Notebook / Gary Klein : Bateman to Try Luck as a Walk-On at UCLA

Morgan Bateman of Crescenta Valley High, who placed third in the boys’ 800 meters in the state championships at Cerritos College last month, will attend UCLA in the fall and try to make the track and field team as a walk-on.

Bateman chose UCLA over a partial scholarship at Nebraska.

“I just felt like UCLA would offer me more opportunities,” Bateman said. “I felt like I would be exposed to a wider variety of cultures there.”

Primarily an 800 runner in high school--he placed third, first and third in the 800 at the Southern Section 4-A Division championships the last three years--Bateman said he would probably step up to the 1,500 in college.

Bateman ran bests of 1 minute, 53.94 seconds as a sophomore, 1:52.66 as a junior and 1:52.20 as a senior. The final time placed him fourth in the Golden West Invitational at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento last month.

Junior titles: Three junior competitors from the Glendale area won titles in their respective age divisions last weekend at the National Public Parks Tennis championships in Long Beach.

Evangeline Olivares of Eagle Rock won the girls’ 18-and-under division by defeating Quynh Le of Torrance, 6-0, 6-3; Martin Escos of Glendale won the boys’ 16-and under championship by defeating Vanig Kasabian of Torrance, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1; and Chong Rae Cho of Glendale won the boys’ 14-and under title by defeating Gianandrea Marcaccini of Tarzana, 6-2, 6-2.

All-star football: Four recently graduated Glendale-area high school players will participate in the Daily News All-Star Football Game on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Birmingham High in Van Nuys.

Mike Plaisance of Village Christian and Jeff Engilman of Sylmar are the coaches for the 38-player East team.

Glendale-area players include Greg Thompson of La Canada, Jeff Dyrek of St. Francis, and Greg Lloyd and Kevin Ebenhoch of Village Christian.

Hot on the trail: Tom Kendall of La Canada drove a Cars and Concept Chevy Beretta to a runner-up finish Sunday at a Sports Club Car of America TransAm championship race in Des Moines, Iowa.

Kendall, 23, is second in the SCCA TransAm season standings with 74 points. He trails series leader Dorsey Schroeder by six points.

At Des Moines, Kendall finished second for the third time this season. He also has one third, one fourth and one 19th-place finish.

The next race in the TransAm series is July 23 in Minnesota.

Camp crazy: The following is a list of youth sports camps that will be conducted during the next few weeks in the Glendale area:

A track and cross-country instructional camp run by Crescenta Valley High Coach Keith Gilliland is currently running Monday and Wednesday evenings from 5 p.m. to 6:30 at Crescenta Valley County Park.

The three-week program emphasizes fundamentals of conditioning and training, including warm-ups and calisthenics in preparation for competitive events.

Information: Ed Greene, 249-5940 or 798-1173.

The second session of the Vaquero basketball camp, conducted by Glendale College Coach Brian Beauchemin, will be held July 31-Aug. 4 from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Glendale College.

The camp is open to players 8 to 18 years of age and includes film analysis, T-shirts, trophies, guest speakers and written evaluations.

Information: 240-1000.

The Crescenta Valley basketball camp, conducted by Crescenta Valley High Coach John Goffredo, will be held July 17-21 at Crescenta Valley High.

The camp is open to boys in third through eighth grades.

Information: 249-5871.

The Spartan basketball camp, conducted by La Canada High Coach Tom Hofman and former La Canada player Charlie Plowman, will be held July 24-28 from 1:15 p.m. to 5 p.m. at La Canada High.

The camp is open to boys and girls ages 7 to 14 and includes a T-shirt, written evaluation and trophies.

Information: 952-1275.

The La Crescenta-La Canada clinic for girls ages 9 to 14 is currently underway and will be held through July 29 at Rosemont Junior High in La Crescenta.

A tournament will be held at the conclusion of the clinic.

Information: 249-4341.

St. Francis High soccer Coach Glen Appels will hold two sessions of his camp July 24-28 and July 31-Aug. 4 at St. Francis High.

Information: 790-7516.

Staff writer John Ortega contributed to this notebook.