Fires Force Schools to Alter Schedules

Ash and air quality from Southern California wildfires continued to postpone football games Monday. Coupled with a Southern Section rule that doesn’t allow for more than two games in an eight-day span, it has created an impacted schedule for teams in the Baseline, Mountain View and Sunkist leagues.

The quirky schedule means teams in the Mountain View League, as well as two from the Sunkist League, will play four games in a 15-day span from Friday -Nov. 14.

Baseline League games that had been scheduled for Monday will instead be played today. La Puente Bishop Amat High will be the site of a doubleheader involving Alta Loma and Etiwanda at 4 p.m. and Rancho Cucamonga Los Osos and Upland at 7. Rancho Cucamonga plays Claremont at San Marino High at 7 p.m.

Baseline League games scheduled for this Thursday and Friday have been moved to Saturday.

Mountain View League games scheduled for Monday have been postponed until Nov. 10, and games scheduled for Nov. 6-7 have been moved to Nov. 5.

A Sunkist League game involving Riverside King and Riverside Rubidoux scheduled for Monday has been postponed to Nov. 10.

San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Douglas Elwell is expected to rule today whether former Rialto Eisenhower football coach Glenn Thompkins will be tried on charges that he had an unlawful sexual relationship with an underage female student.

Thompkins, 27, has pleaded not guilty to 14 counts related to the charges. Details of the case have not been made public because of the nature of the accusations and the age of the alleged victim.

Testimony from the lone witness, Det. Kris Arthur, the investigating officer from the Rialto Police Department, concluded on Friday in the pre-trial hearing.

If found guilty on all counts, Thompkins could face up to 11 years and eight months in prison and be required to register as a sex offender.

Martin Henderson

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Santa Ana Mater Dei plans to retire the jersey of its late setter, Andrea (Andi) Collins, in ceremonies before today’s Serra League match with visiting Santa Margarita. Collins died Sept. 4, a month before her 17th birthday, after a long bout with cancer.

Mater Dei players have draped Collins’ No. 54 jersey over a chair during matches this season as a tribute to their fallen teammate. According to a school official, one of Collins’ jerseys will go to her family and another will be enshrined in the athletic hall of fame on campus.

Paul McLeod

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The site for the Southern Section team finals has been switched to Indian Hills Golf Club in Riverside because of a conflict at Desert Willow Golf Resort.

The Nov. 13 team finals were originally scheduled for the Mountain View Course, one of two 18-hole layouts at Desert Willow. Because the resort will close down the Firecliff Course for reseeding on Nov. 10, the Mountain View course will be the only source of revenue for the resort.

Resort officials were not willing to give up the course, forcing section officials to scramble to find another course and putting a wrench in the plans of teams that had scheduled practice rounds at Desert Willow.

“It’s a good thing they told us now,” San Clemente Coach Mike Hurlbut said. “We were going to go out there next weekend. It’ll be much easier to get to Indian Hills.”

Indian Hills is a 5,562-yard par 70 with a slope of 120 and a rating of 72.5. The Desert Willow Mountain View course is 4,997 yards with a par of 72, a slope of 116 and a rating of 68.9.

Peter Yoon

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When discussing Mt. San Antonio College’s cross-country course, it’s difficult not to mention the three major hills that runners must ascend on the rugged 2.91-mile layout.

Yet it is the descent of the final hill -- known as Reservoir Hill -- with a half-mile left in the race that might be as crucial a point as any on the course.

That was obvious in the Mt. SAC Invitational on Saturday when the individual winners of three of the four sweepstakes races wrested the lead from their competitors after cresting the hill in second place.

Dylan Jaedtke of Simi Valley Royal won the boys’ team sweepstakes race after spurting past Jonathan Cardenas of Reno (Nev.) 50 meters into his descent of Reservoir Hill.

Mark Matusak of Los Angeles Loyola won the boys’ individual sweepstakes after surging past Mohamed Trafeh of Duarte on nearly the same portion of the course.

Rachel Bryan of Elk Grove Laguna Creek made a similar move past Claire Rethmeier of Escondido San Pasqual in the girls’ individual sweepstakes.

“I tried to push it on the downhill strong and it worked,” Jaedtke said of his surge.

John Ortega

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Infielder Randy Molina of South Gate, who was All-City last season, has committed to Stanford.