Big West Conference Seeks New Venue for Tournament

The Big West Conference is considering pulling its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments out of Las Vegas.

The conference has sought bids from member schools to host the tournaments next season. Long Beach State, Nevada and Utah State have expressed interest. UNLV has been invited to submit a revised bid, but school officials say they have no plans to do so.

Next season is the final year of a three-year contract to play at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center. However, UNLV and San Jose State will leave the Big West for the Western Athletic Conference in 1996. UNLV last month landed the rights to the WAC postseason basketball tournament.

In the two years the Big West tournament has been in Las Vegas, it has drawn poorly. UNLV had subsidized it by forcing scholarship donors to buy some $240,000 in tournament tickets, but dropped the requirement for the upcoming year.

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Mike Warrington, associate men’s basketball coach at Porterville (Calif.) Community College, has been named head coach at Fountain Valley High.

Warrington replaces Gordon Billingsley, The Times Orange County boys’ coach of the year in 1993-94, who retired in April.

Fountain Valley won the Sunset League championship and reached the Southern Section quarterfinals the last two seasons.

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Austin Sharp has been named girls’ soccer coach at Mater Dei, Principal Patrick Murphy said.

Sharp, a teacher in the Garden Grove Unified school district, had been an assistant boys’ soccer coach for the Monarchs since 1990.

He replaces Michelle Myers, who accepted the women’s soccer job at Rancho Santiago College in May.

Mater Dei reached the second round of the Southern Section Division I playoffs last season and the semifinals in 1993-94.

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Pat Antrim, who set three single-season records for the Saddleback College this spring, has signed with the New York Yankees.

Antrim, a sophomore shortstop from El Toro High, has yet to be assigned to a minor league team. He hit .377 for Saddleback and set season records for hits (74), stolen bases (37) and runs scored (53).

Antrim, a 27th-round pick, had signed to attend Long Beach State.

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Nine members of Rancho Santiago’s State championship baseball team have signed with four-year colleges, Coach Don Sneddon said.

Kirk Irvine, a sophomore right-hander who was the Orange Empire Conference pitcher of the year, is going to Cal State Fullerton. So is pitcher Luis Estrella.

Keith Cowley, a third baseman and relief pitcher, is headed for Long Beach State and outfielder Toby Sanchez is going to Arizona State.

Sophomore pitchers Brian Martineau and Randy Wilson, first-baseman Kyle Evans and catcher David Schueller are going to Lewis-Clark (Ida.) State. Evans was the conference’s player of the year.

Sophomore catcher Jamie Estrada is going to Sacramento State.

Mario Opipari of Cypress College has signed to play at Kansas and teammate David Trentine has signed with San Diego State, Cypress Coach Scott Pickler said.

Opipari played center field and was a relief pitcher for the Chargers. He was a two-year All-Orange Empire Conference selection. Trentine, a sophomore catcher, also was a two-time all-conference selection.

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Mike Sayward, Canyon High girls’ cross-country and track and field coach, has resigned. Sayward, the girls’ cross-country coach for 20 years and track coach since 1978, will continue to coach the girls’ soccer team.

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Heather Robinson, a second-team Times All-Orange County selection in 1994 at Costa Mesa High, has left the University of Miami to play for former Costa Mesa Coach Lisa McNamee at Irvine Valley College.

Robinson, a guard who helped the Mustangs to their first appearance in the State Division III playoffs, was on full scholarship at Miami.

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Kendall Blackburn, defensive line coach at Mater Dei the last four seasons, has accepted the same position at Cal State Northridge, where he also will be in charge of special teams. His appointment is pending administration approval.

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Fresno State outfielder Robyn Yorke, who had a school-record 35-game hitting streak this season and received first-team All-America honors, was named to the GTE Academic All-America softball team. Yorke, from Marina High, also set a school single-season record with 114 hits.