JUST PREPS: A page dedicated to high school athletes, their families and coaches--and to those who follow high school sports. : Area News : SAN GABRIEL VALLEY

Walnut High wrestling Coach Wally Curtis died last week of a heart attack at the age of 56. Curtis, who had dropped his teaching duties this school year because of health problems, suffered the heart attack during a dialysis treatment. Curtis, a celebrated coach at Baldwin Park and Walnut high schools, was an All-American wrestler at Oklahoma in the 1960s. . . . Jason Ferguson, a former Workman High basketball standout who coached from a wheelchair while fighting cancer, died at the age of 24. Ferguson was coach at Costa Mesa High. . . . Stacey Smoot scored the only goal in Walnut’s 1-0 victory over Los Altos in girls’ soccer. . . . Arnika Hughes made all seven of her shots and finished with 16 points to lead South Hills to a 51-24 victory over Covina in girls’ basketball. . . . Covina’s Michael Ulrich, quarterback of the football team that won the Southern Section Division VII title in December, scored two key baskets in the fourth quarter to lift the Colts to a 56-52 victory over South Hills in a Valle Vista League game last Monday.