Booster Club Paints Ugly Reminder

As much as Sylmar players and coaches would like to forget last year’s 30-6 loss to Taft, the Spartan booster club simply won’t allow it.

The club placed posterboards with hand-written notes along a fence this week near the Sylmar sideline to remind the players they were not at all pleased with last year’s outcome.

Said Michelle LaPorte-Gomez, club president: “They better not embarrass us again.”

One sign read: “What’s the difference between the Coliseum and your TV? Taft.”

Another read: “30-6. Does this ring a bell or is your phone going to be off the hook?”

And still another: “If you can’t take the heat, move over--let your mamas play!!”

Asked if he had anything to do with the signs challenging the Spartans, Coach Jeff Engilman replied, “That’s the parents. Don’t blame me. . . . I don’t draw anything anymore.”

Coming home: Not that El Camino Real needed additional motivation for its 3-A Division semifinal game against Jefferson tonight. But it didn’t hurt when the Conquistadores got a visit from Atlanta Falcons running back Jamal Anderson this week.

Anderson, a Conquistador star in 1989, stopped by on the way to San Diego for a game against the Chargers.

“The kids get real excited when they see somebody like Jamal come by,” Coach Rick Hayashida said. “It gets the kids motivated to play.”

For Anderson, the visit stirred memories of school days.

“When I got 100-something yards, Rick was like ‘You’re not that good yet. You’ve still got to do better,’ ” Anderson recalled. “That’s the kind of stuff you need to hear when you start thinking you’re all high and mighty.”

Said Hayashida, an assistant then: “When I was first coming up, I was pretty tough. Maybe I’m mellowing with age.”

BASKETBALL

Left out: Santa Clara High junior guard Nick Jones suffered a broken left foot during the first day of practice and has missed the Saints’ first two games of the season.

Jones, an All-Ventura County player who averaged team-highs of 16.5 points and nearly 10 rebounds per game as a sophomore, is expected to be out until next month.