The 14th : Valley Teams Haven’t Lost City Baseball Title Since ‘72--This Year Is No Different

The three certainties of life, or at least life in the City Section:

Banning High or Carson winning the City 4-A football championship.

Crenshaw winning the City 4-A basketball championship.

A Valley team winning the City 4-A baseball title.

Between them, Banning and Carson have won the last 10 football championships. Crenshaw has won nine of the past 16 basketball titles, including the last three. And Valley teams have won the past 13 City baseball championships.

True to form, all four teams left in the 4-A playoffs this season are from the Valley. The championship game will be played June 12 at Dodger Stadium.

“I just think there is more importance put upon baseball in the Valley than down there,” said Kennedy Coach Dick Whitney, who led the Golden Cougars to the title last season. “Schools like Banning and Carson are thought of as football schools.”

Banning, which won the football title this school year, entered the baseball playoffs seeded fourth. In the first round, the Pilots defeated Kennedy in a rematch of last season’s championship game.

Even after the 2-1 win, Banning Coach Dan Evans knew the long journey through Valley teams had just begun.

“We were 3-1 last year against Valley teams,” Evans said after the game. “This year, we hope to go 4-0.”

Banning ended up 1-1 after losing to Polytechnic, 3-1, in nine innings in the quarterfinals Tuesday. That meant the Valley’s streak would continue.

In the semifinals today at 3 p.m., San Fernando goes against Grant at Birmingham High and Poly plays Granada Hills at Cal State Northridge. The survivor among the four will give the Valley its 19th champion in 23 years.

The past success of Valley teams has kept the streak going, according to Whitney.

“We’re getting fewer and fewer kids coming out for sports,” he said. “Kids just don’t want to put the time into athletics. But if you’ve got a good tradition going, then kids want to play there.”

No team has a stronger reputation in baseball in the Valley than Granada Hills. Since the streak began with Sylmar’s title in 1973, the Highlanders have won five championships.

Darryl Stroh, who has been the coach for all of Granada Hills’ titles, bases the Valley’s domination on the youth leagues in the area.

“The opportunity to play baseball,” Stroh said, “has probably been provided to the kids in the Valley at a younger age than the kids in the other parts of the City. There are more Little League facilities, that type of things.”

Added Whitney, who coached baseball at Franklin High from 1959 to 1977: “When I was there, there were no Little League parks, no areas set aside for a complex of baseball diamonds.”

From the time Fremont won the first City title in 1939 to 1963, only two Valley teams (North Hollywood in 1957 and Van Nuys in 1959) won championships.

“The Valley was just growing then,” Whitney said.

Since then, the championship club has been private. Residence in the Valley is required for entrance.

To be successful, San Fernando Coach Steve Marden said, a team almost has to have a year-round program.

“You have to do it so as to not be embarrassed,” Marden said.

Marden and Chatsworth Coach Bob Lofrano are in charge of a winter league sanctioned by the City Section. The league involves about 24 teams, most from the Valley, and usually begins Dec. 1.

“It’s like a pre-preseason,” said Lofrano, whose Chancellors won the title in 1983. “You can get up to about 10 to 15 games on Saturdays and during Christmas vacation.”

The league, Lofrano said, helps him make some early-season decisions about his team.

“I think the Southern Section coaches are a little envious of us because we’re allowed to play that early,” Lofrano said.

Another reason for the Valley’s domination in recent years has been the creation of a 3-A Division in 1983. (No Valley teams are in the 3-A).

Four teams from each of the four 4-A leagues make the playoffs. Two of those leagues, the Mid-Valley and the West Valley, are made up entirely of Valley teams. The four teams that made the playoffs from the seven-team East Valley League this year were all from the Valley.

The Marine League is the only 4-A league that has no Valley teams in it.

“That’s 12 teams against 4,” Whitney said. “That puts the odds in the Valley’s favor.”

Three of the four Marine League teams were eliminated in the first round this season by Valley teams.

Banning, the Marine League champion, couldn’t survive the second round.

The chances of a non-Valley team winning the title would be increased if all 49 City teams were in one division. Stroh wouldn’t mind a return to that format.

“I much prefer the way it used to be,” he said. “I liked it when everyone was in the same pot.”

For two decades, the pot has been filled with gold for Valley teams.

City 4-A Champions: 1973-1986

Year Football Basketball Baseball 1973 Gardena Crenshaw Sylmar 1974 San Fernando Crenshaw Monroe 1975 San Fernando Fremont Granada Hills 1976 Banning Dorsey Granada Hills 1977 Banning Manual Arts Cleveland 1978 Banning Crenshaw Granada Hills 1979 Banning Crenshaw Granada Hills 1980 Banning Crenshaw Sylmar 1981 Banning Manual Arts Kennedy 1982 Carson Carson Cleveland 1983 Banning Banning Chatsworth 1984 Carson Crenshaw Granada Hills 1985 Banning Crenshaw Kennedy 1986 -- Crenshaw --

Football: Chatsworth won the 3-A Division in 1979; Van Nuys tied Narbonne for the 1980 3-A title; Canoga Park and Van Nuys tied for the 1981 3-A title.

Basketball: The 1964 Granada Hills team was the last Valley team to win the 4-A title. Granada Hillls won the 3-A title in 1976; Taft won the 3-A in 1980; Cleveland won the 3-A in 1981 and 1982; Reseda won the 3-A in 1983 and 1984.

Baseball: The last non-Valley team to win the major title was Venice in 1972. A Valley team will win this season because only Valley teams remain in the playoffs.