NOTEBOOK : Lopez Wins Steve Robinson Scholarship

Anthony Lopez, a senior football and track athlete at Garfield High, has received the first Steve Robinson scholarship award, created by the James A. Garfield Century Club in memory of the 51-year-old Garfield football coach and teacher who died in January.

Garfield football players Diego Avila, Cesar Franco, Jaime Leija, Jimmy Martinez and Armando Rodriguez were among the 16 senior athletes from East Los Angeles schools who were awarded Century Club scholarships of $500 to $1,500. Luis Guerrero (swimming), Bernadette Aruizu (volleyball, softball) and Maritiza Tamayo (soccer) of Garfield were also recipients.

Other winners were David Gomez (baseball) and Lisa Jacobs (volleyball, basketball) of Roosevelt; Deanna Ballesteros (softball) and Eric Jaimes (football, track) of Franklin; Brian Suhyvn Lee (volleyball) of Wilson, and Marcelo Ortega (football, basketball, track) of Lincoln and Schurr’s Stephanie Sim (tennis).

Robinson founded the Garfield Century Club in 1985 to award eight to 12 athletic scholarships annually to students from East Los Angeles schools. The foundation has awarded more than $50,000 in scholarships.

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Golf benefit--Former Los Angeles Ram quarterback Pat Haden and other college and professional athletes will gather Friday for the ninth annual Ricky Bell Memorial Scholarship Fund Golf Classic at the Brookside Golf Course in Pasadena.

Haden will be the host for the tournament, which will raise money for four-year scholarships of $500 to $2,500 for South-Central youths.

The scholarship fund was established in 1984 by Bell’s family and friends after his death at age 29 in 1984 of dermatomyositis, a rare muscle and heart disease.

Bell, a Fremont High School graduate, was an All-American running back for two years at USC, the nation’s leading collegiate rusher in 1975 and a star running back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Several of Bell’s USC teammates will participate in the fund-raiser, including Mel Jackson, who later became a line man for the Green Bay Packers.

Jackson, executive director of the fund, said Bell was deeply committed to education.

“The thing Ricky was most proud of wasn’t the football awards, but the degree he received from USC,” he said.

This year, the fund awarded 15 scholarships, with most of the money raised from last year’s tournament, said Marcia Sidney-Reed, a member of the scholarship fund’s board.

The scholarships are awarded on academic merit. Recipients must maintain a 2.7 grade-point average in college and carry a full course load each term.

Osvaldo Jimenez, a senior at Verbum Dei High School who was awarded a $2,000 scholarship this year, said he felt “a sense of accomplishment” when he was named a winner.

“I had known about Ricky Bell and O.J. Simpson and I was always fascinated by football as a kid,” Jimenez said.

“This means a lot to me. Here’s someone I always wanted to be like and here he is helping me continue my education.”

The 18-hole golf tournament will start at 11 a.m. with a shotgun format, with every player given a starting hole. Donations are raised through corporate sponsors as well as a $200 participation fee. The tournament will be followed by an auction.

Information: (818) 986-3134.

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Boys of summer--Steve Soliz of Cal State L.A. was drafted in the 13th round of the major league baseball draft by the Cleveland Indians.

The senior catcher was an NCAA Division II third team All-American selection and was also named to the Western Region first team.

Soliz, the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. Player of the Year, batted .349 and drove in 27 runs for the Golden Eagles this season.

Ariel Martin of Cal State Dominguez Hills has signed a contract to play for the Chicago Cubs. Martin, a graduate of Crenshaw High, will report to the Cubs’ Class A team in Geneva, N.Y.

Martin, a first baseman, was a first team All-CCAA selection at designated hitter this season, batting .368 and driving in 39 runs.

The 6-4, 285-pound switch hitter also had 14 doubles and four home runs and a school-record 22-game hitting streak this season.

Last year, he became the school’s only player to hit home runs from both sides of the plate in the same game.

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Hall of flame--Michael Marquez, 32, of the Los Angeles Fire Department won the 400 and 800 meters in 52.82 and 2:03.45 in the age 30-39 division in the track competition at the Pan American Firefighter Games in Las Vegas last month.

Marquez, a 1979 graduate of Lincoln High who lives in Lincoln Heights, also ran on the LAFD’s winning 400- and 1,600-meter relay teams.

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Shooting stars--Former Cal State L.A. women’s basketball players Bonita Williams, Zina Jones and Ruth Smith will be featured today at noon on NBC Sports Sunday.

The trio advanced to the regional final of the nation-wide Hoop It Up three-on-three tournament in Huntington Beach last fall before falling to a team headed by Olympian Nancy Lieberman-Cline.