Community College Notebook : Everybody’s Talking About Rancho Santiago, and for Good Reason

Rancho Santiago College is the talk of community college baseball so far this season. Coaches seem to want to talk more about Rancho Santiago than their own teams.

The Dons (12-0) have set a school record for consecutive victories to start a season. Rancho Santiago also has won the Casey Stengel and Riverside tournaments.

“Rancho Santiago is the class of the conference and the area,” said Mike Mayne, Orange Coast coach. “They are a notch above everyone else.”

Rancho Santiago started the season as the second-ranked team in the state behind Cerritos, but has defeated the Falcons twice and three weeks ago became No. 1.

“I think a lot of coaches are playing a psychological game right now,” said Don Sneddon, Rancho Santiago coach. “Everyone is pushing us for No. 1 so their players have something to shoot for when they play us. I bet we are good bulletin board material.”

But Sneddon isn’t too caught up in the success.

“We are looking at this as just what it is, the early part of the season,” Sneddon said. “It is sort of like the winter. We are trying to get into a good groove and keep winning but we know that how you play in conference is what’s really important. Plenty of teams have had impressive preseasons and not won their conference.”

In 1986, Cypress started the season 12-0, was 13-1 going into the South Coast Conference and finished 13-11 and in fourth place in conference.

Much of the reason for Rancho Santiago’s success is its offense. Rancho Santiago, which plays host to Southwestern at 2 today, is averaging 14 runs a game and has scored in double figures in 10 of 12 games.

Rancho Santiago’s pitching staff also has been impressive, allowing 4.75 runs a game. No team has scored more than eight runs in a game.

All-conference time. Alonzo Jamison of Rancho Santiago was voted the most valuable player of the Orange Empire Conference in men’s basketball. Jamison, a 6-foot 6-inch center from Santa Ana Valley High School, averaged 19.6 points and 8.7 rebounds. Don Johnson of Cypress, the conference champion, was voted the coach of the year.

The coaches picked 11 other players to the first team, electing not to pick a second team.

Also selected were: Kenny Ammann of Rancho Santiago; Jim Sammon, Jeff Green and Greg Spruell of Cypress; David Miles and Dareck Crane of Orange Coast; Vincent Smalls and Joe Hudson of Saddleback; Jim Skinner of Citrus and Tony Thomas of Riverside.

More all-conference. Kirkland Howling and Charles White of El Camino were named the most valuable players of the South Coast Conference in men’s basketball. Paul Landreaux of El Camino, the conference champion, was the coach of the year.

Troy Joseph of Fullerton, Jim Taylor of Cerritos, Gilbert Miller, Vincent Camper of Compton and Tommy Dunham of Pasadena made the first team.

Selected to the second team were Markus Muller-Stach of Golden West, Chris Naulls of Cerritos, Arlandis Rush of El Camino, Darren Recktor of Long Beach and Jim Sarris of Mt. San Antonio.

Kevin Patrick of Fullerton and Elbert Davis of Golden West were on the third team.

And more . . . Adrienne Drake of Riverside was voted the most valuable player of the Orange Empire Conference in women’s basketball.

Vicky Silva, Karen Caires and Vanetta Dorlis of conference champion Cypress also were picked to the first team. Gilly Powell, Kim Ellerman and Nancy Lux of Orange Coast, Anna Harmon of Saddleback and Demerial Gibson of Rancho Santiago, Carla Luke of Riverside and Debbie Johansen of Citrus also made the first team.

Gerry Livsey of Cypress and Larry Sunderman of Orange Coast were voted the coaches of the year.