Prep Review / Jim McCurdie : Zenos On the Move for Eric’s Sake

La Quinta High School football Coach Joe Zeno is in the process of looking for a new home for he and his family. It’s not that he’s unhappy in the family’s current abode in Fountain Valley. It’s just that his son can’t live there if he wants to play for him at La Quinta.

Eric Zeno and his twin brother Lance both played football at Fountain Valley last fall. Eric was the Barons’ quarterback. His brother was one of his blockers.

But Eric lost his quarterback position and joined Lance on the offensive line as a tight end. Ironically, it is this joining that has led to a parting. Lance Zeno is content at Fountain Valley, where he was the Sunset League Lineman of the Year as a junior last fall. Eric Zeno wants to be a quarterback.

“He wasn’t having the success he wanted to have last year,” Joe Zeno said. “As a result, they moved him to a new position. That really kind of broke his heart.”

The Zenos decided that the best way for Eric to pursue his goal of becoming a professional quarterback was for him to leave Fountain Valley and play his senior year at La Quinta. That means the family must find a home in La Quinta’s enrollment area, and decide whether to sell or rent its current residence.

“There are a lot of ramifications, obviously,” Joe Zeno said. “We have to move, separate the boys . . . It’s always hard when you talk about twins going separate ways. There’s a special kinship that exists between twins.”

Some might argue that the Zeno family is resorting to rather extreme measures to enable Eric to play quarterback for his dad. Joe Zeno would disagree.

“We’ve always promised our kids that if they wanted to pursue something, we would support them,” he said. “We’ve done that with every kid we’ve ever had. We’re not going to change now.”

Zeno said it was this thinking that prompted him to move his family to Fountain Valley from Paso Robles six years ago, when his children were approaching high-school age.

“We were in a very rural area,” he said. “We thought Orange County would be an ideal situation for the kids, in terms of exposure and education.”

Zeno’s daughter, Lori, played volleyball at La Quinta and is at UCLA on a volleyball scholarship. Lance Zeno is considered a major-college prospect. Joe Zeno likes to think Eric will be, too.

“This is a tremendous crisis in Eric’s life,” he said. “He’s very adamant that he would like to be a professional quarterback some day. I feel he can be. He’s very gifted. This next year will be very critical for him.”

The present plan is for Eric to finish out the volleyball season at Fountain Valley and join his father at La Quinta in time for spring football practice. The Zenos hope to buy a home in the La Quinta enrollment area by the end of May.

Eric Zeno was Fountain Valley’s starting quarterback for seven games in 1984, but lost the job to John Peart after Peart came off the bench in the fourth quarter to lead the Barons to an 11-10, come-from-behind win over Edison. Zeno completed 73 of 148 passes for 1,020 yards, 8 touchdowns and 7 interceptions before being relegated to tight end.

“Eric played the remainder of the season as a tight end because John Peart came in late in the Edison game and did a good job for us,” Fountain Valley Coach Mike Milner said. “We thought he was deserving to start our next game against Huntington Beach, and he played well in that game. We stayed with him through the playoffs.”

Milner said that, although Peart will be returning next fall, Zeno would have been given an opportunity to win back his starting quarterback position.

“As far as we’re concerned, he was still a quarterback,” he said.

“Basically, Eric’s wanted to be a quarterback his whole athletic life. Apparently, they (the Zeno family) thought La Quinta would be a better situation for him. I’m not so sure I wouldn’t do the same thing if I were faced with that situation.”

Spring Flings: Mission Viejo won 14 of 20 events to win both the boys’ and girls’ team championships of the Mission Viejo Invitational swim meet Saturday at the Marguerite Recreation Center.

Dan Jorgensen, Victor Riggs and Kim Brown turned in the top individual performances for the Diablos. Jorgensen won the boys’ 200 individual medley and 100 butterfly and Riggs finished first in the 200 and 100 freestyles. Brown, a freshman, won the girls’ 200 and 500 freestyles.

University junior Amy White was also a double winner. White, a silver medalist in the 1984 Olympics, won the 200 individual medley and 100 backstroke.

While the Diablos were dominating in the water, the Esperanza girls’ track team was having success on land. The Aztecs came from behind to edge Edison, 66-59, and win the Orange County Girls Track and Field Championships Saturday at Irvine High.

Trish Aubuchon won the 100 and 200 meters to pace the Aztecs. Edison’s Nicole Ritchot won the 1,500 and 3,000 meters and was named the meet’s top distance runner. Debbie Orr of Ocean View set a meet record with a wind-aided mark of 37-9 in the triple jump, finished second in the long jump and third in the high jump. Orr was named the top field athlete of the meet.

Anaheim’s Yleana Carrasco, the Times’ Orange County Girls’ Track and Field Athlete of the Year in 1984, won the high jump, 100 hurdles and 300 intermediate hurdles.

Hitless But Not Scoreless: Tricia Begg of Rancho Alamitos pitched a no-hitter against Garden Grove last Thursday--and lost. Garden Grove pitcher Leslie Osterman pitched a no-hitter of her own and the Argonauts scored an unearned run in the fifth inning to win, 1-0.

Prep Notes

Los Amigos handed La Quinta its first Garden Grove League boys’ tennis loss since 1970 with a 16-12 win last Friday. That match left the team tied for the league lead. . . . The National Federation of State High School Athletic Assn. announced one significant rule change for the 1985-86 basketball season. The 11-member rules committee has adopted an alternating out-of-bounds procedure for all jump balls except at the beginning of the game. . . . Esperanza won the team championship in the Orange County Invitational Weightlifting competition Saturday at Esperanza. Esperanza’s Tim Haider and Mater Dei’s Bob Entrican were named the outstanding lifters of the meet. . . . The American Speedsoccer Assn. will hold its first All-High School Tournament April 27-28 and May 4-5 at Los Caballeros Speedsoccer Stadium. The tournament will consist of 16 teams from the Southern California area. . . . Former Ocean View star Jeff Andrade finished with 1,041 points in his two-year career at Eastern Montana College. He’s only the 11th player in the school’s history to reach the 1,000-point milestone and was a two-time all-Great Northwest Conference selection after averaging 15.5 points per game his senior year and 19.6 points as a junior. . . . Edison setter Erin Tomblin and Garden Grove middle blocker Raquel Brown have signed letters of intent to play volleyball at United States International University in San Diego. USIU will join the West Coast Athletic Conference for women’s sports in 1985-86.