Athletes in City Section Make Grade

City Section athletes had to prove their prowess in the classroom this week.

Grades for the first 20 weeks of the school year went out, and few basketball teams in the Valley area lost players to eligiblity standards.

Granada Hills forward Mark Guerin, who scored 18 points last week in his first start, is one of the unfortunate. He is ineligible for the rest of the season after flunking an English class, according to Coach Bob Johnson.

“He knew and I knew,” Johnson said. “It’s really too bad. Mark had been playing his best games of the year lately.”

Coaches at Cleveland, El Camino Real, North Hollywood, Grant, Birmingham, Chatsworth, and San Fernando said that their teams had not lost players to grade ineligibility.

Grade-Point Guards: Failing grades are as common as losses in league at North Hollywood, where the team grade-point average is 3.2 and the East Valley League record is 6-0.

Point guards Peter Nappi and Dean Sussman earned straight A’s, forwards Mike Woolery and Deone Barnes have grade-point averages better than 3.5, and Cliff Barnes, Ronald Patterson and Cedric Nelson have grade-point averages better than 3.2.

The lowest grade-point average on the team is 2.8, according to Coach Steve Miller.

“I’m really proud of this team,” Miller said. “Most of the kids went to summer school and took a tough course like government so they could concentrate on sports now. It was a smart thing to do.”

Although good grades keep players eligible, Miller said that classroom smarts don’t always translate into court sense.

“I’ve found no correlation between court sense and grades,” Miller said. “Court sense comes from playing in the yard and on playgrounds for years.”

As basketball teams move toward the end of league play, snapshots of the ever-changing City and Southern Sections playoff pictures are in order.

Three teams from each Southern Section league make the playoffs. Likely to qualify from each league in the Valley area:

Del Rey (5-A)--With three games left, Crespi (9-0) has clinched a tie for its third straight league title. Loyola (6-3) and St. Francis (6-3) are tied for second, two games ahead of any other team, and appear headed for playoff berths.

Marmonte (4-A)--With three games left, Simi Valley (8-1), despite being upset last week Cut this line

by Camarillo, has clinched a tie for the championship. There is a tight race between Thousand Oaks (5-4), Camarillo (5-4), Westlake (4-4) and Royal (4-4) for the other two playoff spots.

Foothill (3-A)--With three games left, Schurr (6-1) and Burbank (6-1) are tied for first. Burroughs (5-2) is the front-runner for the other playoff spot. Hart’s (3-4) chances are slim.

Golden (3-A)--Canyon (6-1) trails Burroughs of Ridgecrest (7-0) by a game for the league title. Burroughs beat Canyon, 75-74, two weeks ago and the teams meet once more time.

Frontier (2-A)--Santa Clara (5-0) defeated Calabasas (3-2) last week for the second time to pull into a two-game lead over the Coyotes and Nordhoff (3-2) with four games remaining.

Santa Fe (2-A)--Murphy (8-1) appears to be on its way to a league title. Because Chaminade (4-5) lost two games last week, St. Genevieve (7-2) and Bell-Jeff (7-3) are the front-runners for second and third.

Alpha (1-A)--Marshall Fundamental (9-2), L. A. Baptist (9-2) and Montclair Prep (9-2) have a three-way tie for first and appear playoff bound.

Tri-Valley--With three games remaining, Bishop Diego (8-1) and Santa Ynez (7-2) are closing in on berths. Oak Park (5-3), which has four games left, hopes to qualify but must stay ahead of Carpinteria (5-4).

It is more difficult not to qualify for the City Section playoffs than it is to qualify. Of 19 4-A teams, 16 qualify. So do 16 of 30 3-A teams.

Teams likely to qualify from each City Section league in the Valley area:

Valley (4-A)--Cleveland (8-0), Kennedy (5-3), Taft (3-4) and El Camino Real (3-5) are going to the playoffs. Only Reseda, which has not won a game in league, won’t qualify.

East Valley (3-A)--With four games left, North Hollywood (6-0), Poly (5-1) and Van Nuys (4-2) will qualify. Sylmar (2-4) and Grant (1-5) must win a couple of games to stand a chance.

Northwest Valley (3-A)--With four games left, Granada Hills (6-0), San Fernando (4-1) and Birmingham (4-2) appear should qualify. Chatsworth (2-3) may qualify with two more wins. Monroe (1-5) needs a win streak to qualify.

The Valley Top 10

Selected by sportswriters of The Times

Last Rk Wk Team League Record 1 2 Crespi Del Rey 16-4 2 1 Simi Valley Marmonte 20-2 3 3 Cleveland Valley 4-A 11-5 4 4 Kennedy Valley 4-A 10-6 5 6 Granada Hills N.W. Valley 13-3 6 5 El Camino Real Valley 4-A 9-7 7 7 Taft Valley 4-A 10-6 8 8 Rio Mesa Channel 13-5 9 9 Burbank Foothill 15-5 10 NR N. Hollywood East Valley 8-8