Gritty Highland Makes Waves on Volleyball Court

The only sand the Highland High volleyball team sees is the chalky, dusty stuff that coats the high desert.

But when the Bulldogs stroll into prestigious weekend tournaments that often include longtime beach powers, they kick some figurative sand in the faces of their high-profile coastal opponents--and bring the championship trophy back to the Antelope Valley.

“It’s amazing what these kids have accomplished,” Highland Coach Mike Bird said.

Remarkable indeed, for a program in only its third year of varsity play. The school opened five years ago and fielded a junior varsity team the first two years.

But the Bulldogs have grown up quickly. They are 14-0, won the Golden League championship, and are the top-seeded team in the Southern Section Division II playoffs that begin today.

Junior Ryan Millar, a 6-foot-7 middle blocker, is the team’s best player, and was the MVP of the recent Redondo tournament. Highland stunned everyone by defeating South Torrance, Poway, Laguna Beach and Brentwood to win that event. Highland also won the Poway tournament earlier in the season.

Millar teams with 6-8 Mac Wilson to patrol the middle and is aided by setter Toby Sides and outside hitter Scott Packer.

Most good high school players play on club teams during the off-season, but not one Highland player does.

“They just play on their own and have a great desire and love for the game,” said Bird, who played for Cal State Northridge from 1984-87. “It’s really neat to see.”

MARMONTE LEAGUE

Fade Away

Brandon Del Campo’s high school career came to a disappointing close as the Thousand Oaks senior finished fifth in the 3,200 meters in 9 minutes 42.59 seconds and sixth in the 1,600 in 4:30.85 in last week’s league finals.

Del Campo, the 1993 Southern Section Division I cross-country champion, opened the outdoor season with a personal best of 9:24.59 to finish second in the 3,200 at the Spartan Relays in March and nearly matched that time with a second-place clocking of 9:25.13 in the Ventura County championships in April. But his performances otherwise were inconsistent.

“I just can’t quite put my finger on (what went wrong),” Thousand Oaks distance coach Jack Farrell said. “If I was able to explain it, I probably could have done something about it.

“For some reason, (Brandon) doesn’t feel as confident on the track as he does in cross-country. He just doesn’t run with the same reckless abandon in track like he did on several occasions in cross-country.”

A failure to take a break between cross-country and track might have played a part in Del Campo’s struggles. After running in the state Division I championships in November and the Foot Locker West regional in December, the UCLA-bound senior continued to train for the national junior (age 19 and under) cross-country championships in Memphis in February.

He also ran in the high school portion of the two-mile run in the Sunkist Invitational in February. The Spartan Relays kicked off the outdoor season two weeks later.

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Chadd Aldrich, Del Campo’s teammate, was given an extension on his senior season when Eleazar Hernandez of Camarillo withdrew from the 1,600 in order to concentrate on the 3,200 in Saturday’s Southern Section Division I preliminaries at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach.

Aldrich finished fourth in the 1,600 (4:28.19) in the league finals--the top three finishers in each event advance to the Southern Section preliminaries--but he was awarded the league’s final qualifying spot when third-place Hernandez dropped the 1,600.

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Westlake baseball Coach Rich Herrera said he has no plans to resign despite the pleas of a group of parents upset with the direction of the program.

Marti Treese, representing the Westlake Booster Club, met with Herrera and Athletic Director Jim Martin last week and asked Herrera to step down.

“The program has been plagued with some problems and, as booster club president, I felt it was up to me to talk to Rich and open the lines of communication,” Treese said. “The reason for the meeting was more to clear the air.

“It was very difficult. I know Rich personally and I like Rich. It was not a personal vendetta. It was not the parents going out to get Rich out of his job, but it was concern for the program in the future. Our players just don’t seem to be responding.”

Herrera, in his sixth season as a walk-on coach at Westlake, said he has parents behind him and he plans to remain at the school. The Warriors are 13-13, 4-9 in league play, and are tied for sixth place.

Martin said no decisions on Herrera will be made until after the season ends today.

“We look at every sport at the end of the season and evaluate it,” Martin said, “and baseball would be no different.”

WEST VALLEY LEAGUE

A Pitch for Nunez

Good players sometimes toil in anonymity when they don’t play for powerful teams.

Reseda’s Carlos Nunez is one such athlete. His coach says the 6-1, 180-pound pitcher/shortstop is the best player in the Northwest Valley Conference.

But Nunez’s name is not as recognizable as Randy Wolf (last season’s City Section 4-A player of the year) or Bryan LaCour, who play for perennial powers El Camino Real and Chatsworth.

“I think by far he’s the best player in the Northwest Valley Conference,” said Reseda Coach Mike Stone of Nunez. “I think he’s a better overall player than Randy Wolf but he’s just stuck here. When it comes to postseason accolades, he gets hampered because of our record.”

Reseda is 5-11-1, 3-10 in league play, but Nunez at the start of the week was hitting .488 with six home runs and 14 stolen bases. As a pitcher, he has a 2.20 ERA, with 51 strikeouts in 54 innings. His record is 3-5.

FOOTHILL LEAGUE

A Big Surprise

Usually, the best way for a high school to develop a successful swimming program is to load up on club swimmers, athletes who train year-round.

Burroughs Coach Jon Kunishina didn’t have the luxury of club swimmers but that hasn’t stopped his team from succeeding.

Despite having only one swimmer (Alex Amato) qualify for the Southern Section Division II championships, the first-year coach has led the Indians to the school’s first league title in boys’ swimming.

Burroughs had a 4-0 record in league meets and won the league title last week.

So how did the Indians do it?

“I think it was a lot of luck,” Kunishina said. “Sometimes I would have no idea how we would do. We upset Saugus right after spring break and I didn’t have more than a couple of kids at practice that week.”

More importantly, the team had a change of attitude.

“We don’t have a great tradition here of winning and I wanted to change that,” he said. “They started to believe they can win and they did.”

MID-VALLEY LEAGUE

Sticking Around

Birmingham swimming Coach Nick Rodionoff knew he had something special in freshman diver Arus Gyulbudakian. After a solid season in league meets, Gyulbudakian easily won the one-meter City Section title this week with a score of 456.60, beating her closest competitor by nearly 60 points.

Before the season, Rodionoff thought Gyulbudakian had the potential to be an Olympian for her native Soviet Armenia but after the success she’s enjoyed, the plans have changed slightly.

“I think she wants to stay,” Rodionoff said. “Now she plans on becoming a U.S. citizen and we’re happy she’ll be around.”

The Braves nearly took the boys’ title as well. Mike Roman (297.10) finished only 24 points behind North Hollywood’s Tom Everett.

GOLDEN LEAGUE

Freshman Phenoms

Two freshmen have helped Antelope Valley contend for the league championship.

Pitcher Jeremy Holiday threw a three-hitter to beat first-place Palmdale, 4-1, last week, improving his record to 6-1 and his ERA to 1.83. Tuesday, he earned a victory in relief in a key game against Ridgecrest Burroughs.

Freshman third baseman Kevin Barlow, at the start of the week, had 11 hits in his last 15 at-bats to raise his average to .418.

“You see a freshman on the mound and one at third base, and sometimes it can make you a little nervous,” Coach Ed t’Sas said. “And they wonder why I’ve got some gray hair. But they’ve played well, both of them.”

Passing the Bar

Esa Sallinen of Burroughs moved to fourth on the all-time regional list in the pole vault when he cleared 16 feet 4 3/4 inches to win last Wednesday’s Foothill League finals at Birmingham High. The top 10 performers are:

Mark Individual School Yr 17-4 1/4 Anthony Curran Crespi ’78 17-0 Tom Parker Notre Dame ’88 16-6 Brian Worden Notre Dame ’75 16-4 3/4 Esa Sallinen Burroughs ’94 16-4 Jesse Stern Har.-Westlake ’93 16-2 3/4 Tim Curran Crespi ’73 16-0 1/4 Brian Goodman Agoura ’75 15-8 1/2 Tim Quinn Monroe ’72 15-8 Jay Bettinger Chatsworth ’88 15-7 1/4 Fred Selzer Glendale ’71

Kennedy Cosgrove and staff writers Jeff Fletcher, Michael Lazarus and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.