South Bay Body Builder Aims at Mr. California Crown

Being Mr. South Bay wasn’t enough. Being Mr. San Diego wasn’t enough. Torrance body builder John Cowgill recently placed second in the light heavyweight division of the Mr. Los Angeles competition and says there’s no stopping him now.

He’ll shoot for Mr. California in May and after that “I’ll go heavyweight. I’d like to win Mr. Olympia someday.” The Olympia title is the equivalent of world champ, the title that helped catapult his hero, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to stardom. Is it a realistic goal for a Torrance masseur and tanning salon entrepreneur?

“I really think so,” he said. “I really tasted it when I entered the Mr. L. A. I was just beat by a fraction. And the crowd was on my side.”

Cowgill was a wrestler as a teen-ager and said be became interested in body building because “I noticed myself getting a lot of definition.”

Cowgill, who moved to the South Bay from Northern California in 1981, hadn’t competed for a while when he entered the Mr. Los Angeles contest. He had to lose weight to get to the 198-pound light-heavyweight category and says he’s about 230 now and would “like to go a lot heavier.” When he moved here he slimmed down for modeling assignments and wasn’t happy at all. “I didn’t feel comfortable being small,” he said.

So Cowgill works out about 4 1/2 hours daily, stressing a toned, proportional look that he hopes will make him Mr. California--a prestigious title because so many body builders congregate in the Southland. Cowgill said his arms and back are probably his most developed parts, and he’s working for greater size and definition on his calves and chest.

Don’t look for Cowgill to quit anytime soon. He’ll continue to lift and compete “till I can’t compete anymore, till arthritis sets in and I can’t lift a weight anymore.”

David Whitmore may be the Southland’s most prized high school basketball junior, and St. Monica’s Earl Duncan was a preseason All-American, but Serra forward Keith Malone led the Cavaliers to the Camino Real League title and is reaping the post-season honors.

Malone was named most valuable player of the Camino Real League, topping the all-league team that includes Duncan and Whitmore on first team, along with James Moses of Serra, James Anderson of St. Anthony, Jason Matthews of St. Monica and David Jones and Kevin Williams of Verbum Dei. Moses is a sophomore, Matthews and Williams juniors. The rest are seniors. Malone, a 6-4 forward who gets many of his points inside, ranked among CIF scoring leaders with a 25.6 average, including a season-high 39 against St. Bernard.

The second team has Joe Hudson and Kirkland Howling of St. Bernard, Terry Newman of Serra, Ray Walker of Cantwell, Jaime Cardriche and Darrick Martin of St. Anthony, Pepper Jenkins of Verbum Dei and Mike Gutierrez of Salesian. Newman and Martin are sophomores. Walker is a junior. The rest are seniors.

The selections were made by league coaches.

Malone and Chadwick’s James Johnson rank high in the CIF listing of final regular season basketball statistics, and several Morningside girls are prominent as well. Malone ranked seventh in scoring with a 25.6-point average. Teammate Moses wasn’t far behind at 23, good for 15th place. St. Bernard’s Whitmore tied Moses. Chadwick’s Johnson averaged 24.8 points, 11th among scorers, and 12.9 rebounds, good for a tie for 13th.

On the girls’ side, Morningside’s Tia Thomas tied for 17th among scorers with a 20.6-point average and teammate Nina Revoyr was 22nd at 20.1. Inglewood rival Rosalind Moore averaged 20.2. Morningside sophomore Shaundra Greene tied for second among rebounders with a 16.1 average.

Loyola Marymount University started its last two home basketball games without playing the national anthem because the tape broke and the school--incredibly--couldn’t find a replacement at Westchester-area record stores.

A Loyola official says he called one store and requested “The Star-Spangled Banner” and got this reply: “What band is it by?”