PREP NOTES : Soylular to Return for Santa Barbara Volleyball Tournament

By MIKE REILLEY

Oct. 29, 1992 12 AM PT

Michael Soylular will make a temporary return as coach of the Laguna Beach girls’ volleyball team Friday and Saturday when the top-seeded Artists open play at the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions.

Laguna Beach officials suspended Soylular for the three remaining Pacific Coast League matches for violating Southern Section Section rules in a recent alumni match. Soylular allowed three non-alumni to play in the scrimmage, a violation of section rules.

Freshman-sophomore Coach Chris Whiting has taken over practices and games in Soylular’s absence. But school officials have allowed Soylular to coach the team at the Santa Barbara tournament, and he can return full time when the section playoffs start next month.

“The Santa Barbara tournament has several of the top teams in Southern California, and we wanted to provide the (Laguna Beach) players with their coach,” said Tim Sullivan, Laguna Beach assistant principal. “We didn’t want it to have any undue effect on the tournament.”

Laguna Beach, ranked seventh nationally and second in the state, opens play at 9 a.m. Friday against Fresno Bullard. The two-day tournament will be played at three sites--Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara High and the Goleta Sports Complex. The championship match is tentatively scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday.

El Toro, the defending State Division I champion, is seeded seventh.

Glory days: Anaheim senior Brian Diaz played guard on the Placentia-Yorba Linda Pop Warner League football championship team in 1986. Every game, Diaz lined up next to one of the toughest, meanest linemen in the league.

“He was an animal,” Diaz said of the team’s right tackle. “He didn’t care who the other guy was, or how tough he was.

“He and I always had trouble making weight for Pop Warner. We were too big. We used to starve the day before weigh-ins just to make it.”

Diaz’s teammate? None other than Travis Kirschke, Esperanza defensive tackle and one of the top recruits in Orange County.