Capistrano Valley’s New Hire Decides to Remain in Palmdale

Jeff Williams, who had accepted the Capistrano Valley football coaching position Friday, changed his mind and decided to stay as the Palmdale football coach.

Williams, 39, who has coached at Palmdale 11 seasons (nine of them as head coach), informed Capistrano Valley Principal Dan Burch of his decision Monday morning.

“I had two interviews with Capistrano Valley and felt I was a good candidate,” Williams said. “Last Friday they told me I had the job, and introduced me to the team. It all happened so fast.

“Capistrano Valley was a great facility. They’ve got everything I could have wanted down there. But I’ve got a commitment to my [Palmdale] guys. I also spoke to my fiance. We felt it’s not the right time for us to make that move.”

Capistrano Valley Athletic Director Tom White said he was “shocked” by Williams’ reversal.

“I was calling [Monday] to say we had a realtor for him to meet,” White said. “On Saturday we talked at length with him and his [Palmdale] staff. And on Saturday afternoon he was very enthusiastic. He said he could not wait to get here.”

White said the school had received approval from the Capistrano Unified School District trustees before hiring Williams and introducing him to the players. He said Williams had signed a contract with Capistrano Valley, but Williams said he did not sign.

When asked if the school would try to hold on to Williams, White said “It’s now a personnel matter and I can’t comment any further.”

Palmdale Athletic Director Dan Brown said he had not talked with Williams Monday “so I can’t confirm or deny. He’s been a very good coach here for us, so we’d be happy if he stayed.”

Williams was to replace Dave Brown, who resigned as Capistrano Valley’s coach in December. In four seasons Brown had a 20-22-2 record; but the last two seasons the Cougars had gone 2-6-2 and 3-7 respectively, and did not win a South Coast League game in that span.

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Top-ranked Mater Dei (20-3) plays Canyon (13-6) at 3 p.m. Saturday in the Southern California Boys’ Basketball Classic at Los Angeles Southwest College.

The event is being co-sponsored by Long Beach Poly and Lakewood Artesia high schools.

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Lost in Santa Margarita’s 65-46 boys’ basketball victory over Corona del Mar Friday, which left the Eagles alone in first place in the Sea View League, was that it was the 400th career victory for Coach Jerry DeBusk, and his 150th victory in seven seasons with the Eagles.

DeBusk, in his 29th year of coaching, was previously at Newport Harbor and Chapman University.

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A power failure inside the Villa Park gymnasium Friday led to a nine-minute third quarter, one minute longer than normal, in Canyon’s 57-50 boys’ basketball victory over the Spartans that left the Comanches alone in first place in the Century League.

All but two auxiliary lights went out in the second quarter with 1:19 showing on the scoreboard clock. After a 12-minute delay during which Villa Park officials were unable to correct the problem, referees Rod Boyle and Ray Charles huddled at midcourt with Canyon Coach Rob Alexander and Villa Park’s Kevin Reynolds.

They agreed to take halftime until the lights came back on and Boyle explained that by rule, a minute would be added to the length of the third quarter.

The lights powered up seven minutes later.

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Orange Lutheran guard Jason Whieldon broke the school record for career three-point baskets last week in a 62-53 loss to Sierra Madre Maranatha. Whieldon, a junior, has made 95 three-pointers, including 41 this season. He needs 24 assists to break the school career record of 337. He’s averaging 4.4 assists a game.

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Hard to imagine the Brea Olinda girls’ basketball team with a self-esteem problem, but that’s what the Ladycats cured Saturday with their 83-80 overtime victory over Harbor City Narbonne.

Lindsey Davidson, Brea’s senior guard, said the Ladycats needed to win “to prove something to ourselves.”

Brea had a 13-point lead with 42 seconds left in the third quarter, and led by seven with 2:27 to go, but Narbonne needed only 56 seconds to tie the score at 71, and go on to take a 73-71 lead before Davidson’s free-throws with 29 seconds left sent the game to overtime.

Narbonne was ranked No. 1 in the state by Cal-Hi Sports, Brea No. 4.

It was significant that Davidson made the critical shots. Brea (then ranked No. 2 in the state) lost to Narbonne, 50-48, in the third-place game of the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions last month (blowing a seven-point lead with with 3:09 remaining). In that game, Davidson missed a backdoor layup with 26 seconds remaining that would have given Brea a 50-48 lead. Instead, Narbonne junior Ebony Hoffman scored with six seconds remaining.

Narbonne (17-3) won the Los Angeles City Section 4-A title last season then the Division I state title, but vacated both as penalty for using ineligible players. Brea (17-3) won the Division II state title.

There was no question the pressure was on Brea.

“In our minds, it was the biggest game of the year,” said junior center Chelsea Trotter, who scored 32 (and and 15 of Brea’s last 20). “There was so much pressure to perform because we lost the previous game.

“For us to win this game makes a huge statement. Even people at Brea didn’t think we could beat Narbonne, we weren’t athletic enough.”

Trotter and Davidson scored 40 of Brea’s last 51 points.

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Mission Viejo’s Todd Bachert committed to play football at Washington and Steve Reindl committed to Southern Methodist, the high school announced. Bachert, 6-feet-5, 280 pounds, was a second-team All-South Coast League offensive lineman. Reindl, 6-3, 265 pounds, was a first-team all-league defensive lineman.

Times staff writers Dave Desmond, Martin Henderson and Paul McLeod contributed to this report.