Poway the Team to Beat at Five Counties Wrestling

Poway established itself as the team to beat after the first day of the Five Counties Invitational wrestling tournament Friday at Fountain Valley High.

Poway, ranked No. 1 in the state by the California Wrestler newsletter, has 79.5 points, two ahead of Santa Ana and three ahead of Turlock in the 69-team tournament that is considered among the top wrestling tournaments in the nation. Poway has a tournament-high eight wrestlers in the quarterfinals, which begin at 9 a.m. today.

The first three rounds were devoid of major surprises as the top four seeded wrestlers advanced to the quarterfinals in all but two weight classes. Tom Le of Los Alamitos scored the biggest upset of the day, a 13-5 decision over No. 3-seeded Jesse Ruiz of Santa Ana Valley, 13-5, in the third round of the 171-pound division. Anthony Gonzalez of Merced, seeded No. 2 at 145, withdrew because of an injury.

Santa Ana, Vacaville, Bakersfield and Santa Ana Calvary Chapel each had six wrestlers advance to the quarterfinals.

-- Peter Yoon

A San Gabriel Gabrielino High football player is slowly emerging from a coma and has shown physical signs of recovery, taking his first steps with assistance earlier this week.

Andrew Castillo lost consciousness during the fourth quarter of a game against Burbank on Oct. 4, collapsing on the sideline that night after complaining of blurred vision, dizziness and a headache. He subsequently had multiple surgeries to relieve blood clots in his brain.

Castillo recently began showing signs of recovery, blinking his eyes upon command and showing thumbs up or thumbs down in response to questions. He is smiling but not speaking, said his lawyer, Gary Dordick, a Beverly Hills-based attorney.

“It’s rare to see this type of progress when someone was comatose for over a month,” Dordick said.

-- Mike Bresnahan

The Southern California Shootout today at Azusa Pacific’s Felix Events Center includes nine boys’ basketball games and three teams in The Times’ rankings.

No. 1 Santa Ana Mater Dei plays No. 21 Diamond Bar in the featured evening-session game at 9 p.m., and No. 18 Walnut plays La Puente Bishop Amat in the featured day-session game at 3 p.m.

Tickets for the day session are $5. Evening session tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for students and $5 for children. Proceeds benefit Rowland and Nogales high schools.

-- Ben Bolch

Agoura girls’ basketball coach Bruce Smith has been fired and replaced on an interim basis by Josh Jacobs.

According to a published report, Smith allegedly left six players unattended on the team bus for about 45 minutes after it had broken down off Highway 101 on its way to the Burbank Burroughs tournament last month. Smith and five starting players continued to the game in a car driven by a parent. Upon arrival, Smith sent Jacobs, the junior varsity coach, back for the other players.

Smith had originally been suspended for two games but was fired after school officials met with the players after winter break.

Vincent Smith has resigned as football coach at L.A. Locke to relocate his family and explore coaching elsewhere.