Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:
• Gary Fishel was not replaced by Vince Brown as Foothill baseball coach because Foothill finished last in the Century League last season. Fishel has a young family and needed a break from the demands that come with being a conscientious head coach. Brown kept Fishel on his staff, and Fishel will be the team’s third-base coach Friday night for the CIF-SS Division 1 championship game against Santa Margarita at Dodger Stadium.
• Fishel coached Foothill to school’s only previous CIF baseball championship game. The Knights beat St. Francis of La Canada, 4-3, in eight innings in the Division 2 final in 2006.
• The only entrance for Friday’s three CIF-SS baseball championship games at Dodger Stadium is the Elysian Park entrance. Parking is in Lot G or Lot 6 behind the outfield fence, as are the ticket booths. Entry into the stadium is through the field-level gate, Lot G, in the left-field corner.
• Saturday’s four CIF-SS baseball championship games are at UC Riverside. General admission tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students with valid student identification and for children 13 and younger. Admission is good for all of the games. Parking is $5.
• Both Aliso Niguel and Temecula Valley, which play each other Friday in the Division 2 baseball final at Dodger Stadium at 5 p.m., are looking for redemption. Aliso Niguel lost to Pacifica in the Division 2 final in 2012. Temecula Valley lost to Cypress in the Division 2 final last year.
• The baseball season does not end with the CIF-SS finals. The Orange County All-Star Game is Monday at Dee Fee Field at La Palma Park. First pitch is 6:45 p.m. and admission is $5. The game is loaded with future college athletes and players who will be taken in the ongoing MLB draft.
• The Ryan Lemmon Showcase at Windrow Park in Irvine next week is a series of baseball games involving teams made up of various leagues’ top graduating seniors. On June 13, the Trinity League plays the South Coast League at 4:30 p.m. and the Century League vs. Sunset League at 7:30 p.m. June 14 games are Empire vs. Sea View at 1:30 p.m. and Pacific Coast vs. Freeway at 4:30 p.m.
• Capistrano Valley senior pitcher Wyatt Shackleford signed with Cal Poly Pomona this week. He was 8-3 with a 1.95 ERA this season. Cypress freshman shortstop Isaiah Parra committed to UC Santa Barbara.
• Servite is accepting applications through June 25 for its baseball coaching position. The job was made vacant last week when Jeff Sears was told he would not be invited back for a fourth season.
• Servite people would love to see Santa Margarita pitching coach, Servite alum and Angels all-time great Mike Witt fill the Friars’ opening. Witt said the commute would be a tough one – he lives in deep south county – and he has no inclination to become a head coach at this time.
• Former Canyon coach Joe Hoggatt said he will take a shot at the Servite job. Hoggatt ran a consistently successful program at Canyon and coached the Comanches to a CIF championship game in 2007.
• A very early look at next season is available at the Saddleback Valley Christian Summer Classic boys basketball tournament, June 11-15. It includes three of last season’s CIF-SS championship teams and two that won state titles.
• Open Division section and state champion Mater Dei, CIF-SS 2AA champion Canyon, section 3AA champion Santa Margarita and state Division 2 champion St. John Bosco are in the tournament, which will be played at five sites including Concordia University, Irvine Valley College and Saddleback Valley Christian.
• Summer basketball tournaments and leagues reveal who has transferred where. Orange Lutheran coach Chris Nordstrom confirmed that Jacob Hughes, a 6-foot-11 center who played sparingly as a freshman this past winter, has withdrawn from Lutheran.
• Mission Viejo began interviewing candidates this week for its varsity boys basketball coaching position. The job was vacated when Troy Roelen was told he had to make a choice between remaining as the coach or the athletic director and he chose the latter. Former Mission Viejo All-County player Perry Webster, now an assistant coach at Saddleback College, said he decided to not pursue the job.
• Tom McCluskey, who coached Tustin to a state title in the early 1990s and more recently coached at Trabuco Hills, where he continues as a teacher, said he would give pursuing the position some thought. Many who appreciate McCluskey’s coaching ability would target him as a leading candidate.
• El Toro boys basketball coach Todd Dixon was going to try for his school’s athletic director position. But El Toro, like Mission Viejo, is in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District, which no longer allows an athletic director to be a coach of any type at any level. Dixon will stick with coaching.
• Plenty of county football players who will be seniors this fall are getting recruiting attention. Orange Lutheran’s Keisean Lucier-South, a 6-foot-6, 220-pound defensive end, got a scholarship offer this week from Oklahoma. He has offers from Texas A&M and Florida State.
• Los Alamitos senior-to-be punter Blake Johnson has been offered by Oregon State. Punters don’t get offers often. Los Alamitos linebacker Matt Locher has an offer from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
• Other football seniors-to-be with recent offers include Buena Park offensive lineman Kevin Dixon (Arizona State, Boise State and more); Servite cornerbacks Maurice Davison (New Hampshire, Sacramento State and Villanova) and Kameron Dennis (Navy), and Tustin receiver George Wilson (Utah).
• Yours truly is not among the many who place stock in passing tournament results because blocking and tackling are absent essentials. Some championship-bracket results that will excite some from last weekend’s Air Strike passing tournament, won by JSerra, at Dana Hills: Servite 20, Edison 18; Servite 32, Trabuco Hills 13; Orange Lutheran 27, Corona del Mar 0; Santiago of Corona 34, Santa Margarita 31; and JSerra 45, Santiago of Corona 22.
• Another good one coming up is the Gunslinger Passing Tournament on June 14 at San Juan Hills High. The eight teams in the tournament, which runs 9 a.m.-3 p.m., are Canyon, JSerra, Loyola of Los Angeles, Mater Dei, Oaks Christian of Westlake Village, San Juan Hills, Tustin and Westlake.
• For those going to the CIF State Track and Field Championships in Clovis today and Saturday: gates today open at 2 p.m., with field events starting at 3 p.m. and running at 5 p.m.; gates open Saturday at 3:30 p.m., field events start at 4:30 p.m. and running events start at 6 p.m. Admission: today, $10 for adults and $7 for seniors 65 and older and children 13 and younger and for students with valid student identification; Saturday, $12 for adults and $8 for seniors 65 and older and children 13 and younger and for students with valid student identification.
• State meet performance lists are at cifstate.org.
• County leagues that appealed their playoff division placement but had their appeals denied accepted those judgments. Further pursuing the issue would create need for an unprecedented fourth CIF-SS Council session. There could be a fourth session Tuesday if the San Andreas League further pursues its denied appeal of its playoff division placement in football.
• Servite’s baseball field will be rearranged so that home plate will be where the left-field corner is now, and right field will be where home plate is now. If I’m a coach where a similar rearrangement is coming, I would try to keep where the parents sit in the area that is going to be deep right field.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
