Harris Leaves Loyola Marymount for Rancho Santiago

Point guard Jimmy Harris, a four-year starter at Ocean View High, has left Loyola Marymount after one season and enrolled at Rancho Santiago College.

Jim Harris, Harris’ father and basketball coach at Ocean View, said his son needed a change of scenery.

“He was unhappy with himself and he needed a fresh start,” his father said. “We took three, four weeks and sat and talked about it. I’d rather have him happy than secure with a scholarship. If he’s half the player we think he is, he’ll come back and re-enter another (four-year school).”

Harris, who averaged 18 points as a Ocean View senior and was named second-team Times All-County, started half of LMU’s games and averaged three points and four assists.

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Cal State Fullerton announced that Melanie Roche, a pitcher on the Australian women’s softball team, will be the school’s assistant softball coach. Roche will assume the pitching duties held previously by Kathy Van Wyk. Roche was an All-American at Oklahoma State in 1993.

The Titans also announced they have signed four players to letters of intent: pitcher Susana Guerrero from College of the Sequoias, outfielder Senetha Thomas from Canyon High and Central Arizona College, shortstop/outfielder Julie Williams from Dublin, Calif., and shortstop Chris Zboril from Pasadena College.

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Edison junior Kerry O’Bric won the national heptathlon title at the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Junior Olympics in Melbourne, Fla. O’Bric ran the fastest 100-meter hurdles time (15.52) and never relinquished her lead. O’Bric’s score of 4,431 was a personal best.

O’Bric will compete in the 100-meter hurdles, triple jump and javelin events Thursday at the Junior Olympics.

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Team Power Cell, a Huntington Beach-based men’s slow-pitch softball team, won the Triple Crown Softball Class-C national championship late Sunday at Steamboat Springs, Colo.

The team went 9-1 and hit .625 in the 60-team, double-elimination tournament, beating San Clemente-based First and Third in the final two games.