Oxnard Fills Baseball, Basketball Positions

Oxnard High has named Danny Garcia as its baseball coach and Henry Lobo as its boys’ basketball coach, Principal Rick Rezinas announced Friday.

Garcia, who for the past eight seasons was the boys’ basketball coach, replaces Tony Diaz, who resigned after last season. Diaz, who led the Yellowjackets in 1990 to their first winning season since 1981, cited his commitments as athletic director and teacher as reason for his resignation.

Lobo replaces Garcia, who was relieved of the basketball job last month. Lobo was an assistant to Garcia last season.

Madera High has a score to settle with Hart in the Stanford cross-country invitational, which starts at noon today on the Stanford Golf Course in Palo Alto.

After handily beating the Indian boys’ team twice last season in the Stanford and Mt. San Antonio College invitationals, Hart drubbed the Coyotes, 58-113, to win the state Division I championship.

Based on last year’s performances, Hart was ranked as the top boys’ team in the nation by The Harrier magazine. Madera is ranked third. Conversely, California Track & Running News ranked Madera, which is just north of Fresno, first and Hart second in the state Division I poll.

The teams apparently take the discrepancy in the polls seriously.

“They don’t like us and we don’t have very good feelings for them,” Hart junior Keith Grossman said after the Indians won the Royal invitational last Saturday.

Also competing in the boys’ Division I race are Peninsula, Camarillo and Long Beach Wilson, the second-, fourth- and eighth-ranked teams in the Southern Section Division I. Third-ranked Peninsula, No. 4 Hart, Camarillo, Canyon, Oxnard and Thousand Oaks will run in the girls’ Division I race.

Eight athletes from the region have been named to the U. S. men’s field hockey team that will compete in a 12-team Olympic qualifying tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, Oct. 14-27.

The players are Larry Amar of Camarillo, Jeff Horrocks of Newbury Park, Mike Lee and Tom Vano of Simi Valley, Ben Maruquin and Mike Newton of Ventura, Mark Ruvalcaba of Thousand Oaks and Brian Spencer of Chatsworth.