Serra Baseball Coach Bob Flemming Quits

Bob Flemming admits his timing wasn’t great. He resigned as Serra High’s baseball coach last Friday, five games into the season and on the day Serra opened play in its own 32-team tournament.

After four years of devoting much of his time and money to the baseball program, Flemming decided the job wasn’t worth the effort.

“I just felt like it wasn’t heading in the right direction for me,” he said. “It wasn’t fun.

“It had nothing to do with the team. More than anything else, it was a conflict of ethics and professionalism in the athletic department. Things weren’t handled the way I felt they were supposed to be handled.”

Flemming’s decision was triggered by a confrontation with track Coach Gilbert Cabaong last Thursday over use of the locker room.

According to Serra Athletic Director Joe Griffin, Cabaong became angered when several baseball players used Flemming’s keys to lock the locker room, preventing the track men from gaining access.

Cabaong confronted Flemming on the baseball field where Serra was warming up for its game against Venice in the Westside Tournament.

“They had a shouting match,” Griffin said. “Both came to me and I tried to calm them. I talked to Bob twice during the game. I said I was sorry about everything and wanted them to work together.”

The next day Griffin said he found a letter of resignation from Flemming.

“It was a situation where I felt like, ‘Hey, I don’t need this anymore,’ ” Flemming said. “Life is too short.”

Darren Fleming, an assistant under Flemming for the last three years, has taken over as baseball coach.

Flemming, who was a walk-on coach, owns a pool-cleaning business and a pizza parlor in Orange County and lives in Laguna Hills.

He never had a winner at Serra (34-44-1 career record). He coached because he loved baseball. He says he spent several thousand dollars of his money on the program.

“He’s done a lot of great things for us,” Griffin said. “Down deep he’s got a good heart. But he is not well-liked among a lot of the faculty.

“It’s a tragic situation in a sense.”

Palos Verdes, which will bring a 27-7 record into the state Division II girls basketball finals Saturday in Oakland, has come a long way since the beginning of the season. The Sea Kings started 7-6.

“We’re never good in early December,” said Coach Wendell Yoshida. “It was a tough preseason.”

How tough? Five of the Sea Kings’ early losses were to teams that qualified for the Southern Section 4-A playoffs: Long Beach Poly, St. Joseph of Lakewood, Muir, Fountain Valley and Culver City.

Their other losses were to St. Patrick’s of Canada, a top team in Ontario, and Capistrano Valley, a 3-A semifinalist.

The 53-35 loss to Capistrano Valley in the semifinals of the Costa Mesa Tournament indicates how much Palos Verdes has improved. The Sea Kings beat Los Altos in the 3-A finals after Los Altos had defeated Capistrano Valley.

Yoshida says the improvement of the players surrounding 6-4 twins Heather and Heidi Burge is one of the main reasons why Palos Verdes brings an 18-game winning streak into Saturday’s 2:45 p.m. game with Grant of Sacramento (26-7) at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

“People tend to forget we have some other kids,” he said. “We’ve had the right people playing better at the right time.”

Included in that category are sophomore point guard Susan Wilhite, freshman guard Kaaren Iverson and 6-0 sophomore forward Mary Maloney, who scored a total of 26 points coming off the bench in the Sea Kings’ two regional wins.

Bishop Montgomery’s baseball team was 3-12 in the Angelus League last year, but Coach Bob Anderson thinks the Knights can improve on that mark if they get enough starts from pitcher Jon Newville.

Newville, a senior right-hander, has been overpowering in his first two outings. In 14 innings he allowed two earned runs and struck out 29 in wins over Mary Star and Mira Costa. He will make his next start at 7 Saturday night when Bishop Montgomery (2-2) plays Mater Dei in an Angelus League opener at Marine Field in Manhattan Beach.

“The other day there were three or four scouts on the phone asking about him,” Anderson said. “People are starting to take notice.”

Anderson says the 6-1, 195-pound Newville is one of the best-kept secrets in the South Bay because of Bishop Montgomery’s lack of success. The Knights have won 11 games in the last two years combined.

“I think that playing for Bishop Montgomery has hurt him,” he said. “If he was at Palos Verdes or Redondo, he would be recognized as one of the South Bay’s best pitchers. If he were in a regular South Bay setting, and not playing teams from Orange County, he would have gotten more recognition.

“I honestly don’t feel that South Bay people understand what kind of league the Angelus League is. Orange County turns out a top-notch crop of kids. We’ve got them here, too, but I think overall Orange County is playing better baseball than we are in the South Bay.”

Newville’s best pitches are his fastball and curve, and he’s learning the split-finger fastball from pitching coach Jim Pena, a former standout pitcher at Mira Costa High and Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Pena, who plays in the San Francisco Giants organization, is recovering from elbow surgery. The left-hander led Mira Costa to the CIF 4-A finals in 1982.

Redondo (7-0), winner of the Red Division in the Westside Tournament last week, heads a 28-team field in the 18th annual Redondo/Palos Verdes Baseball Tournament starting Saturday.

Other South Bay teams competing are Leuzinger, Palos Verdes, South Torrance, El Segundo, West Torrance, Gardena, Mira Costa and North Torrance. West won the consolation championship in last week’s El Segundo Tournament.

The tournament, sponsored by Domino’s Pizza, will continue each Saturday until the finals on April 30.

Redondo will be the site of a first-round double-header on Saturday. North plays Cerritos at 3 p.m., followed by Redondo-Dorsey at 7.

PREP NOTES--Karen Horger, a 5-10 outside hitter/setter for Redondo, has signed a letter of intent to play volleyball at UC Riverside. Horger was selected the most valuable player of the Pioneer League last season and, more recently, was the starting point guard on Redondo’s league champion basketball team . . . The South Bay’s drought in the El Segundo Baseball Tournament continued Saturday as Hart of Newhall won the championship with a 14-6 win over Long Beach Millikan. It marked the eighth straight year that a team outside the South Bay team captured the title. South Torrance was the last area team to win the championship, in 1980. South Bay teams won 11 of the first 12 titles from 1969 to 1980 . . . What is expected to be a competitive Bay League baseball race begins today with three 3 p.m. games. Preseason favorite North Torrance visits Rolling Hills, defending champion Palos Verdes is home to Torrance and West Torrance is at South Torrance.

South Bay Top 10 Boys’ Baseball

Selected by Times sportswriters

(Records through Tuesday’s games)

Rank, School, League Record 1 Redondo (Pioneer) 7-0 2 San Pedro (Marine) 6-0 3 St. Bernard (Camino Real) 4-2 4 West Torrance (Bay) 4-1 5 Banning (Marine) 4-2 6 El Segundo (Pioneer) 4-3 7 North Torrance (Bay) 3-2 8 Gardena (Marine) 1-0 9 South Torrance (Bay) 2-2-1 10 Bishop Montgomery (Angelus) 2-2