Willow Glen Resident

Sports

Ex-Viking coach Burton leads Fullerton into NCAA tourney

By Mike Barnhart

From the Big West to the Big Dance: That's where former West Valley College and Willow Glen High School basketball coach Bob Burton has the Cal State Fullerton men's team this week, after guiding the Titans to the Big West Conference tournament championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 30 years.

Burton steered the Titans to a 12-4 record and a share of the regular season championship with UC-Santa Barbara and Cal State Northridge. Then three straight wins at the conference tourney, March 13-15 in Anaheim, sent Fullerton (24-8) to the NCAA Division I tournament for the first time since 1978.

Marcus Morgan, a former Leigh High School and West Valley standout, helped the Titans capture their NCAA bid with a double-double in the Big West final last Saturday night. The 6-foot-5, 240-pound senior forward scored 10 points and grabbed a career- high 11 rebounds, as the Titans beat UC Irvine 81-66.

The Big West title extended Fullerton's fourth consecutive winning season--including three 20-plus campaigns--in five seasons under Burton, who already is the winningest coach in Fullerton history at 92-59.

Earlier in the week, the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) selected Burton as the District 15 coach of the year. Among the 18 schools in District 15 are UCLA, USC, Arizona and Arizona State of the Pacific-10 and West Coast Conference tourney champion San Diego.

Awards are nothing new for Burton, who became a legend at West Valley with a 488-158 record and eight conference championships in 21 seasons (1980-2002). He was named conference coach of the year nine times and California Community College Coach of the Year on four occasions.

The veteran coach left West Valley in the summer of 2002 for Fresno State, his alma mater, to join the staff of Ray Lopes, a former West Valley player and assistant coach. After helping Lopes and the Bulldogs capture the 2003 Western Athletic Conference championship, Burton accepted the top position at Fullerton.

Prior to his run at West Valley, Burton posted a 143-52 record at Willow Glen in eight seasons (1972-1980).

Chehrehsa Merc leader

Sara Chehrehsa has led the Mountain View-Los Altos Mercury, a nationally ranked club soccer team, to three straight state championships. Chehrehsa has been a big part of the success and was also chosen as one of the top 18 players in Region IV last year. The Leland standout will play soccer for Princeton University in the fall.

"What Sara lacks in size, she more than makes up for it in sheer determination, heart, technical mastery, tactical awareness beyond her years, and creativity on the field," said MVLA head coach Albertin Montoya. "She also never gives you anything but her best effort and is a complete team player."

Gera, Gil All-American

Lainey Gera and Amanda Gil, both from Archbishop Mitty's High School varsity volleyball team, achieved All-American status from the American Volleyball Coaches Association. They were the only two girls in the state of California to receive such an honor. Gera was also listed on prepvolleyball.com as one of the top 150 senior players in the country.

Rams claim crown

The Willow Glen Middle School eighth grade basketball team won the San Jose Unified Middle School championship by defeating Hoover in the semifinals 62-44 and Castillero 54-40 in the championship round.

The Rams took second place in the Mayor's Tournament.

Kevin Sparrer contributed to this story.