Valley / Ventura County Sports : DIGEST : Rooney Fired Over Hiring of McDonald

Dudley Rooney, athletic director at Alemany High for 16 years, said he was fired Tuesday by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for his role in the hiring of former boys’ basketball coach Darryl McDonald.

Rooney said he received a letter of dismissal.

McDonald’s contract was not renewed after it was discovered late in July that he is a registered sex offender.

Under state law, schools are required to conduct a fingerprint background check on all prospective employees. But the Archdiocese has been unable to find a record that Alemany followed procedure before McDonald’s hiring.

Rooney was the administrator entrusted with collecting McDonald’s fingerprints.

Rooney said he has filed a grievance with the Archdiocese. Teachers and coaches were informed of Rooney’s dismissal Monday, but no announcement was made to students or parents.

Rev. Gregory Coiro, spokesman for the Archdiocese, confirmed Rooney’s dismissal but declined further comment.

Rooney was a successful softball coach for 17 years and a teacher for 22 years at Alemany.

“I don’t know anybody who has more integrity than Dudley Rooney,” said Melissa Hearlihy, girls’ basketball coach.

McDonald, who guided Alemany to the Mission League co-championship in his only season as coach, was convicted in 1989 of oral copulation with a minor.

He was hired as a youth director by the North Valley YMCA in 1994 after the fingerprints he submitted did not reveal a criminal conviction. A state official said in July that McDonald had dodged detection by submitting someone else’s fingerprints.

TRACK AND FIELD

* Mel Hein, track and field and cross-country coach at Taft High, was listed in critical condition on Tuesday after undergoing emergency brain surgery Monday night at West Hills Hospital and Medical Center.

Hein, 58, had an aneurysm Monday morning at his Topanga home.

“He told me he had a headache like he’d never had before,” said Judy Hein, Mel’s wife. “He asked me to get him some aspirin, but somehow I knew it was something worse and I called 911.”

The surgery was performed Monday night, but Hein was alert and talking Tuesday afternoon.

“The doctors are all amazed that he’s doing as well as he is,” Judy said. “They said that things have gone about as well as they could go, considering the circumstances.”

Hein is expected to remain in the hospital for at least 10 days.

FOOTBALL

* Notre Dame has been ranked No. 1 in Division II and Paraclete is No. 1 in Division XII in Southern Section preseason polls.

Hart is No. 2 in Division III, with Littlerock No. 4, Valencia No. 5, Crescenta Valley No. 6, Palmdale No. 7, St. Francis No. 8, Canyon No. 9 and Chaminade No. 10.

Newbury Park is No. 2 in Division IV. Westlake is No. 3, Buena No. 4, Camarillo No. 5 and Thousand Oaks No. 6.

VOLLEYBALL

* Joe Nargi, who was an academic nonqualifier at Cal State Northridge last season, has gained eligibility.

Nargi, The Times’ regional player of the year at Taft High in 1998, will have three seasons of eligibility.

He passed two summer classes, giving him the required number of units mandated by the NCAA.

“It just means we’re that much stronger,” Coach Jeff Campbell of Northridge said. “And we’re still primarily freshmen and sophomores.”

* Peter Piexoto, a Northridge assistant, has taken a teaching position at Alemany High, were he will coach the girls’ team.

Preston Aldous, a former coach at Littlerock who was a volunteer assistant at Northridge last year, has taken Piexoto’s spot.

CROSS-COUNTRY

* Mark Johnson, girls’ soccer coach for 21 years, has been hired as boys’ coach and Jay Sramek as girls’ coach at Simi Valley High.

BASKETBALL

* Larry Dill has been hired as the girls’ coach at Taft High.

SOCCER

* Freshman Jackie Fodor, a former All-City player for Chatsworth High, scored two goals in USC’s 4-0 victory over UC Irvine.

* Melissa Rubey, a sophomore midfielder from Notre Dame High, had an assist for Texas in a 2-0 victory over Oklahoma State.

* Autumn St. George scored twice in the first women’s match in Antelope Valley College history, a 3-1 victory at Porterville.