PREP REVIEW : El Toro’s David Fair Has Never Met a Challenge He Didn’t Take

He’s been known to dive out of trees like Tarzan, leap over five-foot-high fences on a whim and hurdle the back end of pickups.

If there was ever a competition for crazy, spontaneous stunts, David Fair of El Toro High School would probably win.

Fair demonstrates his daring in the world of track and field, where he has performed impressively.

Fair, a senior 300-meter intermediate hurdler, qualified for this week’s state track and field championships by placing fourth in the Masters meet Friday. His time of 38.46 seconds is the fastest in the county this year.

Most impressive, however, is the fact that until this year, Fair had never competed in the hurdles. Last year, he competed in the 200, 400 and high jump.

“That’s my character, pretty much,” Fair said. “I got bored of the 400, so I wanted to try something else. . . . I thought I could hurdle, but I wasn’t sure. My problem is that where other guys go over the hurdle with a set (specific) foot, and know exactly how many steps they’re going to take between each hurdle, I’m going sometimes with my right, sometimes with my left, sometimes with 14 steps, sometimes with 15. . . . That part of it gets frustrating.”

But being new to an event is nothing new to Fair. Last May, on the advice of El Toro Coach Rick Hagin, Fair entered his first decathlon competition at Mt. San Antonio College.

Though Fair had little experience with most of the 10 events, he won the competition, scoring 5,512 points (ninth-best on the county’s all-time prep list and second-best in the state in 1989).

“David never pole vaulted before the Mt. SAC decathlon,” said his father, Jerry Fair. “He didn’t even know (about the competition) until four days before. He came home and said, ‘Dad, can you take me to this decathlon at Mt. SAC this weekend?’ I said, ‘Sure. But do you even know what events are in the decathlon?’ He said no, so we went through them all that night.

“We never had any dreams he would win it; it was crazy to even think about it.”

Now, Fair is one of eight decathletes--and the only one from California--invited to compete in the prestigious Golden West Invitational, June 7-10 at Cal State Sacramento. The meet brings in the top eight seniors in the nation in each event for a four-day, all-expenses-paid trip.

Even though Fair has not competed in another decathlon, nor has had time to practice the shotput, discus, javelin, etc., Golden West officials told him that his 5,512 point total was proof enough of his talent.

Before the Mt. SAC meet, Fair had never tried the pole vault. He was given about an hour to practice before the competition.

“He watched a couple of boys do it, and ended up going (10 feet 4 inches),” Jerry Fair said. “He hasn’t pole vaulted since then, though. He’s been too busy trying to get to the state meet in the hurdles.”

Fair, who also holds school records in the 110 high hurdles (15.02) and the 400 (49.8), “can do anything if he puts his mind to it,” Hagin said.

“He learns quickly and isn’t afraid of anything,” Hagin said. “I could see him vaulting 14 feet in a month or two without much of a problem. That’s the kind of athlete he is.”

Of course, he’s also the kind of athlete some might describe as foolhardy.

“He does do strange things,” Hagin said. “We were waiting for our bus after this meet at Irvine (High School) and suddenly he just jumps out of a tree. He does this weird thing where he falls and grabs the branches, and then says ‘O, I do that all the time.’ ”

Said Fair: “You just climb way up in this tree and jump. You let yourself fall, and the boughs kind of catch you. You can get pretty scraped up, but I’ve never really gotten hurt. . . . I’m not that crazy. I make sure I can do it first--or at least I make sure I think I can.”

Fair, who plays piano and guitar, won an El Toro talent show this year--”He sung a song he wrote about a girl who got involved with an older man and had her heart broken,” Jerry Fair said.

When he found out he won, Fair was so happy he sprinted out to the school parking lot and hurdled the back end of a pickup.

For Fair, a fitting celebration.

Final meeting: In March of last year, Tim Martin, then an unheralded sophomore at San Clemente, upset one of the top sprinters in the Southern Section not once but three times during a nonleague meet at San Clemente.

The sprinters name? Erik Mitchell.

Before he moved to Los Alamitos with his family last June, Mitchell was a football and track standout at Mayfair High in Lakewood. At Mayfair, Mitchell won the 2-A title in the 100 and 200.

Since moving across the county line, Mitchell has given Martin--the county’s fastest boy last year--his share of challenges. The two have gone back and forth all season, including Friday night at the Southern Section Masters meet. There, Martin got the better of Mitchell in the 100, but just barely--Martin was third in 10.70, Mitchell was fourth in 10.71. Later, Mitchell outran Martin in the 200, placing second to Martin’s sixth, 21.34 to 21.80.

This weekend at the state championships, the two will have one last showdown. Mitchell, a Colorado-bound senior, and Martin, a junior, will run against each other in the 100 if both make it through Friday night’s qualifying heats. (Mitchell also will run the 200, but Martin did not advance in that event).

Asked if it is important to finish the season as the county’s fastest boy, both were nonchalant.

“It doesn’t matter to me; I just want to win,” Martin said. “I don’t want to be making any enemies.”

Said Mitchell: “Nah, it doesn’t matter. I don’t really think about it.”

Record-bound? University’s Tanja Brix and Katella’s Martha Pinto both ran personal bests in the girls’ 3,200 meters at the Masters meet Friday.

Brix, who led the county last year with a time of 10:54.64, finished third in 10:50.10. Pinto, whose previous best was 10:55, took fifth in 10:51.29.

Brix, a sophomore, and Pinto, a junior, are the only county girls to run under 11 minutes in the 3,200 since Buffy Rabbitt, now at UC Irvine, ran 10:42.16 while at Newport Harbor High in 1986. Only 25 county girls have broken the 11-minute barrier.

Now, with the state meet--and one of the fastest 3,200 meter fields in years--coming their way Saturday, Brix and Pinto will have an opportunity to run even faster.

Though breaking one of the oldest county records--10:29.03, set by University’s Teresa Barrios in 1982--may have to wait a few more years, Orange County girls’ distance running may be returning to the high level of years past.

Bad timing: A crew from ESPN’s Scholastic Sports America came to SeaCliff Tennis Club in Huntington Beach Saturday to film what turned out to be Jon Leach’s final high school match.

Leach, a junior at Laguna Beach, lost to Ari Nathan of Brentwood, 5-7, 6-3, 7-5, in the semifinals of the Southern Section singles tournament. He plans to graduate from Laguna Beach in January and play for his father, Dick, at USC.

His departure leaves a void, in more ways than one, for Laguna Beach Coach Bob Walton.

In his three seasons, Leach was one of the county’s most dominant players. This season, he won 63 consecutive sets in team play as Laguna Beach advanced to the semifinals of the 3-A playoffs.

It will be the first time there will be no Leach for Walton to coach. He coached Jon for three seasons, sister Mindy for four and was the junior varsity coach when older brother, Rick, was playing for the Artists.

“It’s going to be weird for me next year,” Walton said. “I’m probably going to write ‘Leach’ into the lineup card automatically. And there won’t be a Leach (playing).”

Walton and the rest of the country can watch Leach play as a high-schooler one last time when ESPN airs the segment some time in the fall.

Hoop horizons: Dave Zirkle, director of the Orange Holiday basketball tournament, has expanded the field of one of the county’s top tournaments to include a Canadian team and two schools from Washington.

Bev Facey Composite, which won the provincial title of Alberta, has entered the tournament scheduled for Dec. 26-29 in Chapman College’s Hutton Sports Center. Sammamish High of Seattle, the runner-up in Washington’s state tournament, is also entered along with Kent Merdian of Kent, Wash.

Zirkle has also added San Francisco Archbishop Riordan, runner-up to Mater Dei in the State Division I tournament, and San Diego Lincoln Prep, the 3-A division champion in San Diego.

State champion Mater Dei and Division IV champion Santa Clara of Oxnard are the co-favorites.

Orange County high school track and field programs will be the chief beneficiary of proceeds raised by the Newport 5K Walk & Run, Sunday at 8 a.m. All proceeds from the race, which starts at the intersection of Jamboree Boulevard and Campus Drive in Newport Beach, will go toward sponsoring underprivileged athletes, funding summer training programs and providing athletic equipment and scholarships for running camps. For registration information, call 955-0165.

Prep Notes

Jerry Schoenfeld, baseball coach at El Modena High, is accepting applications for two walk-on assistants. Interested coaches should call 777-0933. . . . Tustin High has announced openings for coaches in girls’ and boys’ tennis and girls’ volleyball. For more information, call 730-7447. . . . Valencia High’s Pam Simmons was chosen the Southern Region’s athletic director of the year by the Athletic Directors Assn. . . . Sherri Buente, a standout soccer player and track athlete at Esperanza, made an oral commitment to attend Santa Clara in the fall on a soccer scholarship. Buente was the Empire League champion at 100 and 200 meters this year. . . . The third Bob Lester golf tournament, which benefits El Modena’s athletic programs, will be held Friday at Anaheim Hills golf course. All interested must reserve tee times by Thursday by calling 736-1124. A $65 fee covers golf, golf cart and dinner.