Southern Section Has Full Agenda

A proposal to permit high school coaches to work with players outside of the school season and a recommendation to add state playoffs in boys’ and girls’ golf are items on the agenda today at the Southern Section Council meeting in Long Beach.

The legislative body is also expected to consider a proposal to allow individual schools flexibility in starting dates for fall football practice, to vote on a releaguing plan to deal with rapid growth in portions of the Inland Empire and to decide whether to recommend that the California Interscholastic Federation allow institutions founded on religious principals that prohibit activities on Fridays or Saturdays to hold games on Sundays.

The section’s Association Rule prohibits high school coaches from instructing their players in outside events such as club teams during the off-season. Supporters of a change say it will give administrators more flexibility in hiring and retaining quality coaches. The nine other sections of the state do not have such a rule. Several votes on the issue in the last decade have failed to muster enough support in the Southern Section, which is the state’s largest with 537 schools.

-- Paul McLeod

Victories by the Long Beach Wilson boys’ soccer team in the Southern Section Division I semifinals and championship game have propelled the Bruins from sixth to second in the national winter-season rankings by Student Sports magazine.

Wilson, which capped a 26-0-5 season with a 3-2 victory over Huntington Beach Marina in the Division I title game Saturday, is ranked behind Melbourne (Fla.) Central Catholic, which finished 28-0-2 and gave up only seven goals this season.

Other Southland teams ranked in the top 10 are Cathedral City (28-2-1) at No. 5, Irvine Woodbridge (17-1-5) at No. 9 and Marina (18-8-2) at No. 10.

Cathedral City won the Southern Section Division IV title with a 3-1 victory over Anaheim, and Woodbridge tied La Canada St. Francis, 1-1, in the Division II championship game.

Santa Margarita (22-2-4), which was ranked first the previous week, dropped to 11th after a 1-0 loss to Marina in a Division I semifinal.

The City Section has ruled that transfer Daniel Salazar is ineligible to play baseball for Sylmar this season.

Salazar had applied for a hardship transfer waiver after playing catcher for San Fernando last year as a junior. But the City rules committee denied the waiver Tuesday because it “did not see proof of a hardship,” according to section Commissioner Barbara Fiege.

Salazar has until March 25 to appeal the decision.

-- John Ortega

Danilo Robinson has been promoted from assistant to head football coach at Covina Northview.

Robinson, a graduate of rival Covina, replaces Bill Zernickow, who resigned to accept the defensive coordinator position at the University of La Verne.

Northview finished 9-3 each of the last two seasons and advanced to the Southern Section quarterfinals.

Nick Baiz has been hired as football coach at Ontario.

Baiz replaces Jim Foreso, who resigned after the 2002 season after six years. The Jaguars finished 1-10 in his last season.

Baiz, a 1991 Claremont graduate who went on to play football at Cal State Sacramento, coached at Fontana in 1999 and spent the last three seasons at Diamond Bar.

-- Bob Rohwer

North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake’s Trevor Chang won the boys’ epee competition and Oriana Isaacson won the girl’s epee competition in the Southern California Scholastic Fencing League’s final individual tournament Saturday at San Diego Mission Bay.

Jason Paul of Los Angeles Murphy finished first in the boys’ sabre competition.

Harvard-Westlake finished second in the boys’ team sabre competition and third in the girls’ team sabre competition. The boys’ and girls’ sabre events were won by San Diego High.