As of last report, the Delano Music Memorial Association was still determining how and where to offer its musical auditions and scholarships as part of the annual winter program.
Normally, the auditions and a concert take place at the end of February. It looks like if approval is given by the First Assembly of God Church, auditions will take place later this month or in March, but no gigs seem likely. The final Music Memorial concert of 2020 was the last concert to take place at Delano.
In the instrumental, piano, and voice categories, there are auditions for the separate high school and middle school divisions.
A winner of a category will not be able to compete the following year in the same category but may participate in a different category or by moving from college to high school in the same category.
Suzanne Villaruz is president of Music Memorial, with Alma Sealund, vice-president; Sylvia Mendoza, recording secretary; Christina Luna, Treasurer; and Arnold Morrison, academic advisor.
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The Delano Kiwanis Club has reportedly not made a final decision on how its usual “Easter egg hunt” will take place in April, but it is likely to follow the same plan as last year.
Students in kindergarten through fourth grade were able to receive bags of candy at Memorial Park, where vehicles drove in and out of the park and more than 1,000 bags were handed out.
Easter egg hunts in the past had been held at the Delano High football stadium with different grade levels in separate events.
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No answer to a phone call to Bobby Garcia, longtime president of the Delano Cinco de Mayo celebration.
The organization has for years held a barbecue, a carnival in Memorial Park and a parade downtown, but last year those events could not take place due to the pandemic.
It seems that the situation will be the same again next May, but we will try to check again with Mr. Garcia.
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When calling Natalie (Hernandez) Fragoso, counselor and cheerleader coach/counsellor at Robert F. Kennedy High School, I asked her to arrange three judges for the Feb. 12 tryouts at Delano High cheer.
I still remember Natalie’s older sister, Bernadette, as a freshman English student and head cheerleader at Delano High. Natalie showed up to a football game wearing her own uniform when she was maybe 5, and she followed in her sister’s footsteps as a freshman English student, cheerleader head and, later, cheerleading coach at Delano High before joining Kennedy’s staff when the school opened.
She said one fundraising attempt for RFK was to be a sale of Hodel’s cinnamon rolls. Tryouts for Kennedy’s cheers will tentatively take place in March, she said, but whether it will be in-person or virtual remains to be determined.
She said a ring ceremony was scheduled for late January for members of last spring’s Valley Division VI champion baseball team, coached by her husband, Jason.
Kennedy will fire seven of the nine starters, so they expect to be strong again this spring in baseball.
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Monday February 14 is a special day for local students.
Last year or so, the Delano Union school district agreed to make the Monday after the Super Bowl a holiday.
It just so happens that this year, the date of February 14 follows the day after the Super Bowl and also coincides with Lincoln’s birthday and Valentine’s Day.
If Harvest Holidays does not change the dates, February 14 is also the date for the next meeting of Harvest directors.
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Delano Joint Union High School District trustees have approved the hiring of Joshua Jason Fredrick Barr as the new music teacher for Cesar E. Chavez High School. Cynthia Rivera resigned from that position in the fall.
The board has given approval to accept donations of $2,190.24 each to the Delano High School Athletic Department, Cesar Chavez Football Grid Iron Club and Robert F. Kennedy High School.
The board accepted a WorkAbility I program grant for $80,025 and $533 from Delano Elks Lodge to the Kennedy Department of Special Education in the form of two milk frothers, a Keurig, and a cart.
Approved coaches at Delano High were freshman basketball player Sergio Barajas; Rita Banks, assistant track; Claudia Tavarez, head swimmer; Cristiian Rubio, head JV baseball; Maklen Escarcega, head of sparkling baseball; Rudy Arellano, college baseball assistant; and Andrea Popoy, JV softball manager.
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At a meeting in January, Delano City Council approved special projects costing more than $2 million.
They were to award a contract for Test Well #452 to Zim Industries Inc. for Bakersfield Well and Pump Co. for $1,434,544. The board also needed to approve a purchase order from Badger Meter for 1,000 water meters for $502,063.50 and a purchase order from Ferguson for the fittings needed to install 1,000 water meters at a cost of $355,694.91. The board was also to award a contract for 2022 10th Avenue, Princeton, Thomas Way for a sewer and water replacement project to JM Pipeline for $583,945.
Discussion of the agenda item for an ordinance permitting the use of cannabis at Delano was delayed to allow staff to gather more information at the request of the board.
Pastor David Vivas and other local ministers have already spoken out against the ordinance.
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A phone message came through and I called Ron Cameron from Kingsburg. He told me he was somehow related to Calvin Bell (sports star from Delano High in the late 1940s who became captain of the Fresno State football team and became a teacher and coach at the Redwood High School in Visalia) and Harold Olson (principal of Delano High and superintendent from the 1930s to the mid-1950s).
Cameron said Bell once showed him a photo of Bell on the basketball court and Cameron and his grandmother in the stands in the background. Did I have this photo?
I had no idea where to find such a photo, but tried to check Delano High’s “vault” for a 1948 yearbook. There were annuals on both sides of the 1948 position, but NO 1948 annuals. I also checked the bound copies of Delano Record, but there were no action photos from 1948, except at the end of the basketball season, with a photo of Nick Dailey action. If anyone has a 1948 annual and sees a picture with Bell in the field, please call me at 661-725-8803, and maybe you can send me a copy.
Incidentally, this 1948 Delano High hoop team is the only one to have won a Valley Championship in basketball – playing in the “San Joaquin Valley League” of the time.
The stars of the team were All-League selections Jack Zaninovich and Angelo Kouklis with George Zaninovich in the All-League Second Team.
Some of the other players were Leon Ingram, Bill Fernando, Eugene Hooks, Bill Higgins, Bell, Stewart and Osborne.
There were 1,150 people packed into the “old” Delano High gymnasium to see Delano beat Kingsburg 35-29 in the final. Meanwhile, others sat in the auditorium at Delano High to listen to a radio broadcast of the Valley Finals.
Somehow I came across a list of Delano High baseball records from 1927 to 1992, but I don’t have the records after 1992. The 1948 Tigers baseball team, which was upset by Dinuba in Delano’s baseball tournament opener but went on to win the consolation title, finished the season with 22 wins and 4 losses, and captured the fifth straight baseball championship for the Tigers from Ray Frederick . The 1949 team was 23-4, won the title, and defeated Fresno High in the Valley Finals.
