SIDELINES : Pair of Alemany Paintball Enthusiasts Raise Hue and Cry

Faced with an uphill battle, the Alemany High football team can say it has two veteran soldiers on its side.

Ben Lovato and Steve Nunez have combat experience that should come in handy tonight when Alemany travels to Bishop Amat High for a Del Rey League opener against the top-ranked team in the nation.

Lovato, a defensive back, and Nunez, a receiver, are paintball commandos.

Paintball is an increasingly popular mock military contest in which participants plaster each other with paint pellets fired from guns with the goal of capturing the opposing army’s flag.

Lovato and Nunez have taken part in competitions with as many as 100 soldiers on each side. In the past several years, paintball fields have popped up all over Southern California, including in Azusa, Newhall and Lake View Terrace.

“I have my own gun and everything,” Lovato said. “I’ve been doing it for about a year. We enter tournaments at different fields. Steve got me into it. “

Said Nunez: “We used to play every single weekend until football started. Now, all the guys on the team want to play. We’re trying to get a team together so we can take on someone else.”

Bishop Amat, perhaps? Alemany probably would stand a better chance in paintball than football. Bishop Amat has outscored its five opponents, 161-37.

Mixed emotions: After throwing the winning touchdown pass in San Fernando High’s 21-20 comeback victory over Kennedy, quarterback Keijuan Douglas was laughing and dancing with teammates.

But when a reporter approached, he quickly turned earnest.

“I’d like to dedicate this victory to my grandmother, Theo Houston, who died three months ago,” Douglas said. “I’ve dedicated this whole season to her. I loved my grandmother.”

Douglas spoke in measured tones for several minutes before a smile crossed his face and euphoria once again took over.

“I almost forgot to say,” he added, “we’re better than Sylmar! We’re the best team in the Valley!”

Worn pair: Sam Cvijanovich, a former Cal Lutheran star and Canadian Football League rookie of the year, last week delivered a rather unusual good luck charm to Cal Lutheran Coach Joe Harper.

Cvijanovich, who lives in Oxnard, gave the coach a pair of blue slippers. Supposedly, they were the same pair that the team carried for good luck from 1964 into the 1980s, before they disappeared.

The slippers--Harper isn’t sure if they’re the same ones--were hung over the door of the Cal Lutheran locker room Saturday.

At halftime, it looked like their luck hadn’t run out. Cal Lutheran led undefeated La Verne, 6-3. Alas, the story lacks a fairy-tale finish. Cal Lutheran lost, 23-6. “I guess the slippers only work for a half now,” Harper said.

Show biz: Assistant Darrell Smith of Westlake High was the football technical adviser for the upcoming film “Little Giants,” and Warrior Coach Jim Benkert was his assistant. Smith and Benkert spent the summer coordinating football scenes in the film, which is about a bumbling youth football team.

Smith and Benkert even make brief on-screen appearances as officials.

“You have to look real closely to find us,” Benkert said, “but you can if you know what you are looking for.”

Look what I found: When Simi Valley High football Coach Roger McCamy arrived at school Monday, he was surprised to see The Bell already there.

The Bell goes to the winner of each year’s game between Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks highs, schools that were rivals before the opening of newer schools such as Royal, Westlake and Newbury Park.

But Simi Valley had just won back The Bell with a 24-20 victory over the Lancers last week. How, McCamy wondered, did it get to Simi Valley so soon? And already painted maroon and gold?

McCamy found out a few days later: “In 1992, we beat them and got The Bell back,” he said, “then in 1993 they beat us and we never gave it back to them.”

Quotebook

Hoover High can’t seem to get any respect. Earlier this season the Tornadoes snapped a 16-game losing streak, and last week they won again, 17-12, over La Canada.

So what did La Canada Coach Jim Clausen have to say: “We’re not a very big football team. Maybe that’s why we’re losing to Hoover.”

Stats

Valley College’s Brian Comer, already the school’s career leader with 92 receptions, 1,617 yards and 17 touchdowns, can zero in on another milestone.

The sophomore from Chatsworth High has scored 102 points and is within striking distance of second place on the career list. Comer is fourth behind Dondre Bausley, who scored 194 points in 1986-87, Howard Blackwell, who scored 138 in ‘92, and Terrel Ray, who scored 110 in 1964-65.

They’re consistent: The Cal Lutheran football ranks in the bottom half of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in every category except one: penalties. The Kingsmen, who average 32.5 yards in penalties a game, are the best-behaved team in the conference.

Whack attack: Outside hitter Missy Clements is closing in on the Northridge volleyball career record for kills. Clements has 1,220 kills, placing her 31 behind Nancy Nicholls (1989-92), and 107 from breaking Kathleen Dixon’s school record set from ‘87-90.

Things to Do

Tonight, 11:59, at Cal State Northridge and Ventura College gymnasiums: The Northridge and Ventura men’s basketball teams hold their traditional Midnight Madness practices, signaling the start of fall workouts. Northridge opens against UCLA on Nov. 26. Ventura was runner-up in the 1993 and ’94 state junior college championships.

Saturday, 7 p.m., at the Cal State Northridge gymnasium: Northridge plays host to Cal State Bakersfield in a nonconference women’s volleyball match. Bakersfield, the top-ranked team in the NCAA Division II, last month suffered its only loss of the season against the Matadors.

Compiled by Mike Hiserman and John Lynch. Contributing: Kennedy Cosgrove, Fernando Dominguez, Jeff Fletcher, Dana Haddad, Vince Kowalick and John Ortega.