Flintridge Sacred Heart Held Court All Season at Home

There’s no nickname for the Flintridge Sacred Heart High gymnasium. It’s not The Dungeon, The Pit or The Den.

In fact, the administration would rather it be called an auditorium.

Whatever it is, it works for the girls’ volleyball team.

The Tologs (14-4) are 7-2 at home this season and have parlayed that into an appearance in Saturday night’s Southern Section Division IV-AA championship match against Marlborough.

Credit should go not only to the Tologs’ players, but to their gymnasium. Er, auditorium.

“People hate it,� Coach Nancy Young said. “The ceiling is really low, so if you dig a ball, boom, it’s up against the ceiling and crashing down to the floor.

“You don’t have a whole lot of room on the side; more than six feet as required by the CIF, but not 50 feet like at Harvard-Westlake. We love it. It drives other teams nuts because we rally with them.�

They have one more year to enjoy it. A multi-million dollar complex is under construction and will be ready for the 1998-99 season.

Young still sees a positive: “In two years, it’s going to be an unreal school.�

Itinerary: The schedule of Hart High tackle Mike Wambolt, a three-year starter, won’t slow down after the Indians make a run for a second consecutive Southern Section football championship.

The 6-4, 280-pound senior has the following recruiting trips: Iowa on Dec. 6, Colorado on Dec. 13, Virginia Tech on Dec. 20, Washington on Jan. 3 and Oregon on Jan. 10. Sandwiched in between will be an unofficial visit to UCLA.

Dive on: Buena senior Justin Dumais, one of the top high-school divers in the nation, signed a letter of intent with USC.

Dumais, who trains at USC with the Trojan Dive Club, also considered Texas and Stanford.

Dumais has won the Southern Section Division I diving titles the past two years and finished 10th in the three-meter springboard and 11th in the platform at the U.S. Nationals in August.

Tough break: Santa Paula High will be missing its leading tackler, defensive end Oscar Santa Rosa, in Friday night’s first-round Southern Section Division X football playoff game at Bishop Diego.

Santa Rosa broke his right leg last week against Fillmore and underwent surgery Saturday.

In his honor, the Cardinals removed the SP from the right sides of their helmets and replaced it with Santa Rosa’s No. 53.

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Football Top 10

Rankings of Valley-area high schools by sportswriters of The Times

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RK LW Team League) REC. 1 1 Taft (Northwest Valley) 10-0 2 2 Hart (Foothill) 8-2 3 3 Notre Dame (Mission) 9-1 4 4 Antelope Valley (Golden) 7-2 5 5 Oxnard (Channel)* 2-8 6 6 Camarillo (Marmonte) 9-1 7 8 Sylmar (Valley Pac-8) 8-2 8 9 Westlake (Marmonte) 8-2 9 NR Palmdale (Golden) 8-2 10 NR Ventura (Channel 9-1

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* Oxnard forfeited six wins and two ties.