Notebook : Juliano to Attend Princeton

Orange Lutheran quarterback Joe Juliano, who led the Lancers to an 11-3 overall mark, their first Olympic League championship and the Southern Section Division X title game, will attend Princeton this fall.

Last week’s visit to the Ivy League campus persuaded Juliano, who carries a 3.7 grade-point average, to accept an offer to play football over those from Columbia, the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy. He said he will get a chance to play quarterback.

“It’s the No. 1 school in the nation as far as academics,” said Juliano, who plans to major in economics. “I liked the school and the athletic program. And I wanted to go to school back East.”

Juliano had also visited Penn State, but after the Nittany Lions signed their top two quarterback recruits, he was informed he was no longer under consideration.

But Juliano has no regrets, especially after Princeton--which does not offer athletic scholarships--put together a financial package that will cover 90% of the cost to attend school there.

“It will actually be cheaper than going to school in California,” Juliano said.

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The recently ended major league baseball strike even had an effect on the high school level.

Upper Deck Trading Cards, citing financial restructuring due in part to the strike, will not return as the title sponsor for the Upper Desk Classic next season. The 16-team baseball tournament, held at various sites in Orange County, has been one of the nation’s most prestigious since its inception six years ago.

Tournament director Iran Novick said the event, which started Monday and concludes Thursday night at Cal State Fullerton, will return next season with new sponsors. Local powers Fountain Valley and Mater Dei are included in this year’s field along with nationally ranked Germantown, Tenn., and Scottsdale (Ariz.) Horizon, among others.

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The Woodbridge Classic softball tournament continues Saturday at Irvine’s Harvard Park. Pitcher Amy Young and her Irvine teammates upset second-ranked Pacifica in pool play and now face La Mirada in the championship bracket. But Young, a senior, said she’s noticed a trend in the tournament, which is run by rival Woodbridge: “This year we had to play Pacifica; last year, we had to play Kennedy. It’s like, well, Woodbridge set us up again.”

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The Orange boys’ volleyball team is off to a 12-0 start, the best in school history, and the Panthers are ranked among the county top 10 for the first time. But Coach Chip Monaco is keeping it in perspective.

“It’s nice to be ranked,” Monaco said, “but what we’ve already done doesn’t mean squat. We have a long way to go in league and hopefully we have the playoffs to look forward to.”

Orange (12-0, 4-0 in league) gets its big test next week. The Panthers play at El Modena (8-1, 3-1) April 18 and at Foothill (5-3, 3-1) April 20. Orange defeated Foothill in five games in the first meeting.

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Nine years ago, the Tribute to Youth golf tournament was started to show that teen-agers could do other things besides party in Palm Springs during spring break.

Now with hard-core spring-breakers elsewhere, the four-man best-ball tournament remains and eight Orange County teams will try to become the third consecutive county team to win the title.

Esperanza won last year and Trabuco Hills won in 1993.

Brea Olinda, Capistrano Valley, Esperanza, Estancia, El Toro, Newport Harbor, Trabuco Hills and University are scheduled to compete Wednesday and Thursday at the Desert Princess course.

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Freshman Alicia Velazquez was brought up to the Marina varsity softball team for the third-place game of the Fountain Valley tournament because third baseman Monica Mora was injured. In Velazquez’s first at-bat, she hit a deep fly ball to left field.

“I knew then that she would help us,” Marina Coach Shelly Luth said. “She’s going to be very important to us. She’s up for the remainder of the season.”

Three days later, Velazquez tripled in the 14th inning and scored the winning run in fourth-ranked Marina’s 3-2 victory over eighth-ranked Los Alamitos.

At the end of the 13th inning, Marina players met in a huddle and broke it by cheering, “No 22,” a reference to the 1993 quarterfinal game that Los Alamitos won, 1-0, in 22 innings en route to its Southern Section Division I championship appearance.

Staff writers Martin Beck, Martin Henderson, Eric Shepard and Michael Itagaki contributed to this story.