COMMUNITY COLLEGE NOTEBOOK / STEVE KRESAL : Rough Soccer Play Addressed

On the surface, Orange Empire Conference men’s soccer seemed very cheery last season. Irvine Valley won its first State title, the third such triumph for a conference team. Orange Coast won State titles in 1989 and 1991.

But there was a unpleasant side as well.

Coaches, athletic directors and game officials were shaken by the rapid increase in violent play and verbal attacks.

“It was a terrible year,” said Barry Wallace, conference representative to men’s soccer and OCC athletic director. “We had assistant coaches spitting and getting all over officials and players (doing it) too.”

There were several violent plays and near fights last season and a Golden West-Rancho Santiago game was called in the second half because of a bench-clearing altercation.

The unsportsmanlike attitudes displayed on the field last season have resulted in rule changes for this season involving yellow and red cards.

Under the rules adopted in August: players must sit out one game after accumulating three yellow cards.

After the suspension, players have a clean slate.

Last year, there was no penalty for accumulating yellow cards unless a player got two in the same game, which resulted in an ejection.

“It’s something (Orange Coast) has wanted for a long, long time,” Pirate Coach Laird Hayes said. “We’re on the honor system (in nonconference games) to report these. But if this thing is going to work, we have to teach our players to play within the rules.”

Players receiving a red card are suspended for the remainder of the game the infraction happened in and the next contest as well.

But under another new rule, if the foul is of a violent nature, the player is ejected for the remainder of that game and two more.

*

Cross-country: Irvine Valley co-coaches Bill and Julie Leach appear to have another strong women’s cross-country team. The Laser program started in 1991 and shared the State title with Mt. San Antonio that season.

The Lasers were most impressive last fall, winning every invitational, then capping the year with a State title.

Mayra Medina returns to lead Irvine Valley. As a freshman, she overcame a leg injury the final week and finished 11th at the State meet.

She appears in strong early-season shape this fall. She was fifth overall at the Orange Empire Conference preview run Saturday at Fairview Regional Park in Costa Mesa.

Darlene Prewitt (sixth), Aree Khodai (eighth) and Jami Bickley (ninth) gave Irvine Valley four runners in the top nine. The Lasers won the team title with 39 points. Orange Coast (74) was second and Rancho Santiago (95) third.

Riverside’s Charlotte Mayock of Union Springs, N.Y., won the 5,000-meter race in 19 minutes 43 seconds. Golden West’s Kim Foster, who won the race last season, was second and Erin Remy of OCC was third.

Irvine Valley will be among the teams competing in the Golden West Invitational Saturday at Central Park in Huntington Beach. The races are at 9 and 9:45 a.m.

*

Southland Poll: For the second consecutive week, no Orange County team appears in the football poll.

In fact, no county team has a victory at this point. The five teams--Fullerton, Golden West, Orange Coast, Rancho Santiago and Saddleback--are 0-5-2 thus far.

Bakersfield (2-0) is the top-ranked team in the poll. Palomar (1-0) is second, Long Beach (2-0) third, Riverside (1-0) fourth, El Camino (1-0) fifth, Cerritos (1-0) sixth, Mt. San Antonio (0-0-1) seventh, Los Angeles Valley (1-0) eighth, Chaffey (1-0) ninth and Pasadena (1-0-1) 10th.

Things don’t get much easier for Orange County teams Saturday. El Camino plays Fullerton (0-0-1) at Cal State Fullerton, Cerritos is at Saddleback (0-1). Both are 7 p.m. games.

Rancho Santiago (0-1) plays Palomar at 1:30 p.m. at San Marcos High School. Palomar, the defending J.C. Grid-Wire national champion, has won 22 consecutive games.

Golden West (0-1-1) plays at San Diego Mesa (0-1) at 6 p.m.

Notes

Rancho Santiago plays host to the largest women’s volleyball tournament in the State on Saturday. Twenty-five teams take part in pool play starting at 9 a.m. The title match is at 7:15 p.m. Admission is free . . . Matt Hattabaugh will be an assistant for the Golden West baseball team in the spring. Hattabaugh is a former standout catcher at Marina High School, Cerritos College and Cal State Fullerton. He was an assistant at Fullerton College last season.