Burt Welcomed in Lake Elsinore by a Familiar Face

Jeannine Martineau, president of the Lake Elsinore Unified School District board of education, said she was “thrilled” when Cal State Northridge football Coach Bob Burt accepted a high school job in her district.

“I know exactly the caliber of coach and person he is,” she said.

You bet she does.

When Burt was an assistant at Hawaii in the late 1970s, he recruited Martineau’s future husband, Bill, a tight end.

Though Bill chose to attend Colorado State, the couple stayed in contact with Burt while he was coaching at Cal State Fullerton in the early 1980s.

“Then we kind of lost track of him for a while,” she said.

When Burt applied for the Temescal Canyon High coaching position at district headquarters, he saw Martineau’s picture on the wall and “almost fainted,” she said.

Before Martineau saw Burt at a board meeting Tuesday night--when he was formally approved for the job--she hadn’t spoken with him in almost 10 years.

“He didn’t get to coach my husband,” she said, “but he may get to coach my sons.”

The Martineau boys, Eric and Jeff, are enrolled in junior high. Burt starts at Temescal Canyon on July 1.

Crowd control: Officials at North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village are expecting a small army to invade their grounds on Monday and Tuesday. For good reason.

North Ranch is again playing host to the 18th Southwestern Intercollegiate Invitational, which includes golf teams from USC, UCLA and 16 other top men’s programs.

More important, defending NCAA champion Stanford also is entered and that means. . . .

Tiger Woods will be on hand.

Woods, the freshman phenom from Orange County, won the first college tournament he entered last fall for the Cardinal and is the defending U.S. Amateur champion.

“It’s the only time he’ll be playing in this area this season,” said C.W. Johnson, the tournament chairman.

“We hear he had 800 people following him (at a recent tournament). We could get 2,000 fans.”

Don’t scoff--admission is free.

Setting a screen: It probably wouldn’t qualify as a cameo, but Santa Paula boys’ basketball Coach Tom Donahue insists he was on-screen for a few seconds in “Hoop Dreams,” the acclaimed documentary playing at area theaters.

The film chronicles the high-school career of two Chicago-area high school basketball stars.

One of the players, William Gates, attended a summer basketball camp at Princeton, the same camp Donahue worked just before he moved to California.

When Donahue saw the movie recently, he saw himself walking across the court in the background.

“But nobody will believe me,” Donahue said. “I almost fell out of my seat when I saw it. I had no clue they were there, there were so many other things going on.”

Add Donahue: The team Donahue tutored at the camp would have been a coach’s high school dream team.

The team included former and current college standouts Lamond Murray (California), Monty Buckley (California), Ben Davis (Arizona) and Mark Pope (Kentucky).

Honors

Kristina Mataafa of Cal State Northridge won the women’s discus with a throw of 155 feet 1 inch in Saturday’s Collegiate Classic at Long Beach State to move to third on the all-time Matador list.

Mataafa, a junior transfer from Colorado, trails Karen Marshall (168-3 in 1977) and Northridge senior Teresa Stricklin (164-8 last year).

Quotebook

“We might be overrated and lucky,” said Hart softball Coach Al Weil after his Indians won six games last week and jumped to No. 2 in The Times’ area rankings.

“But it’s better to be lucky.”

Stats

Pitcher Lindsay Parker of the La Canada softball team has picked up where she left off. Parker (3-1), who has signed with Fresno State, has allowed only one earned run and has 42 strikeouts in 28 innings. She also has three shutouts.

Last season, Parker posted a 0.05 earned-run average while logging 278 consecutive innings without giving up an earned run.

Junior left-hander Bryan Chan of Glendale High, who pitched a no-hitter with nine strikeouts against Pasadena on Friday, has not been scored on in nine innings and has allowed only two hits.

Not bad, considering Chan has made only two career varsity starts and was sidelined because of shoulder soreness for seven weeks prior to throwing the no-hitter.

Things to Do

Saugus Speedway gears up for its 56th season of racing starting Saturday at 7 p.m.

Also, Saugus’ newest attraction, “Things that go Bump in the Night,” is scheduled to debut.

Defending City Section 4-A softball champion El Camino Real (10-1) will get one of its toughest challenges of the season Monday at 2:45 p.m. when the Conquistadores play host to Kennedy (8-1), one of the most-improved teams in the City.

Compiled by Irene Garcia. Contributing: Steve Elling, Dana Haddad, Vince Kowalick, Michael Lazarus, Bryan Rodgers.