Marden Gives New Meaning to Burnout

It may not be nice to fool with Mother Nature, but as San Fernando baseball Coach Steve Marden discovered, it is even worse to mess with the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

In his younger, more reckless days at San Fernando, Marden rarely conceded defeat when confronted with a rain-saturated field. His methods for making it playable, however, were rarely routine.

“If I thought it was an important, critical game,” he said, “I’d really see if we could get it in.”

The thing is, Marden isn’t the average scoop-some-sawdust-on-the-basepaths type. Five years ago, he arranged for a huge fan--not an overweight booster, but the kind that blows--to be brought in.

“I tried to secure a helicopter from the U. S. Army,” Marden said. “I thought that if we could get it to hover over the field for a while, things would have dried out. It could have worked, but they said something about the school being in the flight path of Whiteman Airport.”

Yeah, funny how those people at the Federal Aviation Administration are touchy about mid-air collisions.

Undaunted, Marden and his assistants devised another way to dry the field. This method also served to fan the flame of authority.

“We took 20 gallons of gasoline and spread it out over the infield,” he said. “We were looking for anything to get rid of that mud so we could play.”

Great idea, if you’re into the smudge-pot motif. When Marden tossed a match onto the basepaths, the resulting smoke was visible for miles, prompting a visit from the fire department--replete with trucks, flashing red lights and ladder. Everything but Sparky the Dalmatian.

“I keep telling the administrators here that their jobs are cake,” Marden said, laughing. “They need something to shake them up every once in a while.”

Marden tried the gasoline routine a second time, but the fire marshall was, well, a tad less understanding.

“He said if I ever did it again that the principal and I were going to be cellmates,” Marden said. “He was talking jail term.”

‘Land fill: For a couple of reasons, Cleveland senior Joey Manliguis didn’t mind admitting that his tongue was hanging out after Friday night’s Greater San Fernando Valley all-star basketball game between City and Southern Section teams at Cal State Northridge.

For one, Manliguis, a 5-11 guard, played forward for the last few minutes of the game. Secondly, the quarters were 12 minutes long, not the regulation eight, meaning the game was essentially three halves long.

“We were all dying,” Manliguis said. “We must be out of shape now that the season’s over--we’re all getting pot bellies.”

All five Cleveland players on the City Section team were inserted into the lineup in the final minute, with Manliguis and 6-0 point guard Damon Greer playing low post and Richard Branham (6-4, 205), a Times All-Valley forward, playing point guard.

Branham at point?

“That was fun out there,” Manliguis said. “We all got to cut loose a little bit.”

The Cleveland five--Michael Gray (25 points), Damon Charlot (21), Branham (19), Manliguis (8) and Greer (5)--did most of the scoring for the City in its 136-121 win.

High voltage opinion: It was obvious that something unusual was taking place at Taft on Thursday.

Track Coach Tom Stevenson, who is normally outfitted in tennis shoes, shorts, a baseball cap and sunglasses, was not only sporting long pants, but dress slacks, which complemented his red Taft sweater and dress shoes.

Heck, Stevenson’s hair was even combed.

“I bet you never thought you’d see me dressed like this,” Stevenson quipped as he greeted a reporter when Taft sprinter Quincy Watts announced at a press conference that he would attend USC next fall. “This might be a first.”

Though Stevenson’s attire was out of character, his remarks following the announcement were vintage hyperbole.

On how much Watts has popularized the sport of track and field locally: “You saw how disappointed everyone was at Arcadia when they announced that Quincy wasn’t going to run. At least half the people there came strictly to see him run. Magic fills up the Forum and Quincy fills up Arcadia.”

Stevenson didn’t stop with Laker guard Magic Johnson. He also compared Watts to Denver Bronco quarterback John Elway.

“Quincy is to track what Elway is to football and Magic is to basketball,” he said without blinking.

If you say so coach.

Late relief: It’s funny what a little stability, along with bunches of hits and timely pitching, will do for a team. Take, for example, Notre Dame.

The Knights lost four of their first six games and were heading into Del Rey League play with little promise of success.

Enter senior co-captains Mike Peterson, Matt McElreath and Jeff Antoon.

“I think our seniors are starting to take over a little,” Coach Bob Mandeville said. “Now we have a lot of confidence in them and they have a lot of confidence in themselves.”

McElreath started slowly after he was nearly beaned by an errant batting practice pitch in March. McElreath, a switch-hitting center fielder who stole 18 bases and batted .397 last season, has raised his average to .340 and is 6 for 6 in stolen base attempts.

On Thursday, he signed a letter of intent with Cal State Fullerton. Antoon, who signed with UC Santa Barbara last Sunday, is batting .333.

On the mound, where Mandeville thought the Knights would be most vulnerable, Peterson is 5-2 and has settled comfortably into the role of staff ace.

Mandeville also moved Kevin Crosby into the leadoff position, where the junior has responded with a .438 batting average and a .600 on-base percentage.

“Other than that,” Mandeville said, “we’ve just started to relax.”

Gil’s net: Camarillo’s 8-11 start has overshadowed the performance of one of the Valley-area’s most consistent hitters.

Gil Valencia is batting .375 with 4 doubles, 7 home runs, 30 runs batted in and 7 stolen bases.

Valencia has signed a nonbinding letter of commitment to attend Moorpark College next year, where he will play football and baseball. Last fall, Valencia led the Marmonte League with 41 pass receptions for 705 yards and 10 touchdowns, averaging 17.2 yards a catch.

More mono: Joey Rosselli, a sophomore left-hander at Alemany, has contracted mononucleosis and will be out indefinitely, Coach Jim Ozella said.

Rosselli was 2-3 for the Indians with a 5.09 ERA. Ozella, although hopeful, does not expect him to return.

Last week, Greg Nealon, an All-City pitcher for Poly, was lost indefinitely with mononucleosis.

Honor Roll: Pole vaulter Tom Parker of Notre Dame, the runner-up in last year’s state championships, was named the KTTV-TV high school athlete of the week Wednesday night.

Parker, who has cleared 16 feet in six meets this season, established a meet record of 16 feet, 1 inch, to win the event at the Sundevil Invitational at Poway High last weekend.

Loaded with Lancers: Eleven players from Thousand Oaks are included on the East team in the Ventura County all-star football game June 18 at 7:30 p.m. at Oxnard High.

The East team is coached by Bob Richards of Thousand Oaks, which captured the Coastal Conference title last fall.

Lancers on the team include Steve Sisco (QB), Mike Moore (RB), Marc Monestime (RB), Greg Banks (OL), Eric Dennis (OL), Mack Humphrey (LB), Lance Alverson (DB), Chris Gann (DB), Jeff Ward (DB), Mike Hutton (TE) and Mike Blanton (DL).

Representing Camarillo are Bill Bell (RB), Joe Bosman (LB), Gil Valencia (WR), Trent Spangler (DL), Ed Gibbs (DL) and Robert Jevens (OL). Westlake’s Rick Choate (DL), Chris Millen (LB), Noel Baker (RB) and Garrett Messner (TE) are on the team with Simi Valley’s Tony Kerr (RB), Jeff Lujan (OL), Gil Carrillo (DB), John Jones (OL) and Dave Gregware (DB).

Other players include Newbury Park’s Greg Goulart (OL), Darrin Jelly (RB) and Steve Allison (DB); Chad Sourbeer (RB) and Eric Anhalt (DE) of Royal; Bob Wooten (OL), John Sloane (LB) and Chris Frame (DB) of Oak Park; and Tim Juntilla of Moorpark.

The West team has 10 players from Channel Islands, the Marmonte League champion and Coastal Conference runner-up. Joel Gershon of Channel Islands will coach the West.

0 as in Oliver: Chrissy Oliver may not have gone a full seven innings Thursday in Simi Valley’s 4-0 win over Newbury Park, but her perfect game will stand, thanks to an assist from the weatherman.

Oliver (15-6) retired 16 consecutive batters, but allowed a one-out single in the sixth.

A downpour, however, wiped out the rest of the game, and because the inning was not completed, the single was erased.

Oliver also had two hits, an RBI and scored a run.

The Pioneers (16-7, 6-2) moved to within a half game of first-place Newbury Park in Marmonte League play.

Stockholm stock: Highland Hall pitchers Aaron Rudelson and Jakob Jensen have been selected as candidates to play on the Team North America Oilers.

The Oilers, sponsored by Sports Exchange U. S. A, will play in the Stockholm Invitational baseball tournament July 2-4.

Extended entry: City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness has extended until next fall the deadline for schools to file announcements regarding the formation of a girls’ soccer team.

The City’s Interscholastic Athletic Committee approved a motion last month to add girls’ soccer for 1988-89.

Both boys’ and girls’ teams will play in the winter. Previously, boys’ teams competed in the fall.

Staff writers Tim Brown, John Lynch, Brian Murphy and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.