COLLEGES : THE YEAR IN REVIEW

JC athletics were hit hard by layoffs. The Canyons baseball team just hit. The era of the Kat ended. Veteran coaches left Pierce, Canyons and Northridge--one for USC. The CSUN volleyball team was disappointed again. The Brahma Bowl came--and went.

THE FALL FOOTBALL

After a dismal 3-7 record in 1984, Coach Tom Keele scrapped Cal State Northridge’s run-oriented offense and put in a passing attack called the run-and-shoot. But as the run-and-shoot began firing pretty well during the 1985 season, the defense became sort of a run-and-be-shot outfit.

The result was another dismal season, and, a few weeks after it ended, Keele was fired after seven seasons at CSUN. School officials refused to give any details of the firing, but it was learned that Keele conducted an illegal tryout for kickers prior to the season and the NCAA had investigated the school.

The season began with a long bus trip to Reno, where the Division II Matadors faced the powerful Big Sky Conference Nevada-Reno Wolfpack of Division I-AA. Can you say “human sacrifice?” When the beating was over, Reno had handed the Matadors a 56-12 thrashing.

CSUN came back to beat St. Mary’s and San Francisco State to close out the month of September, but then blew a 20-5 lead in the fourth quarter and lost to Cal State Hayward, 25-20. The Matadors rallied again, though, knocking off Sonoma State and Cal Lutheran and improved their record to a respectable 4-2 record.

Then, things got nasty.

They were clobbered by San Luis Obispo and UC Davis, before proving on Nov. 9 that they could also lose the close ones when they were beaten by Santa Clara, 21-19. Sacramento State pounded them the following week, 34-10, and Portland State mercifully put the Matadors to sleep for the season with a 4-7 record by routing them, 61-24, on Nov. 23.

When Keele installed the run-and-shoot offense following the 1984 season, he asked the question: “What do I have to lose?” A few weeks after the 1985 season he got his answer: Your job.

Considering their mediocre 6-5 record, the Cal Lutheran Kingsmen had big smiles as they walked off the field last Nov. 24. But the team was happy for more than just the fact that an injury-filled season as over.

Cal Lutheran had beaten Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 29-24, to ensure a record of .500 or better for the 21st time in 24 seasons. And the victory was the school’s first in the Western Football Conference. The Kingsmen joined the NCAA Division II WFC last season after having spent 23 years in the National Assn. of Interscholastic Athletics.

Sophomore quarterback Tom Bonds threw for 327 yards against Cal Poly SLO to cap a season in which he completed 178 of 319 passes for 2,427 yards and 17 touchdowns. Darren Gottschalk (40 catches for 536 yards), and wide receivers Greg Harris (44 for 805) and Joe Fuca (33 for 642) were Bonds’ favorite targets.

Noel Hicks, a 5-6 running back, was Cal Lutheran’s greatest ground threat. The senior gained 1,166 all-purpose yards, including 505 rushing, and averaged 5.2 yards per carry.

Playing mostly teams with greater depth and larger players, the Kingsmen defense was riddled with injuries. But linebacker Ken Wood, defensive end Shawn Tippit and lineman Mike Miller held the unit together.

After going 4-1 in pre-conference games, Cal Lutheran began WFC play against rival Cal State Northridge without Bonds, who had suffered a separated shoulder. CSUN edged the Kingsmen, 29-24, triggering a four-game losing streak, the longest in Cal Lutheran history.

The Kingsmen rebounded to defeat previously unbeaten Azusa Pacific, 30-27, in a nonconference game. The following week, they downed Cal Poly SLO.

In community college football, Pierce caught most of the headlines.

In November, the Brahmas won their third straight Southern California Conference championship to earn the right to appear in its own postseason bowl game, the Brahma Bowl. Pierce won that, too, defeating Moorpark for the second time during the 1985 season, 27-14.

The battle leading up to the game turned out to be even more interesting than the game itself.

Jim Fenwick wasn’t particularly pleased about playing Moorpark for a second time. “There is nothing for us to prove,” he said. And then there was the matter of money.

Pierce’s share of the proceeds from the bowl game were originally scheduled to fund spring sports. Fenwick thought his team deserved the money, and threatened a boycott of the game.

Fenwick ended up winning the game, and the administrative battle.

The season ended on that note, but the news didn’t.

In February, Fenwick resigned as Pierce coach to become a volunteer assistant at Cal State Northridge under Bob Burt. Fenwick retained his teaching job at Pierce.

Three months later, David Wolf, Pierce president, announced the school was eliminating its football and men’s basketball programs because of a tight budget and the absence of qualified coaches to run the programs.

Athletic Director Bob O’Connor, who had personally donated $12,000 to the football program earlier in the year, had said he would resign if any sports were cut. He kept his word by stepping down a week after the program eliminations were announced.

As a result of Pierce dropping football, Moorpark has admitted at least five transfers from Pierce to bolster its roster.

They will be added to a Raiders team that was 8-3 and captured a share of the Western State Conference title by defeating co-champion Glendale.

Coach Jim Bittner called the season a coming of age.

“We finally got to the point where we can compete with people like Pierce,” he said.

That, of course, won’t be possible this year, although Valley College may be a more than worthy replacement.

The Monarchs figure to benefit most by Pierce’s absence. At least 15 transfers from Pierce have enrolled at Valley, giving Coach Chuck Ferrero potentially his strongest team.

And Valley wasn’t bad in 1985, either. The Monarchs finished at 8-2 and came within one game of unseating Pierce as conference champion. Valley also had one of the top-rated defenses in the state, led by lineman Alain Greer, who accepted a scholarship to Syracuse.

VOLLEYBALL

CSUN’s women’s volleyball team appeared in it’s fourth consecutive NCAA Division II final, but lost to Portland State in the championship match for the second straight year.

CSUN (27-10), won the U.S. Air Force Premier Tournament, and finished eighth in the UCLA National Invitational Volleyball Tournament.

The Lady Matadors were undefeated in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn., capturing their third consecutive conference title. The team’s top players were All-Americans Heather Hafner, Karen Lontka and Shelli Mosby.

SOCCER

They played on the same field, but CSUN’s best football team didn’t wear pads.

The Northridge soccer team made the NCAA Division II tournament for the second straight season, advancing to the second round before losing, 3-2, to Seattle Pacific, the eventual national champion.

The Matadors won their second consecutive CCAA title and will have all but one player back next season. Northridge was ranked No. 4 in the NCAA’s final Division II poll.

CROSS-COUNTRY

In the course of one November week, opinions changed drastically for the Valley College women’s cross-country team.

After the Monarchs were defeated by Mira Costa in the Southern California finals, assistant coach Steve Brumwell maintained a positive outlook.

“Second place is pretty good,” he said.

The following week, however, second place wasn’t good enough anymore. Valley edged Mira Costa to win the state championship.

The Valley women were lead by Kim Stewart, who finished second in the state final. Gretchen Lohr was seventh and Sandra Martinez was ninth.

Moorpark College won the Western State Conference women’s title behind Lisa Ash, who finished 18th at the state championship.

THE WINTER

BASKETBALL

There were a lot of unanswered questions for CSUN going into the 1985-86 men’s basketball season. The defending California Collegiate Athletic Assn. champions had lost seven of their top eight players to graduation or academic ineligibility. To say Matador Coach Pete Cassidy had holes in his lineup was like saying the Titanic had sprung a little leak.

Cassidy brought in some transfers and promoted inexperienced returnees from his conference champions, packed up and headed for Laramie, Wyo. for the season-opener against Division I Wyoming. CSUN lost, 86-49.

But the next night, against Colorado State, another Division I opponent, CSUN almost won. Northridge lost on a last-second shot, but Cassidy was pleased with the team’s effort.

CSUN then beat up on teams like Hastings (Neb.) College and Wisconsin Oshkosh, but once the CCAA season started the Matadors stumbled.

They lost to Cal State L.A. They lost to Chapman College. They lost to UC Riverside. They lost to Cal Poly Pomona. Where did those opponents like Hastings College go?

The Matadors missed the league’s inaugural postseason tournament--only the top four teams qualified. They managed to win only two road games and finished the season with an 11-15 record, 4-10 in the CCAA. It was the first time since 1976 that CSUN finished below .500.

After the Matadors lost a late-season game against UC Riverside, 71-49, center Paul Hobus wrapped up the game with this analysis: “We didn’t run our offense. We had people scattered all over the place. This bad of a loss really hurts us.

“We just have to put it out of our minds.”

Good advice for the whole season.

It was another long season for the Cal Lutheran basketball team, which was 5-23 overall and 2-11 in the NAIA District III.

The Kingsmen, without a player over 6-7, were repeatedly beaten because of their lack of size.

After all the games were over, it was announced that Larry Lopez will be the interim coach next season as Ed Anderson takes a one-year leave of absence. The Kingsmen will also be in the new Golden State Athletic Conference, which includes Azusa Pacific, Westmont, Southern Cal College, Point Loma Nazarene and Fresno Pacific.

Master’s College brought in a new basketball coach, Randy Stem, from Tennessee Temple, a small Baptist school in Chattanooga, Tenn., to revive its sluggish program.

Stem came to Newhall preaching the word of God and praising the merits of in-your-face man-to-man defense.

Said Stem: “We’re here to praise God and win games.”

The Mustangs finished 6-23.

But they showed signs of improvement. Late in the season, Master’s stayed with NAIA power Biola and as one school official put, “Teams that beat us by 30 points last year are beating us by two baskets this year.”

Even so, the close games provided little consolation for Stem. As the season closed out, the coach said, “If we keep losing, I’m gonna go crazy. I can’t handle this. We don’t have a lot of talent. We’re not quick. We’re not big. We don’t have a point guard and we don’t have a center. We have about 12 forwards.”

He didn’t have a dozen swingmen, but Coach Lee Smelser of College of the Canyons had a theory: He with the most horses wins.

Canyons had the horses.

The Cougars finished second in the Mountain Valley Conference to perennial power Southwest College, and made it to the second round of the state regional tournament before losing to Grossmont.

There was nothing subtle about the style of play that gave Canyons a 20-10 record. The Cougars, led by the explosive scoring combination of James Mixon and Vincent Ray, ran, ran and ran some more.

For Moorpark, which finished at 16-11 with a loss to Canyons in the first round of the state regional tournament, one thing was certain: The Raiders’ leading scorer was named Danny.

Depending on the night, that meant either Danny Camp or Danny Berryman, who both averaged more than 20 points a game for Coach Al Nordquist. It also meant that Steve Abraham, who set a school record for assists, was getting passing marks at point guard.

Valley College had a preseason All-American in 6-7 forward Mario Lopez, but his penchant for the blocked shot got him in foul trouble in too many games. Lopez’ early exits mirrored that of his team, which never threatened in the Mountain Valley Conference.

The news was even more depressing at Pierce, where first-year Coach Larry Lessett hadn’t lost his enthusiasm after a 6-23 season. He did, however, lose his job when the school eliminated the program.

The Cal State Northridge women’s basketball program was without a coach until shortly before the season, but Leslie Milke returned when a full-time coaching position was made available and the Lady Matadors had their best season ever.

CSUN finished second in the CCAA and had a 20-9 record after going 9-15 and finishing sixth in the seven-team conference the year before. Milke was chosen NCAA District 8 and CCAA coach of the year.

Northridge, which hadn’t appeared in postseason play since the 1976-77 season, was invited to the NCAA Division II West Regional and beat UC Davis in the first round before losing to eventual national champion Cal Poly Pomona, 66-46, in the regional final.

The Lady Matadors, who were ranked as high as 10th in the nation in the Division II poll, finished the season ranked 14th.

Northridge’s inability to beat Pomona was the only thing standing between it and a possible trip to the Final Four in Springfield, Mass.

Of the Lady Matadors’ nine losses, four were to Cal Poly Pomona. The Broncos’ victory in the regional was their 21st straight over Northridge dating back to January of 1976.

“If I never see Pomona again, it would be fine with me,” Milke said after the regional loss, which was perhaps the toughest defeat for the Lady Matadors.

Northridge, which led by as many as 10 points in the first half behind 52% shooting, shot only 18% in the final 20 minutes as Pomona ran away with the game.

The front line of Tara Flanagan, Regan O’Hara and Denise Sitton paced Northridge throughout the season. Each player had double-figure scoring averages and, next to Pomona, they formed perhaps the strongest front line in West Coast Division II basketball. Guards Renee Loch and Lori Costello also played well.

There is no gloried past to Cal Lutheran women’s basketball. No national championship banners hang from the rafters of its gymnasium. The Regals’ only tradition was losing.

They came into the 1985-86 season with 10 players back from a team that won only one game in the NAIA District 3 in 1984-85. The result: a 14-13 season.

The Regals were led by Kim Peppi and Gloria Phillipps. Peppi, a junior, scored a 1,119 points to become the first women’s basketball player in school history to score 1,000 points in a career. Despite her performance, Peppi was overlooked for third consecutive year when it came time to choose the All-District 3 team. Phillipps set a team record with 330 rebounds for a 12.2 average and was the Regals’ only representative on the all-district team.

The Valley College women’s basketball team won the Mountain Valley Conference title, but Coach Jim Stephens could be excused for managing only half a smile.

Stephens was one of 157 full-time teachers to receive a layoff notice. And although a transfer from physical education to another department saved him his teaching job, it may have cost him his coaching position. Because of the outcome of negotiations between the district and faculty union, teachers from outside of physical education are ineligible to coach.

In 1986, however, Stephens added a women’s conference title to a pair of men’s championships he won at Pierce. He said he’s perfectly content where he is.

“Coaching is coaching,” he said. “I really don’t miss not coaching the men.”

Stephens had plenty of help last year. Forwards Jill Daniels, who accepted a full scholarship to Fresno State, and Tina Johnson combined to average about 35 points a game.

WRESTLING

Pierce College fielded the only wrestling team among Valley-area community colleges--if you want to call three wrestlers a team.

But despite an 0-7-1 record in dual meets, Rob Alleman, Tim Seikea and Craig Williams each qualified for the state championships at Sierra College near Sacramento.

THE SPRING

BASEBALL

The baseball season got off to a bad start for Cal State Northridge Coach Terry Craven and proceeded to get progressively worse.

First, a mix-up by NCAA legislators limited Division II teams to only 60 games during the 1985-1986 school year. That rule, since revised to allow for 20 games in the off-season and 60 during the spring, all but robbed a young Matadors team of winter league play and some much-needed experience.

Northridge never did get untracked.

After playing .500 ball for its first 20 games, including three straight wins to open its California Collegiate Athletic Assn. schedule, the Matadors lost six straight--one shy of a school record--and were never in contention for the conference title won by Cal State Dominguez Hills.

“We still have to play the game hard and make things happen. We can’t at any point say we are out of it--whether we are or not,” Craven said April 22 after a 4-2 loss to Cal Poly Pomona in Northridge. By that time, Northridge, which would finish 23-25 overall, 14-15 in conference, had already lost more conference games than Dominguez Hills did all season.

It was a hard fall for the Matadors, national champions in 1984 and winners of 41 games in 1985.

Sandwiched in between a disheartening start and a heart-breaking finish, the Cal Lutheran baseball team put together a rather interesting season.

The Kingsmen began the season with only 11 players because the school’s front office was slow in processing eight of the players’ junior college transcripts and grades from interim classes.

With only those 11 players on opening day, Cal Lutheran managed a 30-4 victory over Pomona-Pitzer.

Behind outfielder Jay Knight, the Kingsmen, with the eight re-instated players, compiled a school-record .335 team batting average. Knight hit a school-record .433 and also had five home runs, 47 RBIs and 13 stolen bases.

First baseman Ed Howard, who hit three home runs against Pomona-Pitzer on opening day, finished the season with a school-record 51 RBIs.

Scott Francis, who was hitting only .125 early in the season while being used in a utility role, was moved to center field by Coach Al Schoenberger and went on a 14-game hitting streak, lifting his average over .400. He finished at .325.

But although Cal Lutheran managed to terrorize opposing pitchers, the Kingsmen’s pitchers were abused just the same.

The Cal Lutheran pitching staff, hurt badly by injuries to starters Gene McGary and Dan Meltregger, posted a team earned-run average of 5.26.

That was perhaps the primary reason why the heavy-hitting Kingsmen finished a distant fourth in the NAIA District 3 race with a 9-11 record.

Even more discouraging was Cal Lutheran’s showing in the district’s single-elimination mini-series.

The Kingsmen had their season ended abruptly in the first round of the tournament with a loss to sixth-place Point Loma Nazarene. Cal Lutheran finished 25-17.

Perhaps the biggest college baseball story of the year took 16 years to unfold. In the end, there were no more suitable encores. The time had come for Mike Gillespie to move on.

After coaching College of the Canyons to its

third state title in six years, Gillespie returned to his alma mater, USC, to replace his former coach, Rod Dedeaux.

Gillespie leaves behind a legacy that will be hard to match: 11 conference titles and a 418-165 record in 16 seasons. He was named coach of the year four times in the last five seasons.

His last Canyons team may have been his best. The Cougars’ 41-6 record set a state record for victories in a season.

Frank Halcovich went 15-0 to repeat as state player of the year. Freshman Darrin Beer was 14-1 to provide a solid pitching nucleus.

And hitting. Oh, could Canyons hit. Catcher Pete Kuld set a school record with 17 home runs and batted .376. First baseman Scott Drury batted .365 with 14 home runs. Don Erickson batted .357 with nine home runs.

Everyone in the starting lineup batted better than .300. The Cougars hit a school-record 75 home runs.

Chris Cota, who batted .328, signed a professional contract with the Chicago White Sox seven hours after he scored the game-winning run in the state final against Rancho Santiago.

Kuld will go to Pepperdine in the fall. Halcovich has signed with Arizona, Drury with Texas Tech and Erickson with Florida, just to name a few.

Canyons, and Gillespie, had everyone’s respect in 1986.

“He is the standard other people try to emulate,” said West L.A. Coach Al Harris, who could have been talking about either Gillespie or the Canyons program.

Scott Muckey of Valley College knows all about Canyons. Muckey had one of his best teams ever last season, but had the misfortune of playing in the same conference as Gillespie and Canyons.

Muckey, as a part-time coach, will be fired Monday. He is among the candidates to replace Gillespie.

Doug Dingman, coach at Mission, will also lose his job Monday. He said he could have quit in March when it was apparent that he would be fired, but felt he owed it to his players to stay on.

Pierce Coach Tim Collins was of the same opinion--to a degree. The day after the season ended, he handed in his resignation. “I’m doing three jobs so I can be a baseball coach, and now they’re not going to let me coach,” Collins said. “It’s time to move on.”

SOFTBALL

For the first time in four years, the CSUN softball team failed to win the NCAA Division II national title.

The Lady Matadors won their fifth consecutive CCAA championship and swept through the Western Regional to advance to the World Series in Akron, Ohio where the Lady Matadors lost twice to champion Stephen F. Austin of Texas.

CSUN Coach Gary Torgeson began the season with the deepest pitching staff in the country. Four-time All-American Kathy Slaten had reversed her earlier decision to retire from softball and returned for her senior year. That decision left Torgeson with Slaten and sophomores Delanee Anderson and Lisa Martin.

Slaten, whose number 44 has been retired, went 22-6-1 and compiled an earned run average of O.37. The four-time All-American finished her career 123-33-1 with 1,536 strikeouts in 1,222 innings, 21 no-hitters, 2 perfect games, 97 shutouts and a career earned run average of 0.24.

Anderson went 15-3 and Martin ended up 13-2, but the pitcher who had the greatest impact on CSUN’s finish was Stephen F. Austin’s Pam Clay, who shutout the Lady Matadors, 1-0, in the final game of the season.

Season highlights included: Center-fielder Barbara Jordan earning All-American and CCAA Player of the Year honors for the second year in a row. Jordan, a junior, broke season records for: runs scored (38), hits (73), walks (20), total bases (86) and batting average (.397).

Left-fielder Beth Onestinghel, a sophomore, broke the CSUN season record for runs batted in with 32. First baseman Kelly Winn, a junior, set a school record with eight doubles.

Perhaps the biggest highlight, however, was the Lady Matadors’, 5-4, come from behind win over Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania in the semifinals of the World Series. CSUN scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to advance to the final game.

“Next year” is the rallying cry for another softball team, Cal Lutheran.

The Regals advanced to the NAIA Bi-District championship in Utah, posted a school-record 30-10 mark and placed a player on the NAIA All-American team for the first time in school history.

Cal Lutheran knocked off defending District 3 champion St. Mary’s during the regular season and posted a 13-1 conference record to win the championship.

Cal Lutheran beat St. Mary’s again in the district’s postseason tournament to receive the bid to appear in the bi-district tournament, where it lost a best-of-three playoff to Southern Utah State.

Michelle McCaslin, an All-American, headed a list of eight Regals named to the all-district team. McCaslin, a junior who hit .402, was joined on the all-district team by Kim Peppi, Karen Fauver, Wendy Olson, Becky Wolfe, Jill Anderson, Judy Killpack and Mary Turner.

Peppi, who was also a standout on the Cal Lutheran basketball team, played a key role in the Regals’ record-breaking season. As a pitcher, she was 16-7 with a 1.51 earned-run average. She also hit .356.

TRACK

The battle between Cal State Northridge and Bill Webb was over by the time the track season started, but the scars from the fight showed long after the two sides worked out an agreement.

Webb, the men’s track coach, was fired in May of 1985 and then sued the university to recover his job. The suit was eventually settled out of court in January, but not before recruiting suffered immeasurably.

Webb had directed the men’s team to top 10 finishes nationally in each of his seven years as coach, but the Matadors’ fell to 32nd place this year. CSUN also dropped to fifth place in the seven-team California Collegiate Athletic Assn.

Gary Jackson was the only bright spot in CSUN’s sub-par season. He scored the team’s only five points in the national meet, placing fourth in the long jump with an effort of 25-1 1/2. Earlier in the season, Jackson set a school record with a leap of 25-3.

Don Strametz, the new men’s coach, had guided the CSUN women’s team to four top 15 finishes in his five seasons and the Lady Matadors continued their climb up the ladder despite the woes of the men’s team.

Behind the strong showings of Sue Patterson, Lori Costello, Nina Manriquez and Alex Aguirre, CSUN finished tied for sixth at the national meet after placing ninth in 1985.

Although the Cal Lutheran track team enjoyed perhaps its best season ever, it may be long remembered as the “Year the Streak Ended.”

The Kingsmen’s 15-year streak of 98 consecutive dual meet victories came to an end on April 5 against UC Santa Barbara.

Cal Lutheran managed to finish third in the NAIA District 3 behind national champion Azusa Pacific and Point Loma Nazarene.

Eight Kingsmen athletes advanced to the NAIA national track championships in Russellville, Arkansas and Lindahl Lucas achieved All-American status in the decathlon by finishing fifth.

For the first time in eight years, Pierce had a track team.

The Brahmas finished sixth out of eight teams in the conference finals, but that feat is more impressive given the set of circumstances it took to get that far.

The team’s coach, Bob Chambers, originally only wanted to run a cross-country program. He agreed to coach track only at the insistence of Pierce administrators.

So in December, Chambers began to recruit a team. He attracted former high school runners, football players, basketball players and a cheerleader.

“I even got some girls out of PE classes,” Chambers said.

In all, 30 athletes came out for the team. Chambers took 20 who stuck with the program to the conference finals.

At season’s end, Pierce athletes combined with Moorpark and Valley to send more than two dozen qualifiers to the state championships at Mt. San Antonio College.

TENNIS

The Cal State Northridge women’s tennis team lost to only one Division II opponent this season. Unfortunately for the Lady Matadors, the loss came in the national championship match against Southern Illinois Edwardsville.

CSUN was undefeated (10-0) in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. and 28-2 overall. Its only losses were by 5-4 margins against Iowa, a Division I opponent, and Southern Illinois Edwardsville.

In the singles championships, CSUN’s Missy Conn upset top-seeded Christina Bokelund of Southern Illinois in a second-round match, then No. 6-seeded Mary Holycross of Cal Poly Pomona in the quarterfinals. Conn, who was unseeded, finally lost to Nancy Roe, the eventual champion, in the semifinals.

Nicolas Renard was the only CSUN men’s player to qualify for the men’s individual singles championships. He made an early exit in the competition, but couldn’t have been too disappointed. He had already made airline reservations to leave for France on what would have been the date of the semifinals. The men’s team finished third in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. with a record of 6-4, 10-11 overall.

The roster included a recovering drug addict, players from South Korea, Israel and Mexico, a Greek coach and two full-time students from UCLA.

For the Pierce men’s tennis team, it was the combination that earned the Woodland Hills school its 10th straight Metropolitan Conference championship.

It wasn’t a traditional cast of characters. Castoffs might be a better description.

The team’s No. 1 player, Nelson Gary III, was involved with LSD and other hallucinogens before undergoing rehabilitation about a year ago.

“He wasn’t into recreation,” said his father, Nelson Gary II. “He was into space walking.”

At Pierce, Gary was into winning, but only as a hobby.

“Sometimes,” he said, “I just don’t want to be out there. I enjoy the game, but I don’t love it. It’s just a hobby. I really don’t have any goals with it.”

Joining Gary were two student who couldn’t make the tennis team at UCLA, so they attended both schools in order to play and continue their educations.

Together with three foreign students, Pierce raised Coach Paul Xanthos’ record to 386-80, including 16-1 in the Metro over the last 10 years.

“This is one of the most enjoyable teams I’ve ever had,” Xanthos said. “They probably improved more than any team I’ve ever had.

“They think they’re great, and I’m not going to argue with them.”

SWIMMING

Two long streaks of the CSUN men’s swim team came to an end this season--both at the hands of Cal State Bakersfield.

For the first time in Pete Accardy’s 17 years as coach, the men’s team lost a dual meet to a Division II opponent, dropping a 71-42 decision to Bakersfield.

Bakersfield also won the national championship, ending CSUN’s five-year hold on the title.

Another streak was kept alive, however. Since 1974, CSUN has never finished worse than second at the national meet. The Matadors, led by Jeff Kubiak’s three wins, finished behind Bakersfield by a 549-438 margin. Kubiak, who was voted by coaches the meet’s outstanding swimmer, set a national record in the 200-yard individual medley and also won the 200-yard breaststroke and 400-yard individual medley.

Blair Nogosek unseated teammate Roland King as national champion of one-meter diving.

CSUN’s women’s team won a CCAA championship and, behind freshmen Tina Schnare and Stacy Mettam, also placed second in the nation.

Schnare set national records in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststrokes, while Mettam won the 100 backstroke and missed setting a national record by .12 of a second. Both women were also members of CSUN’s 200 and 400 medley relay teams that set national records.

Pierce College swimming Coach Eldin Onsgard did more than pay lip service to the importance of academics in concert with athletics.

After his team finished second in the Metropolitan Conference finals and qualified nine swimmers for the state meet in La Jolla, Onsgard allowed only six athletes to make the trip.

All nine of the swimmers were eligible under state standards, but that wasn’t good enough for Onsgard.

“A couple of the swimmers let their academics slip below our team standards,” Onsgard said. “We’re not in this for the athletics only.”

The Pierce men’s team placed 13th at the state finals. Freshman co-captain Norm Skorge, the Metro Swimmer of the Year in a vote by conference coaches, was 10th in the 200-yard butterfly. Fellow co-captain Brad Hermanson, who was undefeated during the regular season in the 400-yard individual medley, was 16th in the 200-yard backstroke.

The Pierce women wound up 16th at the state meet.

VOLLEYBALL

The CSUN men’s volleyball team had it’s finest season ever, finishing eighth in the California Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn., the strongest conference in the nation.

The Matadors upset San Diego State and UC Santa Barbara at home when both teams were ranked in the top 10 in the nation, according to Volleyball Monthly Magazine. CSUN was 6-14 in conference and 17-19 overall.

“We had a really good year,” Coach John Price said. “It’s hard for the average person to understand that because of the league we’re in. There are not too many sports where eight of the top 10 teams in the country are all in the same league.”

Never mind that there were less than 10 men’s volleyball teams in the state, or that they all played in one conference. When Pierce College defeated Golden West to win the Southern California Championship, it was a state title.

Pierce was in its own world anyway. The Brahmas won the South Coast Conference with a 14-0 record. In all, they won 23 straight matches to finish the season at 24-1.

In two years, Coach Ken Stanley had taken a team from scratch and made it the best in the state.

THE TOP STORIES OF 1985-86

Because of budget cutbacks, the L.A. Community College District in February initiated layoffs to 157 full-time teachers, including 39 in physical education. The result was sweeping cutbacks in district athletics programs, including the termination of the Pierce football and men’s basketball teams. Already, 15 teams at Los Angeles schools have been eliminated by the Southern California Conference because those schools could not guarantee that they would field teams next year.

In June, after 16 years, 11 conference titles, 3 state championships and 418 wins, Mike Gillespie left College of the Canyons to become the baseball coach at USC. He replaced the winningest college baseball coach ever. “You don’t replace guys like Rod Dedeaux,” said Gillespie an hour after he did. Gillespie, who led Canyons to this year’s state title, had the inside track on the Trojan job because of his ties to the university. He was a former Trojan and a longtime Dedeaux favorite.

Bob Burt, formerly an assistant at Cal State Fullerton, replaced CSUN Coach Tom Keele, who was fired after a dismal season. Two weeks after the announcement of Keele’s termination, the NCAA revealed that he had held an illegal tryout for kickers. Afterward, Keele told The Times: “I have no comment. I will have no comment tomorrow. I will have no comment at any point.” Keele coached at CSUN for seven seasons, posting a 31-42-1 record. CSUN was 4-7 last year.

Jim Fenwick, who coached Pierce College for five years and led the Brahmas to two conference championships and three postseason bowl games, left the Brahma football program in February to become an assistant at Cal State Northridge. In his last three years at Pierce, Fenwick was 28-5. Fenwick went out a winner, leading Pierce to a 27-14 victory over Moorpark in the inaugural Brahma Bowl, which since has been canceled. In June, Pierce dropped its football program.

The Cal State Northridge women’s softball team was unable to capture its fourth consecutive NCAA Division II national championship. In May, Stephen F. Austin University of Texas won its first title in the College World Series. “Every summer after we won, I’d go lay out in the sun and think ‘I’m part of the best team in the nation,’ ” said Barbara Jordan, a two-time All-American center fielder, after the loss. “This summer it’s going to be different.”

In May, College of the Canyons came out of the losers’ bracket to win the 1986 California Community College State Baseball Championship. Pitcher Frank Halcovich won 15 games, including two in the state tournament, and lost none. Before the state tournament, Halcovich, who was the losing pitcher in Canyons’ championship loss to Cerritos the year before, said: “I had a chance last year and I let it get away. I’m not going to let it get away two years in a row.” He didn’t.

In December, the CSUN women’s volleyball team made its fourth straight trip to the NCAA Division II final, but lost to Portland State for the second straight season. Shelli Mosby and Heather Hafner earned first-team All-American honors. CSUN had defended its California Collegiate Athletic Assn. title and was 27-10 overall. After the loss in Portland, Hafner said: “We knew we had played one of our best matches of the year. . . . It was a good way to go out.”