Express League Gives Claremont the Boot

Claremont High has been kicked out of the Express League and probably will play a freelance schedule next season, the Southern Section office confirmed Wednesday.

The action was taken after a vote of Express League principals in March in support of Palos Verdes Estates Rolling Hills Prep and Norwalk Pioneer Baptist. Those schools said they would forfeit all athletic contests to Claremont, rather than play them, as a result of several alleged incidents of rowdy behavior by Claremont players and spectators at basketball and baseball games over the last three years.

“There was just a difference in philosophy,” Pioneer Baptist Athletic Director Lee Fitzgerald said. “Our school had an incident [with Claremont] during basketball season and we felt it would be better to break our league ties with them.”

Claremont has qualified for the Southern Section Division VI baseball playoffs, largely as a result of forfeits by Pioneer Baptist and Rolling Hills Prep. The Cougars are 10-5, 6-2 in league play, with all six victories by forfeit.

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Kristen Borland has been hired as an assistant women’s soccer coach at UC Irvine, Coach Marine Cano said. Borland played four seasons at UC Santa Barbara (1992-95). She also played two years for Cano in the Olympic Development League.

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Pauline McGee, a 6-foot-2 forward/center for the Rancho Santiago women’s basketball team, has signed with Fresno State, Dons Coach Jack Single announced. McGee averaged 14 points and 13 rebounds as Rancho Santiago reached the playoffs for the first time in 10 years.

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Reed Mokler, a kicker on Servite’s football team who also played soccer for the Friars, and running back Roy Roberts of Los Alamitos have signed to play football at St. Mary’s, the college announced.

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Courtney Hall, a two-time All-Empire League midfielder at El Dorado, has signed to play women’s soccer at Chapman, according to her father, Bob Hall.

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Tracey O’Donnell of Mater Dei has signed a letter of intent to run women’s cross-country this fall at Loyola Marymount. O’Donnell was an all-league performer the last three years in the South Coast League.

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Bob Hefty, a 1994 graduate of Dana Hills High, was one of 15 student-athletes at UC Santa Barbara to receive the national Golden Eagle scholar athlete award this year. Hefty, a standout for the men’s volleyball team, has a 3.61 grade-point average as a chemistry-creative studies major.

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Stephanie White, who graduated from Garden Grove High in 1994, was recently named Northeast Conference softball player of the year.

White, an outfielder for Long Island (N.Y.) University, is a transfer from Utah State. She led the team with 34 runs batted in, six home runs and 32 runs scored.

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Fresno State outfielder Robyn Yorke, a former Marina High player, has been named to the Western Athletic Conference all-conference softball first team. One of her teammates, second baseman Nina Lindenberg, a former Canyon player, was named to the second team.

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Bryan Hurlbut of Costa Mesa, a shortstop for St. Mary’s, has been given honorable-mention recognition on the West Coast Conference’s all-conference baseball team.