Boyd Is Busy Following Mom’s Train of Thought

In a competition for coolest mom, Kathy Boyd possesses several qualities that might propel her to No. 1.

First, she loves to eat sunflower seeds at baseball games, which endears her to any teenage boy who doesn’t wear braces.

Second and most importantly, she’s a personal trainer who can run up hills and lift weights as well as any 17-year-old.

Just ask her son, Chad, a junior pitcher at Woodland Hills El Camino Real. He’s one of the few players who gets to say that his mom serves as his workout coach.

“The good thing is you have time to work out,” Chad said. “The bad thing is when you don’t want to work out, you’re working out or you’re not leaving the house.”

Kathy trains professional athletes and such celebrities as Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the syndicated talk-radio host. She has done infomercials and led teams through conditioning drills.

This month, she’s trying to prepare her son for the baseball season by strengthening his triceps, deltoids and abdominal muscles with workouts three nights a week at home.

“I haven’t known any other women training their kid,” Kathy said. “It’s definitely a role reversal.”

But the dad of the house, Mike Boyd, a former pitcher at Sun Valley Poly, doesn’t mind. He handles the pitching questions and leaves the physical workouts to the expert, his wife.

Of course, Kathy has encountered her share of skeptical teenage boys when she shows up for the first time to guide them in a workout. It happened last month when she was working with four baseball players from another school.

“They thought, ‘What? We’ve got a girl training me?’ When they were through, it was the best workout they had. That speaks for itself,” she said. “I think I get a lot out of boys and men because they don’t want the embarrassment of a girl telling them to do something and then they can’t do it.”

Kathy became a fitness fanatic 10 years ago after undergoing neck surgery because of an injury suffered in an automobile accident. She doesn’t allow dairy products in her home. If Chad wants a pizza, he better eat it out of her sight.

Baseball is the sport she has studied and enjoys the most.

“I could be out all day at the baseball field,” she said. “I truly love it.”

When she shows up at a game with a bag of sunflower seeds, she’ll gladly offer to share. But she’ll also put a bunch in her mouth and spit them out with the vigor of any male counterpart.

“She’s weird,” Chad said, “but she’s my mom.”

A cool mom, indeed.

*

Brandon Christianson of Valencia, the Foothill League golfer of the year last season as a sophomore, has committed to UCLA even though he’s a year away from enrolling.

*

After having a swim team since the 1960s, North Hollywood High has dropped the sport. The local YMCA wanted to charge too much for pool use and couldn’t supply adequate practice times, assistant principal Casey Browne said.

But North Hollywood didn’t exactly go out of its way to search for a pool replacement. So far, no outcry, which means no swim team.

*

If you want to play for a baseball team that doesn’t shy away from competition, try Santa Ana Mater Dei.

The Monarchs have a three-game stretch next month in which they play a nonleague game against Westminster La Quinta then play Serra League games against La Puente Bishop Amat and Santa Margarita, which is led by hard-throwing right-hander Jared Hughes.

Mater Dei Coach Burt Call had better have a good No. 3 pitcher.

*

Lost in this last week’s recruiting news was the announcement by USC Coach Pete Carroll that receiver Greig Carlson, a former walk-on from Palisades, had been awarded a scholarship.

It was vindication for Carlson’s hard work and belief that he could play NCAA Division I football.

“I guess I controlled my own destiny for what it took to make it,” Carlson said.

*

The City Section will hold its seeding meeting for boys’ basketball Saturday. There should be little suspense about the top seeds.

No. 1 goes to the winner of the coin flip between Fairfax and Westchester. No. 2 goes to the loser of the coin flip between Fairfax and Westchester. No. 3 goes to Marine League champion Carson. No. 4 goes to Coliseum League champion Crenshaw.

After that, nothing matters, because it’s going to be Fairfax vs. Westchester in the City final on March 8 at the Forum.

The Southern Section will announce its basketball seedings next Sunday.

*

Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com