CSUN STAR HEADING TO PORTUGAL.

Byline: Vincent Bonsignore Staff Writer

Former Cal State Northridge basketball standout Ian Boylan has accepted a contract offer to play professionally with Ginasio, a Division 1 team in Portugal. Boylan averaged 15 points per game last year at Northridge and earned Big West Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors.

``I'm excited about seeing another part of the world and getting my professional career started,'' Boylan said. ``I can't wait to get out there and start playing again.''

Another former local college standout - Pepperdine's Terrance Johnson - will play professionally with Castelletto Ticino in Italy this year. Johnson finished his college career at Cal Baptist last season.

--USC outfielder Cyle Hankerd was named MVP of the New England Collegiate Baseball League. He hit a league-high .383 with nine home runs and 36 RBI to help lead the the Newport (R.I.) Gulls to the league title.

Hankerd was 12 for 24 with two home runs and five RBI in six postseason games.

--Right-handed pitcher Chase Tigert, who played at Quartz Hill, committed to San Francisco. Tigert, a 6-foot-5 senior, has been on varsity since he was a freshman, helping Quartz Hill to at least a share of the Golden League title each year.

--Former Cal State Northridge football coach Jeff Kearin, now the head coach at Loyola of Los Angeles High School, has hired former New York Jets quarterback Kenny O'Brien as an assistant coach.

--Tyrell Smith, one of the nation's top football recruits after having 97 catches for 1,219 yards and 11 touchdowns as a College of the Canyons sophomore last season, never showed up at San Diego State after signing with the Aztecs.

``Everyone arrived Sunday and Tyrell Smith wasn't here. He's not on the roster,'' San Diego State spokesman Dave Kuhn said.

Instead, Smith, the 2004 Western State Conference Player of the Year, is in Minnesota after accepting an offer from Division II Minnesota State.

Smith, whom Canyons' offensive coordinator Dean Herrington has called ``the best JC wide receiver in the USA,'' has had his share of problems - including a jail stint on an assault conviction as a juvenile in Detroit.

Poor grades in high school ruined a chance for him to accept a Michigan State scholarship, and after catching 55 passes as a Canyons freshman in 2002, Smith missed the 2003 season because of academic ineligibility.

--Led by several area swimmers, Southern California won its third consecutive title Saturday at the Western Zone Championships in Kearns, Utah.

Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks' Jeremy Blankenship, Quartz Hill graduate Sarah Colvin, Harvard-Westlake of Studio City's Karina Silvester and Westlake of Westlake Village's Aislinn Smalling won individual events for Southern California.

--J.T. Sundling won his third U.S. Tennis Association singles title this year with a 6-1, 6-1 victory Sunday over fellow Thousand Oaks resident Denis Lin in the final of the boys' 14-and-under hard court tournament in San Antonio.

Sam Querrey, a senior at Thousand Oaks, lost 7-6 (7-4), 5-7, 6-2 to Donald Young of Fairburn, Ga., in Sunday's championship match of the USTA boys' 18-and-under Super Hard Court National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich.

Former Granada Hills High standout and Chatsworth resident Jessica Nguyen and partner Krysty Marcio of Coral Springs, Fla., lost in the 18-and-under girls' doubles final of the USTA National Championships in San Jose on Sunday.

Erik Boal and Gerry Gittelson contributed.

Vincent Bonsignore, [phone]

vincent.bonsignore(at)dailynews.com