PREP NOTES : North Baseball Coach Resigns, Misses It Already

One of the great love affairs at North Torrance High School has ended. Mike Neily and baseball have called it quits.

As could be expected, the break-up hasn’t been easy.

“I miss it already,” said Neily, who coached North’s baseball team to nine CIF-Southern Section playoff appearances in 10 years. “I love teaching baseball and I love the competition. Sometimes people think of it as a slow-moving game. But the more you learn, the more intricate it becomes and the more exciting it becomes.”

You could always count on Neily to put an exciting team on the field. He taught an aggressive style that became the Saxons’ trademark. Last season they set a school record with 150 stolen bases in 28 games, the 10th-highest total in Southern Section history.

His teams never finished lower than third place in league play, winning three championships and finishing second five times. They averaged more than 17 wins a season, compiling a 171-98-2 record in the ‘80s.

Neily, though, felt it was time to pursue other interests.

He took a leave of absence from teaching last summer and gave notice in November that he would not return as baseball coach. His replacement, Roger Rosenthal, is a former Torrance High assistant who teaches at Madrona Middle School in Torrance.

Neily, 44, plans to devote most of his time to real estate. He has been a licensed agent and investor for 10 years. And there’s a young wife and baby, Jonathan Joseph, to keep him busy and happy.

But it would be too much to ask for Neily to give up baseball entirely.

He grew tired of the fund-raising and field maintenance that go along with being coach, but he never lost his love for the game and the players. With that in mind, he says he may return to coaching in the near future.

“I’m going to be like a roving spy this season,” he said. “I plan on seeing a lot of games and learning from other coaches. I’m going to sneak down to El Segundo’s practice and see how they do it.”

In the last 10 years, there was plenty to learn at North’s practices, too.

Neily, who coached North every year of the ‘80s, was asked to select an all-decade team. Here it is:

1B--Darin Meier (‘80-81). 2B--Sean O’Brien (‘86-87). SS--Bryan King (‘82-84). 3B--John Clem (‘88-89). C--Tom Button (‘86-87). OF--Ryan Rasnick (‘84-85); James Yogi (‘86-87), Dustin MacGillivray (‘86-87). RHP--Greg Davis (‘87-88). LHP--David Seward (‘83-85). UTIL--Richard Strong SS-P (‘80-81).

HONORABLE MENTION--Angel Ayala, of (‘80-81); Steve Hokama, 2B (‘80-81); Gary Gorski, SS-P (‘81-82); Michael Strong, of (‘82); Jeff Howes, 2b, (‘83-84); David Haggard, p (‘84-85); David Alexander p-of (‘84); Jim Henderson, of (‘87-88); Tony Pruett, c (‘88-90).

Three of the four Torrance public high schools will have new baseball coaches this season.

Dick McGrath has replaced Dave Weatherman at West Torrance, and South Torrance is looking for a replacement for Marc Gerhardt.

Former Redondo Coach Harry Jenkins reportedly was offered the South job, but he turned it down because it would have conflicted with his real estate business.

The coaching situation at South has been unstable since the Spartans won the Southern Section 4-A title in 1984 under Roger Gurich and assistant Jerry McIllvaine, who both resigned at the end of that season.

The person hired this season will become South’s fourth varsity coach in six years. The school is also looking for coaches for the junior varsity and frosh-soph teams. Anyone interested is asked to contact Assistant Principal Lynn Brooks at 533-4347.

A potential strike by the Southern California Baseball Officials Assn. has been averted following Southern Section approval of a three-year contract that increases the pay for umpires.

Jim Pacheco, secretary-treasurer of the South Bay officials unit, said varsity umpires will receive a $5-per-game raise this season (plate umpires will be paid $42 and base umpires $40), followed by a $3 increase next year and a $1 raise in 1992. Under the old contract, varsity umpires would have received raises of $3, $2 and $1 during the same period.

Pacheco said the money was acquired by cutting the raises for lower-level umpires, who will receive $1 increases each of the next three years. However, a concession was reached that limits the time of lower-level games to 2 1/2 hours. Lower-level umpires, who work solo, will be paid $44 per game this season.

Anyone interested in becoming an umpire in the South Bay unit is asked to call Vice President Jerry Flory at 644-9360. The unit’s first meeting is Feb. 5 at El Segundo High.

Palos Verdes’ chances for a successful basketball season were dealt a blow last week when 6-foot-5 sophomore center Art Shell suffered a knee injury that required arthroscopic surgery Tuesday. He is out for the season, according to Coach John Mihaljevich.

Without Shell, the Sea Kings were no match for Hawthorne, losing 67-40 Tuesday. The loss dropped their record to 10-9 overall and 4-4 in the Bay League.

Chadwick’s basketball team will play host to first-place Pasadena Poly in an important Prep League game Saturday night. Poly is 5-0 in the league, while Chadwick (12-6 overall) is 2-2.

In the Southern Section 1-A rankings, Poly is No. 2 and Chadwick is No. 5. But Chadwick Coach Tom Maier says his team in capable of playing with anyone in the division.

“I was looking at the 1-A ratings, and I think we could beat any of those teams if we could catch fire,” he said. “If we could play more consistently, we’d be in business.”

Maier said he has been disappointed with the play of his guards, who have struggled with outside shooting. It has placed more of a scoring burden on 6-5 forward Larry Williams, averaging 18 points and 10 rebounds a game.

PREP NOTES--El Segundo’s basketball team, unranked before the season and No. 6 last week, moved to No. 3 in the Southern Section 2-A Division poll following its 74-65 win Friday over Serra . . . Seeing double: The Morningside boys and girls basketball teams are both 17-3 overall, 8-0 in the Ocean League and ranked No. 1 in the Southern Section 5-AA Division . . . The West Torrance wrestling team moved from sixth to No. 1 this week in the Southern Section 3-A coaches poll. Tuesday, the Warriors improved to 13-1 overall and 4-0 in the Ocean League with a 42-20 victory over South Torrance . . . Chadwick offensive lineman Kevin Neal has been named to the All-Southern Section 8-Man football team . . . Three South Bay football players have been rated among the top recruits in the Far West by Super Prep magazine. Carson linebacker Nkosi Littleton was rated No. 13, Carson receiver Michael Ross No. 17 and Hawthorne running back Chris Alexander No. 47.