Orange County Prep Review : Thrill Is Gone for Southern Section in Oakland

Basketball coaches in the Southern Section often have called the Southern California Regionals and State Championship anti-climatic following the section’s five-round, two-week tournament.

They reason that the Southern Section’s single-elimination tournament has more participants than 46 other states and that the thrill is winning the Southern Section title.

So while basketball fans across the country focus their attention on state tournaments, many of the players, coaches and fans in the Southern Section don’t support the California State Tournament.

Two years ago, the Southern Section’s General Council went so far as to vote to withdraw from the tournament. After a one-year hiatus, teams from section returned to the tournament that culminated on Saturday in the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

The results were almost predictable. The Hacienda Heights Wilson boys team was the only Southern Section squad to win a title. Two other teams, Chino girls and Crossroads boys, lost, giving the state’s biggest section a mediocre 6-8 record in title games since 1981.

Among the state’s 10 sections, the Southern Section has one of the poorest records in title games. And its coaches continue to use one of the poorest excuses for losing in Oakland. Witness Elliott Turret, Crossroads coach, who announced his retirement following his team’s 68-63 loss to Vanden of Travis Air Force Base in the Division III boys championship.

Turret: “The team peaked for the Whittier Christian (Southern Section 1-A title) game and never played to that level in our next three games. Teams in Southern California seem to gear up for the sectionals the way Northern California teams gear up for the regionals.

“I was unable to get my players psyched up for the regionals or today’s game. It showed in practice and in the games. I’m as much to blame as the players. We were having too much of a good time up here because we had already won a Southern Section final.”

Somebody should have reminded Turret and his players that they were competing for a State title. But this is a prevalent feeling in the Southern Section, and a poor excuse for losing.

If Southern Section teams are going to continue to play in the State tournament, it’s time to start looking at the tournament as the ultimate goal . . . and not an anti-climatic event that offers a free trip to Oakland.

Coaches had better start taking the teams in Northern California seriously, too. Gary McKnight, Mater Dei coach, proclaimed that his showdown with Crenshaw for the Southern Regional championship 10 days ago was “the state championship, the one in Oakland is a token.”

Don’t try selling that theory to Crenshaw. The Cougars needed a jump shot by Ronald Caldwell with five seconds remaining to defeat Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland, 70-69, for the boys Division I championship.

Among the 14,300 spectators in the Oakland Coliseum Arena was Ray Plutko, Southern Section commissioner. The State Championship was one of Plutko’s last functions before becoming Colorado’s state commissioner in July.

Applications for Plutko’s position will close next Monday. Among those who have applied for the job are Southern Section administrators Dean Crowley and Bill Clark, State associate commissioner Margaret Davis and San Diego commissioner Kendall Webb.

A screening committee is expected to submit eight candidates to the Executive Council which will interview and select three finalists April 21. Final interviews will be conducted May 6 and the new commissioner will be presented to the General Council May 8.

Prep Notes

John Mayberry, Kennedy High School coach, will host a basketball camp beginning Tuesday at the All-Sports Club in Anaheim. Morning sessions will start at 9, and afternoon sessions begin at 1. Cost of the three-day camp is $25. For further information, call 533-6820. . . . Ocean View’s Ricky Butler has been invited to participate in the Five-Star Basketball Camp this summer in Philadelphia. . . . The El Modena football booster club is holding a roast for Bob Lester, the retired Vanguard coach, on May 17 at the Inn at the Park in Anaheim. For further information, call Barbara Gibson at 532-5357. . . . The San Dimas High athletic boosters are sponsoring the David Hill Golf Invitational on April 7 at the Via Verde Country Club in San Dimas. The tournament will feature 25 Ram players, including Eric Dickerson, Ron Brown, LeRoy Irvin and Nolan Cromwell. For more information, contact Jerry Ray at 599-6741. . . . Dr. Dennis Evans, principal of Corona del Mar High, withdrew his controversial eligibility requirement regulations last week at the CIF General Council meeting. Evans proposed stricter regulations for students who transfer from public schools to private schools and vice versa. The council will vote in May on a proposal that would limit all foreign exchange students to the junior varsity level. . . .