Chapman Hires Fullerton Coach Bill Brown to Take Over Water Polo

Bill Brown, Fullerton College’s water polo and swimming coach, has been hired as the water polo coach at Chapman College, the school announced Monday.

Brown, who has coached aquatics at Troy and La Habra high schools, has 1 1/2 months before the Panthers open their season Sept. 12 against Whittier College.

“The main emphasis right now is to recruit new kids for the team that are already attending Chapman,” Brown said. “Last year, Chapman only had eight or nine players, and it takes seven to field a team.”

Brown earned his teaching credential at Chapman in 1970.

Jackie Blake, a pitcher on Chapman’s softball team, was named to the GTE Academic All-American first team. Blake, who will be a senior this fall, was a first-team all-California Collegiate Athletic Assn. selection with an 18-5 record and an 0.39 earned-run average. She also batted .369.

The Chapman baseball team lost the left side of its infield and its entire outfield from last year’s team, but Coach Mike Weathers has signed 10 players.

They are: Robert Parga, a pitcher from Los Angeles Harbor; Steve McKowen, an outfielder from Golden West; Jim Henderson, an outfielder from L.A. Harbor; Clifford Anderson from Southwestern College in Chula Vista; Chris Sauritch, an infielder from El Toro High; Shawn Nugent, an infielder from Cerritos College; Kevin Monson, an outfielder from Fullerton College; Marvin Mack, an outfielder from Long Beach College; James Gore, an outfielder from Rancho Buena Vista High in San Diego, and Gus Munguray, a catcher from L.A. Harbor.

New Vanguards: They aren’t household names, but Southern California College Coach Bill Reynolds has added five players to his men’s basketball team, which advanced to the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics tournament last season.

They are: Darren Kramer, a 6-foot-7 post player from Long Beach College; Mike West, a 6-3 sophomore from Point Loma Nazarene who was an all-San Diego Section player from Fallbrook High; Kyle Campanelli, a 6-3 all-Camino Norte Conference forward from Santa Rosa College who is the son of California basketball coach Lou Campanelli; Ron Scipio, a 5-10 point guard who played at Grand Canyon College and L.A. City College in ’84 and ’85 and has been an assistant coach at Manual Arts High; and Brad Dorais, a 5-8 point guard from Eastern Wyoming Junior College.

Better late than . . . : Corey Smith, a 6-2 guard from Southern Section 4-AA champion Glendora High School, has signed a letter of intent to play basketball at Christ College Irvine, the college announced Tuesday. Smith, who averaged 14 points and four assists a game and was the Baseline League’s most valuable player, is the first player signed by Greg Marshall, Christ College’s new men’s basketball coach.

Marshall got a late start recruiting because he was hired May 16, five weeks after the first day high school students could sign letters of intent.

“It’s not frustrating, but because it was late when I got the job, there were a lot of players that had already signed,” Marshall said. “I’ll probably be recruiting right up to the start of school.”

College Division Notes

The Chapman women’s volleyball team has signed three players to letters of intent: Heather McKinley, a middle blocker and outside hitter from El Modena High School; Tara Christensen, a middle blocker from Santa Rosa College, and Diana French, a setter from Petaluma High. . . . Christ College Irvine will open its women’s volleyball season by playing host to a 14-team tournament Aug. 31 and Sept. 1. Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Los Angeles, Southern California College, UC San Diego and Alaska Fairbanks are among the teams entered.