9th-Grader Must Clear Hurdles to Run for Carson

Patrick McCall wants to compete for the Carson High track team in the spring. Carson likes the idea too.

But there’s a problem. McCall is a ninth-grader at Curtiss Junior High in Carson and won’t attend high school until the fall because Carson only has grades 10 through 12.

Because of the restriction, McCall’s father, Nate, has petitioned the Los Angeles Unified School District to allow his son to compete for Carson even though he isn’t a student at the school.

“He wants a chance to compete like everyone else,” said the elder McCall, pointing out that most high schools have ninth grade. “I’m doing everything I can as a parent so that can happen.”

Carson track Coach Bill Mocnik said McCall could excel on the varsity team as a ninth-grader.

“To look at him, he’s really impressive,” Mocnik said. “He can help us, that’s for sure.”

McCall, 14, has set four national age-group records since he began competing in track at age 9. His specialties are the sprints and long jump. Last summer, he helped the Los Angeles Jets track club set a Junior Olympic record of 3 minutes 23.96 seconds in the 1,600-meter relay, running the first leg in 51.8 seconds. As an eighth-grader, he long-jumped 22 feet 6 inches. The Carson record is 23-2.

Although he is not affiliated with a high school, McCall has been invited to compete in the long jump at the prestigious Sunkist Invitational Feb. 19 at the Sports Arena.

McCall cleared the first hurdle last month in his attempt to compete for Carson when the Interscholastic Athletics Committee of the City Section voted unanimously to grant him permission to pursue the matter. McCall still needs approval of the L.A. Unified school board and the other seven schools in the Southern Pacific Conference, his father said.

If McCall is granted eligibility, Mocnik hopes it will halt a recent trend of promising track athletes transferring out of Carson’s district in order to compete in ninth grade at other schools.

“We’ve lost a lot of talent here because of that,” Mocnik said.

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McCall’s talents are not restricted to track. A running back in football, he helped the Pop Warner Carson Jets win the national Junior Bantam Division title last season, scoring 21 touchdowns in 12 games. The team was 11-1.

The 5-foot-9, 170-pound McCall was coached by his father, who also is an assistant on Carson’s City Section 4-A Division champion football team.

“Patrick has a good chance to start on the varsity next season,” said Nate McCall, who has some football credentials of his own. He was a standout running back at Centennial High and New Mexico and played two seasons in the Canadian Football League.

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Peninsula’s basketball team is off to a strong start in its first season under Coach Cliff Warren, despite a rash of injury and illness.

Here’s a look at the Panther disabled list, past and present:

* Senior guard Brian Hogentogler, the team’s leading scorer, is out for the season after undergoing knee surgery to repair ligament and cartilage damage suffered in a game last month against Serra.

* Senior forward Keith Harter, expected to be the team’s first front-court player off the bench, is sidelined indefinitely with mononucleosis.

* Junior point guard Andy Jensen has been bothered by an ankle problem that forced him to miss a game last week and Monday’s practice.

* Forward Andrew Klein, a talented 6-foot-6 sophomore, is just now rounding into form after missing the first four games because of a wrist injury.

The casualties have made it a disruptive season for Warren, whose team brought an 11-3 record into Wednesday night’s nonleague game against South Torrance.

“We’re trying, but we’ve had so many injuries,” he said.

Peninsula overcame its problems to finish third last week at the Seattle Christmas Classic, a 16-team tournament that featured some of the best teams in Washington. Prior to that, the Panthers took third at the Pacific Shores tournament and won the consolation championship at the Irvine tournament.

With only one senior starter, 6-4 forward Brian Bowles, Peninsula has relied on a lineup that features Klein and another sophomore, 6-4 guard Phil Belin, and 6-5 junior forward Marcus Boyd. Klein was named all-tournament at Seattle.

“Even though we’re young, we have talent,” Warren said.

In other words, look for Peninsula to challenge favored Inglewood for the Bay League title. The teams meet Wednesday night at Peninsula in an attractive league opener.

“The future is right now,” Warren said. “We want to make sure (the underclassmen) are ready to play right now, not next year.”

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Like Peninsula’s Warren, a rejuvenated Rich Masson returned to coaching this season after taking a year off. He has guided Carson to a 9-4 start and the finals of two tournaments.

The Colts traveled to Northern California last week and took second at the 16-team Clovis tournament, losing to Tokay of Stockton, 70-64, in the final. The victory gave Tokay a 13-1 record.

“We really should have won, but the kids got tired at the end,” Masson said. “And we got a little of that home cooking. It was only the second time since I’ve been coaching that people came up after the game and apologized for the officiating.”

Junior Jamar Reid, Carson’s point guard, suffered a badly sprained ankle at Clovis, but senior Tony Harvey stepped in and played well enough to earn a spot on the all-tournament team along with senior swingman Anthony Browder, the Colts’ leading scorer.

Until last week, the 6-4 Harvey was mostly known for his exploits on the football field. He was an All-Pacific League receiver on Carson’s 4-A championship team in the fall.

“This is the first year Harvey has ever played competitive basketball, but he’s talented,” Masson said. “It’s a bit of a luxury having a 6-4 player at point guard, which has kind of been our Achilles’ heel.”

Carson’s success at Clovis came after it won the championship of the Oxnard tournament, routing the host school, 92-33, in the final. Senior forward Cortez Brockington was named most valuable player.

“We’ve done pretty well, considering we haven’t had all our people,” said Masson, whose team opens Southern Pacific Conference play Friday night at Narbonne.

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Representatives of the Banning Booster Club will meet with school administrators Friday in an effort to have Ed Paculba removed as the Pilot football coach.

Chuck Didinger, vice principal in charge of athletics, said administrators will listen to the concerns of boosters but have no plans to replace Paculba, who has a 12-10 record in two seasons at Banning.

“We’re not in the business of having the booster club hire and fire the coaching staff,” Didinger said. “We’ve met with the coach and (assistants) who are teachers here and they’re firmly convinced they want to continue coaching. Our opinion is that they are the coaches.”

Booster club officials said they have collected more than 400 signatures on a petition calling for Paculba’s removal. Among other things, the boosters are concerned that several players whose parents are unhappy with the program will transfer to other schools if Paculba returns as coach.

“We’re going to listen to what they have to say,” Didinger said. “But at this point we have a coach and that’s Coach Paculba. We don’t plan on releasing him.”

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Surprising Mary Star, never known as a basketball power, has won two consecutive tournaments and will bring a seven-game winning streak into its Santa Fe League opener Friday night against Verbum Dei at Compton College.

Second-year Coach George Pisano said the Stars have a good chance of repeating as Santa Fe runners-up behind Verbum Dei, ranked 16th in Southern California by The Times, and should be a contender in the Southern Section Division V-AA playoffs.

“We’re a threat in our division,” Pisano said. “We have some talent, but we can’t match up with larger schools.”

Mary Star (10-3) won the eight-team San Bernardino Aquinas and Bishop Union tournaments after going 2-2 in the El Segundo tournament. The Stars have lost twice to Pacific Hills--formerly Bel-Air Prep, the defending Division V-A champion--and to St. Bernard.

The team’s 10-player roster includes eight seniors, led by 6-foot guard Tony DiLeva, who is averaging 16.6 points and was named most valuable player at the Aquinas and Bishop Union tournaments. Other standouts for Mary Star include 6-5 senior center Paul Basich and 6-3 senior guard Simon Zanki, a transfer from Bishop Montgomery.

Notes

Derek Nicholson, a senior infielder at West Torrance and the South Bay player of the year as a junior, has been selected a preseason All-American by Collegiate Baseball. Nicholson, who batted .520 with an area-leading 37 runs batted in last season, was one of 26 players from across the nation chosen to the team. Beverly Hills senior catcher Jeremy Booth was also selected. . . . Mira Costa’s basketball team won the championship of the El Dorado tournament in Las Vegas last week and Mustang guard Shane Willis was named most valuable player.

South Bay Boys’ Basketball Top 10

Selected by Times Sportswriters (Through Tuesday)

Rank, School, League: Record 1 Inglewood (Bay): 12-2 2 Redondo (Ocean): 12-2 3 Peninsula (Bay): 11-3 4 Carson (Pacific): 9-4 5 Mira Costa (Ocean): 10-5 6 Serra (Camino Real): 6-8 7 Morningside (Ocean): 6-7 8 Leuzinger (Bay): 7-4 9 Bishop Montgomery (Mission): 5-5 10 Mary Star (Santa Fe): 10-3