Ex-Newbury Park Football Star Van Buren Faces Probation Violation

Leodes Van Buren, former record-setting wide receiver for Newbury Park High, is due to appear in Ventura Municipal Court this morning on a probation violation.

Van Buren, 20, was arrested Monday at the Newbury Park home of his foster father, Ken McGee, after a tense two-hour standoff with sheriff’s deputies.

Van Buren, who helped the 1993 Newbury Park football team to an undefeated season and the Southern Section Division III championship, threatened to kill himself and his two-month old son before he surrendered, authorities said.

Deputies said because Van Buren was in possession of a knife, he faces charges of violating the terms of his probation from a 1994 conviction.

Van Buren served six months in jail for shooting into the Newbury Park home of his former girlfriend. Since his release, he has been living in Corona. He was in Newbury Park on Monday for a court appearance to report on the hours of community service he had worked.

Van Buren lost a football scholarship to the University of Colorado after his first arrest. McGee said Van Buren had been working odd jobs and was thinking of making a football comeback.

Basketball

Ventura College’s Damian Cantrell and Jamal Cobbs have committed to play for former Pirate coach Phil Mathews at the University of San Francisco.

Four former Ventura players have signed to play at San Francisco. Hakeem Ward and Gerald Zimmerman signed earlier.

Baseball

Three junior colleges from the region are among 16 schools competing Friday and Saturday in the first round of the Southern California regional.

Oxnard (31-8), seeded third, plays host to Harbor (26-14); Canyons (25-17), seeded eighth, is at home against Mt. San Antonio (25-18); and Pierce (28-12), seeded 12th, plays at Saddleback (26-13).

The best-of-three series start Friday at 2 p.m and continue Saturday at 11 a.m. A third game, if necessary, follows the Saturday morning game. The winner in each series advances to the second round, May 17-19.

Oxnard won the Western State Conference North Division title and Canyons won the South Division title. Pierce, making its sixth consecutive playoff appearance, finished second in the South.

Trial on assault charges against Cal Lutheran catcher Rik Work was postponed Tuesday in St. Louis County court until July 29.

Work, 23, is charged with punching Jim Brady, his former coach at Missouri-St. Louis, in November, 1994. Brady also is seeking civil damages against Work.

Neither Cal Lutheran, ranked No. 2 in Division III, nor Missouri-St. Louis, ranked No. 10 in Division II, has finished its season.

“Right now both sides are thinking more about making their World Series,” said Tim Devereux, Work’s attorney.

Softball

Antelope Valley College (31-15) is seeded eighth, Pierce (29-8) is 10th and Ventura (39-18) is 11th in the junior college Southern California regional, which will be played Friday and Saturday at four sites.

The 16 teams in the double-elimination regional are divided into four-team brackets. The winner of each bracket advances to the State championships, May 17-19 at Ohlone College in Fremont.

In bracket one, hosted by top-seeded Palomar (44-8), Antelope Valley meets Pasadena (21-11) at 2 p.m. on Friday

Pierce is in bracket two at Hancock, facing seventh-seeded Saddleback (29-11) at 6 p.m. on Friday.

Ventura, playing in bracket three at Long Beach City, opens against sixth-seeded Fullerton (32-10) at 2 p.m. on Friday.

Track and Field

Eduardo Macias, Eric Seoane and Bryan Ramos, three of the top six runners on the Glendale College men’s cross-country team that won the 1995 state junior college title, have made commitments to NCAA Division II schools.

Macias, who finished 10th in the State cross-country championships, will attend Cal State L.A.

Seoane, 42nd in the State meet, will go to Western State College in Gunnison, Colo., and Ramos (46th) will attend Cal Poly Pomona.

Macias and Ramos will run in the 5,000 meters in the Southern California junior college track championships at Citrus College on Saturday.

Seoane will compete in the 3,000 steeplechase.

Swimming

Heather Strong, a 200- and 500-meter specialist at Pierce College, has earned All-American recognition in both events.

Volleyball

Campbell Hall opposite hitter Dylan Herrick accepted a scholarship to University of the Pacific.

The 6-foot-4 Herrick, who helped the Vikings to the Alpha League championship, chose Pacific over UC Irvine.

Golf

Brandon DiTullio and Jerry Chang, two former Westlake High golfers, advanced the California Amateur Championships by finishing in the top seven in a Southern California qualifying round at Crystalaire Country Club on Monday.

DiTullio, who graduated from Westlake in 1995 and is a freshman at UCLA, finished second in the qualifying round by shooting 71.

Chang, a 1991 Westlake graduate and senior at Stanford, shot 73 to finish seventh.

The California Amateur Championships will be held June 17-22 at Pebble Beach Golf Links and the Links at Spanish Bay.

Miscellany

Burbank High senior Matt Baker has been chosen Southern Section Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year, earning a $2,000 cash grant.

Baker, 6 feet 4 and 170 pounds, was an All-Foothill League selection in basketball and tennis in 1995.

He carries a 4.64 grade-point average, was a National Merit Scholarship finalist and has been accepted at Harvard, where he plans to continue playing basketball.

The annual Oxnard Police Department charity football game will be held Saturday at Oxnard High.

Information: (805) 385-8104.

Contributing: Fernando Dominguez, Dana Haddad, Steve Henson, Mike Hiserman, Vince Kowalick, Bryan Rodgers, Peter Yoon.