COLLEGE NOTEBOOK : Miami Pipeline Fueling Antelope Valley

It would be difficult to imagine two cities in the United States with less in common than Miami and Lancaster.

One is a bustling, subtropical metropolis on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. The other is a relatively rural, high-desert community located 50 miles inland from the Pacific.

Despite the differences, several players from Miami-area high schools have made the cross-country trek to play football for Antelope Valley College in recent seasons.

“That area has been very good to us in recent years,” Marauder Coach Brent Carder said. “We started recruiting there about four or five years ago and it’s paid off.”

Antelope Valley is one of seven California junior colleges that are permitted to recruit out-of-state football players on a first-contact basis because of its small local recruitment population.

As a result, there are nine players from six Miami-area high schools on this year’s 4-0-1 Marauder team, including starters Marcel Gonnelli (flanker), Nate Williams (wide receiver), Daron Rodgers (defensive end), Dwight Overstreet (defensive tackle) and Rick Starling (strong safety). Antelope Valley also has three players from other parts of Florida on its roster.

Recruiting players from the Sunshine State does not involve cross-country plane flights by Antelope Valley coaches to make pitches to prospects. Rather, it entails making numerous phone calls to coaches, and evaluating players on videotape.

“As far as I know, none of our coaches have ever been to Florida,” said Carder, who has compiled a 115-86-5 record since taking over the Antelope Valley program in 1970. “Our recruiting is done strictly by the phone and through the mail.”

After recruiting most of their out-of-state football players from Las Vegas until 1986, Antelope Valley targeted Miami as a desirable area in 1987 because it is a metropolitan city with no local junior colleges in a football-happy state.

“We wouldn’t recruit from just any big-city area,” said Frank Blua, the Antelope Valley assistant who handles the recruiting. “But we’ve been able to propagate a good relationship with two or three coaches down there who know what kind of players we’re looking for. . . . Our success since ’87 has kind of spread by word of mouth.”

Air show: Greg Seamon, quarterbacks and receivers coach at Occidental College, was an assistant at the U. S. Naval Academy before he came to Occidental.

Coaching the Midshipmen presented some unique situations.

Navy quarterback Alton Grizzard, a senior who is the Academy’s all-time total offense leader, panicked when Seamon turned out the lights for the quarterbacks’ first video review session as a freshman.

“He immediately asked me to put the lights back on and asked if sitting in a darkened room watching a lot of video was going to damage his eyesight,” Seamon recalled. “One of the reasons he came to the Academy was to be a fighter pilot and if he had less than 20/20 vision he couldn’t be one.

“We had to convince him that he wasn’t going to be spending enough time in a darkened room to cause any damage.”

Seamon said that Occidental quarterbacks do not have the same fears as the Midshipmen.

“Most of the quarterbacks here aren’t concerned about flying the F-15,” he said.

Point of no return: Albert Fann of Cal State Northridge made what could have been a very costly mistake when he downed the football in the end zone after carrying it across the goal line on a kickoff return in last week’s game against Portland State.

The safety put Portland ahead, 15-13, but Northridge came back to win, 19-18.

Fann, rated as the best kickoff returner at any level by the Poor Man’s Guide to the NFL Draft, said he didn’t know there was a rule stating a return man could not retreat to the end zone.

“He’s one of the greatest kick returners in NCAA Division II history and he made a mistake,” CSUN Coach Bob Burt said. “It’s probably the first mistake he’s made returning kicks in four years.”

Well-spoken: After helping Cal defeat San Jose State with 162 rushing yards on Saturday, Russell White, the former Crespi High standout, received his fair share of media attention.

Outgoing as always, White seemed very much at ease as he talked about his first 100-yard rushing game in college.

Since White is a sophomore and in his first season, there likely will be many more media crunches. But White is prepared.

He credits his mother for encouraging him to be articulate during interviews.

Among Helen White’s tips: Never say, “You know . . .”

And what might happen should he slip?

“My mom would fly up here, rent a car, come to my house and curse me out,” White said.

Runnin’ Razorback: Ian Alsen of Arkansas, a former standout at Granada Hills High, is finally healthy after two injury-plagued years. As a result, he is running well for the Razorbacks’ cross-country team.

He was Arkansas’ No. 6-runner--and finished 13th overall--in the Stanford Invitational on Saturday, covering the five-mile course in 24 minutes 36 seconds as the Razorbacks won the team title.

“I’d like to make All-American (he must place among the top 25 U. S. runners in the NCAA championships) in cross-country,” said Alsen, who ran 4:09.67 in the 1,600 meters and 8:59.54 in the 3,200 in high school. “As long as I stay healthy, I think I’m capable of running some pretty good times.”

After redshirting in 1989, Alsen had a promising indoor track and field season the following year--running personal bests in the mile (4:08), 3,000 meters (8:16) and 5,000 (14:11)--before illness and injuries slowed him in the outdoor season.

“In the past, I was going into speed work too early in the season, and my calves just couldn’t handle it,” Alsen said. “But this season, I haven’t done any quick speed yet. Everything we’ve done has been long intervals, and it’s helped my legs.”

Arkansas won NCAA cross-country titles in 1984, ’86 and ’87.

Getting his kicks: Despite being a part-time starter, Willie Ruiz has scored seven goals on 12 shots for Cal Lutheran’s soccer team.

On Tuesday night, Ruiz, a freshman forward from Simi Valley High, came off the bench to score two goals on two shots to lift Cal Lutheran to a 3-3 tie with 10th-ranked NAIA Westmont.

Statwatch: Jeff Barrett, a 1988 graduate of Burroughs High, set a school record for career touchdown passes in Santa Monica College’s 31-7 win over L.A. Harbor.

His three scoring passes Saturday gave him 27, eclipsing the mark of 25 shared by John Erdhaus (1965-66) and Craig Austin (1983-84.)

Gary Klein and staff writers John Ortega, Mike Hiserman and Kirby Lee contributed to this notebook.