Tornado(e)s Do Uniforms to the Letter

Someone call Dan Quayle.

The Hoover High Tornadoes/Tornados have an identity problem: They can’t seem to agree on how to spell their nickname. The dictionary lists either spelling, with the “e” preferred, as correct.

The Hoover football helmets: no e. Sign in the basketball office: with an e. Softball, baseball uniforms: no e. Listing in the Southern Section directory: with an e. Sign in the school’s cafeteria: no e.

“I guess we do it both ways,” baseball Coach Bob Cooper said. “It’s probably cheaper to run a silk screen with one less letter.”

VALLEY PAC-8 CONFERENCE

BASEBALL

With playoffs less than two weeks away, injuries and bad timing have jolted the Monroe pitching staff. Last week, Jorge Dorado joined ace Joel Zamudio, who hasn’t pitched since suffering a pulled muscle in his torso April 20, on the injured list.

Dorado (6-0), who sports a 1.97 earned-run average, had muscle spasms in the front part of his right shoulder and did not pitch last week. But Dorado, who has continued to play shortstop, has experienced this pain before, according to Monroe Coach Kevin Campbell.

“It’s almost like a Mario Lemieux back kind of thing,” Campbell said. “It will come and go.”

Zamudio (5-0, 1.17 ERA), who has 60 strikeouts in 48 innings, has continued as the Vikings’ first baseman.

With as many as six non-seniors--including three sophomores--routinely starting for Poly, Coach Chuck Schwal frequently used the “R” word when addressing his young players.

“I had a habit of calling the 10th- and 11th-graders rookies,” Schwal said.

But those rookies, as Schwal used to call them, are veterans now despite their youth.

“They’ve played a lot of games now. . . . They’re not rookies anymore,” he said.

Schwal doesn’t want the young Parrots to play like rookies, so he has vowed not to use the word anymore. One utterance of “rookie” by Schwal means 25 push-ups for the first-year coach, a rookie himself.

NORTHWEST VALLEY CONFERENCE

BASEBALL

Four players who attended grades 1-6 together at the same private West Valley grammar school have earned NCAA Division I scholarships.

They are El Camino Real shortstop Dan Cey (Cal), Crespi pitcher Keith Evans (Cal), and Taft pitchers Brandon Witkow (UNLV) and Justin Siegel (North Carolina State). . . .

One might assume that double-duty Coach Darryl Stroh of Granada Hills would be a tad relieved that the City Section plans to eliminate a loophole that allows off-season athletic competition.

Nope.

Stroh, a co-coach in football, doesn’t get home until about midnight on Friday nights after games. Off-season baseball games are played Saturday mornings in the fall, and Stroh also coaches that team. In short, Stroh coaches both teams in a span of less than 24 hours.

Stroh will definitely miss the baseball, though. In fact, he prefers the fall games to the real spring thing.

“I like those games,” he said. “They’re much less stressful. Everything is more relaxed and they seem to be a lot more fun.”

FOOTHILL LEAGUE

BASEBALL

League championships in baseball are pretty rare at Burroughs.

In fact, the Indians’ next baseball title figures to be their first.

“Well, someone said we won one 37 years ago, but I can’t find any record of it,” Coach Terry Scott said. “If we did win one, no one made a point to write it down.”

Burroughs (13-9, 7-3 in league play) entered the week atop the league standings with a one-game lead over Hart. With games remaining against Hart and Burbank, Scott likes his team’s position.

“We’ve got a great shot to get this thing,” Scott said. “One thing’s for sure: We’re in a better position than the other guys.” . . .

Saugus sophomore center fielder Todd Brethour has been a key in the Centurions’ surge from the basement to playoff contention. A speedy leadoff hitter, Brethour has sparked the offense since being brought up from the junior varsity five games ago.

Brethour reached base three times, had two singles, scored two runs and played strong defense in Saugus’ 6-2 win last Friday at league-leading Burroughs. Each game, Coach Doug Worley becomes more impressed.

“He’s been super,” Worley said. “He’s getting on base and making things happen. He’s been a big plus, and we sure needed one.” . . .

TRACK & FIELD

The expected 800-meter showdown between Paul De La Cerda of Hart and Mike Wenz of Canyon turned into a coming-out party for Isaac Turner of Burbank in the league finals at College of the Canyons on Friday.

Wenz (personal best of 1 minute 53.82 seconds) and De La Cerda (1:54.6), the first- and second-fastest runners in the region, were expected to duke it out for the league title, but when neither was willing to push the pace in the first 400 (59 seconds), they played right into the hands of Turner, who has a personal best of 49.0 in the 400.

Turner, who has run 1:55.5, took control of the race with 150 meters remaining before turning on the afterburners in the homestretch to finish in 1:56.6, well ahead of Wenz (1:57.5) and De Le Cerda (1:57.9).

GOLDEN LEAGUE

BASEBALL

They knew the kid could play baseball--shoot, Littlerock’s Toine Jager was a member of the Dutch junior national team--but his versatility knows no bounds.

Jager won the league title in the 800 meters and has qualified for the Southern Section preliminaries this week. He also will run a leg for the school’s mile relay team. Jager won the 800 meters with a time of 2 minutes 3 seconds despite the fact that he does not train with the track team.

His typical Thursday, when meets are held, goes something like this: “He takes an hour or so of batting practice and infield, goes over and runs with the track guys, then comes back and takes more batting if he needs to,” baseball Coach Maury Cauchon said.

VOLLEYBALL

Hart finished the regular season undefeated (16-0, 14-0) and was not seriously threatened in defending its Golden League championship, thanks in large part to three seniors who plan to play in NCAA Division I next year.

Chad Strickland, a 6-foot-1 outside hitter, has signed with Cal State Northridge and Brian Carichner, a 6-4 outside hitter, will walk on at UC Santa Barbara. And San Diego State has shown interest in 6-5 middle blocker Keith Matkin.

But Coach Kent Swick is frustrated that Matkin hasn’t received a more solid offer from a college coach yet.

“He’s the best middle blocker in our league,” Swick said. “It’s tough for him, because he sees Chad and Brian with offers. I know if I’m in his shoes I’m sort of saying to myself, ‘Maybe I’m not as good as good as coach says.’ But he is.”

Matkin who leads the team in blocks, has a.509 hitting percentage.

MISSION LEAGUE

BASEBALL

Alemany third baseman Andy Dominique, one of the area’s better hitters but is built more like a speed bump than a speed burner, is nine for nine in stolen-base attempts this season. . . .

Chaminade sophomore catcher Brandon Gray was called up from the junior varsity several weeks ago, but shortly thereafter he went down because of a pulled groin. He returned from the groin injury last week. In the same game, he was hit by a foul tip and re-injured the groin. He will miss the final week of the season. “He looks like walking death out there,” Coach Dave Desmond said.

Crespi catcher Casey Snow is hitting .531 with runners in scoring position. . . . The Celts are hitting .356 and have an 1.50 ERA. . . . Jeff Suppan has a .927 slugging percentage. . . . The Celts have won 12 games in a row.

Harvard-Westlake’s Jon Schaeffer leads the team in batting (.510), triples (six), home runs (four, tied) and RBIs (20).

VOLLEYBALL

For just a moment in April, Alemany Coach Jamie Quaglino feared that his turnaround season would be derailed by the chicken pox.

After learning that outside hitter David Winner contracted the illness, Quaglino--grimly envisioning his starting lineup covered in dots--asked his players whether any of them had previously contracted chicken pox, thus being less susceptible to catching it.

“My heart skipped a beat there,” he said. “I just dreaded who was going to raise their hands.”

Luckily for Quaglino, all his players had previously had the illness. The Indians (10-4 in league play) continued their successful season, finished in third place in league, and earned the program’s first playoff berth in their six seasons. Alemany will play Brentwood on Friday.

Notre Dame’s surprise five-game victory against Loyola in the Knights’ season finale last Thursday was a silver lining in a cloudy season, but even that small ray of sunshine was a bit gray.

“Finally at the end we proved that we were a good team,” said Coach Jim Hall, who weathered a 5-10, 4-10 showing one year after winning the Mission League championship. “But now the players feel like they missed out because they feel like they should have been playing that way since the beginning of the year.”

Hall can take comfort that he loses only one starter to graduation, but it’s a big loss: 6-8 Tom Stillwell, who signed with UCLA.

ALPHA LEAGUE

BASEBALL

When L.A. Baptist clinched the league title by beating Marshall Fundamental, 9-6, Friday, it was more than the school’s first Alpha League baseball championship. It was the end of a season of frustration.

The Knights had finished as runners-up to archrival Village Christian in both football and basketball this season. But L.A. Baptist (17-5, 9-2), ranked fourth in the Southern Section in Division V, beat the second-place Crusaders three times.

The L.A. Baptist football team, which baseball Coach Mark Bates also coaches, lost to Village Christian in the league championship game on a 99-yard kickoff return with less than a minute to play. The basketball team lost to the Crusaders by one point once and by two points in overtime in the other meeting.

Kennedy Cosgrove and staff writers Steve Elling, Jeff Fletcher, Paige A. Leech, John Ortega and Jason H. Reid contributed to this notebook.

Regional Baseball

Top 10 Selected by sportswriters of The Times

Lst. Rk Wk Team League Record 1 1 Simi Valley Marmonte 22-2 2 2 Crespi Mission 22-2 3 3 El Camino Real West Valley 18-2 4 4 Kennedy No. Valley 21-3 5 5 Monroe Mid-Valley 16-4 6 6 Notre Dame Mission 18-4 7 7 Chatsworth West Valley 17-7 8 8 Newbury Park Marmonte 15-8 9 9 Hoover Pacific 17-5 10 NR Palmdale Golden 17-6-1

NR--Not ranked.