Scouts Volunteer to Help Schools Find New Stars : They Shape the Future With a Word

Among their number are a former newspaper reporter, a bank vice president, a sporting goods store employee and a man who makes his living on real estate.

Some attend hundreds of games a season and are frequently recognized, though most would prefer not to be.

And although they have no official connection with high schools or colleges, their word can make--and sometimes break--the scholarship prospects of a high school athlete who plays a non-revenue sport.

With funds too limited to hire assistant coaches to recruit, and without much published scouting information available in such sports as soccer, volleyball, girls’ basketball and softball, college coaches often depend on the advice of trusted field agents, titleless people whose word is their work or hobby--but it’s only as good as the last player they recommended.

“These people serve an extremely important role for us,” said Al Mistri, Cal State Fullerton soccer coach.

“It’s physically impossible to see every player, so consequently you have to rely on people who are outside. If someone has a good track record, we will definitely listen to them, although we would never think about giving any aid without going to see them ourselves.”

Most of these unofficial scouts have coached at some level, whether it be privately, for a club team, as a volunteer high school coach or as a college assistant.

Len Locher of Ventura, formerly a sportswriter and once a volunteer high school assistant coach, became so involved in his hobby of tracking girls’ basketball talent that two years ago he began publishing a player evaluation list. For $200, a college coach can buy his Western Girls’ Athletic Service list, which is published several times a year and lists nearly 800 players.

Locher estimates he sees more than 300 games a season. Like it or not, players, parents and fans know who he is, said Locher, who won’t distribute his list to the general public.

“Sometimes there are attitude problems, and I basically try to tell it like it is,” Locher said.

Locher said he evaluates a player only after seeing her play in person--he discounts both word of mouth and videotape, which he said can hide flaws and can’t show quickness.

“I think anybody who runs a service realizes there are going to be mistakes,” Locher said, adding that he hadn’t heard of anyone he has been wrong about. “If you identify talent after seeing one game, you know you might have seen a bad game.

“A lot of people make a big deal because I’m probably one of the more influential people around,” he said. “I’m here to help kids. There are some kids I don’t like, and there are some people I don’t like, but I don’t use the list to grind axes.”

Locher said he sometimes makes an appearance at tournaments so people can see him.

“I want them to see that Len’s there, so they can’t say I’m making statements and not going and seeing the players,” he said. “That’s my name that goes on the list.”

Charlie Brande of Newport Beach, who coaches two county club volleyball teams, was coach at Corona del Mar High School until September 1986. He was once an assistant at volleyball powers UCLA and Hawaii, where one of his responsibilities was recruiting. But contrary to what you’d expect, he was no star recruiter.

“I was the worst recruiter ever,” said Brande, who manages real estate holdings and owns a Costa Mesa sporting goods store.

Brande once asked a top recruit who was considering Hawaii which was most important to her--academics, volleyball, social life or environment. When the player said academics and mentioned she had been accepted to Stanford, Brande told her to go there--much to the displeasure of his boss, the head coach.

Now Brande acts as a middleman, with loyalty to no school. College coaches call him, and he recommends players from his teams and other teams. Six players he has recommended have gone to the University of the Pacific, the defending women’s NCAA national champion, and others are spread throughout California and as far east as Rhode Island.

And although Brande says his goal is to do what is best for the players, he holds his reputation as a judge of talent.

“My word is kind of my work,” Brande said. “Those guys (coaches) are my friends, and I can’t tell them Jane Smith can play if Jane Smith can’t play in college.”

Brande is wary that sometimes players think he can secure scholarships for them, says he likes to keep a low profile and rarely approaches the players himself.

“I would rather stay behind the scenes and talk to the college coach,” he said. “I think it’s healthier. I don’t want someone to think that by getting to know me or talking to me something will happen.”

Roger Wyett of Huntington Beach, who coaches a boys’ club soccer team, sees a need for impartial assessment of ability.

“I think one of the things is that you see a lot of people who say the same things: ‘My program or my player is the best,’ ” he said. “At the end of the day, though, the kid has to live by that.”

Wyett said he has made connections for players who have gone to UCLA, Westmont, Southern Methodist, Nevada Las Vegas, UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton, among others.

“I’m a big believer that it’s not me who makes the decision, but that I make the opportunities and open the doors,” Wyett said.

“I don’t want to be known as someone powerful,” he said. “I like to be low-level. . . . Sometimes people can get carried away with their own importance.

“It’s kind of nice to go watch players you’ve known. It’s the biggest exciting feeling if you’ve known them since they were 15 and helped them along, to know in some small way you helped them.”

Don Sarno, a Brea resident who is a senior vice president of a bank in Los Angeles, is a former softball player and a member of the International Softball Congress Softball Hall of Fame. His hobby is volunteer coaching of high school and college pitchers, and he frequently gets calls from coaches looking for players.

Like the others, Sarno is meticulous with his reputation as a judge of talent.

“If I say yes, I feel pretty confident the player can participate at that level,” said Sarno, who says he has yet to miss on a player. “I try to be very candid.”

But although Sarno said he can help them on the way, he doesn’t secure a scholarship for any player.

“They’re going to get their own scholarship by hard work,” he said. “I don’t like to say I get them a scholarship. They get it themselves.”