Boys’ Basketball Team at Reseda Lost Amid Host of Champions

Reseda Coach Tim Nakano knows what it is like to be teased. The Regents are 2-16 and 0-11 in Valley League play, and Nakano has heard the whispers.

“Kids can be pretty cruel,” he said. “Kids don’t know the difference between 3-A and 4-A. All they want to know is why we’re not winning.”

It has not helped matters that the football team advanced to the City Section 2-A Division final, that the soccer team won the City title and that the girls’ basketball team--the defending 3-A champion--is undefeated in league play. Comparisons are inevitable--and unfair--Nakano says.

“Our girls’ team is stocked,” he said. “The size and talent they have, well, that would be like if I had a seven-foot center, a pair of 6-9 forwards and Michael Jordan at guard. In their league, they are just killing people.

“But at the boys’ 4-A level, we just don’t have the horses, the talent. That’s a reality. Look at the teams in this league--Fairfax and Cleveland, Taft and Kennedy--they’re all ranked by somebody.”

Add Reseda: Coley Kyman, Reseda’s 6-4 quarterback, is seeing action at point guard for the Regents. He may be the tallest player at that position in the Valley area.

And that’s why Nakano likes him there.

“Since he’s a quarterback, it just seems like he sees the floor better,” Nakano said. “He makes the read better than the other small guys we have. He’s tall enough to see what’s going on.”

Payback: Joe Malkinson returned a favor Wednesday night when his Royal team beat Thousand Oaks in double overtime, 75-73.

Malkinson, in search of a way to stop Thousand Oaks’ scorer Kevin Martin, watched the Lancers’ game against Westlake on Jan. 15 and discovered the diamond-and-one defense. Westlake beat the Lancers that night, 50-47, and held Martin to 19 points.

Using the same defense, Royal rotated man-to-man responsibility against Martin, who scored 22 points but made only 8 of 21 field-goal attempts. Malkinson regards Martin as one of the best shooters in the Marmonte League.

“There are four or five dominating players in the league,” he said, “and when we’ve played those teams, we dare the other players to beat us.”

Royal’s victory over Thousand Oaks aided Westlake, which seeks a playoff berth. Thousand Oaks finished its league season 6-6. The Warriors need a win over last-place Newbury Park tonight to finish 7-5 and clinch a playoff spot.

Chancellors’ chances: Small wonder why many are picking Chatsworth to reach the City championship game at Dodger Stadium on June 2. Eight players, including two pitchers, will return for the Chancellors, who lost to Canoga Park in the semifinal round last season.

Returning players include Joel Wolfe (third base), Ty Powell (center field), Rex McMackin (left field), John Haselbusch (right field), David Waco (shortstop), Art Lowe (first base) and pitchers Pierre Amado and Sean Bowen.

Signing: Debbie Penney, a middle blocker from Burroughs, has signed a letter of intent to play volleyball at Arizona State, according to Burroughs Coach Linda Murphy.

Penney, a two-time All-Southern Section 3-A selection, is the first four-year letter-winner at the school and also plays for the basketball team.

Inductee: Ron Veres, Oak Park’s baseball and football coach, was among 15 people selected as charter members to the El Camino College Athletic Hall of Fame. He is joined by former Laker Keith Erickson, former Cincinnati Red outfielder George Foster and former Los Angeles Ram Fred Dryer.

Veres, who competed in football and baseball, was the school’s first junior college All-American and was named the school’s athlete of the year in 1960.

Veres completed his college football career at Oregon where he played for Coach Len Casanova. Ram Coach John Robinson was an assistant at the time.

“It’s a nice honor to be placed on the same level with those other great athletes,” Veres said.

Staff writers Tim Brown, Vince Kowalick and Sean Waters contributed to this notebook.