Rancho Alamitos High School

Oh boy, this is not what the Sunny Hills football team wanted to read, so maybe the players should skip to the comics. Or the astrological forecast. What's coming next isn't good news. Today is Jeff Byrd's 18th birthday. And he's looking for that special gift, if you know what he means. "A victory would be the best present," Byrd said.

If only Rancho Alamitos could win its 10th game every season, it could avoid so much trouble. For the sixth consecutive year, the Vaqueros fell to the Curse of the 10th Game when they dropped their Garden Grove League season final to Los Amigos, 18-17, last Thursday. The first four times were little more than a nuisance; the last two have been a nightmare.

Sooner or later during a Rancho Alamitos football game, someone watching Marshall Brown carry the ball will say it: "If he turns the corner, he's gone." They are usually right. Few high school quarterbacks run the option with the same efficiency or scramble for yardage the way Brown does. When he breaks loose past the line of scrimmage and turns up the jets, there's little chance a defensive player could catch him without a Ferrari.

Rancho Alamitos High School's football team has forfeited its season-opening 42-0 victory over Troy because it used an ineligible player, Vaquero Coach Mark Miller said. "It was an administrative error," Miller said. "We have a kid who played here as a freshman, moved to Colorado last year and then returned this year to live with his grandparents. "It was never established that his grandfather is now his legal guardian.

When the Rancho Alamitos girls' basketball team opened the season with two losses in three games, Coach Bob Becker faced one of the most challenging motivational efforts in his three seasons with the team. "It was difficult for us because the girls who had been on the team the year before didn't lose until the final game, so they had a tough time understanding and dealing with it," Becker said. "But I knew most of our problems would be corrected in time. . . .

From out of the San Bernardino Mountains, the James sisters have ridden onto the campus of Rancho Alamitos High School with a glint in their eyes and an impossible dream. The sisters--Shannon and Timerie--are two of the key players who have led the Vaqueros' girls' basketball team (23-2) into the Division III regional final at 9 a.m. today at the L.A. Sports Arena.

Rancho Alamitos 1991 RECORDS: OVERALL: 10-15 LEAGUE: 7-7 COACH: RECORD AT SCHOOL John Brierly: 16-29 RETURNING STARTERS YR. POS. B-T Theresa Agpalsa Sr. OF R-R Marlo Gonzalez So. OF S-R Julie Littman So. 2B S-R Destiny Mollison Jr. P R-R Jill Otto So. 1B-P S-R OTHER TOP RETURNERS: None TOP NEWCOMERS YR. POS. B-T Stephanie Housepain So. INF S-R Cherish Mollison Fr. C R-R Laura Salazar So.

After nearly four months of basketball, everything seems routine to Anita Stecker. Even a Southern Section championship-winning shot. Stecker made a six-foot turnaround jumper with two seconds remaining to give Rancho Alamitos a 68-66 victory over West Covina South Hills for the III-A girls' title Saturday at the Bren Center. Vaquero Coach Bob Becker called Stecker's basket, "The Big One." Stecker, however, considered it a play she has made hundreds of times since practice began in November.