High Schools: February 2008 Archives

High school baseball season kicks off today and one of the top local players to watch will be Westlake senior shortstop Cutter Dykstra. Dykstra's latest honor is a selection to Baseball America's Preseason All-America first team.
Dykstra, the son of former major leaguer Lenny Dykstra, is best known for his speed. He hit .337 with three home runs, 16 RBIs and 14 stolen bases last season. He has signed with UCLA.
He is among six California players on the first team.

Newbury Park junior infielder Jack Marder has verbally committed to Oregon. Although he has two full high school seasons ahead of him, his performance in the first two was enough to convince Ducks coach George Horton that the second baseman/shortstop should be a part of an Oregon program that is reinstating baseball beginning with the 2009 season. Marder hit .371 with 22 RBIs and a team-high 10 doubles last season.

Vince Orlando and Richard Yi showed up at the El Camino Real of Woodland Hills girls' soccer match Wednesday at Granada Hills to watch the Conquistadores battle the rival Highlanders in a showdown for first place in the West Valley League.

They wound up talking more about the current state of the ECR baseball program.

Orlando was named the Conquistadores interim baseball coach Wednesday, replacing Billy Ramirez, who served as head coach for one year after taking over for longtime program head Matt LaCour, who left ECR to coach at Harvard-Westlake of Studio City last season.

"Principal (Dave) Fehte felt the need to go in a different direction," said Yi, ECR's athletic director. "Vince is going to be the interim coach for one year and Billy will remain on staff as a (physical education) teacher."

Orlando, the assistant athletic director and girls' golf coach, was looking to focus more on administrative duties after coaching with LaCour during the 2005 and '06 seasons, but the Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks graduate possessed the most baseball knowledge of anyone on staff, especially with the decision being made less than a month before the Conquistadores' season opener.

"It's definitely an unfortunate turn of events and set of circumstances that have led to this, but it is because of my respect for Mr. Fehte that I agreed to take the position," said Orlando, who played college baseball at UC Irvine.

"It was more out of necessity. I wasn't looking to get back into coaching (baseball) and it's an unfortunate thing to happen so close to the start of the season. But somebody had to step in, and with the amount of respect I have for our administration and with the position requiring someone with a certain level of experience, I felt compelled to do it."

ECR, which captured its last City Section championship in 2005, went 17-14 last season under Ramirez -- who had coached in the program since 2001 -- and was eliminated in the second round of the playoffs.

"It's strictly an interim, one-year position and I'm going to do the best job I can," Orlando said. "I know a lot of the kids from when I coached with Matt and we're just going to look to make the best of the situation."

Orlando said the search will begin to find a permanent replacement approximately a month after the season starts.

A little more than three weeks before its season begins, the El Camino Real of Woodland Hills baseball team has a new coach. Billy Ramirez, who was entering his second season as the Conquistadores head coach, has been replaced by interim coach Vince Orlando.
Orlando, who played at Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks, is ECR's assistant athletic director and was an assistant on former coach Matt LaCour's staff.
The Conquistadores, who won their fifth City Section title in 2005, went 17-14 and were eliminated in the second round of playoffs last year in Ramirez's lone season at the helm.

Crespi is holding its baseball alumni game Feb. 23 at 1 p.m. at College of the Canyons. The Celts want to get the word out in hopes of a good turnout for a planned celebration of the five-year anniversary of their 2003 Southern Section championship.

Hart baseball senior infielder Trevor Matern has committed to San Francisco. Matern batted .355 last season.