Gillis Joins Irvine Valley Basketball Staff; Sawyer a Sportswalk Inductee

Tandy Gillis and Alan Sawyer, former men’s basketball coaches at Orange Coast, are making news this week.

Gillis, who was forced to step down as head coach at Orange Coast two years ago, will work as a walk-on assistant at Irvine Valley this season. Gillis joins the staff of Coach Bill Mulligan.

Gillis coached basketball at Orange Coast from 1976-92. His 1978-79 OCC team went 27-5 and won the State title.

Gillis played on California’s 1959 national championship team and also was a member of the 1960 runner-up team.

He coached eight seasons at Corona del Mar High before going to OCC.

Sawyer, who coached Orange Coast from 1957-66, is being inducted into the San Pedro Sportswalk, which is similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Sawyer was an all-city player at San Pedro High in 1945. He then went on to play on John Wooden’s first team at UCLA. He was an honorable mention All-American for the Bruins in 1948-49 and 1949-50.

Fernando Valenzuela, Cheryl Miller and San Pedro baseball legend Joe Lovitto will be inducted with Sawyer in the Oct. 24 ceremony.

Sawyer, 66, lives in Newport Beach with his wife, Diane. He is still a math teacher at OCC.

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On a rampage: Rancho Santiago’s Matt Padgett has started the wrestling season right where he left off last year. Padgett, from Canyon High, won the State title last year in the 167-pound division and was 32-3 overall.

Padgett is 14-0 this season and pinned all four opponents to win the Cerritos tournament Saturday. He had also pinned all four opponents in winning the Fresno tournament the previous week. He was selected the tournament’s most outstanding wrestler at Fresno.

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Hired: Lance Stewart has been selected men’s volleyball coach at Irvine Valley. Stewart takes over for Tom Pestolesi, who led the Lasers to the State title in 1993.

Stewart also is the girls’ coach at Corona del Mar High. He coached at Rancho Santiago for two seasons (1991-92) before the program was dropped.

Stewart, a graduate of California, was a standout in volleyball and football at Laguna Beach High. He also played football at Saddleback College.

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Women’s volleyball: Golden West, which has won three of the last four State titles, has yet to lose a game in five matches this season.

The Rustlers have one of Coach Al Gasparian’s deepest teams, and it’s a good thing because standout outside hitter Becca Foltz has played in only one match.

Foltz, from Foothill High, injured stomach muscles in a scrimmage three weeks ago. Gasparian said she could have played last week if necessary but he decided to let her rest.

Golden West will see the top teams from Northern California this weekend when the Rustlers take part in the College of the Sequoias tournament in Visalia.

Saddleback is also off to a 5-0 start. The Gauchos beat Fullerton in three games in an Orange Empire Conference opener Friday. Saddleback plays at Riverside Wednesday, then at Cypress Friday.

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Bill Cunerty, golf coach at Saddleback, was selected the 1993-94 Orange Empire Conference coach of the year for all sports.

The selection was made by the conference athletic directors.

Cunerty’s golf team dominated last season, going 21-1 in conference matches. His team won the Southern California title by 15 strokes and the State title by 25.

His teams have won four State titles and 12 conference titles in 13 seasons.

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Football poll: Rancho Santiago, after impressive victories over Palomar and Long Beach in the last two weeks, became the first Orange County team to make an appearance in the weekly Southland Poll.

The Dons (2-1) are sixth.

Bakersfield (4-0) is No. 1, El Camino (3-0) is second, Cerritos (3-0) third, Mt. San Antonio (2-0-1) fourth, Los Angeles Valley (4-0) fifth, Long Beach (3-1) seventh, Palomar (2-1) eighth, Ventura (3-0) ninth and Mt. San Jacinto (3-0-1) 10th.

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Women’s soccer: The Golden West team is in danger of disbanding because of a lack of healthy players. The Rustlers have lost six players this season and are down to eight.

The team forfeited its game against Cypress last Friday and will do the same for today’s game against Orange Coast.

The situation is being evaluated on a day-to-day basis by the school.