Athletic Recruiting

The list of outstanding offensive players produced at Edison High School in the last 25 years reads like a who's who of Orange County high school football. Former running backs include Kerwin Bell (Kansas), Mike Dotterer (Stanford), Dave Geroux (USC) and Kaleaph Carter (UCLA). Former quarterbacks include Rick Bashore (UCLA), Steve Rakhashani (Hawaii), Frank Seurer (Kansas), Ken Major (Rice) and Edison's current coach, Dave White (Oregon State).

A familiar UCLA chant broke out in a Chicago hotel room a few days before the McDonald's All-American high school basketball game. Clap-clap-clap-clap.... Kyle Anderson, Bruins point-guard-in-waiting, was trying to teach the eight clap to Shabazz Muhammad, potential Bruins savior-in-waiting. It wasn't a flawless rendition. "Just like me before, you have to work on it," said Anderson, who signed a letter of intent with UCLA last fall and was lobbying to have Muhammad do the same next week.

At 6 feet tall and 250 pounds, former Cal State Northridge football star Tracy Anderson, a Pacoima native known as Tank, was a prime recruiting prospect. The recruiters weren't from the National Football League, though, but from a drug ring that controls the rock cocaine market of the northeast San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles police say. Increasingly, that scenario is ringing true for other former high school and college football players in the northeast Valley as well, detectives said.

Jordan Payton said he was on the telephone with UCLA Coach Jim Mora until 1 a.m. Wednesday, unsure what to do. Nearly six hours later, the coveted receiver from Westlake Village Oaks Christian called again after deciding -- for the fourth time -- where he would go to college. "He called about 6:50 a.m., right after he got out of the shower, and said, 'Coach, I'm going to follow my heart,' " Mora said. Mora's 26-member first recruiting class was ranked 11th nationally by Scout.com and 12th by Rivals.com at the end of the day. It included Monrovia defensive tackle Ellis McCarthy and quarterback Devin Fuller, both considered among the best at their positions.

The Supreme Court agreed Friday to referee a high school sports dispute over whether coaches have a free-speech right to recruit athletes from other schools. Last year, a federal appeals court threw out a $3,000 fine and a two-year suspension given to a Tennessee high school football powerhouse whose coach was accused of violating the state's anti-recruiting rule, which is similar to regulations around the country.

As the traveler comes up over a rise, through the blasting heat of the mid-African veldt, Welkom appears. It is hot, and a dry wind is blowing. Welcome to Welkom, one of the most important mining centers in Africa. From this region come the world's largest supplies of gold, diamonds, uranium and chromium. These treasures help make South Africa one of the world's richest nations. Gold alone accounts for 42% of South Africa's export income and makes up 10% of the country's gross national product.

The black car idled outside Crenshaw High, waiting to whisk Brian Price to USC. Price, a highly regarded defensive lineman, had committed to UCLA months before and had told USC coaches he was not interested in an official visit to their campus. USC scheduled one anyway -- and sent the conspicuous vehicle to deliver Price to Heritage Hall last month.

If George Genovese were trying to assemble the finest team of rodeo cowboys, he would pay closest attention not to the heroes who ride the crazed animals but to the guys assigned to hose the beasts down after the performance. Genovese, however, is a scout for the San Francisco Giants.

Jason DeVera remembers leafing through the UC Irvine Tennis Classic program this spring with his buddy, Cameran Lindee, and suddenly wondering what country he was in. "We were going down all the rosters and we couldn't help but notice all the foreign players," he said. "It was incredible. We just had to laugh." But DeVera stopped laughing a couple weeks later when he started asking college tennis coaches how many scholarships they had available.

High schools with big-time sports ambitions were dealt a setback Thursday when the Supreme Court upheld a rule that forbids coaches from recruiting young athletes. In a 9-0 decision, the justices said the 1st Amendment's guarantee of free speech does not shield coaches who ignore the rules of fair competition by contacting students and encouraging them to enroll in their school. "To hold otherwise would undermine the principle ...

The Copa America is less than two weeks away, with the kickoff in Argentina set for July 1, but four of the players expected to star in South America's quadrennial championship already are the talk of the European summer transfer market. The world's wealthiest clubs are lining up to throw money at one or more of the names they hope will either keep them at the top or get them there. Spanish and European champion Barcelona, for example, already has said it will splash out more than $60 million, even though most fans would say there is little that needs fixing at the Camp Nou, where Argentina's Lionel Messi is the brightest in a glittering array of stars.

Reporting from Las Vegas This is not a good season for college basketball in Los Angeles, surely not a good time for fans to get picky about the details. With no Bruins in the NCAA tournament, no Trojans or 49ers in sight, the situation calls for a little geographic flexibility. So if San Diego State and UC Santa Barbara seem too far-fetched, consider cheering for the Runnin' Rebels of Nevada Las Vegas. Their campus lies about four hours to the northeast, not much farther than Chino at rush hour.

For many NFL prospects, life begins at 40 (yards). Covering that distance in a scorching time -- as Clemson's Jacoby Ford did Sunday at the NFL scouting combine -- can turn the heads of potential employers, just as a slow 40 time can send a player's draft stock into a tailspin. According to an NFL scout who, along with dozens of others, was keeping his own stopwatch on Ford, the 5-foot-8, 182-pound receiver clocked in at hand times ranging between 4.18 and 4.23 seconds. The official (electronic)

Everybody take a deep breath. The sports hysteria of recent days is over. In our rearview mirror, thankfully, are the Super Bowl and high school football signing day. The NFL ran its annual scam and we all sat up and barked. No question, the game is great theater, the athletes are special and the chance to have a party is nice. The problem is, we have to hear about it constantly for two weeks, almost as if we are deaf or have attention deficit disorder. We get it. We know it is our civic duty to watch the commercials and buy from the advertisers so they will make enough money for even more expensive commercials for next year's Super Bowl.

As USC Coach Lane Kiffin and his staff blazed the recruiting trail the last couple of weeks, players and parents questioned them about the specter of possible NCAA sanctions against the Trojans football program. "Obviously, it was something that came up at times," Kiffin said. According to several players, coaches told them that they expected the program to be fine, that USC might forfeit some games from previous seasons or, perhaps, lose a few scholarships if sanctions were imposed.

The UCLA-USC football rivalry is definitely alive and flourishing -- in recruiting, at least. Each school emerged from Wednesday, the first day high school football seniors could sign letters of intent, with prospect classes ranked in the national top 10. "We're very close [to USC], and we'll go past them very soon," UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel predicted. The departure of USC Coach Pete Carroll to the NFL seemed to energize Neuheisel, who showed a closer mentality. Four top defensive recruits all announced in the middle of the day that they had signed with UCLA -- defensive backs Dietrich Riley of La Cañada St. Francis and Anthony Jefferson of Los Angeles Cathedral, linebacker Josh Shirley of Fontana Kaiser and defensive end Owamagbe Odighizuwa from Portland, Ore. New USC Coach Lane Kiffin ended the day by landing the biggest and best offensive line prospect in the nation, 6-foot-8, 330-pound tackle Seantrel Henderson from St. Paul, Minn.

Many parents dream of their son getting a football scholarship or their daughter a full-ride college scholarship. That . . . is unrealistic for most kids and parents. --Irvine Unified School District Parents' Handbook A college athletic scholarship. By the time high school players become seniors, those words will have been drummed into their heads. Just about all parents in these economically trying times want their kid to earn one. But not many do.

If there were champagne bottles around the local CIF offices Thursday morning, corks would have been popped because the commissioners were in a celebratory mood. "Yeah, baby!" Southern Section Commissioner Jim Staunton shouted. "Thank goodness," City Section Commissioner Barbara Fiege said. Both were reacting to the 9-0 U.S.

With national signing day for high school recruits less than 12 hours away, USC Coach Lane Kiffin on Tuesday hastily sat for his media guide portrait in the lobby of Heritage Hall. Total time with photographer: Less than 30 seconds. "Every place I'm at for a minute may be a missed call," Kiffin said as he hustled upstairs to his office. "It's closing time." Six seasons as a USC assistant and one as head coach at Tennessee have made Kiffin cognizant of the importance of finishing recruiting seasons strong.

As national signing day looms for college football recruits, Dietrich Riley teeters between choosing USC or UCLA. The safety and running back from La Cañada St. Francis High has not ruled out Louisiana State or Notre Dame, but when he reveals his decision on Wednesday, he is expected to choose either the Trojans or the Bruins. "My mind is switching every night," he said. Riley's struggle offers a window into the workings of the recruiting battle between a Trojans staff installed in the midst of one of the most tumultuous times in USC football history and a UCLA staff that senses opportunity.