THE COLLEGES : Pudelko Building From Zero

There are coaches who take jobs knowing they are in for a rebuilding year or two. When Kathy Pudelko took over as women’s basketball coach at Glendale College last year there were those who believed she would be rebuilding until the next millennium.

You think Jerry Tarkanian faces a tall recruiting order in trying to replace Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon? Well, at least he has a nation to scour for talent.

Now consider Pudelko’s plight. While UNLV is likely to remain undefeated, Glendale, one could say, was totally defeated. It’s record: 0-18. There were four forfeits.

Pudelko, who thankfully has a master’s degree in sports psychology, started the season with four players (that’s using the term loosely). Through various forms of coercion, she added six more bodies during a season in which Glendale was routinely blown out by margins that sometimes reached triple digits.

With that nightmare now having run its course, Pudelko has turned her attention to replacing the bodies with basketball players. And herein lies the really bad news.

There are all of three high schools from which Glendale is by rights supposed to recruit its students--Glendale, Hoover and Crescenta Valley. And when Pudelko scanned the rosters of those three teams she says she found all of three seniors.

“But one,” she optimistically added, “is a pretty legitimate player.”

That player is Crescenta Valley’s Berlyn Cosman, who could well end up with a four-year scholarship or at another junior college--one that won a game last season. Pudelko knows this, but she presses on.

“I talk about education first,” she said. “I don’t want to see these girls play two years of JC ball and have that be the highlight of their life. I see a lot of that.”

There is little chance that any of Glendale’s players count the past season among their life’s highlights, but Pudelko said, “they did a heck of a job. They went out and ran and got mutilated, but they never looked at the score.”

Instead, Pudelko’s proteges concentrated on simpler goals like scoring more points than in the previous game, cutting down on turnovers and making free throws.

“The kids kept coming back because they knew that regardless of their talent or ability, if they were willing to work I was going to work with them,” Pudelko said.

The games were often shattering, but Pudelko usually had a cliche ready to bolster the team’s spirit. “They’d say, ‘It was embarrassing.’ I’d say, ‘It’s embarrassing not to try,’ ” Pudelko said.

She will need similar words of wit and wisdom to persuade legitimate players to attend Glendale in future years, but when recruits ask about last season she is honest. “We got murdered,” she tells them.

Pudelko has won before, guiding girls’ teams at Little Snake River High in Wyoming to state championships in volleyball, track and basketball. But for now she would settle for improvement and, just maybe, down the road a few years, a winning season.

“It’s going to take some time,” she said.

Valley ball: Second-ranked USC swept a three-game baseball series against UCLA last weekend, but two players from the Valley region were standouts for the Bruins.

Joel Wolfe, a junior from Chatsworth High, had two hits in each game for UCLA and finished six for 12. He also scored two runs, drove in three and stole four bases.

Ryan McGuire, the Bruins’ freshman designated-hitter from El Camino Real High, had one hit in each game--all home runs. Before the series, he had only one home run.

A trio of Trojans from the region also made strong showings at the plate during the series. Jeff Cirillo, a senior from Providence High, hit in each game and finished six for 13. Billy Morris, a junior transfer from Pierce College, was four for 12, and Casey Burrill, a sophomore from Hart High, was four for 12 and had three RBIs. It was Burrill’s two-run double in Monday’s finale that broke an 8-8 tie as the Trojans completed the sweep, 11-8.

Keeping tabs: Three track and field standouts from the area are among the top performers in the Pacific 10 Conference.

USC’s Quincy Watts (Taft High) has the fastest 400-meter time in the conference with a personal best of 46.44 seconds. Arizona’s Percy Knox (Antelope Valley High) is second in the 200 meters (20.81) and long jump (25 feet 8 inches). UCLA’s Jay Borick (Taft) is third in the pole vault at 17-4.

Feats of Clay: In addition to leading the Cal State Northridge baseball team in offensive categories such as hits (62), doubles (12) and triples (three), Craig Clayton has become the ace of the pitching staff.

He is 7-2 with a 1.49 earned-run average and has 72 strikeouts and only 22 walks in 72 1/3 innings. Opponents are batting .159 against him.

Out of order: The fifth position in Northridge’s baseball batting order has gone dry. Starting action this week, Matador players hitting No. 5 in the lineup were batting a combined .191 compared to the team’s overall average of .285.

“It’s like the kiss of death,” Coach Bill Kernen said. “Every time we put somebody in that spot they stop hitting.”

Raider records: The Moorpark College quartet of Freddie Bradley, Phil Antoine, Robert Harris and Ben Atie are into records. At last week’s Santa Barbara Easter Relays, the Raider team finished third in the 400 relay in 41.43 and won the 800 relay in 1 minute 27.43 seconds--both school-record times.

Parting shot: Three years ago, when the likes of Nevada Las Vegas, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Syracuse and UCLA were hot on the recruiting trail after Don MacLean, who would have thought that it would be Travis Bice, MacLean’s lightly regarded Simi Valley High teammate, who would finish his collegiate career wearing matching NCAA championship rings?