CSUN Set to Bring Barnes to Court

North Hollywood center Cliff Barnes, a Times All-Valley selection, will attend Cal State Northridge in the fall, according to Steve Miller, his high school coach.

Miller said Barnes will meet with CSUN Coach Pete Cassidy later today.

“I talked with him and I know he’s planning on going to Northridge,” Miller said. “He wants to stay close to home.”

Barnes was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Cassidy said Tuesday that Barnes had not yet committed to the school, but he confirmed that he would meet with the East Valley League’s most valuable player later today.

Barnes, 6-5, averaged 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Huskies this spring.

“He didn’t get as much publicity in his 10th- and 11th-grade years,” Miller said. “But he blossomed this year. He’s really improved. I think he’ll get better and better. I think he can step in and help them right away.”

Short-armed: With spring football drills coming soon, Hart High Coach Rick Scott finds himself in a quandary.

“We have no one to throw the ball but me, and my arm is sore, too,” Scott said.

Jim Bonds, who had an outstanding junior season for the Indians, suffered a broken right thumb at the start of baseball season.

Baseball season is over for Bonds, who recently had the cast removed from his hand but must wait about three weeks before resuming football practice.

As a result, Scott will delay the start of spring football practice.

Scott got more bad news a week ago when he discovered that Bonds’ backup, Darren Renfro, has a broken right wrist that could sideline him for the summer--and possibly the beginning of next season.

Renfro, a left-hander, apparently suffered the injury during the past football season, when he quarterbacked the sophomore team to a 10-0 record. Renfro also played in the defensive backfield and was elevated to the varsity for the playoffs.

Renfro saw limited action in the first three rounds, then started at defensive back in the Coastal Conference championship game against Muir.

“He really played well in that game,” Scott said. “In fact, he was one of our nominees for defensive player of the week.”

Scott had expected to make Renfro a starter in the secondary for next fall. Renfro also figures as Bonds’ eventual replacement.

“He’s a good as any QB around,” Scott said. “The only problem is he’s a year younger than Bonds.”

Add Hart: Scott said the hysteria surrounding next fall’s Hart-Canyon football game has cooled down somewhat. “We’ve got three-four weeks before spring ball,” Scott said. “Then it will all come up again.”

Ever since Canyon defeated Hart in an exciting 6-3 game last season, the folks in the Santa Clarita Valley have been waiting for the teams to hook up again. Just moments after Hart lost to Muir, 28-14, in the conference title game, Scott was peppered with questions about Canyon.

Canyon Coach Harry Welch has been thinking about the game, too.

“If the hysteria has died down now, the Valley won’t be big enough in September,” he said.

Welch said the game “has been a topic of discussion every day” at Canyon.

The game will be played Sept. 12 at College of the Canyons.

Scott is glad the game is on Friday, Sept. 12, not Friday, Sept. 13. Hart’s first and last games of 1985--Canyon and Muir--were played on Friday the 13th.

Welch wouldn’t mind another Sept. 13 game. “That’s my lucky day,” he said. “My daughter was born on that day.”

Reversal: In mid-January, Marmonte League school administrators ruled that next season’s boys and girls varsity and junior varsity basketball games would be played on the same nights at the same locations.

The vote was 4-3, which left several of the boys coaches upset. The old format had the boys and girls teams playing league games on the same night but at different sites. Under the new system, the boys varsity games would end too late, according to some league coaches.

Last month, in another 4-3 vote, the administrators overturned their initial plan and opted for one that will have the girls playing on Tuesday and the boys on Wednesday. The boys and girls will both play on Friday but at different sites.

Royal was the school that changed its vote.

Simi Valley is ranked No. 1 in the nation by USA Today and No. 1 in the state by Cal-Hi Sports. But the Pioneers are No. 2 in the Times Valley baseball Top 10. This week’s poll:

1. Granada Hills; 2. Simi Valley; 3. Rio Mesa; 4. Chatsworth; 5. Kennedy; 6. Hart; 7. San Fernando; 8. Montclair Prep; 9. Camarillo; 10. Agoura.

Times staff writer Hans Tesselaar contributed to this notebook.