Cal Lutheran Will Handle Sunday Events

Never on Sunday.

That’s how some schools feel about sports, and they are making sure the NCAA board of directors knows.

The board decided in April to eliminate the so-called BYU Rule that allowed the NCAA to accommodate schools with policies against Sunday competition. It’s now play or forfeit.

Ninety-nine schools are calling for a review of the decision, but Cal Lutheran, an NCAA Division III member, is not among them.

“We prefer not to play on Sundays, but sometimes it’s unavoidable,” said Bruce Bryde, Cal Lutheran’s athletic director. “We are realists. You are always balancing class schedules with athletic schedules.

“I wouldn’t say we are hard-liners.”

The Master’s College in Newhall, the other religion-oriented four-year school in the region that competes in sports, is an NAIA member and not affected by the decision.

But Bill Oates, Master’s athletic director and basketball coach, said the school’s position is clear.

“We don’t want to play on Sundays,” Oates said. “[The NAIA] gives you an option. . . . So far, it’s never been an issue for us.”

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Plans for a softball complex at Cal State Northridge are moving ahead, although at a much slower pace than originally anticipated.

“There was a very aggressive timetable set last August or September that we would break ground in May [1998],” said Paul Bubb, Northridge’s athletic director. “I feel we are making good progress.”

Bubb said ground breaking won’t take place until the school has commitments for at least 70% of the estimated $2 million needed for the project. He said the $100,000 committed so far has been used for architectural and engineering plans.

Steve Soboroff, senior assistant to Mayor Richard Riordan, spearheaded the drive to build the softball stadium. He said the project is not in jeopardy.

“[Northridge] changed the location of the building and that’s slowed the plans down,” Soboroff said.

Soboroff said two parties he wouldn’t identify are interested in picking up the tab in exchange for naming rights to the complex.

“I can’t get the commitments and the money until we get all the [construction] bidding,” Soboroff said.

Bubb said Northridge slightly changed the location of the planned complex so the Matadors could play in the present stadium until the new one is ready.

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Mitch Graff is returning as an assistant to Pierce College baseball Coach Bob Lofrano after spending the past two seasons in the same capacity at Hart High.

Part of his previous five-year stint with the Brahmas was, well, somewhat of a headache.

Graff, who played at Chatsworth, Pierce and Cal State Northridge, was hit on the head by a line drive while pitching batting practice in February 1993.

He was working from behind a protective screen but got drilled anyway, suffering a fractured skull.

Graff was back coaching third base a few weeks later, wearing a helmet.

The sound of the ball striking Graff’s head paled in comparison to what he heard on Jan. 17, 1994.

Shortly after the Northridge earthquake hit, Graff was among a handful of people who saw LAPD motorcycle officer Clarence Wayne Dean fall to his death from the severed overpass that links the Antelope Valley Freeway to the southbound Golden State Freeway.

Graff was helping injured people on the Golden State Freeway when he heard tires screech. He looked just as Dean’s motorcycle plunged off the edge.

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Lofrano said left-hander Barry Zito, Pierce’s ace last season, is headed to USC on a scholarship.

“He’s definitely going to ‘SC in January after he receives his AA degree from a junior college,” Lofrano said.

“He’s probably going to go to Grossmont College in the fall.”

Zito, 6 feet 4 and 190 pounds, was selected by the Texas Rangers in the third round of the June draft but turned down a $287,500 offer.

Last season, Zito had a 9-2 record and led the Western State Conference with 108 strikeouts.

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Department of incidental information: Cal Lutheran is the NCAA Division III theft king.

The Kingsmen baseball team led the division with 132 stolen bases.