Coaches Take Advantage of Reserve Roles

Five Ventura County football coaches have been benched.

Actually, serving jury duty in Ventura County Superior Court this week wasn’t such a bad experience for Phil McCune of Ventura, Carl Thompson of Camarillo, Joel Gershon of Channel Islands and assistants Rob Elliott of Thousand Oaks and Gary McGinnis of Westlake. All five appeared in court the same morning.

“We all kept putting it off and putting it off during the season,” McCune said with a laugh.

Thompson, who said he received his summons in October, was the first to arrive.

“I went over to get a coffee and I came back and I see Gershon and Phil,” he said.

None were called the first day to serve on a prospective panel, which made for plenty of season replays and tales of ones that got away.

“We sat and talked about football and drew up a lot of plays,” Thompson said.

NO TIME TO CELEBRATE

Montclair Prep standout running back Eliel Swinton celebrated his team’s Southern Section title with an early wake-up call Sunday for a flight to South Bend, Ind.

Swinton, who rushed for 215 yards the previous evening, was off to Notre Dame for one of five recruiting visits.

Notre Dame made a scholarship offer, Swinton said, but he won’t make a commitment until he has taken all of his trips. Swinton, who finished the season with 2,384 yards and his career with 5,884, also will visit UCLA, Stanford, Colorado and Oregon. Oregon and UCLA also have offered scholarships, he said.

ONE-GIRL TEAM

Jamie Arundell already had established herself as the best girls’ basketball player in school history during her first three seasons at Fillmore, setting team records for scoring, rebounding and blocked shots. But Saturday night’s performance against Carpinteria was something special, even for Arundell.

The 6-foot-1 center scored all of her team’s points in a 42-26 victory in the third-place game of the Nordhoff tournament.

“The other girls were missing shots and the ball just kept ending up in her hands,” Fillmore Coach Pete Orosco said. “I didn’t realize Jamie had scored all of our points until I started adding up the scorebook after the game.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” added Nordhoff Coach Jack Smith, the tournament director.

Arundell, who broke her school single-game record of 40 points, made 19 of 29 shots from the field and four of nine free throws. She also had 19 rebounds.

TIME MANAGEMENT

With the score tied with four seconds remaining in the Fillmore tournament championship game against Village Christian last week, Nordhoff’s Mark Sebek signaled for a timeout after a missed free throw. While the move was textbook, there was one problem: The Rangers had no timeouts remaining.

A Crusader player made one of the two free throws after Nordhoff was assessed a technical foul, and the Rangers lost, 65-64.

“That was all my fault,” said Ranger Coach Dick Sebek, Mark’s father. “I called our last timeout with about nine seconds to go, and I did not inform the players en masse that we didn’t have any left.

“Mark was smart enough to make the right play, it was a poor coaching job to not inform the kids. Hopefully, it won’t happen again.”

GENERATION GAP

Rafer Johnson, the decathlon winner in the 1960 Rome Olympics, is one of St. Bonaventure basketball Coach Marc Groff’s favorite athletes.

Johnson’s son, Josh, plays for Windward, which St. Bonaventure defeated, 70-31, in the Providence tournament. When Groff talked to his players about Johnson, they responded, “Rafer Who?”

“Here is the greatest athlete in the world in 1960, and my kids don’t even know who he is,” said Groff, 39. “He was one of my heroes, I grew up reading about him and watching him on black and white TV.

“I am in awe of him and my kids were just looking at me not knowing why. It really makes you feel your age.”

SHOT IN THE FOOT

St. Genevieve basketball Coach Dan Donovan is out of answers. The question: Why can’t his team make free throws?

The Valiants are shooting only 53% from the line, compared to 66% for their opponents. The problem is magnified because St. Genevieve (3-4) lost two games this week by a total of three points.

“I don’t know what it is, but it’s driving me nuts,” Donovan said. “We’re going to try not practicing them this week.”

One of the problems might be that St. Genevieve practices outside, on non-regulation hoops.

Symbolic of the Valiants’ woes is senior guard Jeremy Iaccino, who is shooting 50% (31 of 62) from three-point range and 44% (11 of 25) from the line.

TV TORNADOES

Hoover boys’ basketball and softball Coach Kirt Kohlmeier has come up with an easy way to make money for his programs. It involves sitting and laughing and applauding on cue.

Piece of cake.

Kohlmeier’s teams serve as audience members for “The Tonight Show” hosted by Jay Leno. NBC pays $300 for a group of 35. Last Monday, Kohlmeier took the Tornado basketball teams. This Monday, he took the softball teams.

“We’re just trying to make some money,” Kohlmeier said.

BACK IN THE GOAL

Chaminade goalie Heather Salzer was more concerned with waves than saves earlier this fall, more involved with wipeouts than shutouts.

It took weeks of pleading by Eagle Coach Jeff Blumkin and her soccer teammates to persuade Salzer to take up her position minding the nets, rather than spend her senior soccer season surfing and snow-boarding.

Salzer, a senior who set the school season record for shutouts with 18 in her sophomore year, took last season off from soccer, largely because she was frustrated that there was no position coach to help her.

“I was really held back,” she said. “I had no idea what I was doing.”

But Blumkin, a rookie coach, lured Salzer back, using as bait Mike Caputo, a former Cal State Northridge goalie who works exclusively with Salzer and junior varsity goalie Holly Neglio.

The results are already noticeable.

“I’m learning so much it’s incredible,” Salzer said.

Said Blumkin: “Every game her confidence builds because she learns something new from Mike.”

In Chaminade’s three matches, Salzer has allowed only one goal and made 24 saves.

What about snow-boarding?

“I’m going to Vail (Colo.) with a group from school,” she said.

At least now Blumkin is certain Salzer will be back.

HONOR ROLL

Agoura sophomore Amy Skieresz joined elite company when she placed third in the Kinney national cross-country championships in San Diego on Saturday.

Skieresz became only the ninth runner from the region to place among the top five finishers in the Kinney meet since it began in 1979.

The other female runners are Vickie Cook of Alemany (third in 1980), Jeannie Rothman of Westlake (second in 1990) and Veronica Barajas of Channel Islands (fifth in 1990).

The boys’ list consists of Eric Reynolds of Camarillo (third in 1981, first in ‘82), Bryan Dameworth of Agoura (fourth in 1988, first in ‘89), Dave Hartman of Canyon (third in 1990), Jeff Wilson of Newbury Park (second in 1991) and Margarito Casillas of Hoover (fifth in 1991).

Despite her success over 5,000 meters this fall, Skieresz is likely to concentrate on the 1,600 meters, not the 3,200, during the 1993 track season, according to Agoura Coach Bill Duley.

Skieresz placed third in the 1,600 meters in the state championships in June and has a personal best of 4 minutes 57.77 seconds.

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