Coach to Do Double Duty by Helicopter

Cal Lutheran soccer Coach George Kuntz was faced with a dilemma.

Kuntz coaches the men’s and women’s teams at Cal Lutheran, and both play opening-round NCAA Division III playoff matches today. The women play at UC San Diego and the men at Claremont-Mudd--two hours apart by car.

Since the women’s match starts at 11 a.m. and the men’s match begins at 1 p.m., there seemed to be no way he could attend both matches.

“I feel like a dad whose kids are playing in two different games,” Kuntz said. “You can’t pick which one is more important.”

He won’t have to. He simply will fly to Claremont from San Diego in a helicopter.

Kuntz approached KNJO radio sports director Sean Broderick with his problem. KNJO, which broadcasts Cal Lutheran athletic events, uses a helicopter, Skycopter 92, to broadcast traffic reports each weekday morning.

Broderick contacted Joe Messina, the pilot and owner of Skycopter 92, who agreed to shuttle Kuntz from San Diego to Claremont in exchange for free air time and advertising.

Kuntz will leave the women’s match at 12:30 p.m. with about 10 minutes remaining in the second half and will arrive at the men’s match about halftime.

“George is going to have a major ego, flying around from game to game,” Broderick joked. “He’s going to want to do this for every game. Actually, you’ve got to admire George for his chutzpah even to ask.”

Actually, Kuntz was wary of the plan.

“It’s exciting but by no means a gimmick,” Kuntz said. “I don’t want to distract from the players. In fact, I debated long and hard whether or not to do it.”

Should both teams win, they will play second-round matches Sunday, the women at noon and the men at 1 p.m. In that event, Kuntz will have to choose one match to attend.

BLACK OUT

Cal Lutheran soccer player Preben Krohnstad was especially frustrated during last Saturday’s loss to Claremont-Mudd in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship match. Krohnstad was ruled ineligible only minutes before the match for accumulating five yellow cards during the season.

SCIAC rules state that after a player receives his fifth card (red or yellow) during the season, that player will be suspended for the following match.

On Sept. 27 against Cal State Northridge, Krohnstad received two yellow cards (the second one is shown as a red card), which carries with it an automatic ejection and a mandatory one-game suspension. Krohnstad sat out the following match.

From then on, referees slapped him with three yellow cards. Five cards total. He would have to sit against Claremont. Simple, right?

Both Krohnstad and Kuntz believed that since Krohnstad had served a one-game suspension, the two yellow cards were treated as a red card and that he had only four total.

That would have been the case under European rules (Krohnstad is from Norway).

But Kuntz conferred before the Claremont game with the referees and with La Verne Coach Owen Wright, the SCIAC men’s soccer chairman, and the verdict was in: Krohnstad had five cards and would have to ride the bench.

Krohnstad was replaced in the lineup by fellow Norwegian Jan Methlic.

“It was sad,” Krohnstad said. “It’s hard to help your friends by sitting on the bench.”

Because teams keep their own records, the referees and Wright would not have known about the situation had Kuntz not brought it up.

“We do everything by the book,” Kuntz said.” We couldn’t risk playing him and forfeiting the match if it came out some other way.”

When the Kingsmen were given new life with their surprise playoff berth, Krohnstad’s slate was wiped clean as well.

He is eligible to play in the playoffs and will not be forced to sit out another game unless he accumulates three cards. This time, Kuntz checked.

INCONSISTENT

With the exception of a 42-18 win over Santa Clara in which Jamal Farmer and Robert Trice combined for 329 yards rushing, the Cal State Northridge offense goes as quarterback Marty Fisher goes.

Two weeks ago, in a 14-13 win over Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Fisher led Northridge to a dramatic win with an 80-yard drive in the closing minutes, including a game-winning, five-yard touchdown pass on fourth down with 14 seconds left.

Last week, in a 49-20 loss to Southern Utah, Fisher threw three interceptions and completed only 13 of 35 passes for 211 yards and one touchdown.

“I had my moments,” Fisher said. “You peak, you fall back down the valley, you peak again. We moved the ball on them, but when the time came to execute, guys made mistakes.”

Through eight games, Fisher has completed 92 of 214 for 1,090 yards and eight touchdowns. He has been sacked 14 times, 27 of his passes have been dropped and he has thrown 10 interceptions.

“Right now, the thing Marty is not doing well is looking off (receivers) and going to the other side,” quarterbacks coach Dale Bunn said. “He needs to take the gimmes, hit the backs more and go to the tight end more.”

PASSING GRADES

To avoid complacency, Northridge baseball Coach Bill Kernen required new recruits and returning players to meet individual performance criteria during a one-day tryout before allowing them to continue working out with the team during the fall.

On Monday, position players were graded on hitting for average, driving in runs, baserunning, bunting, defense and throwing. Pitchers were graded on the command and sharpness of their pitches, control and defense.

Kernen said players who did not score at least 50 points in the tryout would not be allowed to participate in team drills until the spring.

Those who failed the team’s running requirement (three miles in 21 minutes or less) also would be held out until they bettered the standard.

Everyone who tried out scored 50 points. Marco Contreras, a transfer from Citrus College, did not meet the running requirement, but Kernen expects him to meet the challenge soon.

But what if, Kernen was asked, a veteran player, say, a hard-working fellow such as shortstop Andy Hodgins, had suffered through a poor day?

Well, the coach explained, there was an escape clause.

Players could be awarded as many as 10 extra points based on their work habits. “It’s a discretionary thing,” Kernen said, laughing. “We made it that way so we could bail ourselves out.”

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

The October issue of Collegiate Baseball Magazine included a rating of the top recruiting classes in college baseball.

There was a listing of the 30 top schools, according to the publication’s experts, and 35 others. Northridge, which finished 38-16-1 last spring and made the Division I playoffs for the second consecutive season, was not among them.

The top 10 included local powers Cal State Fullerton (No. 4) and Cal State Long Beach (6), plus such perennial national contenders as Florida State (1), Stanford (2) and Miami (8).

Stetson was No. 27 and Siena, Western Illinois and Stephen F. Austin were among the others.

“I put (the list) up on our bulletin board so everyone could see it,” Kernen said. “I thought our guys might want to know that there are better players at Stephen F. Austin.

“I mean, it was like everybody in the game was mentioned. But not us.”

BIG PERFORMANCE

There were some big hitters on display in the Northridge Invitational volleyball tournament, including 6-foot-4 Kori Schauer of Northern Illinois, 6-1 Lael Perlstrom of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and 6-0 Nancy Nicholls of Northridge, but none had a better hitting percentage than 5-9 setter Alison Wool of Northridge, who posted a .442 mark.

Most of Wool’s 23 kills were unorthodox. She positions herself as though she is going to set the ball before leaping up and guiding the ball to the other side of the court, which is most vulnerable to an easy kill.

“It’s something that she does with certain types of passes, and when the defense is playing a certain way,” Ker said. “The decision is hers on the court, but between games we might point out some things to help her.”

BOUND BY THE BLUES

One day during preseason camp, Northridge linebacker Lidge Proutt was sitting in his dorm feeling blue. Back spasms were preventing the senior transfer from Pacific from showing the coaching staff what he could do.

On his stereo system Proutt was playing the blues, specifically, “Midnight Run” by Bobby Blue Bland. Drawn by his favorite song, teammate Victor Myles ambled into the room, read Proutt’s mood and cheered him up. When the pair discovered that neither had a roommate, Myles moved in.

“We were meant to be roommates,” Proutt said.

Inseparable off the field, Myles and Proutt are now together on the field. Despite his 225-pound frame, Proutt has been converted to defensive tackle and will start next to Myles today against visiting Portland State.

PRINCELY HOBBIES

Northridge fullback Jim Warren collects stamps from Guatemala and breeds earthworms. Cornerback Ralph Henderson breeds parakeets.

And wide receiver Victor Prince knows a different kind of hobby. In the media guide he lists movies, eating, dancing and spending money as his leisure activities.

Staff writers Kennedy Cosgrove, Mike Hiserman, Theresa Munoz and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.