Buena Names Miranda Girls’ Volleyball Coach

Jimmy Miranda, a veteran club coach, has been named the Buena High girls’ volleyball coach.

Miranda is director of the Channel Islands Volleyball Club in Ventura and has been a coach with the Channel Islands club for the past five years.

Miranda replaces Steve Burkhart, who was hired to coach the women’s program at Moorpark College.

The annual Gene Waid Memorial baseball tournament will begin today with a pair of games at Camarillo High. The five-team, round-robin event, which is primarily for American Legion teams, concludes Sunday. The team with the best record over five games will be the winner.

The tournament will begin today with games at 11:30 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. The tournament field includes American Legion District 20 teams Newbury Oaks, Camarillo A, Camarillo B and Ventura.

Waid was a longtime supporter of youth baseball in Ventura County.

Shortstop Dave Landaker of Royal High has been named to Baseball America magazine’s high school All-American second team.

Landaker was selected with the first pick of the second round by the Houston Astros in the June 1 draft.

Landaker signed with the Astros on Tuesday and will report to the club’s rookie league team in Kissimmee, Fla., this weekend.

Right-handed pitcher Eric Raba, formerly of Camarillo High and Ventura and Pierce colleges, will play this summer for the Matsu Miners of the Alaska League.

Raba was 13-0 last season at Pierce and has signed a letter of intent to play next season for Cal State Northridge.

Joel Lopez of Fillmore High, Matt Creech of Buena and Ryan Luce of Royal will compete for the Moorpark College track and field team.

Lopez, the Southern Section 1-A Division and Ventura County champion in the boys’ 800 meters, has personal bests of 1 minute 52.56 seconds in the 800 and 4:23.7 in the 1,600.

Creech placed second in the discus in the 3-A meet and has a personal best of 174 feet.

Luce, who has a personal best of 4:21.02 in the 1,600, placed fourth in the Marmonte League finals and eighth in the 3-A championships.

Lopez and Luce are expected to run cross-country for the Raiders in the fall.

A group of 37 teen-age taekwondo students from West Hills will compete in the 12th United States Taekwondo Junior Olympic championships beginning today in Orlando, Fla.

The students, ranging in age from 6 to 15, qualified for the Junior Olympic championships by winning more than 60 medals--the most of any school in California--during the recent state championship competition at UC Irvine.

The students study under David Howell, an alternate for the 1988 U.S. Taekwondo Olympic demonstration team.

The three-day competition in Orlando will be taped by ESPN for future broadcast.

Information: 818-992-4577.

Sky Scott and Casey Graham defeated Scott Williams and Brandon Huffman, 15-8, for the championship of the Youth Beach Volleyball tournament at San Buenaventura State Beach in Ventura on Wednesday. Travis Smith and Dan Hewlett tied Kwan Huh and Joel Carter, 15-15, in the third-place match.

All eight players are from Ventura.