COLLEGE DIVISION / ARA NAJARIAN : A Guatemalan Holiday On Hand for Westmont

Westmont’s baseball team will spend the much of the holiday break in Guatemala on a trip that will include baseball, basketball and missionary work.

John Kirkgard’s team, which played host to a baseball team from Russia last month, will travel to Guatemala City on Monday to play four exhibition games, hold several youth clinics and do Evangelical work. The team will return Jan. 5.

“We will play the Guatemala national team once and three other ‘major league teams’ from their leagues,” Kirkgard said. “They’re not at the upper end of the scale of Central American teams, and it’s kind of an off-season thing for them too.”

One of Kirkgard’s players, sophomore second baseman Dan Deeble, went to Guatemala last summer and met Jeff De Leon, who helped set up the trip.

When Deeble returned to school, he told Kirkgard of his experience, and Kirkgard contacted De Leon about the possibility of the team visiting.

Kirkgard has taken teams to Ecuador, Costa Rica and Honduras the last three years.

“It tends to be a bonding experience,” Kirkgard said. “It’s amazing how teammates can become so close when when they are put in a third-world country where they don’t speak the language.

“My Spanish is horrible, but baseball and Christianity will break down a lot of language barriers.”

The team will have plenty to do besides play baseball.

“We will visit a few prisons and churches as a support group,” Kirkgard said. “(De Leon) also has us traveling about four hours outside the city to play basketball with local Indians in the mountains. Apparently they don’t play much baseball, so we’ll play basketball.”

Are the players excited about the trip?

“They’re a little apprehensive. It’s a new experience for most of them,” Kirkgard said. “But any time we can get our players out of their comfort zone, then it’s a growing experience.”

If there was any question about the men’s basketball team to beat in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn., it was pretty much answered when Cal State Bakersfield won its own tournament.

Bakersfield figures to be dominant at home and might even be favored on the road.

A team of size, shooting ability and discipline, Bakersfield (6-0) easily defeated Missouri Western for its own title. The competition might not have been the stiffest, but it was probably similar to that found in the CCAA.

Roheen Oats has led Bakersfield’s balanced attack with 15 points per game and has made nearly three-quarters of his shots. Guard Kenny Warren can be disruptive on both ends of the court and helps keep the pressure off Oats.

Beyond Bakersfield, the race for the tournament is wide open.

Although it lost 10 players from last year’s 24-6 team, UC Riverside might be the best of the rest.

Riverside is talented and well coached, and Charles Purdom is averaging 15 points and six rebounds for the Highlanders. Lack of experience has shown in the early season, however, as Riverside was defeated by Azusa Pacific in a mild upset. Azusa Pacific might be the best NAIA team in the Southland, but Riverside is still a Division II team and could have expected to do better than a 14-point loss.

Still, Riverside has experience in swingman Chris Hantgin and post player Kevin Anderson. Hantgin is a great outside shooter, and Sam Sabbara is a three-point threat averaging 11 points as a reserve.

Kevin Patterson is the new coach at Cal Poly Pomona after serving as an assistant to Dave Bollwinkel for five seasons. The team and style should be familiar, but Patterson’s team might step out of its disciplined offense a little more.

Cal State Dominguez Hills, which figures to have a shot at the four-team CCAA tournament, finished third in the Bakersfield tournament and showed an effective new inside game.

Senior guard Raymond Bennett returns to lead the Toros’ perimeter attack. Vince Washington, Joe Bertrand and Darnell Patterson have been strong rebounders and with short-range shooting.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo will be moving up to Division I next season and recruited accordingly, but the impact of this recruiting class has not been a factor. The Mustangs, however, have the balance to challenge for a spot in the CCAA tournament.

Jeff Oliver runs the show for San Luis Obispo. He leads the team in scoring and assists, and he and Greg Paulson are effective three-point shooters. Bubba Burrage carries the load inside.

The wild cards in the conference are Cal State San Bernardino and Cal State Los Angeles.

Los Angeles has improved and has the high-scoring front court of Tony McGee and Derek Knowles. Each averages more than 20 points.

If Los Angeles can continue to overcome sagging defenses and consistency problems that have plagued the team in the past, it has a legitimate shot at being one of the top two teams in the conference.

San Bernardino has an offense similar to Los Angeles’ two-pronged attack, but from the perimeter. Develle Walker, averaging 19 points, and Eric Carpenter, averaging 17, carry the scoring load. Robert Murphy and Orlando Robinson are strong inside players. The Coyotes lead the conference in steals, and Troy Perryman is the individual leader in blocked shots.

Chapman, which has no scholarships because it is moving down to Division III next season, has the CCAA’s leading scorer in Jeff Gardner but appears to have little else.