NOTEBOOK : Champ Fairfax’s Shows Rebuilt Team Against Alumni

High school basketball fans can get an early look at this year’s Fairfax varsity at 7 tonight when the Lions, defending 4-A City champions, play an alumni squad in the school gymnasium.

Coach Harvey Kitani will be missing two-thirds of what may have been the best front court in the nation last season. Sean Higgins and J. D. Green have graduated. Higgins is at Michigan, Green at Southern Methodist.

But Kitani still has 6-7 Chris Mills, the 4-A City player of the year last season, who last week signed an early letter of intent with Kentucky. Kitani lists Mills at a forward’s spot instead of at center this year, but exactly where he plays probably will depend on how former reserves and newcomers develop.

The other forward will be 6-7 Ilan Levy-Meyer, who immigrated from Israel last year. Levy-Meyer didn’t see much action last season, but Kitani said he is “coming along very well and might be our best outside shooter.”

Fighting for the post position are two former junior varsity players: 6-5 junior Norman Francis and 6-7 senior Chris Dane. The point guard will be 6-1 1/2 senior Andre Durrity, and Jamie Hamilton, a 6-0 senior up from the junior varsity, will be the other guard.

Among the former Fairfax stars on the alumni team are Curtis Sumlin, Leonard Johnson, Gary Gatewood, Leif Hodges, Billy Kahn, Mark Klein and Bryan Robbs.

Admission is $3. Proceeds will benefit the Fairfax team, which will play in two of the nation’s top prep tournaments in December. The Lions will play in Honolulu’s Iolani Tourney Dec. 17-23 and in the King Cotton Tournament Dec. 26-30 at Pine Bluff, Ark.

Jack Lemmon has won his share of acting awards, including Oscars for best supporting actor for “Mr. Roberts” in 1955 and for best actor for “Save the Tiger” in 1973. But it isn’t often that you see his name among those honored for playing golf.

That could be changing, if his performance in the recent Freeman Hospitals Celebrity Golf Tournament is an indication. Lemmon played in the foursome that won low gross honors in the tournament at MountainGate Country Club. His partners were Dave Covell and Chris Gibbs, both of Los Angeles, and Charles Lyons III of Lakewood.

The tournament raised about $100,000 for the intensive care unit at Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital in Marina del Rey and for the heart center at Daniel Freeman Memorial in Inglewood.

Attending the Dodgers baseball camp for adults in November at Vero Beach, Fla., was a real trip for Larry Stein of Bel-Air.

Stein not only got to fantasize about how it would be to play in the major leagues but was able to revisit his baseball past. Another camp participant was Joseph Byrne of South Pasadena. About 27 years ago, Stein was the pitcher and Byrne his catcher for a Little League baseball team in Silver Lake. They hadn’t seen each other since.

Other Westside residents at the camp included Jeff Anson of Brentwood, Len Blonder of Santa Monica and Thomas Gutierrez of Pacific Palisades.

Mirielle Yanow is the new gymnastics coach at the Westchester Family YMCA. Yanow, a former competitor, has coached with Alla Svirsky at the Los Angeles School of Gymnastics. Svirsky coached the U.S. rhythmic gymnastics team at the 1984 Olympics.