Ortmayer Gone, and Some of His Philosophy, Too

In some respects, the University of La Verne’s football program hasn’t changed in its first season since the retirement of longtime Coach Roland Ortmayer.

The Leopards still do not have long practices and Coach Rex Huigens’ philosophy is similar to Ortmayer’s, Huigens having been an assistant under Ortmayer for 21 years.

But that is about where the similarity ends.

Unlike his predecessor, Huigens does have offensive and defensive playbooks and uses headphones along the sidelines during games. He also prefers to hold a half-hour team meeting before each practice to help La Verne prepare for its next opponent.

“If there’s a noticeable difference, it’s probably seen on a day-to-day basis,” Huigens said. “I still believe a guy ought to be able to go to play football here and still have time do other things, whether it’s to belong to a fraternity or any other extracurricular activity. We’re still trying to keep it all in perspective.”

At the same time, the 43-year-old Huigens admits to a strong competitive nature and maybe that helps explain why the Leopards are off to one of their best starts with a 5-1 record.

“I know Ort didn’t always feel this way but our emphasis is that we want to win football games,” Huigens said. “I don’t think you should have a program and not try to win. I think as long as you try to win and the effort is there, that’s the most important thing.”

With that in mind, Huigens added a new offensive coordinator, former La Verne player Don Morel.

“When Ort retired, (after 43 years) we got to hire one more person and he came over from Cal State Fullerton and he’s installed our offense and just done a great job,” Huigens said.

Huigens has also put more emphasis on recruiting.

“I recruited very hard last spring,” he said. “I recruited even when Ort was here, but I did even more so this year. I just really believe it’s more a case of who you coach than who is the coach.”

Huigens landed junior quarterback Willie Reyna, who has passed for a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference high of 1,441 yards and nine touchdowns this season.

“He’s been a super surprise,” Huigens said. “I knew he was a good player, but he’s been better than we ever thought he’d be.”

For that matter, the coach is equally surprised with the rest of the team.

“I don’t think we went into the season thinking we could beat Azusa Pacific, Cal Lutheran and Menlo, but maybe it’s also a case that some of those teams may not be quite up to what they’ve been in previous seasons,” Huigens said.

He doesn’t want to get carried away with the team’s success, though. Not with difficult games against the University of San Diego and Occidental in the next three weeks.

“I think we’re better than we’ve been the last few years, but I’m not naive enough to think we’re a dominating football team,” Huigens said. “I think any time you start reeling off wins, it involves some luck, and what’s really helped is, we’ve been relatively injury free.”

No matter how many games the team wins, Huigens says he simply hopes to bring a sense of continuity to the program.

“I would certainly think we’re going to try to be consistent,” he said. “It’s important to the program not to be way up one year and way down the next time.”

In their first year under Huigens, the Leopards are already headed in the right direction.

The football coach at Pomona-Pitzer has taken a lot of ribbing the last few weeks.

Like the judge who was confirmed as an associate justice of the Supreme Court last week, his name is Clarence Thomas.

“I’ve gotten a little bit of ribbing but it’s all good-natured stuff,” says Thomas, who is in his 10th season as coach of the Sagehens. “But as far as I’m concerned, I am the real Clarence Thomas.”

Actually, Thomas isn’t called Clarence by most of his friends and associates. He prefers his nickname, Motts.

“That’s more my name than Clarence,” Thomas said. “In some phone books, I’m not even listed as Clarence. People who know me always call me Motts. Only my mother calls me Clarence.”

But Thomas did take advantage of an opportunity to make light of the situation on the day that his namesake was confirmed last week.

“We had just had an inauguration for our new (school) president and I was wearing a robe,” he said. “But we still had to practice. So after the ceremony, I ran onto to field with my robe on and screamed at my players, ‘I got the job! I got the job!’ ”

Forward Rachel Wackerman has scored her share of goals for the Cal Lutheran women’s soccer team since she joined the team last season.

But Wackerman had never scored faster than she did in her team’s 3-0 victory over Redlands last week.

Wackerman scored only 12 seconds into the game, which could be the fastest in NCAA history, although such records are not kept.

At any rate, she is off to a good start this season. Wackerman, a sophomore, has 23 goals and 48 points and leads the SCIAC in scoring.

College Division Notes

Occidental saw its hopes of an undefeated football season vanish in a 12-0 nonconference loss to Cal Lutheran last week. Running back Cassidy O’Sullivan rushed for 134 yards and a touchdown in a school-record 33 carries for the Kingsmen. Cal Lutheran improved to 2-5 and Occidental is 4-1. . . . In a battle of California Collegiate Athletic Assn. leaders in women’s volleyball, Cal State Bakersfield surprised UC Riverside in three games last week in Riverside. The Highlanders began the match ranked No. 4 in the NCAA Division II and Bakersfield was No. 9. Bakersfield is 4-0 in CCAA play and Riverside 4-1.

The Cal State Dominguez Hills women’s soccer team, ranked No. 6 in Division II, missed an opportunity to clinch at least a tie for the CCAA title when it was upset by 12th-ranked Cal Poly Pomona last Saturday in Carson, 1-0. The teams are tied for first in the conference at 3-1 with two CCAA games remaining. . . . The Cal State San Bernardino men’s soccer team, ranked No. 7 in Division II, had its 10-match winning streak and undefeated CCAA record ended in a 5-1 defeat against 15th-ranked Cal Poly San Luis Obispo last Saturday in San Luis Obispo. It was also San Bernardino’s first defeat this season to a Division II opponent. Despite the loss, the Coyotes lead the conference at 5-1 and are 12-2-1 overall. . . . The Cal Lutheran women’s soccer team, off to a 9-0 start in SCIAC play, can clinch the title in its first season in the conference with victories over Occidental and La Verne this week. The Regals are 12-3 overall.