THE MASTER'S NOTEBOOK: MASTER'S COACH STARTS HOOPS CAMP.

Byline: Chris Cocoles Staff Writer

NEWHALL - The Master's College coach Dan Waldeck has aspirations of building a strong men's and women's cross country program.

But he also wants to see high school basketball in the Santa Clarita Valley on the same level as football, soccer and baseball, all local powers. So Waldeck, with the help of other Mustangs coaches, is starting a new basketball academy in the area with the intention of improving local basketball players - on and off the court.

The first Varsity Academy meeting is Sunday at 2 p.m. at Bross Gym on The Master's campus. The academy is open to boys and girls ages 9-18. Anyone can stop by on Sunday and get a glimpse of Waldeck's operation and see if they're interested in joining.

``We'd like to get 50-80 kids. We're hoping to be about 40 by the end of September,'' said Waldeck, who said so far almost 20 local players have signed up for the camp, which will meet for three days and a total of seven hours a week at The Master's. ``I would love to see the fundamental skills of kids in this valley develop.''

Waldeck, in his first season as the Mustangs' cross country coach, previously was an assistant coach for the school's women's basketball team. Another Mustangs assistant coach, Brian Holsinger, has a brother who started the first of five Varsity Academy camps in Spokane, Wash., which is also home to the Northwest Basketball Camps association that sanctions the programs.

Waldeck, who gave up a financial-planning job to coach cross country and create the academy, observed several NBC camps in the Pacific Northwest and sat in on one of Aaron Holsinger's Varsity Academy practices. The other locations currently hosting similar academies are in Seattle, Portland, Ore., and Missoula, Mont.

Improving fundamental skills is the primary goal. But this isn't just about basketball but improving life skills as well, in and out of the classroom.

``We'll have them keep their own journals and make a personal mission statement,'' Waldeck said. ``We want to get as deep with the kids as they want to get. We want them to come up with what we call `nuggets,' something that they think can make them a better person. We want the kids to be analytic.''

Waldeck, whose teaching support includes his former staff mates on the Mustangs' women's basketball team, Brian Holsinger and Master's head coach Ken Sugarman, wants the local high school varsity and junior varsity and intermediate-school coaches involved with his academy.

``There are kids who play high school and club basketball who are not working enough on their game. And their development is going to be slow,'' Waldeck said. ``I see a lot of kids at local gyms and the parks who might be very athletic but sometimes don't handle the ball very well or don't shoot it well enough. We break down the game and we want the players who want to take it to the level they want to be at.''

--Odds and ends: Just when the women's soccer team is gaining some momentum, the Mustangs won't play again until Friday in a 4 p.m. nonconference home match with Cal State Monterey Bay. After suffering shutout losses to Robert Morris University in Chicago and at Chapman, the Mustangs improved to 2-3 after routing Pomona Pitzer 5-1 on Wednesday behind freshman Lindsay Smith's three assists and one goal. ...

The women's volleyball team's chances of competing for the championship in the rugged Golden State Athletic Conference will be enhanced if it continues to spread out the kills as the Mustangs did in Tuesday's conference opener against Concordia.

Four players finished with at least 10 kills, topped by senior Erika Sansoni's 15. But the big performance was the 12 kills from Lacey Geinger, who also made an impact on the defensive side with 21 kills. The Mustangs won the match in four games and are 8-3 overall, 1-0 in the GSAC, entering Thursday's GSAC match against visiting Hope International. ...

Former Mustangs baseball standout Rob Avila finished his season for the Single-A Clearwater Phillies of the Florida State League. Avila, mainly a catcher in the Philadelphia organization, hit .218 with five homers and 26 RBI in 74 games as a utility player who appeared in 21 games at first base, 20 in the outfield and 18 at catcher. ...

The cross country team makes its 2002 debut Saturday at the Westmont Invitational in Santa Barbara. The men's team finished third and the women's team fifth at that same event last season. ...

The men's soccer team, currently in Barbourville, Ky., for the Union College tournament, received 12 votes but fell short of breaking this week's NAIA Top 25 poll. The Master's plays Missouri Baptist College in Kentucky on Saturday at 11 a.m. PDT.

BASKETBALL CAMP

For information, call Dan Waldeck at [phone] or [phone]. He can be reached by e-mail at dan(at)nbccamps.com. There is also a Varsity Academy Web site (www.varsityacademy.com) that details costs of attending the September-July program.

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

Chad Hartman (14) and The Master's College men's soccer team (5-0-1) fell short of breaking this week's NAIA Top 25 poll.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

Box:

BASKETBALL CAMP (see text)