Steps Taken to Safeguard Teams at Risk

Officials at Simi Valley and Royal highs are taking extra precautions with their athletic teams in the wake of the acquittals in the Rodney G. King trial.

“We’re alert to (potential trouble),” Simi Valley Principal Dave Ellis said. “We want to keep our kids safe.”

Simi Valley’s team traveled to the Ventura County track and field championships Friday in rented buses, choosing to leave at home buses with Simi Valley painted on the side.

And Royal’s top-ranked Southern Section 3-A Division volleyball team canceled a trip to the prestigious Redondo Beach tournament because of the violence in the Los Angeles area.

“We thought we had a good chance to win,” Royal setter Travis Ferguson said. “But I think it was a wise choice not to go.”

While other sports were affected, it was business as usual in baseball. Simi Valley played host to Royal in a Marmonte League first-place showdown Friday.

SILVER LINING

Royal might have been forced out of the Redondo Beach volleyball tournament, but that cloud had a silver lining for the Highlanders. With an extra date available on its schedule, Royal has agreed to play Loyola today at 5 p.m. in a showdown between the top-ranked Southern Section 4-A and 3-A teams.

“Maybe something good will come out of us missing the tournament,” Royal Coach Bob Ferguson said. “It gives us the opportunity for the best to play the best. That’s something that the playoffs would not allow us to do. This is the only way the No. 1 4-A and 3-A teams can meet. “

Royal, which won the San Marcos tournament of champions, has not lost a game in winning all 15 of its matches. Loyola is also undefeated.

SHUTOUT SHOWDOWN

The gauntlet had been thrown down.

Last week, San Fernando right-hander John Romero threw a five-hitter as San Fernando beat Cleveland, 3-0. A day later, Romero’s picture appeared in the newspaper, which might have lit a fire under left-hander Jorge Gonzales.

“I think Jorge saw that picture and said, ‘Hey, I’m still the ace of this staff,’ ” Marden said. “Because he went out and did him one better.”

Two days after Romero’s gem, Gonzales threw a four-hitter in a 5-0 victory over Cleveland.

HERE’S THE CATCH

Some say that the quickest way to earn a college scholarship or a ticket into the professional draft is as a catcher. If that is the case, there are some potential nuggets in the Northwest Valley Conference.

Granada Hills senior catcher Sam Voita already has sewn up a scholarship to Pepperdine, but four juniors in the conference are having solid years and might attract recruiters next season.

-- David Bourne of Kennedy is a two-year starter who has the size (6-foot-3, 185 pounds) that scouts look for. His arm seems potent as well--there are 13 marks notched on the back of his catching helmet, one for each baserunner he has thrown out. Bourne is batting .350 with 12 runs batted in.

-- Stacy Kleiner of Taft, another two-year starter, had the best offensive season of the group (.375, 11 doubles) as a sophomore. Kleiner (6-foot, 155) might need to fill out physically to handle the day-to-day college grind, but might have the strongest arm in the conference. Kleiner is batting .422 with 13 RBIs.

-- El Camino Real’s Justin Balser, a two-year starter, also can play the infield and outfield. In a lineup that features four promising players of junior standing or younger batting in the first four places, Balser bats cleanup. He has 14 RBIs and is batting .310.

-- Juan Romero of Reseda has had a productive season despite his team’s struggles. Romero, a two-year starter, is batting .429.

QUANTUM LEAP

Perhaps people are beginning to discover just how good Granada Hills swimmer Kristine Quance is.

For more than two months she battled mononucleosis, finally returning to the pool three weeks ago. Last week--still recovering and not in top shape--she won two individual and two relay events in the East Valley League finals at Valley College.

Quance, a junior, won the 100-yard backstroke in 1 minute 4.16 seconds, only two seconds slower than her best time in January.

She won the 200 individual medley (2:10.75) and competed on Granada Hills’ winning 200 medley relay (2:07.74) and 400 freestyle relay (4:04.90) teams.

“I was not surprised with the performance because I set high goals for myself,” Quance said. “I was looking for a 1:04 in the 100 backstroke. I just didn’t tell anybody.”

No one would have believed her.

In January she went through a series of sub-par practices and thought she was declining. So she pushed harder, not realizing she was ill. Working harder was counterproductive.

As swimming goes, the illness could not have struck at a worse time.

Two weeks before the Olympic trials, her glands became swollen and the illness took firm hold. Still, at the competition in Indianapolis in early March, she finished third in the 200-meter breaststroke and seventh in the 100 breaststroke.

The top two in each event qualified for the Olympics in Barcelona.

“It was really hard, really frustrating,” she said. “I felt like I didn’t get a fair chance. If I didn’t train hard that would have been one thing. But I did. I felt like it was over before it even began.

“The first month after trials, it was hard to understand. It has given me something to prove, to myself and to everyone else.”

PREDICTION RATES A 10

It isn’t exactly Babe Ruth pointing his bat at the outfield fence in the World Series, but the shot was called and it has indeed come to pass.

A few weeks before the season, Cleveland baseball Coach Steve Landress predicted that teams in the competitive Northwest Valley Conference would take turns knocking off one another with such regularity that there would be no teams ranked in The Times’ regional top 10.

Lo and behold, though it took most of the season to prove true, Landress was correct. Conference teams are down for the 10 count.

Thanks to a pair of sweeps last week--Granada Hills over Kennedy and Chatsworth over El Camino Real--the last two teams from the conference have slinked out of the rankings. Kennedy and El Camino Real last week were ranked fifth and sixth, respectively.

“There is such parity this year,” said San Fernando Coach Steve Marden, whose prediction that a record of 10-7 would win a league title also appears close to the mark. “I don’t think there’s a team out there that I’d be in fear of playing in the first round of the playoffs. There are lots of good teams, but none that really reach up and grab you.”

LATE BLOOMER

Granada Hills Coach Darryl Stroh wishes he were in charge of doling out player eligibility. If so, he would give senior shortstop Gary Matthews another season.

Matthews is 6-foot-1, 160 pounds, but he is a late bloomer in terms of physical maturity. Matthews is batting .275 and has played brilliantly in the field.

Many expect Matthews to go on to great things once he fully matures. Unfortunately, that will be a little late for Stroh’s benefit.

NO JOSHING AROUND

Has Calabasas sophomore Josh Morton had difficulty adjusting to the varsity ranks? How does a 17-game hitting streak sound?

Morton (5-8, 175) leads the Coyotes in virtually every hitting category.

“The only reason he doesn’t lead in RBIs,” Coach Rick Nathanson said, “is because no one’s on base when he gets up.”

He can hit: Morton has a league-best .460 average.

He can pitch: Morton, who throws a knuckleball and a curve, has a league-high 13 appearances and a 1.42 earned-run average.

He can field: “He is a pure third baseman who fields his position probably better than anyone I’ve seen this year,” Nathanson said. “He can go into the hole and down the line, and he throws well.”

Morton is also a workhorse: He has played every inning of every game.

Speed is one area in which Morton does not excel. Nathanson thinks Morton has probably lost two or three potential infield hits because of his lack of speed.

FALLING HARD

When Hueneme was ranked No. 3 in the preseason Southern Section 4-A poll, Coach Reg Welker let out a groan that could be heard all the way to the Southern Section office in Cerritos.

Hueneme was coming off a season in which it finished second to Rio Mesa in the Channel League. But Welker lamented his team’s inexperience and lack of a proven No. 2 starter behind ace Frank Adame, who was 10-2 with a 1.34 ERA last season.

Welker’s concerns have proved well-founded.

Hueneme (10-9-1) is 3-6-1 in league play and only 1 1/2 games out of the cellar. Its pitching staff has limited opponents to a .213 batting average, including a mere .193 average in league play, but the Vikings have hit only .252 overall and have committed 44 errors.

Also, Adame has not been nearly as sharp as he was last season when he struck out 72 and walked 35 in 73 innings. This season, Adame (1-5) has walked 28 in 32 2/3 innings.

“Basically, reality caught up with expectation for us this season,” Welker said.

NEXT!

Buena has been generous at times this season. The Bulldogs (11-4) have committed more than five errors in each of their four losses.

According to Coach Stan Hedegard, most of his players have taken their turn with a miscue.

“It’s a different guy each time,” Hedegard said. “We figured that our first baseman is the next victim, because he’s one of the few who hasn’t been a victim yet.”

That would be none other than Garrett Richins, who was married Saturday.

David Coulson and staff writers Steve Elling, T.C. Porter and Jeff Riley contributed to this notebook.