San Jose's Valley Christian in the spotlight with coaching moves, surging baseball team, transfer of a key cager to Mater Dei and a recent rare golfing feat. This week's installment also includes info on a significant football transfer, update on school that was shut down by H1N1 virus and more.

By Mark Tennis, Executive Editor
Contributing: Paul Muyskens

Eric Scharrenberg is one of our favorite athletic directors in the state and not just because the Valley Christian of San Jose administrator is never hesitant about sending us the most updated information about teams at his school. It's also because Eric is one of the very few athletic directors we clearly remember as a student-athlete himself during his days at St. Francis of Mountain View.

Last week was one of the most newsworthy in Valley Christian history. Scharrenberg confirmed in an email to the San Jose Mercury-News that he is giving up his duties as defensive coordinator for the football team to further concentrate on being the athletics administrator. It also was reported that the school's girls basketball team will have a new head coach, that all-state underclass boys basketball player Max Hooper would be leaving the school to transfer to Mater Dei of Santa Ana and that golfer Eric Kim did something to remember in his final outing for the boys golf team. All this also took place or was being reported during a week in which head coach John Diatte's baseball team posted huge wins over both Bellarmine of San Jose and Serra of San Mateo.

Jeff Ullom, a 2002 graduate of the school, has been named to replace Scharrenberg as defensive coordinator, a position he has had for 11 years. Ullom is moving up from the freshmen team.

In girls basketball, meanwhile, boys head coach Steve Cotton is going to switch over to the girls team. Previous coach Richard Harris, whose team last year was one of the best in Northern California and won CIF Central Coast Section Div. IV titles in 2007 and 2008, recently began a counseling job at the school. Cotton has a daughter, Briana, who will be a junior on the girls team next season. The Warriors also will have several other key players back, including Div. III all-state guard A.J. Newton, but they may be in the same CIF Central Coast Section and state playoff division as perennial power and league rival Sacred Heart Cathedral.

Hooper was the leading scorer for last year's basketball team and even though Valley Christian struggled to a last-place finish in league standings, Hooper continued to show amazing marksmanship from the floor, especially from beyond the three-point line. He was a first team all-state sophomore two years ago and was second team all-state for juniors last season. The 6-5 guard is not going to step in at Mater Dei and help the Monarchs replace twins David and Travis Wear up front, but will give head coach Gary McKnight another strong wing player alongside returnee Tyler Lamb. Published reports indicate Hooper is moving to Southern California due to his father's job.

Scharrenberg was sure to let us know about Kim. The senior experienced something very few golfers ever will with back-to-back eagles, one of which was a hole in one. Kim posted his eagle on the par 5 sixth hole at Silver Creek Valley Country Club. On the next hold, using a pitching wedge, Kim holed out his tee shot on a par 3. Kim is now looking toward upcoming section, regional and perhaps state tournaments in golf and has a 4.1 GPA.

As all this was going on, Valley Christian's baseball team was heating up. The Warriors first played Bellarmine of San Jose early in the week and posted a 7-5 win on Nate Underwood's walk-off homer. They then turned their attention to Serra of San Mateo on the road and edged the Padres in a similar matchup, 8-7. Underwood smacked a three-run homer and had the game-winning RBI on a single in the seventh inning in that one. The two wins forced a three-way tie atop the final West Catholic Athletic League regular season standings. This week's league tournament will decide the champion.

Other than all that, it was just another routine week at the school up on the hill above the old Monterey Highway.

San Diego Section school re-opens after H1N1 virus closure

Thank goodness the H1N1 virus did not turn out to be as dangerous as the media coverage indicated.

One school especially breathing a sigh of relief last week was Mission Hills High of San Marcos. When the week began, it looked like the Grizzlies were going to be on the shelf for two weeks due to a confirmed case.

The two-week closure, however, was lifted just two days into it by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which urged all school districts around the nation not to close schools when a case was confirmed.

"I'm relieved we're back in business," Mission Hills athletic director and baseball coach Ken Putnam told the North County Times' John Maffei. "We got the news Tuesday afternoon, and I started making calls. I can tell you, all our coaches are relieved and the athletes are happy they can get back to competing."

It would have been more difficult for Mission Hills athletes in sports like golf, track and swimming to miss that much time since league championships are being decided in those sports this upcoming week.

WR Richardson heading to Gardena Serra

No wonder Serra High of Gardena will be so fun to watch in 7-on-7 football this summer.

In a story first reported by longtime colleague Greg Biggins on the ESPNU football recruiting blog, the Cavaliers just added transfer wideout Paul Richardson to an already insanely-talented lineup.

Richardson caught 48 passes for 980 yards and nine TDs last season at Los Alamitos and has committed to UCLA where his father, Paul Richardson Sr., once played. He is transferring to Serra where he will team up with perhaps the top senior wide receiver prospect in the nation, Robert Woods, and one of the top juniors, George Farmer.

Last season, the Cavaliers posted a 13-0 record before they lost in a showdown of unbeatens to Oaks Christian of Westlake Village in the CIF Southern Section Northwest Division title game.

Before getting too excited about Serra, however, the team still must replace graduated quarterback Ted Landers and several other key starters, including running back Carl Winston and all-state defensive lineman Sione Tuihalamaka.

More Early Football Commitments

With Paul Richardson's move and recent commitment to UCLA, here's a list of other California prep football players from the Class of 2010 who have reportedly already issued verbal commitments:

Dillon Baxter (Mission Bay, San Diego) TE to USC
Everett Beed (Serrano, Phelan) DL to UNLV
Dionza Bradford (Serrano, Phelan) RB to UNLV
Melvin Davis (Narbonne, Harbor City) RB to Washington
Cassius Marsh (Oaks Christian, Westlake Village) DL to Cal
D.J. Morgan (Taft, Woodland Hills) RB-DB to USC
Eddie Plantaric (Del Campo, Fair Oaks) DL to Stanford
Dax Smith (Westchester, Los Angeles) DL to USC
Randall Telfer (Rancho Cucamonga) TE to USC
Cecil Whiteside (Newport Harbor, Newport Beach) to Cal
Dave Wilkerson (Monte Vista, Danville) LB to Cal

Next week, check back for coverage of the Nike Combine at Laney College (which is being conducted on Saturday, May 15) and for coverage of the Nike Football Training Camp at Stanford (being held on Sunday, May 16). For continuous football recruiting coverage, please check out the ESPNU recruiting pages with the links above.

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