Popovich Will Coach Saddleback Women’s Basketball

Steve Popovich has been named women’s basketball coach at Saddleback College, the school announced Tuesday.

Popovich has been the Saddleback men’s assistant basketball coach for six years and had helped guide Saddleback to four Orange Empire Conference titles and five playoff appearances.

Before going to Saddleback, Popovich coached varsity basketball for 18 years at Marina High.

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Top-ranked Servite and second-ranked Mater Dei will play a nonleague makeup baseball game at 7:30 Saturday night at Cal State Fullerton.

The game was originally part of a doubleheader that was rained out March 15. Servite Coach Todd Cook said the second game will not be made up because the teams could not fit it into their schedules.

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Meryl Stone of Woodbridge, who won the 200 at the Orange County Track and Field Championships April 24, committed to Stanford, Warrior Coach George Varvas, said. Stone, who took second and third in the 100 and 200 at Division II Southern Section finals last year, is also the anchor on the 400-meter relay team.

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Trabuco Hills High’s Mark Jelic has signed a letter of intent to play men’s soccer at San Francisco State, his father, Milan, said.

Jelic, a defender and three-year starter for the Mustangs, was named the team MVP last season.

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Jessica Cooper, an All-Golden West League girls’ volleyball player at Tustin, will play at Brown, Tustin Athletic Director Al Rosmino said.

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Ruth Viramontes-Gutierrez has been named the girls’ cross-country coach at Santa Ana Valley, the school announced.

She graduated from El Modena in 1991 and ran at Santa Ana College and Cal State Fullerton. She teaches social science at Valley, and was an assistant track coach at Eagle Rock.

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Jill Wilson of Sunny Hills has signed a letter to play soccer for Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, her coach, Jeff Gordon, said.

Wilson was an All-Southern Section and All-Freeway League soccer player last season.

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Nicole Quinn has been named girls’ basketball coach at Santa Ana Valley, according to Athletic Director Terry Orabona.

Quinn, who played at Woodbridge, Golden West and Cal State Stanislaus, was an assistant at Woodbridge when the Warriors won a state championship in 1997.

She teaches math at Valley, and replaces Lionel Horn, who resigned at the end of the season.

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Cal State Fullerton pitchers Jon Smith and Adam Johnson have been invited to summer camp for the USA Baseball national team. The camp is tentatively scheduled for June 8 in Tucson.

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A month before their scheduled opener at the Pond, the Bullfrogs learned that two Roller Hockey International teams--Detroit and Florida--have dropped out, leaving the league with eight teams.

RHI President and CEO Bernie Mullin said the change is not expected to affect the Bullfrogs’ June 5 opener at the Pond against the San Jose Rhinos. However, he said the Bullfrogs’ revised schedule will include three home and three away contests against the seven remaining teams.

“It is unfortunate that we lost these two teams, but fortunately it will not affect our home schedule,” Bullfrog President Bob Elder said. RHI didn’t field teams last season because of financial difficulties.

The Bullfrogs’ new schedule:

JUNE 5--vs. San Jose, 7 p.m.; 9--vs. Dallas, 7 p.m.; 11--at San Jose, 7:30 p.m.; 13--vs. St. Louis, 6 p.m.; 16--vs. Dallas, 7 p.m.; 18--vs. Minnesota, 7 p.m.; 23--at Dallas, 5:30 p.m.; 25--at Chicago, 6 p.m.; 26--at Buffalo, 4:30 p.m.

JULY 4--at Minnesota, 5 p.m.; 8--at Las Vegas, 7:30 p.m.; 10--at San Jose, 7:30 p.m.; 11--vs. Las Vegas, 6 p.m.; 15--vs. San Jose, 7 p.m.; 18--at Dallas, 5:30 p.m.; 22--at St. Louis, 5 p.m.; 23--vs. Chicago, 7 p.m.; 24--vs. Buffalo, 7 p.m.; 30--at Las Vegas, 7:30 p.m.

AUG. 1--at San Jose, 2 p.m.; 5--vs. Las Vegas, 7 p.m.; 7--at Las Vegas, 7:30 p.m.; 8--vs. San Jose, 6 p.m.; 11--vs. Dallas, 7 p.m.; 13--at Dallas, 5:30 p.m.; 14--vs. Las Vegas, 7 p.m.