Revolving door: Don MacNiel has been hired...
Revolving door: Don MacNiel has been hired as girls’ soccer coach at Alemany High. He is the Indians’ third coach in six months.
MacNiel has coached in the American Youth Soccer Organization, with the Canyon High junior varsity football team and with a men’s hockey team in the Santa Clarita Valley. He is not a teacher at Alemany.
The Alemany girls’ coach, Marcia Takahashi, resigned in May after 12 seasons. The junior varsity coach, Vicky Wagenbach, was immediately named to replace Takahashi. But Wagenbach said she was fired by Alemany Athletic Director Dudley Rooney for unspecified reasons on July 26.
Rooney said that Wagenbach’s contract was not renewed and declined to elaborate.
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Ousted already: The Cal State Northridge men’s soccer team has been eliminated from Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoff competition by virtue of a tie between the Matadors and Cal State Fullerton and UCLA’s victory over UC Irvine on Thursday.
Northridge has missed the playoffs three consecutive seasons.
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Cal League shuffle: California League owners have reversed their decision on splitting the league into three divisions, and instead will continue with two, although there will be some realignment.
The JetHawks will move into what is now called Division A, which includes the High Desert Mavericks, the San Jose Giants, the Modesto A’s and the Stockton Ports. San Jose, Modesto and Stockton were in the North last season.
Visalia and Bakersfield were moved out of what was the Northern Division because they are now affiliated with the Athletics and Giants, respectively. The league did not want teams to be in the same division with other clubs affiliated with the same major league teams.
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JetHawk hire: Jim Slaton, a former major league pitcher from Antelope Valley High, has been chosen by the Seattle Mariners to be the JetHawks’ pitching coach in 1997.
Slaton worked in the Chicago Cub organization for the past two years after spending three years with the Oakland Athletics.
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