Cal State Fullerton Notebook / Steve Lowery : Titans Face Long Odds to Make Gymnastics Championships

Dick Wolfe, Cal State Fullerton men’s gymnastics coach--the one with the eagle talons hanging from his neck--estimates that his team needs to score at least 282 points in one of its last two meets to qualify for the NCAA championships April 14-16 in Lincoln, Neb.

The top 10 teams qualify, based on their five best scores of the season. Fullerton is 13th in the nation with a 276.49 five-meet average.

Standing between Fullerton and the 282 is a squad light on collegiate experience (eight of the 12 team members are freshmen or sophomores) and the fact that the team’s high score this season is a 278.35 against Michigan.

Even Wolfe--who wears a necklace made of a gold-plated shell, iron beads and eagle talons, which he says represents his love of children, inner strength and free spirit--admits that the prospect of scoring 282 is “very close to impossible.”

The Titans will try to do just that in tonight’s Fullerton Invitational (Titan Gym, 8 p.m.) against Northern Illinois and California, and in the Pacific 10 championships March 25-26.

Of course Wolfe, who is in his 20th year of coaching at Fullerton, and what seems possible have been only the most casual of acquaintances. He was introduced to gymnastics as a 13-year-old living in Sacramento. Earl Hobbs, a truck driver who used to perform a balancing act with Jack LaLanne, did a handstand on Wolfe’s bike.

“I thought it was the neatest thing I had ever seen,” he said. “I asked him how he did it. He said he could show me.”

Wolfe, via the YMCA, eventually made his way to Cal State Sacramento, where he was a two-time team captain on a two-time state champion.

Wolfe, 49, was hired at Fullerton in 1968 and went about coaching what he says--with a peculiar sort of pride--was the worst team in NCAA history.

“And I don’t mean one of the worst,” Wolfe said. “This was straight out the worst. I have proof.”

Wolfe points to losses by more than 100 points and unreturned phone calls to schedule meets. “Who wants to schedule the worst?”

But by 1971, Wolfe had built Fullerton, then competing in Division II, into one of the nation’s top programs. The Titans were invited to that year’s Division II championships in Chicago.

The Fullerton administration at that time said congratulations, then told Wolfe there was no money to finance the trip. So Wolfe reached for his wallet and paid for the entire team’s trip. Once in Chicago, he found out it was cheaper to rent a milk truck than a bus to transport his team.

“So they rode on milk crates to and from the meet,” Wolfe said.

Once at the meet, Wolfe had only five uniforms for 12 guys.

“When it was a guy’s turn to compete, he’d get a uniform from another guy and put it on underneath his warmups,” Wolfe said. “Then he’d give it to someone else.”

Talk about team unity. Fullerton went on to win the Division II championship in 1971, 1972 and 1974.

Fullerton moved to Division I in 1975 and has been a perennial power. Last year the Titans went to the NCAA championships, held at UCLA, as the No. 2 team in the nation. They eventually finished 10th.

As the team has done well, its reputation has spread. Last year, Fullerton attracted Li Xiao Ping, a world-class gymnast from China. This season there are three freshmen competing for Fullerton from foreign countries--Diego Lopez (Argentina), Sven Lode (Norway) and Amir Kadury (Israel).

Even if the team doesn’t make it to the championships, a few members seem destined to compete for national individual honors. Outstanding among these is sophomore Bill Barham, who is among the national leaders in all-around points.

How good is Barham?

“His weakest event is the high bar,” Wolfe said. “And I’ve seen him get 9.85s on that. He’s unbelievable.”

The Fullerton softball team, picked to finish second in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. in a preseason poll, is 25-3 and ranked second in the nation.

The Titans, 5-1 in the PCAA, have outscored opponents, 91-33. Third baseman Valerie Douglas is hitting .364, outfielder Carey Hess is at .333 and shortstop Charis Monroe is hitting .304.

Pitcher Anjie Bryant is 13-1 with an 0.88 earned-run average.

Impressive stats. But the Titans will need all of them playing in the PCAA, which, if polls are to be trusted, is the nation’s toughest softball conference.

Fullerton is ranked No. 2, Cal State Long Beach is No. 4, Fresno State is tied with Oklahoma State at No. 6, Cal Poly Pomona is No. 10 and Hawaii is No. 20.

The Fullerton baseball team begins PCAA play Friday with a three-game series at Pacific. The Titans are 18-8 and ranked 12th in the nation by Collegiate Baseball magazine and 17th by Baseball America.

Two transfers from Orange Coast College have led the way.

Catcher Brent Mayne, son of OCC Coach Mike Mayne, is hitting .568 (21 for 37) and has a nine-game hitting streak.

“I’ve been seeing the ball real well lately,” Mayne said. “I’ve been hitting to left field a lot, and when I’m hitting well, I hit the ball there.”

Pitcher Longo Garcia is 5-1, has thrown three shutouts and has not been scored upon in his last 18 innings. Earlier this season, Garcia pitched 19 straight scoreless innings.

Paul Halewijn was invited to the NCAA wrestling championships at Iowa State, March 17-19.

Halewijn, a junior who wrestles at 167 pounds, finished fourth at the Pac-10 championships Feb. 29. But Halewijn, who attended Troy High School, got the bid when Fresno State’s Vince Walker, who placed third in the Pac-10 championships, withdrew because of injury.

Halewijn was 8-11 during the regular season.