The Preps : Thompson Has Changed Mind, Will Sign Early

By Scott Howard-Cooper

Nov. 19, 1985 12 AM PT

Don’t let that fat lady sing. The opera ain’t over.

One more basketball player will sign his college letter of intent before Wednesday, the last day to take advantage of the early signing period, and he’s only the No. 1 guard prospect on the West Coast.

The best laid plans of Stephen Thompson, as he prefers to be known, fell apart this weekend with the Crenshaw guard saying that recruiting pressures have taken their toll. So instead of delaying his decision until April, as originally planned, he said Saturday night that he will announce his choice.

“Me and my mother sat down today and talked it over,” said Thompson, the City scoring champion last season with a 28.2 average. “We want to take a lot of the pressure off me, and off of her, too. Dragging it on until April, my choices probably won’t even change.”

The finalists, he said, are Syracuse, Duke and Louisville. The attribution is important because some people are still speculating that he will end up staying in Southern California and signing with either USC, his mother’s alma mater, or UCLA.

Only a 69-yard interception return for a touchdown by Alemany defensive back Pat Aragon denied Loyola domination of the Del Rey League for the fall.

The cross-country and water polo teams were undefeated in league competition, and the football team was 4-0 before letting a 21-10 halftime lead slip away. Aragon’s sprint down the sideline in front of the Loyola bench with 6:51 left proved to be the game-winner as Alemany made the playoffs with a 24-21 victory.

Still, the Cubs finish the regular season with an 8-2 record and will play Fontana (7-3) in a first-round Big Five Conference playoff game Friday night at Glendale High. That is a testament to Coach Steve Grady’s program and the work of defensive coordinator Jon Dawson, who lost his best player from last season, All-Southern Section pick Donald Evans, and nine other starters to graduation.

The Loyola defense gave up 34 points in a season-opening loss to Santa Fe Springs St. Paul, then Santa Monica scored 19 the next week. But since then, the defense has looked much like the one that led the Cubs to an 8-3 record last season, holding the next seven opponents to seven points or fewer until the Alemany game.

The week before Alemany, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame was held to 10 yards in the first half as the then-No. 8 Cubs improved to 8-1 with an 18-6 win.

Tailback Mark Estwick put in his bid for more recognition by scoring three touchdowns against Notre Dame and two more against Alemany to give him 19 this season, along with 914 yards. Like Estwick, quarterback Dan O’Neil, although he has thrown for only 771 yards, is one of the best players in the Central City at his position.

The cross-country team returned five of its top seven runners from last season, including No. 1 Michael McCracken, so it came as no surprise that the Cubs won their second straight Southern Section 2-A championship Saturday afternoon at Mt. San Antonio College.

The biggest problem co-coaches Ed Castellanos and Jack Gallagher faced at some meets was deciding who would run varsity. The team was so deep this season, Castellanos said, that the No. 3 runner from 1984 improved his time by 25 seconds and No. 5 improved by 15 seconds, but neither was good enough to make the top seven this season.

“Last season, we had four or five legitimate runners,” said Castellanos, who is 24-0 in dual meets since he went to Loyola from Montebello Cantwell. “This season, we must have 10.”

Joe Brink and Chris Nelson were two of the biggest contributors to the coaches’ “problems.” Neither ran last season, Nelson because of knee surgery, but were major factors Saturday, finishing 4th and 26th.

The water polo team, coached by Ed Profumo, was knocked out of the 3-A playoffs Nov. 12 with a 12-6 loss, but that was by the second-seeded team, Placentia El Dorado.

Looking ahead, Loyola, an all-boys’ school, also has the defending 3-A champions in volleyball, the 3-A runner-up in swimming and diving, and the Southern Section runner-up in golf.

Soccer player Waldir Guerra of Bell broke his own City record of nine goals in a game by getting 11 to lead the Eagles to a 17-1 win over Jordan last Thursday.

That also put him No. 2 all-time in the national record book, just one behind Calexico’s Marcos Arreola, who scored 12 in 1980 against Calipatria.

A native of El Salvador, Guerra came to the United States in 1981 and did not play soccer as a freshman. But with 98 career goals, he is approaching Gilbert Sanchez’s national record for scoring in a three-season high school career.

Sanchez had 110 goals for Chula Vista Montgomery from 1978-80, and Guerra has seven regular-season games left and at least one more in the playoffs since Bell is sure to qualify as one of the best teams in the Eastern League.

Prep Notes Pairings for the prestigious San Dimas Tournament of Champions basketball tournament were released last week, with two-time defending champion Santa Ana Mater Dei top seeded in another strong field. The 16-team tournament, which runs from Dec. 16-21 at Cal Poly Pomona, will have some of California’s top players, including Stuart Thomas of Mater Dei, Trevor Wilson of Cleveland, David Jones of Verbum Dei, Carrick DeHart and Keith Harris of Santa Monica and Marlon Vaughn of Compton Dominguez. Three of the top juniors--Sean Higgins of Fairfax, Ricky Butler of Huntington Beach Ocean View and David Whitmore of Playa del Rey St. Bernard--will also be in the spotlight. . . . Coach Dwayne DeSpain of Hacienda Heights Los Altos got his 150th football victory Friday night with a 15-14 win over West Covina, which sent the Conquerors to the playoffs for the 13th straight year. Also in that game, running back Jim Jastrab, who broke an ankle just before the season opener and was supposed to miss the entire schedule, played one down--a fake into the line that allowed quarterback Mark Smith enough time to throw Steve Peters a touchdown pass. . . . The City girls’ volleyball playoffs will reach the semifinal round this week, with Palisades playing San Pedro, and Carson playing University in 4-A Division games Wednesday night at Venice High. Tonight at Bell, South Gate will play Garfield, and Huntington Park will play Roosevelt in 3-A games. The final in each division is scheduled Saturday at UCLA’s Wooden Center.

Times’ Top 10

SOUTHERN SECTION Final Regular Season No. School, League Record

1. Bishop Amat, Angelus 10-0-0

2. Riverside Poly, Citrus Belt 10-0-0

3. LB Poly, Moore 8-1-0

4. CC Canyon, Golden 10-0-0

5. Mater Dei, Angelus 7-3-0

6. Servite, Angelus 8-2-0

7. El Modena, Century 9-1-0

8. Fontana, Citrus Belt 7-3-0

9. Edison, Sunset 8-2-0

10. St. Paul, Angelus 7-3-0