Familiar Nicknames Find a Seam in ‘Twilight Zone’ for Burt

What’s in a nickname? For Bob Burt this week, more than you might think.

Burt, the former Cal State Northridge football coach, has guided Temescal Canyon High to the Southern Section Division VIII championship game in his first season at the Lake Elsinore school. The Titans will play the La Mirada Matadores at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the final at the Lake Elsinore Diamond.

What’s ironic is that in Burt’s two previous jobs, he was coach of the Northridge Matadors from 1986-94 and defensive coordinator of the Cal State Fullerton Titans from 1980-85.

“It’s kind of like Rod Serling scripted it,” Burt said. “Those two nicknames represent the last 15 years of coaching for me. Come Friday at 7:30 it isn’t going to mean a hell of a lot, but it’s interesting.”

Burt considers Temescal Canyon (12-1), a five-year-old school, the underdog against La Mirada (11-1-1), which has reached the final three of the past four years.

“They have the experience advantage and the size advantage,” Burt said. “If we have anything on our side, it’s the home field.”

Another advantage for Temescal Canyon is an opportunistic defense. The Titans have a remarkable plus-29 turnover ratio.

Burt said the community has rallied behind his team, the first school from the area to reach a football final since Elsinore did it in 1978.

“It’s a pretty big deal,” he said. “Everyone is pretty excited.”

Advance booking: To the victor go the TV show appearances.

Reseda High, which defeated Monroe, 24-0, in the City Section 3-A Division semifinals Friday night, appeared on “Monday Night Live,” a show that airs immediately after Monday Night Football on Channel 7.

Every week, a high school football team sits in the studio audience and is recognized by host Todd Donaho.

Reseda agreed to appear on the show before its victory over Monroe, which likely left Donaho with a rooting interest.

“I’m sure he was pulling for us,” Reseda Coach Joel Schaeffer said.

A test for Abraham: Michael Abraham, who hasn’t had to deal with much failure in his career as an assistant with successful women’s basketball teams at Long Beach State and Oregon State, is gaining all kinds of new experiences as coach at Cal State Northridge.

Such as losing by 58 points, which the Matadors did Saturday night.

Or turning the ball over 32 times, which the Matadors also did Saturday night.

Or shooting less than 30% from the field, which the Matadors did twice last week.

Abraham said his father, who traveled to Northern Arizona to watch the team last weekend, had to keep checking on him in their hotel room.

“He had to see if I was going to jump off a bridge,” Abraham said.

He’s not a monitor: Longtime Kennedy High boys’ soccer Coach Fred Singer, whose 1994-95 team forfeited six victories for using an ineligible player and was knocked out of contention for the City playoffs, will take no extra measures this season to keep his team in line.

“I am not going to chase players on the weekend to see if they’re playing illegally,” Singer said. “I don’t have the time or the effort. [Illegal participation] is just too widespread.”

Singer was notified by another Northwest Valley Conference coach last season that freshman forward Sergio Torres was playing in an outside weekend league. But Singer is not concerned his team will be burned again.

“[Sergio]’s learned his lesson and I think every athletic program at Kennedy learned its lesson,” Singer said.

Power of the pen: Ed Hayek is a math teacher at North Hollywood High, but he recently proved good enough with words to land financial support for the Huskies’ first-year girls’ soccer program he coaches.

In September, Hayek submitted a 250-word essay to a national corporation describing how his team could use a $1,500 grant for uniforms and equipment. However, the soccer season began without word and Hayek was able to outfit his 35-member team with only one set of 20 uniforms.

When the company finally notified Hayek that his team had been awarded funds, he was able to increase North Hollywood’s wardrobe to include sets of 30 home and away uniforms and to buy practice supplies.

Hayek, who played on La Canada’s first boys’ soccer team in 1978, conceded he solicited help on campus to craft his essay.

“I deal with numbers, so I worked on the main ideas and let other people put them into coherent sentences,” he said.

The next-best thing: It wasn’t the State championships, but Saugus High junior Breanne Schweitzer turned in a notable 27th-place finish in the Foot Locker West regional cross-country championships in Fresno on Saturday.

Schweitzer had failed to qualify for the State championships, which also were held at Woodward Park, on Nov. 25, but her time of 18 minutes 42 seconds Saturday would have placed her eighth in the Division I race of the State meet.

“We really didn’t go up there with any specific goals,” Saugus Coach John Beattie said. “We just told her to run relaxed and have some fun. . . . It was a nice way to end a very good season.”

By the Numbers

When Kim Mortensen of Thousand Oaks High finished second in the Foot Locker West regional cross-country championships in Fresno on Saturday, she became the fourth Lancer to qualify for the national championships since the meet began in 1979. The others were Jim Harvath and Christy Farrell in 1984 and Mike Williamson in 1988.

The Birmingham High boys’ basketball team held Reseda scoreless in the first quarter of its opener last Wednesday en route to a 68-34 victory at Birmingham High. At Reseda High, the Regents’ girls’ basketball team held Birmingham scoreless in the first quarter, eventually winning, 54-30.

Quotebook

“I didn’t have an idea what to expect because I’m a freshman. I’m in shock.”

-- Arizona’s Amy Skieresz, a two-time State cross-country champion for Agoura High, after finishing second in the NCAA championships in Ames, Iowa.

Honors

Kennedy High seniors Antwane Smith and Damion Thompson have been named the offensive and defensive players of the year in the Northwest Valley Conference.

Smith led the Golden Cougars with 1,711 rushing yards and scored 24 touchdowns. Thompson, a middle linebacker, led Kennedy in tackles and helped the Golden Cougars to an undefeated regular season and the semifinals of the City Section 4-A Division playoffs.

Contributing: Mike Bresnahan, Rob Fernas, Jeff Fletcher, Michael Lazarus, John Ortega, Tris Wykes.