HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK : La Jolla Country Day’s Abrams Gets a Kick Out of Helping Foundation

La Jolla Country Day’s Eric Abrams is kicking for a good cause.

The junior kicker has solicited pledges to the San Diego Make a Wish Foundation for each extra point and field goal he makes this season.

Abrams calculated that he has $8,250 in pledges, figuring an average of $150 for each of his 55 points. With at least three games remaining, the fund could go over the $10,000 mark.

It started a year ago when Abrams attended one of Ray Pelfrey’s Professional Kicking Services camps. Pelfrey thought up the idea and had all his kickers solicit pledges of one, three or five dollars for each extra point throughout the season. The money the kicker raised went to the Make a Wish Foundation in his city. To motivate the kickers, Pelfrey donated $500 to the winner’s high school athletic program. Abrams collected $1,500 which was the third highest.

Pelfrey has tried this season to get the program sponsored by the National Make A Wish foundation but hadn’t at the start of this season. However, Abrams decided to do it on his own.

“As far as we know he’s the only one doing it,” his father, Jeff Abrams, said. “We’ve gotten an incredible response. Eric likes doing it. He feels like he’s doing something for somebody rather than just kicking a football.”

St. Augustine’s homecoming king, Juan Castro, had a girl on each arm when two queens, not just one, were crowned during halftime of Friday’s game with Christian.

Leslie LaBonte and Carmen Esquer were chosen by St. Augustine’s senior class from four nominees previously chosen from the senior class of Our Lady of Peace, St. Augustine’s sister school.

“The crowd reaction was real interesting,” said Melinda Blade, OLP’s athletic director. “ When it was announced there was a tie, the crowd kind of groaned like they were disappointed. But we were real happy both girls were honored.”

One of the county’s top basketball recruits, Darryl Parker of Rancho Buena Vista, is apparently going to be playing his college ball at Cal State Long Beach, Loyola Marymount or UC Santa Barbara.

“Darryl wants to go somewhere where they play a running-style offense,” RBV Coach John O’Neill said. “That’s why he’s picked those schools. He went to a Loyola practice and he liked what he saw.”

O’Neill said Parker, a 6-6 forward, could sign Nov. 14, the early signing date for high school seniors. O’Neill said some Pac-10 schools are also recruiting Parker.

San Pasqual Coach Tom Buck said the county’s most heavily recruited senior, 6-10 Erik Meek, might still attend Duke, even though Cherokee Parks of Marina High of Huntington Beach announced last week that he will play for the Blue Devils.

Buck said Meek does not plan to play the same position as Parks anyway.

“Erik will play a big forward and Cherokee is a true center,” Buck said. “Erik has always said that he could play with Cherokee.”

Meek is visiting Duke two days before the early signing date.

The lights were shut off and the concession stand was closed during the halftime of the Southwest-Sweetwater game so that a 30-minute slide show could be shown as a part of Sweetwater’s Homecoming.

“It didn’t really affect us,” Southwest Coach Carl Parrick said. “But two weeks ago, when we had homecoming, we were in our locker room for 40 minutes. It was ridiculous. I was even getting perturbed. The head coach at Hilltop, Joy Gritts, opted not to throw a flag on us, but he could have. He was the first head coach I worked for so there’s some camaraderie there.”

Times staff writer Dave McKibben contributed to this story.