Southwest High Shows Support On the Court

Southwest High’s boys’ basketball team has taken a step toward showing its support for troops in the Persian Gulf by wearing U.S. flag stickers on their basketball shoes.

“I’ve been very happy the administration has allowed my team to do these things to show their support,” Coach Steve Selland said. “It’s given me a lot of pride and a good overall feeling to see how my team has responded and how aware they have been to the military situation.”

Devin Patterson and Jerry Racette are wearing flags on their jersey tops.

Before Friday’s game, Winnjay Delacruz, whose father is in the Persian Gulf, led the team onto the court carrying a large American flag.

Man of convictions: Rancho Buena Vista’s Darryl Parker and Brad Grubaugh, two of the county’s best players, served a one-game suspension recently for an altercation with a taunting Poway supporter while boarding the bus after a 68-67 loss at Poway.

Because the incident occurred after the game and was not subject to penalties that would be imposed by the San Diego Section’s Ethics in Sports policy, neither athlete had to sit out a game under section rules. However, RBV Coach John O’Neill imposed a penalty anyway. Parker and Grubaugh--the second- and ninth-leading scorers in the section at the time--were suspended for the game against Vista, the crosstown rival that beat them earlier this season.

The Longhorns--with Grubaugh and Parker on the bench in street clothes--turned in one of their most inspiring performances of the year, a 68-64 victory.

“It was very tough,” O’Neill said. “We were going against the crosstown rival that had beaten us. A lot of people came up to me and said, ‘Why can’t you make it (the suspension) the next game?’ “It’s something we had to do for the program. If we turn around and we don’t suspend them and we do suspend someone else, then there’s two levels of discipline. I want to be consistent in how we do things. It was a thing that just had to be done.”

Trivia time: What school has won the most San Diego Section wrestling titles?

Coronado over Coronado: He only scored five points, but Jamie Coronado, a 6-foot-3 sophomore, helped Marian defeat Coronado, 54-47, in a boys’ Harbor League basketball game Friday.

A goal’s the goal: The girls’ soccer team at Chula Vista had a simple enough goal whenever it played top-ranked Bonita Vista this season.

“Our goal was to try to score on them this year,” Coach C.R. Doss said.

The Spartans did score in the first match between the schools. Lisa Page’s goal in a 4-1 loss was first against the Barons in 35 consecutive Metro Conference games.

“Our second goal was to tie or beat them,” Doss said.

No such luck. Bonita Vista captured its 126th consecutive conference victory Friday, 3-0, over the Spartans.

Not available on CD: He may have been no Whitney Houston, but Torrey Pines public address announcer Mike Brown “saved” the National Anthem before the Poway-Torrey Pines game. He announced the anthem, but the tape recorder failed to work. Thinking quickly, Brown said, “Please join me in the singing of the National Anthem.”

He sang the first two words, and fans joined in and finished the song.

Anthem II: Southwest High quarterback Andy Quinn, whose long hair gives him a rock star’s appearance, played the National Anthem on his electric guitar prior to Friday’s Southwest-Sweetwater boys’ basketball game. It had Jimi Hendrix overtones but remained as traditional as you can get with an electric guitar. Quinn is the leader of The Andy Quinn Band, which played music during warmups.

Named: Six local water polo players were selected to compete on the U.S. National Junior team. Four from Poway were junior goalie Matt Swanson, senior hole man Reid Conant, senior driver Chad Aronen and sophomore driver Greg Mendenhall. Also selected were senior hole man Mike Nalu from Valhalla and senior goalie Jeremy Storton from Monte Vista.

For the record: Clairemont Coach Greg Lee looked at the statistics after losing to St. Augustine and was amazed to find there were no traveling violations.

“That’s got to be a first,” said Lee, who added that he counted 13 violations that weren’t called.

Trivia answer: Monte Vista won 12 section titles from 1965-83.

League parity: Entering play this week, Poway led the Palomar League boys’ basketball race with a 7-3 record. Five teams in the eight-team league were tied for second at 6-4.

Jim Lindgren and Dana Haddad contributed to this notebook.