Orange County Area Roundup : No. 1 Kennedy Among Canyon Tournament Favorites

Thirty-two teams will begin competing at three locations this weekend as the third Canyon Softball Tournament of Champions gets under way this afternoon.

The tournament will run this weekend, take a week off, and finish the weekend of April 4-5.

Most of the action will be at Peralta Park, with an occasional game also being played at either Canyon High School or Yorba Park. Play at Peralta begins at 3 p.m. today and at 9 a.m. Saturday.

Among the teams joining the Comanches in the tournament are defending CIF Southern Section 4-A champion Ocean View and 4-A runner-up Westminster. Defending Southern Section 3-A champion Garden Grove and runner-up Sonora are also entered.

Kennedy and Cypress, ranked Nos. 1 and 2 among Southern Section 4-A teams this season, will be favored in this tournament along with Edison (No. 4) and Newbury Park (No. 5).

Twelve nationally ranked singles players and seven of the nation’s top doubles teams will be among the entrants in the UC Irvine McDonald’s-Marriott Tennis Tournament, which opens today at five area sites.

The 16-team tournament runs through next Monday’s championship match at 1:30 p.m. at UC Irvine. The Anteaters, ranked 25th in the country, open the tournament at 1:30 p.m. today against Indiana. Other ranked teams entered are Maryland, the defending tournament champion (No. 17) and Harvard (No. 23). Chapman, top-ranked among NCAA Division II school, is also competing.

Other tournament sites are the Irvine Marriott, Park Newport, Mesa Verde Country Club and Ridgeline Country Club.

The California Athletic Commission has sanctioned the bout between Tomas Perez and Zack Hewitt for the vacant State super welterweight championship at the Irvine Marriott on March 31.

Perez, of Santa Ana, and Hewitt, of San Francisco, will meet in a 12-round bout as the main event of a seven-fight card for the hotel’s next boxing night.

Perez enters with a record of 14-3. Hewitt is 12-3.

Tickets are available at the hotel.

More than 100 youths, ages 7 through 18, will participate in the sixth Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp to be held at Saddleback College from March 25-29.

This will be the first of five Wheelchair Sports Camps to be held throughout the country in 1986. The Saddleback camp will draw wheelchair athletes from Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange Counties.

Volunteers wishing to help participate in the camp may contact the National Foundation of Wheelchair Tennis office in Tustin at 259-1531.

Mater Dei High School is sponsoring a track meet Saturday in conjunction with the Special Olympics for all developmentally disabled people in Orange County.

The meet will be held at the Mater Dei track from 9 a.m. through 1 p.m.

The event is open to participants of all ages and the public is invited to attend. More than 150 athletes are expected to participate.

For more details, contact meet director Becky Allec at Mater Dei at 754-7711.

The Orange County Chapter of the American Red Cross is sponsoring a basketball game between players from the Los Angeles Rams and the Super Bowl Champion Chicago Bears on April 20 at Cal State Fullerton.

General admission tickets at Titan Gym are $5. Golden Circle seats, which are located at midcourt and include dinner with the teams, are $50 apiece. Only 150 Golden Circle seats are available but must be purchased before the day of the game.

For more information, contact Drew McClelland of the Orange County Chapter of the American Red Cross at 835-5381 (ext. 351).

Wendell Pickens, Orange Coast College athletic director for 29 years, has been voted into the Orange County Hall of Fame.

Pickens will be inducted on May 15 at the sixth Orange County Hall of Fame banquet at the Anaheim Emerald Hotel.

The Academic Booster Club of Edison High School is sponsoring a 10K run at the Huntington Beach Pier on Sunday, April 6.

For registration details, contact Barbara Hauk at 968-7530.

Around the Area The Los Angeles Rams’ Booster Club is planning its third Celebrity Golf and Tennis tournaments to be held on April 14 at the Yorba Linda Country Club. For more information, contact the club at 974-5030 or write to P.O. Box 5908, Orange, 92667. . . . The 18th Annual Anaheim Boat Show will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center from Wednesday, April 9, through Sunday, April 13. . . . The Anaheim YMCA Adult Basketball League starts April 21. A coaches meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 14 at the YMCA. . . . The Sixth Westmed Gold Club Golf Tournament, with proceeds going toward the completion of the Gold Club Community Education Center in Santa Ana, will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at the Mesa Verde Country Club in Costa Mesa. Cost of the event is $175 per participant. . . . Golden West College has announced that water polo Coach Tom Hermstad has been named athletic director. Hermstad steps down from the water polo coaching position after serving 20 years. Former assistant coach Ken Hamdorf will replace Hermstad.