The Preps / Scott Howard-Cooper : USC’s Smith Hits Recruiting Trail--on Foot and Phone

Larry Smith, who was named football coach at USC only last Friday, has already jumped into the Trojans’ recruiting with both feet, and a dialing finger.

No recruiting was done after Ted Tollner was fired in early December, so it was left to Smith and his staff to try to catch up.

Quarterback Jim Bonds of Newhall Hart, for instance, had scratched the Trojans off his list. So had quarterback Ken Sollom of Canyon Country Canyon. And linebacker Corey Brown of Inglewood Morningside. And lineman Brian Kelly of South Torrance.

“We have been working double time to keep after the kids we liked while at Arizona and to secure the kids the Trojans had already been working on,” said Gary Bernardi, a former Fountain Valley High assistant who spent the past four years as the Wildcats’ recruiting coordinator and has moved to USC with Smith. “The last 2 1/2 days, we were hammering the phones pretty good.”

Kelly, for one, had received four calls from Smith and his assistants by the end of the weekend, and Brown had heard from them a couple of times. By Sunday, they, Sollom and Kelly all had decided to visit USC. Lineman Scott Spalding of El Toro and defensive back Marvin Pollard of Wilmington Banning also are planning trips, and lineman James Rae of Anaheim Esperanza is giving the Trojans a “probably.”

“USC had been kind of dim,” said Pollard, who is also considering Texas, Illinois, Georgia, Arizona State and Washington. “Coach Smith coming kind of put them back on the tracks.

“I don’t really think I want to go away from home. I like USC a lot now. Coach Smith getting the job makes it a better place. Right now, it’s No. 1. I was going to trip Arizona when he was there.”

Said Bonds: “I think I was more interested in Larry Smith than Arizona.”

Rae, Spalding, Kelly, Brown and Bonds will also visit UCLA. Sollom is also looking at Michigan, Arizona, and possibly Purdue.

Add Trojans: Smith has been encouraging prospects to visit and consider Arizona if trips had been planned before. Still, you can’t help but wonder what kind of switch pitch the Wildcat recruiters are giving.

“It’s kind of funny,” Spalding said a few hours after getting off the phone with assistant coach Chris Allen. “He says, ‘Arizona is a great school, but I’m a Trojan now.’ ”

Chris Hite, Newhall Hart’s All-Northwestern Conference running back, said he will probably cancel his Arizona visit. He is going to Oregon this weekend and Utah after that but is hoping Smith will keep him on his want-list with USC.

Arizona State recruiting has been looking rosy.

The Sun Devils will not have to contend with Smith at Arizona anymore, after losing five straight meetings, and have scored a Rose Bowl victory on national television, which is likely to impress prospects. Moreover, Smith’s move puts recruiting at arch-rival Arizona in limbo until the Wildcats come up with a replacement.

End of an era: When Oakton Flint Hill Prep of Virginia defeated Santa Ana Mater Dei Saturday for the championship of the Pine Bluff basketball invitational in Arkansas, it was the first time the Monarchs had lost a tournament game since December of 1982, when Long Beach Poly beat them in the second round of the Tournament of Champions. In between, they won 12 straight tournament titles.

Prep Notes Corey Brown will visit USC after seeing Washington, Colorado or Oklahoma, and Michigan or UCLA--but he is leaning toward playing outside of Southern California. “There might be a big turn for USC,” he said. “But like I said, I’m not sure I want to stay in L.A.” . . . Jim Bonds and Ken Sollom both visited Bo Schembechler and the University of Michigan football team last week at Mt. San Antonio College, where the Wolverines were practicing for the Rose Bowl. . . . The Encino Crespi football team finished sixth in the year-end rankings by the National Sports News Service of Tempe, Ariz., with Carson 11th and Wilmington Banning 14th. Fair enough, but it might be a little tough to sell the idea that Carson’s win over Banning for the City 4-A title was the upset of the year in the United States, as the service claims. . . . Robert Webster, swimming coach at Newport Beach Newport Harbor, on receiving an expenses-paid trip to Capanduva, Brazil, to speak at a swimming clinic: “I can’t believe it. I must have done something right to get this late Christmas present. I’ve never even heard of Capanduva. It sounded like Katmandu, so I figured, hey, I’m there.” Webster spent New Year’s Eve in Rio de Janeiro before heading to the six-day clinic Jan. 2. . . . Scott Magers, former baseball player at USC, has been named coach at Laguna Beach.