The Preps / Scott Howard-Cooper : Turley Keeps Getting In His Kicks for Diamond Bar

Don Garrett must be living right.

As soccer coach at Walnut High School in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, he worked with Paul Caligiuri, later a star at UCLA and a member of the U.S. national team, and Mike Brocki, later a standout at Cal State Dominguez Hills, and Jeff Hooker, who went on to become an American Olympian and U.S. national team player.

Garrett left Walnut in 1981 and moved to Diamond Bar High, but he stayed away from soccer. Until this season. And now, suddenly, he finds himself with another star. This one, perhaps as opposed to those he had at Walnut, could not be attributed to grooming.

Craig Turley established himself as a standout years before.

“He is every bit as good as they were,” Garrett said, comparing Turley to the Walnut trio. “To watch him play, he’s just amazing.

“I worked with the California Surf (as vice president of the booster club) and I know some of the pro players. He has the ability to be at that level right now.”

Right now, Turley, a senior, is the third-leading goal scorer in American high school history, the best-ever in the Southern Section and the California Interscholastic Federation.

After scoring 17 times as a freshman, 56 times as a sophomore--No. 3 in Southern Section single-season history and No. 9 in the country--and 48 times as a junior, he has 39 goals this season and has led the Brahmas to a 10-3-1 record.

That gives him a career total of 160 goals--48 short of second place on the national list and 58 shy of the all-time mark of 213 by Sean Shapert of Corapolis Moon, Pa., from 1981-84. Ralph Petrosian, who played for Montebello from 1974-77, was No. 4 at the start of this season with 147.

Diamond Bar has just nine games left before the playoffs, so even Turley doesn’t have much hope for moving up the list.

“Even if things go well, it’s still a longshot,” he said. “Even if I score five goals a game the rest of the way, that’s only 45 and I would still be short. Plus, it’ll get tougher as the season goes on. I’ll be marked a lot tighter as we go around the league a second time.”

Then again, it hasn’t helped many of the Brahmas’ opponents, and Turley certainly built his reputation before the 1986-87 season. He had five goals in the Sierra League opener against Rowland last Thursday, a 7-0 Diamond Bar win, the third time this season he has had such a scoring burst in a game.

And to think that he may not even play soccer in college.

As a shortstop-second baseman, he has caught the attention of several Pacific 10 Conference schools. He hopes to continue in both sports but concedes that he will chose baseball if a choice has to be made. He hit .596 in league play and .438 overall last season en route to second-team all-league and third-team All-Southern Section honors as a junior.

The City soccer playoffs move into the quarterfinal round today, with two Mid-Valley League teams alive.

Sun Valley Poly of the East Valley will play host to Garfield of the Eastern, Granada Hills Kennedy of the Mid-Valley will be at Venice of the Western, Van Nuys Grant of the Mid-Valley will be at Belmont of the Northern and San Pedro of the Marine will play host to Chatsworth of the West Valley. Grant, second-place finisher behind Kennedy, is the only non-league champion still playing.

All games will begin at 2:30 p.m.

Manhattan Beach Mira Costa placed four players on the girls’ volleyball All-American team as selected by Volleyball Monthly, among them Megan McCallister, who also was named Player of the Year. Holly McPeak also made the first team. Lisa Arce and Kerry Trieschman were second-team selections.

Leanna Merriweather of Ojai Nordhoff and twins Maria and Nora Reyes of state Division I champion Oxnard Hueneme joined McCallister and McPeak on the first team, with Jill Johnson of Cerritos Gahr, Amy Svikhart of Nordhoff and sophomore Beverly Oden of Irvine on the second team.

California and Illinois each had 19 selections. Indiana, with two, was the only other state with more than one. Junior Cheri Boyer of Poway of the San Diego Section, an all-tournament pick at Glendale this past season, was the only non-senior on the first team.

Fairfax is ranked No. 1 in Division I in the first statewide basketball poll by Cal-Hi Sports, with Santa Ana Mater Dei No. 2, Simi Valley No. 5, Santa Monica St. Monica No. 6, Huntington Beach Ocean View No. 7, Long Beach Millikan No. 9, Compton Dominguez No. 10, Reseda Cleveland No. 11 and Huntington Beach Marina No. 14.

San Francisco Riordan, which lost to Fairfax by nine points, is No. 4 after losing Chris Munk and Terrance Mullins to graduation. Munk is at USC and Mullins at Oklahoma.

Rolling Hills leads Division II, followed by Anaheim Katella No. 3, Irvine Woodbridge No. 7, Newport Beach Corona del Mar No. 9, and Oxnard Santa Clara No. 10.

Another Southern California team, Whittier Christian, leads Division III, with Santa Monica Crossroads No. 4, Cerritos Whitney No. 6 and San Bernardino Aquinas No. 7.

The Los Angeles area has no division leaders among the girls, with Point Loma of the San Diego Section No. 1 in Division I.