Five Soccer Standouts From Valley Schools Awarded Ford/Pele Scholarships

Five San Gabriel Valley high school soccer standouts are among 10 graduating seniors awarded 1986 Ford/Pele Soccer Scholarships.

The five include three boys--Mario Aguas of Rowland, Dennis Buchanan of Edgewood, Margerito Lomeli of Mountain View--and two girls--Shanna Haines of Claremont and Martha Cerda of La Puente.

Aguas and Buchanan will attend UCLA in the fall. Aguas was an All-Sierra League selection and team captain at Rowland the last two seasons. Buchanan, an All-CIF selection last year and three-time all-league choice, has played for the Atlas of Mexico professional club soccer team.

Lomeli, one of Mountain View’s top players, will attend Rio Hondo College next season and hopes to transfer to Cal State Los Angeles.

Haines, one of the premier offensive players in the valley last year, scored 31 goals and added 25 assists to lead the Wolfpack into the CIF playoffs. Haines, who led her team to the CIF 4-A Division title as a junior, will attend the University of San Francisco in the fall.

Cerda, a top all-around athlete, also has competed in track, cross-country, swimming and basketball. She will attend Mt. St. Mary’s College.

The scholarship winners were selected from more than 100 applicants. The winners were honored by county Supervisor Pete Schabarum in a luncheon Tuesday at the Music Center Pavilion.

Cal Poly Pomona, which was one of 16 teams selected for the NCAA Division I women’s softball regionals, has placed two players on the division’s All-American team.

Pomona, which lost to Division I champion Cal State Fullerton in the NCAA regionals and finished with a 36-19-1 record, placed second baseman Alison Stowell on the first team and pitcher Rhonda Wheatley on the second team.

Stowell, a sophomore from Walnut, batted .287 and led the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. with 20 stolen bases. She made the second team last year.

Wheatley, a junior from Valinda, was the workhorse for the Broncos with a 31-17-1 record and 0.43 earned-run average. She also posted 21 shutouts and 295 strikeouts in 373 innings pitched. Wheatley made the first team as a freshman and as a sophomore.

Azusa Pacific track coach Terry Franson has been named NAIA Coach of the Year for the fifth consecutive time.

Franson, the first NAIA coach in any sport to receive the honor for five straight years, recently led the Cougars to their fourth national title in a row. The Cougars outscored second-place Wayland Baptist of Texas, 112-78.

Franson, 32, has been coaching at Azusa Pacific since 1978. He was an assistant to Marv Mardock for two years and led the Cougars to sixth place in the NAIA in his first year as coach in 1981. Azusa Pacific finished second in 1982 before rolling off four consecutive titles.

Franson’s top track athlete, 6-2, 265-pound senior Christian Okoye, was named the NAIA’s outstanding performer of the championship meet. Okoye scored 28 of Azusa Pacific’s points, finishing first in the discus throw and shot put and second in the hammer throw.

Sharon Peterson has been named women’s volleyball coach at Azusa Pacific University, athletic director Cliff Hamlow announced. Peterson formerly coached at Colorado College.

She guided Colorado College teams to a 148-113 record and two berths in the Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women National Tournament from 1979 through 1984.

Peterson replaces Linda Wills, who resigned after coaching Azusa Pacific for five years. She will have seven players returning from a team that finished with a 15-17 record.

Former Pasadena City College star Ron Lee of Cal State Bakersfield has been named the California Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s male athlete of the year for 1985-86.

Lee, a sophomore, broke the NCAA Division II record in the high jump and moved among the world leaders with a leap of 7-6 at the CCAA championships in May. He also won both the high jump and the 110-meter high hurdles at the Division II championships to account for 20 of his team’s 28 points.