Area baseball coaches who complained about heavy...

Area baseball coaches who complained about heavy February rains limiting preseason practice time should consider the plight of Cherry Hill (N.J.) Coach Tom Trotman.

Trotman said Cherry Hill, which scored upset victories over El Dorado and Tustin to reach the championship game of the Upper Deck tournament, had only four outdoor practices before the season.

“We practice in the gymnasium,” Trotman said. “We didn’t progress offensively the way I had hoped, but we were able to work on the little things like the hit-and-run and sacrifice bunts.”

Cherry Hill spent two years raising $25,000 to compete in the four-day tournament. Trotman said the team had six major fund-raisers but believed the end result was worth the effort.

“This (tournament) is the ultimate challenge,” he said. “If you would have told me 22 years ago when I took the job that I’d be playing in a tournament in California, I never would have believed it. This is an excellent opportunity for any baseball program.

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South Orange County high school basketball officials will seek approval of a new association, to begin in the 1992-92 season, at the April 30 meeting of the Southern Section’s general council.

Veteran referee Louie Fuentes said the association has received approval from administrators of the Pacific coast, Sea View, South Coast and Sunset leagues and five private schools in the South County.

“It (the new association) is 99% done,” Fuentes said. “We’re going to have 125 to 150 officials in the organization in the first year.”

Fuentes said the association was formed because of the growing problems that officials living in the area faced traveling to assignments, especially on Friday nights in other areas of the county.

“The association will also give us the opportunity to develop and instruct new officials,” he said.

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El Modena catcher Gavin Brown has signed a national letter of intent to play baseball at the University of California.

Brown, an all-county linebacker, rejected football scholarship offers from Colorado State and University of the Pacific. Brown plans to major in business at Cal.