Raasch Makes U-Turn at Canyons, Winds Up in Mt. SAC Driver’s Seat

When Glen Raasch graduated from North Hollywood High in 1986, he set out for College of the Canyons hoping to improve his stock with four-year schools and major league scouts.

Unfortunately for Raasch, Mike Bible was thinking along similar lines. Bible went on to earn All-State honors last season while Raasch spent the year as a redshirt. With Bible coming back this season, Raasch took his gear to Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut and has been a standout for the Mounties.

The 6-0, 196-pound Raasch is batting .390 with 6 home runs and 27 runs batted in. He also has a 16-game hitting streak.

“He’s a prospect,” Mt. SAC Coach Art Mazmanian said. “He has the size, strength and he works hard. He needs some work throwing the ball from behind the plate, but he has a chance.”

Doing swimmingly: Former Cal State Northridge All-American Jeff Kubiak on Wednesday swam the fastest 200-meter breaststroke in the world this year at the U. S. Indoor Championships in Orlando, Fla.

Kubiak’s time of 2:15.78 was a meet record and almost a second faster than the next finisher.

In three years at Northridge, Kubiak, 23, won five individual Division II national championships. Last summer, he won the 200 breaststroke at the Pan American Games in a record time of 2:17.62.

He has trained in Concord, Calif., near his hometown of Davis, since leaving Northridge.

What’s in a name?: Confusion, if you are Cal Lutheran softball Coach Wendy Olson, who used to work on Wendy Drive and now works on Olsen Road.

For six years Olson worked for McDonald’s in public relations. The office location: Wendy Drive in Newbury Park.

“I’d call people up and say, ‘This is Wendy Olson, from McDonald’s, calling,’ and people would think I must be with Wendy’s Restaurant. And I’d have to tell them, ‘No, this is Wendy Olson, from McDonald’s.’ ”

Five years ago, she entered Cal Lutheran as a freshman softball player, which gave a new twist to the name game Olson was already playing, because CLU is located on Olsen Road in Thousand Oaks.

“When I started going to school here as a freshman, I got asked constantly if I was related to anybody who owned the property the school was on,” said Olson, who is in her first year of coaching the CLU softball team and also works at the school as an admissions counselor.

“But I’d just tell people, ‘No, my name’s spelled with an “s-o-n,” not “s-e-n.” ’ It didn’t faze me. Some people are real touchy about other people getting their names right, but it never bothered me.”

Master’s blasters: Terri Meade is batting .417 to lead The Master’s College softball team.

Kathy Hotchkiss, who is 11 for 25 in the past seven games, is batting .407. Hotchkiss, a junior outfielder, is one of two Mustangs batting better than .400.

Michelle Vail has a .385 average with 5 doubles and 2 home runs to lead the team in both categories.

Senior Tami Melton leads Master’s with 10 RBIs, while Shelly Richardson has nine.

Beth Downey (4-3) is the Mustangs’ top pitcher. Vail is 4-5 with 2 saves and a 1.50 earned run average.

Master’s had a five-game win streak snapped when Cal Baptist swept a doubleheader on Tuesday. The Mustangs are 8-8, 2-4 in NAIA District III play.

Playoff qualifications: The winner of the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. receives an automatic berth in the Final Four while four-team regional playoffs in the West, East and Midwest determine the other participants.

Unlike the NCAA basketball tournament, however, volleyball teams must qualify in their regions to participate in postseason play. Therefore, if seventh-ranked Cal State Northridge (13-13, 5-8 in the WIVA) fails to finish in fifth place or higher in the WIVA, the Matadors will be excluded from the playoffs regardless of their record or national ranking.

Spring fever: The Cal Lutheran football team will begin spring practice April 6 and will conclude workouts May 7 with an alumni game.

More than 40 players are expected to take part in drills as the Kingsmen search for a replacement for quarterback Tom Bonds. Dan Nagelmann, a sophomore transfer from Moorpark College, and junior Jim Bees are the leading candidates.

“There are a lot of uncertainties in a couple of areas,” Coach Bob Shoup said. “We won’t get everything answered but we’ll at least get started in that direction.”

A quarterback battle also is shaping up at Cal State Northridge where 54 players began spring practice last week.

Rob Huffman is the incumbent, but he is expected to be pressed by Sherdrick Bonner.

A pressing concern for the Matadors is the loss of 10 defensive starters from last season’s team that went 7-4 and placed second in the Western Football Conference.

Northridge will continue with drills through April 23, when an intrasquad scrimmage brings a the spring season to a close.

Crane leaves: Jim Crane, an outside linebacker on the Northridge football team, has left school.

The 6-4, 240-pound senior-to-be was a junior college All-American at Scottsdale (Ariz.) Community College in 1986. He was plagued by a series of ankle and foot injuries at Northridge last season but was a starter most of the time and finished with 46 tackles, including 10 sacks.

Cal Lutheran awards: Steve deLaveaga was most valuable player of the Cal Lutheran men’s basketball team. The 6-4 junior also was MVP of the NAIA District III and the Golden State Athletic Conference. He averaged 27.4 points a game and set six school records and tied another.

James Faulk, who was leading Cal Lutheran and the GSAC in rebounding until he was declared academically ineligible Feb. 11, was selected most inspirational player. The 6-3 senior was averaging nine rebounds and 11.1 points.

Other award winners were Mike Miller (most improved), Blake Miraglia (highest grade-point average 3.91) and Jeff Logsdon (best all-around player).

Staff writers Mike Hiserman, Gary Klein, Ralph Nichols and Lauren Peterson contributed to this notebook.