Matador Coach Strives to Recruit Local Talent

While the football team at Cal State Northridge has garnered rave reviews for a recruiting class loaded with local talent, Allison Lee, the school’s interim women’s soccer coach, hopes she’s starting her program on a similar path.

Lee, 26, was an assistant to Brian Wiesner in the team’s first four seasons and was promoted in December after Wiesner resigned with a 20-53-4 record at Northridge. Lee has focused her recruiting efforts within the region.

“I’m mainly concentrating here because that was something that had been neglected in the past,” Lee said. “I know we can’t compete right now with USC and UCLA and some other schools that take players out of the Valley, but we have a chance to get some homebodies and build a program people will want to come to.”

Northridge last season had nine local players on its 22-woman roster, but it has never landed a blue-chip recruit from the region. In recent years, the region’s top high school seniors have chosen schools such as San Francisco, UC Irvine, Fresno State and Texas.

Lee said Northridge administrators have not indicated when a permanent coaching staff will be selected, but she expects the job to be advertised nationally.

‘It’s been tough, I’ve been alone here,” Lee said. “But I want the transition to be smooth for whoever takes the job, whether it’s myself or someone else.”

Despite the uncertainty, Lee has been a visible presence at high school games in the region and has shown particular interest in Chaminade’s Amy Watts and Jen Valentine, El Camino Real’s Melissa Cleal and Simi Valley’s Cindy Mallet.

Neither Watts nor Valentine is likely to attend Northridge, but Cleal and Mallet seem good bets to become Matadors. Mallet admires Lee’s approach.

“Allison was a lot more enthusiastic and totally outgoing,” said Mallet, a two-time all-region selection by The Times who had been recruited by Wiesner. “She had a uniform there for me, she didn’t leave any details out. You could tell she really wanted me to go there.”

Mallet, who is also considering an offer from St. Mary’s, said she was impressed that Lee arranged for her to talk with Northridge instructors in sports medicine and physical therapy, two fields of study that interest her.

Lee, who was a star player for Wiesner at Cal Poly Pomona, said she tries to give individual attention to each player on a recruiting visit.

The Matadors, who award an NCAA-maximum 12 scholarships, have the equivalent of 3 1/2 scholarships available.

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Boorish taunting by fans from Canyon and Chaminade high schools tainted two games this week.

Tuesday at Canyon, about a dozen teenagers near the sideline shouted racist remarks at Hart’s Erin Misaki, the region’s best girls’ player.

Art Misaki, Erin’s father and a longtime club coach, was angered and saddened by repeated taunts mocking his daughter’s Asian-American heritage.

“I don’t ever recall a previous negative remark,” Art Misaki said. “I got them when I grew up, but you would hope times have changed.”

Monday at Chaminade, Eagle fans shouted for Molly Cahan to quit faking after Harvard-Westlake’s standout midfielder was flattened by a Chaminade player and tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.

Cahan, a junior who figured to be a top college recruit next season, will undergo reconstructive surgery and is out for at least nine months. She missed last season after having the same surgery on her right knee.

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Misaki and Lauren Arase, La Canada’s goalkeeper, will miss at least the first round of the Southern Section playoffs while participating for a U.S. Youth Soccer Select team Feb. 12-21 in Orlando, Fla.