Banning Scores First With the Transfer of Running Back Hurst

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Damin Hurst can live with that.

Hurst, one of top running backs for Carson High last season, has transferred to rival Banning for his senior year. He checked into the Wilmington school Friday.

Banning beat Carson twice last season, but that’s not the reason Hurst changed schools. The way Hurst tells it, he wore out his welcome at Carson because he got on the bad side of some of the football coaches.

“I had problems with different coaches,” Hurst said. “One told me that he would whup my ass. I didn’t think it was necessary for me to go through that . . . I talked it over with my mom and decided to transfer.”

Carson Athletic Director Saul Pacheco said Hurst’s transfer was best for all parties.

“He’s probably better off at Banning than over here,” Pacheco said. “He had some personality clashes with the coaches over here. He’s probably better off in a new environment.

“I hate to see a kid of that caliber leave our place, but we’re not going to make things difficult for him or for our coaches.”

The 5-foot-9, 160-pound Hurst ranked third in rushing, receiving and scoring for Carson last season, gaining 659 total yards and scoring seven touchdowns. He also returns kickoffs and punts. Because of his excellent quickness and lateral moves, he is considered one of the South Bay’s most explosive players.

“He’s a kid we’re going to take a look at,” said Dick Lascola, director of the Scouting Evaluation Assn., a college scouting service. “He’s an exciting player because he has that good burst.”

Needless to say, Banning Coach Ed Paculba is happy to have Hurst on his team. Paculba said he probably would use Hurst and Brandon Moore, the Pilots’ highly regarded tailback/strong safety, in the same backfield.

“He’s definitely an impact player,” Paculba said of Hurst. “He’s got moves like you can’t believe. We went against him in the passing league and he’s unstoppable. He’s the type of player who can catch a two-yard pass and turn it into a 10- or 15-yard gain. We’re going to take advantage of that.”

Hurst said adapting to a new school has gone smoothly so far.

“They’ve accepted me,” he said of his new coaches and teammates. “They have no problem with me being here.”

This is the second year in a row that a touted football player has transferred from Carson to Banning.

Vaimagalo (Andre) Tua’au quarterbacked Banning to the City Section 4-A Division final last season after playing for Carson’s B team as a sophomore. Reportedly, Tua’au wanted to return to Carson for his senior year.

“Andre wanted to come back last spring, but our principal (Dhyan Lal) talked him into staying at Banning,” said Pacheco, the Carson athletic director.

Wendell Yoshida probably deserves some credit if the caliber of girls’ basketball in Southern California improves next season.

Yoshida, the Peninsula High coach who guided the Lady Panthers to the mythical national title last season, conducted four girls’ basketball camps this summer that attracted players from as far as Bakersfield and San Diego. All together, between 240 and 250 girls participated in the camps.

Because of the camps’ popularity, Yoshida said he had to turn away players for the first time.

“We had waiting lists,” he said. “We couldn’t accommodate all the kids that wanted to sign up.”

Yoshida acknowledged that the exposure Peninsula received last season, when it finished 33-0 and won the State Division I title, had something to do with the turnout, which was considerably higher than previous years.

“I’m sure that had quite a bit to do with it,” he said. “People in Bakersfield happened to watch us on TV and called to ask if we had basketball camps.”

Yoshida said the camps were a positive experience for the girls, many of whom he described as “starving” for advanced instruction. Ace Hoffstein, 70, a shooting specialist who has worked with several men’s and women’s college teams, was the featured instructor at Yoshida’s two skills camps, which each attracted the limit of 60 girls.

“For 12 years, I worked other camps,” Yoshida said. “I know what kids get and don’t get. I try to gear our camps for what the kids don’t get, and that’s a lot of individualized attention.”

Yoshida said one of the camp’s most impressive players, for her age, was Tandee Taylor, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Long Beach. She is 6-foot-2 and weighs 180 pounds.

“She would start for us this year,” said Yoshida, whose team is lacking height and experience in the front court.

Peninsula will start a considerably smaller lineup than it did last season, when 6-5 Jeffra Gausepohl (now at the University of Virginia) and 6-3 Monique Morehouse (Auburn) anchored the middle.

“Our tallest starter might be 5-11,” Yoshida said. “We’ll press a lot more and run. Definitely our inside (game) is not as strong. We might be more of a perimeter team.”

Yoshida, who has never had a player average more than 18 points in 12 years as a high school coach, was asked if that might change next season. Peninsula boasts one of the nation’s most talented players in 5-10 junior Mimi McKinney, who seems capable of doubling her 14-point average from last season.

“We have to get the ball to who can score,” he said. “If that means Mimi has to score 27 to win, we’ll do that. But that’s not our first goal. Our first goal is always balance. That’s how I think you win.

“When one person does all the scoring, the other kids lose interest after a while. Five people have to play together and have to like each other.”

The Torrance High girls’ volleyball team, ranked fourth in the state in a preseason coaches’ poll, is looking for a coach after Marie Andersson resigned last week because she is pregnant.

Torrance Athletic Director Jeff Phillips said the school wants to fill the position as quickly as possible. The Tartars began practicing Monday and open the season Sept. 17.

“It just became too hectic for her,” Phillips said of Andersson, a player on the women’s pro beach volleyball tour. She has skipped the past several tour events because of her pregnancy.

Under Andersson, Torrance reached the Southern Section 3-A Division semifinals last season. The Tartars return all-section selections Kim Blankenship and Suzanne Radcliffe.

Those interested in the coaching position should call Phillips at (310) 533-4396.

Notes

Morningside quarterback Stais Boseman and Banning strong safety Brandon Moore have been named preseason All-Americans by Super Prep magazine, which specializes in college football recruiting. Boseman’s name has turned up on virtually every preseason honors list, and Moore has been selected to most. Banning quarterback Andre Tua’au and Hawthorne offensive lineman Mustafa Sobhi (6-5, 275) were rated among the top college prospects on the West Coast by Super Prep.

Seven South Bay football teams have been selected to Southern Section preseason divisional rankings. Defending Bay League champion Hawthorne (9-3 in 1991) is ranked No. 3 in Division III, with Peninsula (8-3) rated No. 5. Morningside (0-13), which forfeited the 1991 Division VIII title because it used an ineligible player, is No. 4 in Division VII. Five-time defending Camino Real League champion Serra (8-3) is rated No. 8 in Division VIII. In Division IX, South Torrance (7-3) is ranked No. 2 behind Atascadero, with Pioneer League rival North Torrance (4-5-1) following at No. 3. Chadwick (5-5) is No. 7 in the Eight-Man Schools Division.