Rancho Alamitos running back Jeff Byrd, the...

Rancho Alamitos running back Jeff Byrd, the county’s all-time single-season rushing leader, could have a tough decision ahead of him.

An A student, Byrd has attracted interest from Yale and Dartmouth for football and academics. But Ivy League schools don’t offer athletic scholarships, so Byrd would have to pay his own way or land an academic scholarship.

Then there’s Hawaii. The Rainbows, who went 11-2 and beat Illinois in the Holiday Bowl, want him to take a recruiting trip to the Honolulu campus.

Byrd likes the Rainbows’ option attack. He realizes that starting running back Travis Sims is graduating, and that quarterback Michael Carter, the Holiday Bowl MVP, is back for one more season.

But academics are a big concern.

“With Yale and Dartmouth, you know you’re going to have a job waiting for you,” Byrd said. “With Hawaii, you don’t know. It’s all up in the air. It scares me. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Volleyball: The Mission Valley Blue 18-and-under girls’ club team, composed mainly of south county players, is preparing to defend its championship at the Las Vegas Classic, Feb. 13-15, at Nevada Las Vegas.

The team finished first of 64 teams in its division at the recent Arizona Fiesta Classic at Arizona State. Mission Valley was 9-0 in matches and 19-1 in games.

Members of the team include Karen Benkovsky (Capistrano Valley Christian), Pattie Boland (Mater Dei), Heidi Elliott (Capistrano Valley Christian), Nina Foster (Mission Viejo), Dana Netherby (San Clemente), Johanna Pursley (Irvine), Analisa Saylor (El Toro), Shelly Smith (Capistrano Valley), Susie Teitsworth (St. Margaret’s) and Jeanne Vetter (Dana Hills).