The Preps : City Will Streamline Conference Structure With Releaguing Plan

A releaguing plan designed to give City athletics a face lift will be released to the 49 principals Wednesday for use by high schools starting in September.

Though specifics were not given, the streamlined structure apparently calls for six eight-team conferences (one will have nine teams), with two four-team leagues in each conference. Additionally, the 2-A division may be dissolved, putting three conferences in the 3-A and the 4-A and eliminating past problems of a lesser team as the 10th representative in the playoffs for the 11-team 4-A.

Under the new plan, the teams within the conference will stay the same for all sports, although the league alignments can be juggled depending on the strength of teams. Thus, there will be conformity and flexibility, in which schools are in several different leagues at the same time, depending on the sport.

It should also go a long way toward easing travel problems and creating natural rivalries. No more Freeway League in football, which in the past had thrown together Franklin and Garfield from East Los Angeles, Locke from the Central City and San Pedro from the South Bay. Nor will there be a Pac-8 League in football, in which Westchester and Venice were playing Grant from North Hollywood and Reseda.

“The reaction should be interesting,” said Hal Harkness, the City director of athletics. “I’m sure the strongest reaction will come primarily from coaches who feel as though their domain is toppling. We’ll listen to anything and everything they have to say.

“It is different. The league and conference concept is something different than has been tried maybe anywhere in the state. But it makes a lot of sense because of its flexibility and time-saving (in travel) measures.”

The twist comes in the records. Of the nine games played, only seven, those against teams in the same league and conference, will count toward making the playoffs. The two others will count in the overall record, but, basically, will be nothing more than practice games.

The plan is expected to be finalized March 21.

When Cleveland of Reseda, No. 3 in The Times’ City rankings, beat No. 2 Fairfax, 54-50, last Wednesday, the key was obvious: 6-foot 3-inch Damon Charlot of Cleveland limiting 6-7 Chris Mills of Fairfax to 7 points, 30 below his average in Valley League games.

Mills, one of the most highly regarded players in the country and the City player of the year last season as a junior, had one point in the first half and finished the game 3 of 11 from the field against Cleveland’s box-and-one defense.

The cross-country season officially ended in November, but Arroyo of El Monte didn’t consider it over until last week, when the national rankings, compiled by the Cross-Country Journal in Missouri, were released.

It was worth the wait. The Knights won the mythical national championship, based on the combined time of five runners doing three miles each at the same time on a track. The criteria is set up that way because it is the only way to get a fair reading with the different course layouts. Arroyo, the state Division I champion, finished in 74 minutes 45.3 seconds, better than McCullough, Tex., in second place with 74:57.5.

Additionally, five local runners were among the 15 named to the All-American team for large schools (enrollment of 1,000 or more): Jaime Ortega, Jeff Gilkey and Derrick Powers of Arroyo, Ian Alsen of Granada Hills and Mike Glaze of Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks.

When Birmingham of Van Nuys met San Fernando in a junior varsity match last Thursday, two girls wrestled each other.

As far as administrators could recall, it was the first time girls faced each other in wrestling in the City or Southern Section. But senior Catherynne Morgan of San Fernando and sophomore Katherine Celli of Birmingham wanted no part of any sideshow atmosphere.

“I don’t want to make history,” Celli said. “I just want to wrestle.”

She did just that, beating Morgan, 6-3.

Prep Notes

The California Baseball Coaches Assn. will have its annual clinic Saturday inside the Cal State Los Angeles gym. The event begins at 8 a.m., and there is no admission fee. The scheduled speakers are Cal State L.A. Coach John Herbold, Biola College Coach Charlie Sarver, Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley Coach Bob Zamora, Fallbrook Coach Bill Waite, El Segundo Coach John Stevenson, Chatsworth Coach Bob Lofrano and Dr. Tony Stellar, a biotechnician who will discuss velocity improvement for pitchers. . . . In a showdown between the two top-ranked wrestling teams in the Southern Section 2-A, No. 1 El Rancho of Pico Rivera and No. 2 Santa Fe tied, 32-32, last Wednesday. That kept the rankings the same for this week. . . . South Bay Lutheran of Inglewood, a member of the Small Schools Division, has scored 100 points or more in seven straight games while starting 14-3 overall and 8-0 in the Westside League. Going into last Thursday’s game against West LA Baptist, a 119-51 win, the Waves were averaging 108 points a game in league and 90 overall. They play at Highland Hall of Northridge tonight. . . . Sophomore Inger Miller, the daughter of former Olympic sprinter Lennox Miller, ran the anchor for Pasadena Muir as the Mustangs won race 3 of the 4 x 160 relay at the Sunkist Invitational Jan. 22. Lennox competed for USC in the late 1960s and represented Jamaica in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics.

Brian Jacobs, an all-state offensive lineman at Hart of Newhall, has quit the Indian basketball team because of lack of playing time. But he has only good things to say about Coach Greg Herrick--and his hospitality. “There are no hard feelings at all,” said Jacobs, a 6-foot 5-inch, 270-pounder. “He and I get along great. . . . I still go over to his house all the time and watch basketball games and eat his food.” . . . Which state leads the nation in attendance at football championship games? Surprisingly, it’s Hawaii, which has averaged 24,282 per game the past decade. So says the National Sports News Service. . . . . When the East Los Angeles College football program begins again in September after two years off, the staff, headed by Al Padilla, will look more like a high school coaches convention. Joining Padilla, who coached at L.A. Garfield from 1960-70 and was an assistant at the school the past two years, will be Art Sanchez (a former assistant coach at Montebello), Eddie Elias (former Bell assistant), Mike Martinez (former Huntington Park assistant), Dale Aldersen (former Santa Monica assistant) and Matt Diskin (current wrestling coach at L.A. Franklin). “As you can see, they come from successful high school programs,” Padilla said. “Part of the idea is for them to bring some of their athletes with them.”