GOLF

Girls get vote: The Southern Section Council voted overwhelmingly Thursday to add girls’ golf as an officially sanctioned sport.

The season will start in September. Teams will be comprised of four golfers, with the best three scores counting toward the team score.

Previously, girls wanting to play high school golf had to try out for a coed team and, if they made it, had to play from the boys’ tees..

All-girls’ schools such as Louisville and La Reina fielded teams last year and competed in the Mission and Tri-Valley Leagues, respectively. Neither were very successful.

“This is very important for the girls,” Southern Section Commissioner Dean Crowley said. “It gives the girls their own identity. It’s easy for the girls to get lost in the shuffle playing on student teams against the boys.”

The Southern Section, the largest of 10 California Interscholastic Federation sections, is the fifth to sanction girls’ golf.

Crowley and his staff will begin polling schools next month to determine the number of schools that will participate. A leaguing plan and playoff structure will then be devised.

FOOTBALL

Proposal denied: The Southern Section Council has rejected an attempt to make Orange County powers Mater Dei and Santa Margarita at-large teams next season.

Both will remain in their leagues. The Southern Section will present a proposal in March seeking approval to switch the football playoffs to an enrollment-based division system as in other sports.

BASEBALL

Players free: Youth baseball players will have free admission to the Cal State Northridge game against Cal Baptist on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Matador Field.

Northridge Little League President Debby Steinhardt will throw out the first pitch.

Youth players will receive sweat bands and a Northridge team photo.

Record breaker: Freshman guard Edniesha Curry is storming toward the Northridge record for three-point baskets in a season. Curry, who averages 2.8 three-pointers per game, needs six to break the record of 50 set by Carrie Dormire in 1995-96.