Palmdale’s Livermont Rearmed, Dangerous

Word got out recently that a severe shoulder injury would sideline Palmdale High quarterback Grant Livermont this season.

“It was a rumor,” Livermont said. “I’ll be back.”

But it wasn’t hearsay when people said Livermont’s right arm stopped delivering in April.

“The doctor thought it was a dead arm,” said Livermont, who passed for 829 yards and six touchdowns as a sophomore last season. “It was overworked.”

Livermont felt his arm pop while warming up for a Palmdale baseball game.

“After that I just had nothing on my throws,” he said. “I was basically done.”

An MRI exam revealed no tear, no sign of an injury. But, with the help of Lancaster chiropractor Dan Massari and trainer Rob Nodine of the Lancaster JetHawks, Livermont has spent the past three months using exercises to strengthen the muscles in and around his rotator cuff.

Shoulder rehab can be a long, tedious process--more than enough to tax the limited patience of a teenager and jeopardize his football season.

But Massari was impressed by Livermont’s grit and dedication.

“He had a great work ethic and great parental guidance to do whatever it took,” Massari said. “He just worked the program.

“He was hurting pretty badly. He could barely raise his arm over his head.”

Livermont is back in practice, throwing sharp passes and planning to be 100% in time to lead Palmdale’s campaign for a Golden League championship.

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How hard does the post-retirement coaching bug bite?

Pretty hard, apparently. Basketball coaches Paul Graber and Greg Hayes have left little time to reflect on their careers, having jumped back in.

Graber resigned in 1995 after four successful years in which he led Monroe to the City Section 3-A title game. After one year, he’s got his old job back.

Hayes resigned at Canyon in April because instinct told him is it was time to quit after 14 seasons, two league titles and 180 victories.

Three months later, instinct told him to accept the girls’ job at Valencia.

“I didn’t know if I was ever going to coach again,” Hayes said. “I surprised a lot of people. I surprised myself, too.”

Said Graber, “I guess I didn’t get it out of my system.”

Associates thought Hayes, 41, and Graber, 39, were too young to retire.

Principal Joan Elam and four Monroe players, who never played for Graber, talked him into returning.

Graber left with a bitter taste in his mouth after the Vikings (16-6) were inexplicably excluded from the 1995 playoffs by the section seeding committee.

Graber got married and bought a house.

“I thought I was done, but in the back of my mind I figured I could get back into coaching,” he said. “I suspect I’ll be around this year and next year, but no way have I signed a 10-year contract.”

Hayes was recruited for Valencia by former Hart High girls’ Coach Pam Walker, now a women’s assistant at UCLA, who made him promise to call the school and discuss the job.

“I actually turned it down and dropped out of it,” Hayes said. “A week later, they contacted me again.”

The hardest part was leaving Canyon to take a teaching position at Valencia.

Hayes’ teaching schedule kept him from pursuing assistant jobs at The Master’s College and College of the Canyons. A former women’s team graduate assistant at UCLA, Hayes also made a bid to become a member of Jim Harrick’s staff, calling himself a “legitimate longshot.”

“I’m sitting here watching the Olympics and I realize that I had both Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Dot Richardson as freshman basketball players at UCLA,” he said. “[My energy] is very high. But let’s face it, the demands and pressure are not as high as boys’ basketball.

“And it’s real enjoyable right now.”

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Travis Allen is one student who won’t cringe if a teacher should ask what he did with his summer vacation.

Allen, 15, who will be a sophomore at Quartz Hill, will say he played baseball in both the Junior Olympics and the Junior Pan American games.

After he was 6-2 with a 3.28 earned-run average as a freshman on the Rebel varsity team last spring, Allen was 2-0 while helping the California-Riverside baseball development team win the first Junior Olympic tournament for 16-and-under players in Ft. Myers, Fla.

He is preparing for the Junior Pan Am world baseball tournament in Chiba, Japan, later this month.

“It’s both challenging and exciting,” Allen said. “The level of competition is better than high school.”

The Pan Am team will be introduced on the field Saturday at Dodger Stadium.