NOTEBOOK : Nicholas, Duncan Earn Top-Player Recognition

Jenny Nicholas of Flintridge Sacred Heart High and Jrmirol Duncan of Ribet Christian were honored as The Times’ Glendale-area basketball Players of the Year at the Times’ annual awards brunch Sunday.

Marshall Coach Wendy Triplett and Ribet Christian Coach Michael Miller were named girls’ and boys’ coaches of the year, respectively.

Nicholas, a senior guard, averaged 16.1 points a game and helped lead the Tologs to the Horizon League championship and the semifinals of the Southern Section 2-AA Division playoffs.

Duncan, a junior guard, averaged 17.1 points for the Fighting Frogs, who won the Southern Section Small Schools Division title and advanced to the state playoffs.

In her second year as coach of the Barristers, Triplett led Marshall to its second consecutive City Section 3-A Division championship.

Miller, in his first season at Ribet Christian, guided the Fighting Frogs to the school’s first Southern Section championship of any kind.

New Horizons: Gary Etcheverry, an assistant football coach at Occidental College for seven seasons, will leave next week for St. Paul, Minn., to become head coach at Macalester College, a Division III school in St. Paul, Minn.

Etcheverry, 33, was the defensive coordinator for Occidental, which has won six Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships in the past eight years.

Etcheverry also has coached at San Francisco State and was a special assistant with the Los Angeles Rams in 1988.

“I had to make a decision,” Etcheverry said. “Did I want to move up in levels, which would mean more money but also some other things I’m not excited about, or stay at this level?

“My heart is with small college football. I just think Division III football is among the purest forms of the game and that’s what I’m interested in being a part of.”

Macalester competes in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. It gained national notoriety when its football team lost 50 consecutive games between 1974 and 1980.

Etcheverry replaces Tom Hosier, who resigned after Macalester finished 1-9 last season.

“Gary’s had a great deal to do with the amount of success we had here,” Occidental Coach Dale Widolff said. “I’d be surprised if he doesn’t do very well.”

Setback: The Occidental baseball team tumbled from its No. 1 ranking in the Division III West Region last weekend when the Tigers lost two of their three SCIAC games against La Verne.

Occidental (13-6-1, 5-4 in conference play) avoided a sweep when Scott McDonald hit a grand slam that gave the Tigers a 5-4 victory in the series finale.

On the run: Four more Occidental athletes qualified last week for the Division III national track championships, bringing to 14 the number of Tigers who can compete in the nationals.

Ben White qualified with a mark of 48 feet, 2 inches in the triple jump and Ronnie Cunningham clocked 10.72 seconds in the 100 meters. Tricia Heine qualified in the 800 meters in two minutes 14.57 seconds. The women’s 4x400 relay team clocked 3:56.29.

Occidental, 3-0 in the SCIAC, plays host to La Verne and Redlands on Saturday at noon.

Pacesetters: Marty Beck and Nicole Jimenez of Glendale College qualified last weekend for next month’s Southern California regional track meet.

Beck, a sophomore, won the invitational portion of the 400-meter intermediate hurdles at the Cal State Northridge Invitational on Saturday in 52.35--the fastest time of the year by a Southern California junior college runner.

The previous day, Jimenez, the Western State Conference cross-country champion last November, placed second in the 5,000 meters at the Bakersfield College Relays in 18:18.3.

Jimenez, a freshman from Burbank High who was running for the first time on the track at that distance, smashed the school record of 19:15.0 set by Alison Bettencourt in 1981.

Revenge of the Nerds: Glendale College middle-distance runner Rick Provenzano wears a headband when he runs, spurring teammates to chide him for looking like a character from the aforementioned movie. Provenzano, however, claims it isn’t just for show.

“I have a weak tissue in my left eye and I can’t see when sweat gets into my eye,” said Provenzano who also wears contact lenses. “If I don’t wear it, I see two tracks when I run. Once I almost fell off the track.”

Kirby Lee contributed to this notebook.