About 500 Test Their Skills for College Scouts

Many of the top junior football players in the Southland gathered at El Camino College in Torrance last Saturday to demonstrate their skills for college coaches from across the country.

More than 70 coaches, representing such schools as Penn State, Miami and Michigan, watched about 500 players participate in the first preseason football combine, sponsored by Reebok, Cal Hi Sports and Scholastic Coach magazine.

Players completed a 12-stop circuit, which included the bench press, 40-yard dash, vertical leap and standing long jump, among other tests.

Most of the participants were selected from an initial list of 5,000 top juniors in the area. A few showed up without invitations.

Similar combines will be held in other cities over the next three months. About 350 players will participate in the Northern California combine Saturday in Napa.

Mark Tennis, editor of Cal Hi Sports, said some of the participants had to wait several hours to begin the circuit because of the large turnout.

“Once the players started the circuit, it went pretty quickly,” Tennis said. “Maybe next year we will stagger-start everyone.”

Tennis said the combine is different from those held for the NFL because players were being tested before their senior seasons instead of afterward, “so the pressure is not quite as great.”

He said quarterback Steve Campbell of Norco and running back Franklin Saunders of West Hills Chaminade were two of the top performers.

Data on each player will be sent to every Division I college.

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Kristine Quance, one of the best swimmers in City Section history, will finish her high school career at the City finals Wednesday night at Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

Quance, a senior at Granada Hills, will compete in the 200-meter individual medley and 100 breaststroke. Her 200 IM preliminary time of 2:01.08 last Wednesday broke the section record of 2:02.2 that she set in 1991.

The finals will be a family affair for Quance. Sisters Keri and Julie will also compete, Keri in the 100 breaststroke and 500 freestyle, and Julie in the 500 freestyle and 200 freestyle. Keri is a junior and Julie a sophomore.

Kristine recently signed to go to USC.

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On his 24th attempt of the day, Jeff Nadeau of Sepulveda Monroe cleared 7 feet 2 1/4 inches in the high jump, setting a City Section record at the Valley-Pac Eight Conference finals last Thursday at Birmingham High in Van Nuys.

Nadeau, a senior, broke the City record of 7-1 set by Rob Olson of Woodland Hills El Camino Real in 1977 and tied by Greg Denby of Crenshaw in 1980. Nadeau also won the long jump and triple jump.

The football and basketball player had a previous personal best of 6-8. The record was doubly impressive because of the number of jumps he took. After clearing 6-0, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4, 6-6 and 6-8 on his first attempts, it took him three tries each at 6-9, 6-10, 6-11, 7-0, 7-1 1/4 and 7-2 1/4. He missed three times at 7-3 1/4 before heading to the triple jump.

“I guess I got kind of lucky,” said Nadeau, who will play football at Arizona in the fall. “I felt good today, but I would have been happy just to clear 6-9 or 6-10.”

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Because of budget cuts in the CIF this year, there are no immediate plans to replace Scott Cathcart, media director for the Southern Section the last 10 years, who announced his resignation last week to become an assistant athletic director at Cal State Long Beach.

“We’ll probably just scale back what we do and fill in with our current office staff,” said Stan Thomas, Southern Section commissioner. “We had to reduce our budget by over $200,000 for next year, so saving a salary will be a big help.”

Cathcart compiles rankings in a variety of sports and sends out weekly press releases. He also puts together schedule and record books.

All 10 of the CIF sections are experiencing budget cuts since Reebok and Pepsi-Cola decided to scale back their corporate investment this year.

Prep Notes

Charles Gates of Gardena, the defending City 100-meter champion, suffered a pulled hamstring while running the 100 at the Southern Pacific Conference finals last week and failed to finish the race. The injury kept him from running the 200 and 1,600-meter relay. . . . The Southern Section track finals for Divisions I, II, III and IV will be held Saturday at Cerritos College. Competition will begin at 11 a.m. The top nine qualifiers overall in each event will qualify for the Masters Meet, May 28 at Cerritos College.

Two-time defending Division 5-A baseball champion Long Beach Millikan clinched the Moore League title last Thursday with a 4-1 victory over Lakewood. The Rams handed Lakewood junior pitcher Luke Fitzpatrick his first loss of the season after seven victories. . . . The City concludes the regular season in baseball today. The playoff seedings will be determined Wednesday night, and the first round will begin May 25. . . . Steven Park of San Marino and Betty Ann Boeving of Monte Vista Danville have been selected male and female scholar-athletes of the year by the CIF. They were selected from 535 candidates.

Times’ Top 20 Baseball Poll

The Times’ top 20 high school baseball poll, with teams from the City and Southern Sections.

School Sect. Div. Rec. LW 1. Bishop Amat SS III 25-0 2 2. Simi Valley SS I 23-3 1 3. Crespi SS I 24-2 3 4. El Camino Real City 4-A 19-2 4 5. Esperanza SS I 20-5 6 6. Fountain Valley SS I 22-4 8 7. Irvine SS III 20-7 9 8. Millikan SS I 18-6 11 9. GH Kennedy City 4-A 22-3 10 10. Diamond Bar SS I 20-4 5 11. Mater Dei SS I 20-5 12 12. Gahr SS II 23-5 7 13. South Hills SS II 23-2 16 14. SO Notre Dame SS I 19-5 13 15. San Marino SS IV 20-2 14 16. Hoover SS I 19-3 NR 17. Lakewood SS I 16-9 17 18. Peninsula SS I 18-6 18 19. Bell City 3-A 19-3 NR 20. Sante Fe SS III 22-1 NR