El Modena Names Howard as Football Coach

Steve Howard has been named football coach at El Modena, Athletic Director Don Mott announced Wednesday.

Howard, a former assistant coach at Century and Santa Margarita, replaces Bill Backstrom, who resigned in February.

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Wayne Carlson said Wednesday he has resigned as boys’ basketball coach at El Dorado.

Carlson, the Golden Hawk coach the last six seasons, said he wanted to spend more time was his family. He will remain at the school as a teacher and golf coach. The Golden Hawks were 77-75 under Carlson. They won the Empire League championship in 1989 and qualified for the Southern Section playoffs in five of Carlson’s six seasons.

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Tom Smith has been hired as Santa Margarita’s wrestling coach, Athletic Director Rich Schaaf said.

Smith has been an assistant wrestling coach for the last year and is an assistant track and field coach. He replaces Brian Campbell, who resigned.

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Steve Castle has resigned as football coach at La Quinta High, Athletic Director Jim Perry announced.

Castle, who also coaches softball, is leaving because his wife, Ellen, a sales executive with International Paper, has been transferred to Memphis, Tenn. He had a record of 7-13 during his two seasons as the Aztecs’ football coach.

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Jeff Byrd of Rancho Alamitos might be the ultimate two-sport high school athlete, and he has a chance to lead the county in major categories in two sports.

Byrd, a 5-foot-10, 175-pound senior who is bound for Columbia to play football, led the state in rushing and set the Orange County single-season rushing record with 2,596 yards.

Entering this week’s baseball games, Byrd also was leading the county in hitting, with a .556 average in 15 games. He holds a three-thousandths of a percentage point lead over Canyon’s James Jekums.

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The Costa Mesa Kiwanis Club, which presents the Orange County All-Star Basketball Game Saturday at Orange Coast College, held its pre-game banquet over the weekend. Among those receiving recognition for their academic achievement were Corona del Mar’s Mollie Flint (4.2), Laguna Beach’s Trigg Garner (4.14 grade-point average) and Kennedy’s Lynly Matsumoto (3.94) and Jeff Cummins (3.9).

The North and South girls’ teams each had a team GPA of 3.37. Taken together, it marked the highest total by two all-star teams in the game.

The South boys had a GPA of 3.41.

South Coach Jim Harris, of Ocean View, was asked if his team’s high GPA would make up for its size disadvantage.

“Yes,” he said. “It will also make up for the deficiencies of the coaching staff.”

The South boys have six point guards on the team, prompting Harris to predict: “They’ll lead by example and do the things that point guards do--and that’s win.”

Magnolia Coach Al Wallen heads the North boys, who hold a decisive height advantage.

El Dorado’s Gary Raya coaches the North girls, and Newport Harbor’s Shannon Jakosky directs the South girls.

The girls play at 4 p.m., and the boys at 7:30 p.m.--with a separate admission price for the second game. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for students. The games will be telecast on Copley/Colony Cable.

This is the first time that the Kiwanis Club has cleared the gym for a second crowd. Some people, like Jakosky, are concerned that separate admission might mean the girls’ game won’t be as well-attended as the boys. But Tom Lee, the event director, isn’t concerned.

“We have offered high schools the opportunity in the past to sell tickets (before the game), and the girls have always, by a 10-1 margin, outsold the boys,” Lee said. “We feel they’re going to sell a lot more than the boys.”

High schools selling tickets will receive 50% from their sales; the other 50% goes to the charities the game supports: Children’s Hospital of Orange County, the Boys and Girls Club of the Harbor Area, the Newport-Costa Mesa YMCA and the Los Angeles Times Charities, Lee said.