Another Delay in Decision on Montclair Prep

Montclair Prep in Van Nuys, facing possible expulsion from the CIF Southern Section, requested a last-minute meeting over the weekend with Commissioner Stan Thomas, resulting in further delay of its hearing before the section’s executive committee.

The hearing was scheduled to begin today and continue through Wednesday.

The school has been charged with tampering with grades of athletes and allowing football players to avoid paying tuition. The hearing also was to address charges that Montclair Prep staged a phony living arrangement to gain athletic eligibility for four football players five years ago and illegally recruited former football players Derek and Leland Sparks in 1989.

Apparently, attorneys for both parties will meet privately today, along with Montclair Prep Principal V.E. Simpson and Thomas.

No new hearing date has been set. Thomas was out of the office and unavailable for comment Monday.

The controversy started last fall when cousins Derek and Leland Sparks transferred from Montclair Prep to Santa Ana Mater Dei. At a hearing at the Southern Section office in September, to determine eligibility for Leland, charges were made against Montclair Prep by Jerome Sparks, an uncle of the cousins.

At that meeting, the executive committee ordered an immediate investigation into the Montclair Prep athletic department. The seven-month investigation was scheduled to conclude this week.

Simpson and Greg Reece, Montclair Prep’s athletic director, said last week that they were relieved that the hearing was finally going to occur. So, the postponement was a surprise.

“I’m all geared up for the hearing,” Simpson said. “I do not want to go down there with my hat in hand begging from them.”

A big story this outdoor track and field season has been the absence of standout seniors Napolean Kaufman of Lompoc, Lamont Warren of Dorsey and Juliana Yendork of Walnut.

Kaufman, the defending state 100-meter and 200-meter champion, decided after running in the Alemany Relays in mid-March not to compete the rest of the season. He signed a letter of intent to play football at Washington next fall.

“Napolean just got tired of training for track,” Lompoc Athletic Director Mike Warren said. “I think that it’s really too bad but it’s common for a football standout to give up track his senior year.”

Lamont Warren, the defending City 400-meter champion, has missed most of this season because of a hamstring injury. The 6-foot-2 senior also is a football standout who will attend Colorado in the fall. He is expected back on the track before the City preliminary meets next month.

Yendork also has been hampered by a hamstring injury. The indoor national prep triple jump record-holder, she missed the Arcadia Invitational and Mt. San Antonio Relays the past two weekends. She is expected to be back in action for the Sierra League finals.

Highland Hall of Northridge, which joined the Westside League in 1986, has emerged as a baseball power in recent years. During the last five years, the school has yet to lose a league game and a victory today against Inglewood South Bay Lutheran would give the Hawks the state record for consecutive league victories, 36.

“For the streak to last five years, a lot of kids have had to contribute,” said co-Coach Dave Desmond, whose Hawks are 8-5 overall and 3-0 in league play this season.

In winning 35 consecutive league games, Highland Hall--which has an enrollment of 75 students--has been extended into extra innings only twice and has had only two one-run victories.

Overall, the Hawks have an 84-21-1 record during that span. What makes the streak special to Highland Hall is that the Hawks have three girls on their 17-player roster--among them starting outfielder Monica Palma--because the school was unable to field a softball team this season because it did not have enough players.

Palma, a 5-foot-7 senior who was an all-Southern Section basketball selection last season, is a key player with a .316 batting average.

The record for consecutive league victories is not the only concern on the Highland Hall team, since two players are chasing individual marks.

Jakob Jensen, a senior pitcher-catcher batting .714, is in a race with Dmitri Young of Oxnard Rio Mesa for the state record for hits in a career. Young has 149 and Jensen has 148, each having broken the mark of 147 set by Scott Davidson of Redondo from 1986-89.

Tum Ratanatraiphob, a three-year starter at third base, is also chasing a career record for stolen bases. A junior, Ratanatraiphob has 106 steals and is only seven away from the Southern Section record of 113, set by Rio Hondo Prep’s Dave McLelland in 1977-80.

Behind the pitching of senior right-handers Mike Busby and Mark Chavez, Wilmington Banning has become one of the top baseball teams in the City with an 11-0 Southern Pacific Conference record.

For the season, Busby--who pitched a no-hitter against Washington earlier this month--is 6-0 with a 0.58 earned-run average, 65 strikeouts and 20 walks in 48 innings. Chavez--who pitched a no-hitter against Dorsey last week--is 5-1 with a 1.08 ERA, 52 strikeouts and 11 walks in 45 innings.

Banning Coach Syl Saavedra hopes that Busby and Chavez can lead the Pilots to the City 4-A Division championship and become the first non-San Fernando Valley team to win in 18 years.

“The potential is there for us to win it all, but we’ll have to be lucky,” Saavedra said. “We do have the ability to pitch no-hitters in Busby and Davis, and we’ve played good defense all season. Who knows, this could be the year.”

Two-time All-City performer Charisse Sampson of Washington has been selected an alternate on the West girls’ basketball team for the U.S. Olympic Festival.

Sampson was the only high school player selected from among 135 athletes who tried out at Cal State Long Beach.