With Its Coach Sidelined, St. Genevieve Faces More Uncertainty

St. Genevieve High, which has lacked direction in recent football seasons and fired its previous head coach in February, has been holding practice for the last three days without new Coach Bill Conner.

According to Brian MacGregor, the assistant coach who has been running practice, Conner is out for personal reasons.

“He’s had an illness and some personal problems,” MacGregor said.

MacGregor said that Conner coached the team through the summer passing leagues and ran the first day of practice on Monday. Since then, however, he hasn’t been there.

MacGregor, along with other assistant coaches, has run practice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The school hired Conner to replace former coach Jeff Trovatten, who was fired in February amid allegations of hazing among his players.

Trovatten served only one year as head coach before he was fired.

St. Genevieve athletic director John Yakel declined to give details on the current coaching situation, saying only, “Everyone is happy with Coach Conner.”

Whether or not Conner will be back coaching by the Valiants’ first game against La Canada on Sept. 8 remains to be seen.

“That’s still up in the air,” MacGregor said.

Efforts to reach Conner were unsuccessful.

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Former Poly High star Shawn Campbell was killed in a car accident on Aug. 19 near Bishop, Calif.

Campbell, 24, was on a fishing trip when his car strayed from the road and rolled, according to his brother, Jonathan Campbell.

Shawn played tailback and safety for Poly in 1986 and 1987. He was voted the team’s most valuable player in 1987.

Jonathan, who wore the same uniform number (4) as his brother, continued the tradition and earned three consecutive Poly MVP awards from 1988-90. He was City Section’s 3-A Division player of the year in 1990.

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Nick Estrada, who joined the Cal State Northridge team Wednesday and figured to challenge for a job in the Matador secondary, will not be eligible because he played last season at Cal Lutheran, Coach Dave Baldwin said.

Estrada, 25, played in 1991 and 1992 at Moorpark College and in 1993 at Texas El Paso.

Estrada told CSUN coaches earlier that he did not play football in 1994.

Northridge coaches learned Thursday that Estrada played in three games for the Kingsmen last season.

Track and Field

Esa Sallinen of Finland, who placed fourth in the pole vault for Burroughs High in the 1994 State championships, is attending Kansas State on an athletic scholarship.

Sallinen cleared a best of 16 feet 4 3/4 inches while attending Burroughs as a foreign exchange student in 1994 and equaled that mark this year.

Although the pole vault is his best individual event, Sallinen has expressed interest in the decathlon.

“He definitely has the potential to be a good decathlete,” Burroughs assistant Mike McHorney said. “He’s got good speed.

“He’s a good long jumper. He can throw the javelin and he’s also a good high jumper. . . . The [110-meter high hurdles] might give him some problems because he’s not real tall, but I’m sure he could get used to them.”

Charles Lee, City Section champion in the 200 meters last season for Cleveland High, has enrolled at City College of San Francisco.

Lee, runner-up in the 100 in the City championships, has bests of 10.4 in the 100 and 21.44 in the 200. He placed seventh in the State championships in the 200.

He joins a San Francisco team that finished fifth in this year’s Northern California championships.

Baseball

Woodland Hills Sunrise is holding registration for its fall program today through Sunday. The season will begin Sept. 9.

Information: 818-883-3038.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are seeking recommendations from area high school coaches for a fall scout team that will play on Sundays from mid-September through November.

Coaches are encouraged to recommend prospects from their team.

Information: 818-883-5585 or 805-297-6319.

Mid Valley Pony baseball is holding registration and tryouts for its fall season Sunday from 9 a.m. to noon.

Information: 818-708-8988.

Golf

Trip Kuehne of McKinney, Tex., defeated Chad Wright of Ventura, 4 and 3, in the first round of match play at the 95th U.S. Amateur Championship, which is being played on the 6,688-yard, par-70 Newport Country Club in Newport, R.I.

Wright, a graduate of Buena High, plays for USC.

Miscellany

Richard Uphoff, Moorpark High’s athletic director for the last seven years, has resigned for personal reasons.

“Basically I’m still entertaining the idea of getting back into coaching and I’d like to spend more time with my family,” Uphoff said.

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Contributing: Fernando Dominguez, Jeff Fletcher, John Ortega, Bryan Rodgers, Tris Wykes, Peter Yoon.