Jerro Applauded for Holding Firm

Goodness gracious, there’s some integrity left at Cal State Northridge.

It was displayed this week by Frozena Jerro, the women’s basketball coach, who didn’t give in to star player Edniesha Curry’s tantrum.

The two met Tuesday to discuss why Curry quit the team last week, apparently in a huff over criticism from Jerro and her assistants after a game a few days earlier.

Jerro said the talk was amicable, but nothing changed. Curry is gone.

Perhaps Curry, the school’s best player ever, expected Jerro to buckle. Perhaps she expected the second-year coach to make concessions so the Matadors could seriously defend their Big Sky Conference title.

With Curry at point guard, the Matadors could repeat and make the NCAA playoffs for the second time in school history. Without her, they lose at home to the likes of Weber State, a team with a convenience store record: 7-11.

That’s what happened Jan. 27, when Northridge fell by two points to the Wildcats. Curry and roommate Jamilah Jones, who also quit but is expected to return, watched from the stands.

It was Curry’s way of saying, “See, you can’t win without me.”

Maybe not, but the players who stayed are winners for other reasons. They didn’t abandon ship. They didn’t bail because, horror of horrors, a coach got in their face.

If players quit every time a coach barks at them, most teams would fold, their rosters reduced to those with titanium skin.

That’s not to say coaches have free reign to abuse players, to degrade them in front of teammates or, worse, in public. There’s no room in sports for bullies like Bob Knight.

But nothing suggests Jerro is the women’s version of Knight or even Pat Summitt, the intimidating women’s coach at Tennessee. Not remotely close.

Curry could have transferred after the season and taken her superb skills to a more prominent program. That would have been fair to all concerned.

But she showed poor judgment and by walking out on her teammates, her friends.

The same goes for Jones, a senior who said she “needed a break.” How about in March, when the season is over?

Some programs undoubtedly are eyeing Curry, prepared to justify taking a chance on a 5-foot-6 point guard with a 7-foot ego. Those are the programs where principles trail far behind winning at all cost.

Maybe Curry will grow up before she joins one of them.

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Former Northridge quarterback and assistant Aaron Flowers, an assistant at Montana State, says he wasn’t responsible for finding Moorpark quarterback Farhaad Azimi.

But Flowers is taking credit for luring Azimi to Bozeman.

“I had no idea Moorpark had a quarterback until two weeks ago,” Flowers said. “We thought we were getting a [Division I-A] transfer and that didn’t pan out. We started beating the bushes and found [Azimi].

“Basically, he wanted to play at a place where he would be featured and play right away, and our situation and his situation fit together.”

Flowers said Azimi, who signed with Montana State on Wednesday, is the projected starter.

Azimi, who attended Rio Mesa High, passed for 2,280 yards and 23 touchdowns at Moorpark last season.

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Freshman center Chris Massie is attracting NBA bigwigs to Oxnard games.

Last week, Lakers Vice President Jerry West and General Manager Mitch Kupchak watched Massie play against Hancock.

“They watched until the four-minute mark [of the second half] and left,” Oxnard Coach Ron McClurkin said.

Massie, 6-8 and 255 pounds, came to Oxnard from his hometown of Houston. He didn’t play basketball in high school but is making an impact with the Condors, averaging 21 points and 14.3 rebounds.

McClurkin laughed when asked if West and Kupchak were at the game to scout someone else.

“They didn’t come to see me,” McClurkin said. “They have Phil Jackson now. They don’t need to come see me anymore.”

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Dan Ricabal, a double-A pitcher for the Dodgers and San Francisco Giants through last season, is the new pitching coach at Canyons.

Ricabal replaces Chris Zavatsky, who left Canyons to become head coach at Glendale.

The right-hander played at Cerritos in 1991-92 and at Cal State Fullerton in 1993-94. He signed with the Dodgers as a free agent in 1994 and retired after last season.

“When the Dodgers released me last spring, I started thinking about coaching,” Ricabal said. “The Giants released me [during the season] and I knew my career was over. I came to grips with that.”

USC Coach Mike Gillespie, a former Canyons coach, recommended Ricabal to Canyons Coach Len Mohney.

“I’ve gotten calls about pitching in independent leagues, but I wouldn’t give this up for anything,” Ricabal said.

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Bob Burt, former Northridge football coach who has won 44 games in five seasons at Temescal Canyon High, doesn’t hold a soft spot in his heart for Northridge.

“I’ve gone to heaven and I’m glad to be out of that joke,” Burt said.