VALLEY / VENTURA COUNTY SPORTS : THE COLLEGES / FERNANDO DOMINGUEZ : Scanlon Puts Winning Touch on Oxnard Soccer

Mike Scanlon is back to old tricks.

Two years after being cut loose by Moorpark College, where he built a winning women’s soccer program, Scanlon is doing it again at Oxnard.

The Condors are 2-0-1 and slowly erasing the last few forgettable seasons when losing became a forgone conclusion.

Before Scanlon took over last season, the Condors were winless since 1994 and since 1991 in Western State Conference games. After a 4-16-1 season in 1998, Scanlon turned salesman, putting his persuasive powers to the test.

“The recruiting was much more successful [than the previous year],” Scanlon said.

Those who bought Scanlon’s pitch included Priscilla Olsen, a freshman striker from Camarillo High who has two goals. Olsen, combined with sophomore striker Tenley Garcia, gives the Condors an explosive scoring tandem.

Garcia, 5 feet 7 and a muscular 150 pounds, scored three times in a 4-3 nonconference victory over Fullerton on Sept. 1 and has four goals.

“She’s a definite Division I prospect with her speed and size,” Scanlon said. “She just breaks away from everybody.”

Although it wasn’t his doing, Scanlon broke away from Moorpark with a 26-5-4 record in 1995-96 and a WSC title his first season. The school was hiring a full-time female teacher and coach and Scanlon was the odd man out.

Ironically, his replacement at Moorpark lasted one season.

“I left there on good terms,” Scanlon said. “The way it happened was unexpected but unavoidable.”

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When Leodes Van Buren turned up at Ventura College in the spring, football Coach Terry Morris chose to take a chance on the standout receiver with the checkered past.

One day away from the season opener, Morris has no idea where Van Buren is.

“He came in here, asked for the opportunity and didn’t show up for [fall] camp,” said Morris, who last year turned around the Pirates in his first season. “He basically eliminated himself.”

Van Buren set state records with 269 catches for 4,446 yards at Newbury Park from 1990-93, but he later was busier tending to legal problems than catching footballs.

He accepted a scholarship to Colorado but the school revoked it after Van Buren was sentenced to six months in jail for firing a handgun into a girlfriend’s house. He was also busted for drug use and spent another 105 days in jail after threatening to kill himself and infant son during a two-hour standoff with police in Newbury Park in May 1996.

Van Buren went to Arizona that summer and unsuccessfully tried to walk on with the Wildcats, where he wanted to play with quarterback Keith Smith, a high school teammate. Van Buren ended up playing at Moorpark in 1996.

Then, as at Ventura, he disappeared.

“He came to spring workouts and summer workouts,” Morris said. “For the six months he was with me, he did a fine job.”

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If Valley’s offensive line seems a bit out of step in the opener at Harbor on Saturday night, there’s a good explanation.

“We’ve had a rash of chicken pox on this team,” said Carl Ferrill, Valley’s first-year coach. “This week we’re playing with only five offensive linemen.”

Ferrill, 52, is watching out--for himself. “I haven’t had it and, at my age, I don’t need that stuff,” he said.

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Who says you can’t go home again?

Here are some notable former high school football standouts who have returned to play in the region after trying their luck at four-year schools elsewhere:

* George Keiaho, who had 6,615 career yards rushing at Buena High, is at Cal Lutheran after spending 1994-96 at Washington.

* Chris Czernek, who passed for 3,280 yards and 24 touchdowns at Newbury Park in 1996, has transferred from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to Cal Lutheran.

* Donald Thompson, last season’s Times’ Ventura County player of the year after rushing for 1,993 yards and 28 touchdowns at Hueneme, is at Moorpark after signing with Eastern Washington in February.

* Todd Hourigan, an All-Southern Section linebacker at Hart in 1996, is at Canyons after two years at Utah.

* Damon Coleman, who had 73 receptions for 992 yards and 11 touchdowns at Taft in 1996, is at Pierce after a stint at Eastern Arizona.

* Sedric Hurns, an All-City defensive back at Taft in 1997 who sat out last season, signed with San Jose State but is now at Valley. He signed with Hawaii after his senior season at Taft but was ineligible.

* Scott Quigley, a former quarterback at Calabasas and the Frontier League player of the year in 1996, is back from LSU and playing defensive back at Pierce.