The Preps : Bowser Gives Up on Football and Takes the Court

All-Southern Section offensive lineman Todd Bowser from Montclair Prep in Van Nuys, who would have been one of the most heavily recruited football players in Southern California, has given up football in favor of basketball.

Bowser, the 35th best player on the West Coast at any position in one preseason ranking, suffered a slight dislocation of his left shoulder Oct. 19 against Sun Valley Village Christian and hasn’t played since. Faced with the thought of undergoing surgery that surely would have cut into the basketball season, he decided to postpone it until the spring and take his chances with the less physical sport.

“My doctor wanted to do the surgery and I wasn’t to wild about the subject,” Bowser said Monday. “He said that there was a pretty good chance that I could be reinjured the same way (playing football), and then I would definitely need surgery. Then I would be out for good.”

So he decided to trade a probable Division I football scholarship for the chance of making it in basketball, which he enjoys more. Bowser (6-8, 270) was also All-Southern Section in basketball, averaging 23.1 points per game, but not in the same demand in football that had him near the top of the want-list at Oklahoma and many Pacific 10 Conference schools.

“I had an inclination that something like this would happen when he had the injury, that he really wanted to play basketball and pursue that in college,” football Coach John Hazelton said. “He just had to come to grips with what he wanted.”

The time for basketball players to make verbal commitments is over--almost.

The early signing period for signing a letter of intent begins Wednesday and runs until Nov. 20, allowing the most recruited prospects to get trips and phone calls and letters out of the way before getting down to business with the season.

Many have taken advantage of the option. But miss it now, and it’s wait until April. And it appears that two of the nation’s biggest catches, 6-10 J.R. Reid from Virginia (UCLA and North Carolina are the front-runners) and Crenshaw guard Stevie Thompson (Syracuse, which he visited last weekend, and Duke lead the pack) won’t mind doing just that.

As for some of the other standouts . . .

--Scott Williams, 6-10 from Hacienda Heights Wilson, said again Monday that he will sign early but isn’t saying where. It’s speculated that he’s narrowed the choices to UCLA and North Carolina. Others that were in the running include Villanova, DePaul and Georgia Tech.

--Another forward/center prospect, Terry Mills of Romulus, Mich., one of the nation’s top three or four players, is apparently down to Michigan and Kentucky, but it is unsure if he will sign early.

--Guard Marlon Vaughn from Compton Dominguez, the Southern Section 4-A runner-up last season, finds himself in the same position, although on a smaller scale. He visited Fresno State a couple weeks ago and Cal State Fullerton this weekend. He is scheduled to go to San Jose State next weekend and has also made an unofficial stop at Loyola Marymount.

--Another top national player, guard Michael Christian from Denver Mullen, has only Georgia Tech, Kansas and North Carolina State on his list.

--Verbum Dei guard David Jones, an All-Southern Section pick, has had home visits from Cal State Fullerton, New Mexico, San Jose State, Northern Arizona, Colorado State and Texas El Paso, but he will not sign early.

Pete Lanzi has been a high school football coach since 1949, proudly claims to have been involved in the first game in which penalty flags were thrown and later of being the first coach to go on the field to be in the team huddle during a timeout. But it took the Raiders getting blown out of the Seattle Kingdome Nov. 3 for him to finally get some recognition.

Twenty-four of those coaching years, including this, his final season, have been at California School for the Deaf in Riverside. So his longtime friend, Bud Furillo, got Lanzi on KABC’s “Sportstalk” last Monday looking for answers to the Raiders’ communication problem at the line of scrimmage inside the Kingdome.

Lanzi spent a few minutes relating how his players are able to work together, even using audibles, without ever talking. Lanzi suddenly was famous, and calls came in from all over California and parts of Nevada, nearly 70 of them by the end of the week. The attention was great for such an outgoing, friendly person, but Lanzi did have one concern.

“I just don’t want Marc Wilson getting mad at me,” he said.

Prep Notes A sidelight to the Fairfax basketball team moving up from the 3-A Division to the 4-A is that the Lions and their star, Sean Higgins, will have two league games with Cleveland and Trevor Wilson, who will sign a letter of intent this week with UCLA. The two are longtime friends, but also very competitive. Higgins is one of the top juniors in the country. . . . It is only in the discussion stage now, but ESPN is looking into the possibility of having a weekly half-hour show on high school sports beginning next school year. . . . Hawthorne clinched at least a tie in the Ocean League with its win over North Torrance, not the Bay League as reported Saturday. . . . After surveying 41 college recruiters from the Pacific 10 Conference, Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. and West Coast Athletic Conference, Frank Burlison and the Long Beach Press-Telegram compiled its annual Best in the West ratings for high school basketball players. Scott Williams won the balloting as the top prospect in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Colorado, with Stevie Thompson second and Kevin Walker of Brea-Olinda third. The No. 9 selection, guard Keith Smith from Portland Wilson, has USC among his final college choices, although it’s doubtful he will sign early. Trojan Coach Stan Morrison made a home visit in September, but Smith has not scheduled a trip to Los Angeles. He has gone to Oregon, Washington and California, the latter last weekend, and is also interested in Oregon State. . . . A final decision on the future of Carson High basketball player Clifford Allen is not expected for a few weeks.

Times’ Top 10

Through Games of Nov. 10 SOUTHERN SECTION

No. School, League Record 1. LB Poly, Moore 8-0-0 2. Bishop Amat, Angelus 9-0-0 3. Riverside Poly, Citrus Belt 9-0-0 4. CC Canyon, Golden 9-0-0 5. Servite, Angelus 8-1-0 6. Fontana, Citrus Belt 7-2-0 7. El Modena, Century 8-1-0 8. Loyola, Del Rey 8-1-0 9. St. Paul, Angelus 7-2-0 10. San Gorgonio, Citrus Belt 7-2-0

CITY

No. School, League Record 1. Carson, Pacific 7-1-0 2. Banning, Pacific 5-3-0 3. Granada Hills, Valley 7-0-0 4. Dorsey, Pacific 7-1-0 5. San Fernando, Valley 6-2-0 6. Fairfax, Crosstown 8-0-0 7. Gardena, Pacific 4-4-0 8. San Pedro, Freeway 7-1-0 9. Bell, Eastern 8-0-0 10. Chatsworth, Sunset 6-2-0