College Notebook / Jim Lindgren : Herbert Gets Kick, and Pair of Shorts, Out of Promotion

Dan Herbert was a defensive back for the University of San Diego football team in 1981 when he set the Toreros’ single-season record for interceptions with eight.

But on Sept. 9, in the Toreros’ home opener against Azusa Pacific, Herbert was lining up field goals--from 10, 20 and 30 yards--as part of a promotional contest at halftime. Herbert made all of his field goals, defeating four others, who were chosen randomly with a special mark in their game programs.

The next day in Indianapolis, a man won a similar contest in the Colts’ National Football League opener, and he will receive a year’s supply of pizza from Pizza Hut.

From Hammer Sport Palace, the contest’s sponsor, Herbert will get a year’s supply of shorts . . . provided, of course, he takes good care of the one pair he won.

Herbert probably would have lost his shorts if the rumor proved true that Seamus McFadden (pronounced SHAME-us) was also in the contest. It didn’t. But it would have been interesting to see how McFadden, USD men’s soccer coach, would have done.

At Kearny High in the early ‘70s, McFadden once kicked 10 extra points in a 70-0 Komet victory and was chosen first-team all-county. On the second team that year was La Jolla High’s Rolf Benirschke.

“I was one of the very first sidewinders when I came here,” said McFadden, who is from Donegal, Ireland. “I probably should have gone on after high school. I often wonder what I could have done in retrospect.”

Instead, McFadden went on to play soccer at San Diego State where he was an All-American sweeper and a teammate and friend of Chuck Clegg, SDSU’s current coach.

“I was a sweeper and he was the last fullback. I used to pick all his mistakes out of the back of the net,” McFadden joked.

After coaching at Clairemont High, which won consecutive high school championships in ’78 and ‘79, McFadden coached four years at Mesa College, compiling a 48-4 record before taking the job of starting a new program at USD.

Now in its 10th year, USD awarded two scholarships this year for the first time and McFadden has the Toreros playing spectacularly.

USD (5-2) won the U.S. International tournament last week by defeating Cal (6-2) and Cal State Dominguez Hills (2-1). Its losses have been to Cal State Fullerton (2-1 with 10 seconds left in double overtime) and to UCLA (2-0).

Junior Tom Crane, formerly of Mesa and Poway High, is leading the West Coast region in scoring with seven goals and 15 points.

UC San Diego’s soccer teams are once again enjoying fine seasons.

The women’s team, runnerup in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division III championship in 1988, has outscored its opponents, 24-0, in four victories this season. The Tritons’ career scoring leader, Heather Mauro, had five goals Sunday against Whittier. Goalie Julie Freiss recorded her 35th career shutout, a school record. But then again, the Poets did not manage a shot against her and only ventured past midfield three times during the entire match.

UCSD’s defending national champion Division III men’s team (4-0-1) is having a little tougher go of it, having scored just six goals, but it has kept its 30-match unbeaten string alive.

UCSD will be christening North Campus Stadium in its new sports complex with a soccer match against USD Sept. 29. The match is also part of the sixth B.G.I.F. (Blue Gold Incredible Friday) celebration, which includes a barbecue, a concert, a water polo match (UCSD vs. Pepperdine) and a volleyball match (UCSD vs. Chapman College).

Christian Heritage (1-1) won its first soccer game ever Saturday, defeating Latin American Bible College, 9-0.

The athletic department this year added men’s soccer and women’s volleyball (0-4), giving it five sports, including men’s basketball and men’s and women’s cross-country, which began in 1986-87.

According to Swen Nater, the Hawks’ athletic director and basketball coach, the school is looking to add more sports, most likely baseball and tennis, by the next school year. Nater also said a 2,500-seat gymnasium is in the planning stages and construction could begin as early as next summer.