Sports Shorts: Top Tennis Player Enrolls at El Toro

Madison (Mazy) Watrous, ranked No. 16 in the USTA Southern California rankings and 216 in the USTA national rankings, has enrolled as a senior at El Toro High and is expected to be the Chargers' No. 1 girls tennis player this fall, Chargers coach Karen Amos said.

Watrous, a 5-foot-10, right-hander who had previously been home-schooled so she could concentrate on her tennis training, has accepted a full athletic scholarship at Colorado.

"We are very fortunate to have such an accomplished player on our team and look forward to watching her this season," Amos said in an e-mail.

The Chargers' first home match of the season is Thursday against Canyon High of Anaheim.

Giving Charger Goalie the Thumbs Up

El Toro's all-county water polo goalkeeper, Garrett Danner, who broke his finger and missed the state high school championships and the Junior Olympics competition this summer, has been cleared by his doctor and was expected to return to practice this week for the Chargers, coach Don Stoll told the Orange County Register.

El Toro's boys team, which lost in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 finals to Mater Dei by one goal—one rather controversial goal—last season, is ranked third behind the Monarchs and Newport Harbor in the coaches' preseason poll.

The Chargers have a scrimmage against Los Alamitos and Villa Park at home on Wednesday, Sept. 7, then host Esperanza in a nonleague match on Tuesday, Sept. 13. They will participate in the Newport Harbor tournament Sept. 22-24, the Villa Park tournament Sept. 29-Oct. 1 and the Nor-Cal tournament, Oct. 21-22 and have a nonleague match at Newport Harbor on Oct. 15.

Who's on First in Coast View Conference?

As you probably know by now, the Coast View Conference is made up of the 10 high schools in the Capistrano and Saddleback Valley unified school districts. Where these schools are placed—in either the South Coast or Sea View leagues—is determined on a sport-by-sport basis.

However, the makeup of the leagues is scheduled to change every two years, which means after the 2011-2012 school year, the bottom two teams in the South Coast will change places with the top two teams in the Sea View in every sport. The South Coast is considered the stronger of the two leagues.

This fall, El Toro High will continue to play football, girls tennis and girls golf in the Sea View League, while the Chargers' boys water polo, girls volleyball and boys and girls cross-country teams participate in the South Coast League.

Next year? Well, we'll see.

This also is the final school year for the current CIF-Southern Section playoff groupings for football. Not that they'll change any, but there's always a league or two that would rather be in a different division.

By the way, the Chargers kick off their football season with a nonleague game at Huntington Beach High on Friday at 7 p.m.

Time Keeps on Ticking, Ticking...

Did you know that if a football team leads an opponent by 35 points or more by the end of three quarters of play this season, there will be a running clock during the fourth quarter?

This “mercy rule,” approved by the CIF Southern Section last spring, will be in effect for all CIF Southern Section football games—nonleague, league and the playoffs—beginning this fall.

During a “running clock,” the clock will be stopped only after a score, a fair catch, a charged team timeout or an official’s timeout. Coaches can agree to establish a running clock earlier in the game, but if the points gap between the teams is reduced to less than 35 points in the fourth quarter, the running clock will remain in operation.

Read more about the new "mercy rule" .

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