Lakewood Artesia Reign of Merino May Be Ending

The word around Lakewood Artesia is that boys’ basketball Coach Wayne Merino won’t be back next season.

Merino is on a leave of absence for unspecified medical reasons, and several sources at the school say administrators are working on his departure and subsequent replacement.

Artesia Principal Yvonne Contreras refused to speculate on the situation.

“All I can tell you is that as of right now, Wayne Merino is still our basketball coach,” she said. “I don’t have anything else to say on the matter at this time.”

Merino, who has missed several weeks of school this year for medical reasons, did not return phone calls. He was heavily scrutinized last season when three of his senior starters abruptly transferred from the school because they were unhappy with the team.

According to one school administrator, Contreras is unhappy with the allegations and finger-pointing involving the basketball program.

In nine years at Artesia, Merino has built one of the Southland’s most successful programs. The school won state titles in 1992 and ‘93, and its graduates include Ed and Charles O’Bannon and Avondre Jones.

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Many high schools have trouble filling all of their coaching vacancies each year, but that certainly isn’t the case at Loyola. The all-boys’ parochial school has a rich tradition in athletics, and turnover is rare.

That may explain the volume of resumes to Athletic Director Nick Wooler since basketball coach Bill Thomason stepped down last month.

“I’ve received about 35 to 40 applications,” Wooler said. “The response is unreal. I’ve heard from assistant coaches on youth CYO teams, to people on the East Coast, to some of the top guys in the area. It won’t be an easy decision.”

Wooler and a selection committee hope to have someone in place in the next couple of weeks.

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Westlake administrators had a different kind of problem last week. Athletic Director Joseph Pawlick fired baseball coach Dave Wilder during Thursday’s practice for misstating his employment history on his job application.

Wilder, a walk-on in his first season at the school, said he was fired for stating that he was head baseball coach at Verdugo Hills in 1992, when, in fact, he was an assistant.

“If they asked me to write it down again, I would still put down that I was head coach at Verdugo Hills,” said Wilder, whose scrutiny began last month at the urging of several parents of disgruntled players. “I ran the team. I ran the practices. They got me on a technicality.”

Two days after being released, Wilder was arrested on suspicion of grand theft property and is being held at Men’s Central Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail. The felony complaint involves three counts of grand theft property exceeding $400.

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Will St. John Bosco junior basketball standout Schea Cotton attend Long Beach State now that assistant Clyde Vaughan has been passed over as head coach?

It’s difficult to get a definitive answer from him or his parents, James Sr. and Gaynell Cotton.

The Cotton family recently said there was a “90 to 95%” chance that Schea would go to Long Beach State if Vaughan was selected to replace Seth Greenberg. The decision was backed by Schea’s older brother, James Jr., who was a starter at Long Beach State last season.

When Syracuse assistant Wayne Morgan was named the school’s new coach last Wednesday, the Cotton family supported the hire and James Jr. dismissed talk he was considering transferring.

In February, Schea’s parents said their son would sit out the rest of the season and miss the playoffs to concentrate on his studies. That same week, Schea led St. John Bosco to a playoff victory over Bell Gardens.

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Three area players have been selected for the Puma Soccer Cup on June 15 at St. Louis. The event is limited to the top 56 high school players and is the only national all-star event for the sport. Midfielder Chaplin Early of La Canada was named to the boys’ West squad, and midfielders Katie Roda of Irvine and Shauna Itri of Huntington Beach Edison were named to the girls’ West squad.