Marauders Finally Make Climb to Top

Basketball fever is spreading through Lancaster and nobody wants to stop it.

For the first time in school history, Antelope Valley College is the top-ranked men’s team in the state.

That’s right. Not since the school’s first season in 1937-38 have the Marauders climbed that high.

Not even for a fleeting week or two in the eight seasons Newton Chelette has coached the team to at least 20 victories.

But now the Marauders (17-4) are there, at least until the next poll is released, even after losing to No. 9 Chaffey, 99-95, in a Foothill Conference interdivisional game Wednesday night.

It’s enough to make the Marauders suitable candidates for a Final Eight appearance at the state championships in March at San Jose State, but Chelette is not about to look that far ahead.

“Polls are what they are,” Chelette said. “I want [the ranking] at the end. But it’s quite an honor. The kids have worked hard.”

Chelette, whose team posted a school-record 27 victories with only seven losses in his first season in 1989-90, gives considerable credit for the team’s success to freshman point guard Trevor Beal.

“With Beal at the point, we are still undefeated,” Chelette said.

Beal, from Victor Valley High, was sidelined with a sprained ankle in Antelope Valley’s three losses. The injury came early in the second half of a 93-88 loss to Long Beach City on Nov. 26, and he was still out when the Marauders fell to Moorpark, 93-70, on Nov. 30 and to Riverside, 81-78, on Dec. 8.

The Marauders later blasted Riverside, 97-73, and Moorpark, 88-72, on consecutive nights to win the Canyons tournament in December. Beal was back at full strength, complementing guard Michael Hamelin and forward Jonathan George.

Hamelin, a sophomore from Palmdale High, led the Marauders with 121 assists entering Wednesday’s game and George, a sophomore from Littlerock High, led the team with 175 rebounds and was second in scoring with a 15.6-point average, behind freshman guard John Burrell (17.8).

“Mike Hamelin has been unbelievably consistent, and Jonathan George has really stepped it up the last seven or eight games,” Chelette said.

With that nucleus, and barring a disaster, the Marauders should win their third consecutive Northern Division title and either keep their No. 1 state ranking or stay in the vicinity.

That could make the basketball thermometer climb to the shattering point in the high desert.

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By this weekend, Jim Fenwick should know whether he’s the new football coach at Cal State Northridge or headed for another season at Valley.

The smart money is that Fenwick will be hired to replace Dave Baldwin, who left for San Jose State in December.

Several factors could give Fenwick the edge:

* He has built a powerhouse at Valley, compiling a 39-5 record the past four seasons with two Western State Conference division titles and four bowl appearances.

* He has transformed the Monarchs into a force because he recruits well, has valuable high school and junior college coaching contacts in the region and has surrounded himself with top assistants.

* His Valley teams attacked from the run and shoot, an offense similar to Northridge’s under Baldwin and one Athletic Director Paul Bubb favors.

* He is a local guy who doesn’t seem in a hurry to leave town.

This is not to downgrade the other two finalists, Chris Allen and Skip Hall, both owners of fine backgrounds.

Allen was the Wake Forest defensive coordinator the past four seasons and held the same post for 13 seasons under Larry Smith at Arizona and USC. Hall is the associate head coach to Smith at Missouri.

But will they be content after losing the cachet that accompanies coaching at nationally recognizable schools to work at Northridge? And if so, for how long?

The two knocks against Fenwick are that he reportedly did not interview well when he applied for the Northridge job in 1995 and that he has little coaching experience outside the junior college level.

Neither is a good excuse.

Fenwick is a football coach, not a guest on Larry King. His knowledge of the game is what counts. A good coach can adjust to any level of competition and a bad one can destroy a program no matter his background.

The program at Valley is not exactly a shambles. The Northridge program, resurrected by Baldwin, wouldn’t suffer one bit under Fenwick.

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Glendale sophomore guard Carl Biel leads WSC men in scoring, averaging 25.5 points. Another Vaquero, Charlie Garcia, was the WSC scoring champion with a 23.2-point average in 1994-95 . . . . Valley’s Shawanda Hotchkiss is second in scoring among WSC women, averaging 20.3 . . . . Pepperdine’s senior center Lisa Siders, a two-time All-West Coast Conference selection, leads the conference in rebounding with a 7.5 average. The Waves (8-4), who open WCC play tonight at San Diego, have won six of seven.