NOTEBOOK : Hoover High Copes With Loss of Special Friend

He was a man who loved the sport, he was a man who gave us support.

He pushed us and he worked us to be the best, not knowing of the day when he would come to rest.

Coach Ayers gave us support and was always by your side, he stood for Hoover basketball--that cannot be denied.

Only a man in his 20s, now gone with the wind,

He will not be forgotten, he was the man of the gym.

Coach Kohlmeier and Van Patten, and the team and I,

Will win this one for Ayers, who now watches from the sky.

“The Unforgettable Man” by Michael Wunder

That poem, composed by Hoover High basketball player Michael Wunder, will be read today at funeral services for Kevin Ayers, an assistant basketball coach at Hoover High who died of a heart attack last Thursday.

Funeral services for Ayers, who was 27, will be held at 10 a.m. at Holy Family Catholic Church in Glendale.

Hoover Principal Don Duncan said Tuesday that the cause of Ayers’ heart failure will not be determined for six to eight weeks.

Ayers graduated from Glendale High and joined the Hoover staff last season as a freshman coach and varsity assistant.

“I was numb Friday and spent the weekend angry,” Hoover Coach Kirt Kohlmeier said. “Now I’m where I’m kind of OK, but I see something that reminds me of him and I have to take five or 10 minutes and step back to get a grip on myself.

“The kids went out and got shirts made up that say, ‘Hoover Basketball 1990,’ on the front and ‘In memory of Coach Kevin Ayers,’ on the back.’ ”

Fast finisher: Tom Kendall of La Canada clinched his first Sports Car Club of America Trans-Am title last Saturday with a second-place finish at Lexington, Ohio.

Kendall, 23, assured himself of the title by passing defending series champion Dorsey Schroeder with five laps to go in the 42-lap event at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Kendall, who won the International Motor Sports Assn. GTU championship in 1987 and 1988, has won five events this season. He will race in the series’ next-to-last event this weekend at Elkhart Lake, Wis.

Where they are now dept.: Chris Anderson, an All-Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference center for Occidental the past two years, is playing for a professional basketball team in Denmark.

Anderson, 6-foot-10, averaged 18.5 points and 8.8 rebounds last season for Occidental.

John Keister, an All-SCIAC forward for Occidental in 1988, is playing his second season for a club team in West Germany.

Airborne: The Occidental football team will be going against one of the top passers in NCAA Division III when the Tigers play host to Azusa Pacific on Saturday.

Azusa Pacific quarterback Brian Hunt has completed 46 of 92 passes for 636 yards and five touchdowns in the Cougars’ first two games.

Azusa Pacific (1-1) lost to Chico State, 58-21, last Saturday, surrendering the most points allowed in Jim Milhon’s 10 seasons as coach.

Spread the wealth: St. Francis used 11 ballcarriers in its 27-0 win over St. Bernard last Friday and has used 13 in two games.

“We look at it from the production standpoint and we just can’t get the same output from one kid,” St. Francis Coach Bill Garrison said. “We’re fortunate to have depth at that position.

“We have quite a few kids and until one somebody becomes a major role player, we will do it by committee.”

Thus far, the equal-opportunity approach has returned dividends. St Francis (2-0) has outscored its opponents, 55-0, and has doubled its win total from last season, when the Golden Knights finished 1-9.

Running his course: Two weeks ago at the Moorpark cross-country invitational, Glendale’s Hugo Allan Garcia took a wrong turn while leading and went 75 meters off the course.

However, Garcia recovered in time to win and set a course record.

Last week at the MiraCosta Invitational, while leading with less than 200 meters remaining, Garcia went 40 meters astray--and again held on for the victory.

“We’re going to make sure he knows the way this week,” Glendale Coach Ed Lopez said. “We can’t afford for him to get lost again.”

Glendale will compete Friday at Arroyo Verde Park in Ventura in the first of three Western State Conference meets that will be used to determine the final WSC standings.

Staff writer Kirby Lee contributed to this notebook.