Ties Don’t Go to the Coaches

Coaches and players involved in myriad ties in Southern Section championship soccer games Saturday lamented the inability to resolve the deadlocks.

Most left unsatisfied after four of six girls’ games and two of the six boys’ finals were played to a draw because Southern Section rules stipulate that no overtime periods or penalty-kick shootouts be used to decide a champion.

“The kids want to play overtime. End of story,” Mission Viejo Coach Susie Daher said after her team settled for a 1-1 tie with San Clemente in the Division I girls’ championship game.

“I’m not a complainer and I hate to be the one to bring it up, but there should be overtime or something.”

There is in the City Section, where Los Angeles Locke beat Van Nuys Grant, 2-1, in overtime for the boys’ championship and Woodland Hills El Camino Real defeated Granada Hills, 1-0, in sudden-death overtime for the girls’ title Saturday at UCLA.

And as recently as 1994, Southern Section teams played two 10-minute overtime periods in finals.

Then, if teams were still tied after that, they were declared co-champions.

“That’s when it really comes down to a championship, is if you can win at the end, when conditioning and heart and things like that really come into play,” said co-Coach Lorraine Hansen of Walnut, which finished in a scoreless tie with Costa Mesa in the Division III final. “A lot of our girls were really upset.”

In accordance with a vote of school principals and athletic directors on the Southern Section Council, however, extra time in finals was eliminated in 1995 in an apparent attempt to prevent the kind of back-up of consecutive games that would have occurred Saturday.

“The schools voted on it, and we follow their rules,” said Karen Hellyer, Southern Section assistant commissioner in charge of soccer.

“I think the coaching fraternity likes it. We had some very happy people here today.”

Scott DeGraff, who has headed the Walnut High girls’ soccer team for the last six seasons, coached his last game with the Mustangs on Saturday night at Cal State Fullerton.

“It was a great way to end it,” a smiling DeGraff said after Walnut (20-4-6) and Costa Mesa (22-1-3) played to a scoreless tie for the Southern Section Division III championship, the Mustangs first appearance in a final.

DeGraff, a walk-on coach, resigned because of time constraints and conflicts with his job as a supervisor of a glass company in the City of Industry.

Hansen, who served as co-coach this season in preparation for DeGraff’s exit, will guide the team next season.

Adrienne Binder had used the swimming times of 2000 Olympic bronze medalist Kaitlin Sandeno as a barometer for her career. Now, however, she’s starting to chase those produced by four-time Olympic gold medalist Janet Evans.

Binder, a senior at Santa Barbara San Marcos, came within 3.3 seconds of breaking Evans’ 13-year-old U.S. record in the 1,650 freestyle on March 2 at the Speedo Champions Series at the Commerce Natatorium.

Binder, 17, won the event in 15:42.44, nearly breaking the U.S. record of 15:39.14, set while Evans was a freshman at Stanford in 1990. Evans graduated from Placentia El Dorado in 1989.

Sandeno, who starred at Lake Forest El Toro from 1998 to 2001 and won her medal in the 800 freestyle at the Sydney Olympics, won the 1,650 in 15:54.41 last week while swimming for USC at the Pacific 10 Conference women’s swimming and diving meet in Federal Way, Wash.

Binder, who finished second to Sandeno in the 500 freestyle at the Southern Section Division I finals as a freshman and sophomore, hopes to break Sandeno’s Division I record of 4:39.64 this spring.

Binder won the event at the section finals last season in 4:42.75.

-- Dan Arritt

Jacqueline Fisher, a girls’ soccer player from Flintridge Sacred Heart, has been selected one of the California Interscholastic Federation’s Spirit of Sport award winners for the winter season.

The award, which also was given to Michael Fujinaka, a wrestler from Stockton St. Mary’s, recognizes student-athletes who have demonstrated the principles of “Pursuing Victory With Honor,” are leaders in their schools and communities.

Finalists from the Southland were Christina Garcia of Huntington Beach Marina, Jennifer Katsuyama of Brea Olinda, Meridith McColl of Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley, Allyson Sia of Garden Grove Rancho Alamitos, Lindsey Shiomi of Whittier Christian, Armen Derian of Canoga Park Armenian General and Elex Michaelson of Agoura.