Kick Back, Keep Up on Current Trends

Y ou could crank up the Muzak, or veg out in front of the TV. Of course, neither would compare to reading mindless tidbits like these: * Sure, lots of boys get their ears pierced these days. But Woodbridge third baseman Gabe Gifford has a small silver hoop pierced into his . . . chest.

* Some people look at Huntington Beach junior Tony Gonzalez and see a kid with an attitude. Maybe that’s true on the basketball court, but not at the Buena Park nursing home where he works part-time.

Gonzalez, an activities planner, serves coffee, deals cards for nickel-a-game poker and reads to patients.

What does he read? Shakespeare? Tolstoy?

“Newspaper articles from my games,” Gonzalez says.

* You have to wonder what Meghan Reppe’s ever-imaginative mind will come up with this year. Last season, the Villa Park sprinter said each time she got into the blocks she visualized . . . luxury bathrooms.

* It produces a powerful, but safe, magnetic field that causes the water molecules within the body to resonate. This resonance gives off radio signals that are picked up by the scanner. A computer then assembles these signals into detailed pictures of the internal anatomy and physiology of various body tissues.

What is it?

Something injured athletes know all too well--Magnetic Resonance Imagining, or MRI.

* Southern Section Associate Commissioner Dean Crowley says the Assn. of California School Administrators has been discussing a wide list of sports-related issues.

One of the more radical considerations: possibly limiting some sports to one entry per league for the playoffs.

* So Laguna Beach volleyball Coach Michael Soylular knows his way around the court. But can he cope in the kitchen?

Apparently. Soylular, a former cruise ship chef, is said to be a master at cherries jubilee.

* Why do the practice uniforms of Woodbridge baseball players say “DIRTBAGS” on the back? Apparently, the Warriors--who were hesitant to slide the first few weeks of practice--wanted to toughen their image.

* Derek Baker, besieged with high expectations as a sophomore last year, started out the 1992 season batting .133. Now, even more is expected from the Tustin third baseman--but he’s batting .700 (with two home runs and 10 runs batted in) after four games.

* Fashion police take note: Edison football Coach Dave White, who coaches the Charger girls’ distance runners in the spring, is no longer an embarrassment to his team.

That’s right. Thanks to the care package he received from the Charger runners, White is now wearing real running socks--not the geeky, long white knee-highs he sported last season.

* Imagine walking in shoes that are three inches higher in the front than the back. Your body weight would be forced forward to keep your balance; the muscles in your calves would work twice as hard. Your ability to run and jump would dramatically improve.

That’s the principle, anyway, behind the specially designed shoes Huntington Beach guard Bryan Chang experimented with this season. Sure, it feels like you’re walking around with a big, fat bagel stuck under your foot. But Chang says he’s now able to run faster, jump higher.

Didn’t some of us say the same for the P.F. Flyer?

* It’s no secret that Corona del Mar’s 6-foot freshman, Kelly Campbell, has a tremendous future in volleyball.

But distance running?

In her debut track meet last week, Campbell won the varsity girls’ 1,600- and 800-meter runs in a dual meet against San Clemente. Not only did Campbell outrun Corona del Mar’s top runners--those who led the school to a State cross-country title last fall--she ran times (5 minutes 22 seconds/2:26) that rank among the fastest in school history.

* Mark Trakh, Brea girls’ basketball coach, on the lucky tie he wears during games: “It’s the ugliest thing in the world.”

It looks a lot better than losing.

* The habit, Woodbridge baseball Coach Vince Brown says, has become almost impossible to break.

Every night after practice, it’s the same stop at the same supermarket bakery for another box of 18 fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies (plus, a six-pack of diet soda to wash it down).

Says Brown: “I tell people, ‘I don’t smoke. I don’t do drugs. I do chocolate chip cookies.’ ”

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.