Year Had Its Own Dharma

By DAVID WHARTON

Jan. 1, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Think of sports as an endless cycle of seasons, a continuous procession of winners and losers. Like the Buddhist wheel of life, but with the national anthem repeating incessantly as a mantra.

In this particular religion, Cal State Northridge won’t necessarily be reincarnated with another winning football team next year. Nor is the Vasquez High girls’ basketball squad cosmically doomed to relive its 1-17 season.

Even the misdeeds of the Van Nuys High athletic program will be forgiven and forgotten, just as soon as probation ends.

Such is the dharma of sport. Last year’s thrills and agonies are consigned to statistics. Winners begin anew while losers hope for a glorious rebirth. All the while, coaches strive for a perfect state of wisdom.

And before the wheel takes another turn, there is but a short time to meditate upon the year that was.

Spring is the most hopeful of seasons, bringing with it a promise of renewed life and, even better, baseball.

In 1996, that meant a new minor league team for the city of Lancaster. Having moved from Riverside, the JetHawks played only .500 ball but scored a big hit with fans, drawing an average of 4,523 per game to a sparkling new stadium dubbed “The Hangar.”

In addition to cheap seats and nightly promotions, the Class A team provided a rallying point for a community scarred by deserted strip malls and foreclosed homes.

“I’ve lived here my whole life and it’s amazing how much people care about this,” said Christine Snyder, a clerk in a shopping mall near the ballpark. “This is the first thing we’ve had that we can really get into.”

Two hours south, and seemingly a world away, the residents of Moorpark also found themselves rallying around baseball as a group of local boys made it to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. The team managed only one win in the Series, but that didn’t stop the community from holding a parade to honor the boys.

“They fought so hard, they did so great, there is no reason for sadness,” said Jayne Johnson, whose son Erik played center field.

That sentiment applied to yet another baseball team in the region, the squad at Cal State Northridge. Expected to finish a mediocre fourth in the Western Athletic Conference, the Matadors put together an unlikely 52-18 season that ended just one game short of the College World Series.

The team set 41 season school records and catcher Robert Fick earned All-American honors on the strength of a .420 batting average, 25 home runs and 96 runs batted in.

And any sadness that may have lingered from the season’s end was soon quelled by the surprising Matador football team. Northridge entered its first season in the Big Sky Conference like obnoxious party crashers, racking up a 7-4 record and commanding immediate respect.

Even with the loss of Coach Dave Baldwin, who accepted the head coaching job at San Jose State in December, the team returns enough starters--including record-setting quarterback Aaron Flowers--to expect a spot in Division I-AA’s preseason top 25.

Said Flowers: “Things are looking pretty good for next year.”

Buddha preached that suffering lies at the core of human experience. If that is so, then the basketball teams of the region gained plenty of experience in 1996.

There were, of course, success stories. Twin forwards Jason and Jarron Collins carried Harvard-Westlake High to a state Division III title. Ventura College became the first junior college in California to have its men’s and women’s teams win state championships in the same season.

But all four of the high school squads that reached the City Section 4-A playoffs--Cleveland, Chatsworth, Monroe and North Hollywood--were blown out in the first round. Chatsworth endured a 48-4 blitz by Westchester in an 84-69 loss. North Hollywood fell to Crenshaw by 67 points.

“It was a step up in competition for all of us,” said Cleveland Coach Kevin Crider. “And none of us were ready.”

The same could be said for Vasquez High, an Acton school of only 355 students. The Mustangs fielded their first varsity basketball teams with predictable results.

The boys finished 3-16. The girls averaged only 11 points, losing by scores such as 119-8 and 102-4, on their way to a 1-17 record.

“I don’t really look at it as winning or losing,” said Heather Lingawi, a freshman guard. “I just go out there and have fun.”

In fact, had bodhisattva been an athletic director, he would surely have maintained that there is no wrong in losing. But the perpetration of evil deeds, that is another matter.

Van Nuys High last month joined Dorsey as the only City schools to have their entire athletic programs put on probation.

The girls’ volleyball team used an ineligible player all season. The boys’ soccer and football teams practiced illegally. The girls’ soccer team held an illegal scrimmage. Asked why so many violations had occurred on one campus, Principal Russ Thompson said: “It’s not for the public to know.”

At Cal State Northridge, Baldwin and Athletic Director Paul Bubb adopted much the same stance when they told reporters that running back Shayne Blakey would miss the season because of an appendectomy. It was later revealed that Blakey had been wounded by a shotgun blast during an off-campus party.

Bubb was suspended without pay for five days. Baldwin, who said he was trying to protect the player’s privacy, was given a letter of reprimand.

“Regardless of the circumstances, I am wrong,” the coach said. “I’m a disgrace to myself.”

In the grand scheme of things, all the wins and losses were trivial. All the proclamations and deceits paled in comparison to the year’s biggest story--the tragedy of an athlete who died young.

Eric Hoggatt, 18, played running back and defensive back for Reseda High. In the later stages of a Sept. 12 game against Chatsworth, teammates said Hoggatt went to the sidelines complaining of dizziness and of numbness in his legs and fingers. He was allowed to board a bus for home a short time later. No one notified his family.

The next morning, Verna Hoggatt found her son dead in his bed.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office declared that he died of head injuries probably received on the playing field. His family filed a claim against the Los Angeles Unified School District for unspecified damages.

Meanwhile, his teammates persevered through what Coach Joel Schaeffer called an unimaginably difficult season. And perhaps their determination embodied the truest measure of sport.

Perhaps it arose from the same grit that made Kim Mortensen of Thousand Oaks High run her way to Track & Field News’ female athlete of the year honors. Or the same tenacity exhibited by a La Canada boys’ soccer team that extended its winning streak to 50 games and a second Southern Section Division IV title.

Perhaps it revealed a cosmic truth about why young men and women play games.

“They have to play,” a Reseda High parent said. “They have to pour their hearts out.”