CHATTER: EASTERN COLLEGES KNOW WHERE TO FIND SOFTBALL TALENT.Byline: Vincent Bonsignore Staff Writer There is a nice rivalry brewing between the Northeast Conference The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a college athletic conference which operates in the northeastern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I-AA for football and Division I for all other sports. softball teams at Sacred Heart University Anthony J. Cernera, Ph.D., has been president of Sacred Heart University for 18 years. Sacred Heart University is known for its strong musical roots, and is well known for the Pioneer Bands. SHU is the second largest Catholic university in New England. in Fairfield, Conn., and Long Island University in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . The local angle? Long Island had five players from the region on its 2004 roster, with four coming back next season. At Sacred Heart The Sacred Heart is a religious devotion to Jesus' physical heart as the representation of the divine love for humanity This devotion is predominantly used in the Roman Catholic Church and also used in the Anglican Church. , two players from the region were on last season's team with one more arriving next year. ``It's pretty funny when you think about it,'' said Steve Uno, whose daughter Brittany will play at Sacred Heart next season after graduating from Taft High of Woodland Hills. ``To think so many players from the same area end up playing against one another at schools all the way across the country.'' A number of players from the region leave the area each year to play at colleges all over the country - some leave to get out of California, others because they did not get scholarship offers close to home. Still, so many players from one area playing at two East Coast schools in the same conference? ``With so many good players in California, you're definitely going to see rosters at colleges all over the country stocked with Adj. 1. stocked with - furnished with more than enough; "rivers well stocked with fish"; "a well-stocked store" stocked furnished, equipped - provided with whatever is necessary for a purpose (as furniture or equipment or authority); "a furnished apartment"; talent from around here,'' said Westlake softball coach Garry Fetman.'' Long Island University, which won the Northeast Conference championship, featured Jessie DePippo (Westlake), Krystal Mejia (Sylmar), Brianna Mathiesen (Kennedy of Granada Hills), Alissa Villanueva (Kennedy) and Sonia Zapata (Canyon) and all but Zapata will return next year. Incidentally, all but DePippo played for the Valley Breeze club travel team, which practices at Valley College. Fetman is one of the coaches for the club. At Sacred Heart, Danielle Mellin (La Canada) and Tiffania Cross-Monzo (Cornerstone Christian) played this year. Both return next season and will be joined by Taft's Uno. ... Former Sylmar High basketball player George O'Garro, who now goes to the Naval Academy, has been selected to play for the Virgin Islands national basketball team, which is hoping to qualify for the Olympics. O'Garro averaged six points and six rebounds last season for the Midshipmen. ... Chaminade of West Hills football standout Logan Paulsen was offered a scholarship by Stanford last week. To date, he also has received offers from Boston College Boston College, main campus at Chestnut Hill, Mass.; coeducational; Jesuit; est. and opened 1863. Actually a university, the school's Chestnut Hill campus comprises colleges of arts and sciences and business administration, the graduate school, and schools of nursing , UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX , Colorado, Arizona, Washington State, and UNLV UNLV University of Nevada, Las Vegas . ... Chaminade has hired Jose Mejia as its new boys' soccer coach. Mejia brings much playing and coaching experience to the Eagles. He was named Player of the Year as a senior at Reseda High in 1995. Mejia has been the Regents' boys' coach since 2002. In addition, he also served as an assistant coach for the Mission College men's team. Mejia was a member of the under-20 Salvadorian national team in 1994 and continued to play competitively on various club teams until three years ago. Since 1999, Mejia has been actively coaching club teams and camps throughout Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, and holds a USSF USSF United States Special Forces (US Army) USSF United States Soccer Federation USSF United States Space Foundation USSF United States Special Forces (gaming clan) coaching license. ... Kent Cote was named the new baseball coach at Mission College. Cote is a 1991 graduate of Chaminade. As expected, former Kennedy standout Sandra Durazo is the new Mission softball coach. ... Chaminade swimmer Blake Nilsson has committed to the Air Force Academy. In addition, swimmer Kevyn Klein will attend Claremont McKenna College A member of the Claremont Colleges, Claremont McKenna College is a small, highly selective, private coeducational, liberal arts college enrolling about 1100 students with a curricular emphasis on government, economics, and public policy. . ... Hart of Newhall graduate Chris Valaika and Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks graduate Brett Hayes have been added to the list of players invited to try out for this summer's USA Baseball National Team. A pool of 36 players will compete at team trials beginning June 20 for a spot on the 20-man roster. After a month of exhibition games, Team USA will compete in the World University Championships in Taiwan from July 25-Aug. 1. Valaika was named Big West Freshman of the Year this season as a shortstop for UC Santa Barbara. Hayes earned All-Western Athletic Conference honors as a sophomore catcher at Nevada. ... Vincent Bonsignore, (818) 713-3612 vincent.bonsignore(at)dailynews.com |
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