White’s Career Interrupted by History Lesson

Someone can’t drop much further from sight than did Adam White, the Southern Section 1990 2-A Division volleyball player of the year, after leading Royal High to the division championship that season.

White had an offer to play at Brigham Young, but passed it up to go on a two-year mission for the Mormon church. He wound up in Estonia, where he stayed for 15 months, and witnessed the tumultuous events that led to that country’s declaration of its independence in August, 1991.

“It was a lot of physical change and spiritual change,” he said. “I saw a great change in the people as they received freedom and were open to Western ideas. It was a great time in my life to be a part of that.”

White returned to the United States in February and has been an assistant for the Royal volleyball team, helping coach his brothers--Jared, a senior, and Josh, a junior--on the team.

But the eldest of the family’s volleyball trio said his career is not over. He has been accepted to BYU and plans to walk onto the team in the fall. He said that if he earns a starting berth, he will be offered a scholarship.

He should feel right at home. Former Highlander Kevin Hambly, a 6-foot-7 sophomore, is on the Cougar team, and current Highlander seniors Joe and Josh Penrod have accepted scholarships to BYU, where they plan to redshirt their freshman season before going on two-year missions.

MARMONTE LEAGUE

BASEBALL

Sure, it’s an old baseball cliche: Todd Singleton of Westlake could sue his teammates for non-support.

But think of the fortune he’d make in back payments.

Singleton, a sophomore right-hander, is 1-8 as Westlake (7-16) plays out a dismal season. However, Singleton’s performance--his record aside--has been promising, if not frustrating. He has a 4.31 earned-run average and 40 strikeouts and 28 walks in 52 innings.

He was winless until beating Agoura, 7-6, Thursday in a complete-game effort.

Until the victory, it seemed that whenever Singleton took the mound, his teammates took the day off. The Warriors scored a total of 10 runs in the games Singleton started before Thursday.

“The team just isn’t coming together right now,” Singleton said. “Just my luck, I guess. But I’m not really frustrated. I’m only a sophomore.”

If lineage counts for anything, Singleton could be the Warriors’ pitcher of the future. His brother Scott, a 1992 Westlake graduate, is with the Padres’ rookie-league affiliate in Phoenix. Scott Singleton was 3-2 for Westlake last season.

“Everyone kind of jokes around with me and rags me,” Singleton said. “I tell them I need a win.”

SOFTBALL

Thousand Oaks slugger Nicole Ochoa has quite a reputation as a batting champion among league opponents. But she rarely gets the chance to live up to it because pitchers frequently pitch around her.

Ochoa, who signed a letter of intent to play at seventh-ranked Cal State Long Beach, has eight intentional walks in 14 league games, according to Coach Chuck Brown. “. . . . Plus two or three others that were unintentional intentional walks,” Brown cracked.

Camarillo’s Laura Richardson saw her scoreless-inning streak end last weekend, but not before she set a school record. Richardson had thrown 75 consecutive scoreless innings when Crossroads scored in the third inning of a Thousand Oaks tournament game.

“What upset her most is that it ended in a game that we were winning so easily,” Coach Darwin Tolzin said.

Camarillo was leading, 8-0, when Richardson gave up consecutive doubles--which Tolzin said were misplayed--for an earned run. It was the only run Richardson allowed in a 9-1 win.

TRACK & FIELD

The Agoura boys’ team got off to a sluggish start in the league finals last week before taking control of the meet in the 400-meter dash. The Chargers trailed Thousand Oaks, 43-40, after four events, but when Scott Mitchell (49.71 seconds), Mike Krause (50.20) and Jon Cano (52.87) finished first, second and fourth in the 400 for a 22-point total, Agoura was on its way to a second consecutive league title. . . .

Ryan Wilson of Agoura lowered his school record in the boys’ 800 for the second week in a row when he timed 1:54.6 to win the event in the league finals, but Royal’s Bill Neff should get some of the credit. Neff, who finished second in 1:58.25, led the field through the opening 400 of 55 seconds before Wilson reeled him in down the backstretch. . . .

Bruce Rivera and Natalie Shaw, ninth-graders at Valley View Junior High in Simi Valley, have been granted at-large berths in today’s Southern Section Division IV preliminaries at Trabuco Hills High. Rivera has a personal best of 42 feet 7 1/2 inches in the boys’ triple jump and Shaw has cleared 5-2 in the girls’ high jump.

“I think they’ve got a good chance at getting to the (Division IV) finals,” Valley View Coach Jamie Kogut said. “The big thing is getting them into the prelims. I think they’ll take care of the rest.”

CHANNEL LEAGUE

BASEBALL

The Channel League’s last playoff team will be decided today, the final day of the regular season. San Marcos (10-3) and Dos Pueblos (9-4) are guaranteed berths. Hueneme (8-5) and Buena (7-6) are not.

In the event of a third-place tie between Hueneme and Buena, a playoff game will be played Saturday at 11 a.m. at Ventura, according to Hueneme Coach Reg Welker.

Hueneme will play Ventura today and Buena will play Rio Mesa.

Kennedy Cosgrove and staff writers Vince Kowalick and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.