Prep Review : Ervin’s Idea Would Add Interest to Basketball, School’s Bank Accounts

El Modena High School basketball Coach Bill Ervin has an idea regarding the selection of the Century League’s representatives to the Southern Section 4-A playoffs.

Instead of simply taking the top three teams in the league standings as is presently done, Ervin proposes a postseason tournament comparable to that of the Atlantic Coast Conference and Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. on the collegiate level.

Under Ervin’s plan, only the first-place finisher in the regular-season standings would be guaranteed a playoff spot. The other two would go to whichever teams place first and second in the postseason tournament.

That way, theoretically, teams that finished in fourth through eight place in the regular season standings would still have an outside chance at making the playoffs.

“It’s becoming more and more difficult to fund high school athletics,” Ervin said. “But I think it would be a good idea even if we didn’t need the money. I think it would create a lot of interest --you’d pack the gyms and average maybe 1,200 fans per game.”

In the meantime, we will have to be content with the current selection system. With two games left in most of the county’s leagues, the Southern Section playoff picture is as follows:

Angelus League (5-A playoffs): Mater Dei leads the league at 8-0, followed by Pius X (6-2), and Servite and St. Paul tied for third place with 4-4 records. Should Servite and St. Paul finish the season tied for third place, there will be a coin flip to determine which team advances to the playoffs because the they split their series this season. It’s likely that both teams will end the season at 5-5 because St. Paul must play at Pius X Wednesday before playing host to lowly Bishop Amat (1-7) Friday. Servite is at Bishop Montgomery (1-7) Wednesday but must close out its season Saturday against unbeaten Mater Dei at Cypress College.

Century League (4-A playoffs): Orange and Santa Ana are tied for first place with 10-2 records. In third place is Foothill, El Modena and Santa Ana Valley with 7-4 records. Should all three, or any two of those three teams tie for third place, the playoff spot would be determined based on head-to-head records, the teams records against the league champion, and/or the teams records among the top four or five finishers, according to El Modena’s Ervin. El Modena appears to have an advantage because the Vanguards play their last two games at home, against Santa Ana Valley and Santa Ana. Foothill plays at Canyon and at Tustin, and Santa Ana Valley plays at El Modena and plays host to Orange.

Empire League (3-A playoffs): Kennedy is in first place with an 11-1 record and El Dorado is one game behind at 10-2. The teams meet Friday at Kennedy in their season finale. Assuming neither team trips on Wednesday, Friday’s game will give El Dorado a shot at a share of the title. Kennedy plays host to Esperanza, and El Dorado is at Pacifica on Wednesday. Katella (9-3) is in third place followed by Los Alamitos (7-5) in fourth. Katella plays host to Los Alamitos Wednesday.

Freeway League (3-A playoffs): Buena Park is in first place (6-2) followed by Fullerton (5-3). Troy and Sonora are both in third place with 4-4 records. It’s unlikely that the two will finish tied for third place because Troy plays the fifth and sixth place teams, Sunny Hills and La Habra, and Sonora must play Buena Park and Fullerton. Should the unlikely happen and Troy and Sonora do finish with the same record, Sonora will go to the playoffs because it has beaten Troy twice.

Garden Grove League (3-A playoffs): Rancho Alamitos is safely in first place with a 7-1 record, followed by Garden Grove and La Quinta, both tied for second at 5-3. Neither Garden Grove nor La Quinta appear to be in danger of losing their playoff positions to fourth place Santiago (4-4), which closes out the season Friday at La Quinta. Garden Grove must play at Rancho Alamitos Wednesday, but comes back to play at last place Los Amigos (0-8) Friday.

Orange League (3-A playoffs): Brea-Olinda (8-0) and Savanna (6-2) are in the playoffs, but third place Valencia (5-3) still must beat Western (4-4) when the teams meet Wednesday. If Western wins, the teams will split their season series, and a coin flip will be needed to determine the final playoff spot if they end in a tie. Western finishes league play by playing host to Savanna Friday while Valencia plays host to Brea-Olinda.

Sea View League (4-A playoffs): Newport Harbor (11-1) and Estancia (10-2) have made the playoffs, but Corona del Mar (9-3) must win one of its two remaining games to secure the third spot. For fourth-place Saddleback (7-5) to have a chance at making the playoffs, it must beat Corona del Mar Wednesday and University Friday. Corona del Mar in turn must lose both to Saddleback and Laguna Beach (4-8), which would put it and the Roadrunners at 9-5. If the teams tie, a playoff game will be held to determine the final playoff spot.

South Coast League (4-A playoffs): Mission Viejo (9-1) and Dana Hills (8-3) have made the playoffs, but there is an outside chance that fourth-place El Toro (5-5) could replace Capistrano Valley (7-4) as the third playoff team. El Toro must beat San Clemente on Wednesday and Capistrano Valley on Friday, giving the Chargers and Cougars 7-5 records. El Toro would go to the playoffs because it would have beaten Capistrano Valley twice this season. The Chargers won the first meeting between the teams earlier at El Toro, 69-68.

Sunset League (5-A playoffs): Ocean View (8-0), Edison (5-3) and Fountain Valley (5-3) have the top three spots secured, but questions have arisen over the eligibility of Edison transfer player Baron Coenen. At worst, Edison would be forced to forfeit the games Coenen appeared in, should he be deemed ineligible, causing the Chargers also to lose their playoff spot. League and Edison school officials are meeting Tuesday to make a determination on the matter.

Brush with fame dept.: With brush haircuts being the rage among high school basketball teams this season, here is the all-county brush team, which considers any player who had a butch haircut any time during the 1984-85 season:

GUARD--Nathan Call, Capistrano Valley. GUARD--Ralph Laird, Foothill. FORWARD--Bryan McSweeney, Dana Hills. FORWARD--Dave Straight, Ocean View. CENTER--Kevin Walker, Brea-Olinda.

Further, the coach would have to be Brea-Olinda’s Gene Lloyd and as the general manager, the venerable Tex Wallis, former coach at La Habra. The team nickname would be the Clippers and all home games would be played at Camp Pendleton, where such a squad should feel right at home.

Prep notes

The Canyon-Villa Park wrestling match has traditionally been one of the most exciting dual meets of the season and last Tuesday’s match, won by Canyon, 33-27, was no exception. The win clinched the Century League dual-meet title for the Comanches. Villa Park Coach Brent Bailey, who had announced his retirement before the match, went out with a loss. Bailey coached the Spartans for nine seasons. . . . Capistrano Valley shotputter Brian Blutreich was honored at halftime of the Cougars’ basketball game against Mission Viejo last week with a prep All-American plaque. Blutreich, one of the country’s top shotputters, has visited Nebraska, Arizona State and UCLA. . . . Three of Orange County’s top runners have entered the girls high school two-mile run at the Michelob Invitational track meet at the San Diego Sports Arena Friday. They are Tustin’s Donna Fleagle, Esperanza’s Tami Harberth, and Newport Harbor’s Laura Lazo. . . . Western forward Patrick Bush is ineligible for the rest of the season because of academic problems, so if the Pioneers make the playoffs, the loss of Bush, a defensive specialist, will be especially painful. . . . UCLA women’s basketball Coach Billie Moore, on girls basketball in the county: “I think there are more good players in Orange County right now than anytime previous. Earlier this season, I was at Magnolia to watch (Sentinel star) Michelle Carter play, and the coach from BYU walked in and sat down to watch the game with me. Five years ago, that might not have happened.”