Community College Notebook : Mission Conference Still Growing : Adding Five More South Coast Teams Brings Total to 16

Expansion in the Mission Conference seems never ending.

A month ago, the conference, which consists of only football teams, grew from 10 to 11 schools when Golden West and Fullerton joined, and Citrus left.

Then last Saturday, the conference added the five remaining South Coast Conference teams--El Camino, Pasadena, Cerritos, Mt. San Antonio and Long Beach.

The South Coast Conference had been reduced to five teams when Fullerton, Golden West and Compton left in early November.

The Mission is now a 16-team conference, the biggest in the state.

The larger conference will create more problems for the schools, including more complicated scheduling.

How the conference’s teams will be divided is still under consideration by the member athletic directors and coaches. Of the several plans that have been proposed, the one that has tentative approval calls for three divisions, two with five teams and the other with six.

Five Orange County teams and Riverside would form one division. The county schools are: Saddleback, Orange Coast, Rancho Santiago, Fullerton and Golden West.

The other South Coast Conference teams would form another division. And teams from San Diego County--Palomar, San Diego City, San Diego Mesa, Southwestern and Grossmont--would comprise a third division.

The reason the South Coast Conference schools applied was because they were unable to find enough nonconference opponents to fill out their schedules after the three schools dropped out last month.

Under the three-division format, teams would play nine conference games and one nonconference game. The team in each division with the best conference record would win that division.

“Everything is really tentative right now, but I expect us to go with the three divisions,” said Dick Tucker, the football president.

Tucker, also the Orange Coast College athletic director, said that several other plans were submitted, including one that called for four divisions of four teams. Another called for two eight-team divisions.

“Once there is a schedule proposed then I will call a meeting and we will try and get this started,” Tucker said. “That could be as soon as this Friday but we do want to try and get this done by the end of the year.”

Orange Coast running back Bart Recktenwald and wide receiver Junior Tagaloa and Golden West center Vince Bonham were voted to the J.C. Grid-Wire all-American first-team, which was announced this week.

Recktenwald set a national record with 2,495 yards in all-purpose yardage.

Tagaloa set 10 school receiving records, including most touchdowns in a season (17 in 1987) and career (22).

Golden West became the first team in 25 years to place three offensive linemen on the team. Bonham, who made first team, was joined by tackles Glenn Parker and Rob Flory, who made honorable mention.

Saddleback quarterback Howard Gasser made second team and OCC quarterback Keith Jarrett made honorable mention.

Also making honorable mention were Fullerton running back Andy Greer, Rancho Santiago offensive tackle Derek Sang, Saddleback offensive tackle Shawn White, Rancho Santiago linebacker Matt Alario and Fullerton defensive back Steve Skrabak.

Dan Speltz of El Camino was the first-team quarterback.

Keith Calkins, PONY Bowl game manager, said there were 1,300 tickets sold for the first game Saturday, in which Saddleback defeated Cerritos, 21-14.

El Camino defeated Taft, 24-6, to win the mythical national championship in the night game, and Calkins said there were 4,200 tickets sold.

The 4,200 included the 2,000 Taft promised it would sell once invited to the game.

Taft President David Cothrun presented Calkins with a check for $10,000 for the 2,000 tickets Tuesday.

“I view the day as a success,” Calkins said. “And I would like to keep the two-game format, but we’ll wait and see what happens with this new conference and the three divisions.”

There were 1,700 tickets sold to last year’s Glendale-Taft game. The Saddleback-Fullerton game in 1985 sold 3,290 tickets.

Tough Gym. It’s a pretty safe bet that top-ranked Golden West College women’s athletic teams don’t want Cypress to play host to any more state tournaments.

Sunday, the women’s volleyball team, which had been ranked No. 1 in Southern California all season, was defeated by Grossmont in the semifinals and eliminated by Chabot in the loser’s bracket.

Last March, the Golden West basketball team, which had been ranked No. 1 in Southern California all season, was defeated by American River, 76-70, in the semifinals at Cypress.

Community College Notes

OCC’s Gilly Powell set a school record with 37 points Friday night, but the Pirate women’s basketball team lost to Mt. San Antonio, 78-70, in overtime. Powell, a 6-foot freshman forward from Woodbridge High School, fouled out with seven minutes left in regulation. Powell was 14 of 20 from the floor and 9 of 10 from the free-throw line.

Cypress qualified eight wrestlers, Rancho Santiago six and Golden West five for the state tournament, which starts Friday at 7 p.m. at Santa Rosa. The finals are Saturday night. Frank Trujillo (126), Bill Montgomery (134) and Jose Orozco (167) won their divisions for Cypress. Dwayne De Nolf (142), Art Orozco (150), Joey Gillis (190) and Randy Gonzalez (heavyweight) took second, and Ralph Rucker (158) finished third to also qualify.

Janell Rogers was voted the most valuable player of the OCC women’s soccer team, and Mitch Nadon was selected the team’s top offensive player and Kim Doleman its top defensive player.