NOTEBOOK / KIRBY LEE : Ramirez Is Hoping to Get East L.A. College Program Back on Track

The track and cross-country programs have returned to East Los Angeles College. And so has Louis Ramirez.

The former Montebello High coach who led East L.A. teams from 1988-90 and competed for the Huskies in 1977-78 has been named to head the recently reinstated programs.

Ramirez, 38, who has coached at Trade Tech for the past four years, said that his ties to East L.A. and the school’s facilities influenced his decision to return to his alma mater.

Teams coached by Ramirez have won Southern California Athletic Conference women’s cross-country titles. Ramirez led the East L.A. women to three consecutive SCAC titles before moving to Trade Tech, where the men’s team won its third conference track title in four years this season.

While coaching at Montebello High, Ramirez led the Oiler girls to a second-place finish in the 1987 Southern Section 3-A finals and three consecutive Whitmont League titles.

East L.A. has not fielded a cross-country or track team since 1991. Ramirez took over in 1988 after the programs were suspended for two years because of budget cuts.

“It’s going to be easier this time because I’ve established a wider region to draw from,” Ramirez said. “I’m very well-known around East L.A., but I can also draw from City schools. There has been a void at East L.A., but there are a lot of kids already there that want to come and run.”

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Michael Granville of Bell Gardens High has been named the State Sophomore of the Year by Cal-Hi Sports magazine.

Granville, who last year was named the Freshman of the Year, won the 800 meters in the state meet to become the school’s first state champion and set a sophomore national record of 1 minute, 48.98 seconds this season.

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Long Beach State placed third in the Jakarta Sister Cities Men’s Volleyball tournament in Indonesia, defeating Amsterdam in the consolation final.

The 49ers finished second in their bracket to Jakarta before suffering a loss to eventual champion Seoul in the semifinals.

Long Beach, which won four of its six matches during the weeklong tournament, also registered victories over Cairo, Tokyo and New South Wales.

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Lynwood High won titles in girls’ basketball and boys’ volleyball in the Watts Summer Games at Compton College.

The Knights defeated Washington, 49-38, in the basketball final, and Lynwood defeated City Section 4-A champion University in the volleyball championship.

Tommy Prince scored 20 points to help Dominguez beat Dorsey, 92-58, in the boys’ basketball final and Schurr, paced by the doubles champion team of Richard Tellez and Raymond Lee, won the boys’ tennis title.