Butler’s Fantasy: the Stuff of Which Oakwood’s State Titles Are Made

When Mitchell Butler was not busy leading Oakwood to a Southern Section basketball championship, his mind frequently drifted to a soothing fantasy.

It is the state championship game and tiny Oakwood of North Hollywood, in true David-and-Goliath fashion, is confronting Crenshaw, the L. A. City Section champion. Miraculously, the overmatched Gorillas have stayed even with Crenshaw until the final seconds of a tie game when Butler is fouled and walks to the free-throw line to shoot two.

He misses the first, but that just heightens the tension. He calmly converts the second free throw. Oakwood is the state champion.

Butler’s vision will never become reality, because Oakwood and Crenshaw play in different divisions. But a state championship earned with a victory over an Oakwood-size school would not be cause for surprise. The Gorillas edged Hesperia Christian on Friday, 61-60, to win the Small Schools Division title and advance to the state tournament Tuesday. They must be considered a strong challenger for the title in the Small Schools Division, if for no other reason than Butler.

The 6-5 junior forward turned in what has become a customary postseason performance when he scored 47 points, including 14 of the team’s final 17, to secure the school’s first Southern Section title in any sport since Oakwood opened in 1953. Butler also had 19 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 blocked shots and 3 slam dunks. On defense, he limited Hesperia Christian’s 6-8 center, Ted Hahs, to 20 points and 6 rebounds.

Because Butler takes care of everything else, he might as well be the team’s dream weaver as well.

“I’m the type of person that likes to reach for the stars,” he said Saturday. “I have dreams of winning the state championship. It’s just a dream, but I’ll be disappointed and angry if we don’t win it all.”

Like many in the Oakwood contingent, Coach Roz Goldenberg is still too flushed with victory to think beyond a Southern Section title.

“The state championship? That sounds like a great dream,” she said. “But I haven’t even looked past Friday yet. In some ways, it feels like it all ended after Friday. I want to go take out my golf clubs, but, happily, I can’t. I’ll have to find a way to get myself up for the state tournament. I’ll let Mitchell lead the dream for now.”

First-round pairings for the tournament will be announced today.

More numbers: Butler averaged 33 points and 17 rebounds during the regular season when Oakwood coasted to the Liberty League title, and he has been even more productive in the playoffs. He has maintained his rebound average in five postseason games but is averaging 37.8 points in the playoffs, including Friday’s 47-point game and a 50-point performance in a 55-47 win over Ribet Christian in the quarterfinals.

He averages more than 3 assists and 3 blocked shots a game, yet his contribution stretches beyond numbers. Sometimes, it is not just that Butler scores, it’s how he scores.

Two of his three slam dunks Friday were conscious attempts to give Oakwood an emotional lift. After Hesperia Christian took a 36-34 lead late in the third quarter, Butler tied the score on a steal and a coast-to-coast dunk.

Then, with less than four minutes left and the score tied, 46-46, Butler broke free and decided against the safer layup in favor of another dunk.

“We weren’t doing too well at the time and the coach has always told me that the dunks are inspirational to the team,” he said. “It was a little risky because I was tired, but the adrenaline starts flowing when I see the rim. It was just a motivation-type thing, entirely mental.”

Drawing attention: Cal Coach Lou Campanelli and UCLA assistant Kris Jason were interested observers at Friday’s game.

Butler said he intends to take advantage of the early signing period next fall before his senior year, which means college recruiters must adjust to dealing with a woman coach.

“When secretaries at school tell coaches that they’ll get her , the coaches always say, ‘No, No. I want the boys’ program,’ ” said Goldenberg, who has coached the boys for four years. “It’s still a good old boys’ sport, but the first thing they always say is they think it’s great I’m coaching the boys. I hope they’re being sincere.”

Mistake by admission: Tom Maier, the Chadwick basketball coach, probably wishes he could get his hands on school administrators who let Butler slip through their fingers four years ago. Butler had considered switching schools after his seventh-grade year at Oakwood in order to stay closer to home. Chadwick is a 20-minute drive from Butler’s home in Inglewood.

Butler visited Chadwick, a private school in Palos Verdes, before the start of his eighth-grade year and was impressed with the school. But when he learned his application would take two weeks to process and he might be placed on a waiting list, he decided to return to Oakwood.

Last add Butler: After adjusting to Oakwood’s stiff academic standards in his first year as a sixth-grader, Butler has mixed well with schoolmates at the North Hollywood campus. He carries a 3.3 grade-point average and spends much of his spare time visiting classmates, most of whom live in the Valley, more than 30 miles away.

Butler said he is gratified by the attention the basketball team’s accomplishments have brought upon the school and by the excitement the team has generated. More than 300 fans made the three-hour trip through rush-hour traffic to attend Friday’s game.

Home run quest: In Simi Valley’s 12-1 romp against Leuzinger in the first round of the El Segundo baseball tournament Friday, Scott Sharts came within a few feet of hitting two home runs in one inning. The senior first baseman clouted the 18th home run of his career in his first at-bat in the fourth inning and settled for a 390-foot single in his second at-bat of the inning when his blast hit the left-center field fence.

Every home run counts for Sharts, who might break the Southern Section record of 25 before he graduates.

“He should do that all the time,” Coach Mike Scyphers said of Sharts’ performance. “He’s off to a good start to break the record. He’s definitely a top-round draft pick.”

Sharts has narrowed his choices to the University of Miami, Stanford and Oklahoma State.

No surprise: The Royal boys’ soccer team’s 1-0 victory over Newbury Park in Friday’s Southern Section 4-A championship match came as no surprise to Highlander Coach Peter Schraml, who all but predicted that Royal would win the title.

Schraml seemed convinced after the Highlanders’ 2-0 semifinal-round victory over Palos Verdes three days before the final.

“This is a good team, the best that has come out of this area ever. We don’t have one weak player,” he said.

Schraml has coached soccer on various levels in the area for 18 years, including a stint with the Cal Lutheran men’s team.

“You have to have the horses in order to run the race,” said Schraml, who is in his first year at Royal. “I expected from the very beginning that we were going to be there in the final.”

Steven Fleischman and staff writer Lauren Peterson contributed to this notebook.