Culver and Fairfax Each Place 3 on Girls All-Star Team

Culver City and Fairfax, the two best girls teams in local prep basketball, dominate the Times 1985 All-Westside high school team. Each landed three players on the all-star squad.

Culver, a CIF 4-A team that was one of the state’s best, finished with a 24-2 record. Coach Warren Flanagan’s team lost only to state champion Compton during the season and to Lynwood in the playoff quarterfinals.

Coach Jo Ann Heller guided Fairfax to the 3-A Los Angeles City championship last year and to the City finals again this year. The Lions were 15-9, and three of those losses were to Crenshaw, the City champion.

There were other good teams on the Westside, but none had the overall talent of Culver and Fairfax. Even so, the representation of those two teams on a 10-player team may seem disproportionate.

One reason for the preponderance of all-stars from the two schools is that there was a poor response from coaches who were asked to vote for the all-stars. The Times received nominations from only eight of 19 schools that were sent ballots.

Many Coaches Didn’t Vote

One reason for the poor response may be that this is just the second year of Times’ all-star girl teams. But if a player was not nominated for the team by her coach or another school official, she was not eligible.

Nevertheless, all players on this year’s team have strong credentials.

Members of the team are Culver City’s Lynn Richardson, Shari Netzel and Stacey Schipper; Shameil Coleman, Demetrice Davis and Michelle King, all of Fairfax; Christina (Missy) Kurt of Notre Dame Academy; Shulanda Lang of Venice; Stacie Washington of Palisades and Kimberly Turner of Crossroads.

Repeaters from last year’s team are Richardson, Netzel, Coleman, Davis and Lang. The tallest players are Netzel at 6-2 and Washington at 6-1 1/2. The shortest are Kurt and King, both 5-7.

All-stars from the Westside and eight other Times circulation areas, their parents and coaches will be guests of The Times at a 7:30 p.m. reception Tuesday in Harry Chandler Auditorium at Times Mirror Square. The speaker will be Cal State Long Beach Coach Joan Bonvicini, whose 49ers won the championship of the Western Collegiate Athletic Assn., advanced to the finals of the NCAA West Regional and finished with a 28-3 record.

At the ceremony, players will receive trophies and certificates. Area players and coaches of the year also will be named.

The Westside team:

Coleman--The 3-A City player of the year, she set a City scoring record by averaging 31.2 points a game. Her other averages: 18.4 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 4.3. steals.

Davis--A member of last year’s team as a sophomore at Santa Monica High, she was much improved this year. She averaged 25 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals.

King--A good ball handler, she made the Fairfax offense go and was probably its best defensive player. Her averages: 10.2 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.7 assists and and 3.5 steals.

Kurt--A guard and forward, she was the most valuable player for Notre Dame, a CIF 1-A team, which finished with a 12-9 record. An All-Sunshine League selection, she averaged 19.1 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists and 7 steals.

Lang--The top scorer (17.3 average) and rebounder (13 a game) for a 13-7 Venice team, she also averaged three blocked shots, four steals and two assists.

Netzel--On a Culver team that was balanced in scoring, rebounding and other categories, she averaged 16.9 points, 12.8 rebounds, 5 assists and 2.1 steals. Coach Flanagan called her “one of the best offensive and defensive forwards in the CIF.”

Richardson--Regarded by Flanagan (and many others) as “one of the quickest and best passing guards in the CIF,” she averaged 7.2 assists and the same number of steals, 17 points and 6.5 rebounds.

Schipper--A force in the middle, she averaged 10 rebounds, 12 points, 3 assists and even a couple of steals a game.

Turner--She was the most valuable player in the Delphic (CIF Small Schools) League and led Crossroads to its second straight league title, each time with 10-0 records. This year the team was 15-4 overall. Turner averaged 18 points and 14 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals.

Washington--The leading scorer in the City’s 3-A Valley League, she scored 20.7 points and grabbed 8.4 rebounds a game. She was an all-league selection on a Palisades team that finished 8-8 overall.

Honorable mention:

Notre Dame--Leah Stevenson.

University--Danielle Domes, D’yann Crosby.

Westside All-Star Girls’ Basketball Team

Scoring Name, school Year Height Average Shamiel Coleman, Fairfax Senior 5-11 31.2 Shulanda Lang, Venice Senior 5-8 17.3 Christina Kurt, Notre Dame Academy Soph. 5-7 19.1 Lynn Richardson, Culver City Senior 5-9 17.0 Demetrice Davis, Fairfax Junior 5-8 25.0 Shari Netzel, Culver City Senior 6-2 16.9 Michelle King, Fairfax Senior 5-7 10.2 Kimberly Turner, Crossroads Senior 5-10 18.0 Stacie Washington, Palisades Junior 6-2 20.7 Stacey Schipper, Culver City Senior 6-2 12.0