NOTEBOOK / GARY KLEIN : 12 Glendale Players Sign for Football

Twelve Glendale College football players signed national letters of intent last week.

Broderick Jenkins, a 6-foot-3 tackle, signed with San Jose State and tight end Tom Sugg signed with Idaho. Guards Chris Allen and Anthony Navarro chose Cal State Northridge and Utah, respectively.

Other signees included defensive lineman Vince Lobendahn (Utah); defensive lineman Damon Hinton, linebacker Steve Ruedeflores and defensive back Dennis Breshears (Cal State Long Beach); and defensive back Paul Simpson, who signed with Whittier College, a Division III school that does not award athletic scholarships nor have recruits sign letters of intent.

Four former Vaqueros also signed with four-year schools. Nose guard Cory Cheney-Rice, who played in 1987, will attend Sonoma State; linebacker George Sykes (1988) signed with New Mexico State; and defensive lineman Doug Bledsoe and running back James Bledsoe, both of whom played at Glendale in 1988, signed with Northern Arizona and Portland State, respectively.

Quarterback Ronnie Lopez is still deciding between Northridge, Long Beach and Cal State Fullerton. Darren Fitzgerald will choose either Humbolt State or Sonoma State and wide receiver Danny Perez is considering offers from Sonoma State and Redlands.

Tournament time: Los Angeles City and Glendale colleges open play in the Southern California Regional of the state basketball tournament Saturday night.

L.A. City (22-8), champion of the Southern California Athletic Conference, is seeded seventh in the 27-team, single-elimination tournament. The Cubs meet 26th-seeded Mira Costa at home.

Glendale (22-11), seeded 11th, is at home against Citrus (15-17), which is seeded 22nd.

The ratings game: The Glendale College men’s track team is 12% of the way to the Western State Conference title after a 78-73-21 tri-meet victory over Santa Barbara and West L.A. in its conference opener last Friday.

The WSC title will be determined by the results of four tri-meets, each worth 12%, and the conference finals worth 52%.

The Vaqueros (2-0) take on Bakersfield and Valley on Friday at Bakersfield.

Best-kept secret: Glendale was without Rick Provenzano in its meet against West L.A. and Santa Barbara because Provenzano was competing in The Times/Eagle Indoor Meet at the Forum, where he placed second in the 800 meters in 1 minute, 57.10 seconds.

At first, Glendale distance Coach Ed Lopez was reluctant to let Provenzano run in the qualifying meet three weeks ago.

“He came up with a good enough story to convince me,” Lopez said. “I didn’t tell anybody else on the team. I didn’t want to lose any more people (last Friday).”

That proved to be a wise decision. Glendale needed to win the final event of the meet, the 1,600-meter relay, to clinch the victory.

In the swim: Occidental swimmers Ed Bedford and Scott Holdsworth have qualified for the NCAA Division III championships March 12 at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass.

Bedford, a sophomore, qualified in the 100-yard butterfly by clocking 51.73 seconds at the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships last weekend at Cerritos College.

Holdsworth, a senior, qualified in the 200-yard freestyle (1:43.18).

Girls’ playoffs: The Flintridge Sacred Heart girls’ basketball team defeated Pius X, 65-37, Saturday to advance to quarterfinals of the Southern Section Division 2-AA playoffs. The Tologs, who advanced past the second round for first time since 1987, played host to Nordhoff in a quarterfinal game on Wednesday.

In other playoff games Wednesday, La Canada, which last week routed Duarte, 68-25, traveled to Los Alamitos for a 3-A quarterfinal and Flintridge Prep, a 45-30 winner Saturday night over Cate, played host to Rosamond in a 1-A contest. Ribet Academy, which last week defeated Big Pine, 43-42, played host to California Lutheran in a Small Schools game.

Kirby Lee contributed to this notebook.