Holmes Is Granted Senior Status

Alex Holmes, a standout football player at Harvard-Westlake High, has been declared a senior and will be able to graduate in June, his mother, Katina, said Wednesday.

Holmes, The Times’ offensive player of the year in the Valley, was listed as a junior this season because he missed a semester several years ago because of illness.

A school academic counselor said that in the spring semester Holmes must pass an extra English class and an art class, in addition to a regular academic load, in order to meet the criteria for graduation, Katina Holmes said.

The 6-foot-3, 300-pound Holmes, who took the SAT for the first time last Saturday, said he plans to schedule recruiting trips to UCLA, Michigan, Stanford and Nebraska.

BOXING

Heavyweight Lance Whitaker of Granada Hills, coming off a seventh-round technical knockout of Alex Stewart in Las Vegas on Jan. 16, will make his debut on HBO against Lou Savarese at Bally’s Park Place in Atlantic City, N.J., on March 6.

The bout is on the undercard of the World Boxing Assn. super-welterweight title fight between champion Laurent Bouduani and David Reid, a 1996 U.S. Olympic gold medalist.

Whitaker is 18-0 with 16 knockouts.

GOLF

Brian Hull of La Canada shot a three-under-par 68 and is tied for fourth place after the first round of the TearDrop Tour Phoenix Classic on Wednesday at Pavilion Lakes Golf Course.

Hull fired a 33 on the front nine and 35 on the back side to tie with four other players at 68 on the par-71, 6,489-yard course.

Jason Gore of Valencia is tied for 36th place after shooting a first-round 72.

BASEBALL

The North Valley Vipers won the Southern California Amateur Athletic Union championship in the 9-year-old division with a 5-0 record at Downey. Kevin Biederman had 14 hits and Travis Forbes and Casey Fry each had 11 hits.

The Vipers defeated the California Bandits, 9-5, in extra innings for the championship.

FYI

The second of three all-comers track meets will be held Saturday at Cal State Northridge.

The field events will start at 9 a.m., followed by the running events at 11 a.m.