Santa Paula Hires Club Soccer Coach Costello

Bob Costello has been hired as girls’ soccer coach at Santa Paula High, replacing Juliet Dyke, who recently resigned.

Costello coaches the Arsenal Soccer Club’s girls’ under-19 team and has been a club and American Youth Soccer Organization coach since 1983.

Former La Canada standout Jason Cropley scored his sixth goal Thursday night to help the Maryland men’s soccer team down Clemson in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Orlando, Fla.

The fourth-seeded Terrapins (14-4-1) played top-seeded Duke on Friday night.

CROSS-COUNTRY

Change of venue: The Southern Section preliminaries will be contested at Mt. San Antonio College as scheduled today, but the 30 qualifying races will be run over the school’s “rain course” because of muddy conditions on the famed predominantly dirt three-mile course.

The rain course, which winds through the asphalt roads of the Mt. SAC campus before cutting across farm land and finishing on the track, is identical to the one used for last year’s Southern Section championships, except it has been lengthened to three miles.

The course used last year was supposed to be three miles in length, but it was closer to 2.9.

TENNIS

Star commitments: Professional tennis players Andre Agassi and Malivai Washington are scheduled to compete in the HealthSouth USTA Challenger of Burbank from Nov. 24 through Nov. 30 at the Burbank Tennis Center.

Tournament tickets go on sale at noon Sunday a the Burbank Tennis Center. A general-admission pass good for the week will be available for $50. Reserved box-seat passes good for the week will cost $100. Daily general admission tickets will be sold if seating is available at a cost of $10 on the weekdays, $15 for Saturday’s tournament semifinals and $20 for Sunday’s finals.

Information: Burbank Tennis Center, (818) 843-4105.

BASKETBALL

Lights, camera: A City Section basketball preview show will debut next Saturday at 7:30 p.m. on KLCS, Channel 58, the Los Angeles Board of Education TV station. The show looks at all 49 boys’ and girls’ basketball teams in the City. It will be repeated on Nov. 30 at 5 p.m. Los Angeles Times Deputy Sports Editor Eric Sondheimer provides his predictions on the Valley Pac-8 and Northwest Valley Conferences.