THE HIGH SCHOOLS / STEVE ELLING : Rio Mesa Coach’s Silent Treatment Helps Young Enjoy Big Year

Sometimes it’s better for a coach to stand back and watch. Intervention, suggestion and criticism are tools that should be used judiciously.

If Rio Mesa High Coach Rich Duran has learned anything while coaching teen phenom Dmitri Young over the past three seasons, it is to give his player free rein. Young, who just concluded his junior year, has followed through with an offensive reign of terror.

In short, if it ain’t broke. . . .

“I don’t coach him,” Duran said. “I just let him play.”

Duran’s hands-off style has paid off handsomely. Young has moved within striking range of a handful of Southern Section career records. In three varsity seasons, Young is 125 for 246 (.508), has 28 doubles and 18 home runs, has scored 99 runs and driven in 96.

The Southern Section career record for hits (147) was set by Redondo High’s Scott Davison in 1986-88. If Young matches his 1990 total of 50, he will finish with 175.

The Section career mark for doubles (36) was set by Danny Paranick of Mammoth in 1986-89. Young, who had 14 doubles this season, needs eight to tie.

With 99 runs, Young is well behind the Section career mark of 142 set by Torey Lovullo (UCLA, Detroit Tigers) of Montclair Prep in 1980-83. But if Young can match this season’s eye-popping run total of 46, he also will break that record.

Davison’s career mark for runs batted in (147) appears to be outside Young’s range, but Young drove in 39 as a junior, so don’t rule it out.

Young needs just three home runs to reach 21, which would move him into the section top 10. The section career mark of 32 set by Scott Sharts of Simi Valley in 1986-88 might be asking a bit much.

Yet if Young--who is only 16--had attended junior high in California, he might already have demolished the record book. He played for the varsity in the seventh and eight grades while living in Alabama and batted better than .400 both seasons.

Stand tall, coach.

And stand back.

Kiss of death: So you think the Sports Illustrated jinx is a killer? There are some local baseball folks who would argue that the alleged curse of SI has nothing on the mojo cast by USA Today.

Consider:

* In 1986, Simi Valley was ranked No. 1 in the nation by USA Today but fell in the semifinal round of the Southern Section 5-A Division playoffs.

* In 1988, Chatsworth was ranked No. 1 by USA Today, but was upset by San Fernando in the City Section 4-A semifinals.

* In 1990, Westlake’s fate might have been sealed when, for the first time all year, USA Today ranked the Warriors No. 1.

Uh, thanks.

The issue hit the stands just in time for Tuesday’s Southern Section 5-A semifinal game with Marina, which Westlake lost, 4-1.

Hmmm. Three top-ranked Valley-area teams bite the dust in the semifinals, all in even-numbered years. Some would call it odd, even.

Loud and proud: Nobody really knows who uttered it first, but Mark Spitz, Jimmy Connors and Bill Johnson are among the more recent exponents of the belief that “It ain’t bragging if you can back it up.”

All season long, Montclair Prep Coach Walt Steele has been unabashedly singing the praises of his team, which capped a superlative season with a 14-4 defeat of Village Christian in the Southern Section 1-A title game Friday night. The Mounties defeated some heavy hitters along the way, including City 4-A finalist El Camino Real in a tournament game 2 1/2 months ago.

This was not overlooked by Steele, who reiterated after the championship game that he believes Montclair Prep consistently is slighted because of the division in which it plays. Conversely, many maintain that the 1-A Division is not competitive enough for the men of Steele, that Montclair Prep has made a Mountie domain out of a molehill.

“I don’t think there are many teams who played the caliber of clubs that we did this year and go 25-3,” Steele said. “I’ve said all along that we deserve to be here and that we deserved to win. That’s still my opinion.”

Add confidence: Rocky Moore, who last week announced he will leave Alemany to coach basketball at Muir, has some lofty expectations for the Mustang program, which competes in the Pacific League.

“Muir is a higher caliber of program with much more visibility, and it’s obvious that Alemany has not been known for its basketball program,” Moore said. “It’s a difference of night and day. You’re talking about a program that can be built up like Crenshaw, Manual Arts or Mater Dei.”

In two seasons under Moore, Alemany was 12-33. The losing record, Moore says, weighed little in Muir’s decision.

“The administration had confidence based on my reputation in the coaching fraternity, not based on my win-loss record,” he said.

Ouch: The nature of Village Christian’s lopsided loss to Montclair Prep caused some brief confusion among Southern Section officials in the press box.

The scoreboard at Blair Field in Long Beach could not handle double-digit totals in errors. Village Christian committed 10 miscues, the last of which was made in the seventh inning. The scoreboard was first rolled over to 1, then back to 9.

Add playoffs: San Fernando Coach Steve Marden was thrust into a difficult situation in a May 23 City 4-A quarterfinal win over Kennedy.

With starter Canto Franco barely clinging to a 4-3 lead and two baserunners on in the fourth, Marden had to call in ace John Najar to thwart Kennedy for the final 3 1/3 innings. Najar did, of course, and the Tigers advanced to the semifinal round with a 7-3 win.

But Marden’s hand was tipped after that. He had planned to start Najar, his best, against El Camino Real in the semifinal. But Najar had thrown earlier and longer than anticipated, leaving the coach with a decision: Should he start Najar in the hope that he can go the distance, risking the loss of Najar’s big bat if he must be removed? Or should he start Franco and hope he can hold the fort for a few innings before going to Najar?

To Marden, there was no choice.

“You have to get by Kennedy on Wednesday or else you’re reading about somebody else in Friday’s paper,” Marden said. “When we (used both pitchers), we knew we had to go to a combination against El Camino. And the only combination we can use is start Franco, with Najar DH-ing for him. If we go the reverse and Johnny can’t go the whole way, then we lose Najar’s bat.”

In the ensuing 3-1 loss to El Camino Real, Najar was almost untouchable, allowing no hits while striking out five in four innings of relief. Franco, who started, yielded all three runs.

“We were just hoping Franco could go the distance on Wednesday (against Kennedy),” Marden said. “But he didn’t. So if we rest Najar on Wednesday, then he might be resting for the whole year. Maybe then we would have been reading about ECR-Kennedy in the semifinals.”