HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK : SOCCER

* Senior defender Mark Fitzpatrick has quit the Cal State Northridge soccer team to accept a position with the Newport Beach Police Department.

Fitzpatrick, co-captain and a second team All-Independent selection last season, begins training at the Orange County Sheriff’s Academy on Oct. 18.

“I’ve wanted to be a police officer for as long as I can remember,” said Fitzpatrick, an Alemany High graduate. “I can never begin to explain what a positive impact the Cal State Northridge soccer team has had on me.”

FOOTBALL

* Former Hart defensive end John McLaughlin was selected the NFL special teams player of the week. McLaughlin is a first-year player with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

TENNIS

* Top-seeded Anna Smashnova defeated eighth-seeded Meilen Tu, of Porter Ranch, 3-6, 6-1, 6-0, in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Tennis Assn. Women’s Citibank Challenger tournament Friday in Santa Clara.

Marissa Irvin, a Harvard-Westlake High graduate who won the 1997 Southern Section girls’ individual title, beat Meghann Shaughnessy, 6-1, 6-1, in another quarterfinal.