Extra Year of Eligibility Will Cost Family $18,000

Go east, young man.

The advice, given to Matt Acres by his father, Dick, will take the recent Peninsula High graduate to New Hampton School in New Hampshire in the fall for what amounts to a fifth year of high school.

The annual cost of attending the prestigious prep school is $18,000, most of which will be footed by the Acres family.

But Dick Acres said it will be worth every penny if an extra season of basketball helps Matt get a scholarship to a Division I college.

“Matt is a year away from what we think is Division I ball,� the elder Acres said. “He can play another year without losing a year of eligibility. Maybe then a Division I school out here might offer him something.�

The 6-foot-7 Acres was largely unnoticed by colleges last season despite the fact he made a vast improvement from his junior year, which was spent on the junior varsity team. Acres led Peninsula in scoring and rebounding with averages of 16.8 and nine, respectively, and helped the Panthers reach the Southern Section Division I-AA quarterfinals. He was named Bay League most outstanding player and was selected to The Times’ South Bay All-Star team.

Colleges, though, perhaps thinking that Acres needed time to mature as an athlete, passed on him after showing some initial interest.

Dick Acres, the former coach at Oral Roberts University and Carson High, said an extra year of prep competition will make it tougher for colleges to pass on Matt again.

“From last year to next year, he’ll show just a giant improvement,� he said. “He’s starting to get more aggressive and stronger.�

Matt said he is lifting weights with the goal of adding 15 pounds to his slight, 175-pound frame by next season.

Mark Tilton, who coached New Hampton to a 23-3 record and the New England Class A championship last season, said Acres is one of about 12 incoming players who will make up the bulk of New Hampton’s postgraduate team next season. The school also has a regular high school team.

“We’re excited about him coming,� Tilton said. “He’s one of about three or four high-profile kids we expect to have.

“We have a lot of college coaches that come through and look at our kids. Most of our players will catch on with somebody. We usually have a couple of big-name kids.�

Some of the big names who have passed through New Hampton in recent years include Indiana-bound guard Steve Hart, USC guard Phil Glenn, Syracuse forward Lawrence Moten and former St. Bernard High standout Marc Raveling and Patrick Knight, the respective sons of coaches George Raveling of USC and Bobby Knight of Indiana. Forward Keenan Jordan, who left Morningside after his junior year, attended rival Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H., for the past two years and is headed to Boston College on a scholarship, Tilton said.

Dick Acres said George Raveling was one of several people he talked to before deciding to send Matt to New Hampton.

“(Raveling) had nothing but good things to say about it,� Acres said.

New Hampton has about 220 students in grades nine through 12. Additionally, about 45 postgraduates attend the boarding school every year, a majority of whom compete in football, hockey or basketball. There are no athletic scholarships, but financial aid is given depending on need.

Tilton said most postgraduate athletes come to New Hampton because they need an extra year to mature before they enter college.

Dick Acres tried to solve that problem by having Matt start school a year late, a tactic he used with success with his older sons, Jeff and Mark, both former Palos Verdes High standouts who have had successful pro careers.

But when Matt’s mother, Sandi, had trouble enrolling him in a preschool class, she decided to have him start kindergarten on time.

“We’re working the other end with Matt,� Dick said. “It’s going to cost us a little more than the preschool, but we have no regrets.�

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Coaching rumor--Lou Lichtl, who recently resigned as Culver City’s football coach, reportedly is the leading candidate to replace Steve Carnes as coach at Leuzinger.

Carnes, who would not reveal the names of applicants, said a new coach could be selected before the end of the week.

As to why he suddenly resigned last week, Carnes said his duties as an assistant principal at Leuzinger prevented him from devoting enough time to football.

“When I was out there in spring ball, I realized that I couldn’t do both,� Carnes said. “Last fall, many times during the week I’d go out to practice and I wasn’t ready, I wasn’t prepared. One game, walking out to the field, I made the comment to (assistant) Fred Boehm that I hadn’t thought about football all day because of all the other things going on at school.

“The kids need someone who is with them all the time. I realized I had lost touch. Before, I was in the classroom or the weight room, and kids were always coming by. After I became an assistant principal, that camaraderie was lost.�

Carnes, 42, who recently completed his second year as assistant principal in charge of athletics and campus security, coached Leuzinger to a 6-5 record, a share of the Bay League title with Peninsula and Hawthorne, and a Southern Section Division III playoff berth last season.

Previously he coached Leuzinger for seven seasons from 1984 to 1990, guiding the Olympians to a 56-22-6 record and the school’s only Southern Section title in 1985. He sat out the 1991 season before returning last fall.

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High Plains Drifters--El Segundo’s American Legion baseball team, which entered the week leading the Bay-Pacific League with a 10-0 record, leaves today for a 14-day trip through Montana and Wyoming, where it will play an 18-game schedule and compete in two tournaments.

The team includes two All-South Bay players from El Segundo’s high school team last season--pitcher David Reed and catcher Ryan McCloskey--as well as former all-area pitcher Frank Bignami, a 1992 Redondo graduate.

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Football all-stars--Morningside quarterback-defensive back Stais Boseman and Carson linebacker James Pepe have been selected to play in the Shrine All-Star Game on July 24 at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach.

Linebacker Tevita Moala and offensive lineman Mostafa Sobhi of Hawthorne were also picked for the Shrine game, featuring the state’s top players, but instead will play in the West Torrance Lions All-Star Game on July 17 at Redondo High. Players could not play in both games because Shrine camp begins July 15.

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Pirate three-peat?--San Pedro’s chances of winning a third consecutive City Section softball title look pretty good considering that pitcher Petrina Martinez and shortstop Victoria Brucker, the 4-A Division co-most valuable players, return next season for Coach Tony Dobra.

Notes

Jimmy Ellis, basketball coach at Leuzinger for the past two seasons, has lost his teaching job because of cutbacks in the Centinela Valley Union High School District and will not return as coach. . . . South Torrance, coming off the most successful basketball season in school history, is looking for a varsity assistant and a freshman coach. Anyone interested can contact Coach LaMont Henry at (310) 533-4352.

Former El Segundo quarterback Landon Wilson was selected in the first round, 19th overall, by the Toronto Maple Leafs in Saturday’s NHL entry draft. Wilson played football for El Segundo as a junior in 1991 but moved to Minnesota before last season after his father, Rick, was hired as an assistant coach by the North Stars. Rick Wilson, a former King assistant, is now an assistant with the Dallas Stars, who moved from Minnesota.

The Mira Costa baseball and football booster clubs will have a bingo fund-raiser at 6 p.m. Friday in the El Camino College cafeteria. Information: Tom Allard (310) 545-9793. . . . Redondo’s basketball team won the consolation championship at a 16-team tournament in Palm Springs last weekend. One of the Sea Hawks’ three victories was against South.

West Torrance infielder Derek Nicholson and Redondo second baseman Domonek Prince were selected to the all-state underclass baseball team by Cal-Hi Sports. The players were juniors last season. . . . Morningside finished the school year with four Southern Section titles, the most of any area school and second in the section behind Esperanza of Anaheim, which won five.