Burnley, Blair Face Charges of Battery

Valencia High running back Charles Burnley, a senior and one of the top recruits on the West Coast, has been charged with two counts of battery on school grounds after allegedly assaulting two classmates in a lunchtime fight Oct. 10.

Valencia receiver Desmond Blair, also a senior, was also charged with two counts of battery on school grounds. Burnley and Blair will be arraigned Wednesday at the Sylmar Juvenile Courthouse.

“When you have one or two students assaulting one or two other students on campus with fists and shod feet, that’s serious,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Feldstern. “We get a lot of school cases, so it’s not like this is unique, but it’s certainly not a couple of kids fooling around.”

Burnley and Blair were suspended from school for five days in October and missed a game against West Hills Chaminade.

Burnley finished with 1,631 yards rushing and 16 touchdowns for the Vikings, who were eliminated by San Clemente, 31-7, in the first round of the Southern Section Division II playoffs.

Burnley is considering Oregon State and Washington State, among other schools.

-- Mike Bresnahan

With the Southern Section girls’ tennis individual tournament’s defending champion absent, several players will be looking to take advantage of the opportunity in the final rounds of play today and Friday at SeaCliff Country Club in Huntington Beach.

Anaheim Canyon sophomore Tracy Lin, who won the section singles championship over top-seeded Lindsey Nelson of Villa Park last year, decided to sit out the high school season and is not eligible to defend her title.

Nelson, a junior, is 43-0 in sets this season and won the Century League singles championship for the third year in a row.

She had beaten Lin three times last season before Lin got the better of her in the final.

“She’s ready to play,” Villa Park Coach Sherry Smith said of Nelson. “She’s hungry. That was a tough loss last year.”

Also in the title hunt are Irvine Woodbridge senior Elizabeth Exon, a semifinalist the last two seasons; Palm Desert senior Robyn Baker, a quarterfinalist the last two seasons; Amanda Fink, a much-improved sophomore from Calabasas, and Fullerton Troy freshman Cosmina Ciobanu, the U.S. Tennis Assn. girls’ 16 Southern California sectional champion.

The round of 16 and quarterfinals in singles and doubles will be played today beginning at 11:30 a.m., with the semifinals and championship matches Friday beginning at 10:30 a.m.

Lauren Peterson

Tony Wimberly, the second-year girls’ tennis coach at Pasadena Mayfield, died Tuesday of leukemia.

He was 43.

Wimberly, who was diagnosed with cancer two years ago, had been undergoing chemotherapy treatments at USC’s Norris Cancer Institute in East Los Angeles.

A memorial service will be held at Mayfield High at 3 p.m. Friday, and a funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Thomas More Catholic Church, 2510 S. Fremont Ave., Alhambra.

-- Bob Rohwer