Pierce Won’t Have Throwaway Season

One losing season after another piles up for Pierce College sports teams, but better days are around the corner.

It’s almost time for baseball.

The Brahmas open the 2000 season next month with their deepest pitching staff in several years.

“We’re cautiously optimistic,” Coach Bob Lofrano said in his best Lou Holtz sandbagging impersonation.

Pierce’s rotation includes Jack Cassel, Traviss Hodge and Doug Slaten. The group is so strong, Lofrano can shift All-Western State Conference starter Wes Crown to closer.

“He’ll play center field and relieve,” Lofrano said of Crown. “Like what Cal State Fullerton did with Mark Kotsay.”

Kotsay, an outfielder with the Florida Marlins, led the Titans to the College World Series championship in 1995.

Cassel, a right-handed transfer from Loyola Marymount, was an All-City player at Kennedy High. He played at Kennedy with Crown, a left-hander who was 6-1 in WSC play last season.

Hodge, a right-hander from Highland by way of Loyola Marymount, was 3-5 for the Brahmas last year. Slaten is a left-handed transfer from Glendale. Hodge was drafted last summer by the Dodgers, Slaten by Baltimore.

If the Brahmas can spot those guys some runs, they’ll be hard to beat.

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The same can’t be said for other Pierce teams.

This school year, Pierce was 1-9 in football, 2-15 in women’s volleyball and 0-12 in men’s water polo.

Now, the women’s basketball team is getting squashed. For yet another season.

On Wednesday night, the Brahmas dropped to 2-17 after losing to Ventura, 105-13.

Granted, the Pirates are 25-0, ranked No. 1 in California and contenders for the state championship.

But when will Pierce administrators get serious about the school’s sports teams? When will they throw them a lifeline?

Lofrano is the only coach who is a full-time instructor at Pierce.

“I have that advantage. It’s easy for me to recruit,” Lofrano said. “A kid comes to Pierce and knows it’s a competitive situation.”

His fellow coaches are not so fortunate.

It’s nearly impossible for Jim Couch, the women’s basketball coach, or David Banuelos, the football coach, or any other Pierce walk-on coach to establish a winning program.

Athletes want coaches who are accessible throughout the day. Potential recruits take one look at Pierce and run elsewhere.

It’s no wonder there are signs all over campus trying to recruit women’s basketball players--in midseason.

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Here’s a good opportunity to see two promising major leaguers up close.

Just mosey down to the Cal State Northridge alumni game on Sunday.

Former Matadors Adam Kennedy, an infielder with the St. Louis Cardinals, and Robert Fick, a catcher with the Detroit Tigers, are scheduled to appear.

They’ll be joined by Lenny Dykstra, the former New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies outfielder.

Dykstra and Matador Coach Mike Batesole were teammates at Garden Grove High in 1980-81 and Dykstra’s son, Gavin, is a freshman infielder at Northridge. He played at Conestoga High in Devon, Pa.

A home run derby at 11 a.m. precedes the game at 1 p.m.

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What are the chances?

The Valley men’s and women’s basketball teams each have a player named Lang, and they are not related.

Felix Lang is from Hamilton High and Jillian Lang is from Granada Hills. They are sophomore forwards.

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Maybe Shaquille O’Neal can get some tips from Glendale’s Nate Johnson and Clayton Powdrill.

Johnson, a freshman forward from Muir, leads WSC men in free-throw shooting at 88.5% (23 of 26). Powdrill, a sophomore guard from Kennedy, is shooting 76.8% (63 of 82).