Prep Review / Mike DiGiovanna : Arizona State’s Troubles Don’t Bother Johnson

On the latest credibility scale, the Arizona State University athletic department has to rank right up there with the supermarket tabloids.

The news out of Tempe has been quite distressing.

First, Sun Devil football Coach Darryl Rogers, after assuring Athletic Director Dick Tamburo early in February that he would be stay at ASU, was heavily criticized after jumping to the Detroit Lions on Feb. 6, just a week before recruits could sign national letters of intent.

Late in March, baseball Coach Jim Brock contemplated his resignation in the wake of a drug controversy that involved his players’ use of phenzine sulfate, a mood-altering substance marketed under the name of Nardil.

Brock decided to stay, but his team is in danger of its first losing season in 25 years. The football and basketball programs both had losing records this season, and the baseball program is on NCAA probation. Football was on probation in 1981 and 1982.

Finally, Tamburo announced his resignation on March 27.

If it wasn’t for the point-shaving scandal at Tulane, the Sun Devils would have the nation’s most troubled athletic department.

But all this doesn’t seem too troubling to El Modena High School quarterback Brett Johnson, who has accepted a scholarship to play football at ASU.

“As long as the football program is not on probation, it doesn’t bother me,” said Johnson, who threw for 2,088 yards last season to lead the Vanguards to the Southern Conference championship.

“I signed, and there’s not much I can do about it now. I know they have problems, but they’re probably just temporary. Things are kind of screwed up there now, but it’s not going to wreck my football career.”

Rogers’ departure may actually be better for Johnson. When Johnson first spoke to Rogers over the phone, the coach said he would be giving a scholarship to Baldwin Park quarterback Michael Johnson, but not to Brett.

Not until Sun Devil assistant Rex Norris, who recruited Johnson, persuaded Rogers that the El Modena star was worthy of a scholarship was he offered one. That came a few days after Johnson’s official visit to ASU on Feb. 1, during which he met Rogers for the first time.

Last year’s starting quarterback, Jeff Van Raaphorst, returns this season, but Johnson believes that with a new coach (John Cooper) coming in, he’ll receive a fair shot.

“He knows who the starter was last year, but I think he’ll look at things more evenly,” Johnson said. “It didn’t hurt my position when Rogers left.”

Johnson, who reports to summer practice on Aug. 13, has no regrets about joining an athletic program beset with problems.

“If you like the school, and it offers you what you want, and you’re going to be happy there, you should go,” he said. “I just did what I felt was right.”

With a twist: Carolyn Campbell, girls basketball and softball coach at Mater Dei, only had Mary Gainey’s best interests in mind when she urged the senior to pass up her last year of softball.

Gainey had been Campbell’s starting second baseman for two seasons, but she also is an All-Orange County basketball player who will be attending Chapman College next fall. Campbell had seen enough twisted knees and broken ankles on the softball field to know that Gainey ran the risk of incurring an injury that could jeopardize her basketball career.

So, Campbell was relieved when Gainey decided to run track this spring instead. Gainey could keep in shape running the mile for the Monarchs, and there would be minimal risk for injury, Campbell figured.

Or so she thought.

Gainey was doing some distance road running 11 days ago when she slipped on a sidewalk, fell and cut her knee on some gravel. The gash required 11 stitches and kept Gainey off the track for almost a week.

The stitches come out on Wednesday, but Gainey, who has ran a 5:35 mile this year, fears that she won’t be in peak condition for this weekend’s Orange County Championships at Mission Viejo High.

“I went out for track to stay in shape and have fun with my friends, and then this happens,” Gainey said. “It’s pretty ironic. You’d never think it could happen, but it did.”

Slapstick: Of Savanna’s 103 hits this season, 87 of them have been singles. When Mike Quigley coached many of his current varsity players on the frosh-soph team three years ago, the Rebels had 223 hits, and 216 of them were singles.

Robert Brocki hit a home run on Tuesday, the team’s second of the season, and Savanna added two doubles in a 2-0 win over Anaheim, prompting Quigley to say, “We’re really playing long-ball now.”

But the Rebels were back to their old tricks Friday, as they managed only three hits in a 4-0 loss to Valencia.

“We’re in dire need of a power hitter, but it doesn’t bother us, because all the kids are hitting well,” Quigley said. “Having four or five guys hitting singles is better than one hitting a home run.”

That frosh-soph team averaged more than nine runs per game, but Savanna (4-3 in league, 8-5 overall) is scoring just four runs a game this year.

More slapstick: Said Ken Millard, Estancia baseball coach: “Every time we beat ourselves in a game, I make the kids shake hands with each other because you should always congratulate the team that beats you.”

Prep Notes

Notre Dame quarterback Steve Beuerlein, who led Servite to the Southern Section Big Five Conference championship in 1982, will undergo surgery at Centinela Hospital In Inglewood Tuesday to repair his right clavicle. Beuerlein injured his throwing shoulder in an Oct. 6 game against Miami but was able to finish the season. . . . Valencia’s Kim Taylor and Anaheim’s Yleana Carrasco each set Orange County records on Saturday at the 18th Arcadia Invitational high school track and field meet. Taylor’s mark of 39-feet 5 1/2-inches in the triple jump broke El Modena’s Gaylan Ames’ previous record of 38-10, and Carrasco’s 6-0 mark in the high jump broke Kennedy’s Ursula Lovely’s previous mark of 5-11, which was set last week. . . . Foothill’s best pitcher, senior left-hander Jon Rice, left the team recently to concentrate on a weight-lifting program for football. Rice, who was 6-2 for the Knights last year, is also an offensive lineman who will be attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo next fall. . . . El Toro catcher Frank Appice, Orange County’s leader in runs scored with 30, is the nephew of rock drummers Carmine Appice and Vinnie Appice. Carmine, who first played with Vanilla Fudge and has toured with Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart, is drumming for a new band called King Kobra. Vinnie, who played with Black Sabbath, is now the drummer for Dio. Said Frank Appice: “It’s weird, because I’ve never played an instrument in my life.” . . . Saturday’s makeup game between Loara and Kennedy, postponed because Irish Coach Dave Gunn couldn’t secure umpires, has been rescheduled for April 24. The game had initially been scheduled for March 29 at Brookhurst Park, but because of a foulup between the Anaheim school district and the city’s Parks and Recreation Dept., the park was not available. Melodyland and Orange Lutheran had the field for a 3 p.m. game, so Gunn and Loara Coach Ray Moore decided to wait until 7 that night to play. However, Savanna and Western had the field at 7 for an Orange League game. Moore, who didn’t learn about Saturday’s cancellation until late Friday, had re-scheduled Saturday’s Redondo Beach Tournament game against Leuzinger for tonight, and now the Saxons must come back to face Los Alamitos in an Empire League game Tuesday. “This hasn’t been a whole lot of fun,” Moore said. . . . Sunny Hills has its own version of Murderer’s Row this season with No. 3 hitter Rod Turner batting .441, cleanup hitter Adrian Schicker batting .510, and No. 5 hitter Paul Abbott batting .500. The Lancers’ team batting average is .411.