champion with the Patriots. He began his coaching career as a linebackers coach at Ohio State, his alma mater, in 2011.

The Chargers began interviewing candidates to replace Staley on Jan. 9, starting with interim coach Giff Smith and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh is the most high-profile candidate to interview so far, and the favorite among NFL pundits and Las Vegas oddsmakers.

The Chargers were the first team to interview Vrabel and Harbaugh, but they aren’t likely to be the last. Vrabel has an interview scheduled with the Atlanta Falcons next week, according to reports, and he could also talk with the Seattle Seahawks about replacing Pete Carroll as their coach.

​ Orange County Register 

UCLA vs. USC women’s basketball rivalry rooted in local pride

• January 14, 2024

LOS ANGELES — The apartment that USC’s Rayah Marshall spent middle school in is 15 minutes from the Galen Center, no freeways necessary, just a handful of side streets away from a different life in Los Angeles.

It had two bedrooms, one bathroom. Marshall lived there, in middle school, with 16 of her cousins. Maybe 17.

They’d crowd in the living room, sleeping on pallets together, her cousins’ mother in one bedroom and older cousins in the other. Hot water wasn’t a constant, and neither was a meal, eating late lunches instead of breakfasts to save money. College was an afterthought, money tight in a self-described harsh environment in the heart of Los Angeles. So Marshall turned to basketball as an escape, persuading one of her cousins to join her at a park down the street, the beginnings of a journey that’s led her to the arena 15 minutes away from a youth of claustrophobia.

“It’s like I’m on a complete different side,” Marshall said in December, now a standout big on USC’s women’s team. “It’s like – I’m spiritual, so it’s something I thank God for. And just watching this part of L.A. unfold for me is unreal, and I count my blessings every day.”

She is a first-generation student now at USC, the cornerstone of the rebuild of Trojans’ women’s basketball that’s continued with the arrival of JuJu Watkins, the very embodiment of the L.A. kid that coach Lindsay Gottlieb points to when she reminds her team:

This could be the first time anyone here sees you play.

“This is their chance to come to USC and see what is possible,” Gottlieb said after a December win over UC Riverside, her voice dripping with passion in speaking of local youth coming to Galen. “Are they going to be the next Rayah, or JuJu? I hope so – maybe then I’ll recruit ’em. But if not, maybe they just believe, ‘I can go to college’ … it’s so much bigger than me, and it’s bigger than even this particular crowd.”

“Women’s basketball is really hot right now,” Gottlieb continued, a few words later. “Why not L.A.?”

And indeed, the titanic wave of interest in college women’s basketball has carried especially to the beaches of Southern California, packing Pauley Pavilion full in a sell-out when dually undefeated UCLA (12-0) and USC (10-1) squads met for a crosstown showdown Dec. 30.

Two weeks later, after the Bruins ground out a 71-64 win that lived up to the billing, USC announced that the Galen Center was sold out for a Sunday rematch, an achievement and anticipation both programs spoke of with bright eyes and wide smiles.

There’s a deeper layer to this, deeper than UCLA’s 12-0 record and nine-game winning streak over USC (10-1), the heart of this matchup coming with kids like Marshall. Ten of these kids are homegrown, stories aplenty of battles in the Southern California prep scene, whether it be USC’s Kayla Padilla playing against the Bruins’ Charisma Osborne in Bishop Montgomery vs. Windward matchups or UCLA’s Londynn Jones and Corona Centennial hooping in high school against Watkins and Sierra Canyon.

“It just brings so much competitiveness … this is something we’ve always dreamed of,” Jones said Friday, when asked about the local feel of the matchup.

This isn’t just UCLA vs. USC, with recruits hand-picked from across the country and dropped into the middle of a historic rivalry. This is lifelong, kids from Los Angeles playing for the very soul of the city.

“How fun is that?” UCLA coach Cori Close said Friday. “I mean, it’s really an international event when you look at both teams, but I think there is something a little extra for those Southern California kids – and both of us have Southern California kids coming next year.”

“And I just think we’re beginning,” Close continued, turning into a pitchman with grandiose intentions. “We’re just scratching the surface on how fun this is going to be. I think both programs are going to have visions of competing for championships. And, get on board, L.A. Don’t miss out. If you’re a corporate sponsor, TV coverage, extra things that are happening … don’t miss out. Get on board.”

It’ll be the greatest test yet for transcendent freshman Watkins, who’s hit somewhat of a shooting slump since Pac-12 play began – sub-40% across her past three outings – despite a still-dominant all-around impact. The Bruins limited and frustrated her two weeks ago, holding her to 7-of-24 shooting as they beat the Trojans with more depth despite 23 points from USC’s McKenzie Forbes. And the amount on Watkins’ shoulders has seemed to fatigue her at times, needing to exit for a few minutes in USC’s win over Oregon State over the weekend.

“She’s going to be forced to more indecision and reads and talent that she’s not faced before,” Close said of Watkins now playing in the Pac-12. “She’s doing a heck of a job, but I would be surprised if she wasn’t experiencing maybe a little lower shooting percentage.”

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And UCLA simply has a depth of more offensive weapons than USC. Four players – dominant 6-foot-7 center Lauren Betts, sweet-shooting Jones, point guard Kiki Rice and stalwart Osborne — scored in double figures in the Bruins’ first win over the Trojans, and sophomore forward Gabriela Jaquez (sister of former UCLA men’s standout Jaime Jaquez Jr.) adds another threat off the bench. And UCLA has continued to scout Watkins hard, a group of practice players wearing mock-USC jerseys and one sporting Watkins’ No. 12 at a Friday practice.

So Sunday, in all likelihood, will come down to Marshall, Padilla and others’ ability to capitalize on defensive attention brought by the freshman.

It’ll come down, too, to those same kids fighting for an opportunity they once grew up dreaming of.

“I just feel like putting on for your city,” Marshall said, “is just the greatest feeling ever.”

​ Orange County Register