AROUND THE LEAGUES : Incompetent Organization at Meet Forces Track Athletes to Hurdle Extra Obstacles

In direct counterpoint to the excellence exhibited on the track, the administration of this year’s state track and field championships in Sacramento was characterized by inept and incompetent organization. The normally dramatic meet was overshadowed by a comedy of errors.

Results were two to three hours late. Officials’ rulings were inconsistent and frequently wrong. And on Friday night, when results were hopelessly behind and incomplete, meet directors left to attend a party.

The girls 300-meter low hurdles, however, may have been the topper.

Effie Daetz of Leigh High in San Jose won the third heat on Friday, but was disqualified for dragging her trail leg around the final hurdle. With Daetz disqualified, Thousand Oaks’ Staci Leach qualified for Saturday’s final with the ninth fastest time.

Or did she?

Before the night was over, Daetz was reinstated, disqualified and reinstated again. When Leach left the meet Friday night she was in the final. When she arrived Saturday afternoon, she was out.

Following a protest by Thousand Oaks Coach Art Green on Saturday, Leach was back in, running in lane 10.

The fiasco continued until the last moment.

Seconds before the race, with the runners called to the set position, an official was forced to delay the start because several extra hurdles hadn’t been removed from the track and were scattered throughout lane 10 in the home straight.

My darling Klement time: Senior shortstop Teri Klement wields the biggest bat in the Sylmar softball lineup. Last week against Banning, Klement had three hits, including a home run, triple and four runs batted in. Sylmar (13-4), champion of the North Valley League, has beaten Birmingham, Narbonne and Banning on its way to today’s City Section 4-A showdown with four-time defending champion El Camino Real at Cal State Northridge. Sylmar lost to El Camino Real, 1-0, earlier in the season, but the Spartans have improved since then, especially on offense. “I think we stunned Banning,” Sylmar Coach Jeff Tumin said. “They had beat us in the preseason, but we came out and hit the ball hard.” Senior Deanna Monroy (12-3) will pitch against El Camino Real’s Jodi Iwafuchi (14-0) and the Conquistadores’ 73-game win streak. “We’re just talking about playing our game,” Tumin said. “Let them worry about their streak.”

Brotherly love: Playing doubles for the Birmingham tennis team, which lost to Palisades, 26 1/2-2, in the 4-A City Section semifinals, was a family affair this season. The No. 1 and No. 2 doubles teams for Birmingham consisted of brothers. Scott and Bobby Saltzman were 12-2 as the No. 1 team. The second doubles team of Jeff and Gary Rosenfield was 8-1. Both sets of brothers said the season was a positive experience for them. “We’ve been close all our life,” Gary Rosenfield said. “Playing together brought us closer together.” The Saltzman’s felt the same way. “I didn’t think we could do it because we argued a lot when we played with each other in the summer,” Scott Saltzman said. “But after working with him for a while I got used to playing with him. It was fun.”

Valley 1-2 punch: Westlake (362) and Taft (388) finished first and second in Monday’s CIF/Southern California Golf Assn. team championships at North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village. Westlake’s brother act of Mike and Chris Zambri and teammate Jimmy Chang qualified for the California amateur high school individual championship June 21 at Poppy Hills in Pebble Beach. Mike Zambri (142), Chris Zambri (143) and Chang (144) finished 2-3-4 behind Phil Mickelson (139) of University in San Diego. Westlake’s 26-stroke margin of victory in the team scoring set a CIF record.

Low voltage: A long season may have taken its toll on Taft’s Quincy Watts. The Taft junior won the 100 and 200 meters at Saturday’s CIF state track championships, however, his times of 10.49 and 20.99 were slower than expected. He had to run down fast-starting Calvin Holmes of Carson (10.50) in the final five meters of the 100.

Watts planned to run at The Athletics Congress junior championships in Tucson, Ariz., from June 16-20, but Taft assistant Nick Newton said he may not. “Quincy told me afterward that he felt tired and fatigued,” Newton said Saturday night. “That’s the first time he’s told me that all year. I don’t want him running at the TAC meet if he’s worn out. That’s a great way to get injured.”

Coaching changes: Tom Richards, who coached the Sylmar football team the past eight years, will share the coaching duties at Birmingham with Alan Epstein next season. Richards, 51, retired after last season, but said the offer to coach only the defense and offensive line at Birmingham was appealing. He also will transfer to Birmingham and teach driver’s education. “I don’t have to schedule passing leagues, battle with eligibility problems and fund-raising,” Richards said. “I’ll just be coaching.” Richards will install his successful 5-2 defense at Birmingham, which has used a 4-4 under Epstein.

Jeff Halpern, who coached Birmingham to the City 3-A basketball final last season in his only year as head coach, has filled the assistant coaching vacancy at College of the Canyons left by Greg Herrick, who last month became basketball coach at Hart High. Halpern, 43, will continue to teach at Birmingham.

The Braves have only one player returning, sixth man Jason Moore. Said Halpern: “People are saying that I’m getting out at the right time. It’s still a good job.” Halpern is trying to get Ennerea Maxwell, Birmingham’s star senior center last season, to attend Canyons. “It’s the best situation for him,” Halpern said. “Even before I took the job there, I thought College of the Canyons was the best choice for him.”

Taft Athletic Director Larry Messenger said he is looking outside the school staff to find a replacement for baseball Coach Art Martinez, who was removed at the end of the season after five years, including a 1-14 West Valley League season in 1987. Messenger, who said no one on campus had applied, has set the end of school as a target date to hire a replacement.

Spring football: With 15 starters returning, Crespi appears fit to defend its Southern Section 4-A title this fall. “Basically everybody returns,” Coach Bill Redell said. “We’ll be a better team.” Senior Rob O’Byrne and junior Ronnie Redell, the coach’s son, will compete for the quarterback spot. Senior J.J. Lasley will return at fullback. But the Celts’ big weapon is still tailback Russell White, who led the state in rushing last season as a sophomore. “But our opponents can’t concentrate on Russell alone,” Redell said. “We have too many other weapons.”. . . . Kennedy must replace seven players who went on to Division I schools. Senior Daryeon Taylor, who played quarterback for the junior varsity last year, will play quarterback, making Kennedy the only Valley 4-A League team without a returning quarterback.

Canyon, for the first time in Harry Welch’s six years as coach, is without a player being recruited by a Division I school. Welch must find a replacement for quarterback Ken Sollom, who will play at Michigan. “Right now we’re working on four kids,” Welch said. “The position is still up for grabs.”. . . . Hart Coach Rick Scott has a similar problem in replacing quarterback Jim Bonds, who will attend UCLA. Scott says he’s found one in Darren Renfro, Bonds’s backup last year. “He doesn’t have the major league arm that Bonds has,” Scott said. “But he does things that will keep us in our passing game.”