Seals Play Waves in A-League Soccer Tonight
The Orange County Waves, who find themselves in a three-way tie for second place in the A-League’s Pacific Division, host the Bay Area Seals tonight at 7 at Santa Ana Stadium.
The Waves are coming off a 2-1 road loss to El Paso (8-6-1), which moved into a second-place tie with the victory. Orange County (8-8-1) is also tied with Seattle (7-5-3), each with 37 points. San Diego (9-5-1) is in first place with 41 points.
The Waves are led by forward Jason Boyce, who is third in the league in scoring with 22 points (seven goals, eight assists). Orange County is 18th out of the A-League’s 24 teams in home attendance with an average of 1,071.
GOLF
Steve Conway of Irvine and Breene Murphy of Los Alamitos each shot 68 in the final round of the AJGA tournament at Mission Hills Thursday at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage and finished in a tie for second place.
Kevin Na of Diamond Bar shot 71-68-66--205 for a three-shot victory.
Ina Kim of Encino shot a course-record eight-under-par 64 in the final round of the girls’ tournament and won her third national tournament in four weeks.
Her 211 total was five strokes better than runner-up Yvonne Choe of Temple City. Angela Rho of Fullerton, the two-time defending champion at Mission Hills, shot 77-75-73--225 and finished eighth.
COLLEGES
Martin Gonzalez has been hired as cross-country and track and field coach for the men’s and women’s programs at Concordia.
Gonzalez, 30, from Magnolia High, spent the last 6 1/2 years as an assistant at Adams State in Alamosa, Colo.
“I’ve looked forward to coming home and building my own program,” Gonzalez said. “I’ll work hard to get Concordia national recognition for both its cross-country and track programs.”
Adams State won nine consecutive NCAA Division II women’s cross-country titles and has won 16 men’s titles.
Gonzalez replaces Joan Hansen-Lester, who resigned last month.
SOCCER
Kerry Crooks has been named women’s soccer coach at Vanguard. Crooks has been a Lions’ assistant the last two seasons and has been the varsity coach at Edison High since 1991, compiling a 149-58-29 record and winning three Sunset league titles.
Crooks played at Edison and later UC Irvine, where she was team captain. She was named Anteater of the Year in 1992 and most inspirational player as a senior in 1993.
“It’s exactly what I’d planned as far as goals, but it happened earlier than I expected,” Crooks said. “I came from a [Division 1] school, so I’m familiar with that situation, but I like the smaller school atmosphere at Vanguard.”
Vanguard was 11-9 last season with only one senior.
She will teach classes in Exercise Sports Science at Vanguard, and continue coaching at Edison High.
* Jason Surrell has been promoted to head coach of the women’s team at Azusa Pacific, a program that went 41-3-3 the last two seasons and won the 1998 NAIA national championship.
Surrell, who played at Irvine High, spent the last four seasons as Azusa Pacific’s top assistant. He was the primary recruiter of this year’s senior class, which includes three of the program’s all-time top five scorers.
Eleven players return from a team that finished 17-3-2 last season, including six starters. Surrell takes over for Christian Johnson, who resigned last week to become the men’s and women’s coach at Cal State San Bernardino.
Surrell was an All-Golden State Athletic Conference player at Azusa Pacific, where he graduated in 1996 with a degree in social science. He also coached at Covina South Hills, directing the Huskies to a Southern Section title in 1997.
ADMINISTRATION
Scott Bowman has announced that he will resign as Concordia’s sports information director effective July 28 to accept a position with NASCAR. Bowman was at Concordia for four seasons and won 13 publications awards, including “Best in the Nation” for media guides for the 1998-99 men’s basketball, and the last two baseball teams.
He will move to NASCAR’s headquarters in Daytona Beach, Fla., where he will assist with the Winston Cup and Busch Grand National stock-car programs.