Westlake to Hold Housewarming Party for Home, Sweet Home

Lights, whistle, action! After years of bureaucratic delays and conscientious fund-raising by boosters, the Westlake High football stadium is complete and ready for play. The Warriors will play host to Buena on Friday night at 7:30 in a nonleague opener.

But first . . . the festivities.

Included is an invitation-only dinner, picnic-style, on the field Thursday evening for about 250 folks. The lights will go on, the built-in CD player will crank some inspirational music and those responsible for the stadium will be recognized.

Moments before Friday’s game, parachutists are scheduled to land on the field.

“We are pulling out all the stops,” Coach Jim Benkert said. “We’ve looked forward to this for so many years. It is really exciting to everyone in this community that our football games will finally be played at Westlake.”

Since the school began playing football in 1978, Westlake played most of its home games at Thousand Oaks.

Although there is seating on only one side, capacity for the new stadium is about 5,000.

“We hope it fills,” Benkert said.

Which way to Guam?: The Cal State Northridge women’s volleyball team has had a season’s worth of misadventure in its first two trips of 1995.

After the team’s opening matches Aug. 25 and 26 at the Nebraska tournament, the Matadors aimed their rental vans for the Omaha airport, only to overshoot it and land in the heart of rural Iowa.

“Our coaches saw signs that said “airfield” but they didn’t think anything of it,” junior defensive specialist Erin Balderama said. “We saw two states on that trip.”

Last Thursday, the team flew into Oakland for a tournament at the University of San Francisco. In a valiant but futile two-hour attempt to reach their hotel in San Francisco, the Matadors instead arrived in . . . Petaluma.

After finally finding its lodgings, Northridge went 1-3 in the tournament and tried to unwind Saturday night with dinner downtown. Not so fast. Three Matador players, a trainer and an assistant coach were among 16 people trapped in a parking-structure elevator that stopped half a story above the ground floor.

“They pried the doors open a little bit, but we weren’t sure [the Northridge people] were in there because all we could see were feet and they weren’t wearing tennis shoes,” Balderama said. “At that point it became the weekend from hell and all we could do was laugh.”

After a half-hour wait, the elevators’ prisoners were freed. Up next for the team? Trips this month to Arizona, Idaho and Hawaii.

Junior circuit: The only three quarterbacks with extensive experience in the Marmonte League are juniors, and there are several seniors who will start with little or no experience.

Newbury Park’s Chris Czernek, Camarillo’s Joe Borchard and Thousand Oaks’ Scott McEwan all won jobs last season as sophomores and bring both experience and bright futures to their huddles this fall.

Seniors making their first starts under center include Westlake’s Steve Aylsworth, Channel Islands’ Leslie Patu and Royal’s Paul Janoucek. Simi Valley has two juniors and one senior vying for the job, one of whom is experienced.

Agoura could find itself next season in the same enviable position Newbury Park, Camarillo and Thousand Oaks are in now. Sophomore left-hander Ryan McCann is expected to start this fall as the Chargers unveil a run-and-shoot attack.

Trojan Power: The USC football team might not win the national championship, as Sports Illustrated predicted two weeks ago, but fullback Terry Barnum from Alemany High gives Coach John Robinson credit for rebuilding the program.

“He’s begun to win over some people who were a little down on the program,” Barnum said. “A lot of people are now very supportive of us and want to see us do well.”

A few seasons ago, Barnum said, the Trojans were so short-handed, he and teammates would cringe while watching from the sidelines.

“You look around and we’re two deep everywhere,” he said. “You say, ‘He can do the job,’ where you used to say, ‘Oh, my God. He’s in there.’ The talent level is on the rise.”

Stats

To say the football coaches in the American West Conference are inexperienced is an understatement. The four have a combined 15 seasons as coaches at four-year schools, and Southern Utah Coach Jack Bishop accounts for 14.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s Andre Patterson is in his second year and Cal State Sacramento’s John Volek and Northridge’s Dave Baldwin are rookies.

Minor leaguer Bobby Kazmirski, a former standout pitcher at UCLA and Agoura High now in the Oakland organization, set an Arizona Rookie League record with 10 saves, including one in the championship game.

Things to Do

Kevin Koeper of St. Francis High, Todd Disney and Josh Carolan of Thousand Oaks, and John Duarte of Hart are some of the top local entries in Saturday’s Seaside invitational cross-country meet at San Buenaventura State Beach in Ventura. Top entries in the girls’ meet are Kim Mortensen of Thousand Oaks, Danielle Day of Quartz Hill and Andrea Neipp of Highland.

The meet starts at 8 a.m.

Compiled by Irene Garcia. Contributing: Jeff Fletcher, Dana Haddad, Steve Henson, John Ortega and Tris Wykes.