JC NOTES : Stanbury’s Return Boosts El Camino’s Swim Hopes

With Corey Stanbury back at El Camino, the Warriors may soon have a successful aquatics program. Stanbury, the women’s swim coach at El Camino eight years ago, was hired in July to take over the men’s and women’s programs.

In Stanbury’s three years as a part-time coach, the Warriors won a conference title, placed second in their conference twice and finished third in the state in 1981.

Stanbury moved to Los Altos to coach at Foothill College and the U.S. Swim Club. He also coached at an aquatics club in Woodland Hills before coming back to El Camino.

“I jumped in here without much opportunity to recruit or do much of anything,” said Stanbury, who was a swimmer and water polo player at UC Santa Barbara. “I had to go to the intermediate and advanced swimming classes and get kids from there.”

Stanbury rounded up the 27 bodies that form El Camino’s swimming and diving teams. The Warriors are 0-3 overall and 0-1 in the South Coast Conference, but the first-year coach expects to end the season with a better record than last year, when the Warriors went 0-6 under Coach Kiff Kimber.

The women have come close to a victory. They lost to conference rival Pasadena by only one point.

Freshman Mary Bradshaw is expected to add lots of points to El Camino’s total. The Mira Costa High graduate has qualified for the state meet in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:14.7) and the 50-yard breaststroke (34.2).

Freshmen Nicole Standardi and Stephanie Mizuno have also performed well. Standardi (Rolling Hills High) specializes in freestyle events and Mizuno (Carson High) is an all-around swimmer who has been successful in butterfly, backstroke and freestyle.

The men’s team is led by freshman breast-stroker Todd Douglas. The Mira Costa High graduate has come within one second of qualifying for the state meet in the 100- and 200-yard breast.

Diver Peter Schulz has also contributed. The sophomore, who is undefeated this season, qualified for the state meet in the one-meter and three-meter boards last year. He placed 11th in the state.

“I’m looking forward to getting a complete program going,” Stanbury said. “We’re even starting water polo in the fall. We may not have a lot of experienced people, but the ones we have are working their tails off to do well.”

Once again several junior colleges shuffled their baseball teams to new conferences. It happens almost every year in the unorganized world of JC athletics, so it’s no surprise.

The result this season is that Harbor and El Camino are in Southern California’s two smallest conferences, which have only five members each. The largest league is the Western State Conference with 11 teams.

The Southern California Athletic Conference, which includes Harbor, Compton, East L.A., L.A. Mission and L.A. City, is rather weak. Harbor is the only team ranked in the state (No. 14) and in Southern California’s top 20 (No. 8).

El Camino is in a much tougher league with Cerritos, Mt. San Antonio, Long Beach and Pasadena. The South Coast Conference has three teams in the state’s top 20 and four in Southern California’s top 20.

Cerritos is the state’s top-ranked team, Mt. SAC is No. 8 and the Warriors are No. 18 in the state. Long Beach is 14th in Southern California.

El Camino (19-10, 3-4) had a good spring break away from its tough baseball league. The Warriors won the Channel Coast Tournament last week by defeating Rancho Santiago, 12-7, in the final. Freshman second baseman Denny Hocking led the Warriors with three hits, two RBIs and two runs scored. Freshman second baseman Heath Jones and sophomore Ross Rosenfeld each contributed two hits and two RBIs.

The Harbor Seahawks had a more hectic spring break in the Easter Tournament at Long Beach. Harbor made it to the finals but lost, 5-1, to Orange Coast College. The real action started in the top of the sixth inning when sophomore pitcher Leonard Fletcher hit Orange Coast’s designated hitter, Scott Talanoa, with a curve on a three-and-one count.

Talanoa, a 6-5, 235-pound sophomore from El Segundo High, charged the mound and both benches emptied.

Both players, another Orange Coast player and an assistant coach were ejected. The Seahawks are 13-12-1 and 4-1-1 in the SCAC.

No South Bay player or coach was inducted into the California Community College football Hall of Fame this year, but two area players are in the hall, which includes Jackie Robinson (Pasadena City College), O.J. Simpson (Community College of San Francisco), Frank Gifford (Bakersfield College) and former Raiders Coach Tom Flores (Fresno Community College).

Former El Camino lineman Fred Dryer and Harbor wide receiver Haven Moses are members of the hall.

Dryer, star of the television show “Hunter,” attended Lawndale High School and played for the Warriors until 1967. He played at San Diego State and for the Rams.

Moses, a San Pedro High School graduate, played for Harbor and San Diego State and professionally for the Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos.

So what if the Marymount College basketball team finished seventh in the eight-member Southern California Athletic Conference with a 7-21 record (3-11 in the SCAC)?

Sophomore forward James Anderson ended up as the state’s third leading scorer (25.9 points per game) and sixth leading rebounder (12 a game).

Sophomore guard Ernie Woods finished as the state’s sixth leading scorer with a 23.5 average. Marcell Driver of Citrus (27.2) and Clifton Taylor of Marin (26) were the state’s top scorers.