Pierce Tennis Coach Hails Chiropractor as Backbone of Team

The Pierce College tennis team won Western State Conference awards for top coach, Aris Hovsepian, and top singles player, Jenia Karimov, but Hovsepian said a chiropractor is the team’s most valuable asset.

In fact, Hovsepian describes volunteer chiropractor Paul Anding as more of an assistant coach.

“He aligns their bodies and helps them mentally,” Hovsepian said. “The kids are more intimate with him than me. He travels with us, donating his time. He’s not a tennis player, but he believes in my program.”

Familiar voice: Fans at the NCAA Division III West baseball regional at La Verne last week might have been expecting the public-address announcer to say: “Now batting . . . Toby Bailey!!!”

The familiar voice coming over the P.A. at the Cal Lutheran-La Verne series was none other than that of Chris Roberts, the voice of UCLA football and basketball on XTRA radio.

Roberts lives in nearby Glendora and his son will be a freshman at La Verne next fall, so he did the first two games of the series as a favor to La Verne Athletic Director Jim Pascal, who coached Roberts in seventh and eighth grades.

Good sign: Cal State Northridge’s signing of distance runner Ellen Muench of Lake Elsinore Temescal Canyon Hig is looking better all the time.

Muench, who placed ninth in the 1994 State Division III cross-country championships, ran 5 minutes 4.55 seconds in the 1,600 meters and a personal best of 10:58.36 in the 3,200 meters to win the Division II titles in the Southern Section divisional track championships at Cerritos College on Saturday.

Foul air: Granada Hills High’s standout golfer, Darren Angel, figured if he attempted to earn a berth in the U.S. Open during a qualifying event in Palm Springs, the competition might be easier. Conditions, however, were not.

Winds during the qualifier at Desert Dunes Country Club last week gusted at 50 m.p.h. Scores soared. One of the players who advanced shot 82. How bad was it?

“On one hole, I was on the green and putting downwind . . . and my next shot was out of a bunker,” Angel said.

He shot 85 and failed to advance.

Frustrating first: The first inning of Quartz Hill High’s Southern Section Division III playoff game Friday against Hart was a difficult one for Rebel catcher J.D. Smith.

Smith, normally a reliable backstop, allowed a passed ball and a wild pitch by starter Darrell Hussman to get by him, allowing baserunners to advance.

But that was nothing compared to the pain Smith felt trying to catch an 85-m.p.h. fastball that tipped off his mitt and struck him in the throat.

Smith doubled over, allowing a Hart baserunner to advance to third, but after reviving with a splash of water he was ready to continue.

“That hasn’t happened the whole season,” Smith said. “Maybe it was the nerves getting to me.”

Apply within: You knew it wouldn’t take long for coaching to find Mike Scyphers.

Scyphers, whose coaching career at Simi Valley High ended last Friday with a playoff loss, said he already has been contacted about two college coaching jobs, one at L.A. City College and the other at a local junior college he would not disclose. He said Tuesday he wasn’t interested in either.

Quotebook

“We don’t have much of an off-season. Three days is about enough.”

--Antelope Valley High baseball Coach Ed t’Sas, whose team began off-season conditioning Tuesday, four days after losing a first-round Southern Section Division III playoff game to La Quinta.

Stats

The all-time Ventura County list in the girls’ 300-meter low hurdles underwent several alterations during Saturday’s Southern Section divisional track championships.

Andrea Wasden of Rio Mesa High moved to third on the list with a second-place time of 43.89 seconds in the Division II race and third-place Stacy Hebert (43.97) of Buena moved into sixth.

Bridie Hatch of Nordhoff moved into a tie for eighth with her runner-up time of 44.17 in the Division III race.

Northridge outfielder Adam Kennedy, a freshman All-American nominee, finished the season with an 18-game hitting streak and hits in 37 of his last 39 games.

Additionally, Kennedy had a 15-game hitting streak in midseason.

Things to Do

The Super Late Models and Street Stocks return to Saugus Speedway at 7 p.m. Saturday. A Destruction Derby will follow the main events.

Compiled by Irene Garcia. Contributing: Steve Elling, Jeff Fletcher, Dana Haddad, Michael Lazarus, John Ortega, Bryan Rodgers.