CAL STATE FULLERTON NOTEBOOK / MIKE DiGIOVANNA : Point Guard Williams to Remain a Titan

Wayne Williams, who said last spring he was leaving the Cal State Fullerton basketball program, has decided to remain a Titan, Fullerton assistant coach Dan Dion said Wednesday.

Williams, who started at point guard and averaged 9.8 points and 7.2 assists a game last season, said he wanted to transfer because he felt he could better display his talents in a different program.

“But he had some time to think about it, and I think he saw that the positives outweighed the negatives as far as staying,” Dion said. “He has invested two years here, he realized it’s a solid program, and he wanted to stay with it. We’re real happy with his decision.”

Dion said Williams is enrolled in a summer school class and needs to complete the course to remain eligible for next season.

The addition of Williams won’t affect the size of Fullerton’s 16-player roster, though. Dion said Joe Bertrand, an incoming freshman from Verbum Dei High School, failed to score a 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test and is ineligible under the NCAA’s Proposition 48 guidelines.

According to Dion, Bertrand, a 6-foot-6 forward who averaged 18 points and nine rebounds a game last season, will attend Compton College this fall.

Michael Watkins, the Titan Athletic Foundation representative on the selection committee formed to hire a new baseball coach, has withdrawn from the committee because of his relationship with Augie Garrido, one of the leading candidates to replace Larry Cochell.

Watkins, a sports agent who represents about 15 professional baseball players, including Angel first baseman Wally Joyner, Seattle Mariner reliever Mike Schooler and Chicago Cub pitcher Mike Harkey, has been a close friend of Garrido’s for about eight years.

When Garrido, the former Titan coach who is now at Illinois, said Saturday he would formally apply for the Fullerton job, Watkins decided it would be a conflict of interest to remain on the committee.

“Had Augie not been involved, I would have stayed on, but because of my relationship with him, I had to withdraw,” Watkins said. “That could really open up a can of worms, and I didn’t want to interfere with what the university is trying to do.”

Fullerton associate athletic director Steve DiTolla said Watkins will be replaced by Stephan DeSales, a Fullerton attorney and a member of the Titan Athletic Foundation.

Don Sneddon, the Rancho Santiago College baseball coach who has been prominently mentioned as a successor to Cochell, said he will not apply for the Fullerton job.

“I was going to apply, but I have some unfinished work where I am, and the timing isn’t right for me,” Sneddon said. “I enjoy the level I’m at now, and I enjoy teaching classes. I wouldn’t be able to do that at Fullerton. I thought about it, but that’s something I’m not ready to make a commitment to.”

The application deadline for the position is Friday, and DiTolla said the selection committee will begin screening applicants and possibly interview finalists by next week.

Titan Notes

Gary Hazelitt, an assistant equipment manager at Fullerton the past 10 years, has resigned to accept the head equipment manager’s position at San Jose State. Hazelitt will replace Lawry Jasper, who died about a month ago. Hazelitt, 26, spent his first four years at Fullerton as a student assistant and six as a full-time assistant under equipment manager Cliff Hatter. He began working at Fullerton while he was a student at Brea-Olinda High School.