Prep Review : Tuioti Cooler Toward Nebraska After His Visit

George Tuioti, Santa Ana High School linebacker, is a hot commodity. Schools such as USC, Nebraska and BYU are after him.

And Tuioti has developed an intricate scoring system to rate the colleges. He judges schools based on a five-point scoring system--one is poor, five is excellent.

But all that judging didn’t seem to matter as much as the weather. Tuioti, upon returning from a recruiting trip to Lincoln, Nebraska, said he was leaning toward USC.

“They’re practically even in points,” Tuioti said. “But when I left Lincoln it was minus 15 degrees, I get home and it’s 70 degrees.”

Leo Parker, Tustin’s long and lean center, has led the Tillers to the county’s longest current winning streak (13 games) and first place in the Sea View League.

Parker is a very skinny 6-feet 6-inches tall. This has inspired the nickname ‘Manute’, referring to the NBA center Manute Bol, who is a skinny 7-feet 6-inches.

Parker’s hunched shoulders, which partially obscure a view of his neck from behind, has inspired another tag--Long Skinny Turtle.

Sure, it’s a lot more original, but will it fit on a T-shirt?

Parker may have the team corner on nicknames, but there’s one member of the Tustin team who has a real catchy name.

It’s Duke Snyder, the equipment manager.

Valencia High wrestlers Sam Lopez and Fred Jenkins not only share the distinction of being among the county’s best--each won his weight division at the prestigious Five Counties meet a few weeks ago, Lopez at 115 pounds, Jenkins at 178--they also share the memory of a midwestern boot camp called the Iowa Intensified Wrestling Camp last summer.

Here’s what they described as a typical day:

5:30 a.m.--Rise and shine to a three-mile run.

7:00 a.m.--Time for the sumptuous breakfast. How sumptuous?

“Let’s put it this way,” Jenkins said. “You lose a lot of weight because of the food.”

9:30 a.m.--Technique workshop.

12:00 p.m.--Lunch. Lose more weight.

3:00 p.m.--Intense workout. One and a half hours of continuous wrestling.

“It’s hell,” Lopez said.

Among the fun is something called ‘Shark bait.’ One wrestler is placed in the middle of three. Those three take turns shooting in on him.

There’s also a place below the floor boards dubbed ‘the hell hole’ where temperatures get upward of 100 degrees.

“You wrestled there once,” Lopez said. “But that’s enough. It was horrible. One guy passed out down there.”

6:00 p.m.--Dinner.

7:30 p.m.--Mental sessions. Wrestlers are taught how to get their minds right.

8:00 p.m.--A tantalizing choice between running, weightlifting or technique sessions.

9:30 p.m.--Time for sleep.

“You were glad just to make it to bed,” Lopez said. “Of course, it meant that in a couple of hours you had to start the whole thing again.”

Odds and Ends:

--When Pioneer High’s Steve Diaz defeated Canyon’s Tom Casenhiser in the heavyweight division, it concluded the Canyon Invitational Wrestling Tournament at 8:58 p.m. The tournament started at 10 a.m. That’s 10 hours and 58 minutes of continuous wrestling.

--Former Mater Dei star, LeRon Ellis, had his best game to date at Kentucky Sunday. Ellis, a freshman, scored 14 points and had a key blocked shot down the stretch as Kentucky defeated Notre Dame, 78-69.

--Scott Runyan, a senior at Orange Lutheran, has 20 goals this season, one short of the school record of 21.

--Jack Hodges, Laguna Hills baseball coach, was named California’s Golden Diamond Volunteer Amateur Baseball coach of the year by the U.S. Baseball Federation.

--Ron LaRuffa resigned after 12 seasons as Edison’s baseball coach. LaRuffa will become the pitching coach at Rancho Santiago College.

Prep Notes

The Orange County chapter of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame have named their 1987-88 Scholar Athletes of the Year:

Andrew Baturevich (Los Amigos, 3.8 grade point average), Matthew Bertram (Ocean View, 3.4), Frank Busalacchi (Foothill, 3.6), Terry Bryant (Costa Mesa, 3.7), Mike Costello (Mission Viejo, 3.7), Chris Facione (El Dorado, 3.6), Brian Fleming (Laguna Hills, 3.9), Paul Geldbach (Cypress, 3.5), Mike Goodman (Woodbridge, 3.9), Jeff Greeney (Los Amigos, 3.6), Toby Howell (Western, 3.7), Mike Howerton (Mission Viejo, 3.8), David Huettl (Mission Viejo, 3.6), Robert Kostich (Fountain Valley, 3.8), George Koutures (Irvine, 3.6), Marc Johnson (Pacifica, 3.7), Brian Lamb (El Toro, 3.5), Danny Lane (Laguna Beach, 3.6), Tim McCann (Orange Lutheran, 3.6), Brian O’Hara (Westminster, 3.4), Sean Pulsifer (Tustin, 3.8), John Rios (Woodbridge, 3.4), Jack Salerno (San Clement, 3.5), Mike Shepard (Foothill, 3.8) and Kevin Webb (Esperanza, 3.6).