CHATTER: LOCAL FLAVOR ON U.K. TEAM.

Byline: RAMONA SHELBURNE Staff Writer

Katy Wilkins couldn't believe what she saw when she looked at the other names on the roster of the British National softball team.

Right above her name was Crescenta Valley of La Crescenta graduate Kirsten Whitt, whom she'd known since she was 14.

``It's pretty crazy, huh?'' said Wilkins, a Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks graduate and senior at Cal Lutheran University. ``I saw her name and I'm like, `I played travel ball with her!' ''

Wilkins, Whitt and the rest of the British national team took on the United States national team Thursday at the 2006 World Cup of Softball in Oklahoma City and lost 14-0 in five innings. The game was televised by ESPN.

``It's been an amazing experience,'' said Wilkins, who holds dual British and American citizenship because her father is a British citizen. ``It's a dream come true to play for a national team. I feel really lucky to have this chance.

``In the spring, I'm playing for Cal Lutheran, a Division III school in Thousand Oaks. And now, in the summer, I'm playing against the best players in the world on ESPN. I never could've imagined anything like that.''

Wilkins hit .323 with 18 RBIs as a junior in 2006. Whitt started 46 games for Loyola Marymount last year.

Like many national programs in Europe, most of the players on the British national team are foreign-born. But Wilkins said that doesn't make them any less British. There's just one British tradition she still hasn't embraced.

``Everyone on this team is always drinking tea,'' she joked. ``It's 100 degrees outside and they're drinking tea. I'm not really into that yet.''

Oak Park junior Courtney Lightfoot, the top runner on a girls' cross country team expected to contend for the Div. III state championship this fall, will miss much or all of the upcoming season as she recovers from a fractured ankle suffered May 4 at the Tri-Valley League track and field finals.

Lightfoot, who underwent surgery last week to remove a bone chip and reset the ankle, is not expected to put significant weight on the bone until October -- well into cross country season. Oak Park coach Kevin Smith said he does not expect Lightfoot to recover in time to qualify for state.

Oak Park, runner-up to Corona del Mar of Newport Beach at last year's state meet, isn't nearly as strong without Lightfoot, who finished third in Div. III as an individual.

``There's no doubt we're one of the top teams (in Div. III) when Courtney is healthy,'' Smith said. ``Am I counting on having her back this season? No. I'm hoping she recovers in time for track and field season (next spring).''

Two of the area's top girls' cross country teams will have new coaches this fall.

Thousand Oaks, the defending Div. I state champion, filled the vacancy left by Robert Radnoti -- now the women's coach at Pepperdine -- with Sarah Burns.

Flintridge Prep of La Canada Flintridge, which won its first Southern Section Div. V title last season, has replaced retired coach Michael Roffina with 22-year-old Stanford graduate Kristin Cohoon.

Burns has served as a Thousand Oaks assistant the past two seasons, in addition to coaching girls' track at Camarillo. Cohoon, a Chadwick of Rancho Palos Verdes graduate, won seven Southern Section track titles and twice finished as state runner-up in cross country.

Real So Cal, a local girls' 14-under club soccer team featuring athletes from Agoura, Camarillo, Chatsworth and Oaks Christian of Westlake Village, will begin competition Monday in the Gothia Cup -- also known as the Youth World Cup -- in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Real So Cal earned the right to compete in the world's largest youth soccer tournament after winning the Manchester Cup -- featuring the top 20 girls' 14-under teams in the country -- over Memorial Day weekend at Nike World Headquarters in Oregon.

Ryan Millar, a former Highland of Palmdale volleyball standout, will be competing for the U.S. men's national team tonight in Salt Lake City when it returns to FIVB World League competition in the first of two matches against Poland.

Millar, who was hired as an assistant at Brigham Young earlier in the week, played for the Cougars in 1996-99 and still has family members and a house in nearby Provo.

The U.S., ranked fifth in the world, will play matches today and Saturday against No. 8 Poland, both at 6 p.m. PDT. The U.S. is also scheduled to face Japan and Serbia & Montenegro in the next five weeks.

Erik Boal and Kevin Connelly contributed

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