Showdown Lacked Something: One Team

If anyone has Bob Becker on a Christmas shopping list, do the guy a favor and get him a handy pocket organizer--quick!

Becker, girls’ basketball coach at Rancho Alamitos, was in hot soup early this week after a scheduling mix-up forced him to pull his varsity team out of the Bolsa Grande tournament at the last minute Monday and replace it with his junior varsity squad.

Rancho Alamitos (8-0) was to play Estancia (7-0) at 3 p.m. Estancia Coach Lisa McNamee said she had her players psyched for their first big game between the undefeated teams.

Big game? Not quite. The only thing that was big was the margin of victory. Estancia beat the Rancho Alamitos JV, 70-32.

McNamee was furious.

“It’s totally bogus,” she said. “My kids needed a tough game. They didn’t need to play their JV. . . . He calls me at 10:30 the morning of the game to let me know he won’t be having his varsity there? Give me a break.”

Becker, who yelled instructions to the junior varsity from the stands Monday, claims he accidentally overscheduled his varsity and had to pull the team so as not to violate Southern Section rules. Teams are allowed a maximum of 20 regular-season games, with tournaments counting as two games.

“Have you ever made a mistake?” Becker asked. “Well, that’s what I did. Through an oversight, I overscheduled.”

Dean Crowley, section associate commissioner, began looking into the situation Tuesday afternoon but said a few more days will be needed to determine if Rancho Alamitos violated its agreement with Bolsa Grande tournament officials.

“Right now, it’s a matter of sorting things out,” Crowley said.

And the El Toro head coaching job goes to . . .

Kerry Krause!

No, not the football job. Girls’ soccer.

Krause, who coached girls’ soccer at Laguna Hills the past seven years, took over the Chargers this season. His wife, Fran, is El Toro’s junior varsity coach.

Krause, a dentist, said the two schools are worlds apart.

“El Toro kids are so spirited,” he said. “They’re just a different breed of cat.”

Trivia Question: What coach of a world-famous sprinter started his coaching career in Orange County?

La Quinta baseball Coach Dave Demarest replaced girls’ soccer Coach Jim Stucker for the game against Saddleback last Thursday, because Stucker had to sit out the match after receiving a red card in the previous game.

Demarest, who admits he knows nothing about soccer, was trying to figure out when to start his watch when he looked up and saw his team scoring in the game’s first 10 seconds.

La Quinta went on to a 10-0 victory--its first in five tries.

Said Demarest: “I’m 1-0 in girls’ soccer. I’m retiring. That was my finale.”

Jeff Davis, who started the boys’ cross-country and track and field programs at Century last year, resigned last week after becoming increasingly frustrated with the school’s track facilities and the administration’s lack of desire to do something about them.

You don’t have to look far to understand his frustration. Since it was put down two years ago, the sand-based track--or what’s left of it--has been under water a good deal of the time because of poor planning of drainage and sprinkler systems.

The shotput ring, which was built below ground level, is also regularly flooded.

Perhaps the school ought to consider turning the field into a rice paddy.

Drainage isn’t the only problem. Davis left Santa Ana High for Century partly because Century touted high-quality facilities, but he says he has seen little so far. The school lacks so much basic equipment that Davis had to drive his athletes to Woodbridge three days a week last season so they could work out and compete.

Athletic Director Bob Halford said the school is getting ready to start re-doing the facility. “I would imagine it would be started on next week,” Halford said.

But Davis, who will continue teaching health classes at the school, said he was tired of hearing the same old story.

“I enjoy the sport. I really wanted to make things happen,” Davis said. “But it’s obviously not a priority in this district to make things happen. I believe they’ll get everything done--eventually. But I’m tired of getting the kids’ hopes up.”

Davis’ assistant, John Knox, has been hired as his replacement.

Blurb time:

--Nearly 80 girls have signed up for an eight-(wo)man flag football team at Dana Hills, according to the school’s newspaper, The Paper.

--Basketball Weekly magazine ranked Marina’s Cherokee Parks fifth among high school seniors nationally. Loara’s Tes Whitlock was 47th, and Edison’s Brandon Jessie was 13th among juniors.

--Trabuco Hills senior Shantina Gandal is not only a standout soccer player, she’s a two-time recipient of the school’s “Life of the Party” award.

--More than 100 students--including members of the school’s surf team--registered for San Clemente’s morning surf class this semester. Despite the fact that the one-hour class begins at 7:15 a.m., and water temperatures have been in the 50s, many students arrive early, some before dawn.

--Former Brea-Olinda point guard Charlene Schuessler has been playing for a professional women’s basketball team in Luxembourg since last spring. She’s averaging 22 points and making $22,000 a year, Brea Coach Mark Trakh said.

Trivia Answer: Tom Tellez, University of Houston track coach and longtime coach of Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis, started at Buena Park High School in 1958 before moving on to Fullerton College, UCLA and Houston.