BRIEFLY : Northridge Signs 3 Football Recruits

Cal State Northridge announced the signing of three football recruits on Friday, including Scott Hughes, a 6-3, 250-pound center who signed with Northridge after Wichita State dropped its program. Hughes, a senior, was a starter for Wichita last season.

Dennis McConnhay, a 6-0, 240-pound defensive lineman from Sierra College, also has committed to CSUN. McConnhay, who went to high school in Hawaii, is expected to battle for the nose tackle position vacated by two-time All-Western Football Conference selection Darryl McIntyre.

Also signed on Friday was Mario Napili, an all-state running back from Sierra. Napili, 5-10, 205, averaged 7.9 yards a carry in rushing for 1,200 yards last season. He will battle Richard Brown and Lance Harper for playing time. Brown and Harper were backups to All-American Mike Kane last season.

Southwest Brings Back Football for 1987

There will be at least three football programs in the Los Angeles Community College District in 1987, one more than last season.

Southwest College, one of four schools to drop the sport last June in the wake of faculty layoffs in the district, will bring back football now that athletic director and Coach Henry Washington Jr. has been rehired, school President Thomas Lakin said Wednesday.

East L.A. and West L.A. Colleges are also interested in reinstating football next season, but do not yet have coaches. Pierce, the fourth school to drop football, will try to restore the program by 1988.

Valley and Harbor were the only district schools to field football teams last season. Harbor filled a coaching vacancy left by the resignation of George Swade by hiring Chris Ferragamo on Wednesday.

National Volleyball Poll Reads Like WIVA

The season’s first coaches’ poll ranks the Cal State Northridge men’s volleyball team No. 14 in the nation. That may be good by national standards, but it isn’t even average among Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. teams.

Pepperdine, the two-time defending NCAA Division I champion, is rated No. 1, followed by UCLA (No. 2), USC (No. 4), UC Santa Barbara (No. 5), Cal State Long Beach (No. 7), Stanford (No. 8), Hawaii (No. 9), San Diego State (No. 11), Northridge and Loyola Marymount (No. 15).

The fact that all 10 WIVA teams are ranked among the nation’s top 15 is not surprising. A team from the conference has won every national championship in the sport.

CSUN Player Awaits Word After Tryout

Reggie Wauls, a former linebacker from Cal State Northridge, participated in a two-day tryout for the Winnipeg Jets of the Canadian Football League three weeks ago. He has not been contacted since.

Former Matador quarterback Chris Parker also has gained the attention of CFL scouts. “If someone gives Chris a chance, I think he could be a good quarterback for that league,” CSUN Coach Bob Burt said.

State Champion Lifter to Compete

Steve Jellinek and Chris Altieri of Cal State Northridge will be among the competitors at the Southern Pacific Weightlifting Championships at Van Nuys High on Sunday.

Jellinek was 1984 state champion in the 132-pound class. He will compete this year at 165.

NOTABLE

John Martens, formerly of Newbury Park High and San Diego State, has accepted an offer to play professional basketball in Auckland, New Zealand. Martens, who averaged 14 points and 8.5 rebounds last season as a senior, has been an assistant coach at San Diego State this season.

The league, which consists of 10 teams, “is comparable to a top NCAA league,” Martens said. “I’ll be leaving Feb. 28.”

The season lasts from mid-April to August. Martens said the Auckland team will provide him with a salary, car and an apartment.

Pete Kuld, who broke a school record for home runs (17) last season at College of the Canyons, will be the starting catcher for the Pepperdine baseball team, according to Wave Coach Dave Gorrie. Kuld, who batted .376 for Canyons last season, declined an offer from the Chicago White Sox last May. Pepperdine is rated No. 8 in the Collegiate Baseball preseason poll. Doug Simons of Woodland Hills, who was 6-1 with a 2.51 earned-run average last season at Pepperdine, is expected to be a member of the starting pitching rotation for the Waves.

Dave Russell of Canoga Park shot even par 72 to finish in a tie for second place in a Golden State Tour golf event at the Showbridge Country Club on Monday. Russell, who shared second place with Jim Empey of Los Angeles, John Burckle of Newport Beach, Rick Ewing of Palm Springs and Scott Regner of Long Beach, won $725. Jim Plotkin of San Bernardino, who won with a 71, earned $1,200.

Bob Allen, a former All-City baseball player at Granada Hills High, has committed to play this summer for the Valley Dodgers, an amateur team based in Northridge. Allen, a Times All-Valley outfielder last spring, is currently playing at UCLA as a freshman walk-on. Allen is expected to sign a National Baseball Congress contract today. The Valley Dodgers finished seventh in last summer’s NBC World Series in Wichita, Kan.