Chatsworth Comments Motivate San Pedro

There is at least a whiff of bad blood leading up to the City 4-A Division girls’ championship game today at 4 p.m. between Chatsworth High and San Pedro at East Los Angeles College.

Asked her thoughts on the game, San Pedro Coach Gwen Slater said she has used published comments by Chatsworth junior forward Jackie Fodor to motivate her team.

After Chatsworth defeated Granada Hills, 2-0, on Tuesday in a semifinal, Fodor was quoted as saying “This was our hardest game because this was like the final. . . . I don’t think our next game will be any harder.”

Slater, whose team lost a pair of Coast/Valley League games to Chatsworth by a combined 9-0 score, headed to the copy machine.

“We got the Valley papers and I think our girls will be fired up,” she said.

Adding to the potential tension is a scuffle that occurred between Chatsworth goalkeeper Tina Essington and a San Pedro player in the teams’ last meeting.

Chatsworth Coach Jack Sidwell said both players were ejected after shoves and punches were thrown.

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A conflict was avoided earlier this month when tryouts for the Olympic Development Program’s under-17, under-16 and under-15 regional teams were moved from the opening weekend of the Southern Section playoffs to today and Sunday.

But the move meant an even more difficult decision for Chatsworth’s Fodor, junior Erica Frechman and sophomore Katie Klain.

Sidwell said Thursday the three players would miss the first day of ODP tryouts and play in the Chancellors’ title game.

“They were going to try and play [ODP] in the morning and then come [to the title game] but I felt the potential for injury was too great to do both,” Sidwell said.

“Now they’ve said they’re staying with us today and will go [to the tryouts] on Sunday.”

Four members of the Chaminade girls’ team, which plays Glendora St. Lucy’s in the Southern Section Division III title game tonight at Gahr High in Cerritos, will attend part of the ODP tryouts today before leaving early, Chaminade Coach Mike Evans said.

Freshman forward Kim Taylor, the team’s leading scorer, freshman forward Tara Donoghue, junior midfielder Jenn Valentine and sophomore midfielder Mindy Wyatt are the players in question. Taylor and Valentine are starters.

Evans said he did not ask them to skip the tryouts.