Alterations in Program Start at Top

Add the Matador logo to the list of changes on the Cal State Northridge football team this season.

Northridge hired a New York firm that has designed logos for numerous colleges and professional teams to redo the Matador symbol.

The Matadors will wear the logo on their helmets, which are black instead of red, but probably not until a few games into the season because it won’t be ready.

At first, the team will display what it has called a “secondary mark,” or a portion of what eventually will be the complete logo.

The logo in past years depicted a bullfighter with a cape underneath the words “Cal State Northridge Matadors.”

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Every time his pager beeps, Ronald Aumua’s heart races a little faster.

That call could mean he’s about to become a father.

Aumua, a Cal State Northridge senior defensive lineman, and his girlfriend, Vanessa Vranek, are expecting their first child any second.

“It’s overdue, as a matter of fact,” Aumua said.

The baby was supposed to arrive Aug. 5. But because two-a-day practices started Monday for the Matadors, Aumua can’t be with Vranek all the time, so he carries the pager to the field and gives it to an assistant coach.

“It’s gone off a couple of times and it hasn’t been her and it’s keeping me on edge,” Aumua said.

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Coach Jim Fenwick hopes to soon add defensive end Tyrone Gunn and free safety Jarrett Cooper to the squad.

Both are attending summer school, Gunn at Northridge and Cooper at a San Jose area school, to gain eligibility.

Gunn, 6 feet 4 and 275 pounds, transferred from Arizona and Cooper came from Rutgers.

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Northridge’s football facilities are vastly inferior to those of other Division I-AA programs, but Fenwick says the Matadors have the most expensive time-keeping horn in the nation.

Because a conventional horn ordered by the school didn’t arrive until Wednesday, Fenwick parked his family van on the turf at North Campus Stadium and an equipment man honked the horn to signal the end of each practice segment.

“We got a $22,000 horn,” Fenwick said.

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Fenwick wore a heavy-duty brace on his right knee during practice on Tuesday and Wednesday as a preventive measure.

“I’m just trying to keep it from being so sore from walking around,” Fenwick said.

Fenwick, who played running back at Wichita State in the early 1970s, has had his knee repaired surgically three times.

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Wide receivers Jimmy Grenninger and Eric Carpenter are nursing pulled hamstrings and are expected back by Friday. . . . The Matadors feature 36 returning lettermen, including four Big Sky All-Academic selections--senior center Sean Andersen, political science, 3.06 grade-point average; senior quarterback Aaron Flowers, education, 3.01; senior cornerback Benny Herron, psychology, 3.30 and senior linebacker Rob Pifferini, journalism, 3.22. . . . Northridge is being picked by fans in a conference-sponsored interactive contest to finish in third place in the Big Sky, behind Montana and Northern Arizona. The contest ends Sept. 1 at midnight. To enter, access www.bigskyconf.com.