BACK AT IT: Fall sports are in...

BACK AT IT: Fall sports are in full swing at county high schools, with football teams entering their third full weekend of play starting Thursday. . . . One player who is hard to miss is junior Kris Farris, a 6-foot-7, 285-pound offensive tackle for Santa Margarita. Farris is a big talent in other ways; he had the lead in the summer musical “Anything Goes.” . . . “He even sang for the team in one of the summer practices,” says offensive coach Tim O’Hara. “It was classic.”

TAKE IT TO HEART: Gary Meek, coach of Esperanza High in Anaheim, gave some subtle health advice to excitable Mater Dei counterpart Bruce Rollinson recently. . . . Meek was talking to his football team after a summer league game when he overheard Rollinson addressing his players; everyone heard him. . . . “Bruce was reading them the riot act,” Meek recalls. “When he was finished, he looked over at me. I unbuttoned my shirt and pointed” to the scar. Meek had double-bypass surgery last spring. . . . “I asked Bruce if he wanted the name of my cardiologist,” says Meek.

FAST LEARNER: Last September, Bill Pinciroli arrived at El Toro High from Brazil to learn English and play water polo. And Pinciroli, a member of the Brazilian junior national team, has been just as comfortable in the classroom as in the pool. “Last year on one of our first grade checks, we had 11 out of 52 players who had Fs in English,” says El Toro Coach Don Stoll. “Bill had an A. He’s a great kid.” . . . Pinciroli, who wasn’t eligible last season after transferring, makes his debut at home Tuesday.

HIGH PRAISE: Valencia High in Placentia is getting help from South America as well. Mike McCall, girls’ tennis coach, seems fairly impressed with junior Stella Gonzalez, a transfer from Paraguay. In assessing the new season, McCall wrote recently that Gonzalez is “the best tennis player ever to attend Valencia (besides Michael Chang).” . . . Chang, now a resident of Coto de Caza, won a Grand Slam title (the French Open in 1989) at age 17 and is one of the world’s top-ranked men’s tennis players.