PREP REVIEW : For Laguna Beach Senior, 2 Sports Twice as Nice

The two-sport athlete is fairly common in high school. Baseball and football or track and cross-country are a couple of the more popular combinations. But baseball and cross - country?

David Crain excels at both at Laguna Beach High School. As a freshman, he competed for the Pacific Coast League varsity cross-country championship team. He placed 24th in the frosh-soph division of the Kinney Invitational, a national competition, at Fresno that season, but he was the second freshman to cross the finish line. He was all-league his sophomore and junior years. Now a senior, Crain and his teammates are 4-0 and ranked fifth in the Southern Section.

Crain, 6-foot and 170 pounds, is a two-time all-league catcher. Last season he led the team in hitting with a .447 batting average and was named Laguna Beach’s most valuable player.

“He is really tough,” baseball Coach Scott Magers said. “He’ll block the plate no matter who is coming down the line, and he has a really good arm. He is tougher than he appears.”

Magers is all for Crain’s cross-country participation. “It keeps him in shape during the off-season and it gives him the competitive edge, too,” Magers said. And because Crain’s first love is baseball, Magers does not worry about his catcher running off.

Cross-country Coach Stuart Calderwood, however, is not crazy about Crain catching because of the potential knee strain. But Crain has experienced no ill effects from crouching.

The funny thing is, Crain never set out to run cross-country.

“As a freshman I originally signed up for water polo,” he said. “My parents didn’t like that because they didn’t want me getting up early in the morning. My sister (Jennifer) went to the high school and she said Coach Calderwood was really a good coach and it would be really fun to run cross-country.”

A couple of other players believe so, too. Senior first baseman Mica Brown and shortstop Eric Snip also run cross-country.

“When I was a freshman, we ran and we had a great team,” Crain said. “We just all stuck together, I guess, and now we are going to hopefully have a great season, and we are all friends so that helps out a lot, too.”

Blast from the past: Fullback Hal Sheflin, who led Newport Harbor High to its only appearance in the final of the Southern Section small schools division, will be back on the field at Newport Harbor this weekend. He led the Sailors to the finals in 1942, when they lost to Bonita, 39-6. The next year, there were no playoffs because of World War II.

Sheflin is one of more than 100 former Sailor players and coaches expected to attend a reunion on Friday and Saturday to celebrate the first 25 years of Newport Harbor football.

A 64-page book featuring photos of all 25 teams will be on sale.

Newport Harbor opened in 1930 and fielded its first team in 1931. Athletes who played from 1931 to 1955 are encouraged to attend.

Friday’s schedule will include a pregame reception and tour through the school’s Heritage Hall. The players will be introduced at halftime of the Newport Harbor-Tustin game and will attend a postgame reception at the Costa Mesa Country Club. There will be a picnic Saturday.

For more information, call Les Miller, who coached at Newport Harbor from 1943-45, at 549-2186.

The very first time: Ocean View High’s football team has waited a long time--nine years in fact--to beat Fountain Valley. But Seahawk Coach Howard Isom has waited even longer.

Friday night’s 17-16 victory over Fountain Valley, the defending but depleted (2-5) Southern Section Division I champions, was the first in Ocean View’s 11-year history.

Ocean View moved to the Sunset League from the Empire League nine years ago. Until Friday night’s victory, the Seahawks had lost eight consecutive games to Fountain Valley.

But Isom had to go to three schools and 17 years to beat the Barons. Isom started as an assistant at Westminster from 1973 to 1979; during those years, the Lions never beat Fountain Valley. Isom tried his luck as an Oiler assistant from 1980-85 and got one tie against Fountain Valley, in 1982. In 1986, he made his third coaching move, to Ocean View as an assistant. He became head coach this season.

“I’ve coached against Fountain Valley for 17 years and beating them has always been a challenge,” Isom said. “Fountain Valley is always a team you want to beat. It is a class program with great athletes, and any time you can get the defending CIF champion, it’s a big deal.”

Prep Notes

Chris Jordan, orthopedic consultant to the Orange County Athletic Directors’ Assn., will be the featured speaker at a free clinic in which performance-enhancing drugs will be discussed. The clinic will be at 7 p.m. Oct. 23 at the Sequoia Athletic Club in Buena Park. The clinic is open to athletes, coaches and parents. For more information, call 739-4141. . . . The Orange County Basketball Officials’ Assn. needs men and women to officiate lower-level basketball games beginning Dec. 1 for the 1990-91 season. An estimated 80% of all assignments are for weekday afternoons from 3:00-5:30 with fees beginning at $30. Interested participants should call Speedy Castillo at 220-4054. . . . Los Alamitos is accepting applications for a walk-on varsity wrestling coach. Anyone interested should call Athletic Director Frank Doretti at (213) 430-3511. . . . Retired Corona del Mar Athletic Director Ron Davis will be honored by the Orange County Athletic Directors’ Assn. at the fall meeting Oct. 25 at the Anaheim Stadium Club.