Chenowith has a lot to offer at Villa Park

Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:

• Eric Chenowith is coaching in the Villa Park boys basketball program. Chenowith, an All-County center at Villa Park before playing at Kansas and then playing professionally in the U.S. and overseas, is coaching post players at Villa Park. Chenowith had to work hard and learn a lot to transform himself from a freshman with limited coordination to a guy good enough to be drafted in the NBA's second round, and players like that often become excellent coaches.

• The Pacific Coast and Sea View leagues are going to Tuesday-Friday scheduling for league boys basketball games this coming season. They used to go Wednesday-Friday, the most common weekly scheduling for boys basketball league games. The Century League already has gone with the Tuesday-Friday format, and I like it because now I get to see more teams.

• A newsworthy item perhaps missed – Mater Dei senior basketball guard Gary Franklin committed to Cal, having withdrawn a commitment to USC when the Trojans underwent a coaching change. That gives the Monarchs three Pac-10 basketball commitments: Franklin to Cal, Tyler Lamb to UCLA, and Keala King, the transfer from Dominguez of Compton, to Arizona State.

• This interesting coaching hire also might have gotten lost in all the fall sports news: Dave Bacani is the new baseball coach at Santa Margarita. Bacani was a fine player at Los Alamitos and then at Cal State Fullerton, and most recently has been a player-coach with the Orange County Flyers.

• The Sage Hill girls tennis team had a comeback week, last week. After a rough time of it early this season with losses that knocked them out of the county top 10, the Lightning last week beat county top 10 team Laguna Beach, 9-9 and 75-72 in games, and barely lost to another county top 10 team, St. Margaret's, 9-9 and 73-71 in games. Sage Hill is back in the county top 10, at No. 6, and is No. 2 in CIF-Southern Section Division 4 behind top-ranked St. Margaret's.

• Here is a girls golfer to watch: Grace Komoroczy, a senior at Laguna Beach. She was Golden West League champion last year, when she had a nine-hole average score of 39.4. This year, Komoroczy dropped her average to 37 and has been medalist in all eight Laguna Beach matches.

• There is high school ice hockey in our county. The teams at JSerra and Santa Margarita play each other Saturday at 5:15 p.m. at Anaheim Ice.

• The Servite-Mater Dei football game on Oct. 23 has been moved from Angel Stadium to Santa Ana Stadium. Angel Stadium always had been a tentative site, because if the Angels advanced into the American League Championship Series, which they did, then the game would have to find another location. Santa Ana Stadium was on hold for that possibility. It is Mater Dei's home game at Santa Ana Stadium, which has a seating capacity of 10,000.

• Presale ticket information for Servite-Mater Dei: at Mater Dei, Monday through next Wednesday, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with tickets available to people with Mater Dei associations on those days and then to the general public on Thursday if tickets are still available. Tickets will be on sale at Servite next Wednesday, from 5-7 p.m., with priority numbers distributed at 3:30 p.m.

• Football teams in county history with three consecutive CIF championships: Brea Olinda, from 1961-63; Irvine, from 1991-93; Los Alamitos, from 1991-93 ('92 was a co-championship, with Esperanza, in Division II); and St. Margaret's, from 2006-08. St. Margaret's has a good shot at becoming the first county team to win four consecutive CIF football titles. The Tartans are No. 1 in the CIF-Southern Section's East Valley Division rankings.

• Best winless football teams in the county: Foothill and Western, both 0-5. Foothill is going to be a playoff contender in that tough Sea View League, and Western just might go 5-0 again in the Orange League. (Western has gone 5-0 in the Orange League seven times this decade.) Foothill has lost to teams that are a combined 16-9, including Fountain Valley and Tustin, and Western has lost to teams that are a combined 13-12, including Fullerton and Tustin.

• Santa Ana Valley senior running back Darius Nacoste is 91 yards from tying the school career rushing record of 4,168 set by Myron White in 1974. Valley is trying to make arrangements with Anaheim, Valley's opponent Saturday at Santa Ana Stadium, to have the game halted to recognize Nacoste's achievement should he get the school record that night.

• At ocvarsity.com you can find my league-by-league predictions of which teams will make the playoffs and win league championships, as many leagues start league play this week. Also, we have the midseason offensive and defensive players of the year.