Coaching Rules Need to Be Fair to That Sex

There are always lessons for young people to learn, says Bill Resler, a college tax law professor who is also a high school girls’ basketball coach in Seattle. Resler is the subject of a documentary film, “The Heart of the Game,” opening Thursday in Los Angeles and New York.

Resler, who says that he worships John Wooden and that 80% of what he does comes from Wooden’s books, won a state championship in 2003. But he says his job as a coach is always in jeopardy.

“Every year, there is some kind of parent revolt,” he said at a news conference in Los Angeles. “I have parents who come to me and say, ‘You need to have more rules for the girls; they’re too young to set their own rules.’

“And that is why you have them set their own rules, because they are young.”

*

Trivia time: The French Open is one of tennis’ four Gland Slam events. Pete Sampras holds the men’s record for most Grand Slam singles titles with 14. Who holds the women’s record?

*

The last to know: Houston Astros Manager Phil Garner, a weekly guest on a Fox Sports Radio network show with Craig Shemon and James Washington, was on the show the day the Astros signed Roger Clemens last week.

But Garner didn’t have much to offer, saying he was getting his news from the newspaper.

Houston General Manager Tim Purpura was on the show the next day and was asked why he hadn’t given his manager the good news a little sooner.

“The only thing that held us up from telling Phil about it was he was [going] on the radio with you guys,” Purpura said.

*

No escaping it: Matt Leinart attended a football camp in Santa Barbara last weekend put on by quarterback guru Steve Clarkson.

When Clarkson presented an award for passing to John Manoogian, a sophomore quarterback from Windward High in West L.A., someone quipped, “It would have meant more if Paris Hilton gave it to him.”

*

Name game: “That ‘D’ in Phoenix Suns Coach Mike D’Antoni’s name,” wrote David Thomas of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I don’t think that stands for ‘Defense.’ ”

*

Looking back: On this day in 1988, Steffi Graf defeated 17-year-old Natalia Zvereva in 32 minutes, 6-0, 6-0, to win the French Open women’s title for the second consecutive year. Graf lost only 13 points in the match.

*

Trivia answer: Margaret Court with 24. She won 11 Australian Open singles titles, five French Opens, three Wimbledons and five U.S. Opens.

*

And finally: Danny Almonte made international headlines in 2001 when, as a New York Little League star pitcher, it was revealed that he was 14, two years older than the age limit for a Little Leaguer.

Recently, it became known that Almonte is married to a 30-year-old woman.

Wrote reader Bill Littlejohn: “Boy, just when you think that you’ve seen the last of Anna Nicole Smith.”

Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.