Prep Notebook : Psst: Forget the Rumors About Capp

If you work hard enough, Brian Capp figures, some day somebody is going to notice you.

“Just like Villanova,” he said.

If Monday was the Wildcats’ day to shock college basketball and capture the NCAA title, Capp is hoping next Monday--or any day, for that matter--will be his moment to shine.

Capp was a major force on Crespi High’s basketball team this year. He led the team in scoring (19.4 points a game) and was named the Del Rey League’s most valuable player.

Capp, a 6-4 senior, was also the only Valley player to be named first team all-Southern Section in the 5-A division. His outside shooting touch may have been matched only by his teammate, Joe Campanella.

But for all his accomplishments, Brian Capp has not yet been offered a scholarship by a Division I school.

Capp’s unspectacular junior season is one of the reasons he has not received any offers.

Another important factor, some say, is the erroneous belief that Capp is already on his way to an Ivy League school.

The rumor began circulating about three weeks ago possibly because two of Capp’s teammates--Campanella and Alfie Basile--expect to attend Columbia.

“What I heard was that a couple of schools were interested and then backed off because they heard all the Crespi guys were going to the Ivy League,” Capp said.

Capp said he heard about the rumor from two college coaches. He did not want to say which ones.

“I have never talked to an Ivy League school,” Capp said. “I’m just not interested in the kind of ball they play.”

Capp is in Arizona playing for the Junior Lakers in the U.S. Senior Basketball Congress International tournament.

Glenn Marx, who has been Capp’s coach in the annual Easter event the past three years, said certain recruiting services, reporters and coaches have helped to spread the word that Capp was Ivy League bound.

Capp isn’t sure who started the rumor or where it started. But he wishes it would go away.

Crespi Coach Paul Muff isn’t sure whether the rumor hurt, but thinks he knows why Capp is not being recruited.

“Brian is a late bloomer,” Muff said.

“I think Brian is definitely a Division I player. I became more convinced of that as the season went along.”

As a junior, Capp averaged about seven points a game as a starter. Hunter Knapp and Mike Yoest, both at Loyola Marymount, starred on that Crespi team.

Marx, head coach at Los Amigos High in Fountain Valley, also thinks Capp’s stellar season may have come too late.

“Nowadays, because of the early signing date,” Marx said, “the recruiting process is basically from the end of the junior year to the end of the summer (before a player’s senior season).

“If someone has an injury or an off camp, people say, ‘Forget it.’ They go into the homes in September and October and want to sign them by November. They don’t see them in their senior year.”

If the recruiters did miss Capp, they missed one of the Valley’s finest shooters from 12 to 20 feet.

Capp made 55% of his shots and helped the Celts run away with the Del Rey League title. His list of honors included a spot on The Times’ All-Valley team. Campanella was also named to the team.

Several Division II schools are after Capp, especially Chapman College. The University of San Diego and Montana State are Division I schools that have expressed an interest.

With the signing date next Wednesday, Capp has yet to receive a solid scholarship offer from a Division I school.

Marx, previously head coach at St. Bernard High and Notre Dame in Sherman Oaks, does not doubt that Capp has ability.

“I can compare him to Chris Nikchevich and Nigel Miguel,” he said. Nikchevich, the former Crespi star, is now at BYU, while Miguel, a star at Notre Dame, just completed his career at UCLA.

Capp and Rich Grande, this year’s 4-A Player of the Year at Glendale, played on the same team last year for Marx.

Said Marx: “Capp was my best point guard.”

After signing a letter of intent to attend USC, Grande led the Glendale team to an undefeated season and the Southern Section 4-A championship.

“If Brian had been featured on his team like Grande was,” Marx said, “he would have gotten a lot of notoriety and would have had the same recruiting level.

“I think it goes without saying he’s a Division I player. I’d like to know how many other guys score 19 points against Mater Dei (the 5-A champion) and 25 against Manual Arts (the City 4-A runner-up).”

For his part, Capp will continue to play in basketball camps and try to impress a recruiter.

“It’s easy sometimes to get overlooked,” he said. “You just have to keep working hard.”

And some day, somebody just might recognize you.

Just ask Villanova.

Oscar Garcia started the season as the second baseman for the North Hollywood baseball team, but fractured an ankle sliding into second base in an early game.

Garcia’s replacement, Chris Redd, then fractured his leg in practice. The injury occured when a teammate slid into Redd at second during a drill.

“After that happened,” North Hollywood Coach Brian York said, “I asked, ‘Who wants to play second base?’

“Everybody just walked away.”

The Simi Valley baseball team, which competed in the Monroe Tournament on Tuesday, left for Las Vegas today to compete in a 16-team tournament that runs Thursday to Saturday.

The trip will cost $1,300 to $1,600, said coach Mike Scyphers. The money was raised through various fund-raisers, including a giant car wash.

Scyphers is not concerned about the city’s temptations.

“This is a pretty good group of kids,” he said. “We basically have one goal in mind, to go up there and win the tourney.”

But Scyphers admitted the trip was on the players’ minds earlier this week.

“We’re still winning, but we haven’t been performing like we have,” he said after a 2-1 victory over Monroe on Monday. “Maybe we’re on the road to Las Vegas already.”

Spotted on a car while driving home from a track meet Thursday: a license plate reading, “RELAY.”

Notes

Andre Washington of Cleveland High has committed to play basketball at West Texas State next year. He was an all-City center for the Cavaliers this year. . . .

Agoura’s Steve Armstrong and Jim Friedl have decided to attend West Point. Both were successful on the Chargers’ Southern Section championship football team. Armstrong is out of baseball for at least two weeks with tendinitis in his right shoulder. . . .

The Bell-Jeff baseball team has been successful on 57 of 62 stolen-base attempts this season. The team goal is 100. Kevin Day and Petar Vucurevic lead the way with 12, while Fernando Gauna has 11. . . .

Cort Wright, a 6-4, 205-pound senior right-hander, has 59 strikeouts in 40 innings for Calabasas. Wright is 4-1 this season, with an earned-run average of 1.05. “He throws very hard and has a great curveball,” Calabasas Coach Gary Gray said.