Prep column: Troxel will touch both dugouts Friday

Barry Faulkner

Estancia High and Costa Mesa open the Pacific Coast League baseball

season Friday at 3:15 p.m. on the Mustangs’ diamond and emotion in both

dugouts will be stirred by more than cross-town bragging rights.

Players from both teams will, no doubt, draw inspiration knowing they are

playing, for the first time, for the Paul Troxel Trophy.

The perpetual award, which will go to the annual series winner, is named

for the universally loved man who coached at both schools before his

death at age 40 last spring.

Troxel touched players at Costa Mesa, where he was an assistant coach to

longtime friend Kirk Bauermeister the last two seasons. Estancia players

know him from his work as the school’s good-humored equipment man. An

Estancia graduate, he also coached in the Eagles’ baseball program for 17

seasons.

“There’s no doubt we’ll be thinking of Trox,” Bauermeister said. “We

still talk about him a lot.”

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Friday’s game also features some unfamiliar allegiances, as the entire

Estancia coaching staff will be trying to top its alma mater.

Estancia head man Doug Deats graduated from Mesa, where he coached the

varsity for four seasons, before Bauermeister took over three seasons

ago.

Deats has enlisted Rob Gloster and Chris DeSandro, both All-Newport-Mesa

District performers for the Mustangs last spring, as assistants.

Costa Mesa sophomore Nick Cabico, who returned to Mesa after spending the

fall semester at Mater Dei, was expected to significantly improve the

Mustangs’ chances to return to the CIF playoffs this spring. His primary

contribution, however, was expected to come on the mound.

Instead, the varsity veteran has pitched only three innings and is

swinging a white-hot bat. Heading into tonight’s 7 o’clock nonleague home

game with Los Amigos at TeWinkle Park, Cabico had nine hits in his last

nine at-bats, spanning two games.

His recent tear, which includes eight singles, one double and five RBIs,

has upped his average to .688 (11 for 16).

Cabico, a former Costa Mesa American Little League star, had just one hit

in his 12 varsity at-bats as a freshman.

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The Costa Mesa High track and field program will soon enjoy an upgraded

facility, according to Bauermeister, the school’s boys athletic director.

Work will begin soon to replace the high jump, long jump and triple jump

runways. Bauermeister also said decomposed granite will also be used to

upgrade the dirt track.

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Estancia boys soccer is still producing news. Esaul Mendoza and Irving

Islas represented the CIF Division IV champions, ranked No. 25 nationally

in Student Sports magazine’s final poll, in the a senior all-star game

Sunday at Pasadena City College.

Mendoza, who scored 46 goals for the Eagles, scored the game’s first goal

to help the South earn a 6-1 win.

Estancia Coach Steve Crenshaw was an assistant coach for the South.

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Newport-Mesa fans nearly had a local rooting interest in the NCAA men’s

basketball tournament.

Estancia product Jim Faulkner (Southern Utah) and former Newport Harbor

star Matt Jameson (Miami of Ohio), carried their Big Dance bids into

their respective conference championship games, before their seasons

ended.

Faulkner, a senior starter for the Thunderbirds, completed his career in

a 71-62 loss to Valparaiso in the Mid-Contenent Conference title game

Tuesday.

Jameson, just a freshman, will get three more chances to experience March

Madness. His Red Hawks were bested, 61-58, by Ball State in the

Mid-American Conference title game Wednesday.

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Newport Harbor High senior Blair Jones, a SuperPrep All-American

offensive tackle bound for USC, will represent the Sailors in the Shrine

California-Texas All-Star Classic, scheduled June 24.

The 6-foot-8, 270-pound Jones, who helped lead the Tars to the CIF

Southern Section Division VI championship last fall, has added eight

pounds since the December title-game victory over Irvine. He would,

however, like to put on as much as 20 more before reporting to preseason

camp Aug. 2.

“I know I need a few more pounds, so I don’t get throttled,” Jones said.

“I want to show up with enough bulk to hold my own. I don’t want to get

thrown around.”

Jones has not ruled out playing in the July 14 Orange County All-Star

Game. Jones, who is has also been contacted about an all-star game

featuring teams from California and Florida, said he won’t commit to a

second all-star game until weighing all the pros and cons.