Canyons Works on Another Big Softball Season

In 13 seasons as softball coach at College of the Canyons, Ray Whitten has put together some outstanding teams.

But nothing like the current crop.

The Cougars completed Western State Conference play with a 21-0 record after defeating Santa Monica, 6-2, on Tuesday. They won the Southern Division title and have a school-record 37 victories.

“We set our goal to win conference and get into the [Southern California] regional, but, truthfully, I didn’t think before the season that we were going to be 37-5,” Whitten said.

Canyons, ranked No. 4 in the state, has other business to settle.

Last year, the Cougars finished the regular season 30-12-1, but lost in one of the four regional tournaments. They are hungry for redemption.

“We had a team batting average of over .400 and we went to the regional and batted a buck and a quarter,” Whitten said.

The 16-team regional is May 6-7 at four sites, each with four teams. The winners advance to the state championships May 12-14 in Fresno. Regional pairings will be announced Saturday.

Canyons heads for the regional with five players who batted .450 or better in WSC play.

Second baseman Valarie Reyes, an all-state selection last season, led the conference with a .604 batting average entering the finale at Santa Monica.

Outfielders Sandra Rodriguez (.522) and Lacy Breggar (.488), all-state shortstop Chantal Pershing (.460) and catcher Angie De La Cerda (.450) give opposing pitchers little breathing room.

“We work a lot on hitting,” Whitten said. “It’s a strong factor.”

The Cougars are not one-dimensional, with solid defense and pitching to carry the load when the bats are quiet.

Pershing, WSC player of the year in 1999, and Reyes each have one error, and De La Cerda has no errors and has allowed only one stolen base.

Right-handers Stephanie Blaire (18-0), Kelly Presten (8-2) and Corrie Atwood (7-3) anchor the staff. Blaire had a 0.77 earned-run average in WSC action before defeating Santa Monica.

“You always hope you are going to be competitive,” Whitten said. “It just seemed like everything jelled.”

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Duke Russell keeps pushing . . . all the way to Sacramento.

The sports activist, who has been after Mission College administrators to bring back athletics, is planning to plead his case to the Assembly’s new speaker, Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks).

“I faxed his office a letter and I’m hoping to meet with him,” Russell said.

Russell launched a crusade months ago to reinstate sports at Mission, which were cut for financial reasons in 1997.

The school announced recently it would field men’s and women’s soccer teams in the fall of 2001, and baseball and softball in the spring of 2002.

Russell wants baseball and softball in place by next spring, and communicated his wishes to the Los Angeles Community College District board at a public meeting Wednesday.

The board was not willing to force Mission to speed up things, partially because the process has to follow “shared governance” procedures as mandated of community colleges by state law.

Mission has applied for reinstatement to the WSC and Commissioner Aviva Kamin said the conference will vote on giving the school full membership at its meeting on May 17. An athletic director at a region college said it is a formality.

Kamin said spring schedules for 2001 will be finalized at the meeting, leaving insufficient time for Mission to complete the shared governance process. The school hasn’t hired an athletic director or coaches, has not recruited players and has not secured playing fields.

“We try to hold the line on [scheduling],” Kamin said. “[Scheduling] after that date, it creates a problem.”

Russell, a retired electrician who lives in Hollywood, argues the school procrastinated after interim President Tom Oliver announced several months ago Mission would reestablish a sports program.

So, even though time is running short on his quest to see baseball and softball at Mission next spring, Russell is not giving up.

“Absolutely not,” Russell said.

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Among the positions Mission must fill to reestablish a sports program is that of athletic director, and reportedly one high-profile candidate already has asked about the job.

He is Robert Arias, who held a similar post at Loyola Marymount and was a finalist last year for the position at Cal State Northridge that went to Dick Dull, a former athletic director at Maryland.

Arias’ supporters didn’t take the Northridge rejection well. They protested Dull’s hiring over Arias and called for a review of the selection process by the California State University system.

The CSU said it was a campus-based issue and Dull’s hiring stood.