High Schools Athletics

Three months after his financial relationship with a muscle-magazine publisher raised questions of a conflict of interest, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday outlawed performance-enhancing dietary supplements in high school athletics. The move was an about-face a year after he said most supplements were "safe" and vetoed a similar measure.

The California Interscholastic Federation became the first state high school athletic governing body to adopt policies specifically regarding the use of steroids. The CIF's Federated Council unanimously passed a proposal Friday that requires member schools to institute anti-steroid rules and high school athletes to sign an agreement to not use performance-enhancing drugs.

Opponents of Junipero Serra High School's plans to build athletic fields and a performing arts center in San Juan Capistrano have begun circulating petitions to force the City Council to rescind its approval of the $75-million project or put it before voters. The council approved the complex in northwest San Juan Capistrano this month over the objections of Native Americans, environmentalists and neighbors.

FOOTBALL JOSH MILLER Sr., Moreno Valley Valley View Then: A year ago, the quiet and unassuming Miller gained 1,060 yards, but five carries into the seventh game, against Moreno Valley Canyon Springs, he suffered a concussion that ended his season. "It was as scary and as emotional as it gets," Coach Dan Barlage said. Colleges have expressed interest but are taking a more cautious approach.

Bill Walsh, coach of three Super Bowl champions with the San Francisco 49ers, said Thursday he was "appalled" that parents of high school football players were pushing their sons to be 300-pounders. At a day-long hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Government Oversight, he was voicing his outrage at the pressures that force teenagers to turn to anabolic steroids and dietary supplements. "It's just wild," he said of the unregulated supplements available to teenagers and adults.

A man who pleaded guilty to covering up the killing of a popular high school wrestler was released Monday evening from Orange County Jail as part of the plea agreement with prosecutors. Albert Thomas Medina III, 21, of Santa Ana admits lying to police in initial interviews following Diego Armando Gonzalez-Sanchez's slaying in November, said his attorney, Frank J. Coughlin.

For the third time in 18 months, an Alisal High School athlete has died in a highway wreck. On Sunday, Vantory Miles, a starting guard on the school's 2002 championship basketball team, was killed in a one-car crash in Merced. He is the second member of the 2001-02 team to die in a crash. In March 2002, Jose Solis died when a car he was riding in flipped over in Southern California. About a month later, football player Raul Perez was killed in a car crash near King City.

Already bracing for dramatic belt-tightening when the state budget impasse is resolved, some local high school sports programs can expect to take another hit when a prominent community outreach program reallocates funds that had been used to provide medical insurance for needy athletes.

Despite his attempts to discredit witnesses in the case, murder defendant Marcus Moralez is the one who lied about fatally shooting a Rio Mesa High School football player three years ago, a prosecutor argued Monday. "Who is he?" Deputy Dist. Atty Susan Aramesh asked, referring to Moralez, during closing arguments in Ventura County Superior Court. "Why would he be worthy of all these ... witnesses risking their lives to pin a murder on him?"