Brea, Pt. Loma Coaches Blast Girls’ Regional Seedings

Brea-Olinda High School girls’ basketball team plays Point Loma at 6 tonight in the first round of the Southern California Regionals at San Diego State’s Peterson Gym.

Simple enough.

Except:

- Both coaches believe their teams should be not playing each other this soon in the regionals.

- Both coaches say Point Loma deserves to have the first round off.

- Both coaches considered not showing up for Round 1 to protest what Brea-Olinda’s Mark Trakh called a “blatantly unfair” system to determine playoff seeds. Trakh and Coach Lee Trepanier of Point Loma say their teams are victims of politics and a playoff system that determines seedings three weeks before the section championships are finished.

Trakh and Trepanier contend the rankings have forced the teams to play each other too soon.

“The whole operation is Mickey Mouse,” Trakh said. “This is politics with a capital P. You have the top two teams in the state playing each other in the first round. It’s blatantly unfair.”

Point Loma (27-1) and Brea (27-3) are ranked second and third in the state, respectively. The No. 1 team, Muir, lost in the 4-A final to Lynwood, and is not eligible for the state title.

Point Loma won its third straight San Diego Section 3-A championship Saturday, and is going for a third straight state championship.

Kennedy of Granada Hills, the City 4-A champion, received a first-round bye.

The reasoning? Trakh charged that the Los Angeles City Section--which runs the Southern Regionals--is playing favorites.

“Everything is being catered to the L.A. school,” Trakh said. “When the Southern Section put this on it was fair. But the L.A. Section is too shortsighted to see beyond its section. What you have, if not the final, is one of the semifinals.”

Repeated attempts Monday to contact Jim Cheffers, Los Angeles Section commissioner, were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, there is the game.

Point Loma beat Brea, 68-50, at the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions. The Wildcats were without center Susan Tousey, who was recovering from a leg injury.

The Pointers’ All-America forward, Terri Mann scored 24 points in that game. But the player who hurt Brea the most was 5-foot 2-inch guard Chanelle McCoy, who scored 25.