Grass Fields Get the Nod, Naturally

Grass or artificial surface? The debate rages in professional and major-college sports.

But in high school?

Marmonte League members Royal and Westlake brought the issue to the local level recently when planners of new football stadiums at both campuses considered installing artificial surfaces in favor of grass.

On Wednesday, a 13-member design committee for Royal’s $3.2-million on-campus stadium, expected to be ready for the 1994 season, unanimously recommended the playing field be grass.

Westlake, which will play its first on-campus game in the school’s 14-year history tonight against Agoura, will do so on a re-sodded, natural surface.

However, both schools wondered whether artificial grass is really greener.

“We kicked the idea around, but we went away from it because there is maintenance on that (type of) field too,” Westlake Coach Jim Benkert said. “And I wouldn’t want the kids to have to go out and buy nice pairs of shoes just to wear on AstroTurf.”

Royal Principal Dave Jackson said the installation of an artificial playing surface at Royal is still a possibility, despite the committee’s recommendation. Construction on the stadium is not expected to begin until next September.

Jackson added that the idea of an artificial surface was presented to league principals and no objections were raised.

Reaction from league coaches was mixed.

Benkert said he prefers grass. Thousand Oaks Coach Bob Richards concurred.

“I’ve played on AstroTurf,” Richards said. “One game isn’t going to be a problem, but it has a wear and tear on your legs. It shouldn’t be anywhere.”

Newbury Park Coach George Hurley said, “Sure, why not? I don’t think 48 minutes a season would matter. The kids would think it’s kinda fun.”

Royal Coach Gene Uebelhardt said he is just happy the school finally will have its own stadium after playing off-campus home games since the school opened in 1968.

“It doesn’t matter to me if it’s grass or AstroTurf,” Uebelhardt said. “It can be Jell-O for all I care.”

QUICK LEARNER

First-year Verdugo Hills co-Coaches Buzz Johnson and Bo Beauvais went looking for Eddie Powell on campus one day last spring. They had seen what he could do on a basketball court. They were more interested in what he would do on the football field.

Powell, who averaged 25 points a game for the Dons’ basketball team, was reluctant to don pads and a helmet.

“I saw a guy who was scared to death of football . . . someone who didn’t want to get hit,” Johnson said. “After five games, it’s like he’s been playing all his life . . . he’s taken to the game like a duck to water.”

Powell has seven interceptions to lead area City players. The 6-foot, 160-pound free safety picked off two passes in last week’s 35-6 victory over Hollywood and returned one 25 yards for a touchdown.

Powell also caught three passes for 29 yards--one for 16 yards and a touchdown--and returned a punt 98 yards for another score.

“And he doesn’t even know how to play the game yet,” Johnson said.

TOUGH ROAD BACK

In two years with the North Hollywood girls’ basketball program, Nikki Hamilton has surprised coaches and teammates with her tenacity. So they believe her when she says she will be back playing this season after losing part of her right ring finger Oct. 3 in a freak accident.

Hamilton, an all-league forward last season for the Huskies and considered a college prospect, was playing basketball with friends in a schoolyard when the ball bounced over a fence. Hamilton attempted to retrieve the ball by jumping over the fence, but a ring on her right hand caught on the top of the fence, cutting the finger and partially detaching it.

Doctors initially said the entire finger would have to be amputated, but during surgery they decided to remove only the top two joints.

Hamilton was released from the hospital Oct. 5 and was upbeat enough to show up for a Husky football game last Friday.

“She’s going to be facing a lot of emotions,” Coach Rich Allen said. “Hopefully, (the goal of a basketball comeback) will get her through.”

Allen said the players in his close-knit program were devastated at first by the accident to their team leader but have since smothered Hamilton with support.

“There is no timetable on when she will return, but I don’t doubt anything she says about coming back,” Allen said.

OK, YOUR TURN

Expanding on the position-by-committee approach, Calabasas Coach Larry Edwards platoons four sets of tailbacks and fullbacks.

“The key to our success is that we have so many people who can carry the ball, who can contribute,” said Edwards, whose team is 3-2 entering its Frontier League opener tonight against Nordhoff.

“Sure, kids have egos and they want to get a lot of carries, but our guys are really team-oriented and they understand that we just have too many good people to keep on the bench.”

Tailback Scott Sistrunk and fullback Mark Warshaw are the starters. They are followed by tailback Matt Findlay and fullback Steve Malka. Ziad Bawarshi and Tom Kim and Todd Wasserman and John Corcoran form the Nos. 3 and 4 sets.

The first three groups get most of the playing time, but everyone has carried the ball.

Sistrunk leads in rushing attempts (31) and yards. (184). Warshaw is second in attempts (25) and yards (132) and leads in touchdowns (four).

The group have combined for 629 yards (a 4.95 average per carry) and 11 touchdowns.

LOOK AND LEARN

So much for the theory that game experience leads to improvement.

Harvard-Westlake running back Don Donester gained 154 yards in his first two games, then missed two games because of school-related disciplinary reasons.

He returned last week against Cathedral and gained 170 yards.

“He improved so much in the two weeks that he was out. It’s just amazing,” said Coach Gary Thran, who added that he thought Donester learned by watching Michael Adams, who gained 166 yards in the two games Donester sat out.

“One of the things that we had talked to him about was to keep his shoulder pads lower and deliver the blow instead of taking it,” Thran said. “That’s the way Mike Adams runs the ball. I think Donnie learned something from watching Mike.”

MEMORIES

When St. Genevieve plays Salesian on Saturday at Roosevelt High, it should bring back mixed memories.

The last time the Valiants played Salesian on the road, Sept. 28, 1990, St. Genevieve recorded its last victory. The Valiants have now lost 19 in a row.

Perhaps as memorable was that the game ended about four minutes early because of a bench-clearing brawl.

“I remember their quarterback fell out of bounds (on our sideline) and said something to one of our players, then a little scuffle broke out,” said St. Genevieve senior receiver Jeremy Iaccino, who was on the junior varsity that night. “Then all the players from their sideline came over to ours. Things just got out of hand.”

SIDELINE REUNION

The year was 1974. The place was Culver City High.

Dick Billingsley was a young co-coach learning his craft, and Curtis Garner was a defensive lineman reveling in the excitement of his senior season.

Nearly two decades later, Billingsley and Garner--who coach Oak Park and Fillmore, respectively--will meet tonight in their teams’ Tri-Valley League opener at Fillmore.

“It is always very special for me when we coach against each other,” Billingsley said. “It means a lot to me because he played for me and I have a lot of respect for him as a coach and a person.”

This game will mark the fifth time Billingsley and Garner have coached against each other and the third time in their current jobs. Their teams met twice when Billingsley was at Beverly Hills and Garner at El Segundo.

The series is tied, 2-2.

“I always tend to coach a little better when I coach against (Billingsley),” Garner joked. “It does put a little bit of pressure on me. . . . I get a little more fired up.

“The team would be fired up regardless because it’s a league game, but I always want our team to do well--especially against his team.”

DECISIONS, DECISIONS

What do you do as a tennis coach when you have a nationally ranked player who wants to play for your team . . but on the player’s terms?

That was the dilemma facing Brian Maeda this fall when Ania Bleszynski, the nation’s top-ranked girl in the 16-and-under division, transferred from Marlborough to Harvard-Westlake. Bleszynski, a junior, said she would play for the Wolverines if she didn’t have to come to practice and if she could play only in Harvard-Westlake’s toughest matches. The first-year coach said thanks, but no thanks.

“I can understand her viewpoint, but I don’t want to sacrifice the unity of the team for one player,” Maeda said. “A lot of coaches have policies about allowing players to practice with private coaches and still play with the team. With my program, I don’t agree with that.”

Maeda noted that two other players on his team, Lindsay Wasserman and Romy Mehlman, have private coaches but still practice with the Wolverines. Without Bleszynski, the Wolverines are ranked No. 2 in Southern Section Division III.

Bleszynski, who won the Southern California Sectional doubles title with Pam Trump this weekend, is not the only ranked player to skip the high school season. Stacey Jellen, a senior at Calabasas, is sitting out her second consecutive season to concentrate on a schedule that has included several professional tournaments.

CLASH OF THE TITANS

Cross-country fans might have to wait until the Kinney West regional in December before Margarito Casillas of Hoover and Ryan Wilson of Agoura race each other.

Casillas, the runner-up in last year’s state Division I championships, and Wilson, the second-place finisher in last year’s Division II meet, were supposed to clash in the Kenny Staub invitational at Crescenta Valley Park on Saturday, but when Wilson withdrew at the last minute because of sore hamstrings, Casillas won easily.

Both are scheduled to run in the Mt. San Antonio College invitational Oct. 24, but they could be in different races.

Wilson, whose Agoura team is ranked fourth in the state among Division II schools, could end up in the team sweepstakes race. Casillas probably will run in the individual sweepstakes event because Hoover does not have a strong team.

MERGING TALENTS

King Schofield admitted he did not know what to expect when Harvard and Westlake merged last fall.

But the girls’ volleyball coach said the change might have been just what the Wolverines needed to boost their program to a higher level.

Schofield said the new “coeducational environment” has attracted athletes who might have enrolled elsewhere.

“We’ve lost some of the small-school feel we had before, but it’s been very good for athletics,” he said.

The girls’ team (6-2, 6-0 in the Mission League entering play Thursday) also has been helped by the tradition of the Wolverines’ fine boys’ program, which won the Southern Section 3-A title in 1991 and advanced to the semifinals last spring.

“The boys have a tradition of success,” Schofield said. “We can see the hard work they put in and know what it takes to be a champion. The teams spend a lot of time together and are really role models for each other.”

David Coulson and staff writers Jeff Fletcher, Vince Kowalick, Paige A. Leech, John Ortega and Jason H. Reid contributed to this notebook.