The Colleges : Night at the Opera Includes Enormous Sidekicks at Occidental

First-year football players at Occidental put on their annual talent show tonight for veterans and coaches, but it will be tough for this year’s crop to rival center Sean O’Brien’s act of two years ago.

O’Brien, who listens to opera every evening, stood on his chair at a team brunch his freshman season and gave an impromptu rendition of a number from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Pirates of Penzance.”

It brought the house down.

Several teammates asked for a command performance, so in the rookie show O’Brien sang a piece from “H.M.S. Pinafore.” And this time, the production was enhanced by several twirling offensive linemen, including John Streetmaker (5 feet, 10 inches, 365 pounds) and David Zuckerman (6-4, 219).

“To see Streetmaker dancing like that was worth all the tribulations of camp,” O’Brien said.

Again, the critics raved.

“Sean’s a different kind of cat,” Coach Dale Widolff said. “It was the best opera I’ve ever been to.”

Curtain call: In order to promote camaraderie, Glendale coaches planned a talent show before last Saturday’s scrimmage against Cerritos. The players were divided into groups by position and rehearsed skits.

Some of the more amusing acts included the linebackers impersonating the Fat Boys, a popular rap band, and a spoof on the game show “Newlywed Game” by the defensive backs.

“We had some of the toughest players on the team dressing up as women,” defensive coordinator John Cicuto said.

The most convincing female impersonator was strong safety John Lobianco, who slipped into his sexiest Vanna White garb.

“A lot of the guys were saying, ‘Heeeyyy, this guy looks pretty good.’ ” Cicuto said.

Playing the field: The engineers who designed Occidental’s new soccer facility took a novel approach in planning the irrigation system. And it’s a safe bet they won’t try anything similar soon.

Most fields are built up approximately 2% in the middle, allowing water to drain off toward the sidelines. At Occidental, they decided to slant the entire field at a 2% grade, with the water runoff all in the same direction.

It didn’t work.

Upon completion, the field resembled a short ski run.

Obviously, a correction had to be made. So the field was dropped a notch at one end and raised at the other. Problem solved?

Not quite. The irrigation system didn’t fit. It turns out Occidental needed more of a mountain than a molehill. The field, built on a hill overlooking the baseball diamond, wound up 10 feet shy of regulation width. Worse, there was no room to extend its boundaries.

Finally, the school had to shell out $85,000 for the construction of a retaining wall down one side of the hill. Dirt was hauled in to fill in the gap between the wall and the hill.

Now the grass won’t grow. A possible reason: When groundskeepers needed dirt to fill in the space between the wall and hill, they scraped the topsoil off the soccer field.

All in all, it has been a rather expensive lesson in landscaping.

Gathering storm: The dawn of the three-point shot had an adverse effect on the Cal State Northridge basketball team last season for the following reason: The Matadors didn’t have anyone who could make one.

Meanwhile, a short distance away, USC transfers Bo Kimble and Hank Gathers poured in enough long-distance jumpers to make Loyola Marymount the highest-scoring team in Division I.

Northridge is hoping that shooting is at least partially hereditary. Derrick Gathers, Hank’s younger brother, has enrolled at CSUN and plans to play for the basketball team. He is a 6-3 guard who can score in bundles. Sound familiar?

There is one catch: Matador coaches are still waiting to hear if he’s going to be eligible.

Gathers played one season at Taft College, then transferred to Santa Monica College when Taft eliminated its program. He was All-Western State Conference at Santa Monica in 1986-87, then sat out last season.

No go: Clayton Bamberg and Anthony Franco, both junior college transfers, have been declared academically ineligible for the Cal State Northridge football team.

Bamberg, a JC All-American from San Jose, was a probable starter at strong safety. Franco was a backup outside linebacker.

Also, offensive tackle Mark Fernandez and tight end Jeremy Jaklevic will redshirt.

It’s a kick: Fortunately for Cal Lutheran, Kent Sullivan ignored his high school coach’s advice to stay out of football.

“He told everybody on the team that they were not good enough for college football,” Sullivan said. “Me, he just laughed at.”

Sullivan, a senior punter, has had the last laugh. Last season he averaged 38.6 yards a punt for the Kingsmen. During last week’s CLU-alumni scrimmage, he had four punts for a 51.5-yard average with a long of 68 yards.

Sullivan, 24, spent three years in the Army after graduating from Northridge High in Middlebury, Ind., then resumed his football career at Cal Lutheran.

Hot feet: The temperature, near 114 degrees, wasn’t the only thing that was hot during Saturday’s scrimmage between Valley and host Pasadena City.

The battle between Jim Harper, Pat Schmidle, Edward Bunn and Mike Conover to become the first-string place-kicker heated up when all four kicked 47-yard field goals.

“They all did it under pressure,” said Valley Coach Chuck Ferrero, whose team does not open its season until Sept. 17 against Moorpark.

Longshot to sure shot: Anna Suarez, a freshman from Chaminade High, was a longshot to make the Northridge volleyball team.

Two weeks after the Lady Matadors’ first practice, Suarez has become a starting left-side hitter, replacing sophomore Connie Noe, who injured her left knee in Friday’s alumni game.

Sam Farmer and staff writers Mike Hiserman, Gary Klein, Ralph Nichols and Chris J. Parker contributed to this notebook.