COLLEGE NOTEBOOK / MIKE HISERMAN : Gill on Inside Looking Out After Move to Outside in Volleyball

Chris Gill was a fairly good middle blocker at Fresno Bullard High. Not a player who would interest a major college coach but good nonetheless.

Then his club volleyball coach switched him to outside hitter.

Gill signed with Cal State Northridge last week.

Coach John Price, who guided the Matadors to a No. 3 ranking last season, said the 6-foot-5 Gill was “average in the middle, but as soon as he was moved outside you could really see his athletic ability and quickness.”

Early this week, Price again watched Gill, in the Junior Olympics in Tampa, Fla., and he liked what he saw.

“I’m more excited about him right now than I was when I signed him,” Price said.

Travel log: Another player Price saw play in the Junior Olympics is Zak DeMatteo, who will be attending Northridge next fall to play basketball.

The 6-5 DeMatteo “would start for us right now,” Price said.

Price said he has not talked to DeMatteo, a standout for San Marcos High--the top-ranked Southern Section 4-A Division team last season--about doubling as a volleyball player.

The Northridge coach also is said to be closing in on a 6-7 recruit from Germany.

“We get the guy from Germany and we could be back in the top three,” Price said while declining to reveal the player’s name. “Even with the guys we already have, we should be ranked in the top five or six.”

All-World: Coley Kyman, the star middle blocker from last season’s Northridge team, has earned a berth on the U.S. World University Games squad.

Kyman, a 6-5 junior-to-be, tentatively is listed as a starter, which additionally makes him a likely candidate to play for the U.S. entry in the Pan American Games, Aug. 3-18 in Havana.

The World University Games are in Sheffield, England, July 13-25. The U.S. team currently is training in Indiana.

Making his pitch: Bill Kernen, Northridge’s baseball coach, liked what he saw while watching a pitcher working out in the bullpen this week. The pitcher in-training: Northridge shortstop Mike Solar.

Solar, who will be a senior, might be added to Northridge’s pitching staff next season--most likely in relief.

“He’s got some pretty good stuff,” said Kernen, who compared Solar’s fastball to that of former Matador standout Scott Sharts. “His fastball has some good movement and he has a knuckle-curve that’s not bad. It’s pretty nasty.”

Catching on: Chris Olsen, an outfielder-first baseman from Cerritos College, will play baseball at Northridge as a walk-on next season.

Olsen was considered a top major-college prospect last fall but slumped during the regular season, batted under .200 and fell out of the Falcons’ lineup.

“In the fall he was a guy we were real high on,” Kernen said, “but for whatever reason it just didn’t happen for him last season.”

Rumor mill: Word is that the Western Athletic Conference might not be through with expansion. Last month, Fresno State left the Big West Conference for the WAC. Nevada Las Vegas might be next.

If additional NCAA sanctions do not completely dismantle the school’s already reeling basketball program, the WAC is likely to seek the addition of UNLV now that Coach Jerry Tarkanian has announced that next season will be his last.

Adding Las Vegas would give the WAC an awkward 11-team alignment, but in that case look for New Mexico State to also spurn the Big West and even the numbers.

New Mexico State and UNLV are naturals for the WAC in terms of geography and competitiveness.

New Mexico State, which is in Las Cruces, would already have an intrastate rival in the WAC in the University of New Mexico. The Las Cruces campus also is conveniently located a one-hour drive from Texas El Paso of the WAC and is traditionally strong in basketball, earning NCAA tournament invitations the past two seasons.

UNLV, which has won or shared the past eight Big West Conference (formerly the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn.) basketball championships, seems well-suited for a place among the likes of UTEP, Brigham Young and Wyoming, traditional WAC basketball powers.

Dennis Frinfrock, UNLV’s athletic director, says he has not talked to WAC officials about a move but added, “We feel like we would bring a lot to the table in basketball and all of the other sports.”

Frinfrock is concerned that the Big West, without Fresno State, might lose its commitment to Division I-A football. “I’m not sure Fullerton and Long Beach are going to make it at 1-A,” he said.

Continued fallout from the Big West would be a plus for Northridge, which is seeking entrance to that conference but does not field a Division I-A football team.

Briefly: Janet Sherman, 27, a former UCLA catcher, has replaced Debbie Ching as full-time assistant to Coach Gary Torgeson for the Northridge softball team. Sherman played on national championship teams in 1984 and ’85. Ching, a 1975 Northridge graduate, was an assistant at CSUN the past 12 seasons.

Ed Peckham, Northridge’s vice president of student affairs and dean of students, will retire Sept. 1. Peckham, an ardent supporter of athletics and the school’s move to NCAA Division I status, has worked at CSUN for 24 years.

A school spokesman said a national search to replace Peckham will be launched when school President James Cleary returns to work this fall. Cleary is on a summer leave of absence.

Northridge already had a new athletic emblem and now it has a new official letter. An italic “N” has replaced the block-letter “N” previously used on football helmets and on the hats worn by the school’s baseball and softball teams.

Staff writer Theresa Munoz also contributed to this notebook.