Displaced pro soccer, volleyball teams keep calling LV home

Las Vegas is becoming such a popular destination for pro sports that teams who spend most of their time elsewhere steadfastly insist on calling the city home.

Lights FC of the United Soccer League now trains in Los Angeles but will continue to play home games at Cashman Field. The Las Vegas Ramblers of the men’s indoor National Volleyball Association will both practice and play most games in Southern California starting Friday.

“It’s a start-up, 10 teams, and I guess it would be considered more semipro than professional,” Ramblers GM and former Shadow Ridge High standout Vinny Rodriguez said of the NVA. “A lot of these guys work jobs and then play with us. It’s a thing we are looking to grow.”

Antwain Aguillard, who played for Spring Valley and Long Beach State, tops a list of former Las Vegas prep stars who will play for the Ramblers. Others include Tanner Maxwell, Quinn Peterson, Max Osmundson, Mark Lane and Trevor Robinson.

“We’re hoping to create a pipeline for guys who grew up in Las Vegas and then maybe went away to college. They can come back and play high-level volleyball (in the NVA). That’s my vision for this team,” Rodriguez said.

Around the horn

— Las Vegan Matt Jaskol’s goal in his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut at Martinsville, Virginia, last weekend seemed simple and realistic — finish all the laps. Despite never having driven such a car, he finished all but one lap after a bobble on a late pit stop resulted in a 28th-place finish.

“To get into a car right below a Cup car with no seat time, no practice — to strap in and ask the (crew) ‘Guys, what does this button do?’ — (I was) extremely pleased,” Jaskol said of the result.

— The Sam Boyd Stadium record 62-yard field goal by Washington State’s Jason Hanson against UNLV in 1991 is like one of those Christmas gifts that keeps on giving. Here’s the latest anecdote to find its way to my email box, courtesy of Las Vegas’ Debbie Olsen, who along with her husband, Dick, and father, Bob Smawley, are WSU graduates and supporters:

On the day of the game, Olsen’s father and her two young sons met Hanson in the lobby of the Wazzu hotel where he suggested to the youngsters that he would kick a 60-yard field goal after grandpa had requested one from 50.

“So when the Cougars took a delay of game penalty to put the ball back (to 62 yards) we all started laughing,” Olsen recalled of her sons watching Hanson’s kick sail through the uprights.

Derek and David Olsen must have been impressed. But a few years later both signed with John Robinson to play football at UNLV instead.

— Kysre Gondrezick, the West Virginia star selected fourth overall by the Indiana Fever in Thursday’s WNBA draft, is the daughter of Grant Gondrezick and niece of UNLV great Glen Gondrezick. The latter two Gondos both played in the NBA and died in their 50s.

— Last summer I wrote about a group of local Lehigh University graduates being upset when the nation’s longest college football rivalry, Lehigh vs. Lafayette, was preempted by COVID. They finally played the game last Saturday. Lafayette won 20-13. It is assumed the local Lehigh grads are now even more upset.

— The 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup that will be decided at Allegiant Stadium Aug. 1 will mark the second time Las Vegas has hosted the confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Associations of Football for a major championship. In 1999, Necaxa of Mexico defeated Alajuelense of Costa Rica in the CONCACAF Champions Cup final at Sam Boyd Stadium.

0:01

The Super 70s Twitter account supplied the following caption for a photo showing Bill Walton and Las Vegas resident Brent Musburger having a halftime conversation:

Bill: “Brent, one of the greatest thrills of my life was Jerry Garcia playing a seven and a half minute jam that ultimately transcended our bodies as a paean to the triumph of the human spirit.”

Brent: “I had the over on that jam.”

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.