Ventura Women Make Big Splash

This, that and the other while wondering, as Thanksgiving Day approaches, what turkeys call three consecutive strikes when they go bowling. . . .

Coach Scott Parrish has built a formidable women’s water polo team at Ventura College since launching the program last year.

Ventura (26-5-2) meets host Diablo Valley (20-9-2) today in a first-round match of the state championships that run through Sunday at Pleasant Hill.

It is Ventura’s debut in the tournament, first played three years ago when women’s teams began to proliferate in junior colleges.

The Pirates are seeded No. 3 among the four south teams in the eight-team tournament and Parrish believes they can get past Diablo Valley and challenge for the title.

“I think we can play [Diablo Valley] pretty well,” Parrish said. “They’ve lost to teams we beat this year.

“We set some high goals at the beginning of the season and then we started to realize we could play with the best of them.”

Sophomore driver Stefanie Weireter, from Buena High, scored 55 goals during the regular season and led the Pirates to the Western State Conference title.

“She has a real good chance of playing at a four-year school,” Parrish said.

All of the team’s players come from six schools in Ventura, Oxnard and Thousand Oaks.

“We don’t have a lot of girls with a lot of experience,” Parrish said. “We don’t have any superstars.”

*

It’s shaping up as a good year for Ventura’s sports teams.

The women’s water polo squad is battling for a state championship and the football team might soon do the same.

The Commission on Athletics, which governs junior college sports in the state, is using a power-rating system this season to determine which teams meet in the state football title game on Dec. 11 at Fresno.

After the regular season and bowl games on Dec. 4, the COA is applying the formula to select one team from the south and one team from the north to play for the title.

Among other things, the criteria includes total victories, victories against ranked teams and total victories by opponents. Teams must win a bowl game to qualify.

Ventura is ranked No. 1 in the south and has 26.6 power rating points, second in the south to No. 2 Hancock’s 26.8 points. Butte leads the north with 31.3 points.

The Pirates conclude the WSC season against Santa Barbara at Ventura High on Saturday night. Hancock plays at Moorpark.

Coach Terry Morris of Ventura has been busy with the calculator and figures that, regardless of the results this weekend, his team and Hancock will finish 1-2 in the south and meet in a bowl game.

Morris said Coach Barney Eames of Hancock agrees the teams should play each other in a bowl, with the winner advancing to the state championship game.

“We are sitting really nice,” Morris said. “Last year, we were happy to go to a bowl. This year, the eggs are a lot bigger.”

*

Hank Ives of the Santa Ana-based J.C. Grid-Wire has been rating football teams and players, with the help of coaches nationwide, for 40 years.

To mark the anniversary, Ives has compiled all-decade teams that include several players from schools in the region.

The 1980s team includes three players from Glendale--offensive lineman Bill Schultz, linebacker Bill Stokes and defensive back Greg Coauette--and tight end Jeff Markland of Pierce.

The 1970s team includes defensive back Rock Richmond of Valley.

Schultz, Stokes and Coauette were junior college All-Americans. Stokes holds the Glendale career record for sacks with 24, including a team season-record 17 in 1985.

Coauette is the school’s career leader with 11 interceptions.

*

Finally, a blast from the past.

Now that Isaiah Rider, the Atlanta Hawks’ self-proclaimed go-to guy and longtime nonconformist, is having more brain cramps, it’s a good time to recall an old story.

Rider--then known as J.R.--played at Antelope Valley College in 1990-91, sent there by Nevada Las Vegas to straighten up academically.

One day, a coach lit into Rider for breaking a rule, prompting a Rider-like response.

“You know, one day I’ll be in the NBA and you’ll still be here,” Rider told the coach.

“What hurt the most,” the coach quipped years later, “is he was right.”