Injury Doesn’t Undercut No. 1

The fact that freshman Jenny Munroe is Hart’s No. 1 singles player is little surprise.

After all, she is rated 20th among the Southern California Tennis Association’s 14-year-olds.

The method with which she has remained unbeaten, however, is noteworthy.

Munroe has had to serve underhand through the first two weeks of the season because of an elbow injury. The unorthodox style has left many scratching their heads.

“Everybody comes over to watch me, then walks away asking, ‘She’s their No. 1?’ ” Munroe said.

Numbers game: Sylmar Coach Jeff Engilman has been called a lot of things, but sentimental usually isn’t one of them.

Engilman is a hard-to-please taskmaster who has helped more than a dozen players earn a NCAA Division I scholarship in the 1990s. Yet for all the exceptional athletes to wear a Spartan uniform, none has had a jersey number retired.

“I don’t retire numbers,” said Engilman, who only once retired a number while coaching at Manual Arts--in tribute to a player killed in a drive-by shooting.

When Principal Linda Calvo asked Engilman if Sylmar should retire No. 5 in honor of Durell Price, a two-time City 4-A player of the year now at UCLA, Engilman shrugged it off.

“[Engilman] said, ‘No. If we retire that one, we’d have to retire this one and that one. . . .,’ ” Calvo said.

It appears No. 5 is back in the spotlight. Junior Anthony Wells, who asked to wear Price’s number, scored Friday on a 10-yard run against Washington on his first carry.

The intangibles: Matt Gregory ran a kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown and caught a pass for the game-winning two-point conversion. Defensive end Matt Van Deventer had two sacks and batted down two passes. Linebacker David Johnson had 12 tackles and an interception.

But Canyon Coach Larry Mohr wasn’t concentrating on individual standouts after the Cowboys defeated Valley View, 16-15, on Friday.

“We played our hearts out,” Mohr said. “I’m pleased with our discipline, attitude and hustle. Those are things I can’t coach.”