Jerry Halpin

Coaches of some of the county's best athletic programs were dumbfounded by the Southern Section Council's vote on Thursday that will prohibit teams from moving up in divisions for the playoffs. "This is a joke," Newport Harbor volleyball Coach Dan Glenn said. "I'm on the boys' volleyball committee and I didn't even know about this." Bill Clark, section assistant commissioner, said he, too, was dumbfounded--that coaches were unaware the issue was coming up for vote.

Just when things started to get interesting Friday night, Los Alamitos High School found the poise, patience and know-how to put away Loara one more time. Los Alamitos hit 16 of 21 free throws in the fourth quarter and held off the Saxons to win, 86-82, in an Empire League game at Loara High School. With the victory, Los Alamitos clinched at least a tie for the league title.

Sit down, shut up and stay put. That's my advice to coaches whining over the Southern Section Council's recent vote to prohibit teams from moving up in enrollment-based divisions beginning with the 2001 winter playoffs. Division placement for the playoffs is enrollment-based for baseball, basketball, cross-country, soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball. Schools with similar sophomore-to-senior enrollments compete in the same playoff division.

Seventeen-year-old Albert Nguyen this week joined the ranks of Orange County teen-agers who have sued their schools and have given notice that if pushed too far, they will push back. As the student body's president-elect of Los Alamitos High School, Nguyen was hoping to test the school's administration as a representative of the 2,700 students who elected him. But he never got that chance.

Two things could be predicted about the Loara High School basketball team the last two seasons: Tes Whitlock would score a lot and the Saxons would lose a lot. As a freshman, Whitlock averaged about 15 points a game and Loara won five only games. Last year as a sophomore, he averaged 22.7 and the Saxons won four. This season, there has been quite a turnaround. Whitlock is averaging 30.8 points, but the Saxons are 11-0.

A student from a Garden Grove high school is facing possible criminal charges and expulsion after allegedly threatening a Jewish teacher in an anti-Semitic e-mail. The girl, who was not identified because she is a minor, will not return to Bolsa Grande High School next week when school starts, said a spokesman for the Garden Grove Unified School District.

Jerry Halpin won't say whether he won big, just that he won't be quitting his day job any time soon. Halpin, an assistant principal at Los Alamitos High School, will appear on tonight's episode of the hit TV show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." The rumor on campus is that the 39-year-old Cypress resident is now a wealthy man.

Los Alamitos police have taken over an investigation into alleged financial improprieties by former Los Alamitos High School basketball coach Steve Brooks, who resigned from his post early this month. School and district administrators began probing the use of proceeds from basketball team activities in July, after about half a dozen parents of current and former players wrote letters raising questions about the program.

Jami Shannon, who has won more softball games than any active coach in Orange County and second most in the Southern Section, has been fired by Los Alamitos High School officials after 21 seasons. She was told last week by Dr. Rebecca Shore, who just finished her first school year as principal at Los Alamitos. Shannon said she was "blindsided" by being fired. It does not affect her position as a special education assistant at the school.

Loara High School hasn't played in the finals of a boys' basketball tournament in more than two decades, so Saxon Coach Jerry Halpin wasn't too worried when his team panicked in the third quarter Friday night. But the Saxons survived a third-quarter rally by Magnolia High School and escaped with a 69-52 victory in the championship game of the Garden Grove Tournament. It was their first tournament title since the mid-1960s, Halpin said.