DiMuro to Again Coach Notre Dame Girls

Rob DiMuro, a former coach at Pierce College and Notre Dame High, will return to Notre Dame to coach the girls’ basketball team next season.

DiMuro, 27, replaces Carter Austin, who coached Notre Dame the past two seasons.

A 1983 Notre Dame graduate and a student at Cal State Northridge, DiMuro led the Notre Dame girls’ team to a 23-18 record from 1985-87. He also has served as a softball coach and as an assistant football and basketball coach at Alemany.

“I’m ecstatic,” DiMuro said Tuesday. “I always felt I left Notre Dame with unfinished business. When I left, we were on the verge of something good. That always ate away at me.”

From 1989-91, he coached the Pierce women’s basketball team to 11-19 and 21-10 seasons, leading the Brahmas to the second round of the state regional tournament his second season.

Last spring, DiMuro reportedly was hired away from Pierce by College of the Canyons, but after the schools squabbled over the hiring, DiMuro wound up with neither job.

“That was an unfortunate situation that was handled badly,” he said. “The only thing that bothered me was the perception that I pulled a fast one at Pierce. That put a cloud over what I did there and that bothers me.”

Westlake High girls’ basketball Coach Nancy Bowman stunned her team after Saturday’s 70-39 playoff loss to Bishop Montgomery by announcing her resignation after 10 seasons with the program.

Bowman, in her second stint as the Warriors’ coach, said she is quitting to devote more time to teaching honors classes at Westlake. She recently began teaching an advanced anatomy class.

Westlake (22-6) lost in the quarterfinals of the Southern Section Division II-A playoffs and finished second to Thousand Oaks in Marmonte League play at 12-2. Bowman coached the Warriors to a league co-championship with Thousand Oaks in the 1990-91 season.

A preliminary hearing has been postponed until April 2 for three former Antelope Valley College football players charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

The defendants--David Brown, 20; Bradley Cole, Jr., 20; and Gene Washington, 22--are each charged with one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. If convicted, each faces as many as three years in state prison.

The alleged attack took place Oct. 5 in a Lancaster apartment.

Swingman Marquis Burns, who reached double figures in scoring in his past 43 games at Reseda High, has been selected the West Valley League’s most valuable basketball player by a vote of league coaches.

Burns, who has signed a letter of intent to play next season at UCLA, averaged 26.5 points to lead all area City Section players. He averaged 8.8 rebounds. Burns (6-foot-3) also was the league’s most valuable player as a junior.

Joining Burns as repeat members of the first team are Chris Dunbar of Chatsworth and Markee Brown of El Camino Real. Reseda’s Trenton Cross and Chatsworth’s Brady Mertes and Ken Manor also made the first team.

Alex Estrada, a senior guard at Faith Baptist High, has been selected the Delphic League’s most valuable player by a panel of league coaches.

Estrada, a preseason all-state selection in Division V, is averaging 17.2 points and 8.5 assists.

Forwards Peter Rasmussen and Etienne Moore of Faith Baptist are first-team selections along with senior guard Austin McKellar of Campbell Hall.

Kenny Kendrena, a senior right-hander, was recognized along with three other players as Collegiate Baseball magazine’s players of the week.

Kendrena struck out 16 in a four-hitter to lead Cal State Northridge past USC, 6-1, last Tuesday at Dedeaux Field. After losing his first three starts, Kendrena, a third-team All-American last season, has won two in a row.

Kendrena shared honors with Indiana’s Mike Smith, North Carolina’s Mike Cox and Mississippi State’s B.J. Wallace.

Alemany High running back Terry Barnum and St. Genevieve tight end Jon Hoffman were honored Tuesday for their academic achievements by the Los Angeles chapter of the National Football Foundation.

Barnum, who will attend USC in the fall, carries a 3.66 grade-point average. Hoffman has a GPA of 3.33.