The Colleges / Mike Hiserman : CSUN Loses 2 Freshmen to Uncle Sam

The Cal State Northridge football program has lost half of its high school recruiting class, a situation that could have been more disastrous had not Coach Bob Burt signed only four players.

As it is, linebacker Jim Burke of Woodbridge High in Irvine and John Goyich, a fullback from Azusa, have chosen to accept appointments to military academies rather than honor letters of intent they had signed with CSUN.

Military academies have the only athletics programs in the NCAA that do not recognize letters of intent. “Basically,” Burt said, “they can do anything they want.”

Actually, Burt says he does not blame either athlete for changing his mind. “I would never try to talk a young man out of going to an academy,” Burt said. “If they’re inclined toward a military career, it’s the chance of a lifetime.”

Burt was aware there was a possibility of losing Goyich to the Air Force, but the news that Burke was going to West Point caught him off guard--to an extent.

“They came in late on him, but the fact that they did doesn’t surprise me,” Burt said. “The whole idea is to find kids who are academically sound with some athletic ability. The academies do the same thing we do.”

Burke (6 feet, 2 inches, 210 pounds) averaged nine solo tackles a game and was most valuable defensive player on a Woodbridge team that went 13-1 and won the Desert-Mountain Conference.

Goyich (6-1, 205) played only 1 1/2 seasons of high school football, but Burt compared him athletically to Sherdrick Bonner, CSUN’s highly regarded backup quarterback. Goyich averaged 8.2 yards a carry last season.

Their absence will leave Damiean Jenkins, a defensive lineman from Saugus, and Dave Herbert, a center from West Covina, as the only freshmen on scholarship when CSUN starts practice next month.

More than 30 new players will take part in summer drills for Northridge, which was 7-4 and second in the Western Football Conference last season.

Burt has signed three more junior college transfers this summer and expects to get commitments from several others who had signed with major colleges but failed to earn associate of arts degrees in accordance with Division I eligibility rules.

Those players have been told to ask the schools they signed with for a letter officially releasing them from their scholarships.

The players who most recently signed with CSUN are Doug Gann, a 6-4, 270-pound offensive guard from Saddleback College; Rusty Kaualtikaua, a 6-2, 255-pound center-guard from Allan Hancock; and Carlos Martinez, a 6-5, 265-pound offensive tackle from San Jose City College.

Goal of goals: Pardon Northridge soccer Coach Marwan Ass’ad if he runs up the score against a few opponents next season. Faced with a choice of love or money, he likely will take the cash.

CSUN has started a fund-raising program for soccer--the Matador Goal Club--in which boosters pledge money for each goal the team scores.

A statistic of note for those considering a donation: CSUN, the NCAA Division II runner-up, scored 80 goals last season.

Add soccer: Northridge has big plans for its soccer team, which was listed fifth--immediately behind baseball--on the school’s priority list for support in its move to Division I.

How big? Very big, according to Ass’ad, who always thinks in those terms.

“If we work real hard, we might be able to outdraw the football team,” he said. “They’ll build the stadium and we’ll fill it up first.”

New coach: George Kuntz, 28, has been hired as soccer coach at Cal Lutheran. Kuntz played at Westmont College and is a coach in the U. S. Soccer Federation’s Olympic development program. He replaces Tim Taylor, who resigned in March.

Mohr coaches: Margaret Mohr, former La Reina High and Cal State Long Beach basketball standout, has been hired as an assistant basketball coach at Santa Clara.

Mohr’s brother, Larry, is an assistant football coach at Thousand Oaks High and her sister, Cathy, is the women’s basketball coach at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo.