Prep Football Title Game Set for 2000 Season

FOX Sports Net has agreed to televise the first high school football national championship game in December 2000.

FOX Sports Net and Student Sports magazine will establish a weekly national Fab 50 poll, with the top two teams at the end of each season chosen to play in the national title game.

Still to be worked out is a site for the game. Also, state organizations, including the California Interscholastic Federation, would have approval of a member team’s participation in the game.

“There’s always been talk about who’s the best high school football team in America,” said Arthur Smith, executive vice president of programming and production for FOX Sports Net. “We’ve created a means to settle that argument every year.”

The poll will begin this fall, with the game scheduled to debut in the 2000 season.

TRACK AND FIELD

* Francois Wolman, an assistant coach at Santa Monica College for the last four years, will take over the men’s and women’s track and field and cross-country programs at Valley College at the end of this season.

Wolman, 42, will replace Scott Weisbly as men’s coach and Gretchen Lohr as women’s coach.

* Jessica Cosby of Cleveland High, the two-time defending City Section champion in the girls’ shotput, will miss the rest of the season after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery last week.

Cosby, fifth in the state championships last year, had hoped to return to competition in four or five weeks, but the surgery revealed more damage to her left knee than expected.

VOLLEYBALL

* Six boys’ high school teams ranked in The Times’ regional top 10 will compete in the Tournament of Champions today at various sites in the Valley.

Highland, Quartz Hill, Alemany, Granada Hills, Taft and Monroe will begin pool play at 8:30 a.m. La Costa Canyon will attempt to defend its title.

Pool play will take place at Cal State Northridge and Chatsworth and Taft high schools. The playoffs and subsequent rounds will be held at Northridge.

BASEBALL

* Cal State Northridge has added Cal Lutheran to its schedule to replace a rained-out game against UCLA last Sunday.

The Matadors and Kingsmen will meet April 27 at 3:30 p.m. at Northridge.

CYCLING

* Encino Velodrome will open the 1999 season of racing at 7 tonight with events for riders of various ages and skill levels.

Admission is free. Information: (818) 598-5192.