Marinovich Transferring to Capistrano Valley

Sophomore quarterback Todd Marinovich, who threw for 4,358 yards and 34 touchdowns in two seasons as a starter at Santa Ana Mater Dei High School, said he will transfer to Capistrano Valley in Mission Viejo for his junior year.

Marinovich had been living in Newport Beach with his mother, Trudy, for the last school year, but said he will be moving into a Mission Viejo apartment with his father, Marv, later this week. The parents have been separated since last summer.

Marv Marinovich is a former USC and Oakland Raider football player who spent four years as strength coach and scout for the Rams. With Todd at quarterback, Mater Dei went 6-5 in 1984 and 8-4 in 1985 and made the Southern Section Big Five playoffs both years.

Todd’s transfer will give Capistrano Valley its third good quarterback in three years. Nathan Call started for the Cougars in 1984, and Scott Stark started in 1985. Stark, a transfer from Ontario Chaffey, was the Southern Conference’s most valuable player and signed a letter of intent with Stanford.

Hurry-up offense: There were 15 minutes left, and Oxnard Santa Clara was down by only 60,000--as in $60,000.

The school, short of its goal of $900,000 to build a new gym on campus, held one final fund raiser last week and got about 300 people to show up at $15 a person or $25 per couple. Once inside, guests got a steak dinner and the chance to take another bite out of their wallets.

The idea was to have one side of the scoreboard count down the 15 minutes and the other count up the money from new donations, including a $15,000 gift from one person.

They had reached $54,000 when time ran out, but went for an extra five minutes and got $61,000. Score one last win for the rickety 32-year-old, 750-seat gym.

“We always realized that we had wonderful community spirit, but we never knew it was this much,” Lou Cvijanovich, the Saints’ athletic director and basketball coach, said Monday.

“It’s terrific because we desperately needed the gym, and not just for basketball games, but for assemblies and Masses, too.”

Workers broke ground on the new 1,500-seat facility last week and the dedication is scheduled for September or October.

The Southern Section preseason baseball poll has Santa Ana Mater Dei, which had a 24-2 record last year, as the top-ranked team in the 4-A Division, with Cerritos Gahr, 26-4, leading the 3-A; Mission Viejo, 20-8, the 2-A; Baldwin Park, 19-11, the 1-A, and Santa Monica Crossroads, 27-3, the Small Schools.

In some of the more noteworthy rule changes:

--Players in coaching boxes will be required to wear protective helmets.

--Jewelry is prohibited, although medical alert bracelets and necklaces are allowed. If worn, they must be visible and taped to the body.

--Charging an umpire for any reason shall result in an ejection.

Prep Notes The Southern Section soccer playoffs, for the boys’ and girls’ divisions, will move into the semifinal round today. . . . Scott Williams from Hacienda Heights Wilson has been named California basketball player of the year by Gatorade. . . . Prime Ticket cable will show Friday’s City 4-A basketball championship game on a delay Saturday night at 11 p.m. Group W will have the 3-A game Sunday afternoon and Monday night. Radio station KDAY (1580) will carry both games from the Sports Arena live. . . . Prime Ticket is also close to completing a deal to televise the state tournament March 22 from Oakland. . . . Jack Errion has resigned after 10 years as basketball coach at Corona del Mar of Newport Beach and been replaced by Paul Orris, who coached the freshman team for 16 years. Errion also coached for 22 years at Long Beach St. Anthony and has a 571-328 record. . . . Cal football Coach Joe Kapp will be the featured speaker at the National Football Foundation’s scholar-athlete awards dinner March 11 at the Pasadena Hilton. Twenty-six of the top high school seniors from the San Gabriel Valley will be honored. . . . Correction: Frank Namath of Beaver Falls, Pa., who signed a football letter of intent with Maryland, is a lineman and not a quarterback, as previously reported.