History was made in the best of ways for Cal State Fullerton’s volleyball team, as it earned 3-0 sweeps over Delaware State, Bucknell and host St. Francis Brooklyn over the weekend to close out the Terrier Invitational. The victories marked Fullerton’s fourth, fifth and sixth of the season, already surpassing last season’s total win total.

The victories boost the Titans’ win streak to six straight, which equals the program’s longest since the 2013 campaign. Fullerton (6-1) has also swept six consecutive matches, winning 18 straight sets.

On Friday, Madeline Schneider led all players in kills for the fifth consecutive match with 13, while Felicia Marshall went for seven kills and nine digs. Neena Dimas recorded a team-high and career-best 11 digs. On Saturday against Bucknell, Marshall recorded a match-high 14 kills and a team-best 10 digs. Schneider recorded 11 kills while Nastassja Bowman and Neena Dimas each notched eight digs. In match two vs. host St. Francis Brooklyn, Schneider retook her post as Fullerton’s kills leader, striking for a match-high 14 while Marshall provided 11 kills and seven digs.

The Titans travel to Las Vegas for a tournament on Friday, playing Eastern Kentucky at noon and UNLV at 7 p.m.

XC men finish third, women fourth at Covert Classic

Cal State Fullerton men’s and women’s cross country started off the 2018 season at the 34th annual Mark Covert Classic on Saturday. The men’s squad earned a third-place finish while the women finished fourth. Samuel Pimentel and Jacob Smith were second and third in the men’s 8,000-meter while Trinity Ruelas was sixth in the women’s 6K to lead the Titans.

“I thought it was a really solid start for both groups,” Titans coach John Elders said. “Sam and Jake were very impressive for the guys. Their times were excellent and they really raced well. We were a little short-handed overall on the guy’s side but I’m pleased with how the team ran.”

On the women’s side, Elders added: “We haven’t beat the UCSB women in a race in a long time, so that was nice. Our team is very strong and they are just going to get better. Trinity looked great out front. Lucina Vincent did well in her first college race, so that was nice to see.”

Cal Poly won both competitions.

Next up for the Titans is a meet at Santa Barbara against the Gauchos and Cal Poly on Sept. 15.

Women’s soccer turns things around

Cal State Fullerton women’s soccer out-shot the No. 17 Auburn Tigers on Friday and won more corner kicks, but they were unable to convert on their chances and ended up losing 2-0.

“We’re just missing a little bit of an attitude,” coach Demian Brown said. “I would say the entirety of the second half, minus one or two chances, one of those being their goal, the game was played in their defensive half. The biggest issue that we have isn’t necessarily how we attack, it’s that final phase. I think that’s a thing that all young teams struggle with, just that last thing. It is something we will continue to work on.”

Two days later, the Titans did just that, recording their first shutout of the 2018 season in a 3-0 win against Fresno State.

Fullerton struck first and didn’t look back. Atlanta Primus scored a goal and assisted on a Nano Oronoz goal while Alyssa Shelton buried a goal as well. Goalkeeper Tianna Sanders faced just two shots on target and saved both of them.

The Titans hit the road next to play at San Jose State at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Men’s soccer games go down to the wire

The men’s soccer team ended up with two 1-1 draws last week — first on the road against Missouri State, then at home against James Madison — before falling to New Mexico, 5-1, on Sunday.

Both draws required some late-game heroics.

“I’m so proud of this team. We talked in the locker after the first half without the coaches, we know how good we are but we just had to execute the game plan,” said forward Bass Sarr after the first game. “I trust my teammates so as soon as I saw the ball I made the run, and I knew if I jumped with full speed I would definitely get a flick on it and it would be a goal because I saw the keeper come off his line.”

Paul-Andre Guerin had strong nights in net in both draws — finishing the first game with seven saves, the second with two, showing why he was named Big West Tournament MVP in 2017.

On Sunday at Titan Stadium, the Titans were tied 1-1 heading into the locker room after Samuel Goni scored an amazing goal in the 19th minute. The Lobos took the lead in the 51st minute. The Titans made several attempts to come back and got good looks on goal but were unable to hit paydirt.

The Titans look to bounce back as they embark on a three-game road trip beginning with California Baptist on Friday.

Brown named men’s basketball director of operations

Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball coach Dedrique Taylor announced that Tyler Brown has been named director of operations for the program.

Brown joins the Titans after working as an assistant coach at San Francisco State University for the 2017-18 season. Before that, he was an assistant coach at Cal State Monterey Bay. Brown spent three years at Humboldt State as a member of the men’s basketball team, where he won a conference championship and conference tournament championship and was named team captain for the 2012-13 season.

Women’s tennis adds two players, assistant coach

Women’s tennis coach Dianne Matias added two players this season: Petra Such and Eira Tobrand.

Such, a native of Budaörs, Hungary, is a junior college transfer from Cerritos College. She was named the conference’s Player of the Year and received the ITA Region I Rookie of the Year award.

Tobrand, who hails from Gothenburg, Sweden, is a sophomore who transferred from Southern Utah. She was named Freshman of the Year for the Big Sky Conference and earned first-team all-conference honors.

Matias also announced that Joslynn Burkett has been named an assistant for the program.

A native of San Diego, Burkett has been the men’s and women’s tennis coach at La Jolla Country Day School since 2009. A graduate of Arizona State University, Burkett played on the women’s tennis team all four years and made three Sweet 16 appearances with the Sun Devils.

— Compiled by Wendy Fawthrop

Cal State Fullerton Athletics contributed to this report.

The Orange County Register offensive player of the week for Sept 4, 2018:

Name: Mike Carrillo

School: Garden Grove

Position: RB

Year: Senior

Notable: Carrillo rushed 24 times for 208 yards and three touchdowns and had two catches for 61 yards, including one score, to lead the Division 9 Argonauts to a 38-12 victory against Santa Ana, ranked No. 1 in Division 8. Carrillo also returned two kickoffs for 53 yards and recorded seven tackles at outside linebacker/safety. “Mike was making plays all over the field,” Argonauts coach Ricardo Cepeda said. “He ran with a purpose and got stronger as the game went on.”

Please send nominees for Offensive Player of the Week to dalbano@scng.com or @ocvarsityguy on Twitter 

By Hailey Siedentopp

Contributing columnist

There I was, standing on the shoreline of the Baltic Sea, willowy clouds overhead, the scent of sea salt in the air, and all I could think of was how lucky I’ve been this past summer.

That snapshot still floats around in my head as I enter my fall classes at Cal State Fullerton and reflect on a trip that awoke my senses and showed me that history is the guiding light to the future.

So how did I get there?

It was just another Monday night in the fall of 2017 when my history professor, Jochen Burgtorf, mentioned during an honors class that we were going to hear a special presentation.

That talk has forever changed the way I look at the world.

John Gleaves, an associate professor of kinesiology and the associate director of the University Honors Program at Cal State Fullerton, was planning a study abroad trip to Poland and Germany to explore political philosophy, peace, war and conflict.

As an honors student studying kinesiology, I am hoping for a career as a sports psychologist. I never really thought about the politics of war and conflicts and how countries sustain peace. My future battlefield is going to be more like a room counseling athletes and helping them achieve success on and off the court — not a scarred landscape where lives end and nations rise.

That night, as soon as I got out of that class, I called my parents, filled out the application and, on Feb. 22, I was accepted into the study abroad program. I could barely contain my excitement.

My mind immediately reflected on the history of Poland and Germany and how through the ages each was mired in conflict and war, and how today they are examples of peaceful societies that embrace the political philosophy of maintaining peace and never repeating the horrors of their past.

This trip was an emotional roller coaster. I was in a group of 10 incredible Titans who challenged me intellectually every day in class and laughed with me. Together we explored Warsaw and Berlin, and absorbed the culture that surrounded us daily.

The classroom setting included guest lectures about World War II, the history of Jews in Poland, Polish politics and the political meaning of the Solidarity movement.

When we weren’t studying, we were embracing the culture, participating in activities, including a Warsaw city tour and a visit to the Berlin Wall memorial.

One of the more meaningful excursions was a trip to Krakow, where we visited Oskar Schindler’s factory, took a tour of Krakow’s communist neighborhood of Nowa Huta and a guided visit to Auschwitz.

The most emotional day of the trip was when we visited Auschwitz. While walking on the same paths that millions of murdered Jews and others walked, I could actually envision the atrocities that were committed by the Nazis.

It’s an experience I will never forget.

Then there were the reminders that we were in a country that is both united and at peace. On one of our last days in Berlin, a group of us watched the World Cup semifinal game behind the Brandenburg Gate with thousands of people in the pouring rain. We felt like we were a part of something so much bigger than soccer.

One of the most impactful moments on this trip was at our goodbye dinner in Berlin. Professor Gleaves had picked up 11 rocks from Poland and brought them to the dinner. He took a moment to speak to us about how much this trip meant to him, and he gave each of us a rock and had us write a word on it that symbolized our experience.

My word was “listen.”

He said students taking this trip next year would get our rocks and then leave them somewhere in Poland or Germany. A piece of my heart is with that rock, and it belongs to Poland and Germany.

Lessons learned were many, meaningful and life-changing. Europeans seem to be much more aware and considerate than we are of the history that took place on one’s own soil, and they are so conscious of the capability humans have to affect others. I remember one of our guest lecturers in Poland mentioning how the people of Warsaw walk through a graveyard every day on their way to work.

She didn’t mean that they were walking through a cemetery. Rather, she pointed to the actual streets of a city that were leveled during World War II, evoking the thousands upon thousands of people who lost their lives and how their remains forever mingle with the soil of their homeland.

So every time I inhale the sweetness of the sea, I will be reminded of a summer that showed me that even through the worst of suffering, humankind has the innate ability to persevere.

After 273 scale model tests and six at-sea prototypes, the first ocean cleanup system is expected to launch from San Francisco on Saturday, Sept. 8. If successful, it could be one of 60 cleanup systems deployed in the Pacific Ocean.

The Ocean Cleanup is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ridding the world’s oceans of plastic. The organization was founded in 2013 by Dutch inventor Boyan Slat at age 18 and has a team of more than 70 engineers, researchers and scientists. The first cleanup system is being assembled in Alameda.

There are five known gyres collecting garbage in the oceans; the largest — the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — is in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii. It’s estimated to be about twice the size of Texas.

System 001

The system will attempt to create a floating coastline in the middle of the ocean to trap plastic near the surface. The organization says this is a beta version undergoing testing.

Wind, waves and currents move the system, which consists of a floater and a skirt. The floater moves faster than the current because it catches wind and can trap plastic, which is expected to be recycled. The skirt is deepest in the center of the system, so drag creates a “U” shape to trap plastic.

How do we know where it is? The system is fitted with solar-powered lights, cameras and satellite antennas to communicate its position.

This is the first of a potential 60 systems to gather trash in the ocean. The Ocean Cleanup estimates that a full fleet of 60 systems could potentially clean up 50 percent of the garbage patch every five years.

The most recent report of plastic-producing countries shows China has become the world’s largest plastic producer, while other regions have declined.

Sources: The Ocean Cleanup, Business Insider, NOAA, California Coastal Commission, Ocean Conservancy

The CIF-SS football polls released Tuesday, Sept. 4.

FOOTBALL

DIVISION 1

1 St. John Bosco

2 Mater Dei

3 Centennial/Corona

4 Oaks Christian

5 Orange Lutheran

6 Mission Viejo

7 JSerra

8 Chaminade

9 Servite

10 Serra

DIVISION 2

1 Upland

2 Rancho Verde

3 Norco

4 Alemany

5 Westlake

6 Heritage

7 Tesoro

8 Cathedral

9 Calabasas

10 Los Alamitos

DIVISION 3

1 Cajon

2 Moorpark

3 Capistrano Valley

4 Etiwanda

5 Citrus Hill

6 Roosevelt

7 Santiago

8 Lompoc

9 Paraclete

10 Sierra Canyon

DIVISION 4

1 Grace Brethren

2 Camarillo

3 Corona del Mar

4 Villa Park

5 Oak Hills

6 El Modena

7 Chaparral

8 Paramount

9 St. Bonaventure

10 Saugus

DIVISION 5

1 Antelope Valley

2 Apple Valley

3 St. Paul

4 Lawndale

5 Colony

6 Aquinas

7 La Serna

8 Diamond Ranch

9 Glendora

10 Burbank

DIVISION 6

1 South Hills

2 Mayfair

3 West Ranch

4 St. Margaret’s

5 Oxnard

6 Pacifica/Oxnard

7 Ayala

8 Serrano

9 Palmdale

10 Huntington Beach

DIVISION 7

1 Santa Barbara

2 Warren

3 San Jacinto

4 Culver City

5 Crescenta Valley

6 Grand Terrace

7 Pacific/Garden Grove

8 Millikan

9 Northview

10 Notre Dame

DIVISION 8

1 Katella

2 Rancho Mirage

3 San Dimas

4 Temecula Valley

5 Santa Ana

6 Kaiser

7 Arroyo

8 Fountain Valley

9 Alta Loma

10 Temescal Canyon

DIVISION 9

1 Palm Desert

2 Aliso Niguel

3 Muir

4 Garden Grove

5 Big Bear

6 Heritage Christian

7 San Gorgonio

8 Orange

9 Norte Vista

10 Covina

DIVISION 10

1 Shadow Hills

2 Bonita

3 Highland

4 Knight

5 Nordhoff

6 Brentwood

7 Eisenhower

8 Chaffey

9 Whittier

10 Moreno Valley

DIVISION 11

1 Pomona

2 Western

3 Beaumont

4 Ocean View

5 Hemet

6 California

7 Yucca Valley

8 Jurupa Hills

9 Santa Paula

10 Patriot

DIVISION 12

1 Linfield Christian

2 Bellflower

3 Carpinteria

4 Rio Hondo

5 Arrowhead Christian

6 Tahquitz

7 Santa Clarita Christian

8 Rowland

9 Ramona

10 Xavier Prep

DIVISION 13

1 Alhambra

2 Orange Vista

3 Webb

4 Rosemead

5 Adelanto

6 El Monte

7 St. Bernard

8 Savanna

9 Estancia

10 Santa Ana Valley

Defensive lineman Atonio Mafi talks about earning the starting job against Cincinnati as a 17-year-old true freshman, what he learned from his first game and why he fits into UCLA’s defensive scheme.

The once-heralded blood-testing startup Theranos is shutting down, according to a media report.

Theranos was unable to sell itself and is now looking to pay unsecured creditors its remaining cash of about $5 million in the upcoming months, according to an email The Wall Street Journal obtained that CEO David Taylor sent to shareholders.

The announcement comes nearly three months after Theranos founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes and former Chief Operating Officer Ramesh Balwani were charged with criminal fraud. Prosecutors allege Holmes and Balwani deliberately misled investors, policymakers and the public about the accuracy of Theranos’ blood-testing technologies going back to at least 2013. If convicted, they could face prison sentences that would keep them behind bars for the rest of their lives, and total fines of $2.75 million each.

Holmes, once considered a wunderkind in Silicon Valley, had pitched Theranos’ technology as a cheaper way to run dozens of blood tests. Holmes said Theranos had discovered a new way of doing blood testing, one able to do dozens of tests with just a prick of a finger and few droplets of blood. A notoriously secretive company, Theranos shared very little about its blood-testing machine, nicknamed Edison, with the public or medical community. Holmes said she was inspired to start the company in response to her fear of needles.

She carefully crafted her image as well, wearing almost entirely black turtleneck sweaters that earned her the moniker in Silicon Valley as “the next Steve Jobs.”

Investors bought what Holmes was selling and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the company. At one time, Theranos was worth more than $10 billion and Holmes was the youngest self-made female billionaire.

But an investigation by The Wall Street Journal two years ago found that Theranos’ technology was inaccurate at best, and that the Palo Alto-based company was using routine blood-testing equipment for the vast majority of its tests. The story raised concerns about the accuracy of Theranos’ blood testing technology, which put patients at risk of having conditions either misdiagnosed or ignored.

The Journal’s investigation marked the beginning of the end of Theranos. Walgreens ended its blood-testing partnership with the company, and the Department of Health and Human Services effectively banned Theranos in 2016 from doing any blood testing work.

The Securities and Exchange Commission brought civil fraud charges against Holmes and Balwani in March. Holmes settled with the SEC, agreeing to pay $500,000 in fines and penalties. Balwani is fighting the charges.

Theranos laid off most of its staff earlier this year.

Linebacker Jaelan Phillips talks about what he liked about UCLA’s defensive performance against Cincinnati and how the Bruins have worked to fix their missed tackles.

If you found yourself at Union Station in Los Angeles for your Wednesday morning commute, you may have run into a pen of adorableness.

Adorable meaning baby goats, a little lamb and calf, of course! The LA County Fair set up a mini petting zoo at the East Portal of Union Station from 6 to 9 a.m. to the surprise of some lucky Los Angeles Metrolink commuters.

Look at how cute these goats are! They are cuddling. Cuddling!

There was even a little lamb!

Animals officially arrived to the livestock units at the fair on August 30.

While the LA County Fair helped to ease any pre-work commute stress on Wednesday, the petting zoo also served as a good reminder that Metrolink is offering special weekend trains from Downtown LA and even San Bernardino to the Pomona Fairplex. Each round trip includes a free shuttle and is only $10.

In addition to the special trains, people visiting the fair can also count on more parking as well as Uber and Lyft drop off spots.

The fair opened over Labor Day weekend with more than 230,000 people flocking to the fairgrounds. The fair runs through Sept. 23 and is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

I have to admit that the next couple of months are my favorite time of year in our beautiful Orange County.

“And why is that Corky, oh wise sage that you are?” you ask.

Well, there are a number of reasons. But let’s start out with the most important one, the one that brings the entire vibe of the season into sharp focus, the one that puts the yip in “yippeeeeee,” the one that makes each and every O.C. surfer over the age of 18-ish sit back, smile and go “ahhhhhh!”

The groms are back in school, finally. The wave-ravaging, set-hogging, pierced-lip surf meanies — those ones. They’re all safely tucked away in their classrooms and outta the water.

Keep them all in there for awhile, I say.

Of course, you’ve got to remember that they still have surf teams and surf class that take over the lineup at many spots early in the morning, up until about 8 a.m. Plus, there are those who will try to get in a session before school, along with all of you who have to be at work. So, the rest of you, those who are able to surf on weekdays, need to time your morning go outs accordingly. I am directing this column mostly at you.

Some of you have night jobs. Others just have the freedom to surf when it’s good — retired people, the filthy rich who don’t have to work, pro surfers, the unemployed.

I always would plan my first session of the day right around when the whistle would sound to get all of the early crowd out of the water, like about 7:45 a.m. I would be paddling out while they were going in. This would leave a nice little emptiness in the lineup before the rest of the freedom riders would mosey out closer to 9.

Another bonus of this situation is that you can actually get into your favorite breakfast spot without having to wait. Like the Sugar Shack in Huntington Beach. Try to get a good spot there on a summer morning, it’s packed. But come September, on a weekday, and you are relaxing at a sidewalk-view table wolfing down a stack of Michele Turner’s hotcakes in no time at all. It’s a miracle.

Now, beyond the obvious plus of all the groms being back in class, there is also the fact that the weather is about as good as it gets. Lots of offshore winds and clear mornings and sunny skies. And it’s still warm — it can even get hot when we get one of those Santa Ana wind conditions. Surfing conditions are at their finest in September and October. You won’t need to break out the full wetsuits until early November. This is prime time.

On top of all that, this is normally when we get the best surf of the summer. Most of Orange County thrives on swells from the south. This is when the big storms off of Mexico haul off and pump big south swells right into our wave window. All of the reef breaks come alive as well as the few beach breaks that can handle the size due to the direction. It’s wave time in the hood folks.

So, with all of this going for you, it’s truly the time to dust off your board quiver and get rid of the summertime grump that has been hanging over you during these past few months. Get out of the house and start bellowing out the words to “Freedom” while tossing your board into the car.

Put a smile on that ol’ surfer face of yours and get ready to rock one off the lip. Your time is ow.

Ask the expert

Q. When I was a kid the guy that everybody seemed to think was the best surfer around was Phil Edwards. This was back in the late 1950s and early 1960s. But other than in a few surf movies nobody ever actually saw him surf. He was really a surfing recluse you could say. I know that you knew him and surfed with him. Can you give me a little insight as to what he was really like and your thoughts on his surfing?

James Melton, Oceanside

A. Sure, always glad to talk about Phil. Yes, it is a fact that he didn’t really enjoy the limelight. It was the guys who would be jealous and confront him that he wanted to avoid. This is an unfortunate part of fame of any kind — there will be those who want to tear you down. It’s the “you are not so hot, our pal Larry can shut you down on any day,” group. Nobody likes having to deal with them, but if you are in the public eye they are going to be there.

Phil was just a real nice person who loved to surf and never asked to be recognized as a surf star. He stayed out of the competition for the most part and as time went on he kept his surfing sessions to a few home breaks at times of the day when others were not out.

Now, to his surfing. He was truly one of the greatest of all time. He had an amazing casual yet powerful style and could pull off the most outrageous moves while always looking totally in control. I really liked to surf with him, he was a lot of fun to be around. I don’t think he surfs much anymore, but I am sure he is still out there sailing his catamaran. Truly great guy and legendary surfer.

Art

“Magical Visions: The Enchanted Worlds of Eyvind Earle”

Through October 13

The Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University, 167 N. Atchison St., Orange

You may not be familiar with the name Eyvind Earle, but you’ve probably seen his work. The eclectic artist created luscious backgrounds and styles for some of Disney’s biggest animated films, including “Peter Pan” and “Lady and the Tramp,” and was the concept designer for “Sleeping Beauty.” Earle, who died in 2000, worked with watercolor and oils to create colorful landscapes and also delved into sculpture. He notably designed and painted more than 800 Christmas cards for greeting card company American Artists Group. The artist’s trust donated eight paintings to the Hilbert that are on display for the first time, along with other works in an exhibition curated by Ioan Szasz.

Information: hilbertmuseum.com

“Art Colony: The Laguna Beach Art Association, 1918-1935”

Through Jan. 13, 2019

Laguna Art Museum, 307 Cliff Drive, Laguna Beach

The Laguna Art Museum traces its origins to a small group of artists, led by Anna Hills and Edgar Payne, who came together in 1918 to form the Laguna Beach Art Association. In 1929, the group raised money to open a modest gallery, designed by architect Myron Hunt, who is also known for the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and the Huntington Library in San Marino. That space is now the Steele Gallery inside the Laguna Art Museum.

As part of its yearlong centennial celebration, the museum takes a look back at the pioneering works of 20th-century artists who contributed to the art association’s vision “to advance the knowledge of and interest in art, and to create a spirit of cooperation and fellowship between the painter and the public.” “Art Colony” features more than 100 works by 66 artists, including several that were part of the art colony’s early exhibitions. Museum director Malcolm Warner has written a companion book, “Laguna Art Museum: A Centennial History” that includes hundreds of historical photos of the museum’s earliest days to the present, as well as the city the museum calls home.

Information: thelagunaartmuseum.org

“Knights in Shining Armor”

September 22-January 13, 2019

Bowers Museum, 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana

Whether you’re a fan of “Game of Thrones,” King Arthur or Monty Python, you’re familiar and perhaps intrigued with knights and armor. The battle suits, worn by both men and women in medieval and Renaissance Europe, usually weighed between 45 and 55 pounds, with the helmet alone weighing up to 8 pounds. Some suits were intricately designed, made-to-measure products constructed of the finest metals, while others could be bought “off the rack” at markets, shops or trading fairs. Visitors to the Bowers Museum can learn more about arms and armor in its exhibition featuring items on loan from the Museo Stibbert in Florence, Italy. The show will feature more than 90 full suits of armor, helmets, corselets, shields and swords.

Information: bowers.org

“20th Annual Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational”

Oct. 6-14

Festival of the Arts, Laguna Beach

For nine days in October, 50 of the nation’s top plein air artists take to the streets, the canyons and the shoreline of Laguna Beach as part of the annual Plein Air Painting Invitational. The event, put on by Laguna Beach Plein Air Painters Association, turns 20 this year.

During the festival, dedicated to preserving Laguna’s plein air painting legacy, there will be opportunities to purchase original artwork created at the numerous events throughout the week, with the artists submitting what they consider to be their best three paintings for the awards judging. The artists are competing for more than $30,000 in cash and prizes that include the $10,000 “Best in Show.” Award winners will be announced during Collectors Gala on the final evening. The milestone celebration will include the best-in-show artists of the past 19 years, as well as the five founding members of Laguna Beach Plein Air Painters Association, Signature Artists who have served LPAPA’s board, many of the artists who participated in the first invitational held in 1999, and, as always, 10 of the best-selling artists from last year.

Information: lpapa.org

Theater

“Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike”

September 30-October 21

South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

Need a good laugh? Christopher Durang’s hilarious comedy, “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” is just the ticket. Directed by Bart DeLorenzo, this 2013 best play Tony Award winner revolves around middle-aged brother and sister, Vanya and Sonia, who live together in a country house in Pennsylvania. Their quiet lives are disrupted when their movie star sister, Masha, swoops into town with her much younger, dimwitted lover, Spike, to attend the costume party of a rich neighbor. When Masha informs her siblings that she plans to sell their house, all hell breaks loose. Those who have experienced Chekhov may recognize tinges of familiar plot points, but you don’t have to be a literary expert to have a good time.

Information: scr.org

“Two’s a Crowd”

September 7-16

Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach

It’s exciting to have a chance to see a world premiere musical, and it’s even better when the stars are Orange County favorites. Comedienne Rita Rudner and actor Davis Gaines will headline “Two’s a Crowd,” a new show written by Rudner and her husband, Martin Bergman, with lyrics by Jason Feddy. The musical revolves around Tom and Wendy, who cross paths because of a computer error that might just ruin each other’s vacation. Rudner holds the record for the longest-running solo comedy show in Las Vegas. Gaines is best known for his portrayal as the title character in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera.” Rudner and Bergman have premiered other shows at the playhouse, including, “Tickled Pink,” and “Act 3…”, but this is their first musical, which they hope to take on tour after its run in Laguna Beach.

Information: lagunaplayhouse.com

“The Seafarer”

October 17-November 4

Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach

Conor McPherson loves a good ghost story. The Irish playwright, who has been called “the finest dramatist of his generation,” often explores the darker side of human nature, blending haunting realism with a sense of unease. “The Seafarer,” first performed to great acclaim at the National Theatre in 2006, takes place on Christmas Eve in Dublin as a group of old friends gather for a game of cards and a night of drinking. They are joined by a mysterious acquaintance with sinister reasons for his presence. McPherson’s play was last seen on Broadway in 2007 and was nominated for a Tony for best play.

Information: lagunaplayhouse.com

“Stormy Weather”

October 19-November 11

La Mirada Theatre, 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada

With her silky-smooth voice, Grammy- and Tony-winning singer-actress Lena Horne captured the hearts of America during her remarkable 70-year career. In 1942, she became the first African-American woman to sign a long-term film contract with a major Hollywood studio, MGM. Later in life, she became active in the civil rights movement. “Stormy Weather” traces the history of this Hollywood pioneer, from her early years as a burgeoning singer and dancer at Harlem’s Cotton Club to her struggles with racism, prejudice and private tragedies, as well as her many triumphs on the stage and in film and television. Tony- and Emmy-winning actress Leslie Uggams takes on the role of Horne in the biographical musical, whose title comes from Horne’s signature song. Other favorites, including “The Lady is a Tramp,” “How Deep is the Ocean” and “From This Moment On,” will remind you why Horne is still revered nearly a decade after her death.

Information: lamiradatheatre.com

“Waitress”

November 13-25

Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

Adrienne Shelly’s sweet 2007 indie film, “Waitress,” featured Keri Russell as a young, pregnant woman trapped in an abusive marriage who finds joy in baking creatively named pies for the local diner where she works. A decade later, the film was adapted into a musical, featuring music and lyrics by singer Sara Bareilles and book by Jessie Nelson. “Waitress,” which debuted on Broadway in 2016 and was nominated for a Tony Award for best musical, remains one of the most popular shows on the Great White Way, regularly playing to sellout crowds. Desi Oakley, who appeared on Broadway in “Wicked,” “Les Misérables” and “Annie,” is slated to play Jenna, the waitress of the title. Her friends are played by Charity Angél Dawson as Becky, and Lenne Klingaman as Dawn.

Information: scfta.org

Music & Opera

Bach + Glass: A Far Cry with Simone Dinnerstein

September 14

Soka Performing Arts Center, Soka University, 1 University Drive, Aliso Viejo

Boston-based chamber orchestra A Far Cry has collaborated with such notables as Yo-Yo Ma, David Krakauer and the Silk Road Ensemble. This year, the Grammy-nominated group was named Boston’s best classical ensemble by the Improper Bostonian magazine. At Soka, A Far Cry will perform with pianist Simone Dinnerstein. The program is slated to include Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and Keyboard Concerto in G Minor, and Phillip Glass’ Symphony No. 3 and Piano Concerto No. 3, which was written for the ensemble.

Information: soka.edu/pac/

Plácido Domingo and the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra

October 1

Musco Center for the Arts, Chapman University, 415 N. Glassell, Orange

For the fourth time since Musco Center opened, international opera star Plácido Domingo will appear with the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and chorus, conducted by James Conlon. Domingo, LA Opera’s general director, will perform a concert version of Giuseppi Verdi’s “Don Carlo,” which tells the story of the prince of Asturias, whose impending marriage to Elisabeth, the daughter of the king of France, would bring an end to the Italian War. Their dreams are dashed when Elisabeth learns she must instead marry Don Carlo’s father, Philip II, the King of Spain. Ramón Vargas will star in the title role, with Domingo playing the part of his friend Rodrigo.

Information: muscocenter.org

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble

October 10

Philharmonic Society at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Orchestra was formed by London musicians who gave their first performance in its namesake church. Acclaimed violinist Joshua Bell serves as music director for the ensemble, which tours the world performing larger-scale works from the chamber music repertoire. For its performance in Orange County, the ensemble, led by violinist Tomo Keller, is scheduled to perform Carl Nielsen’s “Serenata in vano”; Jean Françaix’s Octet and Franz Schubert’s Octet.

Information: philharmonicsociety.org

Mariinsky Orchestra

October 20

Philharmonic Society at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

The Mariinsky Orchestra was founded in 1783 during the reign of Catherine the Great. Under the baton of Artistic and General Director Valery Gergiev, who also serves as principal conductor of the Munich Philharmonic, Mariinsky returns to Orange County to perform Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” and Stravinsky’s “The Firebird.” Hungarian violinist Kristóf Baráti joins the orchestra as featured soloist for Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto.

Information: philharmonicsociety.org

Czech Philharmonic (with Alisa Weilerstein on November 7, Kiril Gerstein on November 8)

Philharmonic Society at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

The Czech Philharmonic, with roots dating back to 1894, will perform on two evenings as part of the Philharmonic Society’s first orchestral residency. On Nov. 7, American cellist Alisa Weilerstein, a 2011 recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, will perform with the orchestra in a program that includes Dvorak’s Cello Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings and “Francesca da Rimini.” The following evening, American pianist Kirill Gerstein will join the orchestra, whose program will include Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 7.

Information: philharmonicsociety.org

“The Wonderful Music of Oz”

November 9-10

Pacific Symphony at Reneé & Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

Richard Kaufman has served as Pacific Symphony’s principal pops conductor for 27 seasons. When he’s not leading an orchestra, he might very well be found in Hollywood, where he conducts and supervises music for television and films, ranging from “thirtysomething” and “Stargate SG-1” to “All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series.” For “The Wonderful Music of Oz,” the Grammy-winning conductor will lead a program of all things Oz, including selections from Broadway’s “Wicked” and the film “The Wiz.” And, of course, the evening wouldn’t be complete without music from the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz.”

Information:pacificsymphony.org

St. Lawrence String Quartet

December 9

Philharmonic Society at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

Since its founding in Toronto in 1989, the St. Lawrence String Quartet has played around the world and has served residencies at several universities including Juilliard, Yale and Stanford as well as the Spoleto Festival USA, where co-founder Geoff Nuttall serves as the Charles E. and Andrea L. Volpe director of chamber music. Nominated for two Grammy Awards, the quartet – Nuttall on violin, Owen Dalby on violin, Lesley Robertson on viola and Christopher Costanza on cello – will perform Haydn’s complete set of Op. 20 string quartets, as part of the Philharmonic Society’s Laguna Chamber Music Series.

Information: philharmonicsociety.org

Jazz

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis

October 2

Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine

Wynton Marsalis’ name has long been synonymous with jazz and for the last three decades as co-founder and leader of Jazz at Lincoln Center. The nine-time Grammy-winning trumpeter and composer was the first jazz recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for music. In 2015, President Barack Obama presented him with the National Humanities Medal in recognition of his work. Marsalis and his ensemble have toured the world, bringing their unique Big Band sounds to jazz lovers everywhere. At Irvine Barclay, Marsalis and his ensemble will perform a program featuring the work of Duke Ellington.

Information: thebarclay.org

Sergio Mendes

October 5

Hyatt Regency Newport Beach, 1107 Jamboree Road, Newport Beach

For five decades, Sergio Mendes has entertained and energized audiences with his jazz-inflected bossa nova sounds. With his group Brasil ’66, the Brazilian singer-songwriter scored his first platinum album, “Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66” which contained the hit song “Mas Que Nada.” He received his first Grammy Award in 1993 and was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Latin Grammys in 2005 and a Latin Grammy in 2010. More recently, young audiences were introduced to his music in the animated film, “Rio” for which he wrote the song “Real in Rio.” For that effort, Mendes received an Academy Award nomination for best original song. At 77 and with more than 40 albums under his belt, Mendes shows no sign of stopping. On the horizon is a documentary film directed by John Scheinfeld and a new album.

Information: series.hyattconcerts.com

Diana Krall

November 4

Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

With her new album “Turn Up the Quiet,” Diana Krall brings new interpretations to nearly a dozen jazz standards, including “Blue Skies,” “Sway,” “Night and Day” and “L-O-V-E.” The Grammy-winning singer has toured more than 100 cities in Europe and North America in support of her album, receiving rave reviews along the way. Krall returns to Segerstrom, where audiences will have a chance to enjoy some familiar melodies, punctuated with Krall’s personal touch and smoky alto. There’s a reason Krall has racked up nine gold albums, three platinum and seven multiplatinum albums and is the only singer to have eight albums debut at the top of the Billboard Jazz Albums chart. Here’s your chance to experience why.

Information: sfta.org

Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra

December 19

Philharmonic Society at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

Brothers John and Jeff Clayton and Jeff Hamilton came together in 1985 to form the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Group. Hamilton and John Clayton had played together with jazz pianist Monty Alexander before going their separate ways. They reunited and were joined with Jeff to form the jazz orchestra, which was nominated for a Grammy in 2014. The 19-piece orchestra features five trumpets, five saxophones, four trombones and a four-piece rhythm section plus John Clayton doing double duty on bass and conducting. Their ensemble, which will play a mix of jazz standards and holiday favorites, has been called “one of the best big bands in the business.”

Information: philharmonicsociety.org

Cabaret

Christine Ebersole

October 20

Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine

Christine Ebersole dazzled Broadway audiences in the 2001 revival of “42nd Street,” which earned her the Tony Award for best actress in a musical. In 2007, she picked up her second Tony for her turn as “Little Edie” Beale and Edith Bouvier Beale in the musical “Grey Gardens.” Last year, she teamed with fellow Tony winner Patti LuPone in “War Paint,” and received a Tony nomination for her performance. Some people may be familiar with Ebersole from her film and television appearances on such shows as “Madam Secretary,” “Royal Pains” and “One Life to Live.” She was also a cast member of “Saturday Night Live.” Ebersole often appears in cabaret performances in New York, singing such classics as “The Way You Look Tonight,” “S’Wonderful” and “Lazy Afternoon.” Here’s your chance to catch her in her one-night-only performance in Irvine.

Information: thebarclay.org

Michael Feinstein

December 14

Musco Center for the Arts, Chapman University, 415 N. Glassell, Orange

Whether Michael Feinstein is appearing in a large venue or a more intimate setting, the singer captivates his audience with his charm, wit and talent. Feinstein has dedicated his career to presenting, preserving and interpreting the Great American Songbook, performing at such places as the White House, Buckingham Palace, Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. Along the way, he’s picked up five Grammy nominations and one Emmy nod. In 2007, he formalized his commitment to the American standards by founding the Great American Songbook Foundation, which offers educational programs and Master Classes. When he’s not traveling the world, Feinstein serves as principal conductor for the Pasadena Pops. For his performance at Musco Center, Feinstein will demonstrate why he’s been dubbed the “ambassador of American Songbook” with popular songs and jazz standards while throwing in a selection of holiday favorites. :: muscocenter.org

Dance

Jessica Lang Dance

September 28

Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine

Former Twyla Tharp dancer-choreographer Jessica Lang has been called “a painter and an architect whose vision (and stellar design team) creates striking visual images on stage.” Her New York City-based company has performed around the world, mesmerizing audiences with its hallucinatory movement and poetic ballet style. Jessica Lang Dance returns to Southern California with “This Thing Called Love,” a new program celebrating the music and artistry of Tony Bennett. The program will be seen for only the second time since it premiered in May at the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College, which commissioned the work.

Information: thebarclay.org

“StarDust: A Tribute to David Bowie” 

October 5

Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Laguna Dance Festival at Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach

Dance probably isn’t the first word that comes to mind when you think of David Bowie. But the latest work from Complexions Contemporary Ballet may change that. Dwight Rhoden, co-founder of New York-based Complexions, was long inspired by Bowie’s music, and after the singer’s death in 2016, he moved into action. The resulting program, “StarDust: A Tribute to David Bowie,” is what Rhoden has called “a love note” to Bowie. The show includes such classic hits as “Space Oddity,” “Changes” and “Heroes,” as well as “Lazarus” from the singer’s final album. Founded in 1994, Complexions is known for its movement-based dance that incorporates ballet, modern dance, hip hop and other genres. Its 15 multiethnic dancers tap into the emotion of Bowie’s songs.

Information: lagunadancefestival.org

By DENNIS WASZAK Jr.

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Sam Darnold got the call from Todd Bowles, and then he made the proud phone call to home.

The 21-year-old rookie from USC and San Clemente High broke the news to his parents that he was named the New York Jets’ starting quarterback. And they didn’t hold back their excitement.

“Mom was crying, as usual,” Darnold said Tuesday with a big smile. “Then, my Dad was just pumped for me. He just said, ‘You know, you worked so hard and this is what you worked so hard for.’ So, it was a cool little moment there with them and my sister. Yeah, it was fun.”

Mike and Chris Darnold will be in Detroit on Monday night to watch their son play against the Lions and make NFL history as the youngest quarterback to start a season opener since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.

There will be plenty of other eyes on the No. 3 overall draft pick. And, Darnold is ready.

“We celebrate all wins,” Darnold said while speaking to the media for the first time since Bowles’ announcement Monday .

“I know that just because I got named the starter doesn’t mean we won the game Monday night. It’s awesome and I’m really happy to be the starting quarterback, but I also know that I’ve got to go out there and do my job.”

That’s exactly what Darnold has been doing since he got here in the spring as the potential face of the franchise.

Sam Darnold of the New York Jets will make NFL history in Detroit on Monday night as the youngest quarterback to start a season opener since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.

More from @dwaz73: https://t.co/loL5NaEpzb pic.twitter.com/UARR0INw9q

— AP NFL (@AP_NFL) September 4, 2018

The quarterback was impressive in his ability to pick up the offense. Both Bowles and offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates raved about his maturity and ability to brush aside mistakes and not repeat them.

Those traits carried over into training camp, and Darnold beat out Josh McCown and Teddy Bridgewater to earn the start in Week 1. Some thought it was a foregone conclusion from the moment the Jets drafted the youngster, but he consistently checked off all the boxes the Jets had for him.

“As a football player, whether it’s Pop Warner, whether it’s high school, college or now the NFL, your dream is to play the game,” Darnold said.

“And that’s what I want to do. I just want to go out there and play every single day. If Josh did get the nod, I was going to be pumped for him and I was going to be the best backup that I can be.

“Now that I know that I’m starting, it’s an amazing feeling.”

Darnold acknowledged that he might be a little nervous the first time he takes the field at Ford Field, but isn’t thinking about any of that right now.

It’s all about preparing to face the Lions. And the fact that Bowles is starting a rookie quarterback in a domed stadium doesn’t concern the coach much, either.

After all, Darnold played his college home games for USC at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum — with a seating capacity of 93,607.

“I don’t think it’s very difficult,” Bowles said. “He’s been playing football all his life. He’s not just coming fresh out of the womb and just grabbing the ball for the first time. He’s been in crowds. He’s seen crowds and he’s been playing football. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.

“It’s always going to be loud in a dome and Detroit is a tough place to play, I get that, but he just has to play football. He’ll be fine.”

The Jets have thought that all along, and Darnold carries himself with a quiet sense of cool.

He’s confident in himself, but understands the task at hand — and takes nothing for granted. That’s why he’s unfazed by being the only rookie quarterback this year to start in Week 1 or being the youngest player — ever — to do so.

“I mean, yeah, it’s cool,” he said. “It’s definitely something that I pride myself on. First of all, I know that I haven’t done anything yet. I haven’t won any games in the NFL.

“So, I’ve just got to go out there and do my job. Knowing that I am young compared to a lot of the other starting quarterbacks, for me, I think that’s more of just affirmation of knowing that I’ve got a long way to go.”

“I knew that once I went out there in the preseason games,” he said, “and was able to call the play in the huddle, go out there and score a couple touchdowns, I knew that I could play this game at a high level.”

Darnold readily acknowledges the things he needs to work on — staying consistent and not turning the ball over, to name a few — and will have to continually prove himself. He also leans on some advice Bridgewater gave him shortly after he joined the Jets.

“He was like, ’Bro, just be yourself,’” Darnold recalled. “No matter who you are in this league, you want to win. Now that I’m named the starter, anyone, whether it’s a 15-year vet or a second-year guy, they want to help anyone as much as they can if they’re playing. … When we start winning, everyone has success in the locker room.

“I think that’s the biggest thing, knowing that I just need to be myself and if I do that, I don’t really have anything else to worry about.”

Legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell hasn’t performed live in recent years for health reasons so friends and fellow musicians including Graham Nash, Norah Jones, and Emmylou Harris will celebrate her 75th birthday in November with a pair of all-star shows at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.

In addition to Harris, Jones and Nash, who was a romantic partner of Mitchell’s for a time, the concert will also include Los Lobos, Diana Krall, Glen Hansard, Chaka Khan, Kris Kristofferson, Seal and Rufus Wainwright.

Wainwright had accidentally leaked word of the shows during a guest spot during Hansard’s concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall earlier this year, immediately apologizing and saying something along the lines of “Oops, maybe I wasn’t supposed to say that.”

Official word of the concerts to be held Nov. 6 and 7, the latter date her actual birthday, arrived Wednesday.

Performers will perform songs from across her catalog of 19 studio albums, with co-musical directors/arrangers for the concerts drummer Brian Blade, who recorded and toured often with Mitchell, and pianist Jon Cowherd, whose credits also include composer, arranger and producer.

In its announcement, the Music Center noted that Mitchell twice performed at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in the early ’70s.

On Nov. 7, the concert will be followed by a separate birthday celebration and fundraiser for The Music Center’s artistic programming. “The Music Center’s Soirée: JONI 75” will also honor Mitchell with the center’s Excellence in the Performing Arts Award.

JONI 75: A Birthday Celebration

With: Graham Nash, Emmylou Harris, Norah Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Glen Hansard, Chaka Khan, Los Lobos, Seal, Rufus Wainwright

Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles

When: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 6, 6:30 p.m. Nov. 7

Tickets: $45-$225 to either show

Information: Musiccenter.org

Following the first weekend of the regular season, there’s already a sizable gap when it comes to the impression observers have of USC.

On the one hand, there are those who will agree with Trojans coach Clay Helton. A day after the season-opening win over UNLV, Helton remarked, “If originally you would’ve told me that we were going to start an 18-year-old quarterback and have a redshirt freshman center, and you walk out there and have 500 yards of offense and 43 points, I would’ve been very happy.”

It was an impressive start by JT Daniels and illustrative of his bright future with the Trojans. He’s going to be behind center for the next three seasons.

There are also legitimate concerns about a defense that surrendered 308 rushing yards, the second-worst performance of the Helton era.

The national polls are illustrative of the split in perception. In the coaches’ poll, USC moved up three spots to No. 12. In the Associated Press poll, it fell two spots to No. 17. (In disclosure: I dropped the Trojans three spots to No. 20 on my ballot). And in the S&P+ rankings, they tumbled all the way down to No. 36, a drop of 20 spots.

It’s little surprise then that the reactions I’ve received following Week 1 vary. Here’s my best attempt to sort out what we know. The litmus test for the Trojans comes soon enough Saturday in Palo Alto. Let’s get to your questions.

Can you give me Clay Helton’s number so I can ask him about trying to walk on as a punter?

Also, who is more of a concern for USC, Bryce Love or Arcega Whiteside?

— Fire Gruden (@h_crossover) September 5, 2018

The fun aspect of USC and Stanford meeting in early September each season is that it’s a battle of the conference’s heavyweights. Look at the offensive playmakers of recent seasons: Christian McCaffrey, Bryce Love, Sam Darnold, Ronald Jones.

Next in that mix is JJ Arcega-Whiteside, the Pac-12’s reigning offensive player of the week who caught three touchdowns from K.J. Costello in a season-opening win over San Diego State. Arcega-Whiteside is a bigger-bodied receiver at 6-foot-3. Stanford has evolved as a passing team with Costello at quarterback. So, when Love was contained against the Aztecs, they turned to the air, lofting passes downfield toward Arcega-Whiteside.

“They’re as good a jump-ball team as there is out there,” Helton said this week. “You know when you get inside the 10-yard line, a fade is coming. Against San Diego State, there was one time … it looked like basketball post-up, like a power forward who went up to make a play. They all have great high-ball skills.”

Helton noted too that Stanford coach David Shaw has recruited long receiving targets. That makes them threats against USC’s secondary, prone to surrendering big plays.

But regardless of Week 1 results, including Love’s slow start, it’s hard to say anyone is more of a concern for a defense than Love, still one of the most explosive runners in college football, setting an FBS record last season of runs of 50 or more yards. The Trojans fared modestly well against Love in their last regular-season meeting. Outside of a 75-yard touchdown run, he was kept to 85 yards on 16 carries. Love is still the difference maker.

Any hope in sight for the OL? Seemed to have trouble with a team that had a very bad DL last year

— James Meiners (@JimboMeiners) September 3, 2018

Another mailbag, another round of offensive line questions. There might not be a topic that causes USC fans to fret more than the one about the players up front.

My feeling of the offensive line against UNLV did not change much. It’s an ongoing question mark and without real answers or data to go off. I thought the debut performance was fine. There were no snap issues with Brett Neilon, a redshirt freshman center, starting in place of Toa Lobendahn. And the Trojans did average 5.8 yards per carry, which would have ranked as their fifth-best rushing effort last season. But pass protection was shaky. Daniels was chased out of the pocket at times and sacked twice. This will be paramount in the following weeks. Daniels does not have Sam Darnold’s athleticism, though is agile and can move around the pocket if needed. Still, that’s not a recipe for success with an untested true freshman quarterback going on the road at Stanford and at Texas.

The best reasons for hope for the offensive line over the long haul rests with younger players, including Neilon, as well as left tackle Austin Jackson and right guard Andrew Vorhees, who are promising in various respects. For the immediate prospects, recall that USC had 307 rushing yards in Week 2 last season against Stanford and Darnold was sacked just once.

What is the likelihood of Toa playing vs Stanford? Do you think his presence will give the o line a much needed boost in their overall physicality, specifically in the run game?

— Mike H. (@hutt_hutt_mike) September 5, 2018

The likelihood is strong. In Tuesday’s practice, Lobendahn was back, and he saw most of the first-team reps. As in most cases, he’ll be evaluated in the days after his return to contact: How did he react? Did any pain return? It always matters if a player can practice before the game. When Lobendahn was absent early last week, coaches told Neilon, his backup, that there was a 99 percent chance he was going to start the opener. His presence in the middle should help. He’s a former left tackle and guard, so he gives a bit more size.

St. Brown didn't get on the fielduntil the 3rd series. Do you think they will continue to start Velus Jones over him? It felt odd to not give JT his comfort zone to start. Feels too similar to last year when Jalen Greene started early on when he clearly wasn't the best option.

— Kunal Khaitani (@KunalKhaitani) September 3, 2018

I do not think it mattered significantly that Velus Jones was the starting slot receiver and remained so on this week’s depth. If you go by the snap counts, thanks to the laborious effort from Shotgun Spratling of USCFootball.com, Amon St. Brown saw twice as many snaps as Jones, with 46 total plays to Jones’ 23 total plays. It was also more than backup slot receiver Trevon Sidney, who saw 28 total plays. The Trojans like to move St. Brown around, from slot receiver to outside receiver, which is why he may not be starting. But in effect, he’s already getting the third-most plays and that will likely rise.  I don’t see this situation as perplexing as Jalen Greene starting over Tyler Vaughns and seeing most of the snaps.

When can we expect to see the Imatorbhebhe brothers in game action? Daniel was a big weapon in 2016 and apparently suffering from a hip pointer ever since. And Josh has freakish workout videos but can't seem to crack the WR rotation.

— Matthew Bodaken (@unclemeb) September 5, 2018

The immediate prognosis is not promising for either.

Since Daniel Imatorbhebhe was limited by a hip flexor injury throughout last season, he has been held out of contact portions of practices, including in spring practice, preseason training camp and recent practices. The most recent update from Trojans coach Clay Helton came three weeks ago when he was asked if he had a timetable for the tight end to return.

“I really don’t have a crystal ball,” Helton said. “It’s kind of how he feels. He’s medically cleared to do what he’s doing right now (individual work). We’re staying away from contact until he truly feels comfortable with it.”

It’s fair to deduce Imatorbhebhe is not yet comfortable to resume a padded practice. If he isn’t going through contact, he’s at least weeks away from seeing the field. I’m not sure what would be the tipping point for him, either. Injured players are not available to reporters, so he has not spoken about his status.

Injuries continue to plague Josh Imatorbhebhe, who had particularly unfortunate timing when he injured his ankle while catching a deep pass from Jack Sears during USC’s first preseason scrimmage. He has not returned to practice and has only gone through light running at practices. Even when he returns, he’s third string on the depth chart behind Michael Pittman and St. Brown.

What’s up with Bubba ? Any news?

— VT 24- FSU 3 (@iAm_LionWoodz) September 5, 2018

There has been little insight given into starting strong safety Bubba Bolden, who missed the season opener for an undisclosed matter. Helton, as well as others in the program, has not offered much information regarding the situation. Bolden has been seen on campus and was attending class yesterday, according to a post on his public Instagram page. So, he’s only away from the football team at this point, not apparently under a school suspension. But he has not returned to practice and his status for Stanford remains up in the air.

If Bolden remains out, could this signal a move by Biggy to Safety? The position that he's most logically going to play in the League?

— Gillyking (@Gillyking) September 5, 2018

Even if Bolden were to miss the season (for the record, nothing tells me he will or won’t), I would not expect Iman Marshall to move to safety. Marshall has started at cornerback since his freshman season in 2015, then returned for his senior season with the intention of continuing at cornerback and raising his NFL draft stock at the position. There wouldn’t be a position switch this late in his college career.

Is the AD a bit concerned about the lack of excitement for this team?

— riverboatgambler (@uscnownforever) September 5, 2018

Lynn Swann, who is now in his third year as USC’s athletic director, has remained publicly supportive of the football program. I’ve interviewed him several times in the past couple years and he has frequently expressed optimism. As recently as last week, Swann offered the following comment about the current stage of Helton’s tenure.

“I think the program’s in great shape now,” Swann said. “He’s getting the players he wants. Clay’s been in the business for a long time and he’s good at taking care of what’s right in front of him today. Getting this team ready to play its best season. And then picking appropriate times during the week to recruit, to reach out, to figure out what they’re going to need down the road and make sure they’re going after that talent for the future.”

For many plays last week USC essentially ran with 5 down lineman and 2 linebackers. This seemed to open up a lot of running lanes for UNLV. Was this something just for that game or can we expect to see more of this formation later? Why are the going that vs 3-4 or 4-3?

— Rob Cuddy (@Robservatory) September 5, 2018

The formation described is, technically, a 3-4. The Trojans line up three defensive linemen, then the weak-side linebacker and strong-side linebacker along the edge, giving the appearance of 5-2. It’s more unusual. Most often the Trojans are in a nickel package, with two down linemen and the pair of outside linebackers. That allows for five defensive backs. Last season, they most often went with three down linemen against Stanford, so expect that to continue. Helton said the Trojans gave up big runs against UNLV due to players leaving their pass-rush lanes, an issue with rushing so many.

How have positions groups performed compared to what we expected from camp? Better, worse, or as advertised?

— Jonathan Gilde (@JonGilde) September 5, 2018

I think the most encouraging development for USC is Daniels, despite all the expectations, might be as advertised. That’s no small thing and good for the long-term status of the program. It’s still early, but not only did he seize on big plays against UNLV but he also made few mistakes, a sign the transition is not to be too bumpy. The concern is the front seven didn’t look so vaunted out of the gate.

Since the start of professional surfing, women have earned a fraction of that earned by their male counterparts.

They surf the same waves, in the same ocean. They are supported by the same surfwear brands that sponsor the athletes. But like other sports, the pay discrepancy was overly apparent between the two genders.

That will now change, at least for contests at the highest professional level, the World Surf League announced on Wednesday.

The equal prize money for WSL-controlled events will happen in the 2019 season and beyond, according to a news release sent as the world’s top surfers get ready to compete at Kelly Slater’s man-made wave pool in Lemoore, California starting Thursday, Sept. 6.

The news is touted as “the first and only US-based global sports league, and among the first internationally, to achieve prize money equality.”

“This is the latest in a series of actions the League has undertaken to showcase our female athletes, from competing on the same quality waves as the men, to better locations, and increased investment and support,” said WSL CEO Sophie Goldschmidt, in a release.

The change was simply the right thing to do, she stated.

“We want to be at the forefront of pushing for equality in all walks of life, starting on the waves, and we feel very lucky to have women on our tour who are highly talented, iconic role models, and more than deserve this recognition as they stand alongside our extraordinary male athletes.”

Towards equality

The WSL has made major strides in the past few years when it comes to gender equality, like hiring a woman — Goldschmidt — in 2017 to run the male-dominated league for the first time.

In recent years, there have been more stops added on the women’s pro tour, going from 14 seven years ago to 64 scheduled in 2019.

The prize money for women has slowly been making strides.

In 2009, for example, Santa Ana’s Courtney Conlogue earned a $10,000 check for her win at the U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach. The male surfer, Brett Simpson, earned $100,000 for the same event.

Currently, women take home $50,000 for a World Tour win, while men earn $100,000. In the past, the pay dispersal system was touted as fair because with fewer women competing on the tour than men, the entire purse was split equally among all the athletes.

In recent months, the World Surf League came under fire when a photo from a contest in Australia went viral, showing a male pro junior surfer clutching an $8,000 check beside a girl holding a check for half the amount.  

The sport has also been under pressure recently to equalize prize money for the Mavericks Challenge near Santa Cruz, part of its Big Wave World Tour schedule. The California State Lands Commission earlier this month released a report that recommended granting a permit to the WSL to run the event only if prize money for the men’s and women’s events were equal.

A group called The Committee for Equity in Women’s Surfing lobbied the California Coastal Commission earlier this year to demand equal pay for women athletes before they granted any permits for the event, according to Surfer Magazine. 

Whether those demands from the government had any impact on the change in pay structure is unclear.

Reactions

Six-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore was “thrilled” about the changes.

“The prize money is fantastic, but the message means even more. From the moment current ownership became involved, the situation for the women surfers has been transformed for the better in every way,” she said in a news release. “I hope this serves as a model for other sports, global organizations and society as a whole. My fellow women athletes and I are honored by the confidence in us, and inspired to reward this decision with ever higher levels of surfing.”

Slater, an 11-time world champion, said the women on tour deserved the equal pay.

“I’m so proud that surfing is choosing to lead sports in equality and fairness. The female WSL athletes are equally committed to their craft as the male athletes and should be paid the same,” Slater said in the announcement.  “Surfing has always been a pioneering sport, and this serves as an example of that.”

The equal pay covers the men’s and women’s championship tour, the Longboard Tour, the World Junior tour and the Big Wave Tour. At lower level Qualifying Series events, where sponsors control the prize money, the WSL will work with partners to “achieve equality as soon as possible.”

In addition to the prize money, other commitments were highlighted to shine a light on women’s surfing, including a global marketing campaign to help increase event viewership and fan engagement, surfing clinics by some of the best female surfers at contest stops, and a monthly series about the pioneering of women surfing, starting next week with seven-time World Champion Layne Beachley.

It was homecoming day Thursday for a sea lion that was found ailing and wandering the streets of Terminal Island earlier this summer.

Rocking his wheeled crate as it sat confined on the rocky shore of White Point/Royal Palms Beach, the some 250-pound sea lion wasted no time charging toward the breaking surf, barking all the way down to the water’s edge before plunging in.

Within minutes, he was out into the waves, porpoising and diving for fish.

“Look at that, that is amazing,” said Chris Moore of Long Beach, who got to witness the release by chance while he was visiting the beach.

“I’m the luckiest guy,” said Moore. “Look at him. He feels good.”

It was “touch and go” for a while as the sea lion recovered at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro, said Veterinarian Lauren Palmer.

The sea lion was found July 23 wandering around Navy Way at the busy Port of Los Angeles.

Longshoreman Carlos Gutierrez, 52, had just gotten off work when he spotted the animal that appeared disoriented and was in danger being so close to traffic.

He called for help and Peter Wallerstein, who has made a 30-plus year career out of rescuing stranded and distressed marine life along the Southern California coast, arrived.

Wallerstein, who was on hand for Thursday’s release, said it took him about 15 minutes to finally “hoop” the animal which put up a struggle.

“It took about three times,” he said. “It was pretty intense.”

When he reached the Marine Mammal Care Center, the sea lion was suffering from malnutrition and dehydration. He also had a respiratory ailment, Palmer said, and was lethargic.

Palmer said they’d hoped he would gain more weight during his stay but added that he began to perk up in the past couple weeks and they decided it was a good time to send him back out.

The center, established in 1992 on the former Fort MacArthur property in Angele’s Gate Park in San Pedro, It is the only rehabilitation hospital in Los Angeles for seals and sea lions stranded on beaches from Malibu to Seal Beach due to illness, injury or malnutrition.

When animals recover, they are released back into the wild. Those deemed unable to survive in those conditions are placed in protected environments where they can live out their lives.

Both Wallerstein and Palmer said his chances of survival for this sea lion were fairly good, though there are never any guarantees.

“What he has gong for him is he’s an older animal,” Palmer said, noting one of the tagged sea lions they released was recently spotted off the shores of Humbolt. “A lot of them make it to old age. We do what we can.”

Cat, Destiny and Cassidy could barely stand still. In fact, the three teens from San Gabriel were so excited they almost seemed to be vibrating in the hours before BTS, the most popular K-pop boy band in the world, arrived on stage Wednesday for the first of four sold-out shows at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

I found them on the plaza in front of Staples Center where even the bronze statues of legendary athletes such as Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers, Luc Robitaille of the Los Angeles Kings, and boxer Oscar De La Hoya wore BTS shirts to celebrate the kick-off of the group’s North American tour.

Cassidy Lirag, 17, was the leader. She’d seen them before, one of two shows at Honda Center in Anaheim in April 2017. She’d converted Destiny Hayes, 13, into a fan. And perhaps most important, she’d enlisted dad Matt Lirag in the BTS Army, as the fans are known, so she had the tickets — dad had an iPad, phone, Mac and PC open at the moment they went on sale a year ago — and the all-important ride.

Cassidy, who had liked other K-pop bands in elementary school, said she happened on BTS by accident a few years ago.

“I looked up ‘K-pop’ and one of their videos popped up,” she said. “And I went, ‘Oh wow, they’re so beautiful and gorgeous.’”

Even as a middle-aged man I’m about to agree that she is 100 percent right about their beauty, but then the three of them spot Liam McEwan, a New Zealand transplant who does celebrity interviews online, and they ditch me to get a photo with him, because OMG he’s actually interviewed BTS, and I’m spared saying something out loud I might later regret.

Liam photos on their phones they bounce back over and I learn that It’s not a problem that BTS sings mostly in Korean, because as Cat Ely, 17, explains their lyrics are translated almost as soon as the songs drop.

“The leader of the group, RM, he does a livestream (about the songs),” she says of RM, who told me last year when I interviewed (take that, Liam!) which American sit-com he credits for teaching him such excellent English fluency.

I realized the morning after that I didn’t have a good quote from Destiny, and that’s probably because I mostly remember her giggling and giddy to the point of being unable to speak.

She did tell me that her favorite was originally V though she’s now switched her BTS crush to Jimin. Cassidy’s fave is Suga, because she noticed him at a period in his life when he had pink hair, and — you’re not going to believe this — she was going through a pink-hair period at the very same time. Cat, meanwhile, picked RM “because I’m an artist, and he really inspires me as an artist.”

Staples Center didn’t allow camping out for spots in the GA line but that didn’t deter fans from camping on the sidewalk along Chick Hearn Court — the late sportscaster did not wear a BTS jersey on his statue, in case you were wondering — near Figueroa Street.

That’s where I found Krystal Nguyen, 22, of Yorba Linda, Megan Belmonte, 23, of Irvine, and their anonymous 20-something friend encamped near the front of a line they had joined around midnight Saturday, That’s approximately 92 hours before the first of the BTS shows, never mind that their tickets all were for shows later in the L.A. run.

Anon said she couldn’t be identified publicly because her parents, especially her retired LAPD officer dad, didn’t know she’d been sleeping rough on the sidewalks of downtown Los Angeles.

She, Krystal and Megan served as volunteer line monitors, keeping a list who of arrived when and what number they should be allowed into the final line, something that Krystal, a biology major at Cal State Fullerton, realized was necessary after getting injured in a mad, uncontrolled dash for the doors at the first Honda Center show in April 2017.

“It was like ‘The Hunger Games,’” Krystal said of the craziness she was part of in Anaheim. “We’re trying to make it as fair as possible.”

With a dozen or so in their friend group they were able to swap off time in line to cover school and work, and they’d booked two nearby Airbnbs to take turns resting, sleeping, and presumably washing up. Meals were either at the Airbnb or Uber Eats deliveries to the sidewalk.

Krystal said her gateway drug to BTS was a different K-pop band which she declined to name to avoid getting dragged by other BTS fans for her folly. She came to KCON, the annual Korean pop culture fest in Los Angeles, in 2014, happened on BTS making its U.S. debut, and was sold. A college year of study abroad in Korea gave her the kind of access most U.S. fans of BTS can only dream about – she estimates she’s now seen the group 50 times – 50! – and planned to see them three of the four nights in Los Angeles.

Krystal also plans to travel to Amsterdam in the Netherlands to catch the BTS show on Oct. 13 because it’s Jimin’s birthday that day, which is not at all taking things too far.

Megan and Anon by comparison had only seen BTS a handful of times, though Anon had plans to see them on the East Coast later on the tour, while a stranger handed Megan a last-minute ticket to Wednesday’s show which meant she’d be catching two of the L.A. dates.

OK, that stranger was me, who had ended up with a plus-one and no one to plus with it. Given that I’d not learned all the Korean lyrics to BTS’s songs and viewed them more as a gorgeous seven-headed entity as opposed to seven individual beauties, I figured I could use a super fan’s knowledge of songs and how to tell V, or Tae-hyung, as Megan knows him, from Jin, or Seok-jin, as I googled him.

And readers, she did not let me down, as you can see from the review of the show should you check it out here.

A Mission Viejo woman whose then-boyfriend is accused of stabbing another patron to death during a bar fight in Laguna Niguel was charged Thursday with being an accessory after the fact.

An exchange of words between Elizabeth Anne Thornburg and Shayan Mazroei followed by Thornburg allegedly spitting on the 22-year-old is suspected off setting off the confrontation that led to Mazroei’s death over Labor Day weekend in 2015 at Patsy’s Irish Pub, prosecutors said.

According to court records, Thornburg got into an argument with Mazroei at a pool table and is suspected of using racial slurs that referred to his Iranian descent. Thornburg is accused of spitting on Mazroei three times, prompting him to spit back.

According to security video, Thornburg’s then-boyfriend, Craig Matthew Tanber, motioned for Mazroei to come outside of the bar. Prosecutors allege that as Mazroei walked outside, Tanber punched him in the face and stabbed him multiple times.

Tanber, an admitted member of a white supremacist gang, had been out of prison for about three weeks before the bar fight, after serving time for his role in the 2004 beating death of a 26-year-old in Huntington Beach.

The felony accessory-after-the-fact charge, filed against Thornburg this week, is related to her actions following the fatal confrontation, DA spokeswoman Michelle Van Der Linden said.

According to prosecutors, Thornburg fled immediately after the stabbing, despite being confronted by a bouncer at the bar. Prosecutors allege she picked Tanber up around the corner from the bar, and dropped him off at a residence in Mission Viejo. It is unclear if the two are still a couple.

Thornburg’s attorney, Sal Ciulla, said he could not comment directly on the allegations against his client, because he has yet to receive any evidence.

“The issue is going to be whether Ms. Thornburg knew what happened and what her intention was when she drove away from the bar,” Ciulla said.

Thornburg, 38, appeared in court for an arraignment on Thursday morning, but did not enter a plea, court records show.

Mazroei’s family said their “hope for justice was restored” by the decision of the DA’s Office to file charges against Thornburg.

“I can never get my son back, and that is a nightmare I live with every day,” said Shahzad Mazroei, Shayan’s mother, in a statement released through her attorney. “But I can make sure the people who tortured my son and caused his death are responsible for their actions.”

Tanber, 40, is still awaiting trial for the murder charge.

Last year, jurors in a civil trial awarded $6 million in damages to Mazroei’s family, finding that Tanber was 90 percent at fault for the fatal stabbing while Mazroei himself was 10 percent at fault. The jury found that Patsy’s Irish Pub was not at fault, following allegations by the family’s attorney that it failed to provide a properly-trained security guard the night of the stabbing.

Attorney Neama Rahmani, who represented Mazroei’s parents during the civil trial, said on Thursday that Thornburg shared moral, if not legal, responsibility for Mazroei’s death. The attorney said he has learned that immediately after leaving the bar, and before Tanber went on the run for several days, the couple went to a party.

“This is the type of people we are dealing with,” Rahmani said. “Vile and disgusting.”

Thornburg is scheduled to return to court on Oct. 12, court records show, while Tanber is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 21.

After an unprecedented offseason, can the Los Angeles Rams really go all the way? In our season preview edition of Inside the Rams, host Ryan Kartje is joined by Rams beat writer Rich Hammond to answer that and all the other questions facing Sean McVay and Co., as the Rams begin a highly anticipated 2018 season.

Let them eat croissants!

Paris Baguette will celebrate the grand opening of its new shop in Costa Mesa by giving away France’s signature pastry on Friday, Sept. 7 and Saturday, Sept. 8 starting at 9 a.m.

The first 100 customers in line this weekend will receive a croissant of their choice and a Paris Baguette lunch bag or mug. That’s the bakery’s way of saying thanks to Orange County where it has locations in Aliso Viejo, Buena Park, Fullerton, two in Garden Grove, two in Irvine and now one in Costa Mesa.

The Paris-inspired bakery cafe offers pastry, macarons, cakes, sandwiches, salads and Asian fusion treats such as Sweet Red Bean Doughnuts. There are espresso drinks, cold brew coffees and juice drinks, too.

Paris Baguette

Find it: 350 E. 17th St., Costa Mesa, 949-541-0404, parisbaguette.com

Open: 7 a.m.-9 p.m. daily