Poly to Dedicate Field in Honor of Ex-Coach

Poly High will dedicate its baseball field in honor of former coach Jerry Cord during ceremonies at 12:20 p.m. next Wednesday at the Sun Valley campus.

Cord coached the Parrots from 1975-92, guiding them to three appearances in the City Championship game at Dodger Stadium. He was the school’s first student body president and became a teacher there in 1967. He retired earlier this year.

The public is invited.

BASEBALL

* Designated hitter Jason Botts of Glendale College signed with the Texas Rangers and will report to extended spring training in Port Charlotte, Fla., next Wednesday.

Botts, who was drafted in the 46th round last June, batted .356 with 12 doubles, 15 home runs and 46 runs batted in for the Vaqueros this season.

* Pitchers Josh Higgins and Mike Ploharz, and catcher Mike Wertz of The Master’s College were selected to the NAIA All-Region II team.

Shortstop Ty Sager of the Mustangs received honorable mention.

* Community activist Duke Russell spent Tuesday faxing 39 petitions with nearly 400 signatures to state leaders in hopes of restoring baseball and softball to Mission College by next spring.

Russell held a rally Friday at San Fernando High and extolled community members, players and coaches from Kennedy, San Fernando and Sylmar highs to spend the weekend collecting signatures.

Leaders who received faxes included Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, who represents the communities surrounding Mission College, Chancellor Tom Nussbaum of the state community college system, and Tom Oliver, interim president of Mission College.

Oliver said Mission College is planning to resume a sports program in the school year of 2001-02. The college had cut all sports in 1997 because of budget constraints. Men’s and women’s soccer would begin in the fall of 2001 and baseball and softball would begin in the spring of 2002.

Russell has said that waiting a fourth year for baseball and softball to return is unfair to student-athletes, but he has met resistance from the Los Angeles Community College board of trustees, the Western State Conference and lawmakers.

GOLF

Steve Holmes of Van Nuys shot six-under-par 66 in U.S. Open qualifying at Saticoy Country Club in Somis.

Brandon DiTullio of Thousand Oaks and Tom Stankowski of Oxnard tied for second at 70, followed by Mitch Voges of Simi Valley at 71 and Jon Fiedler of Camarillo.

All qualified for sectional qualifying June 5 at Lake Merced Golf and Country Club in Daly City. The 100th U.S. Open will be played June 15-18 at Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Mark Singer of Moorpark shot one-over-par 73 to finish among the qualifiers at La Purisima Golf Course in Lompoc.

BASKETBALL

* Four sites in the Valley will play host to Youth Shootout 2000, an event featuring 30 of the top club and AAU teams in Southern California.

Boys’ age-group games, ranging from 9-and-under to 15-and-under divisions, will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Sherman Oaks CES, San Fernando High, Valley Plaza Recreation Center in North Hollywood and Byrd Middle School in Sun Valley.