It’s the Year of the Catcher in South Bay

In 30 years as a scout for the San Francisco Giants, George Genovese has helped many of the South Bay’s best players find their way into professional baseball.

Based on Genovese’s evaluations, the Giants drafted outfielders George Foster of Leuzinger High and Garry Maddox of San Pedro, both of whom enjoyed successful major league careers; Bishop Montgomery pitcher Bill Bordley, who had a promising career cut short because of arm problems, and St. Bernard shortstop Royce Clayton, a first-round pick in 1988 and now a starter for the Giants.

“The South Bay has always had a lot of good ball players,” Genovese said. “The high school programs are strong.”

This season, the talent is grouped at one position.

Genovese said the area’s finest prospects are catchers Jason Kendall of Torrance, Rene Lopez of Harbor College and Jeff Poor of El Segundo.

Genovese, who expects all three players to be drafted, is especially high on Kendall. The 6-foot-1, 180-pound senior entered this week leading the South Bay with a gaudy .650 batting average.

“He would probably be the best prospect,” Genovese said. “I scouted his dad, who was a pretty good catcher too.”

Fred Kendall played at Torrance before going on to a major league career, most of it with the San Diego Padres.

Genovese said the younger Kendall has the tools to duplicate his father’s accomplishment.

“He has a chance to do something with his career,” he said. “He has a good arm, he handles the glove well and he’s a good athlete.”

Kendall has already signed a letter of intent with San Diego State, where his brother Mike is a pitcher. But he also figures to be a high choice in the June amateur draft. How high? Genovese couldn’t say.

“I would definitely like to have a kid like Kendall,” he said. “I would recommend him, but where he would go (in the draft), I have no control over that. (The Giants) look at all the (scouting) reports and go according to their needs. If he’s available and we need him, we’ll go after him. He’s a good-looking kid. I would say he would go fairly high being a catcher. There’s always a demand for catchers.”

Lopez, a 6-1, 195-pound sophomore, received little attention from scouts last season when he was Harbor’s starting third baseman. A move to catcher has changed that.

Now scouts regularly attend Harbor games to watch the hot-hitting Lopez, who leads the Seahawks with a .430 average and four home runs.

Lopez was a three-time All-City Section player at Bell High. He was named 3-A Division co-player of the year as a senior in 1990, leading his team with a .444 batting average, six home runs and 44 runs batted in, and posting a 5-1 pitching record with a 0.80 earned-run average.

Lopez finished his three-year career at Bell with 107 RBIs.

Poor, a 6-2, 210-pound senior, was only a freshman when was he was touted as the next great El Segundo player. He fulfilled those expectations last season by batting .475 with 14 doubles, 11 home runs and a school-record 54 RBIs, the third-highest total in Southern Section history.

It will be tough to duplicate those numbers, but Poor is off to a good start this season. Through Tuesday, he was batting .439 with six doubles, two home runs and 13 RBIs for the Eagles (12-1), ranked No. 5 in the Southern Section by The Times and No. 1 in the 3-A Division.

El Segundo begins play tonight in the San Luis Obispo tournament.

Genovese says sometimes he is surprised that players are not taken earlier in the draft. As an example, he mentioned El Segundo’s George Brett, who was a second-round pick of the Kansas City Royals in 1971.

“I was surprised that George Brett didn’t go in the first round,” he said. “He could really hit; everybody was scouting him.”

Genovese said one of the reasons Brett lasted until the second round was because he played shortstop in high school, a position some felt he was not quick enough to play in the major leagues. But that didn’t bother Genovese.

“I envisioned him as a third baseman,” he said.

Inglewood football Coach Angelo Jackson would like to set the record straight. Despite allegations against Inglewood for illegal recruiting and using ineligible athletes last season, Jackson says he does not cheat.

“We’ll take whatever hand you deal us,” he said. “We’ll win with the kids we have. We’re not going to cheat. We play whoever is on that field.”

But what about allegations that Jackson and members of his staff recruited athletes from other schools with promises of college scholarships?

Is it merely a coincidence that athletes from Leuzinger, Hawthorne and St. Monica, where Jackson previously coached, suddenly showed up at Inglewood in Jackson’s first season as the Sentinel coach?

These are issues that will be addressed within the coming weeks when the Southern Section executive committee conducts an open hearing to review the allegations against Inglewood.

Jackson says he is innocent of any wrongdoing.

“I believe in my heart that we’re trying to do what’s right,” he said. “I grew up in a poor neighborhood. The only reason I got to go to college is because I had a high school coach who worked hard for me. I want to do the same for the kids of Inglewood. I want to do what’s right. I want people to say this is one of the best programs in Southern California.”

Jackson, 33, said he turned down two assistant coaching jobs with Division I colleges to coach at Inglewood, where he is paid $2,000 a season. That, he said, is not enough money to go through the trouble of recruiting players.

“It has nothing to do with winning,” he said of his reason for coaching at Inglewood. “It’s the same reason why Gene Vollnogle never left (Carson). I do it because I’ve been involved in football all my life and I want to be a role model.

“The bottom line is we’re not there to cheat. Two thousand dollars is not enough to cheat.”

Jack Kordich, a two-time Times’ South Bay coach of the year, has resigned after 12 seasons as the San Pedro boys’ basketball coach.

Kordich cited a painful knee condition and the City Section’s change to a year-round school schedule as reasons for leaving. His teams compiled a 142-78 record and either won or tied for six league titles, reaching the City 3-A Division final in 1985.

Kordich, 46, was most recently named The Times’ South Bay coach of the year in 1991 after guiding a team that averaged 5-foot-11 across its starting lineup to a 21-6 record and a share of the Pacific League title.

A man of integrity and considerable coaching skill, he will be missed.

Peninsula point guard Kristen Mulligan, The Times’ South Bay player of the year, will play in the first Kodak Girls High School All-America basketball game Friday in Jackson, Tenn. The game will be televised live by ESPN starting at 10 a.m.

Mulligan, a 5-7 senior bound for Auburn, was one of 20 players from across the nation chosen to participate. Also selected was Washington High’s Charisse Sampson, the City Section 4-A player of the year. Mulligan and Sampson are the only players from California in the game.

Three former South Bay prep standouts are among 56 players who have been invited to try out for the U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team May 28-31 at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Included in the group are 6-5 twins Heidi and Heather Burge of Virginia, both of whom played at Palos Verdes, and 6-5 Lisa Leslie of USC, the former Morningside All-American.

Westchester right-hander Lance D’Antignac pitched a no-hitter in only his second start of the season Tuesday to lead the Comets to a 3-0 Coastal Conference victory over visiting Manual Arts.

D’Antignac, a 5-9, 135-pound senior, struck out six and walked one in earning his first victory, which stretched Westchester’s winning streak to 10 games.