COLLEGE DIVISION : His Success No Surprise to Cheatham

It took running back Sean Cheatham only seven games to reach 1,000 yards this season for Redlands.

That should come as no surprise to anyone who saw him play football at Rancho Alamitos High in Garden Grove or Golden West, a community college in Huntington Beach. He has always been the best player on his team.

What is surprising is that it didn’t happen at a four-year college until five seasons after he left high school.

In contrast to his straight-ahead style of running, Cheatham’s academic trail has been winding.

At Rancho Alamitos, he led Orange County in scoring and rushing in 1987. He wanted to go to USC, but the Trojan coaches had doubts about his speed and didn’t offer him a scholarship. He was invited to be a walk-on, but walked out instead.

“(USC) just wasn’t for me,” Cheatham said. “I can’t say that they did anything wrong. I mean they’re paying $21,000 for their scholarship players. I was there for the rookie camp and decided I didn’t want to stay.

“I didn’t see myself getting a chance. The equipment was sub-par. . . . I mean the shoes they gave me were too big and when I took them back, they said they didn’t have any more. I find that hard to believe. But hey, they didn’t promise anything. I have no grudge.”

So he went to Golden West.

“My freshman year, I got to watch Blaise Bryant play,” he said. Bryant went on to star for Iowa State and is with the New York Jets.

“By the end of my sophomore year, I was playing most of the time,” Cheatham said. “I had over 1,000 yards, was an academic All-American and thought I would get more offers. I felt like I got short-changed a bit.

“But everyone who doesn’t get a scholarship feels that way. After a while, you can’t blame everyone else.”

So he didn’t. He gave up football and went to Pepperdine to major in business. To satisfy his craving for football, he played for the Orange County Dolphins, a club team, on Saturday nights.

“(One day at Pepperdine), I was in the weight room, lifting. My elbow was bothering me and I asked for some ice. They said, ‘You can’t have any because you’re not an intercollegiate athlete.’ That just burned me. That put things in perspective.

“I did kind of miss being an athlete,” Cheatham said. “I was playing rugby and it wasn’t the same thing. That night I called (Rancho Alamitos Coach Mark) Miller. Redlands had recruited me out of high school and while I was at Golden West. Coach Miller put me in touch with Coach (Mike) Maynard.”

The next semester, Cheatham was at Redlands.

Still, it wasn’t what he expected.

“There was a little friction,” he said. “I expected more than maybe I should have. We went through camp and Shaun Trejo got hurt. I was a little bigger, but not as quick. But I felt I earned the starting job.

“So I had the first two series and didn’t do much. He got in and did real well. I talked to Maynard and realized what was the best for the team.

“I asked to play, so he put me on special teams--that was probably most fun I’ve ever had, especially being the wedge-breaker, which I had to do. I was just flying downfield, just trying to be as crazy as I could because I didn’t have to do anything else.”

During the third game, though, Cheatham moved to tight end and started splitting time. He says that made him a better fullback because of his understanding of the blocking schemes and it helped his blocking technique.

Not that he has needed it. Cheatham has been the best running back in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference this season. He has come to like playing fullback better than tailback.

“I get to run straight ahead,” he said. “That’s the kind of style of running I always liked to do. I never really cared to run out of bounds.”

He gained 267 yards last week and has 1,008 for the season with nine touchdowns. But he says he has nothing to prove.

“I have personal goals, but winning is more important. I learned that last year. We won and that was the first championship team I’ve been on. That was better than any of the records I had in high school.”

Cal State Dominguez Hills’ women’s soccer team clinched a spot in the six-team National Championship tournament with a 4-0 victory over Northern Colorado on Sunday. The top six teams nationally are invited, and Dominguez Hills is ranked fifth.

College Division Notes

Kevin Patterson, interim Cal Poly Pomona men’s basketball coach, has hired Jerry Hernandez and Johnny Brown as interim assistant coaches. . . . Cal Poly Pomona has been chosen to play host to the Division II women’s tennis tournament May 7-13 at the Industry Hills Tennis Center. Pomona has won the previous two titles.

Jesus Gonzalez of Cal State Los Angeles is the top soccer scorer in the West Region and seventh nationally with 21 goals and four assists. . . . The California Collegiate Athletic Assn. has five volleyball teams ranked in the top 25. Cal State Bakersfield is No. 3, Cal State Los Angeles 13, Cal Poly Pomona 14, UC Riverside 20 and Chapman 21.

Southern California College will play host to The Master’s in the first round of the NAIA District 3 men’s soccer playoffs on Wednesday at 7 p.m. . . . Cal Poly San Luis Obispo won the men’s and women’s cross-country titles in the CCAA and Occidental won the men’s and women’s cross-country titles in the SCIAC.