Orange County Prep Review : Teams Get Relief From Weather

The tropical storm system that hit Southern California on Saturday, knocking out electric power to more than 430,000 customers and causing several small fires, somehow missed Dodger Stadium, where four Southern Section divisional championship baseball games were played.

A light rain fell for about 10 minutes between the 1-A and 2-A title games, just enough to water the infield but not enough to bring out the tarps. Southern Section administrators thought the uncertain weather conditions were responsible for the small crowd of 8,258 but were grateful the games were completed.

“We would have had to go to games on Tuesday and Wednesday at alternate sites of the designated home teams if the games were canceled Saturday,” said Bill Clark, the section administrator in charge of baseball.

“It would have caused some problems. First, we would have been out the $5,000 we paid to rent Dodger Stadium. Then we would have had to refund all the fans who had bought pre-sale tickets because you can’t charge admission at most high school facilities.

“Finally, there would have been the disappointment for the players who looked forward to playing in Dodger Stadium. For most of them, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We were lucky to get the games in.”

Bob Who?: Bob Zamora, Capistrano Valley baseball coach, was conspicuously absent in the 92-page championship program that was sold Saturday.

Zamora had been suspended from the playoffs before the Cougars’ quarterfinal game against Central of El Centro because he had invited three of his players to compete on a semi-pro team on Sundays.

The program listed assistant Craig Anderson as the Cougars’ head coach, and the public address announcer named Anderson as the head coach during the lineup introductions. Zamora’s name and his suspension were never mentioned in the program. Clark refused to comment when asked about the omission.

For the record, Zamora is the Cougars’ head coach. He built the program at Capistrano Valley from scratch and developed it into one of the finest in Orange County. He even designed the field.

Zamora violated a section rule and was punished. But no one should ignore the fact that he is the school’s head baseball coach or that he was suspended for violating the rules.

Unemployed: Bruce King, Troy High baseball coach, announced his resignation after the Warriors’ 7-4 victory over Arlington in the 3-A title game. King, a walk-on coach, had submitted his resignation on Monday, but he waited to make the announcement.

King resigned out of frustration over his inability to secure a full-time teaching position at the school, where he has coached for the past two seasons.

“I want to coach, but I have to face reality,” King said. “I need a teaching position, and this district only gives teaching jobs to head football and basketball coaches and band leaders.”

King played on the league championship team at Troy in 1970. The victory over Arlington gave the Warriors their first Southern Section title in the school’s 25-year history.

Honor Roll: Five county football players have been selected to Scholastic Coach magazine’s list of the top 100 juniors in the nation.

The team, selected by a committee of college and high school coaches and sports writers, features 11 players from the state.

Running backs Kaleaph Carter of Edison and Robert Lee of Santa Ana, quarterbacks Todd Marinovich of Capistrano Valley and Bret Johnson of El Toro and linebacker Mike Petko of Servite were named to the team.

Prep Notes

Kevin Loftus, an assistant to Jim Perry at La Quinta, has been named to replace Ron Craig as Cypress’ basketball coach. Loftus, an instructor at Los Alamitos High, will serve in a walk-on capacity. . . . Craig Paquette of Rancho Alamitos has decided not to play for the North team that will participate in the Orange County All-Star basketball game scheduled for June 20 in UC Irvine’s Bren Center. Paquette, who will play in the county’s all-star baseball game on June 16, was replaced by Mark Rudometkin of Troy. . . . Kelli Moore of Los Alamitos, the county’s female athlete of the year, was forced to drop out of the girls’ all-star basketball game because of a nagging ankle injury suffered in a softball game two weeks ago. Moore injured her ankle sliding. Tickets for the all-star game are available at all Ticketron outlets and the Bren Center ticket office. . . . Former Troy infielder Steve Russell was awarded Cal State Los Angeles’ 10th man award after hitting .378 in 22 games. . . . An Esperanza High School booster club is organizing a girls’ high school summer league similar to the seven-year-old Orange County Summer Soccer League, a 20-team boys’ league. Girls’ teams interested in competing in the five-week program beginning June 23 should contact Joe Ferraro at 797-5973.