Birmingham Puts O’Hara Farewell Party in Overtime

His team trailed by eight points with a minute left when Jim O’Hara called timeout.

“Guys,” O’Hara said to his assembled group, “there is no tomorrow.”

For O’Hara’s career as basketball coach at Birmingham High, there really was no tomorrow.

The 54-year-old coach decided at the beginning of the season that this season, his 30th, would be his last.

Several times in the past few weeks, O’Hara thought the farewell party was just a few minutes away. But each time his players have responded to keep him around the gym for another day.

It was last Wednesday against Chatsworth that Birmingham trailed by eight with a minute to go. The two teams were playing a special playoff game to determine which team would qualify for the City 3-A playoffs as the Northwest Valley League’s third-place team.

A loss would have meant the end for Birmingham since its overall record would not have been good enough to earn a wild-card berth.

From eight points down, the Braves rallied and won in overtime, 57-56, on Keith Owens’ tip-in with 26 seconds left.

That put them in the playoffs against Venice. With two minutes left at Venice, Birmingham trailed by five points.

Again, the Braves refused to let O’Hara go. With two seconds left, Benny Carrasco hit a jumper from the top of the key for a stunning 53-51 upset.

Carrasco finished with 21 points, while Owens had a quadruple double (14 points, 10 assists, 10 rebounds, 10 blocks.)

Tonight, the Braves (12-10 overall) will play at Van Nuys for a chance to advance to the semifinals.

“This has been one of my fun teams,” O’Hara said. “They have responded well to me. I think they have put a little extra effort in because it’s my last year.”

O’Hara said that after 30 years it was time to do something else. He was tired of teaching and having to drive to Birmingham from his house in Manhattan Beach.

“The first 25 years went real fast,” he said. “The last five have not gone so fast. Coaching, I feel, is a young man’s job.”

O’Hara thought his team’s chances for postseason play were over when it lost to Chatsworth in overtime, 52-46, in the teams’ second league meeting.

Following a 70-62 loss to Granada Hills in the regular-season finale, Birmingham needed the following to qualify for the playoffs:

-- A San Fernando win over Chatsworth in a make-up game last Tuesday.

-- A win over Chatsworth in the special playoff game Wednesday.

O’Hara got both, and now his team is two wins away from the Sports Arena, the site of the 3-A finals.

“It would be wonderful to go to the Sports Arena,” O’Hara said. “But if we don’t, it’s still been a great year.”

Add Birmingham: The Braves lost to Van Nuys earlier this season, 73-65, in the third-place game of the Birmingham tournament. Birmingham played that game without starter Charles Johnson and sixth man Ennera Maxwell. Both were on vacations during the Christmas break.

Van Nuys qualified for the quarterfinals with a 67-61 win over South Gate last Friday. The Wolves played that game without 6-2 senior center Terry Silberman.

Van Nuys Coach Kevin Durford said Silberman missed the game because he was attending to his mother, who had been involved in a car accident.

Earlier this season, Silberman played in two league games on days when he did not attend school. According to City Section rules, a player must attend at least four classes the day of a game in order to play.

On Monday, the City’s governing body agreed with the school’s decision to forfeit the games, according to commissioner Jim Cheffers.

The forfeits did not affect the Wolves’ standing in the East Valley League. Van Nuys still finished third, but its overall record became 12-6.

Add Sports Arena: “I kind of miss the Sports Arena. I’d really like to go back,” said Cleveland Coach Bob Braswell.

Cleveland last played in the Sports Arena in 1982 when the Cavaliers won their second straight City 3-A title. Braswell was an assistant on both of those championship teams.

Cleveland plays host to Fremont tonight in the City 4-A quarterfinals. A win sends the Cavaliers to the Sports Arena for Friday’s semifinals.

The Cavaliers have stumbled the last two seasons in the 4-A Division playoffs. Two years ago, they were upset by Fremont in the first round. Fremont entered the playoffs as a fifth-place team. Last year, the second-ranked Cavaliers lost to Banning, 81-80, in the second round.

“I guess there is a little bit of revenge on the kids’ minds,” Braswell said of the game with Fremont. “It’s my job to keep their minds out of that. These are two completely different teams.”

Cleveland routed Gardena, 87-58, in the opening round of the playoffs Friday, much to the pleasure of its first year coach. Braswell was concerned how the Cavaliers would play after their emotional 58-56 loss to Kennedy in the final regular season game two days earlier. That loss meant Cleveland had to share the league title with Fairfax.

Braswell helped the team get over the Kennedy game by reminding them that four years ago Cleveland lost to Chatsworth in the last league game, causing the teams to share the league crown.

“That wound up being the best thing for us,” Braswell said. “The kids really turned it on after that.”

Cleveland won the City 3-A title that season.

Add playoffs: Marshall High, the top-seeded team in the City 3-A, is not a team blessed with great size. Jerry Simon, who averages nearly 38 points a game, is the tallest member of the Barristers at 6-5. One of the team’s guards is David Lopez, who is 4-11.

Said San Fernando Coach Dick Crowell, whose team meets Marshall in the quarterfinals today: “The problem with them is that when they walk onto the floor, they look like a B team, except for Simon. Teams don’t take them seriously until the fourth quarter when they’re down by 70 points.”