THE PREPS : He Helps Athletes Succeed in One of Their Toughest Challenges

Baldwin Park High quarterback Marc Ruiz was not in high school when the NCAA adopted Proposition 48, making it tougher academically for athletes to get into college.

When it was enforced, many critics said that it penalized those who did not have time to prepare to reach the requirements of a 3.0 grade-point average and at least a 700 score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

For Ruiz however, the new requirements were a wake-up call. He, along with many other athletes, realized that if he wanted to play in college, he had to have the grades and test scores.

Which is where Fidel Vargas comes in.

Vargas, a graduate of Baldwin Park High and Harvard, wanted to help students with their SATs. He wanted them to understand that the test should not intimidate them as it had intimidated him the first time he took it.

“The saddest thing is to see an African-American or Hispanic kid held back by the 700 (SAT) barrier,” said Vargas, who graduated from Baldwin Park in 1986. “I wanted to deal with athletes who had an opportunity to go to a Division I school. Too many times, kids with talent just did not have the scores to go to college.

“You always hear about colleges that use athletes like a piece of meat, but high schools sometimes do the same thing.”

With that in mind, last year Vargas started to help students from Baldwin Park High prepare for the SAT. Each one scored well over 700.

Soon word got around about his help, and Vargas began helping any student interested. Three nights a week, Vargas, a business analyst, tutors students in the San Gabriel Valley.

Ruiz, a record-breaking passer who will lead Baldwin Park in the Southern Section Division IV title game this weekend, was one of Vargas’ standout students.

“He scored over (700) the first time he took the test,” Vargas said. “I’m not guaranteeing anything, but what we do is give strategy on how to approach the test.”

Vargas’ program is one of several in the Los Angeles area.

“Our program is free and its open to any student,” Vargas said. “But we take a special interest with kids it will have a greater impact on. It’s important for students not to blow the opportunity that they do have.”

Too bad that the proposed televised matchup between the City and Southern Section football champions will not happen this year.

The final four teams in the City 4-A Division and the Southern Section Division I make up probably the best group of finalists in years.

Santa Ana Mater Dei and Rialto Eisenhower of the Southern Section and Dorsey and Wilmington Banning of the City have only three losses combined.

Eisenhower, the Southern Section’s top team all season, beat Long Beach Wilson, 39-7, with Omar Love scoring two touchdowns. The Eagles have not been tested in the playoffs, but Mater Dei is capable of an upset. The Monarchs avenged their only loss by defeating Loyola, 35-21.

Quarterback Billy Blanton has been unstoppable in the playoffs. He passed for two touchdowns against Loyola, running his total to five in his last two games.

In the City, Dorsey and Banning put together impressive victories on the road against tough San Fernando Valley teams.

Dorsey had little problem in defeating Sylmar, 40-13, and Banning defeated Granada Hills Kennedy, 26-6.

A championship game between the sections would be a great matchup this season, but it will not happen. Perhaps this will be the last year that such a void exists.

Southern Section officials are hoping for a crowd of 20,000 or more for Friday’s Eisenhower-Mater Dei game at Anaheim Stadium, a figure that would make it the best-attended game in several years.

Last year, 10,103 saw Loyola defeat Quartz Hill for the Division I championship.

But with Mater Dei’s large following, and interest in Eisenhower’s winning the mythical national championship, officials expect a large turnout.

The game will be broadcast live on XTRA (690). SportsChannel will televise the game on tape-delay Saturday at 10:30 a.m.

In case of rain, the game will be moved to Cerritos College. Anaheim Stadium won’t allow a game in the rain because it could damage the turf.

Prep Notes

The City 4-A Division Championship game between Banning and Dorsey will be played Saturday at 1 p.m. at El Camino College. The City 3-A Division Championship game between Crenshaw and Chatsworth will be played Friday night at 7:30 at Birmingham High in Van Nuys.

The 50th renewal of the Beverly Hills High invitational basketball tournament that began Monday night has been renamed. It is now the Beverly Hills Elliot Tournament, honoring Sax Elliot and his late brother, Ian. Sax, a former Beverly Hills High coach and basketball coach at Cal State Los Angeles, was largely responsible for the tournament. Ian earned 10 varsity letters at Beverly Hills in the late 1930s and was a standout freshman athlete at USC. He was a bomber pilot who died in World War II.