Small Colleges : Nojima Wins Postgraduate Scholarship

John Nojima has always been considered a heady ballplayer and to the NCAA, that’s worth something.

The senior from Cal State Dominguez Hills is one of 10 basketball players nationwide--and the only one from Division II--to be awarded a $2,000 postgraduate scholarship by the NCAA to be used toward a master’s degree.

Nojima, who started 71 straight games for the Toros and earned second-team all-conference honors this season in helping Dominguez Hills to the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. title, has managed to maintain a 3.89 grade-point average going into his last semester.

Nojima, a business administration major, said he plans to pursue a master’s degree in that field. He has already been accepted at Loyola Marymount and also has applications in at USC and Claremont College.

Nojima was also one of 15 California finalists interviewed over the winter by the Rhodes Scholarship committee.

“This is like going to the Final Four,” Toro Coach Dave Yanai said. “I really believe this is tougher than making All-American. This is only 10 guys from the whole country.”

Nojima said he was surprised to win the scholarship because he hadn’t been picked as an Academic All-American by the Sports Information Directors of America. Players apply individually for the NCAA scholarships, needing athletic department and faculty recommendations.

“I figured one of those six guys who got All-American would get the scholarship,” Nojima said. “I was surprised. I was pretty excited.”

He also said that a couple of high-level math classes have kept him from a straight-A average. “Ever since high school, I’ve gotten B’s in math,” he admitted. It’s enough to make a scholar-athlete blush.

Nojima, a high scorer at North Torrance High who struggled to find his college playing identity for several seasons, was made the team’s point guard as a junior and seemed to grow into the job as a senior.

He also rediscovered his side-winding long range shot just in time to take advantage of the three-point rule. Nojima led the CCAA with 74 three-pointers, including eight in one game, and finished second in school listings with 306 assists.

But Nojima’s playing days are over and he is ready for the next step--a master’s in management consulting, and possibly law school afterward.

“I felt lucky enough to play as much as I did,” he said. “Any other school or under any other coach, I would’ve sat on the bench. If I could, I would (continue playing) but basketball took me this far. And I know school’s more important.”

It’s a lesson some of his peers have trouble learning. For Nojima it paid off.

Redlands baseball Coach Ken Miller nominates first baseman Tom Giannelli as the strongest hitter in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Giannelli, a 6-4, 230-pound senior who has been a three-year starter since transfering from UCLA, is one of the hottest hitters in the SCIAC with a .438 league average and overall marks of .372, 7 home runs and 30 runs batted in through 30 games. But it is where Giannelli hits the ball that has impressed Miller--and several professional scouts.

In a game against Cal State San Bernardino, Giannelli hit what Miller calls “the longest home run I have ever seen.” According to Miller, the ball sailed over the fence at the 375-foot mark “and went about 110 feet past--that ball went 475 or 485 feet.”

Miller said that Giannelli hit another homer into a condo development beyond the fence at Redlands, another shot in the 450-foot range.

Julie Curtis of Whittier became the first woman from the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference to receive Kodak basketball All-American honors four straight years when she was named to the Western Regional team last week.

The all-time scoring leader in the SCIAC with 2,433 points, the senior scored in double figures in 99 of 100 games, was most valuable player in five tournaments and is a dean’s list student. She’s also a pretty good softball player, having led Division III in home runs as a junior.

How dominant is Occidental in SCIAC women’s track? In a recent triangular meet with Pomona-Pitzer and LaVerne, Oxy’s Michele Trimble won the 800, 1,500 and 3,000-meter runs. Teammate Cresey Stewart placed second in all three and Amy Cathcart third.

A week later against UC Santa Barbara, Trimble was equally impressive, winning the 1,500 and running the 3,000 in 10:05.03 to qualify for the Division III national meet.

Trimble, a sophomore, has been the conference’s top distance runner since she entered school, and Occidental is trying to win its eighth straight women’s SCIAC track and field title.

Small-College Notes Gymnasts Mimi Phene and Kimm Zernik of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo received All-American status on the uneven parallel bars, and teammate Kim Weeks made All-American in balance beam. They led Cal Poly to a sixth-place team finish in Division II, its best ever. Monica Mayes of Cal State Northridge placed seventh in the vault for an All-American listing. . . . Golfer Chip Haugen of Cal State San Bernardino sank a hole in one in competition against Pomona-Pitzer. The junior aced the 164-yard ninth hole at Mountain Meadows. . . . The San Bernardino tennis team is led by La Verne Ediline, who is 10-2 in singles and 9-2 in doubles. She’s 52 years old. . . . One of the Cal Baptist baseball team’s vans broke down on the way to Fresno and only 12 players made it to a game at West Coast Christian, where they compiled a school-record 22 hits in a 16-8 victory. In another victory over Christ College, Baptist’s Barry Henderson stole five bases.