Gibbons Finds Fulfillment at Oak Park : Prep baseball: All-Southern Section selection in three sports will cap his career by pitching in the 1-A final.

Jeff Gibbons’ telephone has not exactly been ringing off the hook. But it has been ringing.

Just the other day, Rich Herrera, baseball coach at Westlake High, called to chat about the upcoming Ventura County All-Star game. Herrera will serve as co-coach of the South team, and Gibbons, a senior right-hander for Oak Park High, was among 40 players chosen for the June 14 game at Oxnard College.

“He called and asked me, ‘What positions do you play?’ ” Gibbons said. “I said, ‘I pitch.’ He said, ‘Well, we have eight pitchers, so I don’t know.’ ”

Herrera confirmed that Gibbons, who also plays shortstop, will pitch. “I just don’t know when, or how many innings,” Herrera said.

At least Gibbons wasn’t asked to be bat boy. At this point, he probably would expect as much.

Throughout much of the season, Gibbons’ name has been on the recruiting lists of a handful of major colleges. Yet he acknowledges that interest from the schools has waned and he has all but resigned himself to enrolling at a junior college, probably Pierce.

“It’s kind of frustrating,” Gibbons said. “I guess (Pierce) will have to be my time to prove myself.”

Right now, Gibbons has other concerns. Today, at Cal State Fullerton, he will be the starting pitcher for Oak Park (16-9) in the Southern Section 1-A championship game against Cerritos Valley Christian.

The game will cap a remarkable high school career for Gibbons, a three-year, three-sport athlete and an All-Southern Section selection in football, soccer and baseball. More importantly, a victory would tie a ribbon around Gibbons’ overpowering season on the mound.

Gibbons is 11-1 with a 1.43 earned-run average and 131 strikeouts in 83 1/3 innings. He began the season with a string of 40 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run and added a no-hitter with 14 strikeouts in an 11-2 Tri-Valley League win over Carpinteria.

Gibbons appears destined to collect his second consecutive league player-of-the-year award. This week, he was named Ventura County boys’ high school athlete of the year by the Ventura County Sports Hall of Fame.

“I was really honored to get that award,” Gibbons said. “And I was shocked. There are so many good athletes.”

But precious few scholarship offers--especially for pitchers from small schools, or for small pitchers. At 5-foot-10, Gibbons readily concedes, “I wish I had a few more inches on me.” Moreover, Gibbons’ fastball, he admits, barely exceeds 83 mph.

“When you look at a guy who is 6-foot-4, and then a guy who is not of that stature, colleges tend to go after the 6-4 guy,” Pierce Coach Bob Lofrano said.

Lofrano was in attendance Tuesday at Moorpark College as Gibbons pitched five innings in a 5-1 semifinal win over Twentynine Palms. Oak Park, the third-place team in the Tri-Valley, had not won a playoff game in the 11-year history of the school before this season.

“We’ve had long talks,” Lofrano said. “He said the four-year schools are nibbling, but how much they’re nibbling he didn’t know. We’d love to have him. He’s a good competitor.”

Control is Gibbons’ strength. “He can throw three pitches for strikes anytime he wants to,” first-year Oak Park Coach Mike Bolyog said.

Perhaps that is what attracted early-season interest from Fresno State and Pepperdine. However, Gibbons said, he has not heard from either school in several weeks. His only performance before a Pepperdine scout this season was a disaster. Gibbons was shelled in a 10-1 loss to Moorpark, his only loss of the season. “That was the worst game of my career,” he said.

Nonetheless, Gibbons admittedly is a bit hung up on why his phone has been silent. And he bristles at the thought of being overlooked because he pitches for a small school.

“I wish some of the scouts would come and watch our games,” he said. “A lot of guys are being overlooked. Being in this division, the colleges don’t come around as much. We’re not in the big games. The scouts are all at the Marmonte League games.”

Ah, the Marmonte League: Eight 5-A Division Ventura County schools that dwarf Oak Park and its enrollment of 494--especially in the headlines. It’s enough to give an Oak Park player an inferiority complex.

“You know you’re as good as guys at other schools and then they get all the press,” said shortstop Eric Pryor, who is batting .449. “And then you see them in (American) Legion ball and you’re just as good as they are.”

To his credit, Gibbons held his own in American Legion play last summer against players predominantly from City Section schools. Last summer, as a member of Agoura-Oak Park, Gibbons was 6-2 with a 3.08 ERA and 50 strikeouts in 51 innings. Agoura-Oak Park played in the Western Division, regarded as the strongest of District 20’s four divisions.

Playing for Oak Park, located in an affluent area in Eastern Ventura County, has been a mixed blessing for Gibbons. While he may be overlooked, he unquestionably is the biggest fish in a small pond. Where else would he be able to excel in three sports, play varsity baseball as a freshman and enjoy such popularity?

As a wide receiver, Gibbons caught 32 passes for 616 yards and nine touchdowns last season to earn All-Southern Section Division X honors. As a center-forward for the soccer team, Gibbons scored 25 goals as a junior and 15 as a senior, earning All-Southern Section and league MVP honors both years.

Last season, Gibbons was 7-1 with 82 strikeouts and a 1.18 ERA in 65 innings. In his four-year varsity career, Gibbons has a record of 24-5.

“It’s true that you don’t get as many people going out (for sports) at a small school,” he said. “But a good baseball team has eight or nine good players, and we have just about that. I think we could hang in there with some of the bigger schools. I know we could.”

He also knows he can help Pierce. Gibbons watched the Brahmas participate in the Southern California regional finals last month. And he liked what he saw.

“It was an exciting brand of baseball,” Gibbons said. “The kind of baseball I like. I could do a lot worse than going to Pierce. I just want to play ball and get an education. If I’m overlooked now, maybe I’ll catch up in the future.”