Samuelson’s Professor Proved Prophetic

As his professor recalled numerous personal experiences in health science class last semester, a dubious Rob Samuelson tried to separate fact from fiction.

“He had a million stories about situations where he was able to help someone who was in trouble with a heart attack or something,” said Samuelson, an outside hitter for the Northridge volleyball team. “I told him that I had never had a situation resembling that. He just said, ‘Trust me. There will be a time.’ ”

The time came March 20, during a concert by The Alarm at the Northridge gym.

Samuelson and teammate Ron Lins were taking a break when they happened upon 16-year-old Heidi Gottlieb of Van Nuys, who appeared to be crying and having difficulty breathing.

A rush toward the stage by the crowd had just panicked the young woman, who was seated toward the front, triggering an asthma attack. She then staggered out of the gym.

“We asked her if she was injured or hyperventilating and just tried to calm her down,” said Samuelson, who could only ask Gottlieb a series of yes-or-no questions to identify the cause of the problem because of her breathing difficulty. “We asked her if she had asthma and she was able to say yes. We managed to find out that her inhaler was in her car.”

The players grabbed Gottlieb’s purse and emptied its contents. Samuelson took Gottlieb’s keys and ran to the parking lot without knowing where the car, a blue Mustang, was parked.

Samuelson found the car, dug the inhaler out of the trunk and brought it to her aid, averting a potential loss of consciousness.

“We figured we got four songs for 15 bucks,” Samuelson said. “But it was kind of neat to help someone out like that.”

Record wrecker: Jeff Holen of The Master’s was not all that excited April 7 when he tied the school record for most home runs in a season. In fact, he did not know his nine homers had tied the standard until a week later.

Records and statistics are not emphasized at Master’s.

“These kids are really not aware of what they’re doing,” Master’s assistant John Zeller said. “Records and things like that come; they can’t worry about it.”

In the interest of awareness, records and near records follow:

Holen also tied Tim Bahr’s mark of 50 runs scored in a season Wednesday.

Tod Skinner needs two hits to tie the school record for most hits in a season (69). The senior catcher has 43 runs batted in, six shy of that record. Matt MacArthur set both marks in 1986.

On the mend: Pitcher Jon DeGennaro, a sophomore right-hander from Moorpark College, underwent successful surgery Wednesday to repair a damaged ulnar nerve. After about four months of rehabilitation, he is expected to resume his baseball career. DeGennaro had a 3-3 record before the injury.

Together again: Linebacker Steve Paredes of Moorpark College will join former Raider teammates Paul Mesa, a center, and Mo Loller, a guard, at Cal State Sacramento next fall.

Mike Daniels, a fullback who led Moorpark in rushing with 741 yards on 119 carries, signed with Morgan State, Md. Kicker Dan Eastman signed with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Eastman, an All-WSC first-team selection, connected on 7 of 14 field-goal attempts and 31 of 32 extra-point attempts.

Jeff White, a sophomore cornerback, signed with Fresno State.

Pleasant surprise: The Pierce College men’s volleyball team has been performing beyond Coach Ken Stanley’s wildest expectations.

“When we started the season,” Stanley said, “I thought realistically that if we could play .500, we’d be doing pretty well.”

But Stanley isn’t complaining. His team is 13-3 overall and 10-3 in Western State Conference play.

Outside hitter Matt Bellers and setter Austin Johnson, two of only three sophomores on the team, are the team’s most talented players, Stanley said.

Top freshmen include Mark Grondin from Chaminade High, Corey Davidson of North Hollywood and Terry Schrumpf of Granada Hills.

Raider power: Malia Ouzts, last season’s player of the year in the Western State Conference, is not the only player on the Moorpark College softball team who is terrorizing opposing pitchers.

Laura Detweiler hit her fifth home run against Golden West College on Monday to tie Judy Staab’s 1981 school record. Detweiler, a sophomore first baseman, also drove in her 27th run of the season in the same game to break Staab’s record of 26, set in 1980.

Ouzts scored her 59th and 60th career runs Friday against Pierce, breaking Mary Kay Grandpre’s 1978 record of 58.

Moorpark has scored 243 runs this season, breaking a team record that had stood since 1978.

Survival tactics: To put it bluntly, Pierce softball Coach Pat Skinner wants this season to end.

“We’re just trying to survive,” he said. “We’ve been losing a lot of people and that’s making us have to move everybody all over the place.”

The moves apparently have shaken the Lady Brahmas (11-14, 2-6 in conference play), who have lost 13 of their past 19 games after having started the season 7-1.

After the fast start, Pierce lost its starting outfielders and its third baseman--all of whom quit the team for personal reasons.

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