Stewart’s Death Hits Hard at Taft

The death of Taft High football Coach Larry Stewart on Saturday was an emotional loss for the school faculty, but the news was especially hard on Tom Stevenson, who has known Stewart for almost as long as he can remember.

Stewart and Stevenson attended the same elementary school, junior high and high school. After completing college, they began their teaching careers on the same day, 19 years ago at South Gate Junior High.

Stewart, 43, suffered an apparent heart attack while attending a Christmas party in Long Beach. A memorial service will be held Friday at 10 a.m. at Lorenzen Mortuary in Reseda.

“I was told he just dropped to the floor and died,” Stevenson said. “Just like that, he was gone.”

Stewart was a highly regarded history teacher who taught two periods of advance-placement courses. His classroom was located next door to that of boys’ basketball Coach Jim Woodard, a history teacher who often spent the morning break talking with Stewart.

“It’s a shocker, no question,” Woodard said. “It startled everyone.”

Stevenson said that because Stewart was not overweight, did not smoke and monitored his diet, the loss of his friend was doubly hard to understand. Stewart’s sideline demeanor was typically reserved, rather than demonstrative or combative.

“He was more internal, more cerebral,” Stevenson said. “He was a straight shooter.”

Before taking over for Stevenson this year, Stewart served for seven seasons as Taft’s defensive coordinator and the Toreadors won or shared five league titles in that span. Taft was 1-8 this season.

Former players found Stewart’s passing difficult to accept. Steve Harris, a 1990 Taft graduate who played defensive back for Stewart, said assistant Seb Bull, another former Taft player, called Sunday night with the bad news.

“I said, ‘Seb, I know you’re joking,’ ” Harris said. “He said, ‘Steve, I’m serious. I wouldn’t joke about this.

“It’s just hard to believe. He was young and hyper too.”

Finding a coaching replacement for Stewart might take several weeks, Stevenson said. Stewart had no on-campus assistants last season and the school is closed for an eight-week break.

HIT THE BOOKS. . . .

His grades are good and so is his dribbling.

But Moorpark point guard Richard Hernandez will be devoting his efforts to only one of the above in the future.

Guess which one?

Hernandez, who leads the Musketeers with 29 steals through eight games, has been scratched from the roster by his parents who were less than pleased with their son’s recent progress report.

According to Moorpark Coach Tim Bednar, Hernandez received a C in one subject after having received a B earlier in the school year. Bednar said that Hernandez, who also played for the school’s football team, is far from being academically ineligible and that he maintains a grade-point average above 3.0.

“He could easily pull a C and probably get a B in the class,” Bednar said. “But his parents just have really high standards for him and he understands that.”

THE HARDER THEY FALL

Burroughs’ two biggest players--6-foot-5 junior center Jeff Pinnow and 6-4 junior forward Mike Merina--are out of the lineup after suffering serious injuries while driving to the basket.

Pinnow suffered cartilage damage in his left knee during a game in the Burbank-Hoover tournament two weeks ago and is lost for the season.

Last week in the Bosco Tech tournament, Merina landed hard on the hardwood and broke his right hand--the one he shoots with--and suffered wrist damage too. Merina will be out at least six weeks.

Said Coach Art Sullivan: “My line with the team now is that, with this team, if you stick around long enough, you’ll probably start.”

ROUT REDUX?

One would think that Bell-Jeff would not want to play North Hollywood for some time after being hammered by the Huskies, 99-48, last week in the first round of the North Hollywood tournament.

Yet the Guards (6-2) will play host to North Hollywood and six other teams in the Bell-Jeff tournament, which begins Thursday.

Should Bell-Jeff and North Hollywood each win their first two games, they will meet in Saturday’s tournament championship game.

“I think we’ll play them really tough next time,” Bell-Jeff Coach Steve Wahl said. “Being on our home court could make the difference.”

REPROACHED COACH

As if Hart’s 4-6 start is not disappointing enough for Greg Herrick, the Indian coach was given a one-game suspension last week by Principal Laurence Strauss for shouting at an official after a game three weeks ago.

Herrick admitted using profanity in the incident, which occurred after a loss to La Canada in the Saugus tournament.

However, Herrick claims he was inappropriately disciplined and is seeking retribution through the teachers’ association.

“I just want a memo attached to this whole file that the disciplinary action was in (error) and that the administration was not acting appropriately,” Herrick said. “I don’t feel I should have been suspended.”

EASY AS 1-2-4

At 6-8, Faith Baptist center Peter Rasmussen must have been considered a dark-horse entry by most of the other 29 contestants in the North Hollywood tournament’s three-point contest Saturday.

But the longshot with the long shot was not a surprise winner in the eyes of teammate Darren Wyre, Faith Baptist’s starting off-guard.

“He always shoots like that,” Wyre said. “He’s money. He almost always beats me. I knew he was gonna win it after the second round.”

Rasmussen and Wyre finished first and second, respectively, thanks to Rasmussen’s clutch performance in the final round.

Entering the championship round, Wyre had made 18 baskets to 20 for Rasmussen. In the final 60 seconds, Wyre made 11 shots, setting the stage for his teammate. Rasmussen, shooting last, answered with 12 baskets to win, 32-29.

What’s more, Charlie Messeijer, a sophomore and a member of the Faith Baptist junior varsity, placed fourth with 27 points, giving the Contenders a 1-2-4 showing.

Leah Wood of Grant won the girls’ competition. Wood finished in a 21-21 tie with Heather Eubanks of Simi Valley at the end of three rounds, but Wood won the title in a shootout.

REFLECTIONS

When North Hollywood Coach Steve Miller started his coaching career at University High in the mid-1970s, one of the players on the B team was a skinny, scrappy, redheaded kid named Sandy Greentree.

Greentree went into the coaching ranks himself, later serving as an assistant to Miller at Fairfax. After the pair parted ways, Greentree eventually led Marshall to a City Section 3-A Division title in 1986, left coaching for several years, then began anew at Chatsworth this season.

Last Saturday, Greentree and Miller went head to head when Chatsworth and North Hollywood played for the North Hollywood tournament championship. Miller predicted before the game that the teams at times would look like clones.

“We do a lot of similar things,” Miller said. “It’ll be like looking in the mirror.”

Chimed in assistant Eli Essa: “That means they make the same mistakes that we do.”

Well, maybe more. Chatsworth committed 10 turnovers in the first quarter and trailed, 12-2, after eight minutes. North Hollywood, however, had to hold on for a 60-58 victory, winning its tournament for the first time in Miller’s seven seasons at the school.

OL’ BLACK EYE

Frank Sinatra might be the chairman of the board, but in Miller’s gym, ol’ blue eyes went quickly by the boards.

During the North Hollywood tournament last Saturday, Grant Coach Howard Levine managed to sneak a Sinatra cassette tape into the boom box that was piping music into the gym’s public-address system.

In contrast to the rap-oriented fare that had blared all day, Sinatra stood out like fingernails across the blackboard or a bad jump shot off the backboard.

No sooner had the Sinatra tune begun, Miller and several others in attendance begin pointing fingers at the grinning Levine, who has sung professionally and has attended dozens of Sinatra performances.

Levine has even sung Sinatra songs a capella on his telephone answering-machine message.

Said Miller, hitting the eject button after a minute or two of Sinatra: “Geez, get that stuff out of there.”

Grant, which at the time was warming up to face Reseda in the third-place game, was soon stuffed.

Reseda edged the Lancers, 47-46, marking the first time the Regents had defeated Grant in nine tries.

The victory was music to the ears of Reseda Coach Jeff Halpern.

Halpern’s wife teaches at Grant and Halpern graduated from the school.

“I was getting tired of hearing about it,” Halpern said.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS

The turnstiles at the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions were getting a good workout last week as some of the state’s best girls’ basketball teams competed at Santa Barbara and San Marcos highs.

One of the marquee names for the event was Thousand Oaks’ standout Marion Jones, and at least one group of fans showed up just to watch her play.

The Jones followers were not disappointed as the 5-11 forward left spectators with a pair of memorable moments. In Thousand Oaks’ win over Clovis West on Thursday, Jones blocked a shot near the baseline, glided gracefully to retrieve the ball out of bounds and drilled a pass off an opponent to give the Lancers possession.

Friday’s magic moment, in a 47-34 victory over perennial power Brea-Olinda, came in the fourth quarter when Wildcat point guard Nicole Erickson drove the lane and had a shot rejected by Jones.

Jones then outsprinted everyone else on the floor for the ball at midcourt and took it in for an uncontested layup.

When Brea-Olinda Coach Mark Trakh was questioned about the game Saturday, the first thing he wanted to talk about was Jones’ blocked shot.

“I saw that and I just had to throw my towel,” Trakh said. “How are you suppose to beat something like that?”

BROKEN STRING

Brea-Olinda’s loss to Thousand Oaks was the Wildcats’ first to a California team since they were beaten in the state Division III final by Auburn Placer in 1990.

Brea-Olinda was 34-1 last year and 8-0 this season before losing to Thousand Oaks. The Wildcats’ only loss last season was to Christ the King of New York.

David Coulson, Vince Kowalick and staff writers Steve Elling, Paige A. Leech and Jeff Riley contributed to this notebook.