Lord Knows All-Star Competition Can Cost an Athlete His Eligibility

Justin Lord was excited and honored when he received his invitation to the inaugural Greater San Fernando Valley all-star basketball game.

A month later, the Glendale High senior wishes he’d never heard of the April 22 game. Because he played, Lord is ineligible to play for the Dynamiters’ baseball team. Southern Section rules prohibit athletes from competing in all-star contests until their eligibility has expired.

“I wasn’t aware of it, otherwise I wouldn’t have played,” Lord said of the rule.

Lord, a 6-foot, 5-inch center who averaged 12 points a game for the 20-5 Dynamiters, scored eight points for the Southern Section in a 136-121 loss to the City Section.

“I had a good time,” Lord said. “Not only was it fun to get back and play good, competitive basketball, but there were a lot of scouts there and I’m sure it was good exposure.

“Of course, I wouldn’t trade it for a baseball season.”

Lord, who was 2-0 as a pitcher, unwittingly did.

“I was pretty disappointed,” he said. “I was having a pretty good season.”

Lord said he apologized to his baseball teammates and has been doing everything within the rules to help Glendale (10-7, 8-3 in Pacific League play), which is tied for first place in the league with Pasadena.

“I’m throwing batting practice and attending all the games,” Lord said.

Add ineligibility: Granada Hills’ Ian Alsen, one of the top distance runners in the nation, may have failed to meet the City Section’s minimum 2.0 grade-point average requirement, but he gets an A in philosophy for coping with his academic ineligibility.

“I’m trying to handle it. It is my fault and hopefully I can learn not to let it happen again,” said Alsen, who received two Cs and three Ds at the mid-semester grading period. “I’ll just grow from it.”

Alsen, who said he received a 750 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, is confident he will graduate with at least a 2.0 GPA so he can compete in for an NCAA school next year. “I’ll just concentrate on what my grades should be.”

Alsen, who has the nation’s best outdoor times in the 1,600 (4 minutes, 9.67 seconds) and 3,200 (8:59.54) meters, is philosophical about not being able to compete in the City Section and state championships.

“It’s not the end of the world. There are a lot of races I’ll be in, a lot of opens,” he said. “I’ve proved, I think, that I’m the best in the state.”

Alsen said that he will compete in the UC Irvine Invitational today.

Waco baserunning: A baseball player who gets caught in a rundown usually doesn’t elicit cheers from spectators. But David Waco got the fans excited in Chatsworth’s West Valley League game against Cleveland on Thursday.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Waco reached first on a fielder’s choice and intentionally got caught in a rundown between first and second.

While the Cavaliers were busy trying to tag him out, the Chancellors’ Rex McMackin, who had been standing at third, raced home with Chatsworth’s final run.

“As soon as they started throwing the ball, I took off,” McMackin said. “It’s worked a couple of times for us this season.”

Consistent concern: It’s not that Grant Coach Tom Lucero was displeased with the way his team played in Wednesday’s 3-2 victory over Poly, he just wishes they could play that way more frequently.

The first time Grant played Poly, the Lancers lost, 2-1. Grant scored 14 runs in its next meeting with Poly, which is in first place in the East Valley League, but lost, 29-14.

Grant (8-9, 6-7) lost to Sylmar, 21-0, Monday and to Fairfax, 4-2, Thursday.

“This team is like a roller coaster,” Lucero said Wednesday. “We can’t play like we did today after playing the way we did Monday. That’s too inconsistent.”

The Lancers weren’t inconsistent in their loss to Sylmar, they were terrible. Three Lancer pitchers gave up 17 hits--including eight doubles--and walked 16.

“That’s what’s driving me nuts,” Lucero said. “We need to be more consistent.”

One of the few consistent players has been Javier Delahoya, the Lancers’ pitcher-shortstop. A right-handed junior, Delahoya improved his record to 4-2 after beating Poly with a three-hitter while striking out 13.

“We have a feeling of confidence with Javier on the mound. We feel we’re going to win,” Lucero said. “He definitely keeps us in the games and if we had given him some timely hitting, he would be 6-0 instead of 4-2.”

Hitting explosion: Grant isn’t the only East Valley League team giving its coach ulcers. Sylmar (11-6, 8-3) lost to Poly, 1-0, and North Hollywood, 3-1, two weeks ago but beat Grant, 21-0, and Hollywood, 20-5, this week.

“We had a good week,” Sylmar Coach John Klitsner said.

The Spartans managed only seven hits in their two league losses but exploded for 42 hits against Grant and Hollywood.

“We haven’t done anything different, it’s just part of the game,” Klitsner said. “Sometimes you can’t do anything wrong, sometimes you can’t do anything right.”

Nino Romo did everything right for Sylmar on Monday. The junior right-hander threw an eight-hitter against Grant and had six hits, including two triples, in the week’s two games. Romo has not allowed a run in 15 innings.

Three other Spartans had their Wheaties this week: Chris Romo, Nino’s brother, had five hits, including four against Grant, center fielder Brad McGahan had seven hits and Art Monreal had 10 RBIs.

“I wish we could put a couple of the runs in the bank and bring them out against Poly,” Klitsner said.

Poly has twice beaten Sylmar by the score of 1-0.

Good timing: Kennedy’s volleyball team is in the middle of the toughest part of the West Valley League schedule, but Coach Mike Stanton said that this is also the time the Cougars are playing at their best.

Kennedy went 3-3 in the first round of league play, losing to Chatsworth in three games, Granada Hills in four and Taft in three. The Cougars are 3-1 in the second round after beating Taft in five games Wednesday and extending Chatsworth to four before losing Friday.

Staff writers John Lynch and Lauren Peterson contributed to this notebook.