Ex-Football Coach Goes Back to Taft

Troy Starr was officially welcomed back as football coach at Woodland Hills Taft on Monday after a one-year absence.

“I’m thrilled he’s accepted,” Principal Sharon Thomas said.

Starr, who guided Taft to the 1998 City championship and four other championship-game appearances in 11 years as coach, spent last season coaching running backs at Cal Lutheran and spending more time with his family.

But when Kevin Pearson resigned at Taft to return as coach at L.A. Cathedral, Starr jumped at the chance to return to a program that had an unbeaten freshman-sophomore team last season and that is returning many players from a 5-6 varsity squad.

“I feel refreshed and I missed the kids,” Starr said.

Pearson coached at Cathedral for eight years. He replaces Javier Cid, whose contract was not renewed, said Cathedral Athletic Director Robert Morales. Cid, a former Cathedral assistant under Pearson, was 5-5, and the Phantoms missed the playoffs last year in his only season.

Pearson went 84-16 in eight years at Cathedral from 1995-2002.

-- Lauren Peterson

and Eric Sondheimer

Boys’ Basketball

Compton Centennial continues to prove its games are more than the Arron Afflalo show.

The fifth-ranked Apaches defeated No. 7 L.A. Crenshaw, 75-53, at the California Hoops Challenge.

Senior forward Chris Berry had 25 points and 14 rebounds to keep the Apaches close until Afflalo found his shooting touch in the third quarter. Berry also was Centennial’s leading scorer in two of its three Bay/Ocean League crossover games last week.

Afflalo, who has signed with UCLA, had a team-high 27 points.

-- Dan Arritt

Girls’ Basketball

In the first week of the season, Mission Hills Alemany lost to its Mission League rival, North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake, 59-53.

But when the two meet tonight in a Mission League game, Alemany will have a vastly different look. D’Seanda Trotter, a 5-foot-11 freshman forward, is now in the starting lineup. Trotter made her starting debut last Tuesday with 19 points and 11 rebounds in a 65-44 victory over Valencia.

During the varsity’s first 12 games, Trotter was on the junior varsity, where she learned Alemany’s system, playing all five positions.

“She’s ready,” Coach Brandie Murrish said. “She can step in and execute.”

-- Martin Henderson

Boys’ Soccer

It would be an overstatement to say Anaheim Servite has Santa Ana Mater Dei’s number based on the Friars’ 1-0 victory over the host Monarchs in a Serra League opener Friday. But Servite is 2-0-2 against Mater Dei over the last two seasons.

In addition to Friday’s result, Servite defeated Mater Dei in a shootout in a quarterfinal game of the Southern Section Division I playoffs last season.

Friday’s victory came four days after Servite (14-6-1) lost to La Verne Damien, 4-0, in the championship game of the Anaheim Canyon tournament. But Servite Coach Mike Lussier was not surprised.

“It’s never a problem to get them to focus on [Mater Dei],” he said. “I think we match up pretty well against them. Against Damien, I can’t say that my guys were dialed in.”

Girls’ Soccer

Ten months and seven combined losses later, San Clemente and Mission Viejo meet again. Much has changed for the Southern Section Division I co-champions, who meet at 3:15 p.m. today at Mission Viejo.

The Tritons (8-2-4, 0-0-1), ranked No. 1 in the Southland by The Times, had two losses early in the season but have rebounded, winning the Santa Ana Foothill Excalibur tournament in late December. They tied Mission Viejo Trabuco Hills, 2-2, on Thursday in their South Coast League opener.

Mission Viejo (5-5-2, 1-0) has only five starters back from its championship team. The Diablos are coming off a 2-1 victory over Lake Forest El Toro in their first league game.

-- Elia Powers

Wrestling

Norine Cruz of West Covina pinned all three opponents, including Santa Monica’s Jazzy Green at 5:28 in the final, to take first in the 98-pound weight class and earn most valuable wrestler honors for the lower weights at the Thousand Oaks girls’ tournament Saturday. The one-day invitational featured 108 female entrants from California.

Christy Santchi of Thousand Oaks had two pins, including a fall in the first period over Hesperia’s Mayte Saldana in the finals, to win at 114.

-- Rafer Weigel