COLLEGE DIVISION : Little Fanfare Surrounds Coach’s 400th Victory

In women’s college basketball, it is a mark of distinction for a coach to reach the 400-win plateau.

In fact, at the start of the season, only three active coaches in any college division had accomplished that milestone.

After three more coaches reached the figure in November, longtime Biola University Coach Betty Norman became the seventh active coach to post win No. 400 in early December against Cal Lutheran.

For Norman, the moment nearly came and went without notice.

It wasn’t until the next day, before a game against Redlands, that she learned about her feat.

“I didn’t even know I had my 400th win until the next day when the sports information director (John Anthony) said something to me,” Norman said. “If he hadn’t said something, I probably wouldn’t have known.”

Norman has since improved her record to 401-171 in 22 seasons at the La Mirada school and the Eagles have a 4-3 record this season. That places her seventh among active women’s coaches.

Although she entered the season with 397 wins, Norman said the milestone hadn’t even crossed her mind until after the season started.

“I’ve always had the philosophy that you don’t shoot for those things,” she said. “It just sneaks up on you.”

The coach first suspected that she was closing in on her 400th victory when another longtime successful coach, Cal Poly Pomona’s Darlene May, informed her at a Biola game.

May, in her 16th season at Pomona, reached the mark in November and has a career record of 405-94.

“Darlene May was referee at one of our games and she had just reached the mark and she said, ‘I know you’re right there, too,’ and I said, ‘No, I’m not,’ ” Norman said.

More than reaching 400 victories, Norman said she is happy about the consistency of the Biola program. Norman has averaged 18 victories a season.

“I just feel very blessed to have been in the sport of basketball for as long as I have,” she said. “I’ve had some highlights, too. This is my 22nd year and I’ve had some good players and I’ve had an opportunity to take all-star teams overseas.”

She said it has also been fulfilling to see her players’ progress off the court.

“I feel very good about that,” Norman said. “We get nice young ladies to work with and we have a high percentage that graduate and go on to do well in their chosen professions.”

Norman said that perhaps the most rewarding aspect of her career was the opportunity to coach her daughter, Kim, from 1983-86. Kim was an All-National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics District 3 performer.

“She did well and she was a starter and made academic All-America and it was just a lot of fun for me,” the coach said.

It was the chance to coach her daughter, she said, that has probably kept her with the Eagles for this long.

“I thought I was going to quit when my daughter came in, but she said, ‘If you don’t coach, I won’t play,’ and I said to her, ‘Oh, dear! Don’t do that.’ ”

Kim has been an assistant coach at Biola the last two seasons.

Norman says she is enjoying coaching more in recent seasons.

“That’s because now I have a little more experience behind me,” she said. “I think I’m a more relaxed coach than I was before. I think I have more of a total perspective of the game than I did before.”

Coaching is not Norman’s only profession. She has also been successful as a certified financial planner and was women’s athletic director at Biola.

“It’s not that I don’t have other things that I can do,” Norman said. “I just enjoy this. I think that when this becomes work for me, that’s when I’ll say it’s enough and right now that’s not the case.”

Will Cal State San Bernardino soon become the newest member of the California Collegiate Athletic Assn.?

School administrators announced last week that the Coyotes have officially received an invitation to join the eight-team conference, regarded as one of the strongest in the NCAA Division II.

The school, which has competed as a Division III independent since it started its intercollegiate program in 1984, will have until early January to make its decision.

David Suenram, who is in his first year as athletic director at San Bernardino, had said earlier in the year that the school hopes to move up to Division II by 1991.

With Cal State Northridge leaving the conference to move up to Division I after the 1989-90 season, CCAA officials have been searching for a replacement.

With a rapidly growing enrollment of more than 11,000 students and success competing at the Division III level, San Bernardino is considered a logical choice to join the CCAA.

If the Coyotes decide to accept the CCAA’s invitation, the school will have until next June to apply for reclassification with the NCAA.

There have been few surprises among CCAA basketball teams early this season as most schools take a break for the holidays.

Cal State Bakersfield, which has reached the NCAA Division II playoffs the last two seasons, has the best record among men’s teams at 7-1, Chapman is 6-2 and defending conference champion UC Riverside is 5-2.

In women’s play, Chapman is 9-2 and eight-time defending champion Cal Poly Pomona is close behind at 8-3. The biggest surprise has been Cal State Dominguez Hills at 7-4, but the Toros have lost their last two games to UC Davis and Sacramento State.

Among Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference schools, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and La Verne (both 7-2) lead men’s play and Pomona-Pitzer (5-2) and La Verne (6-4) lead women’s play.

Conference play starts in January in both the CCAA and SCIAC.

College Notes

Cal State Bakersfield has placed junior defender Arturo Jurequi on the NCAA Division II All-Far West men’s soccer team for the second consecutive season. Jurequi, who had earlier been selected CCAA player of the year, led the Roadrunners to their best season ever at 13-6-1. . . . Cal State San Bernardino has landed two on the Division III All-Far West men’s soccer team selected by the National Soccer Coaches Assn. of America. Junior forward Todd Mapes was named to the first team and sophomore forward Fernando Martinez made the second squad.

With its 59-46 victory over Regis of Colorado last week, the Cal State Los Angeles men’s basketball team equaled its win total for the previous two seasons. The Golden Eagles are 4-5 after a 4-48 record the previous two seasons.