Exit of Saugus’ Hernandez Result of Deepening Rift With Coach

After two weeks of meetings, mixed messages and missed practices, Chris Hernandez officially is no longer a member of the Saugus High basketball team.

According to Coach John Clark, Hernandez, a 6-foot-3 senior forward and the Centurions’ leading rebounder, quit after being indefinitely suspended Tuesday for missing a practice.

Hernandez claims Clark kicked him off the team.

Clark says Hernandez lacks motivation and that he had become a disciplinary problem in recent weeks.

Hernandez, who started last season, argues that he always has been committed to the team.

Clark says he spent the past week trying to resolve the problem and have Hernandez rejoin the team.

Hernandez, averaging 11.8 points a game, says he still would like to play.

Point. Counterpoint.

The saga began Jan. 24 when Clark’s frustration with Hernandez boiled over after a 62-59 Golden League loss to cross-town rival Canyon.

Hernandez experienced difficulty guarding Canyon’s Joe Ferguson, who scored a game-high 25 points, mostly on inside moves.

Attempting to motivate his player, Clark criticized Hernandez in the media.

“Senior versus senior: the moment of truth,” Clark was quoted as saying in the Newhall Signal. “And my guy takes a hike.”

Dissatisfied with Hernandez’s commitment, Clark benched him the following week in a 66-61 win over Palmdale.

The next day, Hernandez skipped practice to pitch in an off-season scrimmage for the school’s baseball team.

On Tuesday, Clark suspended Hernandez. He did not suit up for that night’s 42-36 win over Quartz Hill and did not make the trip to Ridgecrest on Friday when Saugus lost to Burroughs, 65-50.

Hernandez and Clark last met Wednesday. Each offered a different account of what transpired.

“He tried to explain his actions and I tried to explain mine,” Hernandez said Friday. “He didn’t say anything about me coming back on the team.”

Clark said he offered Hernandez a chance to return with the understanding that his playing time would be reduced.

“I really wanted him to be on the team, but it had to be under my conditions,” Clark said. “If you look at it from a coach’s standpoint, it was kind of a test to see how badly he wanted to play. How he reacted kind of mirrored what he upset me about in the first place.”

Hernandez said he was upset by Clark’s published remarks.

“I understand why he did it,” Hernandez said. “He said he used it as a way to get me to listen. But as a teacher, I don’t think he should have done that.

“I didn’t think my performance was great, but I didn’t think that had anything to do with how hard I was playing.”

Said Clark: “I’m not out to get anybody or hurt people. It kind of just surfaced that he wanted to be somewhere else.”

The matter, Clark said, involved more than a missed practice or poor defense. Hernandez’s work ethic simply was poor, he said.

Moreover, Clark said he feared a disruptive influence late in the season. With the loss to Burroughs, the Centurions (16-7, 5-3 in league play) dropped to third place, two games behind first-place Quartz Hill (7-1).

Clark said Hernandez showed more interest in the upcoming baseball season than in matters at hand. Hernandez, a left-hander who was 1-1 last season, is expected to be one of Saugus’ starters.

“That interferes with his eagerness,” Clark said.

Hernandez said baseball had nothing to do with the situation.

“I would have skipped practice anyway,” he said. “He had been riding me in practice and then he didn’t play me and eventually put me out of the lineup. He said, ‘I’ve given you enough chances and I’m taking you out of the lineup.’ I figured I’d get some minutes (against Palmdale). I didn’t think I wouldn’t play.”

After two weeks of doubt and discontent, Clark and Hernandez agree on one point: Hernandez will not return.

Doctor’s orders: Dan Prince is accustomed to playing basketball with a few college recruiters in the stands, but on Friday night he played under the watchful eye of a cardiologist.

Prince, a senior guard for Quartz Hill and the Golden League’s leading scorer, believed he was having a heart attack Tuesday night as the team’s bus pulled into the school parking lot after returning from a game at Saugus.

Frightening images of Hank Gathers and Earnest Killum--college players who died suddenly during basketball season--shot through his mind as stabbing pains shot through his chest and left arm.

Prince was taken by ambulance to a hospital emergency room and given a battery of tests before being released after midnight.

So why was Prince in uniform Friday against Palmdale?

“They found nothing wrong with my vital organs,” said Prince, who scored a game-high 21 points in the Rebels’ 67-51 win. “The first thing they looked at was my heart. Two specialists came in and they gave me all kinds of tests.”

Doctors diagnosed inflammation of a pectoral muscle and placed Prince on medication. After being re-examined Friday, he was given clearance to play.

Still, one of the specialists who examined Prince insisted on attending Friday night’s game as a precaution.

“The doctor said it was like having a charley horse in the leg, but in the chest,” Prince said. “He said that it’s much more painful and when some people get it, they always think it’s a heart attack.”

The place to be: The Ventura wrestling team is 40-2 in the past three seasons but has not won a Southern Section championship in Paul Clementi’s 15 years as coach.

But the Cougars are trying to write a different ending this season.

Ventura, 16-1 and 5-0 in the Channel League, ranks first in the Southern Section 3-A Division and, if the Cougars maintain a top-two ranking, will play host to one of the Southern Section’s eight first-time, dual-meet preliminaries (two for each of the four divisions), Feb. 19.

As things stand, West Torrance, the division’s second-ranked team, would play host to the other eight-team preliminary. The winners of each tournament will square off Feb. 27 at Edison High in Huntington Beach for a Southern Section team title.

Previously, divisional champions were determined by individual tournament competition; wrestlers in 13 weight classifications amassed points for their schools in a round-robin format.

This season, Clementi said, will be the first in which a true “team” champion will be determined.

“I think it’s good for the sport and good for us,” Clementi said. “Dual-meetwise, boy, we’re pretty good.”

Ventura senior Scott Adams, the Southern Section’s defending 189-pound champion, is 21-0.

Fellow senior John Jimenez is 34-2 and won the 119-pound championship of the Morro Bay tournament. Junior Matt Jones is 34-3 and finished second in the 140-pound class at Morro Bay.

The state championships will take place March 6-7 in Stockton.

Further review: If the first diagnosis is unacceptable, try, try again.

That is what basketball center Rob Venick of Harvard-Westlake did after being told by a doctor a month ago that he would be sidelined for the season after suffering a fractured left foot. A second doctor assigned Venick a rehabilitation program of electronic stimulus and laser treatment, and Venick missed only six games.

“Young guys heal quickly, anyway,” Coach Greg Hilliard said, “but the last X-rays show he has rehabilitated completely. He’s playing at 85% at least.”

Venick leads Harvard in rebounding average and is third in scoring.

Filling big shoes: While Royal quarterback Ryan Fien was busy deciding which NCAA Division I scholarship offer to accept, at least four Highlanders looked ahead to the possibility of succeeding Fien next season.

And, according to Coach Gene Uebelhardt, it’s a tossup between Matt Olsen (6-4, 180) and Phil Sands (5-11, 180), who will be juniors next season, and sophomores-to-be Ty Russell (6-0, 180) and Brandon Gibson (5-9, 160).

“They all want the rein,” Uebelhardt said.

Staff writers T.C. Porter and Jeff Riley contributed to this notebook.