Garrison Gets Promotion at North Hollywood

Jason Garrison was named football coach at North Hollywood High on Thursday after eight years as an assistant for the Huskies.

Garrison, 26, a graduate of North Hollywood High and Cal State Northridge, takes over for Gary Gray, who resigned in November.

Garrison, who is in his third year of teaching at North Hollywood, has served as an assistant to the last three head coaches--Gray, James Lippitt and Freddie Grimes.

“[Garrison’s] got a lot of football knowledge and strong moral character,” said Dave Smith, assistant principal.

Coach resigns: Calabasas softball coach Debbie Thomas has resigned, less than a year after leading the Coyotes to a 16-6-1 record in her first season.

First-year junior varsity Coach Gina Hairapetian said she will run varsity and junior varsity tryouts beginning today.

Hairapetian, 25, said she has applied for the varsity position. The 1989 El Camino Real graduate played one season for the Conquistadores and for Pierce College in 1990.

JC-bound: Palmdale running back Jan Brown will play at Fresno City College next fall.

The 5-foot-10 senior rushed for more than 2,000 yards for the Falcons over the past two seasons. He finished with 933 yards rushing and eight touchdowns in 1996, despite injuries.

Comeback: Jamaal Washington was back in uniform Wednesday for the Reseda boys’ basketball team after quitting six weeks ago.

“He called me over the weekend and said he wanted to come back to the team,” Coach David Enowitz said. “He said he had been having some personal problems that had been resolved.”

Washington, a 6-2, 200-pound senior forward, did not start Wednesday against Canoga Park, but finished with 16 points.

Sidelined: Robbie Shapiro, a redshirt freshman defender on the Northridge men’s soccer team, is academically ineligible, Coach Marwan Ass’ad said.

Shapiro, a former Kennedy High standout, started 11 matches for Northridge (4-10-2) last season.

In the money: Matt Lubick, who had been an unpaid cornerbacks coach under Dave Baldwin at Northridge, has been hired as a paid receivers coach under Baldwin at San Jose State.

Fore: Annika Sorenstam, who on Sunday won the LPGA Tournament of Champions, and Emilee Klein of Studio City are among the 1996 LPGA Top 20 money-winners who will be playing Feb. 10-16 in the L.A. Women’s Championship at Oakmont Country Club in Glendale.

Ticket information: (818) 957-9373.

Going over the hill: Crespi boys’ volleyball player Ryan Hill said he will attend USC.

“I’ll be calling up [USC Coach] Pat Powers and giving him an oral commitment,” said Hill, a 6-5 middle blocker. “It’s been a busy week and I just haven’t talked to him.”

Hill becomes the second area volleyball player to choose the Trojans this year, joining Trevor Julian, a 6-5 Harvard-Westlake swing hitter who committed to USC in November.

“I started out playing club with Trevor,” said Hill, who said he was not overly impressed in a visit at Stanford. “It’ll be good to be united.”