It’s that time of year again

The poll is out, hold your breath.

Yes, basketball season is quickly approaching and the sure sign

the season looms on the horizon is the coaches’ preseason poll.

Orange Empire Conference men’s basketball coaches picked Orange

Coast College and Santa Ana to finish in a tie for sixth, each with

17 points, in the eight-team conference.

The Bucs finished 4-10 in conference last season, 7-21 overall.

OEC coaches also voted for a preseason All-OEC Team and selected

Pirate sophomore Stephon Seales, a 5-foot-11, 180-pound guard onto

the team.

Saddleback’s Marques Crane, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound guard and

forward was selected as the preseason Player of the Year. Crane was

last season’s Co-Player of the Year.

Coaches tabbed Riverside and defending state-champion Saddleback

as this season’s favorites to win the OEC. Saddleback and Riverside

both received 46 points from the coaches.

Saddleback went 13-1 in the OEC last season while Riverside went

10-4. Fullerton (36 points), Irvine Valley (32 points) and Cypress

(22 points) took third, fourth, and fifth in the preseason rankings

ahead of OCC.

Steve Spencer’s squad began practicing five days a week Monday in

preparation for the Pirates’ season opener at Oxnard Nov. 9.

“(Oxnard) is very talented, they won 27 games last year,” said

Spencer, set to begin his second season guiding Coast. “There are no

cupcakes on the schedule this year.”

From preliminary observation Spencer believes this year’s team

will have to rely on speed and shooting touch.

“We’re going to be real small, so we’re going to have to shoot the

ball very well and play really hard on defense -- better than we did

last year. The guys are working really hard and are fun to work

with.”

Coach Mike Thornton’s women’s basketball team opens the season

with Coast Tip-Off Tourney Nov. 8-10.

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With a goal in Tuesday’s 1-1 tie between OCC and Cypress in

women’s soccer, Cypress’ Randi Johns moved into a tie with the Bucs’

Jaycee Mahler for first place in OEC scoring.

Mahler has 11 goals in conference (17 overall) to go along with

five conference assists (6 overall). Johns now has nine goals and

nine assists in OEC play and has 14 goals and 15 assists on the

season.

Johns leads in overall scoring with 45 points while Mahler has 40

points. Both players have attained 27 of their points in conference

play.

*

OCC football coach Mike Taylor said Saturday’s 4 p.m. start for

the “Battle of the Bell” game between Golden West and OCC will stay

the same, even with the Anaheim Angels now assured to host Game 6 of

the World Series Saturday at 5 p.m. against the San Francisco Giants.

“It’s out of my hands, it’s in stone,” Taylor said Wednesday when

asked if there was any discussion about changing the time. “The

president (Gene Farrel) was planning the football game as part of the

OCC Open House and wanted people to be a part of that. I don’t care

if the pope was scheduled to appear, it wouldn’t change the time of

the game. It would take an earthquake before they would change the

time. People can buy a Jumbotron and we can watch it on TV. Maybe

I’ll go buy rally monkeys and sell them at our game as well.”

The game’s starting time was changed to 4 p.m. as part of OCC’s

Open House Saturday that features campus tours, food booths,

performing arts events, lab activities and sports events.