Orange Coast College

Scott Talanoa's baseball fortunes are about as bright as they can be right now at Orange Coast College. He leads the the Orange Empire Conference with 15 home runs and is hitting .382. At 6-feet-5 and 235 pounds, he has become the power hitter many expected him to be. But it's that very expectation of success that drove Talanoa into a low last winter. Talanoa had starred at El Segundo High School in football, basketball and baseball for three seasons. He hit .333 as a junior and .472 as a senior, yet his high school coach, John Stevenson, said he was inconsistent.

Patty Fox Producer of Oscar preview fashion show Patty Fox, 62, who produced an annual runway show previewing Academy Awards fashion trends, died Sept. 26 of ovarian cancer at the Santa Monica home of friends, said Paddy Calistro, her publisher. From the early 1990s through this year, Fox put together a show for the international press that tried to forecast what celebrities would wear to the Oscars. The lineup was partly based on submissions by at least 30 designers.

After landing in Panama late Thursday, the Orange Coast College students who had abandoned their disabled 66-foot sailboat wanted to know one thing: Was there a Pizza Hut in town? Looking calm and relaxed, Robert Pelletier of Newport Beach; Ryan Pauley of Tustin; Jason Boyer and Lyle Carlson of Huntington Beach; and Kevin Ramlo of Orange said the past two days on the German cargo ship that picked them up was like a vacation, with good meals and little to do.

A Costa Mesa man accused of killing and dismembering his neighbor and then killing a friend of the victim to throw police off his tracks appeared in Orange County Superior Court on Tuesday, but his arraignment on murder charges was delayed. Daniel Wozniak, 26, who overnight went from a lead actor at a community playhouse who was about to marry his co-star to a double-murder suspect, faces life without parole if convicted of killing neighbor Samuel Herr, 26, and Herr's friend Juri "Julie" Kibuishi, 23. He is scheduled to be arraigned June 25 at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana. Prosecutors allege that on May 21, Wozniak and Herr went to the playhouse at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base, which is where authorities say Wozniak shot and dismembered Herr and stole his ATM card.

1997 RECORD: 2-8 overall, 1-5 in the division COACH: Bill Workman (60-63 at the college) RETURNING STARTERS: 2 on offense, 6 on defense TOP RETURNERS Chris Brewer, WR, 5-10, 165; Chris Clayton, LB, 5-11, 200; Doug McDaniel, LB, 5-11, 215; Ed Lalonde, DB, 6-0, 190; Aaron Ligons, DB, 5-8, 175; David Meleney, RB, 5-11, 200; Ivan Mercer, WR, 6-7, 230; Marcus Mirahmadi, LB, 6-1, 230; John Romm, DE, 6-3, 240.

Orange Coast College held its 37th commencement ceremony Thursday evening in the college's LeBard Stadium in Costa Mesa. Degrees: 1,281 diplomas were awarded. Speakers: Alumnus Cathy Barrett Sizemore, owner of a Sacramento lobbying firm, delivered the commencement address. Her topic was "This Precious Gift."

A week into its fall semester, Orange Coast College is showing a modest enrollment growth, with about 200 students more than at this time last year. As of Monday morning, 21,783 students were registered for classes, college officials said. A year ago at this time, 21,574 students were enrolled. "Enrollment has been fairly heavy over the past two weeks," said Nancy L. Kidder, the college's administrative dean of Admissions and Records. "We were down by about 1.

With the recent success of the movie "Dances With Wolves," there is an increased interest in the religions, customs and lifestyles of American Indians. In an attempt to bridge cultural gaps and pull the curious into the conscious, Jahee--the American Indian club at Orange Coast College--will host a powwow beginning April 12 and continuing through April 14.

Most of the attention around the Orange Coast College football program earlier this year centered on the new coach, Bill Workman. In March, Workman left Edison, one of the most successful high school football programs in Orange County, where he was 109-33-5 in 12 seasons, to replaced Dick Tucker, who had retired after 24 seasons. In August, Workman drew more publicity by suggesting that OCC have a drug testing program for his football team.

Eamonn Daniel Higgins spent seven years in college. Between 2002 and 2009, he attended 10 different schools in Southern California, including Cal State L.A., Irvine Valley College and Santa Monica College, according to federal prosecutors. During that time, he studied sociology, marketing, English, business and math. But Higgins was not a student and wasn't registered in any of the classes, authorities said. Rather, dozens of foreign students -- all from the Middle East -- were paying him to sit in class, take exams and write papers so that their student visas would remain valid, according to a charging document filed in the case.

CAL STATE FULLERTON (2009 record: 47-16) Scoop: Fullerton's pitchers feel confident on ground balls hit to junior shortstop Christian Colon, who batted .357, is one of the best players defensively and projects as a top draft pick in June. Gary Brown batted .340 with 23 stolen bases. Top newcomer: Freshman Dillon Floro throws in the low 90s and adds depth to an already strong pitching staff. "He's got explosive stuff," Coach Dave Serrano said. UC IRVINE (2009 record: 45-15)

College baseball fans in Orange County are excited and pumped about Friday night's season opener at Cal State Fullerton that matches the host Titans against former coach George Horton and his second-year team from Oregon. "This place will be like a regional [playoff] atmosphere," Fullerton Coach Dave Serrano said. "They'll come out in droves." Horton was Fullerton's head coach for 11 years, winning a national title in 2004. He also played for the Titans and served as the top assistant to former coach Augie Garrido, who won three national titles.

Top-ranked Alabama held its first Southern California workout Saturday. And the players were happy to get back outdoors under clear skies after bad weather and poor field conditions forced them to hold their final two workouts in Alabama under cover at the Hank Crisp Indoor Facility. "The weather was gorgeous," tight end Colin Peek said. "You couldn't expect anything better. Being here in California has really turned this process into a reality." That showed in the intensity on the fields at Orange Coast College, where the Crimson Tide will prepare for Thursday's BCS national championship game against No. 2 Texas.

Jesse Lozano saw the black cleats and wanted to wear them. Size-11 Nikes, same as his. Nothing extraordinary about them. They belonged to Kevin Telles, a friend of Lozano's from all the way back in kindergarten. Telles no longer wore the cleats. A fullback and linebacker, he was running down the field looking for someone to block late in Garden Grove High's season opener in September when he collapsed. He died later that night. He was 17. About a month later, Lozano saw a classmate carrying his friend's cleats on campus and a thought struck him: Why not honor Telles by wearing his cleats?

A 49-year-old man was found floating in Newport Harbor on Saturday morning and was pronounced dead soon after at a hospital, authorities said. Two kayakers found the man, fully clothed and facedown in the water, shortly before 7 a.m. near the Orange Coast College seabase, said Newport Beach Police Sgt. Shontel Sherwood. He was pronounced dead at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian. Police said he was a local resident. -- David Zahniser