Prep Notebook : Recruiting for Volleyball a Tall Order at Chatsworth

Last Friday night’s City championship volleyball match was billed as a confrontation between the beach boys of University, who supposedly were weaned on the game on Westside beaches, against the landlubbers of Chatsworth, who learned the game in the gym.

“That’s a bunch of poppycock,” University Coach Neal Newman, who lives in Woodland Hills, said before the match. “I have one player who ever played beach ball.”

Newman said he is in the same boat as Chatsworth Coach Steve Berk, who says that in more than 10 years as the Chancellors’ coach he has never had a player come into his program with any previous experience in the sport.

Berk, whose team was unbeaten before losing to University in three games, has to comb the Chatsworth campus for players, recruiting many athletes from other sports. If you’re a male student at Chatsworth and you’re over six feet tall, chances are excellent that you’ve been approached by Berk.

“Half of the team is made up of guys I just walked up to on campus,” Berk said.

How often does he walk up to a student just because he’s tall?

“Every day,” he said.

Despite the emergence of Chatsworth as a City power--the Chancellors are 34-2 over the past two years and have won two City titles in five years--Berk says he’ll probably be beating the bushes for players again next year.

“When you go up to a kid at Chatsworth and ask him to play volleyball,” Berk said, “the first comment always is, ‘I’ve never played before,’ because nobody’s ever played before.

“Kids don’t like to try things they’ve never done before, so it will still be recruiting the same as always to get volleyball players.”

And, if the past is any indication, winning with them, too.

The 400-meter relay was about to start, but Kennedy track Coach Warren Farlow was staring at the backstretch.

“I don’t watch (the whole race),” he said at Friday’s City track and field semifinals. “I just look there and see if we got it.”

Farlow was pointing to the spot where anchor runner Michael Pringle would be coming around the final turn.

Each time but once this season, Farlow had seen Pringle, baton in hand, fly ahead of the pack to victory.

On this occasion, however, Farlow would see Pringle chasing two runners. Through a number of miscues, the Kennedy team--which had the City’s best mark going into the race--finished third behind Fairfax and Crenshaw.

“Murphy’s Law really took place on that relay,” Farlow said afterward.

The leadoff man, John Diggs, stumbled when he handed the baton, awkwardly, to Boris Gurarie, who had been suffering from a pulled leg muscle.

Kennedy had already fallen behind the leaders when Clyde Smith, the No. 3 runner, started late after taking the pass from Gurarie.

By the time Pringle got the baton, he was too far behind the Crenshaw and Fairfax runners to be able to sprint to a win. Fairfax’s winning time was 41.89, followed by Crenshaw (42.15) and Kennedy (42.39).

Still, all was not lost for the Golden Cougars. They qualified for Friday’s finals at Birmingham High.

Add Pringle: The senior sprinter, a contender for three individual titles, thought he had gained a measure of revenge at the semifinals in the 100-meter dash.

Last year, Pringle was edged out for fourth place in his heat by Manual Arts’ Steve Broussard. That meant Broussard went to the finals--which he won--while Pringle could only watch.

The All-City running backs, both of whom will attend Washington State on football scholarships, again faced each other in the same heat.

Pringle, in lane 5, and Broussard, in lane 4, ran neck and neck for much of the race. It appeared they were headed for a one-two finish. But Locke’s Joseph Hart came from behind in lane 2 to make it a three-man race.

When it was over, the winner wasn’t immediately known. After a few seconds, however, word spread that Pringle had won with a time of 10.72. Broussard was second.

“It’s nice to get even,” Pringle said, while trying to catch his breath. “I got out good, but Broussard was with me the whole way.”

Pringle ventured off to the long jump pit to prepare for his competition there when the public-address announcement came: “In third with a time of 10.90 is Steve Broussard from Manual Arts. In second is Michael Pringle of Kennedy, 10.88. The winner, from Locke with a time of 10.88, Joseph Hart.”

Pringle was amazed, to say the least.

“The (official) in my lane and my coach said I was first,” Pringle said, throwing his hands in the air.

Well, at least he was first in his race with Broussard.

Notes

Viewpoint pitcher Roxana Rafix will attend the University of Oregon next year on a softball scholarship. Her battery mate, catcher Jamie Berkman, received a softball scholarship from the University of California. . . . The Stonerock twins from Saugus, Daron and Kirk, finished one-two in the Southern Section 3-A 3,200-meter finals last Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College. Daron won it with a time of 9:16.00. Kirk was second at 9:26.08. . . . Simi Valley’s Lawrence Nelson, the state’s premier long jumper, finished second in the 4-A Division to Pasadena’s Cleo Bates. Nelson and Bates both leaped 23-9 1/2, but Bates won because his second-best jump was longer--23-9 1/2 to 23-7.

Hart’s Dennis Ford and Simi Valley’s Suzanne Manlet will coach the Southern Section team, while Cleveland’s Kathy Davila will coach the City entry in a Southern Section vs. City All-Star girls’ softball game June 8 at Cal State Northridge. . . . Erica Abson, a 5-10 forward from Cleveland, signed a letter of intent to play basketball at Cal State Dominguez Hills. Abson was a second-team all-league performer.