Santa Paula Soccer Coach Magdaleno Retires

Joe Magdaleno, who coached the Santa Paula High boys’ soccer team since its inception in 1980, has retired because of health problems.

Magdaleno, 54, missed six games last season after being diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat.

A 1995 inductee into the Ventura County Sports Hall of Fame, Magdaleno had a record of 258-64-19. His teams won a pair of Southern Section championships and eight Frontier League titles. Last season’s team was 23-3 and advanced to the Southern Section Division IV semifinals.

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Looking for a game: The Montclair Prep football team will not play at Long Beach St. Anthony on Friday as scheduled and is in danger of not having enough games to qualify for an at-large berth in the Southern Section playoffs.

Montclair Prep, a freelance program since being voted out of the Alpha League in 1990, stands to play only seven opponents this season. The Southern Section requires that a team play eight games to be eligible for postseason play.

Montclair Prep athletic director Greg Reece said St. Anthony officials called him about a month ago seeking to fill an opening in their schedule. But when Montclair Prep recently sought to confirm the game, St. Anthony athletic director Ray Walker said his team had chosen not to play this week.

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Bohle sidelined: Harvard-Westlake volleyball player Christine Bohle will undergo surgery Friday for a hernia and is expected to be out three weeks.

Bohle, a 5-foot-11 swing hitter and team captain, was injured in last Friday’s match against Fountain Valley, the top-ranked team in Division I-A. She had 19 kills and 14 digs in the upset victory.

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They’re laughing in Newhall: Those amused when Valencia jumped into the Southern Section Division II rankings last week feared this scenario: The Vikings (3-0) climbing past defending section champion Hart (1-2).

Hart dropped to No. 10 from No. 5 after losing its second consecutive close game to a strong Marmonte League team. Valencia is No. 6 after beating Yucca Valley (1-2) but will be a heavy underdog when it plays Hart for the first time in a varsity game Oct. 25.

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The helping hand: Nobody can accuse Village Christian Coach Mike Plaisance of having a bad memory.

Last year, his team lost to Kern Valley, 17-14, on a last-minute field goal. So in the week leading up to this year’s game against the Broncs, Plaisance had his team practicing a field goal block play.

The move paid off when Mike Santiago got his hand on an extra-point attempt with 4 minutes 11 seconds left in the game to preserve a 21-20 Crusader victory.

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Sizzling Senegal: Interim Monroe Coach Don Senegal is enjoying success like no other among Valley Pac-8 Conference coaches. Senegal, a former assistant of Fred Cuccia’s who took over in the summer following Cuccia’s stroke, is 3-0 and has the conference’s only undefeated team. But Senegal isn’t exactly boasting about it.

“I thought we would lose at least one of these three games, but [the team] surprised me,” Senegal said.

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It was always something: Not every Golden League football coach is sad to say goodbye to Ridgecrest Burroughs, a traditionally mediocre team that has switched to the new Division VII Mojave River League this season.

Highland Coach Lin Parker said Burroughs’ fans would spit at him when he took the field with his team. If the crowd wasn’t hostile, Parker said, the weather was.

“One night the wind was so bad, I saw the flag rip off the flag pole,” he said.

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Short story: Despite his name, safety Brian Stump won’t get much teasing from his Burbank Burroughs High football teammates this fall.

His nickname is Stumpy, but at 6 feet, 165 pounds, Stump stacks up well on a team with 12 of 28 players who are 5 foot 9 or shorter.

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What, no Chelsea?: It’s tough to find a traditional name on the Notre Dame High girls’ volleyball team. Not a Lisa, Jane, or Mary on the roster.

Instead, there’s a January (MacHold), a Nevada (Blonstein), a Marina (Tourney), a Hilda (Osmanian), a Briana (Hadfield) and a uniquely spelled Tifany (Franzini).

Throw in a pair of Reyes sisters (Melanie and Melissa) and it’s easy to see why Coach Shaney Fink is tongue-tied.

“I generally just say, ‘Hey you,’ ” Fink said.

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Football Top 10

Rankings of Valley-area high schools by sportswriters of The Times

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RK LW Team League) REC. 1 1 Westlake (Marmonte) 3-0 2 3 Antelope Valley (Golden) 3-0 3 7 Taft (Northwest Valley) 3-0 4 5 Newbury Park (Marmonte) 3-0 5 2 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 2-0-1 6 4 Hart (Foothill) 1-3 7 8 Oxnard (Channel) 2-0-1 8 9 Palmdale (Golden) 3-0 9 6 Notre Dame (Mission) 2-1 10 10 Crespi (Del Rey) 2-1

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