David Hernandez, Longtime Baseball Coach, Dies at 70

David Hernandez, longtime baseball coach at Western and Los Alamitos highs, died Tuesday after a long illness. He was 70.

Hernandez coached at Western from 1956 to 1967 and at Los Alamitos from 1968 to 1976. He also was Los Alamitos’ athletic director.

His baseball teams won league titles in 1962 and ’63 at Western and 1969-76 at Los Alamitos. After retiring from Los Alamitos in ‘76, he coordinated programs for limited-English speaking students in the Anaheim Union High School District.

Hernandez attended Anaheim High School, Fullerton College and Fresno State, where he was a kicker on the football team and played baseball. During his career, he coached such future major leaguers as Andy Messersmith and Greg Harris.

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The Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Idaho men’s basketball teams were picked by writers and coaches to win their divisions in the Big West Conference this season. Boise State and UC Santa Barbara were picked to win the women’s titles.

San Luis Obispo, eligible for postseason play on the Division I level for the first time, edged out Long Beach State in the Western Division. Idaho was an overwhelming choice in the Eastern Division.

Cal State Fullerton was picked fourth in the writers’ poll and fifth in the coaches’ poll. UC Irvine was fourth in the coaches’ poll and fifth in the writers’ poll.

Irvine was picked second in the Western Division in the women’s polls. Fullerton was picked fourth in the coaches’ poll and fifth in the writers’ poll.

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The 15th annual Veterans Day Rugby Tournament, sponsored by the Huntington Beach Unicorns Rugby Football Club, will be held Sunday at Lexington Junior High in Cypress.

Twenty-two Division I and II college teams from as far away as Colorado are scheduled to compete.

For more information call (714) 636-0968 or (714) 565-7029.

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Five soccer players from Southern California College were selected to All-Golden State Athletic Conference teams.

Sophomore Shelley Bage, freshman Annie Jacobs and senior Katie Kelley were named to the women’s team and sophomore Diego Goni and Felix Hernandez were selected for the men’s team.

Huntington Beach’s Todd Marcus, a junior at Westmont College and senior teammate Mark Fiore of Mission Viejo were also named to the men’s team.