AREA COLLEGE NOTEBOOK

If the sounds blaring from the speakers in the Valley College gym sound a little like those at the Rose Garden in Portland, Ore., home of the Trail Blazers, there’s a good reason.

Valley has a $7,000 sound-delivery system purchased from the Trail Blazers stocked with an array of noises and songs. The Monarchs first used the system during football games in the fall.

“It has everything you want on it,” said Dale Beck, Valley’s sports information director and public-address announcer. “This is top of the line.”

The system can even bang out the dreaded “Macarena,” which Beck mercifully doesn’t usually play.

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Pierce is fielding a women’s soccer team in the fall, but Athletic Director Bob Lyons said plans to bring back men’s basketball remain on hold.

Lyons said he proposed to Pierce President Rocky Young resurrecting men’s basketball next season and starting women’s soccer, but Young approved only half of the plan.

“Men’s basketball is in the back burner,” Lyons said.

Young is taking calls from anyone interested in coaching the women’s soccer team.

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Antelope Valley was part of the state’s Stage 3 electrical emergency on Wednesday, with the school shutting off most of its power.

“We are sitting here in the dark,” said John Taylor, women’s basketball coach. “I have two kids shooting around in the gym with the doors open.”