Bailey Gets Wake-Up Call

San Jose State freshman Waking Bailey found the jump to college football a bit tougher than expected.

“It’s way more physical,” the wide receiver said. “They try to kill you . . . even in practice.”

Fortunately, the former Kennedy High star has a fellow alumnus on the team--junior tailback Donte Scarbrough--to keep an eye out for him.

“He has adjusted pretty quickly,” Scarbrough said.

Apparently so.

Bailey has already become a weapon for the Spartans, who have a bye this week. He caught four passes for 43 yards in a 30-10 loss at Wyoming last Saturday. The week before, against Wisconsin, he caught two passes for 29 yards, including his first NCAA reception on a 15-yard sideline pattern.

“I was nervous when that pass came to me,” Bailey said. “I didn’t know what to do so I just ran.”

The backup receiver had enough wits about him to give the defender a shoulder dip, then turn up field for a few more yards. It was a lesson he had learned during those tough practices.

“I was scared,” he said. “That guy was big.”

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Going solo: When Brian Walker got off a 41-yard punt late in the game against Azusa Pacific, it marked the first time in 52 games that Cal State Northridge punted only once.

The last one-punt game for Northridge before Saturday night came in a 22-6 victory over San Francisco State on Sept. 19, 1992.

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Happy return: Mark Williams, 31, the oldest player on the Cal Lutheran football team, is back with the squad after a herniated disk in his lower back.

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Fast start: When Amy Skieresz, a junior at the University of Arizona, won the women’s race in the Aztec Invitational cross-country meet in San Diego last Saturday, it gave her a 9-0 record in cross-country races the past two seasons.

Skieresz is the defending NCAA champion and a 1995 graduate of Agoura High.