Coach Gets His Wish in Final Season

With his ninth league title in hand, South Torrance tennis Coach Dave Corman can finally retire happily after 25 seasons.

Corman, 57, who has been a physical education teacher at South for 34 years, had planned to retire last season, but reconsidered.

“I had a great group of kids coming back and I had to see them through,” Corman said. “I wanted to go out on top with them.”

South (18-2), which went 10-0 in Pioneer League play, is seeded fourth in the Southern Section Division II playoffs which begin Tuesday.

The Spartans will play host to La Quinta (14-4) in a first-round match. La Quinta, the Garden Grove runner-up, defeated Sonora, 10-8, in a qualifying match on Friday.

“It was pretty well known that this was going to be (Corman’s) last year,” junior Brian Yano said. “Our team was motivated to win the league title for him and now we’ll try to go as far as we can.”

South, which returned seven players from last season’s 12-8 team, has been bolstered by transfers Tim Zickuhr and Billy Liyao.

Zickuhr (47-6), a junior who is the Spartans’ No. 1 singles player, played at Peninsula his freshman year before moving to Baltimore.

He injured his right (racquet) arm in an automobile accident on May 3 and will not play on Tuesday. He is expected to be play if South advances to Thursday’s quarterfinals.

Liyao (43-7), a senior, was the top-ranked 16-and-under player in the Philippines before moving to the California.

South’s No. 1 doubles team of senior Shun Fujimura and junior Shingo Nakamura was 21-3 during league play.

“This team was a good team even before the transfers came,” said Corman, who has a 448-141 record. “Now, it’s turned into one of my best teams ever.”

South advanced to the Southern Section 4-A Division final in 1984 and ’85 and his 1974 team was 27-1.

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Corman has coached the Spartan girls’ tennis team 10 consecutive postseason appearances and is 130-74 in that span.

Corman also coached the girls’ volleyball team for 14 seasons and the boys’ basketball team for 11 seasons.

Jim Owens, the only South player to play professional basketball, was a member of Corman’s 1966-67 team. He also holds the South school record of 49 points in a game.

“I still look forward to going to practice every afternoon,” Corman said. “It’s the greatest part of my day. I’m ecstatic about what the boys’ team has done, but now it’s time to get out.”

Bob Scott, 55, and Linda Mohlman, 24, will replace Corman as the boys’ and girls’ tennis coaches at South. Scott has been an assistant with the boys’ team for the past six seasons and Mohlman served under Corman for two seasons on the girls’ team.

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Better luck next year: The Mira Costa baseball team has had its share of maladies off the field, but the Mustangs had managed to keep things together on the field--until last week.

Mira Costa needed only one victory in its final three Ocean League games to clinch its first league title since 1982. The Mustangs, however, lost all three, including 5-4 and 9-0 losses to Beverly Hills on Wednesday and Friday.

Beverly Hills scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to win Wednesday’s game. Mira Costa (17-9) and Beverly Hills (18-6-1) entered Friday’s game tied for the league lead.

The Normans took advantage of six Mira Costa errors Friday to complete a three-game sweep of the Mustangs to win its second league title in three seasons.

Mira Costa stranded five baserunners, including five in scoring position.

“We had a chance to win this thing three times and we blew it all three times,” Mira Costa Coach Jim Beaumont said. “We talked about it and closed the book on Wednesday’s game. We were pumped to be in the championship game on the last day of the regular season, but it was just a total collapse.”

Mira Costa’s difficulties, though, began several weeks earlier.

In April, freshman Darren Brunkhardt, a player on the Mira Costa junior varsity team, died from injuries suffered in an auto accident. The Mustangs have worn black bands with Brunkhardt’s initials on their right sleeve in his memory.

“He was well liked by everyone,” right fielder Mitch Gosztyla said. “What happened has always been on the back of our minds.”

Gosztyla, Mira Costa’s No. 3 hitter, was unable to play in league games against Redondo on May 5 and 7 because of chicken pox. Gosztyla had two doubles and scored twice on Wednesday. He went three for eight against Beverly Hills last week to improve his average to .387.

“I took a lot of cuts on Tuesday and I was real fortunate that I was able to bounce back,” Gosztyla said.

Pitcher Brian Zinda (11-2), the South Bay’s strikeout leader, has been weakened the past two weeks because of a bout with mononucleosis.

Zinda walked seven and gave up five runs in 6 1/3 innings in Wednesday’s game. Beverly Hills scored three unearned runs in 2 2/3 innings against Zinda on Friday.

“I can’t blame it on mono, it didn’t affect me as much as it should have,” Zinda said. “Every one of those games we wanted to go out and win. It wasn’t like we had tomorrow to win. We said let’s go out and win today and it never happened.”

The top three teams qualify for Southern Section postseason play. Mira Costa and Redondo (17-9, 8-4) tied for second in the Ocean League standings, but the Mustangs will be the league’s No. 2 entrant in to the playoffs. Mira Costa defeated the Sea Hawks in two of three games.

Pairings will be announced on Monday. Mira Costa will play a first-round Division II game on Friday. Redondo might have to play a qualifying game on Tuesday before playing a first-round game on the road.

“We had our handful of misfortunes,” Gosztyla said. “I’m just glad to start a second season.”

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Power surge: Redondo has won 14 of 17 games after a 3-6 start.

Part of the Sea Hawks’ resurgence can be attributed to Steve Rawson and pitcher Mike Sutton, who recently joined the team after academic ineligibility. Redondo is 5-1 since their addition.

Rawson, a junior third baseman, played briefly at the varsity level as a freshman but missed his sophomore season because of academic troubles. Rawson has driven in 10 runs and hit three home runs in six games. He had a home run and drove in five runs in a 17-2 victory over Culver City on April 30 in his first game back.

Sutton, a senior right-hander, is 2-0 and has a save. Sutton compliments a pitching rotation that includes left-hander Chris Peacock and right-hander Scott Albin. Both are 5-2.

“We have a chance to make some noise,” Redondo Coach Tim Ammentorp said. “A team that gets hot at the end can go a long way. If I were a first-place team I wouldn’t want to face Redondo in the first round of the playoffs.”

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Keeping track: The Gardena boys’ track team’s chances for its first City title in 18 seasons took a turn for the worse at the Southern Pacific Conference finals Thursday at Long Beach City College.

Charles Gates, the defending City 100 champion who transferred from Locke to Gardena last month, pulled his left hamstring and failed to finish the 100.

Gates, who had anchored Gardena’s 400-meter relay team to victory in 42.39 seconds, was also scheduled to compete in the 200 and the 1,600-meter relay but was unable to run.

With Kevin Lyons substituting for Gates, Sheldon Murren, Lequion Ulrich and Ronald Stewart placed fourth in 3:29.81

The first five finishers qualified for Thursday’s City semifinals at Birmingham High.

“When he transferred, it was like a shot in the arm,” Gardena Coach Al Hearvey said. “If he isn’t healthy and can’t run in City, it could make a huge impact.”

Notes

Edward Turner of Morningside set a Southern Section Division III record, clocking 21.38 seconds in the Division II preliminaries at Trabuco Hills High Friday. The senior also had the top qualifying marks in the 100 (10.73) and long jump (23 feet) for Saturday’s Southern Section Divisional finals at Cerritos College. Nicole Thomas of Morningside had the fastest times in the 100 hurdles with a wind-aided 14.83 and 300 hurdles (44.69) and teammate Tai-Ne Gibson was the leading qualifier in the 200 (24.92). Thomas and Gibson also ran on the Monarchs’ 400-meter relay team, which had the fastest time of 47.34. Other top qualifiers included Anetra Washington of Torrance in the 100 (12.09) and Marcus Ferrara of South Torrance in the 800 (1:56.33). Morris Giddens of Gardena won the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meters at the Southern Pacific Conference finals, setting meet records in the 800 (1:56.92) and 1,600 (4:26.01).

The Peninsula and Mary Star baseball teams defended their league championships. Peninsula (18-6,11-1), which advanced to the Southern Section 5-A Division quarterfinals last season, won its final nine Bay League games to win its fourth consecutive league title.

The Mira Costa, Hawthorne and North Torrance boys’ volleyball teams advanced to the Southern Section quarterfinals on Tuesday with first-round victories Friday night. In Division I, second-seeded Mira Costa (19-0) defeated Buena, 15-9, 15-4, 15-3, and Redondo was a 15-4, 15-11, 15-8 winner over Hawthorne. North defeated Millikan, 15-6, 15-17, 15-1, 15-4, and Torrance beat Warren, 15-8, 15-9, 9-15, 4-15, 15-11 in Division II.

The Peninsula boys’ tennis team is seeded second behind five-time defending champion Santa Barbara (18-1) in the Division I playoffs. Peninsula (20-0) will play host to Ocean View in first-round match Tuesday.