They Put Up Quite a Racket at Pierce

Some schools build athletic dynasties that seem to last forever.

At Pierce College, where not all teams were created equal, men’s tennis has been a traditional power.

This season is no different.

The Brahmas, under first-year Coach Sam Pitts, are within one virtually guaranteed victory of claiming the Western State Conference title.

All Pierce (10-2, 10-1 in WSC play) needs to do is dispatch Bakersfield (4-11, 3-9) at home on April 18 in the makeup of a February match postponed because of rain.

Unless the Brahmas come down with Legionnaires’ disease, it’s a done deal. Pierce earlier defeated Bakersfield, 9-0.

“We’ve had some close matches and the guys have fought really hard,” Pitts said.

Pierce’s only conference loss came in the opener at Ventura in February, and the Brahmas last week escaped with a 5-4 victory over defending WSC champion Glendale. The match lasted nearly 5 1/2 hours and eight of the nine matches went three sets.

“We were down, 2-4,” Pitts said. “But we have a really strong bottom half and were able to pull it out.”

Brothers Farhad and Farshid Hajimirzaee, freshmen from Taft, and Joey Schimmel, a sophomore from Westlake, have led the Brahmas in singles play.

Farhad-Schimmel, Farshid-Tim Duong and Allen Dunn-Steve Chavez comprise solid doubles teams.

Pitts, an English teacher at Reseda High and a former girls’ coach at the school, is familiar with Pierce’s tennis history.

He played for the Brahmas under former coach Paul Xanthos in 1988, one of the many dominant squads at Pierce. The Brahmas won 23 conference titles in 29 seasons under Xanthos, who retired in 1993 but returned last season when former coach Aris Hovsepian became ill and left.

Under Xanthos, the Brahmas had conference winning streaks of 96, 50, 37 and 27 matches.

Those are not easy shoes to fill, but Pitts is managing quite well.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Pitts said.

*

Among the few surprises for Pitts this season was the weather during a four-hour match at Santa Barbara early in March.

“I didn’t know I was going to freeze to death,” Pitts said. “We went to the bitter end and I was turning blue.”

The Brahmas won, 5-4.

*

Right-handers Vic Herrera of Glendale and Junior Avina of Pierce are among the most effective relievers in the WSC.

Herrera, a freshman from Eagle Rock, is 2-0 with one save and a 1.35 earned-run average in six appearances.

Avina, a sophomore from El Camino Real, is 3-0 with a 1.50 ERA in a conference-high 11 appearances.

Avina has 24 strikeouts and four walks in 18 innings. He has allowed 14 hits.

Not too shabby for a converted shortstop.

“We told him Trevor Hoffman [San Diego Padres’ closer] played shortstop at Cypress [College],” Pierce Coach Bob Lofrano said. “We convinced him he could be a good pitcher.

“He just has a good arm. The ball comes out of his hand real quick. He’ll be able to pitch beyond Pierce.”

Avina became Pierce’s closer after left-hander Wes Crown, who took that role after starting last season, faltered early this season. Crown pitches long relief.

*

In case you were wondering, the junior college baseball statistics in Thursday’s edition included only WSC games.

*

The Ventura men’s and women’s swimming teams, and the Canyons women’s team remain undefeated in WSC meets.

Each Ventura team is 5-0 and Canyons is 4-0 entering meets today at 2:30. Ventura is at Santa Monica and Canyons hosts Cuesta, whose men’s and women’s teams are each 6-1.

*

Nancy Lopez is at the forefront.

This Lopez, though, is a 5,000-meter runner at Glendale who has the top WSC women’s time in the event this season at 19:01.8.

She probably could do well in speed golf.