Cal State Fullerton Notebook / Robyn Norwood : Finding Cornerbacks Is Priority in Spring Practice

Spring football practice usually is a time for regrouping and experimenting.

Plug here, replace there. Try this, scrap that.

But in the Cal State Fullerton secondary this year, the overhaul will be thorough--by necessity.

Only one player, Mike Schaffel, returns at his own position, free safety.

At cornerback, there are no starters returning.

And no backups returning.

Matter of fact, the only returning cornerback is Terry Tramble. And he is a community college transfer who redshirted at Fullerton last season.

This creates quite a task for secondary Coach Ed Donatell, who, naturally, is new to the Titans.

Donatell, 32, came to Fullerton this spring from Idaho, where he also coached the secondary. He replaces Bill Wentworth, who was moved to offense to coach the quarterbacks.

When Fullerton opens its season Sept. 2 against Northern Illinois in DeKalb, Ill., there will be two cornerbacks on the field who have never played a down for the Titans.

“People are sure going to be looking at us,” Donatell said.

They also will be throwing at them.

“They’re going to test us out,” Donatell said. “We want to be competitive.”

With the departure of last year’s starting cornerbacks, James Howard and Sean Fernandes, and last year’s backups, Tony Williams and James Young, Donatell will turn to Tramble and an influx of community college transfers.

Several are with the team this spring, including Darrell Bruce of the College of the Sequoias, Lionel Denman of San Bernardino Valley and Tim Haider, a walk-on.

“Bruce seems to have excellent quickness,” Donatell said. “Lionel Denman is doing some excellent things. . . . But it’s wide open. After one week of workouts with new people, I don’t think you should judge.”

Five more cornerbacks are expected in the fall, among them one with a famous name.

That would be Ken McKyer, one of eight siblings of Tim McKyer, the San Francisco 49er cornerback.

“If he can bring his brother with him,” Donatell joked, “I can get it done.”

In any case, the challenge for the secondary is clear.

“They’re a great, hard-working group,” Donatell said. “I’ve been on the other side of the coin, when you have everybody back. That has its own problems. Then you have fifth-year guys who aren’t playing, and people are unhappy.”

One thing is clear. Two starting positions are wide open.

The spring signing period for basketball begins today, and Fullerton Coach John Sneed expects to sign three or four players.

Two players--guards Bruce Bowen of Fresno Edison High School and Dareck Crane of Orange Coast College--have made verbal commitments.

Bowen averaged 20 points a game last season. Crane averaged 18. Sneed also expects another high school forward to sign, and is involved with one other junior college player.

Fullerton loses only one starter from this year’s team, senior Derek Jones. In addition to the players who sign this week and La Quinta High School’s Scott Campbell, who signed in the fall, two redshirt players will join the team--Agee Ward, who was ineligible under Prop. 48 this year and Washington transfer Ron Caldwell.

Cedric Ceballos, who helped lead the basketball team to a 16-13 record, was named the player of the year among junior-college transfers by Basketball Weekly magazine, beating out such players as David Butler of Nevada Las Vegas.

Ceballos led the Big West Conference in scoring, averaging 21 points a game.

David Staton, who hit five home runs in two days and batted .769 in a three-game series against UC Santa Barbara last weekend, has been named a Big West Conference player of the week.

Staton, the Titans’ designated hitter, also tied a school record for consecutive hits with 10 during the three games. He shares that record with current Titan catcher Brent Mayne and Tom Thomas, who played on Fullerton’s 1984 national championship team.

A junior who transferred from Orange Coast College, Staton is leading Fullerton in hitting, home runs and runs batted in with a .368 average, 12 home runs and 45 RBIs.

Anjie Bryant, with a 6-0 record last week, has been named the Big West softball pitcher of the week.

Her victories last week included three shutouts and five complete games.

Bryant, a sophomore, leads the Titans with a 19-3 record. Last week, she allowed only six runs on 21 hits.

The softball team rose to No. 4 in the national poll this week, behind Oklahoma State, UCLA and Fresno State.

Fullerton (34-8) is in first place in the Big West Conference race with an 18-4 record, two games ahead of second-place Fresno State. Fresno State is 12-2 in conference play, but has a better overall record than the Titans at 34-5.