Hughes Surfaces to Help Monroe

Dennis Hughes, who resigned as the Hoover High football coach in November after school administrators threatened to fire him for using an ineligible player in the regular-season finale against cross-town rival Glendale, will be an assistant at Monroe next season.

Hughes, the coach at Hoover for 11 seasons, will be reunited with Monroe Coach Fred Cuccia. Cuccia was an assistant at Glendale College in 1974 and ‘75, when Hughes played there, and he was the coach at Hoover in 1984 and ‘85, when Hughes was an assistant.

“I like the way he coaches and I like the fact that he doesn’t get mad at the kids,” Cuccia said of Hughes.

Cuccia didn’t coach last year after suffering a stroke prior to the season, but he is back teaching at Monroe.

Donald Senegal, the interim coach last season, will be assistant head coach.

Hoover (1-9) violated a California Interscholastic Federation rule against Glendale by playing linebacker Yeprem Davoodian, who had been kicked out of the Tornadoes’ previous game against Crescenta Valley.

Westlake High has named Andrew Steier as its boys’ volleyball coach. Steier was the school’s junior varsity coach last season.

Former Westlake High girls’ volleyball assistant Peter Fox has been hired to coach the boys’ team at Buena. Fox, 22, replaces Brent Muth.

Losing lumber: Senior guard Melissa Wood of Cal Lutheran, the Regals’ all-time leader in three-point shots, is expected to miss the rest of the regular season with a possibly dislocated right knee.

Wood, a four-year starter from Thousand Oaks High, suffered the injury in the first half of last Friday’s Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference loss to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. She holds Cal Lutheran records for most three-point shots made in a career (303), season (93 in 1995-96) and game (10 this season) and also ranks third on the career scoring list with 1,255 points.

Aspiring Anteater: Tammy Rosen, a sweeper on the Agoura High girls’ soccer team, has signed to play at UC Irvine.

Former Valley College and Saugus High offensive lineman Beau Cherry has signed a letter of intent with Eastern Michigan.

Good standing: Ron Zavlodaver, a standout midfielder, has been cleared to play for the Agoura High boys’ soccer team. Zavlodaver had been academically ineligible.

Burbank High starting forward Carlos Escoto has returned to the team. Escoto, who led the Bulldogs (13-9) to a 5-1 start, was declared academically ineligible after six games, but was cleared with better grades this week.

Reversal of fortunes: Scott Williams, a junior forward who had scored eight goals for the Simi Valley boys’ soccer team, is academically ineligible, Coach Rob Looyen said.

However, two previously academically ineligible Pioneers, junior forwards Chris Harris and Mustafa Sarwari, are now eligible to play, Looyen said.

Earlier in the season, Looyen said it was highly unlikely that either Harris or Sarwari would return. Monday, however, Looyen said he had changed his mind and that the two would split time at forward.

Fly away home: Santa Paula boys’ basketball reserve Javier Rodriguez has been dismissed from the team, Cardinal Coach Tom Donahue said.

Donahue said he initially suspended Rodriguez, a senior, for a game after he shoved an opponent in the closing seconds of a Jan. 31 game against Santa Clara. However, after later meeting with Rodriguez, Donahue dismissed him.

Injured: Littlerock guard Jameka Taylor, a sophomore who averages 10 points, could miss the remainder of the season with torn ligaments.

Farmhand: Aluede Okokhere, a senior forward on the Cal Lutheran men’s soccer team, has been drafted by the Orange Count Zodiac, a farm team of Major League Soccer’s L.A. Galaxy.

Pinto gone: Ludwing Pinto, a second-team All-Western Conference defender last season for the Mission College men’s soccer team, is no longer enrolled, Coach Adolpho Perez said.