J C Notes : Will Trojan Cager End Up at El Camino? SC Says No Way

It’s early to talk hoops, but here’s an incident worth mentioning. It involves USC basketball player Turi Carter, who, according to El Camino Coach Ron McClurkin, expressed interest in playing for the Warriors.

USC sports information officials maintain that it never happened. They say the 6-foot-7, 190-pound forward is attending classes at USC, and the thought of transferring to a community college never crossed his mind.

But McClurkin says Carter, a sophomore who played sparingly on the Trojans’ 10-22 team (2-16 in the Pacific 10 Conference), contacted him during the summer and registered for fall classes at El Camino.

“He left a message on my machine in August,” McClurkin said. “He said he wanted to transfer to El Camino because USC wasn’t going to bring him back. We met and talked about basketball during registration.

“Then he registered for his classes here. After that he went to visit his mother in New Orleans and said he’d be back for the first day of class. I haven’t heard from him since.”

USC sports information director Tim Tessalone has a different story. He says Carter, who appeared in 10 games and averaged 1.5 points, attended summer school at El Camino to help his grades. Tessalone says Carter never intended to play basketball for the Warriors.

“It happens a lot,” Tessalone said. “Maybe somebody saw him play a pickup game at El Camino and assumed he would play there. The same thing happened with (former Hawthorne quarterback) Curtis Conway. Someone saw him out there on the field throwing a football, and everyone assumed he would attend El Camino.”

McClurkin meanwhile, says it’s no big loss. He believes his team has the depth and talent to win a state title without Carter’s strong inside shooting.

Carter was not available for comment.

So far so good for L.A. Southwest’s defense. Of course the Cougars have only played one football game--their opener against Rio Hondo two weeks ago--but in it they proved Coach Henry Washington right.

He said defense would be a definite strength and the key to the team’s success. His burly linemen demonstrated that in the Cougars’ 17-16 victory over the Roadrunners.

“It’s as strong as I thought,” Washington said after his team held Rio Hondo to 11 yards rushing. “We still have a little work to do with our secondary, but we’re very powerful.” Rio Hondo scores came on passes and a field goal.

Sophomore Chris Mims, a key force against Rio Hondo, was mentioned in the JC Athletic Bureau’s weekly newsletter for his outstanding performance.

The 6-foot-6, 230-pound defensive tackle had 6 solo tackles, 3 assists and 3 sacks. He also forced a fumble and deflected a pass.

“Chris is probably the best player in Southern California,” Washington said of the Pierce College transfer. “He has size, speed and agility. You can’t ask for more.”

Don Weems has good reason to be relieved. Harbor’s new football coach is pretty excited that his team has already matched last year’s victories after one game.

The 27-6 win, which was erroneously reported to The Times as 26-6 by the school’s public information officer, came despite several setbacks.

Among them was freshman quarterback Glenn Baham, who suffered a back injury that kept him out of practice for eight days. He also had the flu the day before the game.

“We didn’t have the real Glenn up there,” Weems said. “He’s capable of producing as well as anyone.”

Baham’s physical condition wasn’t the only thing on Weems’ mind during the lengthy trip to the high desert. He was also preoccupied with the fact that 40 of the 46 players on the bus were freshmen.

The outcome was better than he thought.

“I was very happy,” Weems said. “For a first game, they didn’t make the typical mistakes that a team makes in a first game.”

Talk about a rebuilding year, the El Camino women’s cross-country team was wiped out after winning last year’s South Coast Conference title.

Coach and all.

Dave Shannon, who led the men and women’s programs for 11 years, was named the school’s athletic director and thus gave up coaching.

His assistant of four years, Dean Lofgren, has taken over both programs. The new head coach has only one returner on the women’s side, Crystal Neuhaus, who was No.7 on the team last year.

Fortunately Carla Swain decided to switch from soccer to cross-country this season and immediately slipped into the No. 1 spot. She led the Warriors to a fourth-place finish at the Mira Costa Invitational last week by placing fifth out of 104 runners.

The men’s team, led by freshman David Haskell, finished fifth at Mira Costa. Haskell placed sixth overall, and sophomore Antonio Carreno came in 10th. The Warriors will compete in the Dual Meet Championships at La Mirada Park on Saturday.

El Camino’s soccer team looks good despite having only one returning starter from last year’s 14-3-3 squad that reached the semifinals of the state tournament.

The Warriors, led by sophomore Raul Haro, improved their record to 6-1 after shutting out Mt. San Antonio (2-0) on Tuesday. Today El Camino travels to College of the Desert for a 3 p.m. game.

The women are host to Harbor at 3 p.m. They’re 3-3-0 after they tied Golden West 1-1 on Tuesday.

Members of the El Camino football team will oppose a former teammate in Saturday’s game against Orange Coast. Safety Joseph Fumi-Fiamuulle , who was on the Warriors’ roster last season, transferred to Orange Coast and had a 62-yard pass interception in the Pirates’ 32-14 victory over Rio Hondo.