Ventura County All-Stars Meet in Basketball

Maybe they misnamed this game. Organizers call it the Ventura County high school all-star basketball game, and the teams are divided by regions--North and South.

For accuracy’s sake, however, a better name for tonight’s 8 o’clock game at Ventura High might be the Marmonte League against everybody else.

Of the 10 players on the South roster, eight are from Marmonte schools. After sending two teams to the Southern Section 4-A quarterfinals or beyond last season, the league may be up to the task.

Representing Westlake, which lost in the 4-A final to Santa Monica, are Rick Welch, Charlie Cangelosi and Paul Keenan. Simi Valley, which advanced to the quarterfinal round, will send Travis Bice. Only recently graduated seniors are eligible to play.

Jon Walker, Bruce Watson and John Schlossman will represent Thousand Oaks, and Dave Pessin was selected from Newbury Park.

Steve Ward of Calabasas and Brian Friefeld of Oak Park also are on the team, which will be coached by Brian Underwood, an assistant at Thousand Oaks.

The North team includes Kelly Kiech of Ventura, Mike Robinson and Kevin Drescher of Buena and Kevin Tate of Hueneme. The North is coached by Barry Long of Hueneme.

Don’t ask South Coach Pete Orozco whether he’s worried about Teresa Palmisano of Buena dominating his team in the girls all-star game tonight at 6.

Orozco was more concerned about fielding a team than he was about who would guard the three-time All-Southern Section center.

“I have 11 girls this year and I’m glad just to have enough to scrimmage with,” said Orozco, the girls coach at Fillmore.

In his first opportunity to coach an all-star team, Orozco hoped he would not see a repeat of last year’s game when the South had only seven players.

This year, Orozco has seven players from Simi Valley and Newbury Park alone. Julie Arlotto, Paula Cooper, Kristie Sterbens and Dani Elton of Simi Valley join Newbury Park’s Julia Johnson, Remera Jones and Dawn Hatmaker.

Orozco plans to start the four Simi Valley players. The South’s biggest obstacle will be the 6-2 Palmisano, who holds Buena records in scoring and rebounding.

Tom McConville of Santa Clara will coach the North team for the fourth consecutive year. He took over coaching duties following the North’s only loss in the series.

“Probably their biggest threat is that they’ve got four girls from Simi Valley who have played together for the last three years and really know one another,” he said. “It should help with their continuity.”