The High School : Merrill Alarms Coaches With Excessive Weight Loss

John Merrill, Newbury Park’s offensive and defensive tackle, has been losing as much as 15 pounds during games and was sent home at halftime last week against Buena because he became too weak and dizzy to continue. Merrill weighed 230 pounds when summer practices began but his weight has since dipped as low as 202.

Merrill has undergone extensive blood and urine tests, which have failed to show any irregularities, according to Newbury Park Coach Ken Cook. In the meantime, Merrill has been used only on defense.

“They’re running all kinds of tests on him,” Cook said, “but it’s not getting any better. We’re worried about him.

“The thing is, he’s all muscle. He looks like a body builder, so it’s not water weight.”

Merrill, who is regarded as the Panthers’ best lineman, plans to start in tonight’s game against Locke.

Shake, rattle and roll: Rich Lawson decided to make use of the diamondback rattlesnake he killed in his back yard this summer.

“I skinned it and it’s hanging on the wall in my office,” said Lawson, the Chaminade football coach.

Lawson also removed the rattle, which he superstitiously shakes before every game.

Could that be the reason for the Eagles’ 3-0 start?

“I was told that there is an old Indian legend,” Lawson said, “that says when you kill an animal in nature, you do a little war dance and then you take on its powers. Maybe we’ve taken on the power of the rattler.

“I shake the rattle and we kinda roll.”

Overrun again: How much better is Alemany than St. Genevieve? Enough so that St. Genevieve Coach Kevin Kane would prefer to avoid a rematch after the Valiants (1-2) were crushed, 34-7, last week by Alemany.

“I don’t think we should be playing teams that are that much better than us,” Kane said.

Alemany is a Division I team.

A rematch with Quartz Hill, which thrashed the Valiants, 34-0, is equally unappealing.

“Our athletic director asked me if I wanted to renew our contract against Quartz Hill. I said, ‘I’d like to play them again like I’d like to step in front of a speeding car,’ ” Kane said.

The back is back: Eric Messal’s 60-yard scoring run in Hoover’s 14-13 loss to Harvard last week not only accounted for the Tornadoes’ longest play from scrimmage, but it also signaled the return of one of Hoover’s best athletes.

Messal missed all but the opening series of Hoover’s first game because of a separated left shoulder. He practiced without pads during the week and got approval to play the day before the game.

“He’s one of our best athletes and we can’t have him on the bench,” Coach Dennis Hughes said. “He came in and did a great job.”

Messal started on defense and switched to running back in the second half.

He gained 72 yards in 3 carries, including his 60-yard score that brought Hoover within a point.

Messal wasn’t perfect, however. He fumbled away the possible winning touchdown at Harvard’s 2-yard line with 5:25 to play.

Streakers: Newbury Park’s volleyball team has won 34 consecutive games spanning three Marmonte League matches, four nonleague matches and 13 tournament games.

“The streak is something for the kids to shoot for and gives us something to be intense about,” Coach Joe Wortmann said.

Wortmann doesn’t expect the streak to survive past Oct. 8, when Newbury Park faces Thousand Oaks in a rematch of last season’s Southern Section 2-A championship.

“The streak gets thrown out the window then,” he said.

Surprise: Before his team’s Marmonte League match against Royal, Thousand Oaks girls’ volleyball Coach Ron Beick tried to convince the Lancers that the Highlanders were a worthy opponent.

If Beick’s speech wasn’t persuasive, Royal’s play must have convinced the Lancers. Royal won the first two games and led in the third, 7-2, before losing in five games to last year’s league and Southern Section 2-A champions.

Moving up the charts: Royal’s water polo team was ranked fourth in the Southern Section 3-A Division pool--its highest ranking--despite a 3-4 record.

The Highlanders have lost to Mission Viejo (ranked second in the 3-A), Palos Verdes (sixth in the 3-A), Edison (ninth in the 3-A) and Fullerton (10th in the 4-A).

Among Royal’s victims are Costa Mesa, last year’s 2-A champion and ranked fifth in the 3-A this season, and Capistrano Valley, 10th in the 3-A and No. 1 at the time of the loss.

In the 2-A, Harvard is 9-1 and ranked No. 1.

Lost Mountie: Chris Andersen, a 6-3, 245-pound offensive tackle and kicker at Montclair Prep, suffered torn ligaments in his left knee last week and might miss the rest of the season.

Andersen will wear a hard cast for the next six weeks, according to his father, Foster.

Staff writers Tim Brown, Chris J. Parker, Vince Kowalick and Steven Fleischman contributed to this notebook.