Dining With the Enemy Seems to Be a Good Game Plan

South Coast League girls’ soccer coaches found the perfect way to remain friends as the season heats up: sit down together and chow.

The coaches met Wednesday night at a Laguna Hills restaurant for what turned out to be nearly five hours of food and chit-chat. The annual event--to promote sportsmanship and ease competitive tensions--was initiated years ago by El Toro Coach Kerry Krause.

“What’s nice is you find out everyone’s pretty much the same,” Krause says. “You realize everyone’s got the same problems--the administration, the players. . . . Everybody has a lot of funny stories to tell.”

Apparently so. The coaches arrived at 7 p.m. and were there until closing, around 11:30.

“I felt bad,” Krause said. “The waiter wanted his money.”

And probably a good-sized tip.

Famous Hooks, former Los Amigos boys’ basketball coach, was the jury foreman in the case of a woman convicted this week of killing and dismembering her husband in November of 1991.

The woman admitted to cooking her husband’s head, boiling his hands and mixing his body parts with Thanksgiving turkey leftovers for easier disposal.

“(During jury selection), the judge asked us whether we thought pictures would bother us,” said Hooks, now coaching junior varsity basketball at Garden Grove.

“I said no. I figured I’d seen it all on TV.”

He hadn’t.

“They were 8-by-10s, and they were gruesome,” Hooks said. “They’d pass them around, then they’d always end up in front of me. I would go, ‘Please. Put them away.’ But you just had to deal with them.”

Hooks said the stress from the trial was considerable, but he’s been through worse.

“We went into overtime (Wednesday),” Hooks said. “I had a heck of a lot more stress from that.”

One of the more enlightening aspects of this week’s college athletic scholarship seminar at Laguna Hills High examined questions high school athletes should ask while they’re being recruited.

Seminar organizer David Stoeckel said before committing to a college athletic program, a recruit should consider more than “the attractiveness of the campus and how many books are in the library.”

A sampling of considerations:

--Make an honest assessment of your abilities. Do you want to be an impact player? A project player? Would you rather sit on the bench of a great team or play on a good team? How do you feel about becoming a redshirt?

--If, during your recruiting visit, you attend a competition in your sport, note the disposition of the coach and players. How is their relationship before the game? During the game? How does it change when they’re winning, or falling behind?

--Find out what kind of academic tutoring is available. Do they offer study halls? Are they serious study halls or rowdy social hours? Ask to see the grade-point averages of players. How do they compare with those of other athletic programs at the school? With the entire student body?

Remember, when you sign a letter of intent, it’s not only the school making an investment.

In other words, ask questions.

Move over, Imelda Marcos: Olujimi Mann, Mater Dei’s 6-foot-4 freshman sensation, says his No. 1 hobby outside basketball is “shoes.”

“I have 24 pairs,” Mann says. “Purple, green, gray, red, black, turquoise. . . . I match them with all my outfits.”

These aren’t just any shoes; they’re from a certain sneaker manufacturer. (We can’t name the brand, but let’s just say Michael Jordan is paid a pretty penny to wear them.)

Speaking of pennies, Mann saves all of his--from leftover lunch money to birthday card checks--to help pay for the shoes, his father says.

“Olujimi’s a money saver, definitely,” Richard Mann says. “But I keep telling him, ‘You don’t need any more shoes. Buy something else!’ ”

Actually, as of this year, Richard has no room to complain.

“Olujimi and I wear the same size now,” he says. “So I get to wear his shoes.”

The Corona del Mar girls’ volleyball team was named co-national champion by Volleyball Monthly, but the honor was not without controversy.

According to a source close to the situation, Corona del Mar’s undefeated season wasn’t as flawless as the volleyball world was led to believe.

“Corona lost a match early in the season,” the source said. “They just refuse to admit it.”

The match?

Corona del Mar versus the Corona del Mar Alumni.

OK, so the match--which drew about 400 fans--meant nothing as far as records or standings are concerned. But considering that many of the alumni were in their 30s, well, their 15-13, 6-15, 15-12 victory was darn impressive. It can’t simply be brushed off like cat hair on a sofa.

Corona del Mar Coach Lance Stewart, explain thyself.

“The fact of the matter is we took it easy on them,” Stewart says. “We knew it was their one chance for glory. We wanted to be nice.”

Nice?

Sure, Stewart admitted the Sea King alumni were “pretty incredible” for their age.

He also admitted spiking their water bottles with Kaopectate.

Barbie Ludovise’s column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Ludovise by writing her at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, 92626, or by calling (714) 966-5847.