A Tough Day for Monarch Coach

Talk about adding insult to injury.

It was bad enough that the Morningside High girls’ basketball team had its 89-game league winning streak ended Jan. 9. But Coach Ron Randle endured another setback when he returned to school that night from Palos Verdes.

Three of the windows on his van, which he uses to take players home from practices and games, had been broken by vandals in the Morningside parking lot.

Now Randle is feuding with the Inglewood school district about who should pay for repairs totaling $900. His car insurance has a $500 deductible clause.

“The school district feels it doesn’t have to pay for it,” Randle said. “They say there’s a sign that says, ‘Park at your own risk.’ If there is, I haven’t seen it.”

Maurice Wiley, assistant superintendent in charge of information, said the school district generally does not cover that kind of vandalism.

“They’re not insured under their contract, that includes all employees,” Wiley said. “The one exception is classroom teachers, who get a small reimbursement on their insurance deductible.”

Randle, an accountant who does not teach at Morningside, said the school district’s policy will stop him from bringing his van to school, thus ending a convenient service for his players.

“I’ll get dropped off and picked up,” he said. “No one is looking out for me, so I’ll have to look out for myself.”

Which prep sport requires the best overall athletes?

A survey conducted by the Orange County section of The Times came up with an answer that will surprise some people.

According to a panel of eight physiology experts, the most demanding high school sport is water polo.

“Water polo is probably the best overall sport in terms of physiological demands placed on an athlete,” said Dr. Craig Cisar, associate professor of exercise physiology at San Jose State.

The criteria used by the experts included eight physiological demands: aerobic endurance, agility, anaerobic endurance (the ability to produce many rapid bursts of energy without tiring), body composition, quickness, skill, speed and strength.

Other sports that scored high included basketball, swimming, soccer, track and wrestling.

Ranking lowest were golf and baseball.

Dr. Jack Daniels, associate professor of the Human Performance Laboratory at Texas A & M, said this about baseball: “Except for the pitcher and catcher, the other players are basically tourists.”

No wonder they call it the national pastime.

The South Bay will be well represented in the distance events Friday night in the high school portion of the 32nd annual Sunkist Invitational track meet at the Sports Arena.

Steve Gonzales of Carson and Israel Pose of Torrance are rated among the favorites for gold medals. Gonzales is entered in the rated mile, where his best is 4 minutes, 23.47 seconds. Pose, who will run the two mile, has a personal best of 9:24.45.

Prep competition begins at 4:15 p.m.

Former Palos Verdes High standouts Heather and Heidi Burge, who play for the No. 1 University of Virginia women’s basketball team, were scheduled to appear this morning on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America,” starting at 7:40 a.m., contingent on the Persian Gulf crisis.

At 6-4 3/4, the Burges are the world’s tallest identical female twins, according to the Guinness Book of Records. Heather is averaging 12.6 points and 5.3 rebounds, and Heidi is averaging 8.9 and 6.6 for Virginia (15-1).

Mira Costa baseball Coach Jim Beaumont is looking to fill two assistant positions on the junior varsity and freshman-sophomore levels. For more information, call Beaumont at 318-7344 (weekdays) or 379-9895 (nights and weekends).

Notes

West Torrance, ranked No. 1 in the CIF-Southern Section 3-A Division, is one of 36 teams that will compete in the Five-Counties Wrestling Tournament Friday and Saturday at Fountain Valley High. The field includes several of the state’s top teams. Competition begins at 3 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday. . . . Former Morningside standout Elden Campbell, now with the Lakers, has donated a “significant amount” of money to the Morningside basketball program to establish two $500 scholarships at the school, Morningside girls’ Coach Ron Randle said. The scholarships will be awarded annually to one girl and one boy basketball player. . . . Three attractive boys’ basketball games are on tap for Friday night: Leuzinger at Inglewood in the Bay League, Pius X at Miraleste in the Camino Real League and San Pedro at Carson in the Pacific League. . . . Hawthorne’s Brigitte Keus had her four-game hat trick streak broken Tuesday in a 3-0 Bay League soccer victory over Culver City. Keus had a goal in the game, giving her 13 in five games, as the Cougar girls improved to 9-5-3 overall and 4-0 in league play.

South Bay’s Boys’ Basketball Top 10

Selected by Times Sportswriters Through Tuesday’s Games

Rank, School, League Record 1 Morningside (Ocean) 16-2 2 San Pedro (Pacific) 15-2 3 Westchester (Metro) 13-5 4 Leuzinger (Bay) 10-3 5 Mira Costa (Ocean) 13-5 6 Carson (Pacific) 9-8 7 Inglewood (Bay) 10-8 8 St. Bernard (Mission) 9-9 9 Torrance (Pioneer) 10-6 10 Miraleste (Camino Real) 9-5