Aliso Niguel’s Herbon to Play at New Mexico State

Ryan Herbon, an offensive lineman on Aliso Niguel’s Southern Section Division VIII championship football team, has received a late scholarship offer to play at New Mexico State, Aliso Niguel Coach Joe Wood said Tuesday.

Herbon, a 6-foot-3, 230-pound center for the Wolverines, is already in Las Cruces training with the Aggies. He is the fourth player from Aliso Niguel’s 1996 team to receive a Division I scholarship. The others are Scott Nemeth (Colorado), John Hefty (Montana) and Cory Foss (Southern Methodist).

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Drew Gaulden, a first-team All-Sunset League selection in boys’ basketball at Esperanza last season, has transferred to Canyon, Canyon Coach Rob Alexander said Tuesday.

Alexander said Gaulden, a 6-8 small forward, enrolled at Canyon in June and played with Canyon in about half of its summer league games. Gaulden played with a traveling team for the rest of the summer.

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Two Orange County teams--the Corona del Mar-based Orange County Dodgers and the Anaheim-based Orange County Stars--have qualified for American Amateur Baseball Congress world series and will start play this week.

The Orange County Dodgers, a team of 17- and 18-year-olds, will play the Midland Redskins of Cincinnati Saturday in the first round of the eight-team Connie Mack world series in Farmington, N.M. The Dodgers’ roster includes four players from 1997 Southern Section Division I champion Esperanza: Tom Nicholson, Brandon Pack, Nathan Choate and Rickey Leach.

The Orange County Stars will begin play in the eight-team Mickey Mantle world series on Thursday in McKinney, Texas, with a game against the Eastern Central champion. The Stars include Servite’s Brian Wolfe, who will be a junior at Servite, and Tony Cappuccilli, who will be a junior at Edison.