Prep Review : Irvine Enrollment Plan Is Hot Topic

An open enrollment policy recently established by the Irvine Unified School District has received a lukewarm response from coaches from the district’s three high schools.

The policy, which will begin next fall, will allow freshmen to choose which school they’ll attend. Some coaches from Irvine, University and Woodbridge highs are maintaining a wait-and-see outlook, others are clearly unhappy.

The three high schools compete in different leagues and in a different divisions in the Southern Section playoffs for the sports of football, basketball and baseball.

Irvine, with an enrollment of 2,000, competes in the South Coast League. University, with an enrollment of 2,400, competes in the Sea View League. Woodbridge, with 1,500, competes in the Pacific Coast League. Each have had varying degrees of athletic success this season.

Irvine’s football team qualified for the Southern Conference playoffs as a wild-card team after finishing fourth in league play. The basketball team reached the 4-A division playoffs for the first time in the school’s history.

University’s football team failed to qualify for the Central Conference playoffs and the Trojans’ basketball team missed the 3-A division basketball playoffs.

Woodbridge’s football team won the Desert-Mountain Conference football title, and the Warriors’ basketball team was the 2-A division runnerup. The basketball team won the state’s Division II title in 1987.

“There are some concerns among coaches about the possibility of what it (open enrollment) could do to the sports programs,” said Steve Scoggins, University athletic director and basketball coach. “It’s a wait-and-see situation, but I have mixed emotions about the ruling.

“Personally, I would never want to get a kid who wasn’t supposed to be at University, but I would be very unhappy if I lost a kid for dubious reasons to another school.”

Terry Henigan, Irvine football coach for six seasons, said: “Programs are often judged by won-loss records and Woodbridge has been winning. Athletics is becoming extremely important to parents in this area, and they’re going to try to do what they think is best for their kids.

“From an athletic point of view, I think open enrollment could create some problems. Now, if we were to go 10-0 in football and Woodbridge and University were 5-5, should a kid go to Irvine instead of one of those schools? No way.

“I don’t think any coaches at the high schools would actively recruit kids. But you might have a situation where kids start playing together on a traveling basketball team or Little League team, and they want to stay together in high school. This opens the door for them.”

Bob Flint, Irvine baseball coach, said: “I hate it. I don’t think it’s healthy if you have two kids from the same neighborhood competing against each other at two different schools. I think a kid should grow up wanting to go to the high school in his neighborhood.”

Bill Shannon, Woodbridge’s basketball coach, said incoming students interested in basketball would probably choose his program, but he does not see this as an advantage in the long run.

“It’s not a good policy, it’s not a good practice,” he said. “In the long haul, it is self defeating. The simple thing to do is draw some boundaries on paper.”

What’s Happening?: Capistrano Valley, defending Southern Section 2-A division baseball champion, has struggled to a 5-8 record in the first month of the season. The Cougars’ top player, outfielder Tommy Adams, has yet to suit up for a game.

Adams, who batted .429 with 8 home runs and 23 RBIs as a junior, pulled a groin muscle during the football season and then aggravated the injury before the baseball season while skiing.

Adams has made an oral commitment to attend Arizona State next season, but Capistrano Valley Coach Bob Zamora said it remains doubtful whether Adams will play this season.

“I don’t expect Tommy back,” Zamora said. “He hasn’t responded to treatment and it’s been a very frustrating time for him.”

Going, Going, Gone: Baseball coaches are still buzzing about the home run that Los Alamitos catcher Greg Pirkl hit recently against Long Beach Wilson at Blair Field in Long Beach.

“It was a shot,” Dave Demarest, La Quinta coach, said. “He cleared the eucalyptus trees behind the fence, and the ball landed near the first tee of the golf course.”

“It went well over 400 feet,” Mike Gibson, Los Alamitos coach, said. “I couldn’t tell you exactly how far it went because I can’t see that far.”

Gibson said Mike Kelly, the Griffins’ starting center fielder, also hit a long homer against Fontana at Saddleback High that landed in the third tennis court behind the outfield fence.

Streaking: Pacifica’s baseball team has the county’s longest winning streak with nine consecutive victories after opening the season with three straight losses.

Still, Pacifica received only a 10th place-vote for one point in last week’s Orange County Sportswriters’ Assn. prep baseball poll.

Prep Notes

Eight county players have been selected to participate in the 37th Shrine All-Star football game scheduled for Saturday, July 23 in the Rose Bowl. Tight end Pete Schmitt (Laguna Beach), defensive end Reza Mehdizadeh (Fountain Valley), quarterback Bret Johnson and defensive back Adam Brass (El Toro), linebacker Jeff Pease (Mission Viejo), offensive tackle Mike Linn (Esperanza), placekicker Pat Blottiaux (Servite) and linebacker Roger Roadstrom (Los Alamitos) were chosen to play for the South team. . . . Paul Westhead, who coached Loyola Marymount University to its first conference championship since 1961 this season, will be the guest speaker at The Times’ basketball awards brunch May 1 at the Anaheim Hilton. . . . Ocean View, with returning guard Mike Frohn and center Todd Norman, will participate in the 30-team Las Vegas Holiday basketball tournament next season. . . . Jim Waikle, Capistrano Valley’s 7-foot center, will attend Cypress College in the fall. Coach Don Johnson’s past success in developing centers Mark Eaton and Swen Nater was a big factor in Waikle’s decision to attend Cypress.