Frank Cantu will return to Alemany High...

Frank Cantu will return to Alemany High as the school’s baseball coach, succeeding Jim Ozella, who announced earlier this year that he will resign at the end of the season.

Cantu, 40, coached at Alemany for five years in the 1980s but left the school to become the principal at St. Didacus Elementary School in Sylmar.

After two years as the junior varsity coach, he led the varsity for three seasons. In 1981 he coached the team into the playoffs.

Cantu will remain as principal at St. Didacus.

Basketball

Ventura College’s Brandon Jessie, the state junior college basketball player of the year, has signed a letter of intent to play at Utah, Pirate Coach Philip Mathews said Monday.

Jessie, a 6-foot-5 1/2 forward, took trips to Utah, Georgetown, Arizona State and Nevada Las Vegas. Mathews said Jessie might have been swayed because Utah Coach Rick Majerus came to Ventura to visit him.

Mathews said Duke and UCLA were among the schools that recruited Jessie, but they dropped out.

Jessie, who averaged 22 points and 11 rebounds per game last year for the Pirates, is a two-time All-Western State Conference selection.