State Title Games to Be Discussed

Adding state championships in football, softball and boys’ and girls’ golf will be discussed at a California Interscholastic Federation meeting Nov. 1-2 in Los Angeles.

The CIF Federated Council will have an initial discussion about adding the sports at the urging of the San Diego Section, which submitted a proposal to add softball and football state championships, and the Southern Section, which submitted a proposal to add golf.

“We have to find out what the climate is now,” CIF spokesman Jim Duel said.

“Are schools open to expanding the season [in these sports] a week further? Two weeks? What would be the financial impact on schools?”

If initial reaction is favorable, the proposals probably will be sent down to the two sections for minor readjustments, then resubmitted at a CIF meeting, at which point a vote would take place.

Duel said it probably would take two or three years to add any state championships.

State championships are held in basketball, girls’ volleyball, cross-country, wrestling and track and field.

Mike Bresnahan

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Coach Robert Radnoti of Thousand Oaks High always preached that the only cross-country meets that matter are the championships at the end of the season. Running fast early in the season, he believes, decreases the chances of peaking at the end.

So the fifth-year coach is in a quandary because the Lancer girls’ team has run so well in its first two meets of the season.

The Lancers had seven of the top 12 times in the Fastback Invitational at Mt. San Antonio College on Sept. 14 and five of the top seven times in the Mt. Carmel Invitational in San Diego last Saturday.

The cumulative time of their top five runners at Mt. Carmel was three minutes faster than they ran last year and more than two minutes faster than a Canyon Country Canyon team that had a meet-record time Sept. 13 in the Seaside Invitational in Ventura. “I talked to [Ventura girls’ Coach] Bill Tokar the other day and I asked him what I could do to slow the girls down,” Radnoti said. “And he said, ‘Don’t. Just keep it fun and enjoy it.’ ”

Thousand Oaks will run in the Stanford Invitational today, but the Lancers didn’t send their top runners to that meet. Their next big race will be the Kamehameha Invitational in Honolulu next Saturday.

John Ortega

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Divisional breakdowns for the Southern Section girls’ golf playoffs probably will not be determined until mid-October, section spokesman Thom Simmons said.

Since not all schools participate in girls’ golf, neighboring leagues are sometimes combined. For instance, the Golden West League has different teams in girls’ golf than it does in other sports.

As soon as the section office sorts out girls’ golf leagues, each league will be assigned to either the Northern, Central or Southern divisional championship tournament. The divisional championships are Nov. 11 and 12. The top four teams in each divisional advance to the section finals on Nov. 18.

Peter Yoon