NOTEBOOK / ROB FERNAS : Mira Costa High Standout Fonua to Be Released Friday From Hospital

Mira Costa High three-sport standout Phil Fonua, who suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm Aug. 10, will be released Friday from Daniel Freeman Hospital in Inglewood and allowed to go home, his case worker said.

Fonua has been undergoing physical, occupational and speech-cognitive therapy at the hospital’s rehabilitation center since Aug. 23 after being transferred from Torrance Memorial Medical Center, where he underwent surgery Aug. 11.

Joanne Levy, senior case manager for brain injury at Daniel Freeman, said Fonua will continue a comprehensive program of therapy as an out-patient at the hospital. She said the Mira Costa senior is not ready to return to school and will have to miss the first day of classes Sept. 12.

“He has some problems that affect his learning,” Levy said.

Levy said Fonua has made outstanding progress considering the seriousness of his injury and should be able to return to school in the coming weeks.

Doctors, in a Times’ story last week, said Fonua must refrain from athletic activity in his senior year. The 6-foot-2, 275-pound Fonua is regarded as one of the top prep defensive lineman in the country, in addition to being a standout basketball player and shotputter.

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Loyola Marymount, expected to have one of its strongest teams ever, opens the women’s volleyball season at 7 tonight at Gersten Pavilion with a nonconference match against third-ranked and defending national champion Long Beach State.

Loyola, ranked 23rd, returns all six starters from last season’s 23-7 team that finished second in the West Coast Conference. Standouts include junior middle blockers Mardell Wrensch and Julie Greer, both WCC first-team selections last season; sophomore hitters Kim Blankinship (Torrance High) and Suzanne Radcliffe (Torrance), the 1993 WCC freshman of the year; and senior setter Robin Ortgiesen (Mira Costa).

“I’m very excited about the possibilities of our program with our fourth recruiting class now in place,” said Coach Steve Stratos, starting his fifth season at Loyola. “We possess an extremely balanced attack from both the middle and outside.”

WCC coaches, in a close vote, picked Loyola to finish second behind San Diego in a poll released Monday. The two teams split the eight first-place votes.

Loyola has a tough opening week. After playing Long Beach State, which returns four starters from a 32-2 squad, the Lions meet 15th-ranked USC at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Long Beach State’s Gold Mine gym.

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Carl Strong, who stepped down as Harbor College basketball coach last month, was hired Monday as an assistant at Pepperdine.

Strong will join assistants Bob Mandeville and Marty Wilson under new Pepperdine Coach Tony Fuller. Before coaching at Harbor, Strong was an assistant at Loyola Marymount and El Camino College and coach at Torrance High.

Notes

Former Peninsula High pitcher Brian Bowles, a 50th-round draft choice of the Toronto Blue Jays in June, signed a contract with the major league club last week. That came as bad news to Long Beach State, which had signed Bowles to a baseball scholarship. Bowles, a 6-foot-4 right-hander, was the Bay League Most Valuable Player and an All-Southern Section Division I selection for Peninsula last season, posting an 8-3 record and 1.13 earned-run average, with 96 strikeouts in 68 innings. He will report to the Blue Jays’ rookie league team in Dunedin, Fla., in June.

Former Torrance High and Harbor College baseball standout Kevin Higgins and a teammate each played all nine positions for the Las Vegas Stars in a Pacific Coast League game Aug. 25 in Las Vegas. Higgins, normally a catcher and second baseman, and Keith Lockhart became the second tandem of triple-A players to play nine positions in a game. Tommy Shields and Shane Turner did it playing for the Rochester Red Wings in 1991.

Former Loyola Marymount basketball standout Terrell Lowery, an outfielder in the Texas Ranger organization, hit two home runs Monday for the double A Tulsa Drillers in a 6-3 Texas League victory over Jackson, Miss.

The Loyola Marymount women’s soccer team will begin its second season and first under Coach Jim Millinder when the Lions play host to UCLA at 2 p.m. Saturday. Millinder, a former professional player who was a standout at North Torrance High and El Camino College, will be assisted by Kit Schwartzman, who coached Bishop Montgomery to the Southern Section Division II girls’ title last season. Millinder previously coached the men’s and women’s soccer teams at El Camino. . . . The Loyola men’s soccer team will play host to UC Davis at 2 p.m. Sunday in a season opener.

Many of the nation’s top youth basketball players will converge in the South Bay this weekend for the third annual Labor Day Classic tournament. Games begin at 5 p.m. Friday at El Segundo High and continue Saturday starting at 9 a.m. and Sunday starting at 11 a.m. at El Segundo, Torrance and West Torrance high schools. Championship games will be played from 10:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday at El Segundo. The tournament is expected to draw 56 all-star teams. Boys’ divisions are 10-and-under through 14-and-under, and girls will compete in 14-and-under.