Stroh Laments End of Cord Era at Poly

As much as anyone, Darryl Stroh was sorry to see Jerry Cord walk away.

As much as Cord’s Poly High ballplayers, the school’s administrators and the legion of loyal fans in Sun Valley.

If not more so.

With 23 years and five City Section titles under his belt at Granada Hills, Stroh, 53, is the elder statesman among City baseball coaches, and he feels like it. It’s as if another one of the shrinking flock has left the fold.

“It’s really bothered me that he quit,” Stroh said. “He was really a guy of character and principle, and there aren’t many like him out there any more.”

The day after Cord led Poly to the 4-A Division final at Dodger Stadium, he announced that he was resigning after 18 seasons. Time for a younger man to take over, said Cord, who earlier in the week lost his son Christopher, 25, to an extended illness.

Cord, 52, said he felt tired. Stroh, who co-coaches the Granada Hills football team, knows the feeling. Many Saturdays during football season, Stroh is out with the baseball team for winter-league play. Some Saturdays during baseball season he is out with the football team for passing-league play.

No other active area City coach has won more than a single City baseball title, and Stroh even has a City 4-A football championship (1987) on his resume--all of which makes him feel like the proverbial sage. “I feel old,” said Stroh, who concedes that the topic of retirement has crossed his mind. And his lips.

“It’s been hard the last few years,” Stroh said. “Everybody (coaches) gets together and talks about when we’re gonna quit.

“It’s about all we talk about before games, all of the problems in the (Los Angeles Unified School District) and all the other stuff that’s going on.”

Two years ago, when his son Darryl was playing for the Granada Hills baseball team, Stroh said he might quit as baseball coach after two more seasons. The elder Stroh said he owed it to a talented group of sophomores on the 1990 team, including Scott Berger and Heath McElwee, to stick around for two more years.

His son graduated last summer. Berger, McElwee and the Class of 1992 helped Stroh with a North Valley League title this season, but they, too, soon will have graduated.

Like a big-league manager, Stroh classifies his status as “year to year.”

“Coaching’s what I enjoy most about teaching,” Stroh said. “If I quit coaching, what would I do?

“I don’t play golf or anything like that. What would I do? Knit?”

Where’s the hardware?: Call it the case of the missing trophy, or the trophy without a case.

Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, Poly’s Eric Diaz received a handshake. A pat on the back. A hearty “well done.”

But no trophy.

Diaz was named the winner of the City’s Les Haserot Award, given annually to the player with the best overall performance throughout the baseball playoffs. Diaz, a right-handed pitcher, won three of the Parrots’ four playoff games and also pitched in the team’s 6-3 loss to San Pedro in the final.

After the game, Diaz’s name and playoff statistics were announced over the public-address system and he was called to home plate for the trophy presentation by City Commissioner Hal Harkness. Upon his arrival, Diaz received . . . not a thing.

“Some guy with a blue suit (Harkness) said they had it somewhere, but they couldn’t find it,” Diaz said. “He said they’d send it to the school.

“I don’t even know what it looks like.”

Reprieve: Hundreds, if not thousands, of golfers have been disqualified for signing incorrect score cards. Grant’s Elise Kimm added a new twist: She nearly was out of the running in the CIF-Southern California Golf Assn. tournament before it began.

Because of a mix-up over the registration deadline, Kimm almost was barred from competing in the tournament, which will be held Monday at San Diego Country Club. The event will determine the team and individual champions of Southern California--or more specifically, the City, Central, San Diego and Southern sections.

According to Grant golf Coach Howard Levine, he did not receive an entry form from the City Section athletics office. Levine attempted to enter Kimm in the tournament May 14 but learned that the May 11 deadline already had passed. Levine became frantic.

“Somebody screwed up here,” Levine said at the time. “It might even be my mistake, I don’t know. Chop off my arm, but you can’t burn Elise Kimm.

A frenetic and angry Levine contacted the SCGA, based in Studio City, and informed the association of the administrative oversight. He was told that a deadline is a deadline.

“I don’t remember the last time I was so upset,” Levine said. “If I knew the dates that the application was due, I would have walked it over there.”

The SCGA told Levine that it was only following the guidelines set by the CIF and that it had no choice but to uphold the deadline.

Kimm placed eighth--including boys’ players--in the City Section championships last month at Griffith Park. She shot 75 and was a first-round co-leader before finishing with a two-day total of 161.

Levine refused to be turned away and at one point muttered a not-so-veiled threat to “make some noise” at the state event if Kimm was not allowed to compete.

Having had one door slammed in his face, Levine barked up the next available tree. In this instance, he appealed to the state CIF office and Kimm’s case was reviewed. Her entry was granted Wednesday.