HOPE THIS WORKS: Canyon's Jerime Anderson of the North squad attempts a shot as the South's Joe Eberhard defends Saturday. STEVE ZYLIUS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Fryer surveys the county scene

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Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:

• Sandwiched between the NCAA men's volleyball championship semifinals and the final this week at UC Irvine is the Battle at the Bren, a two-game high school boys volleyball event in which Santa Margarita plays Woodbridge at 6 p.m. followed by Corona del Mar vs. Newport Harbor on Friday at 8 at UCI's Bren Center. The teams were selected months ago, but check out the foresight of organizer Diane Liljestrom of Woodbridge: Newport Harbor and Corona del Mar are ranked first and second, respectively, in the county, and Santa Margarita and Woodbridge are third and fourth, respectively. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students and children, and parking at the Bren's nearby parking structure is $7.

• How the elimination of the association rule, which restricted the time high school coaches could spend with their teams' athletes outside of the season of sport, will affect county athletics remains to be seen. The veteran coach, knowing that kids need a break from the coach and vice versa, probably will not change his/her program much, if at all. It's the gung-ho young coach, perhaps with an eye on ascending the coaching career ladder, who might take the type of advantage of this situation that could be detrimental to student-athletes and even the coach's program.

• Interestingly, the Trinity League voted against the elimination of the association rule, although the Trinity League's schools seem best-positioned to benefit from the rule's deletion. Those schools have the ability to raise funds to pay for more walk-on coaches or create on-campus positions for additional fulltime coaches that would be needed to work the extra coaching hours.

• After the CIF-Southern Section Council voted to eliminate to association rule, there was a motion to vote on it again; the motion did not carry. Some council members, who are high school administrators, thought they had voted on the elimination of the association rule for girls water polo only, thus the motion for another vote. That the proposal dealt with all sports was clear by the wording of the proposal in every Council member's packet that was distributed at Thursday's Council meeting and was available to them for days on the CIF-SS Web site. The proposal's all-sports nature was clarified during discussion of the proposal at the meeting

• The End of Season Lacrosse Tournament's Southern Division games for girls lacrosse begin Friday at various sites. There is no CIF-Southern Section championship in boys or girls lacrosse, as fewer than 20 percent of the section's member schools field teams in the sport. The tournament's championship game, between the Northern and Southern division winners, is May 9 at 5 p.m. at Trabuco Hills.

• While it's nice to have the 2008 CIF-SS Pac-5 and Southwest Division football games at nearby Angel Stadium, Home Depot Center is just a better-shaped structure for football.

• Canyon's Jerime Anderson backed up his status as county boys basketball player of the year Saturday with his game-high 35 points, nine assists, six rebounds and three steals while he was being guarded most of the time by Santa Margarita's Klay Thompson, and while he was guarding Thompson, at the Kiwanis/PlyoCity Orange County Basketball All-Star Games at Ocean View. Other boys players who impressed: Thompson; Corona del Mar's Stefan Kaluz; Ocean View's Takeshi Clifford (32 points; some players are better in less-structured ball); and Irvine's Wyatt Young. Girls players who impressed: San Clemente's Kristen Riley; Tustin's Taiyande Huskey (good defender, excellent passer and dribbler, quickest player on the floor); San Clemente's Andrea Wertz (steady and strong point guard); and Troy's Amanda Sims.

• Sage Hill's boys tennis team won its first Academy League championship this season, and is one of two county teams ranked No. 1 in its CIF-SS division. Sage Hill is No. 1 in Division IV. University is No. 1 in Division I.

• Every athlete and parent, especially, who think being in a high-profile athletic program is all-important should notice that Oniel Cousins, who played 8-man football at Eastside Christian, was drafted in the third round by the Baltimore Ravens this past weekend.

Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com