Opponents Don’t Dally in Attempt to Catch Up With Oakwood

Perhaps the small schools basketball teams in the Valley are better suited to run in a 440-yard relay than in gymnasiums. Spend a couple of seconds with their coaches and you get the impression that they think four-corner offenses are strictly for squares.

“We’re going to be a fast-breaking team,” Viewpoint High Coach Harvey Warshaw said before the season.

Warshaw is hardly the only one from the Carl Lewis school of thought. He has several running mates.

“We’re going to try to put together a fast-break team,” Oak Hill Coach Ed Mount said.

“We’re gonna run,” Cal Prep Coach Robert Cannone said.

“We will try to fast break every time,” Holy Martyrs Coach Varant Vartabedian said.

Get the idea? Escapees from San Quentin may not run as much.

The team they’re all sprinting to catch is Oakwood, the preseason pick as the team to beat by just about every small schools coach in the Valley.

And what kind of offense is Oakwood, uh, running? When you’re the biggest bully on the block, you run from no one.

“We work the ball around slowly,” said Oakwood Coach Roz Goldenberg. “We tell our players to only shoot when they’re open and balanced. We don’t have the people to run a fast break.”

Despite playing at the small schools level, however, the Gorillas still have a player considered among the Valley’s top guns. Mitchell Butler, a 6-4 sophomore forward, was invited to play with the big boys last summer in the American Roundball Corp., where he impressed his coach, Joe Dunn, who had previously coached Byron Scott and Leon Wood.

“He’s as good as anybody I’ve seen at that age,” Dunn said.

Because of Butler, Oakwood is a good bet to repeat as Liberty League champion.

“People are going to be shooting for us because we won the league and we have Mitchell,” Goldenberg said.

Goldenberg doesn’t mind being the target, just as long as she has Butler in her court.

“Without him we are down at the middle of our league,” she said. “I would have to say that he’s the best I’ve seen as a 10th grader. He’s exciting to watch and he can really put the ball in. I just wish I had two of him.”

She doesn’t, however, and is faced with the problem of finding someone to share the scoring load.

“I’m looking for that second and third player who can step in and help on offense,” Goldenberg said. “Right now, I haven’t found him.”

Nevertheless, Oakwood should be far ahead of the pack, which will be running hard to catch up.