Staff Pitches In to Turn El Toro Into a Contender

Its record doesn’t say much, but a closer look at El Toro’s softball team can be pretty revealing. The Chargers, debuting at No. 10 this week, are pretty good.

They reached the semifinals of the Woodbridge Classic before losing in eight innings to La Mirada, 7-2, Saturday to fall to 10-8.

So how can a team that beats La Crescenta Crescenta Valley, ranked fourth in Division II at the time, have eight losses?

It has used four pitchers this season, Susanne Guy, Julie Smith, Jennifer Morey and Stephanie Ellery. But El Toro’s 6-0 with Guy.

“We’re trying to give everyone a fair amount of pitching time to establish our strength,” Coach Jim Daugherty said. “It’s a team game, and I’m interested in building our team for league.”

Although most figured fourth-ranked Woodbridge would easily win the Sea View League title, that’s not the case anymore; including El Toro and sixth-ranked Irvine, the league has three teams among the top 10.

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Bill Lapes, former football coach at Inglewood High who also has coached football and baseball at Mater Dei and Capistrano Valley, has agreed to be varsity football coach at Calvary Chapel.

Lapes, 50, who owns a sporting goods store in Laguna Hills, said he was ready to return to coaching now that the store is being managed by his oldest son, Chad.

“When I left Capistrano Valley in 1990 I needed to get away from coaching for a while,” Lapes said. “Now, I wanted back into coaching and I wanted to do at a Christian school.”

Lapes was born in Manhattan Beach but has lived in Orange County since 1975. He played football and baseball at Manhattan Beach Mira Costa, El Camino College, and while serving in the U.S. Air Force.

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Many of the best high school senior girls’ soccer players from Orange County will take part in an all-star game tonight at 7 at Chapman University.

Hamid Sedehi of Capistrano Valley and George Larsen of Mission Viejo High will coach the teams.

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Five Orange County seniors will participate in the second Southern California Boys’ All-Star Basketball Classic at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Long Beach City College.

The event includes many players from Southeast Los Angeles County and coincides with the last day college coaches can evaluate or contact prospective recruits. Four of the five Orange County players have not made college commitments. Santa Ana Valley’s Ike Harmon will go to Cal State Fullerton.

The noncommitted county players: Olujimi Mann of Valley, Dennis Keane of Santa Margarita, Brad Smith of Whittier Christian and Lohnnie Tape of Esperanza.

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The 31st Orange County high school all-star basketball games will be held Saturday at Orange Coast College. The girls’ game begins at 5 p.m. and the boys’ at 8.

The coaches: Estancia’s Tim Parsel (boys’ south), Esperanza’s Mark Hill (boys’ north), Century’s Jeff Watts (girls’ south) and Troy’s Brad Sand (girls’ north).

Staff writers Paul McLeod and Mike Terry contributed to this story.