College Notebook : Markham Returns to Preps

Don Markham is a football coach with a game plan for life.

He left Colton High in San Bernardino County a year ago to become an assistant coach at Pierce College. From Pierce he wanted to move on to a small college, then to a major college.

This week, Markham made a detour in his quest by accepting a position as coach at Bishop Amat High in La Puente.

While a return to the prep level may be a step in reverse for Markham, it may be even a worse setback for Bishop Amat’s opponents.

In 14 seasons as a high school coach, first at L.A. Baptist and then at Colton, Markham posted a 120-39-1 record. He did it with an offense that used only five or six basic offensive plays, no wide receivers, and three running backs lined up directly behind the quarterback.

Watching a touchdown drive was about as exciting as skipping rocks, but it made little difference to his employers, who wanted wins more than thrills.

Markham wanted more than wins, though. He wanted a challenge. That’s why he went to Pierce.

Markham’s offensive strategy in high school had been described as “primitive” and likened to a sledgehammer. He took the job at Pierce to learn the passing game.

Pierce averaged about 450 yards in total offense last fall, most of that through the air.

Now that he’s learned the passing offense, the Angelus League had better watch out. Markham can head for the top by ground or air.

Cal State Northridge baseball player Jerry Bernard apparently found a home run swing during the off-season.

Bernard, a catcher who had only two home runs all last season, hit homers in each of the Matadors’ first two games. His grand slam in the fifth inning on Tuesday helped Northridge to a 6-1 win over USC.

Moorpark College had a chance to catch front-running Taft in the Western State Conference basketball standings, but lost to the Cougars, 91-74, on Tuesday.

Moorpark Coach Al Nordquist said he would welcome a rematch with the Southland’s No. 2 community college team.

“They deserve their ranking, but if we continue to improve at our present rate we can beat them,” Nordquist said.

Moorpark was 9-6 during the nonconference season, but has come on strong during conference play. The Cougars were 5-2 in conference entering their game against Cuesta last night. Taft is 7-0.

Nordquist said much of the credit for Moorpark’s emergence can be directed toward Kip Brown and Woody Jones, both transfers from Oral Roberts University.

In the last month, Brown has raised his scoring average from 13.7 to 16.1 a game, and his rebounding average from 5.7 to 6.3 a game.

“He’s really been playing well since conference started,” Nordquist said. “He’s made some adjustments and some things we’ve been working on in practice--choice of shots and post moves--have been paying off.”

Nordquist said that a newspaper article in which he was quoted as saying Brown needed to work harder helped motivate the 6-5 1/2 sophomore.

“It lit a fire under him,” he said. “He’s been playing better ever since. He’s always had talent and I think he’s a better player now than he was a month ago.”

Nordquist said the improvement of Brown has also helped Jones, who is averaging 21.4 points and 7.9 rebounds a game.

“Woody will always get his points,” Nordquist said. “He’s having a little easier time of it right now because teams haven’t been able to key on him as much as they did earlier in the year. When his shot selection is good and he hits them, he can really have big games.”

Both Jones and Brown had big games against Allan Hancock College last week. In a 99-88 victory, they combined for 58 points.

Don Hyatt has been hired as the women’s volleyball coach at Moorpark College. Hyatt coached Cal Lutheran College to the championship of the NAIA District III Northern Division last fall. The Kingsmen finished 9-1 in conference, 25-7 overall.