Busy Agenda Is a Dry Run for Simi Valley Postseason

Simi Valley’s ambitious travel plans ran into a temporary roadblock when the basketball team’s departure for the Eldorado tournament in Las Vegas was delayed by this week’s storm.

The Pioneers, who open play in the 12-team tournament at 6 tonight against Basic High of Henderson, Nev., had planned to leave Thursday. But Coach Bob Hawking put the team’s two vans back in the garage until today when he learned that the El Cajon Pass near San Bernardino remained closed to most traffic.

The players probably welcomed the extra day at home. In the next two weeks, Simi Valley will spend 11 days on the road. The Pioneers (5-0), who are favored to reach the final of the Eldorado tournament, will return from Las Vegas on Wednesday. Three days later, they board a plane for South Carolina where they will play in the eight-team Beach Ball tournament while they stay in Myrtle Beach Dec. 26-31. DeMatha of suburban Washington, D.C., the fifth-rated team in one national poll, also is a tournament entry.

Hawking sees this month’s busy schedule as a sort of dry run for the type of pressure he expects his team to face in postseason play.

“The big thing is to realize the purpose of the trip is basketball,” he said. “We’re going to Vegas because they have Cleveland-type teams, and we need to play those kind of teams to be prepared for the playoffs. We’re going to South Carolina because DeMatha is there. In order to gain national recognition, we’ve got to go back there and beat those East Coast teams.”

Under siege: Kevin Rooney, Notre Dame’s athletic director and football coach, finds himself fighting to defend the school’s athletic reputation in the wake of the recent decision to drop Crespi from its schedule, ending a 15-year rivalry between the Catholic schools.

Rooney disputes the claim that the school is deteriorating athletically.

“People are making it sound like we’re going downhill, but we’re not on a downswing athletically,” he said.

Rooney pointed to the school’s three major programs--football, basketball and baseball--to support his claim that the school is in good shape on the field.

The Notre Dame football team narrowly missed the Big Five Conference playoffs this season and finished with a 5-5 record. Rooney said the sophomore team was 9-1 and the freshmen were 6-3-1.

The baseball team has qualified for the playoffs nine of the past 10 years and won consecutive Del Rey League titles from 1982 to ’84. The basketball team has advanced to the playoffs twice since 1980 and is considered among the favorites to make the playoffs this season.

Rooney admitted the school is still feeling the effects of the decision in 1983 to admit girls to the previously all-boys school.