Simi Valley’s Cooper Gains Section Award

Tawnee Cooper of Simi Valley High, The Times’ All-Ventura County player of the year the past two seasons, has been named the Southern Section Division I girls’ basketball player of the year.

Cooper, a 5-foot-9 guard/forward who has signed with UC Santa Barbara, averaged 26.8 points to lead the county in scoring. She is a first-team all-division selection for the second consecutive year.

Other first-team selections include seniors Eboni Conley of Buena and Kristi Rose of Palmdale, juniors Nicole Greathouse of Buena and Jenn Detmer of Thousand Oaks, and sophomore Michelle Greco of Crescenta Valley.

Greathouse, who averaged 17 points for the Division I-A champion Bulldogs, was a first-team selection last season. Conley, who averaged 12.2 points, also was a first-team selection last season and a second-team selection in 1994.

Rose, who has signed with Utah, was a second-team selection last season. Detmer and Greco are first-time selections.

Second-team selections include seniors Amirah Leonard of Crescenta Valley and Jamie Griffin of Simi Valley, and juniors Monique Nolan of Palmdale and Candace Boller of Hart.

Track and Field

Tony Veney, a co-coach at Granada Hills High for the past two years and an assistant at Cal State Northridge from 1983-94, has been hired as an assistant at Cal State Los Angeles and will head the Golden Eagles’ men’s and women’s cross-country programs in the fall.

Veney, 42, resigned as assistant track coach and assistant athletic director in charge of admissions at Northridge in November 1994 to teach history at Granada Hills, take a break from coaching and spend more time with his family.

“I just got so fried that I needed a break,” Veney said.

It didn’t take him long to return to coaching, however. He and Gary Skiles were co-coaches at Granada Hills last year.

Veney, now a dean of discipline at Granada Hills, will continue to work with the Highlander track team during sixth period before heading to Cal State L.A. in the afternoon to train the distance runners.

“This is a good step for me,” Veney said. “I always felt like I wanted to get back into coaching at the college level, but things were so hectic between doing two jobs at Northridge that I needed a rest.”

Contributing: Vince Kowalick, John Ortega.