NOTEBOOK / SEAN WATERS : UCLA Recruits Shon Tarver at High Decibel and in Chorus

“We want Tarver!”

The UCLA student section began chanting before the start of the regionally televised game between the Bruins and Arizona on Saturday.

“We want Tarver!” the fans screamed repeatedly.

It’s a cheer Shon Tarver has heard often during home and away high school basketball games, but never at a college game.

Tarver appreciates the recognition, but he was caught off guard by the reception he received at Pauley Pavilion.

“I was excited like any recruit would be,” he said. “I haven’t heard a crowd cheering for me to sign with a school before.”

Tarver, who has narrowed his choices to UCLA, Nevada Las Vegas and Syracuse, attended the game with highly touted recruits 6-10 junior center Cherokee Parks of Marina High in Huntington Beach and 6-11 junior center Eric Meek of San Pasqual in San Diego.

Record-setting game: Entering Tuesday’s Frontier League mismatch against Santa Clara, Santa Paula Coach Chuck Yuncker knew his team would become the answer to a trivia question.

Whom did Santa Clara beat to set the Ventura County record for most consecutive victories?

The Saints answered that question by drubbing Santa Paula, 71-46, for their 31st consecutive win, a streak that includes last season’s Division IV state championship game. Ventura set the previous mark of 30 in a row during the 1948-49 season. The Saints tied that record with a 73-43 win over Santa Ynez on Friday.

Santa Paula remains on a streak of its own; the Cardinals are winless in 15 games. Not a pleasant way for a Yuncker to begin his first season as a head coach.

But Yuncker didn’t expect to upset Santa Clara. His main objective was to impress Lou Cvijanovich, who helped established Yuncker’s coaching philosophy.

Yuncker was a varsity assistant and freshman coach when Santa Clara won the Southern Section 1-A championship during the 1980-81 season.

“I feel excited to coach against Lou for the first time,” Yuncker said before Tuesday’s game. “It would be great to beat a powerhouse. But what would be greater to me than a upset, would be to show him how far the Santa Paula program has come. I would like to see us put it all together and play the best game we can with the players we have.”

The two schools meet again Feb. 2.

Trying to pass a record: Multi-talented Rob Fournier has the opportunity to set Nordhoff High records in three sports.

A point guard on the basketball team, Fournier has 128 assists and needs 52 more to set the school mark for most assists in a season. Larry Messer established the standard of 180 in 1984. Messer was selected Frontier League co-most valuable player with Santa Clara’s Stacey Cvijanovich, who plays for Nevada-Las Vegas.

Fournier, a 5-10 senior, has already set a school mark for most passing yardage in a season (1,677) in football and is close to setting several pitching records.

Tearing up the course: The Southern Section office has established a new rule to help clean up the loose divots left from high school golf competition.

Third-place teams no longer will be automatic qualifiers for team finals unless their leagues certify they can reach a minimum score.

The golf coaches advisory committee established Rule 2615.2 in the Southern Section Constitution and By-Laws this summer. It states: “To be eligible for team regional championship play, all third-place entries must have achieved a best nine-hole score of 230 or lower for any eight matches during the season to qualify for entry.”

That total translates to an average score of 46 for nine holes by the team’s top five players. Teams play an average of 18 matches a season.

“The whole objective is to weed out really weak teams that are not of solid playoff caliber,” Southern Section administrator Dean Crowley said. “Those teams tend to slow down play and take a few more divots home with them.”

Crowley, who also is chairman of the golf committee, said he voted against a proposal that would eliminate all third-place entries in the regionals, because some leagues are deep in talent.

“I think this new rule will eliminate a dozen schools and that will solve the problem,” Crowley said.

Tri playing three?: At a Tri-Valley league meeting for principals and athletic directors d Tuesday at Carpinteria High, Marc Groff of St. Bonaventure proposed a triple round of league games beginning next basketball season

With Fillmore departing to the Frontier League next fall, the Tri-Valley League will be reduced to five teams, creating two additional byes in every team’s league schedule.

The Tri-Valley League currently consists of Carpinteria, Fillmore, Moorpark, Oak Park, and Bishop Diego in addition to St. Bonaventure. La Reina is a member only for girls’ sports.

Groff, St. Bonaventure’s athletic director and basketball coach, proposed increasing the number of league games from eight to 12 and reduce nonleague games from 14 to 10.

“I think it would be silly to play almost twice as many nonleague games to prepare for league,” Groff said. “This proposal would increase the importance of league games.”

Groff’s plan received support from four other schools. Bishop Diego Athletic Director Norris Fletcher objected to the plan because he feared that some schools might meet four times in a season. Several Tri-Valley League teams enter the same tournaments, creating potential match-ups in latter rounds.

Athletic directors from the Tri-Valley League will decide the issue on a Feb. 1 meeting at Carpinteria.

Three’s a crowd: With three Western State Conference road games this week, the Moorpark College men’s basketball team faces a particularly difficult early conference schedule.

It wasn’t intended to be so tough, but Moorpark’s game against Cuesta was rescheduled from Jan. 6 to Monday after Moorpark was delayed in transit by an oil spill on U.S. 101 and missed the game.

Moorpark slipped by Cuesta, 88-66, Monday night and was to have traveled to Ventura on Wednesday night. The Raiders finish the week with a Saturday game at WSC Southern Division contender Glendale.

“Hopefully, we’ll get two out of three, and if we get three out of three, we’ll be super,” Moorpark Coach Al Nordquist said.