El Toro High School

Sixteen-year-old Tomas Mejia remains in a coma one week after he and three other El Toro High School cross-country runners were injured in a traffic accident. Two others, Carlos Marchan, 15, who suffered a broken collarbone, and Martin Pennell, 17, who had a broken cheekbone, were released from hospitals earlier this week. The fourth person, Andy Eads, was treated for a slight concussion but not hospitalized.

Lesli Steinert, a top defensive player for El Toro High School's defending Division 4-A champion, will miss the rest of the girls' soccer season after seriously injuring her knee last week. Steinert, a junior who was the 4-A defensive player of the year last season, heard a pop in her left knee while controling the ball early in El Toro's game Thursday against Mission Viejo.

A track coach from El Toro High School will be retried on charges that he molested five students at the school, a prosecutor said Friday. Jurors deadlocked on all 11 counts in the first trial of Vernon Brent Smith, 51. Smith is accused of fondling five girls, ages 15 to 17, in 1996 and 1997 while he was assistant coach at El Toro High. Deputy Dist. Atty. Scott Simmons said he expects to put on essentially the same evidence during the second trial.